COVER N. 415 - BANGLADESH

Postmark: Illegible 03.01.2024 (?)

Posted on the 3rd January (?); Received on the 28th February 2024

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"Bangladesh, Bangladesh, where so many people...". I can't forget it. Bangladesh had just come out as another flag in the political atlas and  there he was, the genius who had written "While my guitar  gently weeps" investing  all his strength, money and connections in an effort to call on the attention of the world to the suffering of millions of people in the newly created nation. This was the first and, withouth shadow of doubt, the most genuine of all the fund raising  concerts that have subsequently been organised all over the world, and for that  George Harrison and Ravi Shankar shall always be remembered (as well as for the beauty, mastery and mystery of their music).

The People's Republic of Bangladesh was declared in 1971, in the wake of an independence war with Pakistan which saw millions of civil Bengalis being killed and tortured in genocide.

Today, it seems, both countries have extended olive branches in each other's way, so let bygones be bygones, although not forgetting, since remembrance is the best tool for ensuring that errors from the past shall not be repeated.

A huge thanks to my friend The Phantom, for letting me add another country to the list! Danke Sehr, Alex!

Joint issues are a way of telling the world "hey, look, we are friends with each other" and for this, they, most times, are a good sign.

Maybe one day we'll see a joint issue Bangladesh-Pakistan (in truth i don't know it this has happened or not, but presumably...)but until that time comes, we can always enjoy the nice joint-issue from Bangladesh and Singapore commemorating the Golden Jubilee of Diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Both issues saw the light of day on the same date - 15NOV2022 - and the stamps feature the same basic design as can be seen in the two stamps (10 and 50 Taka) of the Bangladeshi version on the cover.

The 10 Taka stamp features an Oriental magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis), a small passerine bird distributed  across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, while the 50 Taka stamp is illustrated with the image of  a Zebra dove (Geopelia striata), a member of the dove family occurring in Southeast Asia. Both birds are classified as Least Concern species in the IUCN lists.

Postage is completed with a 5 Taka definitive issued on 31AUG1988, as part of a "local motives" series, illustrated with an image of  Curzon Hall, located in the University of Dhaka, the capital of the country.

The postmark is sadly illegible.