URU - 2012 - #040 - SERIE - 185TH ANNIVERSARY NATIONAL POST OFFICE

Uruguay - 2012 - 185th Anniversary of the National Post Office

Options:

SERIE --- 1,40 EUR
BLOCK --- 1,40 EUR
FDC not Sent --- 2,80 EUR
FDC Sent on First Day --- 9,00 EUR
COVER Sent on First Day --- 6,00 EUR

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Issue information:

Country: Uruguay
Date: December 21st, 2012
Printed: 10.000 copies

Stamp Shape and Size: Rectangular [27 mm. x 39 mm.]
Perforation: Circular
Gum: Water Activated

Block Configuration: 1 stamp [1 x 1]
Block Shape and Size: Rectangular [81 mm. x 92 mm.]

FDC Type: Normal
FDC not sent Shape and Size: Rectangular [165 mm. x 105 mm.]
FDC sent on issue day Shape and Size: Rectangular [235 mm. x 105 mm.]

Cover Shape and Size: Rectangular [241 mm. x 159 mm.]

Catalogue information:

Michel: No Data Available
Ivert: No Data Available
Scott: No Data Available
Stanley & Gibbons: No Data Available

Topics:

Issue:

This block of a single stamp was issued in commemoration of the 185th Anniversary of the National Post Office "Administración Nacional de Correos", commercially named "Correo Uruguayo".

This issue was released precisely the day of the National Post Office Anniversary, as it was founded on, a far away in time December 21st of 1827. It was established during the provisional goverment of Juan Antonio Lavalleja just two years after independence of Uruguay, and the administrator appointed to manage the Post Office was the militar Luis de la Robla.

The design of the stamp of this issue, and also the one of the block that will be later described, seems inspired in the artistist movement created by Joaquín Torres García called Constructive Universalism.

The stamp is divided in two parts, the above one showing some Covers and Letter, and a Map of Uruguay, over the logotype of the National Post Office, probably giving the idea of the complete coverage of the postal network through all the country. Then, the below part shows the act of delivering, showing national Post office van full of packages and a postman with a hat giving one of these packages to some man and probably his child, showing that the postal network actually reach everyone of us.

Block:

The block, as already mentioned, follows the constructive aproach, and uses this technique, to show the main services that the National Post Office provides, each one in a different frame.

Travelling through the different frames, it is found the mail box service represented by some sort of small coffers in the tiniest frame on the left-top corner.

Then, at right of previous one, the money transfer service is shown, with a packet of notes, and the characteristic icon of transer.

Below the two previous frames, a bigger one shows the parcel service, the draw presenting the postman with hat and bag taking some packages from the storage is clear about it. However, another topic that is finely introduced in this frame is the participation of the National Post Office in the wonderful project that was implemented since a few years in Uruguay called "One Laptop Per Child", that as it names suggest, was to provide a notebook computer for each child at school age. This participation is depicted in the block as one of the packages shown in this frame is a XO computer, the particular computer provided to these kids.

After that frames, we go to the right ones, and in the one of the right-top corner, the receipts and payments service is displayed. As this service was at first thought mainly for old and disable people, in a way to help them providing the broad postal net to bring closer the places in which they can paid or get paid, usually get paid their retirement pension, for this reason, the draw focus in that clients to this service and show an old man walking aided with a cane or walking stick in front of a cashier.

Below that frame, a smaller one is found, only showing a van, more precisely a draw that depicts the model that is widely used by national post office.

Continuing our trip to the bottom part of the block, below the previous frame, and being the bigger one, we found the one that shows the newest service that the national post office provides that is the digital signature. This service is presented metaphorically by the conjunction of the two ways of sign, traditional, by handwriting, represented by the hand with a pen at right, and the new one, by cryptographic methods aided by specialized hardware and software, depicted at left with a hand holding a key. Bellow both hands, documents and covers are shown, and the rising sun logotype of National Post Office at background.

Immediately at left of the big frame, there are two more, the upper one shows a man inserting a cover in a mailbox, a very special mailbox, an english one awarded in Paris, and installed in Uruguay in 1879. Nowadays there are not vicinal mailboxes as these, however, thanks to his beautiful design it still is an icon of Uruguayan Post Office, so much that, a permanent serie some years ago was composed by many stamps with this mailbox.

Then, the lower one shows philately, or as a postal service, the selling of new releases of stamps, this service is presented metaphorically with a hand using a Stamp tong or tweezer to hold a stamp, a magnifying glass, many stamps and some other philatelic tools.

Finally, the last frame, simply shows the earth globe, showing Southamerica mainly, and with Uruguay country prominent in it, surely as a way to exhibit the connection of Uruguay to the rest of the world through the National Post Office.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a project supported by the Miami-based One Laptop per Child Association (OLPCA) and the Cambridge-based OLPC Foundation (OLPCF), two U.S. non-profit organizations set up to oversee the creation of affordable educational devices for use in the developing world. The project was originally funded by member organizations such as AMD, Chi Mei, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, Nortel, Red Hat, and Quanta.

In the first years of the project, the Association managed development and logistics, and the Foundation managed fundraising such as the Give One Get One campaign. In 2010 the Association set up a new office in Miami under Rodrigo Halaby, and currently oversees deployment and support for the XO-1.5 laptop and its successors, and country partnerships. The foundation, led by Chairman Nicholas Negroponte, currently oversees development of future software and hardware, including the ARM-based OLPC XO-1.75 laptop and the OLPC XO-3 tablet.

FAQ on official site of OLPC informs that as of 2011 there were about over 2.4 million XO laptops delivered.

The Plan Ceibal is a Uruguayan initiative to implement the “1 to 1” model to introduce Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in primary public education and is beginning with the expansion into secondary schools.

In four years Plan Ceibal delivered 450,000 laptops to all students and teachers in the primary education system and no-cost internet access throughout the country. Impact already be seen, include: increased self-esteem in students, improved motivation of students and teachers as well as active participation by parents (94% approve of the Plan according to a national survey performed in 2009).

The success of Plan Ceibal is not only due to technological innovations, but also to achievements such as the creation of a training plan for teachers in primary education, the active inclusion of the society and teachers in the project and the successful design and implementation of a monitoring and evaluation model to measure the impact nationally that serves as a guide to define future actions in the Plan.

Ceibal Project emerged as a result of the digital gap that existed in Uruguay between the people who didn't have access to technology and to those who did. It was impelled during the regime of Tabaré Vazquez as a pioneer project; although it was inspired by Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child project. It raised three principal values: to distribute technology, to promote knowledge and to generate social equity.

The project was named “Ceibal” like the typical Uruguayan tree and flower called “ceibo”, known in English as Cockspur coral tree. Ceibal also stands for "Conectividad Educativa de Informática Básica para el Aprendizaje en Línea" (Educational Connectivity/Basic Computing for Online Learning in English). The OLPC XO-1 computers used in the project are nicknamed "ceibalitas".

The XO-1, previously known as the "$100 Laptop" or "Children's Machine", is an inexpensive laptop computer designed to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to "explore, experiment and express themselves" (constructionist learning). The laptop is manufactured by the Taiwanese computer company Quanta Computer.

The rugged, low-power computers use flash memory instead of a hard drive, run a Fedora-based operating system and use the Sugar user interface.[24] Mobile ad-hoc networking based on the 802.11s wireless mesh network protocol allows students to collaborate on activities and to share Internet access from one connection. The wireless networking has much greater range than typical consumer laptops. The XO-1 has also been designed to be lower cost and much longer-lived than typical laptops.

A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, such that the sender cannot deny having sent the message (authentication and non-repudiation) and that the message was not altered in transit (integrity). Digital signatures are commonly used for software distribution, financial transactions, and in other cases where it is important to detect forgery or tampering.

FDC:

The desing of the First Day Cancelation, only shows the legend of the 185 anniversary "185 ANIVERSARIO D CORREOS", and four wavy lines. This legend is a bit weird, as it is not understand why they use a 'D' crossed by another small undulated line to write the word "de", that is "of" in english.

If you consider that there are another topics in this stamp, that were not spot in this review, you are encouraged to telling me about them, so please do not hesitate to post a comment. I would appreciate your help very much.