Adil Najam
On your left is the picture of the flag of the Czech Republic. On your right is a ‘Check’ (or, rather, checkered flag; often used in car racing. The two should never be confused. Except for the fact that ‘Czech’ is pronounced as ‘check.’
Ordinarily, this should not be a problem. But right now the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic is visiting Islamabad, and the Capital’s PR people have adorned flags on flagpoles and a number of (very) large banners to welcome him in the spirit of good hospitality. The only problem is that instead of putting the ‘Czech’ flags on the banners, they have ‘Check’ flags!
I saw these while driving back into Islamabad on the from the Airport. I rushed back to see if I would figure out who was responsible for this little gaffe and maybe alert them to the mistake before the Czech PM arrived. Unfortunately, it turned out that the Czech PM was already here.
I wonder what he and his team thought of this. Did they even mention it to their hosts or did they just keep politely quiet? I also wonder what they thought about the banner that read: “We Pray for the Czech Progress and Prosperity”?I am sure they liked the sentiment, but maybe they also wondered why Pakistanis are praying for Czech progress and prosperity instead of working harder for Pakistani progress or prosperity. On the other hand, maybe they do not think as hard about what is written on banners as I do!
I have no way of knowing this, but my theory of how this might have happened is this – Someone tells someone to find out what a Czech (read ‘check’) flag looks like; they look up ‘check flag’ on Google, and that is the one which makes it way on the banner.
Nice story for a chuckle? But how would you feel if the Pakistan Prime Minister goes to another country and they mess up the flags this way?
Plus important notice, please all Pakistani here, don´t worry about this “incident”. Similar things happening all around the world every day. As someone told, there is nobody (normal) in Czech rep. who will take this as some kind of offence or something.
[quote comment=”47511″]Dear friends, I went throuhg all the major Czech papeprs. There is not a word about this check flag welcome. And even if anyone noticed, we should be the last to point this out. We have enough butter on our heads just from recent football world cup qualification game with Germany here in Prague. Our aging pop star was asked to sing the German national antom before the game. She really dressed well for the occassion. But putting all that make up, having her hair done and all that took her probably so much time, that she had none left to learn the lyrics of German antom properly… You should see the confused faces of German national team players… They were trying to sing along with her, but it was not easy at all as our singer totally messed the lyrics up, forgot some part, repeated other…
As you see… things like this happen.
I think that stressing the fact, that game of chess is quite popular in the Czech Republic was a nice welcome to our PM :).[/quote]
(And street racing is quite popular too. Specially among politicians)
Unqualified assent. And big point for Pakistan´s jokers, printing company and Islamabad´s PR people. It really cracked me up seeing the checkerboard there.
BTW Checkboard is a part of one part of our national emblem. Silver-and-red chequered eagle in a shield of blue is the emblem of Moravia, region from where is Topolanek. So there is some connection:):)
This is a prime example of “sifarish” in Pak and “muthi garam” scenario. Meritocracy is as vaguely understood as democracy, in Pak. I bet no one will be called to the carpet for this either. Funny and very very revealing about the nation and the false sentiments it propogates. As far as importance of propaganda over education, let me share my childhood experience in karachi. As a young girl I remember being humiliated by being dragged to the street and wave at Zia’s motorcades in Karachi. It was an even bigger deal when some Arab VIP came as well. THAT was more important than my class? We are reaping what we sowed ages ago.
The name TOPOLANEK is in Czech language a minituarizarion of the Czech word TOPOL = Poplar. Under the expression TOPOLANEK is to understand a small, crooked, deformed, poor, something to feel sorry about, a misfit shrub growing high in the mountains with no use to anyone. And that is exactly what the majority of Czechs think about this man. Why in the name of God he travels of all countries to Pakistan – escapes anyone’s sane mind.
I find it interesting that the banners are in english.
As for the mistake it probably was not from a government official. They likely just called up a banner store and told them what they wanted. If their printing shops are anything like Kinkos in the US they’re lucky they at least got the Pakistani flag right.