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?
[quote comment=”46850″]An utter shock! I thought its photoshopped.
I mean someone really thought this could be the flag of a country?
amazing![/quote]
:D
[quote comment=”46820″]When Bush can mix up b/w Musharraf and Vajpayee, why not some idiot at the Foreign Ministry, CDA or for that matter whosoever.
But u bet it is funnyyyyyyyyyyyyy[/quote]
’cause USA is great country, so there can be much more idiots, than in pakistan :). well, our(czech) symbols are often confused. even in our country. but they’re only symbols, so it’s much more about fun, than about shame or something…
Salaam aleikum.To be exact, after the split of Czechoslovakia as it was known to you in Jan.1993, there were some opinions to call the Czech and Moravian part with Silesia simply Czechia.GOV rejected it. Then, the possibility was to call it Bohemia, this was the name used for centuries.Was rejected too.Why? In some other european languages the word bohemian means gipsy.And there are gipsy or roma population that migrated 7 centuries ago from Balkans here, but not every inhabitant here is roma.When Czechia or Bohemia rejected, only those check /czech remain.Sure, sometimes an immigration ask me: what is czech-,czech out, check in all is fonetically Ä
[quote comment=”47676″]Thanks to all Czech friends for thier understanding. But as a Paksitani I am ashamed and sorry for this mistake, really.
But yes I have also learnt.
I never really knew what the Czech flag looked like. Now I wil never forget it ever :-)[/quote]
that would be a cool way to learn all the countries’ flags, no? he-he-he! :D
Great story guys!!! Its fantastic that we from small country in Europe have the possibility to see, that also big country in Asia have the same number of idiots in goverment. It really makes me feel part of global familly and whole world should check this out ;)