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?
Thanks again to all Czech friends for their understadning.
I am from a city in Pakistan called Lahore and from your comments it seems that many Czech people are also from Lahore! (I say this because people from Lahore pride themselves over finding something to laugh about even in uncomfortable situations!).
Also, since I have learnt about your country from this, let me just clarify two things that most people get wrong about Pakistan – We are a Muslim country but we are NOT in the Middle East and do NOT speak Arabic. We speak a language called Urdu. Because we were colonized by the British, English is spoken commonly, specially by the educated classes. This is why this site is in English. There are also many Pakistani websites in Urdu.
So, overall, it seems a lot of good exchange HAS come out of this unfortunate gaffe!
Hi All,
I thing this is great forum – because of great people, for me the apology is accepted as well. It’s nice to see good people apologize even it is a mistake from others, that’s really nice…
For Czech people reacting on my comments:
Ja jsem prozil sedum let v tehle krajich a vim, jak to tady chodi, kdo nezna osobne tyto narody, at se k me pripomince radsi nevyjadruje protoze vubec nevi o cem mluvi…ale vubec…
For All: keep the great spirit,
a salaam walejkuum.
I am Czech and I find the whole story very funny.
And you, Pakistanis, you don’t need to apologise for the stupidity of your authorities and government.
Imagine what would happen if all peoples across the globe would do so! We would all spend our time apologising since it is seems that not only the world is run by idiot Bush, but individual countries are run by idiots too. :))
And I must also assure you that similar kind of debates are on the Czech websites. the only difference is that there is more of a racist abuse on Czech websites – the likes Gabi or Michael on this website.
Anyway, I am quite sure that Topolanek wouldn’t know how Pakistani flag look like either.
Greetings fellas
This is a quite funny story and ( as others ) I think that noone will be disturbed by it.
The most funny thing for me is the text of praying banner. Its a bit strange to pray for country, where almost noone believe in god or allah ( 40% of population are christians and 90% of them believe really slightly ). Most of local clerics are just for fun and by majority of my friends called “black asses” ( cos of their robes ).
I have no experience of visiting pakistan or middle east at all, but if most of people there are like you guys present on this page, I dont think you have to pray for anything, your success its already on it way. Good luck.
BTW one Czech proverb says “fun has to be, even if theyre hanging your father”.
why you speak english on pakistan web? i thought you speak in arabic.