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?
A lesson that we Pakistanis can learn from our well-mannered and light hearted Czech friends is to take life easy. Not everything is a matter of strife and shouting but there are lighter sides to mistakes too, if one is willing to look for. Thanks Czech friends, we certainly can learn how to smile more as a national habit.
Hi to all,
I can assure everybody in Pakistan that nobody in Czech republic feel touched by this error. Maybe Czech companies will be like racing cars in your country:)))
Best wishes to all people in Pakistan!
Hi to everybody in Pakistan!
The “flag problem” is discussed on Czech internet today and we are laughing very much. Radka is right, we love fun much more than our national symbols. And from another poitn of view we are happy that not only our bureaucrats are so stupid.
But don’t worry, this flag mistake it is not so bad, there are much more stupid bureaucrats (and also journalists) all around the world. For example I have seen Latvian or Belarussian flags with subtitles “Czech Republic” and the picture of our former prime minister with the subtitle “Prime minister of Poland” in American newspapers or a maps of Europe where there was the word “Iraq” instead of the right “Germany”, “Slovakia” instead of “Slovenia” and “Switzerland” instead of “Czech Republic” on CNN. Such pictures of maps and newspaper articles are very popular in my country and friends often send them one to another by e-mail as perfect jokes. I think it will be the same with this error. But it is very nice to read Pakistan people thinking about apology to our people. Thank you for your kindness!
Our flag is quite nice but this “check flag” is not bad too. At least someone from our country could see it if we have nobody in F1 GP (only Jakub Smrž is very good in Moto GP and Tomáš Enge was – before a serious accident – quite good in A1 GP).
And as concern Skoda – the factory named Skoda is owned mainly by German company VW but the car produced are still named “Skoda” – it is the official trade mark and for last 5 or more years Skoda is the greatest general partner of Ice-hockey World Championship.
P.S.: Pray for our progess and prosperity, we need it. Our economic situation is not so terribly bad (maybe better than yours) but comparing it with countries like Switzerland, France, Germany, Sweden of Belgium it is nothing nice. At any case it would be better…
I just got this email since we are discussing spelling, govt, and “check” …enjoy!
Corporate Lesson
Once Nawaz Sharif, Benazir and Shujaat Hussain were traveling in an auto rickshaw. They met with an accident and all three of them died. Gabriel was waiting for this moment at the doorstep of death. He asks Sharif and Benazir to go to HEAVEN. But for Shujaat Hussain, he had already decided that he should be sent to HELL. Shujaat Hussain is not at all happy with this decision. He asks Gabriel as to why this discrimination is being made. All the three of them had served the public. Similarly, all took bribes, all misused public positions, etc. Then why the differential treatment?
He felt that there should be a formal test or an objective evaluation before a decision is made; and should not be just asked on opinion or pre conceived notions. Gabriel agrees to this and asks all the three of them to appear for an English test.
Sharif is asked to spell ” PAKISTAN ” and he does it correctly.
Benazir is asked to spell ” ENGLAND ” and SHE too passes.
It is Shujaat Hussain turn and he is asked to spell ” CZECHOSLOVAKIA “. Shujaat Hussain protests that he doesn’t know English. He says this is not fair and that he was given a tough question and thus forced Test and fail with false intent.
Having been a student of history (which the other two weren’t), he now requested for all the 3 to be subjected to a test in history Gabriel says OK but this would be the last chance and that he would not take any more tests.
Sharif is asked: “When did Pakistan get Independence ?”. He replied “1947” and passed.
Benazir is asked “How many people died during the independence struggle?”. She gets nervous. Gabriel asked him to choose from 3 options: 100,000 or 200,000 or 300,000. Benazir catches it and says 200,000 and passes.
It’s Shujaat Hussain turn now. Gabriel asks him to give the Name and Address of each of the 200,000 who died in the struggle. Shujaat Hussain, accepts defeat and agrees to go to HELL.
Moral of the story:
IF YOUR MANAGEMENT HAS DECIDED TO SCREW YOU, THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
http://www.VirtualTravel.cz … good tip