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=”46854″]This is NOT a small thing. Flags are very important to countries. Insulting a flag is insulting a country[/quote]
Greetings from Check Republic… No take it easy, we are not that proud nation. Humor is probably higher value for majority of our people and this is REALLY funny.
ya sure its funny and embarrassing as well. But what I noticed was that both the flags are not of same shape.
I mean there is a strong possiblity of the image being created using softwares like corel draw or adobe photoshop.
Just notice that the pakistani flag has a wave shape while the other flag is straight which is unusal. So if you ask me personaly I wont belive it till some eye witnesses post their comment.
Reards from Prague (“The Check capital :)” ). Nice and lovely story. We will see, what kind of reaction will be on local newspaper :). Peace to all :) Tomas
I am also impressed by the humor and coolness of our Czech freinds. I look at our own discussions here and wish that we could also develop thsi ability to stay cool!
Once again, we’ve made history. Folks… this ain’t funny neither a wonder… its just another day when “Pakistan’s Grievance Book’ had another point added to it…
/me sings to da guests PM.
‘Thissssssss issssssss howwwwww weeeeeeeeeeeee dooooooooooo itttttttttttt… Thissssssss issssssss howwwwww weeeeeeeeeeeee dooooooooooo itttttttttttt… :P