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?
Well thats not nice I am from Czech republic and I love Pakistan despite everything but this i didnt expect huh!! Inshallah next time it wont happen
Khuda hafiz
Jane
i didnt even know that..so what can be expected from the people working for the government….and i think it would be good if our pm goes through all this…might…might…i m not saying he would but might get the message…
haha this is hilarious! what an image we put up in front of our guests! made a real fool out of our selves!
[…] just saw this post Welcoming the Czech Prime Minister and I could not stop laughing at the negligence and incompetency of our government […]
Oh, he didn’t probably realise that (I wouldn’t and I am Czech) – good joke though :).
By the way, we’re well used to this, when there was world fair EXPO in Hannover (Germany – right at our border), the English version of the official map marked our exposition as Chechnya :)).