flag fall

The front page of yesterday's paper featured an amazing feat in Australia sports: The socceroos (soccer team, obviously) beat Qatar in a crushing 3-0 game.

Wait... Qatar? That's a country with a world-class soccer team?

Not to say the socceroos are awe-inspiring, being a mostly European-based team with a foreign coach. I don't think any part of the team is even Australian. Apparently we can't play soccer, although we did qualify for something in the last World Cup - made it to an actual game or two outside the qualifying rounds. Woo! (?)

Anyway, I did some extensive research and discovered that Qatar is a little country attached to Saudi Arabia like a tumor growth. It looks as if it was an after thought - maybe the Earth, when it decided to shift continents around, had some spare pieces doing nothing and figured a game of pin the country on the other country was needed.

It's an interesting country: Most of the locations (cities, I imagine) have names that start with "Al" and even includes places called "Umm Bab" and "Umm Said." No joke. I can imagine conversations between travelers who got lost and ended up in Qatar (because, you know, you wouldn't plan to be there. Unless there was a soccer game on).

Traveler1: How the fuck did we end up in Qatar?
Traveler2: Umm No Idea
Traveler: Well, Al Just Find n Airport
Traveler3: Ar Good Idea!

I apologise for that terribly terrible joke. Unless you laughed, in which case: Shame on you (you are awesome).

Now check out their flag.

It's white and maroon with some "teeth" connecting the two colours in a mind-bending display of creativity. Okay, so flags aren't usually the canvas for Da Vinci-like art, but you have to at least try. You know, add symbols to identify and capture the jist of your nation (or make you remember who owns you) or something.

Here's an actual description of the flag (from the site linked above):

"The flag of Qatar was officially adopted in 1949.

The story goes that Qatar's original flag used an unstable red dye, and the relentless sun faded that red into a shade of maroon, and that color is referred to today as Qatar Maroon. The toothy edge between the maroon and white fields, and the flag's width, helps to identify it from that of Bahrain's flag, a Gulf State's country that it was formerly associated with."

It became official after WWII. I wonder if the country has a military...

So, the story is that someone dyed the original flag with "unstable red dye" and the "relentless" sun turned it into maroon. No, Qatar maroon. Ugh. That reminds me of the ridiculous names they have for colours everywhere. Tulip red. Funky pink. Some other noun/adjective/verb + colour.

And the toothy edge is, get this, to distinguish it from Bahrain's flag. Apparently Bahrain had the same trouble with unstable red dye. Is their maroon called Bahrain maroon?
At least we'll have no trouble identifying which flag belongs to which country, thanks to the unique and clever use of zig zags!

It's like Qatar is saying "Gulf State? Ha! We don't associate with them anymore. Zig zags, bitches!"
Or maybe al bitches.

Remember I'm also making fun of Australia here (the soccer team at least) - we had a crushing victory over Qatar, a country with its own version of maroon and no longer part of the Gulf State. Apparently that's reason to declare awesomeness. Is Qatar laughing, because they only lost by three goals?

I'm sorry to make fun of you Qatar; you're not the only country with a boring flag. You just made headlines and appear to be an after thought attached to Saudi Arabia (at least women can legally drive in Qatar). And I guess you have some potential.

Speaking of flags, what's up with flags for races of people - or do only indigenous Australians have one? I thought about it today. Doesn't make sense. A flag to represent a race of people. Isn't that a bit exclusive and contradicting the whole "equality" thing? I mean, you can't ever consider it your flag unless you are part of the race who it represents. In the case of Australia's Aboriginal Flag it is red, black and yellow. The black is above the red (important) and the yellow is a circle in the middle. It means: black people walk the land and the sun is all-reviving.

So, like, the white version could be the same, except the top colour would be white. But that somehow wouldn't have the same, nod-inducing meaning. Yeah, that's so true to the spirit of indigenous people. Such culture!

Oh noes, racism!

Anyway, Qatar lost to the European Australian soccer team.


- G ζ.

Represent, represent
Your people must be recognised
As an entity of equal
But for all their sins
You must repent