Bubble gum card collector.
I was a big fan of flags as a child – they fascinated me without really understanding them. I recall buying bubble gum strips with ‘flags of the world’ cards inside – which had the flag on the front and then on the back things like its capital, population and some phrases to learn phonetically. I loved them and was sad when they were no longer sold.
Since then, my relationship with flags has been mixed. I love to see some of the more colourful ones – Brazil for instance or North Macedonia, but more recently I have seen at first hand how they can be a symbol for non acceptance of foreigners or, in some cases, people living in the same country but with different ethnicities.
Recent concerns.
When the recent uptake in flag posting particularly in England came, I was visiting Northern Ireland which has a long history of flag waving. I was staying for a while on the East side of Belfast and although there were none in my immediate area – the bus ride into the centre of the city took me through an estate which was festooned with them. I don’t think I have ever seen so many, even at a national event such as a royal wedding or a football celebration. I know that the reason for it is to stamp a sense of identification – the loyalist areas of Belfast want to make it clear that their allegiance is to the United Kingdom and not be part of a united Ireland. However, although I am from a different part of the UK and so in some ways part of the club, I still felt a little uncomfortable. Perhaps that’s because I am also an Irish citizen and come from mixed parentage (mother catholic, father protestant) so I feel I have a foot in both camps.
I guess my thoughts are about the context of the flags and what that context represents. For example I was very happy to see flags around Brazil during my times there, as they seem to be flown in the sense of a pride of the country and indeed of the flag itself – people seemed to be very happy with it.
On the other hand they can be very divisive as seen in Bosnia and Herzegovina where the national flag seems to be rarely flown and the Serbian flag is seen in the north of the country and the Albanian flag in the south – reflecting where the local people feel their roots are.
Context Matters.
Then there are the flags which are put up by the state – to reinforce the notion of what it means to be a citizen of that country … as can be seen in the multitude of flags in Turkey for example.
There is also the flags of a country that perhaps worries about it’s status – such as Kosovo (although this also suffers from the same situation as Bosnia) and North Macedonia.
I guess the problem with flags is similar to the problem a foreigner has when trying to speak another language. As a, (poor) second language speaker, I may know the words and even the grammar … but I have not had the experience of being teased as a child in that language, nor being told off in it. Similarly seeing the Turkish or Brazilian flag everywhere you look in your home country does not have the same impact on you as a visitor as it would on a native where for them it’s a normal part of life. It’s only when things begin to change (like is happening now in the UK) that questions begin to be asked about what the ‘meaning’ of the flags are and how I interact with them, on an emotional level especially.
Flag culture and Geography Now!
My unease about the flags in Belfast – partly come from my history of growing up with stories of ‘the Troubles,’ It’s also because seeing so many flags (outside of royal or sporting events) was not the norm when I was growing up. I know that a visitor from places where flying the flag is much more the case in everyday culture (the US perhaps?) would have a different take on seeing them. All I can say is that they are something unique to each country (only one country, Nauru, does not have a national flag,) and are full of representation etc.
One series of videos might be of interest to vexillophiles, (flag lovers) is the first half of Geography Now’s Flag and Fan series. In these videos (which are an offshoot) of their main Geography Now series … the flags of individual countries are discussed in the first half of the videos. I watched a few of these and was sad to realise how much of the flags are influenced by warfare and it is rare for the colour red NOT to symbolise the blood of those who died for the country – to such an extent that the Geography Now team have produced a meme about them. An example of one (Turkey) is here, (first half of the video only.)
Final thoughts.
Of course, flags don’t just represent countries. The EU flag has often felt like a companion on my journeys — not only in EU nations but also in places that hope to join one day, like Kosovo and Georgia. And then there’s the Pride flag, which in England has sadly become a point of controversy as some right-wing, reform led councils have tried to ban it. That such a simple rainbow design can stir so much division really saddens me.
In truth, I feel a little sad that my childhood love of flags has become so tarnished and I really wish I could get back to seeing them with a neutral eye, but there is no going back. I would be interested in other people’s opinions about flags – maybe leave a comment below or email me.
Back to the around the world trip in the next blog post.
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