Your National Flag

[sendbaht]

American here, but one thing I can say is you British folks have one pretty flag. Also enjoy seeing it wave.

sendbaht

[somchai jones]

you can fly either flag, hang it in you window, display it in you car etc at any time. The op has been informed wrong. On st georges day thre country is swamped with george cross & union jack flags, same as when the football is on.

UK may be crap to some of it's current absentee nationals but I'm pretty sure it is where those same people would head (run) back to if it all went tits up in los

Couldn't have said it any better.

At last an informed post.

[tommyj4]

There always be an England!!!!!

[StanSmith]

For me, if they want to stop me from displaying the Flag Of St.George, they will have to chop my right arm off.... as I proudly have it etched onto my inside forearm.

The only downside with this is that you are instantly branded a brain dead moron at worst, or a far right 'paki basher' at best. I am neither of those - i just feel lucky and proud to hail from England.

There is no way in hel_l that anyone would stop me from flying my flag back home. I dotn live there and to be honest, even if I did i doubt I would. But no one would stop me, should I care to.

Namm - most English people feel more pride towards being English, than they do being British. Most English people when (for example) filling out a TM card at immigration will write 'English' for nationality. With that in mind, I am confused why you can not grasp Pike's preferance over the St.George.

I agree 100% with Pike. The Thai's have got it right and they have totaly put us to shame in terms of expressing national pride. We English/Brits should take a leaf from there book and follow suit. Its also such a shame that our Queen is such a laughing stock - all that history of power and success, reduced to shambles in a couple of decades. I for one would have no issues standing up in an English cinema if they played the anthem.... but I wouldnt do so on my own as I would look a complete nutter.

Pike - fantastic website here...... www.wearetheenglish.com if you ever feel in dispair at poor old Broken Britain, have a gander through this site (especialy the quotes section and famous battles) and proudly remember who we are, what have achieved and contributed to the world and what we stand for. Its a great site for boosting your pride a little.

[StanSmith]

i also don't understand why anybody is proud of his/her country.

I guess you have to be from somewhere worth being proud of to understand. Where are you from?

Superb!

pride should be based on own achievements. being proud of something accomplished by others is adorning oneself with borrowed plumes, i.e. a sign of weakness. too difficult too understand? if yes, let's change and discuss subjects you are familiar with. will Manchester United make it or not? and if they make it will you be proud of the team even though you are not one of the players?

Thats your opinion Naam. I disagree completley however. Do you have daughters, sons... a wife? Would you feel pride at seeing your 9 year old kid scoring a hatrick for the school football team? Would you feel pride if your single parent daughter graduated from Uni as a mature student, after rasing three kids on her own? Or what if your wife was told she was terminaly ill, yet she managed to smile in the face of adversity and slog her way through the illness, only to come out of it all recovered?

Surley you would feel pride at this? It wasnt you that scored three goals in one game and it wasnt you that graduated from Uni.... so you wouldnt feel proud, right?

Some of us like to extend this feeling of pride to our extended fammily - our fellow countrymen past and present. You are part of a club - by grace and good fortune for some of us - in which you can feel proud.

Even such trivial things as flying in and out of the country, I will look at my passport and feel pride. Pride that our ancestors built a nation in which we can pretty much come and go as we please to most countrys. Where as residents of many nations have to apply for visa's and in some cases are even interviewed, we can come and go as we please to the same country just by virtue of having that little red book we can travel to most countries 'in the Name of Her Majesty'. Thats my Queen saying, on the inside cover of the passport, 'guys, let him pass.... He's British'.

I feel pride at this as over the years, my people, in my club, built a fine and powerfull nation.

But pride for me isnt restricted to achievments..... pride for me also spawns from personal traits in which most of us share, depending on where we hail from. For example, in the US many people do not grasp British humour..... i feel proud that we have a quirky way of looking at things with a totaly dry sense of humour. The reason i feel proud, is because i know it is a trait that is unique to us, and we all have it. So, once again, i refer to that 'club' in which we all belong, that we we can all feel proud of, regardless of where you are from.

"We few. We happy few. We band of brothers....."

Edited August 29, 2008 by StanSmith

[HelterSkelter]

Although there are many things about Britain that I love and I am proud of, I actually do have a few issues with the union Jack myself. I feel there is much in our past that we should feel a degree of shame about - namely the invasion and subsequent desertion of many countries who now as a result are facing/have faced many many years of brutal civil war and political unrest. All of this was done in the name of our flag. I feel the same way when I see the many stars and stripes flying in the US. I am a dual citizen, and again there are many things I feel proud about being a US citizen, but to me the flag symbolises not the accomplishments of the nation but it's failures in foreign policy (see the Vietnam and the Iraqi wars) and to see it remind

I do not though have anything against people who choose to fly these flags, and I understand especially for the older generations that lived through a world war, that the union jack/St. George's cross symbolises our victory over a formidable opponent. I also do not agree with a government discouraging the display of a national flag as this goes against a person's freedom of expression . I just would personally not do it, at least on a permenant basis.

I am proud of Being a Part of the Human Race.(hopefully the kinder more peaceful bunch!)

In My childhood the Union Jack WAS a symbol of security,understanding and safety.But the I grew up!

And now all I can really see is The NF Nazis,a HoChi Minh look alike called Glitter and arrogent endless Beaurocracy!Same with the Stars and stripes(Ma Scott/ Da Swede/Bask born US) Now I just see A Idiot in the Bush and Dead Indians scattered on dawns highway and of course the Model of Greedy Corporate destruction of our Earth!

If I fly a Flag it's got to Be Brazil for Me!It just Looks REALLY COOL! Like a Planetary flag representing our Solar System!

[Jingthing]

If I fly a Flag it's got to Be Brazil for Me!It just Looks REALLY COOL! Like a Planetary flag representing our Solar System!

I have to agree they have a great flag. I was lucky enough to be on Copacabana beach when Brazil had just won the world cup. I never saw such a party in my life and their flag was everywhere but it was all about joy and life, not bombing and death. In contrast, the Orientalland flag we have here is rather dry, some colored stripes, so similar to so many other countries. A redesign might be in order?

Edited August 29, 2008 by Jingthing

[Naam]

i also don't understand why anybody is proud of his/her country.

I guess you have to be from somewhere worth being proud of to understand. Where are you from?

Superb!

pride should be based on own achievements. being proud of something accomplished by others is adorning oneself with borrowed plumes, i.e. a sign of weakness. too difficult too understand? if yes, let's change and discuss subjects you are familiar with. will Manchester United make it or not? and if they make it will you be proud of the team even though you are not one of the players?

Thats your opinion Naam. I disagree completley however. Do you have daughters, sons... a wife? Would you feel pride at seeing your 9 year old kid scoring a hatrick for the school football team? Would you feel pride if your single parent daughter graduated from Uni as a mature student, after rasing three kids on her own? Or what if your wife was told she was terminaly ill, yet she managed to smile in the face of adversity and slog her way through the illness, only to come out of it all recovered?

Surley you would feel pride at this? It wasnt you that scored three goals in one game and it wasnt you that graduated from Uni.... so you wouldnt feel proud, right?

touché! you got me Stan.

[StanSmith]

Its all a matter of opinion I guess Naam. There really is no right or wrong to it and I personally would have no issue with any British citizen who didn't feel proud to be British and who considered the flag a joke/meaningless. Its a personal thing, so fair enough. I have British friends in LOS who hate Britain now.... each to his own, as far as I am concerned. As Helter Skelter said, he just feels proud to be a part of it all and his birthplace doesn't come into it. Again, fair enough.

I think Britain is broken at the moment and its going to be tricky to revert back to how it once was. I'm more proud of the history and the achievements, than I am of modern day Britain, which in many parts is now shocking. I was reading on the News today about a young, bright student journalist who ventured over to Calais, France, to interview asylum seekers who camped out in the forest, waiting for there chance to sneak in to the UK unnoticed. She was gang raped by up to 10 Middle Eastern guys. 500 potential bums, just hanging out in a forest over the Channel, waiting to sneak in. When they do eventually get there, they wont be deported.... they will be housed, fed and have money thrown at them every week.

Or the poor Scottish bloke who hacked into the US military mainframe looking for pictures of Aliens. He has been fighting extradition to the States where he faces up to 70 years or even, possibly, Guantanamo Bay (as military hacking can fall under terrorism charges). By his own admission, he is just a geek..... a computer nerd cooped up in his bedsit looking for aliens. He lost his appeal this week and we are sending one of our own guys over to the States to rot. For being a nerd. I cant imagine that happening 20/30 years ago. We would have told them to bugger off.

Fatal stabbings are reported weekly. Kids are beating up policeman. Happy Slapping is the new skateboarding.

I admire the Thai's for there constant endeavor to keep Thailand, 'Thai.' Hats off to them for not letting me purchase land. Hats off to them for making citizenship one in a million chance. Hats off to them for displaying there affection for Thailand on every street, shop, building. I only wish we would still do the same back home. I know we used to. We certainly don't now. I think that owes to reasons such as I have described above. There is plenty to be proud of - but also a fair amount to be disgusted by. At least, at the moment.

Rant over. Sorry... I probably just killed the thread....

[BigC]

As a Brit I am very proud of our National flag, but even more so being English very proud of The St Georges Cross, after living in Thailand for not far off 10 years i feel the Thais feel the same for there own, it is on display everywhere,from cereal packets to the factorys,good for them i say!!

Over the past few months i have been hearing from fellow Brits who still live in the UK that you cannot display our flag even on St Georges Day as it has been deemed racist and offensive,what a joke!! I remember as a kid the Queens silver jubilee there was Union Jacks everywhere you looked, could you do this now?? I know this topic is not really Thai orientated but i would be interested to hear other members views on this and how they feel for there National flag.

used to be proud to be british now as a brit i feel i havbe lost my identity and i am countryless ( if that is a word). i wash my hands with England just reading the english new paper makes me want to take a swing as it. so i don't care about my national flag no more. my old country has ben invaded and our govement opens the gate to invaders. if i wrote this in an enlish post i would be a racsit here i am a realist.

like the sex pistols said. " i just want another country, and england's dreaming, no future ..... da da da "

[Birdman]

...as someone from a middle european country, I really do not know, what people here are talking about. It is ok to come from my country, but proud...I do not think so, never was, never will be.

...wondering, if somebody is so proud of their homecountry, why live somewhere else? Stan

[koheesti]

...wondering, if somebody is so proud of their homecountry, why live somewhere else? Stan

If you love your parents or are proud of them why move out on your own?

[koheesti]

All flags look great if you display them properly.