the purefinder - archives - Tue, 2004-06-15
« it's been a while | Main | coefficient of fiction »June 15, 2004
my favourite flags
My favourite flags are the tattered ones. I like the ones that have blended into the background of the flag-erector's life and whose real importance and significance is betrayed by the faded colours and decaying threads.
Two years ago, the village where I live reacted to the prospect of an accomodation centre for asylum seekers appearing nearby with a flurry of flag-erecting. A couple of these flags have remained - now in tatters.
The mechanism by which flags evolved and appeared is logical and sensible enough; if a group of miscellaneous yeomen and irregulars have assembled to achieve some martial aim then it makes sense for them to have a visual and visible symbol around which to coalesce - to lessen the chances of their own individual death if nothing else.
The appearance of the 'we don't want the asylum centre' flags confused me a little. It seemed to be a bit of a non sequitur that the reply to the prospect of an unwanted bricks and mortar development should be to visually state 'I am English'.
I am not English. In Northern Ireland, where I am from, flags are, regrettably, important and common. They are the means by which those who care to do such things brandish their cultural identifications at 'the other side'.
It is difficult for me to seperate my early, observed, experience of flags and symbols, where a flag was useful only if it could cause offence to someone, from the less sinister bloom of flags to show support for the England football team's efforts in the 2004 European Championship, which is currently taking place in Portugal. If it is difficult for me to see these flags differently, I am not sure it is always sensible to see all flags, or the motivation for their presence, as wholly benign.
I suspect that it is possible to argue that for a flag to have a purpose there must be someone from whom the flag-wavers are declaring their difference. There isn't a flag for me to wave to declare my sense of cohesive unity with the rest of the world's humanity - nor, indeed, my sense of cohesive unity with my fellow misanthropes.
Nationality and nationalism and identity is always going to be a complicated subject for me. I have dual nationality of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. "Be advised my passport's green", too. I left, eagerly, behind a place where it was easy to get shot dead in the street for being one of 'the other side'. I have lived over half my life in England and I have married an English wife and fathered two 'half-English' children. I can't imagine making a choice where I would live anywhere other than Britain (used in the strict sense). I don't mind if England win football matches, but equally, I don't mind if they lose. I consider my similarities and differences from my fellow humans to be products of different experiences and different choices rather than different nationalities or racial backgrounds.
My favourite flags are the tattered ones.
Posted by padraig at June 15, 2004 03:53 PM