Flags

I followed the events surrounding the Danish cartoon riots with some interest. Denmark is (or was) a relatively quiet nation in the current international political scene. However, when the riots broke out, there they were - Muslims burning Danish flags in the streets. Question: where did they get all the flags? I mean, who knew that Denmark, of all countries, would be the focus of Muslim rage? How could they be so prepared? OK, some flags were home-made, but others looked too good to be home-made. So I asked myself: do the Muslim communities have warehouses where they stock-pile flags, just in case they will need to burn them?

Imagine marketing your flags to the Muslim world: "We specialise in high-quality flammable flags. Give your violent demonstration that extra oomph. No self-respecting vitriolic extremist should be without one."

And what about the home-made flags? Some of them looked pretty good, too. Serious effort went into making those flags. And then they burnt them. It sort of reminds me of cigarettes. Have you ever looked at a cigarette from an artistic point of view? A fresh cigarette, straight out of the packet is so completely cylindrical, rounded to perfection. Notice the uniformity of shape, the exact edges. Hold it up and slowly turn the cigarette in your fingers, viewing it from various angles - so smooth, so faultless, so precise. And then you burn it.

I'd like to take a look at one of those flag warehouses because it probably gives a good indication of who they plan to riot against next. I bet there are many dozens of Israeli flags, folded neatly on a large industrial shelf, right next to the tall stack of US flags. I wonder how many flags of Liechtenstein they have in stock? I suppose it depends on how good their cartoonists are.