Asia | Flagging Headquarters

WHAT WILL MIRZA-MALIK’S BABY BE?

View Comments 23 April 2010

By Atlas Al

The well-known children’s song goes something like:

“Mirza and Malik, kissing in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage!” It’s safe to assume they’ll have kids like most married people do.

Sania Mirza: one of the best female tennis stars to come out of India.

Shoaib Malik: an accomplished cricketer and previous captain of the Pakistani national team. What should have been a sports marriage made in heaven turned into good old Indian-Pakistani squabbling.

India and Pakistan have had a rough history since the British pulled out in 1947: three wars, constant dispute over the region of Kashmir, both countries have nuclear weapons, violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims.

So when Sania Mirza, a Muslim Indian, announced she would marry Shoaib Malik, a Muslim Pakistani, some Indians felt betrayed. I was laughing as I read worrisome comments made on CNN.com articles about the marriage. One such person was worried that Mirza would start playing tennis for Pakistan – god forbid.

The Mirza and Malik families thought it’d be best if Sania and Shoaib based themselves out of neutral Dubai for several reasons: 1) Everyone’s happy because they aren’t taking sides on where to live, 2) It’s far enough away to avoid the media, yet only a 3-hour flight to Hyderabad (where Sania’s family is from), 3) They can focus on their sports careers, 4) Shoaib already owns an apartment in Dubai after playing in a 2008 Canadian cricket tournament giving him – and his new bride – legal residency in the United Arab Emirates.

At the moment, not taking India or Pakistan’s side is wise until the media downpour passes. But they will be forced to make that decision when a baby comes.

The UAE’s immigration and citizenship laws are very strict. 82% of their population is foreign born, meaning those 82% aren’t and will never be citizens. Justlanded.com – a website of living abroad guides for expats and travelers – says it’s nearly impossible to get Emirati Arab citizenship for foreigners. Furthermore, “Children of foreigners born in Dubai don’t have rights of local citizenship and automatically assume the nationality of the parents.”

When Sania and Shoaib are ready to start a family, what flag will their kids be?

If your mother is Jewish, they say you’re Jewish as well. Is there a rule of thumb if you’re born to an Indian or Pakistani mother or father? What I do know is that dual citizens must choose which nationality they identify with more. No one is ever 50/50, never. You’re either more one than the other. One person, one flag (or as I like to say, “one flag per shag”).

Genetically speaking, their children will be one half Indian and one half Pakistani; however, their children’s flags depend on what culture/country they’ll be raised in. The Dubai move seems like a temporary fix until the marriage hoopla settles down. And when it does settle, where will they eventually call home?

My prediction: Sania and Shoaib will call India home and their children will be Indian flags, and here’s why. They married in Hyderabad where Sania comes from; Sania doesn’t want to live in Pakistan because of security issues; and if the children spend the first few years of their lives in Dubai, there’s a good chance they’ll be surrounded by Indians since the majority of foreign born people in Dubai are from India.

Moving to Dubai merely postpones the inevitable difficult choice of where to settle down, call home, and raise a family. If they received this much media coverage from the wedding alone, wait until we hear reports of a pregnant Sania Mirza. Tick tock, tick tock…

Click here to read the article in The Times of India.

Flags of the World, Asian flags, Indian flag, Pakistani flag , Emirati Arab flag,

Maldives

R.I.P. MALDIVES FLAG by Atlas Al

View Comments 17 December 2009

Sinking Maldives 2

By Atlas Al

The United Nations Climate Change Conference – dubbed COP15 because Copenhagen is this year’s host – is about to wrap up. Even if the world’s countries come to an agreement and implement their promises to curb climate change, the Maldives will most likely sink anyway. Maldivian President, Mohamed Nasheed, and his cabinet staged an underwater meeting to make the world aware of their country’s inevitable future.

According to Cnn.com’s October 8, 2009 article, Cabinet in drowning Maldives to meet underwater, President Nasheed said he wants to use tourist revenue to buy land in neighboring countries. “We will invest in land. We do not want to end up in refugee tents if the worst happens.” India, Sri Lanka, and Australia are “receptive” to the idea. They better be receptive: we don’t want to lose one of the world’s flags.

Are there implications to the Maldives buying land in other countries or will it affect its flag status? Will scores of Indian/Sri Lankan/Australian citizens have to relocate to make room for hundreds of thousands of Maldivian environmental refugees?

This wouldn’t be the first time huge tracts of land were purchased for/from another country:

–1719, Liechtenstein: Anton Florian of Liechtenstein was crowned the first prince of the small principality by Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, after purchasing the lordship of Schellenberg and the county of Vaduz.

–1803, Louisiana Purchase: The United States bought a slice of land so huge it makes up roughly one quarter of the total landmass of the current United States. Napoleon received $15 million.

–1819, Adams-Onis Treaty: The United States settled a border dispute with Spain. Essentially, a new U.S.-Spain border was established, and Spain received $5,000,000 from the U.S. in return for Florida and parts of Mississippi and Alabama.

–1867, Alaska Purchase: The United States bought the Alaska Territory from the Russian Empire for $7.2 million (1.9¢ per acre).

It’s unfortunate that the cumulative irresponsibility of the world will force the people of the Maldives to flee their homeland. It’s not a question of “if,” rather a question of “when,” another country will be put into a similar situation. Which lucky flag shall be affected next by climate change?

Flags of the World, Asian flags, Maldivian flag

China, Czechoslovakia

EXPIRED FLAG THEORY by Atlas Al

View Comments 30 November 2009

By Atlas Al

Once upon a time, I believed a person’s flag should change if their country’s borders and/or name changed. As stated in the Constitution of Flagging, “Flags change with the tides of international politics.” Now, I couldn’t disagree more with my own statement. Understand that Atlas Al (me) is not judge and jury when it comes to flagging doctrine. I simply put forward my best, most well-thought out proposition on how the world should lay claim to flags.

Recently, I conducted an informal survey about claiming “expired” flags and the results were more than convincing. If the majority of the general public wants to amend the constitution, then by all means let’s make the adjustments. I really like the idea of expired flags because they’re so unique, special to have, and nobody can claim them anymore; like a discontinued model of a car or product, they’re rare. I mean, how cool is that? It’s perfectly normal and acceptable to claim new flags—as in new countries. Why shouldn’t we be able to claim expired flags as well?

My first thought about expired flags (aka collector’s edition flags, cancelled model flags) is that it can’t possibly work because of the “one flag per shag” rule we use for dual citizens. If you shagged a Tibetan chick before 1950, you can lay claim to the expired Tibetan flag. Putting politics aside, if you shagged the same chick after 1950, you shouldn’t be able to get the Chinese flag as well. It’s unfair to claim two flags from the same person, and most, if not all people, would agree. If we follow the “one flag per shag” rule, we could say that you cannot shag the same person for their new flag, if their country has changed names. To reiterate once more, whatever flag the person is at the time of the shag, is the flag you got.

What’s more, minor name changes shouldn’t count as expired flags. For example, if a country changed from a monarchy to a republic. To qualify as an expired flag, the changed name or borders must be a drastic “rebranding” like Czechoslovakia separating into the two sovereign states of Czech Republic and Slovakia—a classic example of an expired flag whose name and borders have changed. To say someone is Czechoslovakian is much different than saying someone is a Czech or a Slovakian.

[For the record, I retract the statements I made on this blog in a not so long ago post entitled Fall of a Wall = Death of a Flag]

Flags of the World, European flags, Czech flag, Slovakian flag, Chinese flag

China

MATHEMATICAL FLAGGING by Atlas Al

View Comments 05 November 2009

By Atlas Al

In theory, it’s easier to get the flag from a sovereign state with more citizens than from a sovereign state with fewer citizens. For example, China makes up roughly 20% of the world’s population (i.e. one out of every five human beings is Chinese). Sovereign states with smaller populations, on the other hand, have less citizens when compared to the world’s total population. Less citizens = more exclusive.

Whether you already knew, sort of knew, or didn’t know at all, here’s a list of the most populous nations: