NorthStar Flags

The Minnesota State flag is once again at the forefront of history making its presence felt as it plays host to the 2008 Republican National Convention. Of subsequent forays into national politics, John McCain will accept the party’s mandate as official candidate and should he win, he will be the oldest President ever, serving his first term in office.

Of equal stature will be his rival, Barack Obama who will be the first black President if elected, being also the first African-American official party candidate of the Democrats. This will be a toss-up of many firsts, as we delve into the first decade of the new millennium.

The official venue of the 2008 RNC will be the Saint Paul’s Xcel Energy Center from September 1-4. It is expected that over 45,000 Republican delegates will flock to the Center, composed mostly of alternate delegates, volunteers, members of media, and various party guests. Out of this convention, Minneapolis-St. Paul will be recipient of a positive economic boost estimated at 150-160million dollars.

The state of Minnesota covers 225,171 square kilometers and a vibrant population of 5,059,375, and is the northernmost of the lower 48 states. The Great Lakes of Minnesota provides accessible waterway to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mississippi River that emanates from here is the vital link that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.

Although agriculture mainly revved up the economy, Minnesota (mid west) has now become a magnet for high-tech industries, while the 15,000 lakes attract summer visitors.

This should be a plus to the thousand of delegates that will come for the Republican Party Convention, as they will be treated to the best amenities this side of the country.

Every time I attend trade fairs, seminars, business conferences, I’m always very particular about the motif. And in most cases when such is in red and white, Monaco comes to my mind. You see, the Monaco flag is basically a horizontal representation of red on the upper part and white on the lower half, plain and really simple not even its country’s coat of arms is added.

I treat Monaco as something special because it somehow answered my childhood perception of a perfect monarchy. I think of it as the Camelot, with King Arthur and his Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot of the Knights of the Round Table. It describes of a time of tales and saga’s, as if nothing could really go wrong.

And all of this royal observation had been revived when the monarch Prince Rainier III came to the United Stated and married Grace Kelly, an American actress. Thus the fantasies of most women were fulfilled, and the plain Grace became Princess Grace and becomes the ultimate embodiment of royalty. Their story started with “once upon a time” and ended up with “they lived happily ever after,” perfect just like in the fairy tales.

But through it all, Monaco is a thriving principality with a population of just over 30,000 and depends solely on revenues generated by its resort facilities, beaches, hotels which are the favorite havens of the rich and the famous around the world. Anytime of the year, celebrities are seen cavorting on the resorts and trying their hand at the gambling casinos in Monte Carlo.

All residents are exempt from income taxes that make the principality attractive to the rich. At present the monarch is Prince Albert, the second child of Princess Grace.

I was asked by an officemate to give pointers on what to do because he intends to buy a used car. We started with the usual banter like car make and model, then check the mileage, scrutinize the car’s servicing, ask for experts advice on the condition of the engine, and last check the under chassis by raising the car on a hydraulic lift.

After a while, here he comes again requesting that I accompany him to the used car dealer’s showroom for he needs my opinion, considering that I’ve been driving one for the last five years. Of particular importance is he wants me to test drive the car that he had obviously selected.

So, off we go. When we reached the entrance to the showroom, I purposely stopped at the foot of the tall custom attention flag that dominates the facade. There were five sets of attention flags colored red and white with the word Hyundai printed on either side. But, what makes it spectacular is its size and height that was about 25 or 30feet. This showroom emblem was visible from afar, just as we turned the corner still around 800meters away.

The test drive turned out well as the car was already repaired and fine-tuned by the dealer’s mechanic. But, still my officemate was adamant because the car is not American but is Korean made. This is usually the reservations made by would be owners, particularly on the reliability of the car and availability of spare parts, if such is not made in the USA.

To allay his fears, I informed him that Hyundai is also American, because it has cemented partnership with American car giant General Motors Corporation.

Since Christopher Columbus’ discovery five centuries ago, and its strategic location and agricultural wealth, Cuba has become a coveted gem. And by mid 1800’s its sugar production supplied one third of the world needs. And who could forget the Cuban cigar?

Cuba is just across the channel from Florida, yet information comes in trickles maybe because it has adapted isolationist measures since it became a communist state in 1961. This single act of Fidel Castro sent over a million refugees to the shores of the United States. Thus when Fidel Castro resigned in February 2008, some forms of access was allowed, most prominent of which is the use of the cellular phone.

When hurricane Gustav visited Cuba a couple of weeks ago, a major portion of its infrastructure were damaged, power lines were toppled, hundreds became homeless and flooding not experienced in its history inundated the countryside. Major consideration was afforded to its tourism facilities that have somehow injected fresh hope to the ailing economy, but Cuba is resilient, thanks in part to Canadian, European, and Latin American investments.

Millions of tourists visit Cuba annually, to see the thousand species of plants and animals that are endemic only to the country. Plus, the nation is home to protected natural areas that take up about 22% of the countryside and is the habitat for crocodiles, flamingos, orchids and many more.

Politically however, the Cuban Government still restricts human freedoms, although some religious concessions were restored in 1998, as Christmas, December 25 was reinstated as a national holiday.

Thus when expatriates return home after almost half a century, they will find the Cuban National Flag, hoisted and waving to welcome the long lost son’s and daughter’s under a new atmosphere.

Have you ever been to Jamaica? I have and together with my family enjoyed what the island has to offer. It was supposed to be a business trip, but I’ve decided to bring my family along because it coincided with the incoming Carnival in Jamaica, a kind of celebration that tourists must not miss.

We landed in Jamaica a week before the season of Lent and luckily we had booked our hotel accommodations in advance, otherwise we won’t have a place to stay. Of great interest had been the traditional walk and street dancing participated in by actors and actresses scantily clad and gyrating to reggae music.

But what caught our attention were the hundreds of stalls offering street foods that lined both sides of the street during the final event of the festival. It is not just an ordinary street food fare, but one sponsored by large hotels and restaurant chains in Jamaica. So, we tried especially the delicacy of the island, chicken and pork jerk together with the fruit juice in season. It was a hell of a delicacy, one that will truly satisfy your discriminating palate.

Back now in New York, Jamaica seems to be etched in my mind because when I was watching the Olympic coverage on TV, the Jamaica country flag was obviously visible held by track runner Hosain Bolt after winning the century dash finals. Then again it (the flag of Jamaica) flew supreme as another athlete, now a woman won her track and field event.

After a fortnight, the Olympics finally came to a close and I would finally be freed of Jamaica, but then hurricane Gustav came and devastated parts of the island.

After seeing so much of the devastation wrought by hurricane Gustav, little is heard about the Dominican Republic, although it was one of the worst hit. Unlike Haiti that hugs the limelight because of scarce food supply, this sturdy country in the West Indies simply moved and used all its resources to restore the damage brought by the hurricane. What makes this republic stand on its own?

As history would have it, the Dominican Republic occupies two thirds of the Island of Hispaniola and is the second largest country in the West Indies after Cuba. Christopher Columbus came to the Island in 1492, colonized by the Spaniards in 1493 and on it built the first chartered university, cathedral, and monastery in the Americas. The capital, Santo Domingo was founded in 1496 and thus is the oldest European settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

The nation became independent in 1844, but was initially governed by repressive governments and endured cycles of political instability. But today the Dominican Republic is a thriving democracy, economically dependent on agriculture (sugarcane, coffee, cotton, cacao, cattle); industry (tourism, sugar processing, ferronickel, gold mining, textiles) and exports (ferronickel, sugar, gold, silver and coffee).

Like any independent republic, it has a Dominican Republic National Flag and features a white central cross that covers the entire breadth that divides it into four rectangles – top is blue and red while the bottom rectangles are red and blue. And a small coat of arms is strategically placed at the center of the cross that depicts an open Bible, particularly the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John.

Further, white stands for salvation, while red signifies blood of its heroes, and the color blue is for liberty.

The indomitable spirit of a country and its people is best expressed in the Haiti national flag , for it admonishes among others, defense of freedom, independence and sovereignty. But such aspiration becomes a melodramatic rhetoric when the majority of the inhabitants are starving, when local agricultural products cannot sustain, and the country is sadly dependent on international food aid to feed the needy and hungry.

Although the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is in the forefront of extending help and introducing new technologies to avert food shortages, still the effort is not enough as clearly manifested by the rampant malnutrition on the countryside.

Just last week, Haiti had been drenched by tropical storm Fay, and all its crops flattened and irrigation damaged by hurricane Gustav, making life barely tolerable on a country that survives on its agricultural production. As if one crisis is not enough, international food aid is again hampered by the erratic climatic patterns.

July saw riots staged by the starved citizenry, and to quell such unrest World Vision International has vowed to send in at least 500 metric tons of food in August, while it was making strides, the hurricane came making continuation of the humanitarian mission almost impossible. Ministry officials had expressed apprehensions that the impact of the storms would be felt in the coming months, as local harvests would be meager affecting the earning capacity of the inhabitants and putting a lot of strain to a reeling economy.

And to make things really worst as it is, tropical storm Hanna is brewing north of the Bahamas, while a tropical wave is developing from the African coast. Haitian’s know that the worst may not be over yet.

Russia is again in the headlines, as it crossed the border into Georgia to help the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, who had been under siege by the Georgian military. The Georgian government simply wanted to restore order in the breakaway provinces that were still officially part of their country.

The Russians on the other hand also wanted to protect the citizens of the disputed provinces, as the majority (around 90%) carried Russian passports. In effect they are Russian citizens and as such they must be protected by the Russian military. Besides, during a referendum previously, 92% of the citizens opted to secede from Georgia.

In 1992, Ossetia and Abkhazia broke away from Georgia and a ceasefire was agreed to prevent atrocities. Russia claimed that the attack of Georgia to the provinces borders on genocide as over 2,000 civilians died in the assault. Meanwhile on the side of Georgia, the military action was an internal matter and outsiders must not interfere.

Thus on August 8, 2008, the Russian military together with tanks and air support rumbled into Georgia, freed the breakaway provinces and destroyed all military installation around the periphery and withdrew. But the withdrawal of the Russian Military was not total, because checkpoints were left at strategic places to discourage retaliation and further buildup of the Georgian Military.

The intention of the Russians may just have been to protect the two provinces, because they have not raised the Russian Flag that happens to be customary during conquests.

The incursion into Georgia by the Russians is a clear violation, even if it is humanitarian in nature. The rest of the Western Countries condemned the military incursion.

The Louisiana State flag has a brown pelican feeding her siblings with her own blood, a symbol that suggests Christian charity. Does the official state flag portend something? Or it is just coincidental that the state happens to be the area mostly devastated by hurricanes, that is why it need the attention of the nation on its plight.

The recent past had New Orleans (the most populous city in Louisiana) taking the brunt of hurricane Katrina, and is now just recovering from the effects because the government was ill prepared in its attempt to provide the necessary assistance in the aftermath of the devastation. Many died in the process, thousands were rendered homeless and damage to infrastructures had been estimated in the hundreds of millions.

And now, hurricane Gustav is poised to hit Louisiana and the low-lying areas of Southern Texas once again, after it manifested its fury in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba with gustiness of around 340 kilometers per hour. Although for the moment, Gustav is shown to have weakened to 200kph and classified as category 3, still it could gather enough strength as it hit Louisiana. Will Gustav be a Katrina? Are we now prepared for the worst?

So far, a little less than two million (1.9 million) people have been moved to safer havens. As railway and bus line have been jammed by riding commuters trying to evade hurricane Gustav. The mayor of New Orleans have issued pleas for residents to evacuate with the assurance that their properties will be safe, and likewise ordered that looters will be prosecuted as state troopers and national guards are on the prowl for any eventualities.

Our prayer goes to the residents and hopes that Gustav will spare them.

The ongoing war in Darfur is classified as ethnic and tribal in origin rather than religious in nature. Because it involves several ethnic groups, non-government institutions around the area placed deaths to have reached 400,000 as of early 2008. It is said that in one such incident alone, militias razed whole villages to the ground, women were raped and others killed by gunfire.

Even with atrocities already headlined worldwide and pleas to stop mount, it seems the government in Khartoum has turned a blind eye and is deaf as well. As the death toll continued, the United Nations stepped in aided by countries concerned for the safety of the inhabitants, particularly the refugees that had numbered to over a million.

The United Nations invited all warring factions, including the government for a dialogue to thresh out the root of the problem and eke out an agreement to end the hostilities and spare lives. The meeting took a positive stance, with everybody working for the common good, cooperate and work under one country flag the Sudan National Flag.

To seal the agreement, the UN sent a 7,000 peacekeeping force to monitor the compliance of the agreement and fulfill its humanitarian aid. Still even with the UN around, atrocities (though fewer now) were again committed in violation of the UN led peace agreement.

Some factions were still committing atrocities in the guise of just implementing the peace agreement, while those at the receiving end were seen to have violated the peace accord.

The UN is enlarging its forces to 20,000 peacekeepers in the hopes of totally controlling the wave of atrocities in Darfur. The world awaits and prays for its success.