The Egyptian flag has three colors and an eagle: Red is on top, black at the bottom and white with the eagle on it in the middle. Everybody knows by heart what the symbol of the state looks like, except the officials of the National Democratic Party (NDP) in Dakahlia. In a conference yesterday for solidarity with Gaza and President Mubarak, the NDP officials distributed a flag that had the color black on top and red at the bottom. The audience commented: “Why should the flag not be upside down if everything else in the country is so?” Ahmed Adel, a merchant, said: “The NDP leadership asked me for LE 350 to get banners and flags for the conference. I told them why not donate it to the Palestinians? They told me it was obligatory, so I paid them.”
Ibrahim Radwan, a poet, said: “Holding a conference at the Cultural Center will not serve the Palestinian cause. The party should have respect for the Center because it is a place for culture and intellectuals, not for rallies.” Mahmoud Magar, the Dakahlia Secretary of the Nasserite Party, called for allowing all other parties to hold conferences in cultural centers. He said they have to rent conference rooms, while NDP holds its conferences in schools, clubs and cultural centers free of charge. Muslim Brotherhood MP Tarek Qutb said he will submit an interpellation against the minister of culture on the incident. An NDP source said it was Governor Samir Sallam who ordered that the conference be held at the Cultural Center.
