My country, my country, my country...! My love and my heart are for thee. My country, my country, my country...! My love and my heart are for thee. Egypt! Most precious jewel, Shining on the brow of eternity! O my homeland, be for ever free, Safe from every foe! The Israeli Bokra website posted a new flag which is a hybrid of the Israeli and the Egyptian ones. This new flag has an eagle instead of the Star of David and the new country is called by the website Isrypt (Israel + Egypt). 82 Egyptian youths on Facebook have launched a campaign against this hybrid flag. This campaign has attracted other youths who have started a fierce e-war to defend the Egyptian flag. Another initiative has been launched on Facebook by other Egyptian youths who say they are proud of being Egyptians and call for wearing the Egyptian flag on the shoulders. When it was launched, the initiative attracted 382 members and their number is on the rise like the attempts to make fun of the Egyptian flag inside and outside Egypt. The Egyptian flag on one's shoulders warms up patriotic hearts during the winter. Why don't we wear any clothes colored like the flag on special occasions, celebrations and matches? On Facebook you can find groups of youths who are scared of the Egyptian golden eagle which looks at the past, the present and the future with such haughtiness. It makes me sad to see the Egyptian flag upside down on local occasions. The black tops the flag instead of the red, while the golden eagle has turned right. Have the Egyptians forgotten their country's flag, motto and anthem? Indeed, I am afraid they have. The upside down flag distributed at the conference held in Dakahlia in solidarity with Gaza is not an exception or a mistake. This flag is offended in its own country and by its own people, as it flies at half-mast on buildings, is hung flimsy on ministries and public authorities. Some flags have been eaten away at by time, so much so that one can no longer distinguish the red and the black. The current flag is now fifty, as it dates back to 1958 (Nasser's era) as an expression of Egypt's independence. Yet, the Egyptians offend their own country. In Egypt, you do not find the national flag, but the flags of governorates, ministries, authorities, companies, universities, faculties, the national squad and different confessions. Some flags split the country into two unequal parts, Coptic flags are like the one of Catalonia (Spain), Islamic groups wave the Saudi flag, etc… These are flags with no legitimacy raised by illegitimate groups. There is no building in Washington without the US flag. Here, instead, you have to walk for a while before you can see an Egyptian flag and when you do, you also find it quite flimsy. The inscriptions found on Egyptian antiquities and old temples prove that the ancient Egyptians used the flag as a symbol of the Egyptian nation, while the pharaohs were the first who used a banner as the symbol of their unity in times of peace and war.
