Flag Day in the UAE, next in Palestine?

Flag Day in the UAE on November 3

Two flag-related news items in the past couple of weeks got me thinking about our flags -- a symbol we maybe overlook sometimes.

The first is that November 3 has been designated “Flag Day” in the Emirates. The second is a UN General Assembly resolution that approved the flying of the Palestinian flag at UN Headquarters in New York.

Both flags, coincidentally, have the same colors and are very similar in design.

It is difficult to overlook the flag in the UAE. It is proudly displayed not only on government buildings but also on businesses and homes, especially in the run-up to National Day on December 2.

HH Sheikh Mohammed, Vice President and Prime Minster of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, or Sheikh Mo as he is affectionately known, on September 15 called on Emiratis to hoist the UAE flag atop all departments, institutions and homes around the country, in an expression of solidarity with the Emirati martyrs who were killed in the line of duty while taking part in the Arab Coalition's Operation Restoring Hope, led by Saudi Arabia.

HH Sheikh Mohammed's posting on Twitter

Sheikh Mo’s call came via his official Twitter account. He posted: “We call on all Emiratis to express their solidarity through hoisting the UAE flag atop their homes, departments and institutions around the country.”

On the same day, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a Palestinian resolution to allow its flag to fly in front of the UN headquarters in New York, infuriating Israel of course and giving hope to Palestinians seeking to gain full UN membership.

Flying the Palestinian flag atop the Wall

The vote was passed with 119 votes out of 193 in favor. Among the European countries that voted “yes” were France, Russia, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Malta and Poland.  The majority of EU member states were among the 45 countries that abstained. A total of eight countries voted against, including the U.S. and Israel. 

The General Assembly resolution

Currently, the UN has only one other non-member observer state -- the Vatican. The Holy See was not supportive when the idea was first brought up last month, however, and rejected the Palestinians’ original proposal to introduce the resolution as a joint effort, asking the Vatican to co-sponsor the document. The Vatican still remains unsure whether it will be flying its flag next to Palestine’s.

It is may be a small symbolic victory. But seeing that Israel flies its flag all over Palestine, why not?

The Israeli flag flying in the streets...

of the Old City of Jerusalem

I was shocked and dismayed by these Israeli flags flying all over, especially in the Old City of Jerusalem. Maybe a “Flag Day” in Palestine will go some way in redressing the balance.

DESIGN

The Palestinian flag is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes -- black, white, and green from top to bottom -- overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. These are the Pan-Arab colors inspired by the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule (1916–1918). Prior to being the flag of the Palestinian people, it was the flag of the short-lived Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan.

The flag used by the Arab Palestinian nationalists in the first half of the 20th century is the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt. The origins of the flag are the subject of dispute and mythology. In one version, the colors were chosen by the Arab nationalist “Literary Club” in Constantinople in 1909, based on the words of the 13th-century Arab poet Safiaddin al-Hili:

Ask the high rising spears, of our aspirations

Bring witness the swords, did we lose hope

We are a band, honor halts our souls

Of beginning with harm, those who won’t harm us

White are our deeds, black are our battles,

Green are our fields, red are our swords.

Another version credits the Young Arab Society, formed in Paris in 1911. Yet another version is that the flag was designed by Sir Mark Sykes (of Sykes-Picot repute).

On October 18, 1948, the flag of the Arab Revolt was adopted by the All-Palestine Government, and was recognized subsequently by the Arab League as the flag of Palestine. A modified version (changing the order of stripes) has been used in Palestine at least since the late 1930s and was officially adopted as the flag of the Palestinian people by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. On November 15, 1988 the PLO adopted the flag as the flag of the State of Palestine.

Flying the Palestinian flag

On the ground the flag became widely used since the Oslo Agreements, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993.

In 1967, immediately following the Six-Day War, Israel banned the Palestinian flag in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. A 1980 law forbidding artwork of "political significance" banned artwork composed of its four colors, and Palestinians were arrested for displaying such artwork. Since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, the ban has been abolished.

Let's proudly fly our flag...

World Water Day: Saving a drop helps

Today is International World Water Day to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and to campaign for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The UN General Assembly responded by designating March 22, 1993 as the first World Water Day. World Water Day 2012, under the theme “Water and Food Security,” is coordinated by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

I identify with World Water Day because I spent more than 10 years, during the Lebanon civil war, living with very little water. The “waste not, want not,” motto taught at home long before that, stood me in good measure then. We were brought up not to waste water, electricity and food, not for environmental reasons at the time, rather to save on bills.

When you have to use water, whether for bathing, washing, toilet flushing, cooking, cleaning etc… from a single bottle, you learn how to save. And this habit remains. I still don’t take a shower without appreciating running water.

My top tips would be: close the tap while brushing your teeth; make sure no taps are dripping; have a shower instead of a bath; fully load the washing machine or dishwasher before switching it on…

“Water and Food Security,” are intrinsically related as there are seven billion people to feed on the planet today and another two billion are expected to join by 2050. If only at one drop per person, that’s seven billion drops!

FAO statistics show that each of us drinks from two to four liters of water every day. However, most of the water we “drink” is embedded in the food we eat. Producing one kilo of beef for example consumes 15,000 liters of water while one kilo of wheat “drinks up” 1,500 liters.

When a billion people in the world already live in chronic hunger and water resources are under pressure we cannot pretend the problem is “elsewhere.” Coping with population growth and ensuring access to nutritious food to everyone call for a series of actions.

FAO says we can all help by:

• following a healthier, sustainable diet;
• consuming less water-intensive products;
• reducing the scandalous food wastage: 30% of the food produced worldwide is never eaten and the water used to produce it is definitively lost!
• producing more better quality food with less water.

At all steps of the supply chain, from producers to consumers, actions can be taken to save water and ensure food for all. FAO says it takes 2,000 to 5,000 liters of water to produce one person’s daily food intake. The world is thirsty because of our food needs.

Most of water we “drink” is embedded in food we eat

To be able to feed everybody, we need to secure water in sufficient quantity and adequate quality. We also need to produce more food using less water, reduce food wastage and losses, and move towards more sustainable diets.

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have both physical and economic access to su­fficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary requirements for an active and healthy life. People who have better access to water tend to have better nourishment levels. Lack of water can be a major cause of famine and malnutrition, particularly in areas where people depend on local agriculture for food and income.

The UN General Assembly declared access to clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right on July 28, 2010. Access to safe and su­fficient water is a human right under international law, and under some national constitutions.

Water scarcity affects every continent and more than 40 percent of the people on our planet. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water-stressed conditions. The lack of water limits farmers’ ability to produce enough food to eat or earn a living. South Asia, East Asia and the Middle East for example are already close to their resources limits, and their population is still growing.

FAO adds that the gender gap in developing countries also plays a role as 43 percent of the farmers are women. But they are usually unable to perform well because of unequal access to services and resource inputs -- including water. If women had the same access to resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 percent. Closing this gender gap would lift 150 million people out of hunger.

Developing countries and emerging economies currently face a nutrition paradox with, on the one hand, high rates of undernourishment -- over 800 million hungry people worldwide -- and, on the other, about the same number who are overweight. Both undernourishment and obesity can lead to the risk of debilitating chronic diseases. Sustainable diets are diets with low environmental impacts, which contribute to food and nutritional security and to a healthy life for present and future generations.

Cutting food waste can feed the world. Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year -- approximately 1.3 billion tons -- gets lost or wasted, according to an FAO-commissioned study.

Key findings in the study include:

• Industrialized and developing countries dissipate roughly the same quantities of food -- respectively 670 and 630 million tons.
• Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tons) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons).
• Fruits and vegetables, plus roots and tubers have the highest wastage rates of any food.

The amount of food lost or wasted every year is equivalent to more than half of the world's annual cereals crop (2.3 billion tons in 2009/2010).

Consumers in rich countries are generally encouraged to buy more food than they need, the study notes. "Buy three, pay for two" promotions are one example, while the oversized ready-to-eat meals produced by the food industry are another.

Consumers fail to plan their food purchases properly, the report found. That means they often throw food away when "best-before" dates expire. 

Education in schools and political initiatives are possible starting points to changing consumer attitudes, the report suggests. Rich-country consumers should be taught that throwing food away needlessly is unacceptable. They should also be made aware that given the limited availability of natural resources it is more effective to reduce food losses than increase food production in order to feed a growing world population.

It takes me back to “waste not, want not…” This education should start at home.

Let’s try and save a drop a day and be careful about the food we buy and the food we throw away. On this second day of Spring, let’s help Mother Nature help us.