If you have ever seen comedian Eddie Izzard’s show, “Dressed to Kill”, he has this bit about history where he discusses how countries came to be. This is a quote from the transcript. As you read, you have to imagine this guy (yes, it’s a dude in make up and women’s clothing – it’s his comedic\u00a0“flair”)\u00a0with a thick British accent: <\/p>\n
<\/a> They go, “You can’t claim us, we live here! 500 million of us!” <\/span><\/p>\n “Do you have a flag?”<\/span><\/p>\n “We don’t need a bloody flag! It’s our country, you jerks! (not the word he uses)” <\/span><\/p>\n “No flag, no country, you can’t have one! That’s the rules that I’ve just made up, and I’m backing it up with this gun that was lent from the National Rifle Association.”<\/span><\/p>\n He’s really quite funny, but it’s highly unfortunate that his use of language is very strong. Anyway, back to the topic of this post.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Flags: the latest obsession in the autistic world of my incredibly talented and creative 6 year old, Sam. I wrote a little about this in a recent post, Fascinating Fascinations<\/a>. He’s been coloring full pages of several different flags from around the world and discussing their location on continents, their culture including colors, origins of flag design and different foods. He had me print out several flags last week and we taped them around his room. Since then though, he has racked up quite a portfolio of his own flag creations and tonight wanted to put them up as well. This is what his room looks like now. By the way, he did not copy anything by tracing – it is all free-hand drawing which is what impresses me most. I know it’s a bit hard to see the design of the individual flags, but he’s very detailed in his drawings.<\/span><\/p>\n
“…So, yeah… and\u00a0we built up empires – we stole countries! That’s what you do, that’s how you build an empire. We stole countries with the cunning use of flags! Yeah, just sail around the world and stick a flag in. <\/span>
“I claim India for Britain!” <\/span><\/p>\n