The Egyptian Flag

Egyptian flag(1984 - present)

Colour symbolism:
The red color refers to the period before 1952 Revolution which brought a group of army officers to power after deposing King Farouk, then King of Egypt. This was a period characterized by the struggle against the British occupation of the country. The white symbolizes the advent of the 1952 Revolution which ended the monarchy without bloodshed. The color black symbolizes the end of the oppression of the people of Egypt at the hands of the Monarchy and British colonialism.
The Emblem:
The symbol placed in the middle of the Egyptian flag is the eagle of Salah el din(Salah al-Din Yusuf) (1138-1193) who was the first Ayubid Sultan. He ruled over Egypt, Hejaz, Syria and Mesopotamia. He captured Jerusalem to the Latins in 1187 and signed with them a peace treaty in 1192.The use of the Salah el din eagle on Arab flags is modern, however.
Some flags seen in Cairo has the shield on the emblem as gold, white, gold; or red, white, black; or light gold hatching, white, dark gold hatching; or white, white, white with two gold vertical lines to divide the three parts.
The inscription on the ribbon is Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiya (Arab Republic of Egypt).
Even thou both the inscription of the former coat of arms Al-Jumhuriya (Al-Arabiya Al-Misriya) and Jumhuriyat Misr Al-Arabiya are translated to the same "Arab Republic of Egypt", there is a big internal political difference between the two. In the first (old) way - the Republic is first Arabic and then Egyptian, in the newer version it is first Egyptian and then Arabic.

Terminology & Etiquette in Egyptian Flag display:
- Hoist - the act or function of raising the Egyptian flag, as on a rope
- Half Staff or Half Mast - the Egyptian flag is hoisted to half of the potential height of the flag pole to denote grief and mourning, performed by first raising the Egyptian flag to the top, then lowering the Egyptian Flag halfway
- Distress - denoted by flying the Egyptian flag upside-down
- Manner of hoisting - The Egyptian flag should be hoisted briskly and lowered ceremoniously
- No disrespect should be shown to the Egyptian flag
- The Egyptian flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit the Flag to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way
- The Egyptian flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing on the flag of any nature
- The Egyptian flag should be hoisted first and lowered last(on Egyptian land)
- International Flag relating to Egyptian Flag usage forbids the display of the flag of one nation above that of another nation in time of peace
Penal Provisions for Contempt of the Flag:
Abusing the flag in any way is a criminal offense and is punishable under law as it implies contempt of the power of the state. Penal provisions also govern abuse of foreign flags or national emblems of other countries.

History:
Muhammad Ali Dynasty (1805-1922)
To signify his autonomy from the Ottoman porte, and his own grandiose ambitions of challenging the Sultan for control of the Ottoman Empire itself, Muhammed Ali introduced a flag highly reminiscent of the Ottoman flag, with three white crescents and three stars on a red field. It has been suggested that this was to symbolize the victory of his armies in 3 continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe), or his own sovereignty over Egypt, Nubia, and Sudan.
After theUrabi revolt in 1882, British forces occupied the country, igniting ever greater nationalist resentment. This reached a peak in the Revolution of 1919, when both the red Muhammad Ali flag, and a special green banner bearing a crescent and cross (to show that both Muslims and Christians supported the nationalist movement against British occupation) were seen in the streets.
Kingdom of Egypt (1922-1952)
The first official national flag of modern Egypt was adopted by a Royal Decree in 1923, after Britain formally recognized Egyptian independence in 1922. It consisted of a white crescent with three white stars on a green background.
The three stars supposedly represented either the three parts comprising the Kingdom (Egypt, Nubia and Sudan), or the three religious communities of Egypt: Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Republic of Egypt (1952-1958)
Following the 1952 Revolution, the republic initially kept the green flag with the crescent and three stars of the kingdom but later replaced it with a red-white-black horizontal tricolour like today, but with a different style of eagle emblem in the white stripe, bearing a shield of the crescent and stars. It has since seen only changes to the central emblem: under the United Arab Republic (1958-1971), the white stripe contained two green stars; in 1972-1984, a Golden Hawk of Quraish; and since 1984, the Eagle of Saladin with a superimposed shield, and a scroll bearing the country's name in Arabic.
Egypt as United Arab Republic (1958-1972)
In 1958, a Presidential Decree established a new flag for the United Arab Republic which comprised a merger of Syria and Egypt.
Egypt continued to use this flag until January 1, 1972, although the short-lived union saw its dissolution in 1961.
Republic of Egypt (1972-1984)
In 1972, when Egypt joined the Federation of Arab Republics, the Law was amended to change the flag. The stars were removed from the flag and replaced by a golden hawk (the "Hawk of Qureish"), holding a scroll with the Arabic name of the Federation.
The change in 1984, in addition to restoring the Eagle of Saladin, restored the top red stripe to the same red used in the United Arab Republic flag. The flag of 1972 had lightened the red color slightly.

Other Flags:
Army flag

Navy

Air Force

The Australian flag

Design of the flag:
The Australian flag is composed of three parts:
The Union Jack (British flag) in the top left corner,
The 'Star of Federation' in the bottom left corner, and
The Southern Cross, taking up the right half of the flag. The Union Jack shows that the first colonisation by Europeans was by Britain. In case you didn't know, Australia started as a penal colony. The Star of Federation is a seven pointed star. They came to the number seven, by giving each state (six in all) a point on the star, and having one more point for Australia's territories (of which there are several). There are two mainland territories, and several overseas, including two in Antarctica. The Southern Cross is a constellation that can be seen from all of Australia's states and territories.

History of the flag:

Following Federation as a new nation (the Commonwealth of Australia) on 1st January, 1901 the Commonwealth Government announced a Federal Flag design competition on 29th April, 1901. The review of Review for Australiasia, a Melbourne journal, had initiated an Australian flag competition in 1900, a unique event at the time. It was agreed that the entries received by this journal would be accepted in the Government’s competition. The contest attracted 32,823 entries from men, women and children. An expert panel of judges assessed the entries using guidelines which included history, heraldry, distinctiveness, utility and cost of manufacture, On 3rd September, 1901, a public ceremony was held at the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, where Lady Hopetoun, wife of the Governor-General, opened a display of the entries in the competition. The Prime Minister of Australia, Sir Edmund Barton, announced that five entrants, who had submitted similar designs, were to share the honour of being declared the designers of Australia’s own flag. They were: Ivor Evans, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy from Melbourne; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to a Sydney optician; Egbert John Nuttall, a Melbourne architect; Annie Dorrington, an artist from Perth; and William Stevens, a ship’s officer from Auckland, New Zealand. The Commonwealth Government and the Review of Reviews for Australasia provided £75 each and the Havelock Tobacco Company added £50 to this making a total of £200 prize money, a considerable amount at the time. The five winners received £40 each.

The Australian National Flag was flown for the first time in September 1901 at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne, which was then the seat of the federal government.
It was announced in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No 8 of 1903 that King Edward VII approved designs for the flag of Australia, known as the Commonwealth blue ensign, and for the flag of the merchant navy, known as the Commonwealth red ensign. The stars of the Southern Cross were simplified to four seven-pointed stars and one five pointed star. (The 1901 design depicted the stars with a differing number of points to signify their brightness.) In 1908 a seventh point was added to the Commonwealth star to represent the Australian territories.
Confusion developed surrounding the use of the two Australian flags. The blue ensign was intended for official and naval purposes only and the red ensign was to be used by the merchant fleet. However, the general public also began using the red ensign on land. In 1941, Prime Minister the Rt Hon Robert Menzies issued a press statement recommending the flying of the blue ensign as a national emblem. The Flags Act 1953 ended confusion about which ensign to use.

The Flags Act 1953 proclaimed the Australian blue ensign as the Australian National Flag and the Australian red ensign as the flag for merchant ships registered in Australia.

Other flags used in Australia:

Queen Elizabeth II's Personal Standard in Australia

There is an E flag for Australia. It is made of the shield of Australia (6 quarters, 1 for each state) surrounded by an ermine border, the whole thing overlaid with a gold seven-pointed star, a blue disk, a gold circle of roses (I think they're roses), and a crowned E.
This is the personal standard of the current Queen of Australia, used only within Australia, and only when she's personally present. The Queen of the UK leaves her personal standard behind - no England, Scotland or Ireland appear on the Australian E flag.
Because there is no constitutional position for any other members of the (UK) royal family in Australia, they have no personal standards for use here.

Australian civil air ensign

Royal Australian Navy RAN
Royal Australian Air Force Flag
Army flag

Protocol for flying the flag:

Flying the flag
- The flag should be raised briskly and lowered ceremoniously.
- The flag should be raised no earlier than first light and lowered no later than dusk.
- When the flag is raised or lowered, or when it is carried in a parade or review, everyone present should be silent and face the flag. People in uniform should salute.
- The flag should always be flown freely and as close as possible to the top of the flagpole with the rope tightly secured.
- Unless all flags are raised and lowered simultaneously, the Australian National Flag should be raised first and lowered last.
- When the Australian National Flag is flown with flags of other nations, all flags should be the same size and flown on flagpoles of the same height
- When flying with only one other national flag, the Australian National Flag should fly on the left of a person facing the flags.
- Two flags should not be flown from the same flagpole.
- The flag may be flown at night only when it is illuminated.
- The flag should never be flown if it is damaged, faded or dilapidated. When the material of a flag deteriorates it should be destroyed privately and in a dignified way. i.e it may be cut into small unrecognisable pieces then disposed of with the normal rubbish collection.
- The flag should not be flown upside down, even as a signal of distress.
- The flag should not fall or lie on the ground or be used as a cover (although it can be used to cover a coffin at a funeral).

Flying flags at half-mast
- Flags are flown at half-mast as a sign of mourning.
- The half-mast position will depend on the size of the flag and the length of the flagpole. The flag must be lowered to a position recognisably half-mast to avoid the appearance of a flag which has accidentally fallen away from the top of the flagpole. An acceptable position would be when the top of the flag is a third of the distance down from the top of the flagpole.
- There are times when direction will be given by the Australian Government for all flags to be flown at half-mast.

- Flags in any locality can be flown at half-mast on the death of a local citizen or on the day, or part of the day, of their funeral.
- When lowering the flag from a half-mast position it should be briefly raised to the peak and then lowered ceremoniously.
- The flag should never be flown at half-mast at night even if it is illuminated.
- When flying the Australian National Flag with other flags, all flags in the set should be flown at half-mast. The Australian National Flag should be raised first and lowered last.

Funerals
- The flag can be used to cover the coffin of any Australian citizen at their funeral.
- The upper left quarter or canton should be draped over the ‘left shoulder’ of the coffin to represent the heart.
- The flag should be removed before the coffin is lowered into the ground or after the service at a crematorium.

Murphy's laws

The first time I was introduced to Murphy's laws was during my Uni. years, when a professor was drawing a diagram showing the effect of wind loads on structures, and he just produced an unrealistic wind diagram and directions. One of the students told the professor that this worst case scenario cannot exist in reality and the professor replied that according to Murphy's law, "If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.", and he showed a detailed example on a building exposed to the same wind loads, and how the wind changed direction to apply pressure on top and on the opposite side of the building.
After reading Murphy's laws, I was amazed to know that his laws were studied seriously, and that his laws are widely applied in Engineering procedure and design. I wanted to test it for myself and started noticing things that went wrong and how they went wrong.
1) For the buttered toast, I have a bad habit of eating in my lounge, I dropped the toast a few times, but one thing was in common among these incidents. The toast always fell on the buttered side(same thing for Jam, cheese, and any other spread).
2) On my daily trip to work, I take a short cut using an unpaved road where I have to cross a creek using a very narrow bridge, on more than 80% of the times I crossed that bridge, I met the only vehicle travelling in the opposite direction at that time of the day, already crossing the bridge, and I always had to pull over to one side until the other vehicle passes.
3) When I was living in Egypt, I once had to go somewhere in Zamalek, I drove the car and my brother sat in the passenger's side. We were arguing all the time as we were lost and every time I tried a turn I get lost more, until once we agreed to turn left, just a feeling that we both had that turning left was going to get us back on the right track. But then we both remembered the law that said that," if you have two choices, you'll always choose the wrong one". We chose left, but we tried to beat Murphy's laws by choosing the right option. I turned right and it took me half an hour to go back to the same point where I started from, turned left this time and I reached my destination in less than 5 minutes.
**Read the laws, they are funny but most of them are true and applicable.