Remember the Syrian flag on the giant billboard at the entrance of Souk El Hamidieh? It is a picture of an original that is now kept in… Memphis, Tennessee!
The story goes back to April 17, 2005, when I thought I should mark the National Day by posting a picture of the Syrian flag. A small hand-made flag with uneven stars had been hanging over my desk for more than three years. I took it off the wall, put it on desk, took a picture of it and posted it on the Damascene Blog. Six months later, the picture made it to the entrance of Souk El Hamidieh! During the Lebanon crisis, an advertising company placed a billboard at the Souk’s entrance, showing the President with the flag in the background.
While the flag remains at the Souk's entrance, the original has flown elsewhere. In June 2006, I moved to the US to start my medical training and I took my flag with me. The famous flag that catches the sight of thousands entering Souk El Hamidieh every day, now actually hangs on a wall in a tiny apartment in a place where nobody recognizes it. Above it on the same wall is an inscription in Arabic of my favorite poem by the great Ahmad Shawqi:
My homeland! Were I, in Paradise, to be distracted from you,
From Paradise, my soul would pull me back to you!
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