What happened to friendship?

This past week, we had a letter from the Indian Consul who received a complaint from an Indian citizen suggesting that a depiction of a flag on a sidewalk was in contravention of Indian flag protocol. The Consul had not personally seen the installation and did not return my numerous phone calls but simply wanted the decals removed immediately. How do we balance that concern against the Indo Canadian resident or athlete that is bursting with pride that her country is along side the rest of the world in a celebration of inclusiveness and friendship?

A Muslim resident was concerned that the Iranian flag has a depiction of the word Allah as a centre emblem. That emblem was now on the ground and that was considered highly disrespectful. This effort was about peace and friendship... so without further need for discussion Iran has been respectfully removed from our route.

But then it got political. Taiwan participates in the Olympics as Chinese Taipei. We received a very polite email from the VANOC Protocol Department advising us that we were using the wrong symbol for Chinese Taipei – could we please fix it immediately. Apparently, there is some agreement between China and the IOC for Taiwan to participate under its own national banner but it can’t be their flag. Can we please rectify by using a decal that has a blue flower like symbol with the Olympic rings on it. We told the very nice gentleman from VANOC that we were not allowed to use the Olympic rings under any circumstance because of brand infringement. Choosing to display the national symbol of Taiwan seemed the appropriate action on our part. We did however, take the cue from CTV and refer to it as Chinese Taipei. As an interesting footnote… CTV has now bowed to a request from VANOC (who thanked us for the heads up) and changed the Taipei symbol on its website to the flower and rings after a year of it being the Taiwanese flag.

Within 24 hours of the request from VANOC to remove Chinese Taipei, we receive an email from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver wondering why we are not referring to Chinese Taipei as Taiwan. This time we get to say that if they are required to use the word Taipei in their formal title for political reasons, how should we be any different – given sensitivities around the subject. Next we get a call from an unidentified Chinese Official. Not only does he want Taiwan removed, he mentions Nepal! (I ask myself... should we throw in Hong Kong while we’re at it?) All these ‘offended’ and ‘offensive’ countries may or may not actually field an athlete at the 2010 Games! Can you hear my very large sighs? This is about friendship... right?

This required another glass of wine. What do we do? Annette and I told each other to step back from the edge and remember why we did this in the first place. What would it feel like for a new Canadian or visiting athlete to see his or her county along side the rest of the participating countries in a display of pride and friendship and peace. That was the end of discussion.

It was a great moment when Jeff Lee from the Sun sent a note telling us that we needed another decal – Ghana had just qualified a skier known as the Snow Leopard. How delighted we were to add his country to the route. Within days I had a merchant call trying to figure out what country was out in front of his store. When I said Ghana and told him about the skier his response was ‘wow, that’s great... I am going to cheer for Ghana and the Snow Leopard’. Faith in humanity quietly returns. Thank you.