Flag Burning Business in Pakistan

One store owner in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi knows all about adapting to uncertain economic conditions.

His shop sells stationery but the shopkeeper saw an opportunity in the many anti-Western demonstrations that take place across Pakistan.

He supplies US and Israeli flags for the protesters to burn. Nasir Hassan wrote about this shop owner in Rawalpindi, in an article for Pakistan’s Express Tribune.

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Marco Werman: One store owner in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi knows all about adapting to uncertain economic conditions. His shop sells stationery but the shopkeeper saw an opportunity in the many anti-Western demonstrations that take place across Pakistan. He supplies US and Israeli flags for the protesters to burn. Nadir Hassan wrote about this shop owner in Rawalpindi, in an article for Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper. Mr. Hassan is in Islamabad right now. Are these flags any different from other flags? Are they more flammable [laughs]? Or is it simply that the flags sold are of nationalities that inspire rage in Pakistan?

Nadir Hassan: No, the flags themselves aren’t more flammable. It’s just certain countries are considered more flammable in Pakistan [laughs].

Werman: [Laughs] Figuratively flammable.

Hassan: Yes. The US and Israel and, I guess, the United Kingdom are always in demand, so to speak. Occasionally, you get a certain country in the news where their flags will not be readily available and this is where the shopkeeper steps in. So for Denmark, for example, during the controversy over the cartoons, there was a sudden demand for Danish flags and he stepped in to fill that void.

Werman: How much do these flags go for?

Hassan: Usually about 300 rupees per flag. That’s a bit more than $3.

Werman: Right. Okay.

Hassan: But if you buy in bulk, as many political parties do over here, he offers a small discount for that.

Werman: So, basically, this guy is making a profit from people’s hatred of certain nationalities. Does he seem like a hateful guy himself, or just a smart businessman?

Hassan: No, I think he’s just a smart businessman who happens to have some good connections with political parties here. So he has become the vendor of choice in the area.

Werman: Do you think the success of this flag business is a good way of measuring anti-US and anti-Israeli sentiment?

Hassan: I think to some extent it is, but you could use other metrics for that than out at rallies, the rhetoric you hear from politicians. I think what makes this interesting is someone finding a unique business opportunity and fulfilling it regardless of his ideology.

Werman: What about selling dummies that you can burn an effigy; dummies of reviled political leaders? That might be a growth industry.

Hassan: It could. What I have actually noticed a lot over here, in protests, is they take dolls of cartoon figures and burn those. Winnie-the-Pooh, for some reason, seems to be quite popular.

Werman: Winnie-the-Pooh!

Hassan: Yeah.

Werman: That’s just sacrilegious [laughs]!

Hassan: [Laughs] Well, that’s the thing. I think no one has yet thought of producing effigies of, say, George W. Bush and selling them. So, it’s certainly a potential market for someone.

Werman: Is anyone else manufacturing or selling flags for burning? Or, is this guy alone?

Hassan: I am pretty sure in other cities there must be, because you have a lot of large protests in Karachi too. So, I am sure there must be someone, simply on the principle that if the demand exists a supplier will always step up.

Werman: What was the oddest flag you saw for sale at the shopkeeper’s stationery shop? I mean, a country that really shouldn’t be there, like the Maldives. Were they in there?

Hassan: No, I’d say Norway.

Werman: Norway?

Hassan: Yeah, because they are one of the largest providers of aid to Pakistan, and at the same time they don’t really make any demands on us. So I have no idea who’d ever want to burn that.

Werman: Nadir Hassan of the Express Tribune newspaper speaking to us from Islamabad.

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