Country and Flag Origins - Part O

O Dear, we're here again. What do I write ? O, who cares ? Just write any old drivel, no-one reads it anyway, or do they? I'm sure they do. Anyway, after much deliberation I have decided to put all of the O countries into one blog. On their own, all of them. What do you mean "there's only one". That can't be right surely. Well, it is. There is just one country world wide beginning with O. I have tried to find others, I thought about adding Ossetia, but that's South or North Ossetia, so not beginning with O. I could add some states, Oregon or Ohio for example, but that wouldn't seem right, elevating a mere state to the dizzy heights of a country. Maybe in the future, if the USA breaks up into 50 separate nations, in which case I'll write a blog about them. But until that day, they will remain outside of this bailiwick.

You've probably realised by now, that I am padding the blog out a bit. We all know there is only one entry in this episode, and that is the Middle Eastern country of Kuwait...hold up...that's not right, of course, it's Syria, Jordan, Israel, Oman. My mind these days really does wander. Must have been the heady scents I encountered on my way home from work. I called in at a local plant nursery to check out their hanging baskets of flowers. I need some for the garden now that spring has sprung, got to help out the bee population with their pollination regime.

Anyway, I digress again, let's get on with the first only entry...

The flag of Oman was introduced in 1970 to replace the plain red banner of the indigenous people. The white colour is traditionally with the religious leader of Oman, the Imam, as well as signifying peace. The green colour is associated with the Jebel Akhdar or Green Mountains in the north of the country, as well as fertility. The red colour is a common colour on Gulf State flags and is thought to represent the sultanate and the battles of the people to rid their land of foreign invaders. In the top left corner of the flag is the national emblem of Oman that dates back to the 18th century. It is the badge of the Albusaidi Dynasty and consists of a traditional dagger, the khanjar, and two crossed swords, all held together by a belt or horse bit.

The name of Oman goes back millennia, there is mention of it on a tomb in the United Arab emirates that dates back around 130,000 years. The name predates Ptolemy and the Romans, Omanon in his writings is thought to reference the city of Sohar in Oman. The most likely theory is that the name comes from the Arabic word, āmin or ʿamūn, meaning "settled" people. This is thought to be to differentiate them from Bedouin nomads.

OMAN = SETTLED PEOPLE

Are we here already ? or as my kids used to say, "Are we there yet?" yup kids, we're here! That was short and sweet, just the one entry, Oman. All on it's lonesome, like the pine in a Laurel and Hardy song. And a film too, Way Out West from 1937. You can watch a clip from the film featuring the song in this YouTube video, the timing of this comic pair is, in my opinion, unparalleled. I grew up watching Laurel and Hardy films as a kid, way back in the 1960's, they were old films then, but forever classics. Incidentally, Laurel and Hardy are known as Flip and Flap in Poland, well according to my Polish friend at work anyway.

Sorry, I seem to have gone off on a tangent, I also ended up going down a rabbit hole of YouTube clips for an hour whilst writing this. A very enjoyable and nostalgic hour, but an hour none the less. My sincere apologies.

So that's it for the O's, next up, "Can I have a P, please Bob?" Here we go again, this was a phrase in a teen quiz show of the 1980's and 90's that was based on a US game show of the same name, Blockbusters. It was thought hilarious whenever one of the contestants asked for a P, mainly down to our British sense of humour and "having a pee" being a colloquialism for urinating. Sorry about that!

That all for me for now, I'll catch you next time with the P countries.