Everybody welcome back to flag fan Friday. Hope you like the Laos episode my name is Philip Defranco, and let's just jump into -
I've been watching too much Philip DeFranco. He's cool
I like that guy alright so before I jump into that intro slide. You know the deal
I gotta fix up the small mistakes from the episode. Number one
It is still kind of acceptable if you pronounce the country's name Laos. However. That's kind of like the standard English pronunciation
Almost every single Lao person
I personally talked to has said that they call it Laos and a lot of other countries
Call it Laos as well
And the only reason why it's written with an S is because that's kind of how the French wrote the name Laos
There's no s ending letters in the Lao language so taking all that into consideration, That's why I call the country Lao
Also, I may have kind of embellished the relationship that they have with France a little bit in the episode
I kind of made it seem like they didn't really acknowledge
Lao that much and they kind of left him alone for what it's worth there was some anti-french sentiment going on
But it wasn't as crazy or prevalent as it was in the other countries
I think there are a few other small things here and there
But overall I think those are the biggest ones alright now. We can go into the intro slide so without further ado...
Ah, Laos. I feel like the only main like exposure that they've had on mainstream media is Khan from King of the Hill that was interesting
because it's kind of like Thailand stressed out little brother who has like a
Completely different way of running things. Like their flag! The flag of Laos has three horizontal
stripes, two red ones one on the top and bottom and a larger blue one in the middle with a single white disc in the
center. The White disc symbolizes the unity of the Lao people and desired
unification with the Laos
Minorities like the Isan people in northern Thailand. In addition it has also been said to represent the full moon on the mighty Mekong River
Which is what the blue stands for. The Mekong being the largest and most important river of the country. And finally the red stands for
The Lao and Isan people group that live on opposite sides of the Mekong River hence. Why it's made that way on the flag
But it also stands for:
Once again you guys know him
Thank you Ken for making that animation follow him on Instagram. Congratulations Ken you've survived another week of not getting fired. In appreciation
I will give you one bathroom break the next time we filmed Geography Now on set. It should also be noted that this flag
Was adopted by the opposing party to the former monarchical Kingdom. That's right as mentioned in the episode Laos
Used to be ruled under a monarchy until it was deposed by the Pathet Lao Communist Party back in 1975
prior to this though every flag variant of Lao from the 18th century on
Incorporated some kind of triple headed white elephant under a white parasol image
Which is depicted that way because that's what the first United Kingdom in 1354 was called
Lan Xang Hom Khao, which means millions of elephants and white parasols. Interesting name, but yeah
they stuck with it. Keep in mind there was also the Three Kingdoms period in which
Vientiane and chomp suck kind of did their own thing
until the French came in and did this and from there we get the flag that we have today and finally we get to the
Emblem of Lao as you know Lao is one of the last remaining
communist ish
Kind of countries in the world and just like the last flag Friday episode we did with Kyrgyzstan you can totally see the residual
communist ish imagery in the emblem the image contains stalks of rice on the sides with the National iconic landmark the golden stupa of
Padang as well as the dam on the nam loom
Reservoir with a street next to a forest and paddy field as a half gear wheel is situated over a red ribbon with the national
models on the left side it says peace independence and democracy
On the right side it says unity and prosperity and at the bottom the central ribbon reads Lao People's Democratic Republic
Prior to that emblem they used this emblem for almost three decades which instead of the pagoda in the center
They used a hammer and sickle with a star on top and of course prior to that they use the old
monarchy emblem
Which of course had the elephants and the parasols so basically Lao went from a deep-rooted monarchical system to a communist driven ideology
But they still respected where they came from and didn't see the need to toss out history alright with all that being done and said
You know what time it is it's time for geography Meal Time. We got quite a few things
Let's just go through all of it
You know the deal we always start off with postcards the nichole sent these from Germany one from Hamburg one from Berlin
Jack from Tucson, Arizona sent this from Kunming China a nico who lives in Finn but sent this from via
Donna Italy I never even heard of via Donna. It was pretty cool Luke from Canada visited, San Marino
I almost went to San Marino when I was in Italy we were so close we're in Sansepolcro which is like 40 kilometers away
Just didn't have time to go there though
So I guess that means I got to go back to Italy and is really cool. This is subrata Libya
It's a city. That was created by the Phoenicians. I believe in the sixth century, BC
Uh you didn't write your name on this postcard all you wrote was enjoy Libya so whoever you are
Thank you, all right now time for the letters James from North Shore, Michigan. Thank you for drawing all these maps
Drawing all these maps drawing all these maps
See Darcy from Newfoundland Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador my name is Darcy
and I'm from the rock also known as
Newfoundland the beautiful rocky island on the east coast of Canada our province isn't pronounced like the country Finland. It's not new Finland
It's pronounced, Newfoundland
Okay
Basically the same thing isn't it poor so I got to send the flag of Newfoundland
Newfoundland all right we got
Lb who is Spanish and lives in Ibiza in the Balearic Islands who?
Sends pictures of some cool sights you can see in the area at the the hippie market in San Juan the defense tower the Phoenician
Necropolis, that's so cool. Thanks a lot Albee car we got two Aussies or Australia
You're like the girl that America always cheats on Canada with but Canada also cheats on us with New Zealand
So I'm not saying cheating as being condoned, but I'm just saying we're all messed up. Hey Barb's it's Luke
Here's a hat you can wear. I'm fully Irish and live in Sydney, Australia, and I've been to new grange as I hat okay? Ah
ha
So it's an Aussie top hat what actually fits really well all right well
I'm gonna wear this for the remainder of the video
I guess my Aussie number two Isaac
He's been watching since the Denmark episode and his favorite videos are the Kazakhstan and Canada videos
And uh he also put a picture of his dog
This is a really cute dog. It is. It's a cute dog and of course another Aussie flag
I have like 20 of these now. I have so many Australian flags. Okay. What do we got here? Okay? Okay?
I'm guessing your Turkish. Hey Barb's. I'm al Kim. I've sent you an atlas of Turkey
my father's family has been living in a
Town called our hobby located off the coast of the Black Sea in the Black Sea region the tea that I'm sending you is also
From this region Turkish people are the number one consumer of tea in the world is that true secondly 75 percent of all the hazelnuts
In the world are produced in the Black Sea region is that true and I've sent you some Turkish hazelnuts to my family also owns
A hazelnut farm is that true okay, man?
I'm pretty sure you bought this at an open market because when I was in
Istanbul they gave everybody like the same looking type of plastic bag
And they just scoop it in thanks a lot man this cool
the ideal who is
Malaysian need you're a little comic called country man like a little superhero guy that I guess travels the world or something
Let's go man. Good. Job. See this is please open on camera. Oh doing it right now. Hi
I'm Karl Malick my dad is Lebanese and my mom is German in the package
I've included a cedar cone from the cedar forest and Lebanon. Oh, this is so cool
If you guys don't know Lebanon is famous for its cedar trees
They even have one on the flag some salt water spray and a rock from a salt mine in Germany
Do you spray that on the rock and three shirts I made ah this is cool
He made a shirts with my hair tape you didn't have to do this man whoa?
Ireland France and Italy, and I'm guessing this second shirt is gonna be Korea. Yep. Yeah, he got Korea on there, too
Unfortunately shirts are a little too big for me. I mean
I love the shirts you guys send me
But the problem is a lot of you guys think I'm big like I'm not that big. I'm a size men's medium
What do you sent me like double XXL shirt like do I look huge to you guys?
But I am still taller than Tom Cruise, so that's really all that matters. Well. I thank you. I really do appreciate this
Thank you, Thank You Man. Thank you and finally I believe your name is Lawrence from Lithuania. My name is Lawrence
I sincerely tell you for the wonderful YouTube channel that you created yourself
I understand what you're trying to say when he says on the side
He sells like so Soviet Socialist relics and vintage items off of ebay
You're a little Lithuanian flag one of our Lithuania has most cherished poets this guy the NATO story book
Covers stories of each NATO nation all the way up to 2004 the old Soviet textbook. I think it's like a
Penmanship handwriting book thing I can read Cyrillic, but I just don't understand what I'm reading the time meatball D
Chesky
cousin
Okay, yeah Wow kind of coins he sent a North Korean military medal. Oh my god
He says in Lithuania amber is a typical gift that they might give somebody
I guess amber Wow I didn't know that and I don't know why but you sent a bunch of
Korean cassette tapes I actually have a cassette player somewhere hold on
Interesting wow that's pretty interesting, thank you Laurence from
Lithuania alright, so that's pretty much it before we go you know the deal. It's time for return address contest
I put your return addresses in this bag
I pick one out and whoever wins I send a little gift to all right so here
I go just gonna pick one just gonna pick one
Let's see
T will sing from Australia you just want so yeah guys. This is pretty cool
I got some interesting stuff this week, but for what it's worth
I love putting your hometowns and your home countries on display, and it just it's awesome. It's awesome guys
So thank you for watching subscribe if you'd like and yeah stay cool stay tuned