By David Menzies
Ho-hum. You just know it’s World Cup Time again (a.k.a., Try-Outs for the Greg Louganis School of Diving.) And you needn’t check the sports pages to confirm the obvious; rather, just go for a drive. If you do so, you’ll likely come across numerous expatriates flying the flags of their homelands.
Hey, I’m all for freedom of expression. But is there not some perverse irony zipping by on the highways these days? When I see the flag of England fluttering from a German-made Volkswagen or the Stars & Stripes hoisted atop a made-in-Japan Nissan, I can only shake my head at the wonder of it all.
But my biggest source of car-flag ire is generated by those members of the Portuguese community who choose to fly the flag of Portugal AND Brazil.

Sorry, Marcelo, it doesn’t work that way.
True, there’s an historical relationship between Portugal and Brazil. But that relationship was one of master and servant.
Golly, talk about hedging your bets! Talk about jumping on the bandwagon! (Indeed, one wonders if the Portuguese would be such vocal Brazil boosters if this nation wasn’t a perennial soccer super-power? But I digress…)
However, this year, I’m not getting mad. I’m getting even.
If the Portuguese can justify having two teams to cheer on, guess what? I can make the case that I have links (albeit tenuous links) to all thirty-two competing nations.
Which is why my once-cool truck now resembles a Gypsy circus wagon given the Ford is now displaying the flags of nearly three dozen nations. (Oh, by the way, will all you passers-by kindly stop asking if I’m a flag merchant? These banners are not for sale, for my heart is committed to these wonderful 32 nations I like to call…“home.”)