i was trying to practice my arabic this morning on skype. months ago i posted a "skype me" plea in the skype message boards, looking for any arab (or at least any arab speaker) who was willing to help me practice. i completely forgot about the message until this week when someone replied out of the blue and offered to talk.
my skype friend currently lives in morocco but his family is originally from khartoum. long ago someone once told me that the street plan of khartoum is shaped like the union jack. apparently when lord kitchener rebuilt the city in the 19th century, he remade the street plan to look the like british flag. kitchener had leveled the city while retaking it from the mahdi rebels. he wanted to make sure that the sudanese never forget who was boss. anyway, i've always wondered if the story was true, but i forgot to ask my friend this morning. i'm hoping this turns into a regular thing, so maybe i'll remember next time.*
meanwhile throughout the day i kept thinking how lucky it was that kitchener was from the UK. a british flag is really the only flag that would actually work as a street plan. at least it's the only workable one that i could think of. the u.s. flag would never do--all those parallel east-west streets with no opportunity to turn north or south. a checkered flag would work the best, but no one has that.
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* i just found this site that repeats a version of the story
