a FLAGrant mistake

OK, before anyone chews my head off, I absolutely love and am impressed by the little boy, Lin Hao, who was given the honour of walking with the Chinese Flag Bearer (Basketball player, Yao Ming) during the opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The nine year old survived the Earthquake in Sichuan, China and after being rescued from the rubble of the school he attended, he went back in to help rescue two of his classmates. When asked why he did this he replied, "I was the hall monitor, it was my job to look after my classmates."

Yea I know, sweet story, right?

...but, this has been bugging me since we watched the opening games a week ago... (It's taken me this long to find a good picture of both Yao and Lin with the oopsie in question...)

The Opening Ceremonies cost an estimated 37-38 Million $US and yet the best they could give that little kid was an upside down cheap ass dollar-store flag.

Seriously.

That was the BEST they could do?

For the record the flag looks like this:




not this:



Displaying a flag upside down typically represents a signal of distress...

So, was this done intentionally to show the child's distress at the events of the Earthquake? The horrendous Human Rights Abuses of China? China's occupation of Tibet? or, was this simply a big OOPS!