Subject:      Malaysia works on record-size flag, banner
From:         fairplay
Date:         2001-08-20 05:46:23 PST 
Newsgroup:    soc.culture.malaysia


Malaysia works on record-size flag, banner

KUALA LUMPUR -- Size matters in Malaysia, which already
boasts the world's tallest office buildings and is now set
on achieving records in everything from flags to apple
strudels.

With the 44th anniversary of independence approaching on Aug
31, 300, schoolteachers, parents and pupils are working on a
national flag bigger than a football field, newspapers
reported on Monday.

It will be 159 m long, 105 m wide and will weigh about 3,000
kg. The school's modest aim is to get into what must the
world's fastest growing book, the Malaysia Book of Records.

A more ambitious plan, for a world record, involves a
15-km-long banner being prepared for the 21st South-east
Asia Games which will be held on Sept 8-17 in the capital
Kuala Lumpur.

It has sections representing the 10 countries taking part,
includes the words 'World's Longest Banner', and is being
put together by 11 universities and colleges with backing
from the youth and sports ministry.

The ministry's assistant director, Mr Roslan Hussein, said
it would beat India's record of a 10-km-long banner.

And then there's the apple strudel. At 80 m long, it was
baked last week to mark the anniversary of a shopping mall,
a simple affair which included the 'largest indoor board
game' and the 'longest non-stop dancing competition'.

The strudel is just 372 m shorter than the Petronas Twin
Towers in Kuala Lumpur, listed in the Guinness book of World
Records as the world's tallest office buildings. -- AFP