The best and worst flags
January 16th, 2008 at 7:15 pm by David FarrarTyler Cowan at Marginal Revolution blogs on a study of the best and worst flags in the world.
The study, it turns out, is by Josh Parsons of Otago University. It is subjective, but he explains is reasoning here.
The top flag is Gambia with an A+ 90/100. New Zealand gets a C and 55/100.
One of the bottom flags is Mozambique, with a D- 37/100.
Yes they actually have an AK47 on their national flag!
The very bottom score with an F 2/100 is the Northern Mariana Islands.
He notes it looks like it was constructed from clip art. Indeed it is horrible.
No tag for this post.
January 16th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Not only an AK47 but a dirty ho’ as well
Vote:January 16th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Either this is a joke, or the man is seriously sad, deranged or all three
Vote:January 16th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
so is the scythe on TOP of of AK47 or vice versa? is this a statement about competition between the tools of African “democracy” ?
Vote:January 16th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I mean, they’re both obviously on top of the book.
Vote:January 16th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Seems like an odd project. Still, it’s a step up from porting Doom onto Unix.
Vote:January 16th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Heh, I rather like the Falkland’s flag:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Flag_of_the_Falkland_Islands.svg
Not surprisingly I like most of the colonial flag designs. Our is the best:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Flag_of_New_Zealand.svg
I’m not a fan of Fiji’s though.
Vote:January 16th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I would score flags that had designs that somehow were representative of their country higher, flags that have 3 bands of different colours, horizontal or vertical are common as muck and represent what?
Vote:January 16th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Well worth reading the entire site re. the flags. Some pants wettingly funny critiques.
Vote:January 17th, 2008 at 12:14 am
the 2/100 flag is unreal, it’s obviously a neclace of chillies surrounding a lovely grey tie with a silver tie clip on it, a big one. maybe they grow lots of chillies there and have a tie factory. at least it doesn’t say, ‘we belong to a faded empire and always will, that’s why we have it’s brand as the most prominent feature of our flag’
The Gambia one is perfect for an African country, killing and korruption rules.
Vote:January 17th, 2008 at 6:33 am
A mark should also be assigned for “Tacky Tourist Tat Clothing Potential” to reflect each flag’s appearance when adapted for crass commercial use on [e.g.] T-shirts, goofy caps, underpants, swimsuits, team supporter apparel, and lycra lout cycle shorts. The introduction of this grade is also recommended to take account of the brand potential of NZ’s future new flag – the white-feather-on-black concept.
The grades assigned to the flags of Portugal and Spain are far too low; these flags are superb when viewed in their natural settings.
Vote:January 17th, 2008 at 9:15 am
The greatest flag of all is the flag of the USA, symbol of freedom and prosperity
Vote:January 17th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I note the otago.ac.nz website. Please, somebody tell me that my taxes haven’t funded this study, and that I’m not paying for the cyberspace.
Adam Smith is quite correct: Parsons is an idiot.
Vote:January 17th, 2008 at 10:28 am
The Gambian flag (like most that use stripes or columns of colours) looks like the colours on a soft drink can from Asia.
Vote:January 17th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
“I note the otago.ac.nz website. Please, somebody tell me that my taxes haven’t funded this study, and that I’m not paying for the cyberspace.
Adam Smith is quite correct: Parsons is an idiot.”
Who said the right doesn’t have a sense of humour?
Vote:January 17th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
This guy’s got it all wrong.
I bet if you had a proper popularity contest, the favourite flag would be the Canadian by a country mile.
Next would be the US, Japanese and French.
Ours desperately to be changed to a white fern on black with silver trim.
The choice of fern is crucial. One of the old All Black ones would work best (not the current one that looks like a set of steak knives).
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