Try it.

By whom?

To me it is nothing more than the Canadian flag, I do not get emotional about it, I do not think “wish ours was that good” it is just a piece of cloth that means nothing to anybody who is not Canadian.

We Kiwis really do take ourselves far too seriously at times.

But I didn’t mention the US flag. I was talking about the Canadian flag. (The US and Canada are separate countries, by the way.)

Canada, unlike the US, is not one of the great powers. Yet its flag is widely regarded as the world’s best.

I think that must have something to do with the design, don’t you?

Oops, looks like we were beaten to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Federated_States_of_Micronesia

Pesky foreigners copying our flag again. Looks like we’re going to have to come up with yet another distinctive example of our national identity that everyone in the world will instantly recognise as ours and give due deference to.

Mr Ansell

Have you ever considered that the reason the US flag is so distinctive is less to do with origin and design, and more to do with the size and power of the US the yanks’ willingness to paste it on everything everywhere in their hyper-patriotism. The flags of Malaysia and Liberia are very similar yet don’t seem to carry the same cachet for some reason…

We do not have the Union Jack on our flag..

It is a ” Union Flag “.. Something that is seriously missing in this nation..

Not that the Brits have it either )

Stars are timeless and (pun intended) universal. No race issues in the heavens. Both Maori waka and European explorers used the stars for navigation. The southern cross belongs more to NZ than Australia since we are further south and the constellation is always visible in our skies, whereas for half of Australia for half of the year the cross is unseen. We should not give up the southern cross. It’s ours.

Removing the union jack from our flag should have been done as soon as the UK joined the EEC. We are a generation or more after they cut the ties of empire. We just need to recognise it and move on.

I’m well aware of that. If I cared about political alliances, I’d have clung to the National Party and would probably now be doing very well on the proceeds of government advertising projects.

If my normal allies are worth having, they’ll understand that in a democracy people are entitled to take whatever stance they like about whatever issue they like. My views are normally right-wing, but in this case have more in common with the left. I also disagree with conservatives for abandoning their critical faculty when it comes to religion. But so what?

Redbaiter: “You are going to make many enemies with this crusade. You are going to provoke some strong passions, and in reality, the debate has only just started. I think its a bit early for you to be going in this hard.”

I realise that too. The Canadian flag designer got death threats. Anyway I’m not going to be crusading, just putting up blog posts and commenting when I feel like it.

I freely admit that my own designs have yet to capture the public’s imagination (certainly not here anyway) but I hope somebody’s fern-based design will.

If the public don’t want to change the flag, that’s their democratic right. But I think they might do when the right contender comes along.

Remember: a short time ago, the public supported the man-made global warming campaign. Now that (via the blogosphere)the sceptics’ views have broken through the media blockade, I doubt whether they do.

The same thing should happen in time with the flag, especially with the country’s largest paper onside.

Redbaiter: “The previous Canadian flag had nothing for the French. To say the NZ situation is analogous with Canada is just completely wrong.”

Well our flag doesn’t have anything for the French either, so by your logic it’s perfectly analagous!

But you’re wrong about that anyway. France/Quebec was represented in the old Canadian shield, along with England, Ireland and Scotland.

Second, New Zealand is officially bicultural. So is Canada. Only when it comes to the flag, our non-British culture is even less well-catered-for than Canada’s.

Now I’m not proposing that our flag should have Maori symbolism, but to be fair neither should it have British. It should have a pan-New Zealand symbol. And in the view of many the best of those happens, as in Canada, to be a leaf.

Seems pretty analagous to me. No doubt you’ll find some reason why it’s not, in which case you might care to provide a reasoned response rather than another high-handed put down.

Just another beaureaucratic excuse to waste money and have nothing for real issues.

And I wouldn’t listen to Jonathan irrelevant Hunt. He’s wined and dined himself too much to have anything of real example to say.

Anyway, I just heard the Queen has started paying taxes. Hope that shuts a lot of whinging mouths.

Long live the Queen. Long live the monarchy.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10624128

I suggest we change it to the school yard version..

“God of nations smell my feet….”

Wish we had a better national anthem, though. The music was composed by a teacher, for God’s sake…that should be enough to condemn it around these parts!

But surely any new flag should be green and black with the silver fern on it?

If that is your only objection, then when the Aussies change theirs, will you quit your belly aching?

Bevan

“Majority says no, is that enough Democracy for you? Or is it only acceptable when you get your way?”

Dead right Bevan, so many here claim to dislike the left wing “we know better than you” mindset yet they are happy to take the same approach when it comes to things they want to push onto the rest of us.

The flag, Easter trading hours and becoming a Republic are just a few of them.

The majority of Kiwis do NOT want these things to change, yet so many here are arrogant enough (or honest enough) to say that they do not care how others feel, they are going to push for change because that is what they personally believe in.

And that, Big Bruv, is exactly how it should be.

The democratic process in action

It matters not whether the current majority want change, prefer the status quo or simply don’t care, a small minority pushing that change forces decisions from the others.

What I object to, strenuously, are those who refuse to accept debate on change, refuse to consider any argument that does not suit their own opinion and, of course, communists like Red who demand that all people must do exactly what they (the communists) want, think exactly how they “think” and abuse anyone who does not do so.