This week, we’re covering whatever’s left that didn’t fit in any of our other categories.
Australia / New Zealand
So, Australia’s the one with the white stars, and New Zealand’s the one with the red ones. How could anyone ever possibly confuse them?
Truth be told, even the Aussies and Kiwis know there’s a problem. There have been tons of committees and resolutions and work groups and so on in both countries to come up with
something a little different.
Here’s my favorite proposal from the Land Down Under:
And for Kiwiland:
That’s a silver fern there, by the way. According to Wikipedia, it’s “a species of medium-sized tree fern, endemic to New Zealand. It is a symbol commonly associated with the country both overseas and by New Zealanders themselves.”
Curacao / Nauru
More stars! Now, here, Curacao’s the one with two stars, Nauru’s the one with just one.
The yellow stripe in the Nauruan flag represents the equator. The one in the Curacaoan flag does not.
Bahrain / Qatar
Bahrain’s the shorter one with the bright red. Qatar’s is the longer one with the … oh, I don’t know … let’s call it maroon.
Interesting story that. Officially, it’s the blood of some such group of martyrs. Historically, it was the color of jujube, a species of date. It may also simply be what happens when bright red is out too long in the hot desert sun.
It’s actually not too surprising that these two are so similar. They’re right next to each other in the Arabian Sea, and “the histories of the two states have overlapped and occasionally collided since the 18th century” (Flags of the World).
Jujubes!
Same story as last week. Central America, when it broke free from Spain, was originally a single country. It favored three horizontal stripes of blue, white, and blue. As did all of these guys …
Nicaragua
I’m including this one first as it’s the closest to the flag of that original Central American nation.
El Salvador
That’s it? Really? Wow.
You know, El Salvador used to have something quite distinct:
Why did they have to change?
Honduras
Well, it’s longer and has some stars on it. Guess that’ll just have to do.
That said, there’s something about this one that always drove me crazy … Why are the stars so widely separated? Here’s my redo:
Heck, you could even make the whole thing shorter.
Guatemala
Hey, horizontal stripes! Well played, Guatemala, well played.
Alternates
So, how about this one:
Or this:
These really aren’t pan-anything flags. I guess you could call them regional flags. Truth be told, it’s more like a breakup, with all sides laying claim to the kids and the house.
Let me explain … Back when the Western hemisphere was mostly owned by Spain, the northwest part of South America was a single colony, called New Granada. They tried to make a go of it as the brand-new nation of Gran Colombia, but that soon broke up into 3 separate entities – all of which tried to lay claim to the same flag.
Colombia
This is the cleanest version, so I’m showing it first.
Ecuador
Same deal, but with a picture, some flags, and a really big bird.
Well, it sure beats what they came up with in 1797:
Venezuela
Okay, so, even stripes, stars, and a little doohickey in the upper right-hand corner. Et voila!
Alternates
Interestingly, each of these countries sported some very different looks earlier in their histories. Here, for example, is Colombia’s:
And Ecuador’s:
And Venezuela’s:
Seeing as these are all pretty unique .... Let's go with them.
More links:
Ready for some real craziness? Yes, we do have the same colors as last week. This week, though, we’re going horizontal!
Ethiopia
Unfortunately, the vertical idea was kind of already taken – by Ethiopia, the original source of the pan-African colors, no less.
Ghana
So, flip it upside down, add a star, and call it a day.
That black star is something of a pan-African symbol too, by the way. It comes from a shipping line established by African-American black nationalist Marcus Garvey. It also appears in the flags of Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome & Principe.
Bolivia
Alright, how did these guys get in here? As you may know, Bolivia is in South America, not Africa. And, no, they were not copying Ethiopia.
Lithuania
Well, at least they mixed up the order of the stripes. I’ll give ‘em credit for that.
Myanmar
Is it me, or did they just take the Lithuanian flag, put in the washer a few hundred times, then cut a big pointy hole in it?
Not sure what was wrong with the old flag:
More links:
