The world's flags given letter grades

ahpc-jp30.st-and.ac.uk ^ | N/A | Josh Parsons

[swilhelm73]

The world's flags given letter grades

Introduction

Some time ago, browsing through my friend's atlas, I realised that there are significant differences in quality between the flags of different countries. Some are good, some are bad. Some countries have clearly taken care in the choice of colours, layout, and design. Others have been lazy, stolen the flags of their neighbours, or just designed flags that are clearly supposed to cause pain to those who look at them.

To my surprise, there is no international body responsible for upholding simple standards of vexillilic aesthetics. Nor do the UN or Interpol have the power to call in and punish those responsible for such atrocities as the Brazilian or Cypriot flags. I suppose there is probably a conspiracy of rich western nations (those with permanent seats on the UN security council, no doubt) to prevent such crimes from being brought to justice; however, in the meantime I am giving letter grades to the existing flags of the world.

You can read about the methodology I used. You can read the results alphabetically, by country name, or by grade, or broken down by grade:

• A grades,
• B grades,
• C grades,
• failing grades.

[armed_in_sydney]

Is the silver fern on black background your unoffical flag like how ours is the Eureka flag?Or is it just a rugby thing?I always thought that looked pretty cool.

[atomic conspiracy]

What a load of sniveling horse manure. Why should flags designed centuries ago in some cases conform to modern standards of aesthetic analysis? The C+ US flag is the most recognizable symbol in the world, so its relative "busyness" does not matter. It is also one of the few flags whose design is subject to a regular plan of alteration. It is therefore dynamic and evolutionary, both of which should have been factors in the analysis.
I understand that the Institute for Heraldry has prepared US flag designs with up to 100 stars, but I haven't been able to find any graphics with more than 52.

[shaggy eel]

,,, virtually all their investments are nationalised. The time will come when they start backing the euro more. The Yuan will become a currency more and more as their doors open to the world. If you doubt that, think back to how the Yen rose for the Japanese. Ten years is just a day for the Chinese mentality.

[cyborg]

Heh...we're all in the average class!

[Never2baCrat]

Did anyone else notice that 2 flags were blatantly MISSING? Didn't see Wales (my old country) or Scotland listed or England. No, the Union Jack covers a multitude of sins, ie, the UK, not individual countries.

[Never2baCrat]

Ooops! Should be 3 not 2!

[shaggy eel]

,,, the silver fern flag looks great, I'd agree. It's a rugby, yachting et al battle flag that I'd stick on the bumper of my vehicles before I put the official flag on them. There's also a black flag with an abstract outline of a kiwi which is linked to the design and export/business sector, which I'd personally rate as the top option. Most commonly you'd see that on something that says "Made in New Zealand" and geared for export.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Also Guam isn't a country.

That author seems to key on US territories and former British colonies a bit much. I agree with many of his ratings.

[cyborg]

Not only do I like that logo but I like what's in them too!

[general_re]

The time will come when they start backing the euro more.

I'll take that bet ;)

The Yuan will become a currency more and more as their doors open to the world.

I'll start worrying about that when the yuan is a real - i.e., freely convertible - currency. Until then, it's a fancy sort of toilet paper, featuring pictures of guys in ill-fitting suits.

Shags, I really don't worry about that stuff much. The only real resource that the Chinese have is a billion illiterate rice farmers. The Soviets, by contrast, were sitting on more natural resources than any one country has a right to have, and they still couldn't make autarkical communism work. Until the Chinese figure out that the only way to have western-style wealth for all their people is to have western-style values, they'll continue lumbering on as they are, with Chinese generals getting rich by running discotheques, and sons of high party members living the fat life off of cell phone contracts. Eventually they'll either liberalize, or their own people will line them up and shoot them - there's no other way. In the mean time, the two economies are too deeply intertwined for either party to have any interest in wrecking the other - who's gonna buy their radios and rubber novelties if not us? You?

Distance lends perspective sometimes - perhaps I have the luxury of not having them on my doorstep ;)

[armed_in_sydney]

Yeah,if i was born across the Tasman,i might have kept up with sport a bit longer with all those cool uniforms/logos.Instead i had to give it all up because of our flamboyant brazillian-esque green and gold.It all makes me wish i was a kiwi....for a minute.:)

[Renfield]

Good Lord...what a waste of cyberspace. The grader is obviously a poofter.

[shaggy eel]

The Soviets, by contrast, were sitting on more natural resources than any one country has a right to have

,,, next we'll be hearing they have weapons of mass destruction too.

perhaps I have the luxury of not having them on my doorstep

,,, my wall map says you're closer than I am to the Panama Canal.

[shaggy eel]

,,, a minute? You're giving us more than the average Aussie would. I'm going to Sydney for a change of wallpaper in early June. I'll be "unarmed in Sydney".

[general_re]

I'm not arguing for complacency, but against panic. Like everyone else who's tried before them, they think they've rewritten the laws of economics in their favor. Like everyone else, they're wrong, but they have yet to figure it out. They can't make a go of it so long as their governmental system is an overstaffed version of Zimbabwe. They can't make a go of it so long as the concepts of contract and the idea of non-arbitrary rule of law cause the average Chinese person to reach for his dictionary. Those are what makes rich countries rich, and until they figure that out, they're never going to get where they want to go.

,,, my wall map says you're closer than I am to the Panama Canal.

And what? They can't kill us without killing themselves, economically speaking, is what I'm telling you. Or militarily, for that matter. Whatever else they may be, let's at least proceed on the assumption that they're not suicidal - if they are, all bets are off, obviously, but let's assume for a minute that they want to "win" in some sense of the word.

[armed_in_sydney]

Being unarmed in Sydney is ok,as long as you dont go to the wild south-west(Liverpool etc).If you must,just whack on an All Blacks jersey and no one will mess with ya cuz.

[Fiddlstix]

Too busy
C+

Well! Ain't that the truth!
(We've Been Way Too Busy taking care of.... CENSORED)
(Think About That!)

[shaggy eel]

They can't make a go of it so long as their governmental system is an overstaffed version of Zimbabwe.

,,, is the US trimming it's own spending in this regard? If China were to trim theirs, it could do it a whole lot quicker, without any complaints - like you say, it's only set up to serve a few at the top of the pile. All those rice farmers don't have the same luxurious range of subsidies like their counterparts in the US.

[shaggy eel]

,,, it's been seven years since I last went to Sydney, I suspect the real danger for me lies in "climate change".

[general_re]

It's not about spending, it's about how far you can go by greasing palms, among other things. For the most part, the western world is a pretty transparent place - we get up in arms about that food for oil business precisely because it's the exception, and not the rule. But in that respect, China is like a giant Zimbabwe or Nigeria. Ideas, drive, initiative, hard work - none of that stuff matters nearly as much as who you know and how much baksheesh you can line their pockets with. Contracts over there aren't worth the paper they're printed on, because you can't get them enforced. And so you get this two-tiered society, where you either have everything, because you're on the inside, or you're on the outside, operating solely at the pleasure of those on the inside. And you can't have western style wealth in that kind of society - you get Zimbabwes and Nigerias that way