a dream or a song: You're a Bland New Flag

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

You're a Bland New Flag

The Iraqi "Government" today finally approved a new flag and when I heard the news it really made me wonder- if it took them so long just to approve and decide on a flag then how are they ever going to agree on like an oil revenue sharing program.
Anyway the new flag is above and the old Saddam era flag is below

From the article

"The temporary flag, a one-year stopgap until a more permanent design is selected, will no longer bear the three green stars representing the "unity, freedom, socialism" motto of Hussein's Baath Party. The former leader's handwritten "Allahu akbar" (God is great) will be replaced with an old-style Arabic font."

I'm really not that impressed and not surprisingly even this is threating to set the country off into more violence

"We feel that this matter is going to divide the Iraqis again," said Saleh Mutlak of the National Dialogue Council, a Sunni Arab slate that includes former Baathists. "It will reduce the stability of the country and increase the violence. It will separate the Iraqis more than they are now from the government."
"This is literally a comedy," said Haseeb Mohammed, 33, a Sunni Arab in Mosul. "Is this Iraq's flag? What was wrong with it? What has changed? Nothing has changed. It's just a poor comedy charade to satisfy some sides. It's a conspiracy against Iraq and the Iraqi people."

Hmm...I wasn't going to take it that far, in fact I have to say it's a lot better than the "old" "new" Iraqi flag that the US appointed Governing Council approved in 2004

"The new design's crescent represents Islam, while the blue lines are meant to be the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the yellow strip stands for the Kurdish minority."

Whatever, it just looks way too UN and EU and like nothing else in the Arab world.
I know they just can't do it but I would love if the whole country just adopted the Kurdish flag