Flag Friday: The Beginning of the End

Flag Friday is a periodic discussion of the world's national flags; the project is explained, but not very well indexed, here.

These discussions are about graphic design, and perhaps about nationalism and national symbolism in general. They should not be taken as critical of the countries, ideals, cultures, or people that the flags represent.


Well!

That certainly was an exciting two years!  From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, we have followed in the footsteps of pioneer Kiwi flag philosopher Josh Parsons, and taken a good hard look at the world of flags, and the flags of the world.

Looking back now, I can see that my favorite flags (the ones I gave A+'s) are those of Canada, Israel, and Sweden.  I can live with that. Parson's favorite is Gambia.  My least favorite is that of the Central African Republic, while Parson splits his lowest mark between Brazil and Belarus.

Now, over the course of the project, I developed something of a reputation for being a big softy.  There was a lot of finger-pointing, people saying that Michael5000 gave out good grades like candy, whereas Parsons was, well, parsimonious with his praise.  True?  Or myth?  Well, let's look at the numbers!  It turns out that we actually gave the exact same grade no fewer than 21 times!  And there were a whopping 39 flags that Parsons liked better than I did!  So that ought to shut up the haters.

There were 122 flags that I liked better than Parsons did.  I like flags.

Differences of Opinion

The six flags that Michael5000 most favored, relative to Josh Parson's opinion.

1. Brazil (A / D-)
2. Portugal (A / D)
3. Belarus (A- / D-)
4. Kazakhstan (A / D+)
5. Bhutan (A / D+)
6. Sri Lanka (A- / D)

The six flags that Josh Parsons most favored, relative to Michael5000's opinion.

1. Dominican Republic (B / D)
2. Switzerland (A / C+)
3. Cuba (A / B-)
4. Micronesia (A- / B-)
5. Somalia (A / B)
6. Central African Republic (C- / D-)

Is it really all over?

"To my mind," says IAT(fL&TM5K) reader Unwise Owl, "a fitting conclusion would be the flags facing off in a great big elimination tournament in the finest M5K tradition."  And DAMN that's a difficult argument to refute, isn't it!  Especially with March coming on.

So, if the flags were going to face off in a great big elimination tournament in the finest M5K tradition...  if that were going to start on, say, Friday, February 24th...  and continue on a series of encore Flag Fridays through the mad, mad month of March...  then the logical thing would probably be to seed the tournament with the top 32 flags as ranked by the composite score of Parsons and 5000, right?  Counting only the flags that have been in existence long enough, and with enough stability, so that Parsons and 5000 were critiquing the same flag, right?

Right?

YES!!!

So, here they are!

1. Israel (5000 A+ / Parsons A)
2. Pakistan (A / A)
3. Japan (A / A)
4. Gambia (A- / A+)
5. Canada (A+ / A-)
6. Finland (A / B+)
7. Turkey (B+ / A)
8. North Korea (A- / A-)
9. Austria (A / B+)
10. Iceland (A / B+)
11. Denmark (A / B)
12. Norway (A / B)
13. Sweden (A+ / B-)
14. Somalia (B / A)
15. South Africa (B / A)
16. Vietnam (B / A)
17. Namibia (A- / B+)
18. Greece (A / B)
19. Netherlands (A / B)
20. Sierra Leone (A / B)
21. United Kingdom (A / B)
22. Botswana (B+ / B+)
23. Slovakia (B+ / B+)
24. China (A- / B)
25. Mauritania (A- / B)
26. Hungary (A / B-)
27. Laos (A- / B)
28. Suriname (A- / B)

BUT OH NO THERE ARE 15 FLAGS TIED FOR 29TH!!!!

WE WILL HAVE TO HAVE A PLAY-IN!!!


Choose up to four of the following flags to occupy the bottom four seeds of the main tournament.  One vote per person per flag.

Maldives

Cuba

Chile

France

Ireland

Italy

Nigeria

Romania

Solomon Islands

Tunisia

Albania

Angola

Barbados

Estonia

Ukraine

So again: vote for up to four of these flags to join the final tourney as seeds 29 through 32.  One vote per flag per person!  Polls close Friday, February 17.