Flag Rankings and Ratings
Monday, 12 October 2009 -- 6:00 pmA few flag links found their way to my desktop recently, and since I love flags, I thought it only fair to pass them along, even if they’re slightly out of date.
The first is an extremely thorough grading system that assigns each country’s a numerical score and corresponding letter grade, based on a complicated list of criteria, including hideous color choices, presence of weapons and other images, written text, etc.
They give the highest grade (90/A) to Gambia for its “Great design and colour choice” along with its abstract geographical representation.
Their worst score (2/F) to the Northern Mariana Islands, which “appears to have been constructed out of clip art.”
Other notable grades: The US received a C+, India scored a B-, China took home a B, as did Norway (the Faroe Islands’ A- took top honors of the Scandinavian cross flags). I think the most amusing commentary was for Pakistan in discussing the astronomical impossibility of the Islamic star-and-crescent pattern.
Note that this list is clearly not for the ultra-nationalistic or the easily-offended!
My second link today is along the same lines:
They aren’t all national flags (or even contemporary flags) but there are definitely some interesting selections, including the North Caucasian Emirate in Russia, and the pre-colonial African Benin Empire:
October 15th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Hi Meg. I’m very behind on blog reading but am catching up, so my comments here are a bit of a mix. Congratulations on your new home! That’s exciting news…and impressive that you both were able to make everything happen in such a short time. I hope you’re able to at least catch a glimpse of President Obama when he’s in town in December. And, finally, I enjoyed looking at the flag rankings, although I disagree with their failing grade for Aruba; I sort of like the blue and yellow together.