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The winning proposal for Slovenia’s new flag.
Yesterday, I mentioned that something had to be done about the whole Slovenia/Slovakia problem. In fact, Slovenes are already trying to do something about it. Their plan is to abandon the old Slovenian flag, which looks almost exactly like the Slovakian one, and get a fresh one. And they want to do it before Slovenia joins the European Union, which is less than two months away.
As you can imagine, there have already been a million suggestions for the new flag. The one below, for example. It may look like it fell off a Waffen-SS panzer, but it’s actually a suggestion based on the old Carinthanian panther. Its purpose is to terrify foreigners and make them think that Slovenia is full of Nazi pirates.
Set sail for Slovenia, Korporal! Arrrrr.
To solve the problem, a competition was recently held to find a new flag for Slovenia. You can see the winner and runners-up here. The winning flag, by Dusan Jovanovic, is the one at the top of the page. It’s already been derided as a “candy wrapper” by one famous politician. I happen to like it, if only because it’s decidedly unique.
My only reservation is what happens if you connect some of the lines. You get kind of a funky swastika. And that takes us back to the whole “Nazi pirate” thing, which is, of course, no good.
Connecting the lines makes a crooked swastika.
We’ll see how the adventure turns out.
For a good history of Slovenia’s flags, check out this page.
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A great post, Borut. If, as you say, even Slovaks are mixing up the two flags, then it’s abundantly clear that there’s a major problem.
But I think that at this point there can be no acceptable solution. Whatever happens, people will be angry. And the ongoing debate about what to do, or not to do, is only making people angrier.
Perhaps it would even be easier (and less expensive) for Slovenia to pay the Slovaks to change their design…
Hmm. Well, we’ll see how it all turns out. Either way, I’m curious about how it will be.
Sure, the idea that Slovaks should change their flag is great but how do you tell a country to do something like this? Just imagine the process? We have to realize that the current one is pretty undistinguishable and most important indescribable and therefore needs to be changed regardless. That’s why I think the Slovene white-red-blue tricolor in vertical position can do the trick best without upsetting too many fellow citizens. It’s traditional yet very simple and refreshingly new.
Ej debili! ka ste res tok usekani da boste spreminjali zastavo. ljudlje so se boril za njo in velik jih je zato tudi umrlo! ta zastava je znak slovenije. bila je in naj bo se naprej!
This proposal is very stylish and showy, but absolute unsuitable for flag of a country - it’s not magisterial enough, it could be just logo of shipping company.
BTW Slovaks would NEVER change their beautiful flag.
How very interesting. At a conference I translated yesterday, an acclaimed expert in “national and regional branding” mentioned the Slovak/Slovene issue prompting chuckles among participants. Today, at a conference organized by the Danish embassy, I kept saying “Dutch” instead of “Danish”. Somehow nobody laughed…
When I was young I was mixing Austria and Australia. But I soon learned difference. I was ashamed, that I didn’t know which is which… I just takes a small amount of time to take some map in hand and see.
You dont have to change the flag only becaus of its simularity to the other flag.. Each flag has its own meaning. Its not only a symbol for a country , but its also a simbol of the countrys history….. so what if we have a similar flag to theirs .. its still not the same. If it still bothers you pick up a map check the countries out on the net.