Monday, August 27, 2007

Would you change the flag of your country?

Looking at the votes so far, I see that many of you are keen on changing the Australian flag. My question is if you would do the same with yours. Personally, I wouldn't, even if the colors are not my favorites, or if the flag was generated in a non desirable political or govermental situation.
This weekly poll triggers some questions to me: what's based a nation identity? or in other words, what PATRIA (interesting translation in English: mother country) means? To answer the last one, I recommend you to listen a Ruben Blades' song called Patria.


It'll be in an English version soon...

Spanish version (the original):

Patria
by Ruben Blades

Hace algun tiempo
me preguntaba un chiquillo
por el significado
de la palabra patria
me soprendio con su pregunta
y con el alma en la garganta
le dije asi...
Flor de barrio, hermanito
Patria, son tantas cosas bellas
como aquel viejo arbol
que nos habla y renueva
como el relicario que guardas
despues de muerta la abuela
Patria son tantas cosas bellas
son las paredes de un barrio
de su esperanza morena
es lo que lleva en el alma
como aquel cuando se aleja
son los martires que gritan
bandera, bandera bandera bandera
No memorices lecciones
dictaduras o encierros
la patria no la defines
los que suprimen a un pueblo
la patria es un sentimiento
en la mirada de un viejo
son la entera primavera brisa de hermanita nueva
te contesto, hermanito, Patria son tantas cosas bellas.

This is the Argentinian flag (that was the flag that Juan had in his boat) and I took that picture in the summer 2005 (en el Rio de la Plata). Behind our flag, you can appreciate the city of Buenos Aires. Sorry, but I can think of change it mates!

5 comments:

Huinca said...

maybe all the Australians voted for "shouldn't change"...

Annebeth said...

Interesting Poll it is indeed!
If I was able to change the Dutch flag I would definitly do so.

This has to do with the strange Patrio-thing that our national collour is "Orange" but our flag has only the collours red, white and blue...

Unknown said...

Hi there,
It's hard to translate 'patria'. This is the explanation in the wikipedia (follow the link): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatherland
It means different things to different people, even if they are from the same country. For instance Linda, my colleague from uni is also from Holland and she wouldn't change her flag and Lynette from Oz said the the Aussie flag is irrelevant to her, she knows who she is with or without a symbol.

Juan said...

this is from the Wikipedia:

The Tricolor of The Netherlands is the oldest tricolour, first appearing in 1572 as the Prince's Flag in orange–white–blue. Soon the more famous red–white–blue began appearing — it is however unknown why, though many stories are known. After 1630 the red–white–blue was the most commonly seen flag. The Dutch Tricolor has inspired many flags but most notably those of Russia, India and France, which spread the tricolor concept even further, as can be seen below. The Flag of the Netherlands is also the only flag in the world that is adapted for some uses, when the occasion has a connection to the royal house of the Netherlands an orange ribbon is added.

Annebeth said...

Thanks Juan,

Following "wiki" I should be proud on our tricolour... mmmm...
Then it really is a pity that it has shifted from orange-white-blue to red-white-blue...

I bet, somewhere in the past, there was someone working in the flag-factory who was suffering from colourblindness.

I like the orange ribbon though.
Anyway, Thanks for the explanation Juan!