Hello, everyone.
Welcome to this October edition of This Month in Flag News.
We begin our broadcast today with a story coming out of the southern African nation
of Zimbabwe.
This month, there were a couple members of the Zimbabwean national parliament that walked
into parliament wearing jackets that were covered in the colors of the Zimbabwe national
flag.
Hey, it's patriotic.
Who could be against that?
The fashion police?
No.
The actual police.
The first guy was prevented from even entering the parliamentary building.
He was later quoted as saying, "I am shocked.
I didn't know it was a criminal offense to be patriotic."
The second guy, just a few days ago, was actually kicked out of parliament for wearing his colorful
patriotic flag jacket.
So what's going on here?
Well, last month, the government of Zimbabwe made it illegal to fly the flag of Zimbabwe
without government permission.
How do you explain that?
Okay, earlier this year, there was a guy from Zimbabwe who decided to make an online video
where he complained about the way the government was running the economy.
Which, honestly, hasn't been well.
In fact, the Zimbabwean dollar was so worthless a few years ago that the national bank of
Zimbabwe was actually printing trillion-dollar bills.
Yeah.
He kinda has a point.
So, in this video he used the national flag to make his point.
He looked at the green of the national flag, which is supposed to represent the crops.
And he asked, where are the crops?
He looked at the yellow, which is supposed to be represent mineral resources and wealth.
He asked, where's the wealth?
He was basically making a point using the national flag.
"The red, they say that is the blood, is the blood that was shed to secure freedom for
me, and I'm so thankful for that.
I just don't know if that they were here... if they were here, they that shed their blood,
and saw the way this country is, that they would demand their blood be brought back.
This flag."
Now, Zimbabwe is one of those countries ruled by one of those presidents who really, really
doesn't like giving up power.
Robert Mugabe has been president of Zimbabwe for about 30 years now, and he has no intention
of letting anyone else be president.
So, you know, good old-fashioned dictatorship.
And dictatorships aren't huge fans of people criticizing the government.
So they arrested this guy, and a huge protest movement surrounding this guy's flag idea,
called the #ThisFlag movement, has shown up in Zimbabwe.
So this new bright idea to ban the national flag seems to be an effort to make it easier
to arrest the protesters of the #ThisFlag movement.
You know, if your dictatorship is so desperate that they actually ban the national flag...
I don't know if there's hope for you.
Okay.
But hopefully the people of Zimbabwe will figure out a good way to move forward with
their national flag.
If they decide to wave their national flag, that shouldn't be a crime.
Come on.
Anyway, so that's interesting.
And by the way, this president-for-life who never wants to step down?
He's 92 years old, and is in failing health.
So yeah, stakes are kinda high.
Hopefully they'll figure something out.
Yeah.
Hope it goes well, Zimbabwe.
I'm rooting for ya.
Let's move on to our next story.
Next, we go to the United States of America.
Specifically, again, to the U.S. state of Missouri where that unofficial Joplin flag
contest we've been following for a while has finally concluded.
This is the flag design that the Joplin flag contest came up with.
And I think it looks nice.
You know, it's simple, it's optimistic, it's friendly, it uses only three colors, and it
uses it in a nice unique design.
That cross symbolizes Joplin's location in the region, and, y'know, I like it.
I like it.
Yeah, so there you go.
It was announced at the Third Thursday celebration in Joplin, as you can see in this Facebook
video.
"So I'll hand it back.
Thank you, everybody.
Here's your new flag."
[cheers] Woo.
Yeah.
Yippee.
As you can see, Joplinians are extremely excited about this new announcement.
I like the new design.
City council of Joplin, let's make a compromise.
I know some of you are still attached to the old... ugh!
... flag, but maybe we can come up with an agreement.
You know, this new one can be the official flag of Joplin while the old design can be
the official billboard.
Or the old one can be the official, y'know, postcard.
Or the official tattoo of the city.
You can come up with something.
I'd recommend giving this new flag a try, Joplin, y'know?
It's good.
And our final story comes from Malaysia.
However, although it took place in Malaysia, it heavily involves citizens of Australia.
Brace yourselves.
Um, okay.
Earlier this month, nine Australians went to the Formula One racetrack in Malaysia for
a race.
You know, auto racing.
It's fun, and they had a good time celebrating.
But they got a little wild at one point.
Um... they stripped down to their underwear at one point.
Said underwear had the design of the Malaysian flag on it.
And if you look closely–if you want to–the phrase "budgy smuggler", you may notice, appears
on said underwear.
This is the Australian company that manufactures said underwear, and apparently they had a
Malaysian flag design.
Here's the thing about Malaysia: it's not Australia.
It has a fairly conservative Islamic culture in many ways.
So yeah, not the greatest sign of respect.
Not the most brilliant plan.
However, brilliance might not have been their motive.
It might've been simply been, fun was their motive.
According to the Daily Mail, "the men, all aged between 25 and 29, were arrested on Sunday
at the Malaysian Grand Prix when they stripped down to their speedos with the Malaysian flag,
chanted 'Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi' and drank from their shoes."
All nine men were arrested for public indecency and jailed.
So, shortly after that, they faced trial in a Malaysian court.
But don't worry, they're fine, more or less.
However, that trial was fairly interesting.
According to the Daily Mail: "They were discharged with a fine and caution.
Their nine budgie smugglers had been laid out in front of the judge by a court official
wearing black rubber gloves.
The fathers of the three men were reportedly at the court in a show of support as the accused
stood in one line ahead of their release."
Their dads flew out because of this.
"They could have faced up to two years in jail."
But apparently, the court let them go after they sent an official apology letter, which
looks far more eloquent than "Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi."
Um, a fairly good apology letter.
So, apparently they've returned home to Australia and it's over.
The Budgy Smuggler company, by the way, has said they will no longer produce that particular
Malaysian flag version of their budgie smugglers.
Also, the "Budgie Nine", as they have been dubbed by some of the media?
One of them is a government advisor to the minister of defense industry in the Australian
government.
Just thought I'd point that out.
So, uh, what have we learned from this story?
I don't know.
Thanks for watching this October edition of This Month in Flag News.
I'm Vexillographer.
Goodnight, everybody.