Hello, everybody.
Welcome to this February edition of This Month in Flag News.
I am Vexillographer, and our first story today comes from the eastern European nation of
Moldova.
Now, the nation of Moldova has had an interesting and complicated history these past few centuries.
It used to be part of what was known as the Principality of Moldavia hundreds of years
ago, which was eventually split up as various nations started conquering it.
A little sliver of Moldavia eventually ended up as part of Russia, which eventually ended
up as a Soviet Socialist Republic of the greater Soviet Union, until 1991 when the Soviet Union
split up and collapsed.
And when that happened, Moldova became an independent nation.
Now, you might notice that the flag of Moldova looks a lot like the flag of Romania with
those blue, yellow, and red stripes.
So, when Moldova became an independent nation, many people in Moldova wanted to one day reunite
with the nation of Romania.
And there are many people who still want that today.
Those two countries have a lot in common; they're right next door to each other, they
have a shared history as part of the Principality of Moldavia, and they share the same language.
However, not everyone in Moldova is on board with this idea.
Many Moldovans would like to remain a separate country and have their own identity as a nation.
Many of these same people would like to see Russian influence be more prominent in Moldova
than Romanian or European influence.
So right now in Moldovan politics, you have this weird tug-of-war between two sides.
You have one side that is more pro-Romanian unification, and pro-European Union, pro-democracy,
and things like that.
And the other side is more nationalist, pro-Russian influence.
And these two sides have been fighting with each other a lot right now.
So anyway, the nation of Moldova just got a new president.
His name is Igor Dodon, and he is on the pro-Russian side of this tug-of-war.
And he has come up with the idea of getting rid of the Romanian stripes from the national
flag.
He has asked lawmakers and Moldovans to come up with legislation to officially change the
national flag of Moldova, and he has come up with one idea of his own.
It looks like this.
As you can see, it looks a lot like the old Moldavian flag of ages past, and he would
rather see the ox, and the star, crescent, and flower from inside the coat of arms shield
to be the main element of the flag.
And he would definitely like to get rid of the Romanian influence, because he does not
like the idea of Romanian unification.
He doesn't like the idea of getting closer to the EU; he would much rather be closer
to Russia, and he would much rather have Moldova be separate.
So that's his big idea.
Is it likely to happen?
Most likely not, at least not any time soon, because most people in the Moldovan parliament
are on the other side of that tug-of-war.
They're more pro-EU, pro-democracy, pro-Romanian unification.
That general side has a lot more influence in Parliament than Igor Dodon's side.
So, are they going to get a new flag?
Probably not any time soon, but there are a lot of people who would love to see it.
So, stay tuned for that, to see if that goes anywhere in the next few years.
Let's move on to our next story.
Our next story comes from the United States state of Texas, where State Representative
Tom Oliverson officially submitted a proposed resolution to that state's legislature.
In this resolution, he begs the people of Texas to stop using the emoji for the flag
of Chile to represent Texas.
So apparently, Texan citizens have occasionally been using the flag of Chile's emoji as a
sort of substitute for the flag of Texas, which does not have an emoji yet.
So State Representative Tom Oliverson filed this amazing resolution.
You have to read it, okay?
"Whereas, most major electronic messaging applications provide a number of flag emojis,
including that of the Republic of Chile, but the official flag of Texas, also known as
the Lone Star Flag, is not included in the selection; and whereas, all too often, the
Chilean flag emoji is used as a substitute for the Lone Star Flag in text messaging and
on social media platforms; the Chilean flag proudly represents its country but, despite
its similarity to the Texas flag, it does not represent the state of Texas; and whereas..."
And there are like, three more "whereas"es where he goes over the history and symbolism
of the Chilean flag and the Texas flag.
He goes over, like, all the flag facts; I don't even need to add anything.
And then it ends, "Now therefore, be it resolved, that the 85th legislature of the state of
Texas hereby reject the notion that the Chilean flag, although it is a nice flag, can in any
way compare to or be substituted for the official state flag of Texas and urge all Texans not
to use the Republic of Chile flag emoji in digital forums when referring to the Lone
Star Flag of the great state of Texas."
Well written, Senator...
I'm sorry, Representative, Tom Oliverson.
Well written.
Now, this thing, if it was passed, would not actually be an enforceable law.
It's just an urging; it's just a recommendation.
He says it's just, you know, a lighthearted way of educating people about this flag emoji
situation.
Well, Representative Oliverson, you should not have to wait long.
Because, as we discussed in a previous edition of Flag News, the Unicode Consortium is working
on an emoji update sometime in the first half of this year that will include a state flag
emoji set.
So, you should not have to wait too much longer, maybe just a few months, before Texas will
have its very own emoji.
And then Texans will probably stop using the Chilean one, all right?
So, your resolution was amazing, sir.
Hang in there.
Hang in there, y'all.
Let's move on to our next story.
Our next story involves both the United States of America and the European Union.
So, Vice President of the United States Michael Pence was in Brussels, Belgium, this month
to speak jointly with EU Council President Donald Tusk.
At this event, behind the two men, was a wall that featured pictures of the flags of the
EU and the US.
However, the flag of the US behind the Vice President had 51 stars on it, not 50 like
there actually are.
So, that's a pretty amazing error.
A European Union spokesperson said it was a deeply regrettable mistake, and they were
putting in place measures to make sure it will never happen again.
The guy said, "I don't think he noticed.
I don't think anyone noticed until later."
How do you mess that up?
By the way, thank you to Nicolas for sending this story in.
How do you mess that up?
The Vice President of the United States is coming to speak at your event, and you get
his country's flag wrong.
How do you do that?
By the way, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the American political system, the Vice
President is sort of like the President, except he has the authority to speak in complete
sentences.
Complete, meaningful sentences.
Hm.
Guess what?
Vice President Pence had another little flag mix-up this month.
So, he was speaking before the Republican Jewish Coalition a few days ago, and he was
offering some remarks in support of the nation of Israel.
So he had his staff on his official Twitter page–his official vice-presidential Twitter
page–his staff decided to post a couple tweets about his speech and in support of
Israel.
You know, building up hype, good PR, that kind of thing.
So in these couple of tweets, his staff included a little American flag emoji and a little
Israeli flag emoji.
It's cute; it's a nice little show of support.
Little, uh, little problem, however.
The Israeli flag emoji they used was actually the flag of Nicaragua in Central America.
Vice President Pence, you have made it to This Month in Flag News twice in one month:
I think that's a record.
Through no fault of your own.
This was another honest mistake, just like that European Union mistake, this is another
honest mistake.
But how do you mess that up?
This one's mostly blue, and this one is mostly white, I think.
Maybe fifty-fifty blue and white?
How do you...
I mean, the emoji are very small; they're kinda hard to see, so I guess it kinda makes
sense.
They don't seem like the hardest flags to tell apart, but I guess it can happen.
Anyway, his staff eventually noticed the mistake and they deleted the tweets, but thankfully
we got some funny screenshots of the originals.
And finally tonight, I would like to inform you of two American city flags that are currently
up for redesign.
The first one comes from the U.S. state of Florida, specifically the city of Orlando,
that wants to change their flag from this... to something else.
They are currently accepting new flag design submissions, so if you'd like to send them
one, you can go to cityoforlando.net/flag to learn about the contest and to submit a
design of your own.
The deadline for that is March 22nd to submit a design for Orlando.
The other city is from the United States state of Idaho, specifically the city of Pocatello,
which, as you might know, has one of the most famously terrible city flags in the world.
Ohh man, it's hilarious.
Pocatello got a little bit of attention for their terrible flag recently, about a couple
years ago, when the famous TED Talk on flag design by Roman Mars got popular.
This TED Talk has had over 2 million views so far, and he offered examples of good flag
design and bad flag design.
And he finished off his TED Talk with this:
"...we can do something about Pocatello, Idaho, considered by the North American Vexillological
Association as the worst city flag in North America.
(laughter) Yeah.
That thing has a trademark symbol on it, people.
(laughter)"
Ouch.
That has got to hurt.
So Pocatello took notice shortly after that TED Talk got popular, and they pretty quickly
got a plan in motion to adopt a new, better city flag.
Almost anything would probably be better than that.
So this month, they unveiled all 700 designs that they received and are being considered
for the new city flag of Pocatello.
You can look at them at the website, flag.pocatello.us, or if you live in the Pocatello area, you
can see them in person.
They've got an exhibit going at the Marshall Public Library in Pocatello, so look at all
those designs.
There are some amazing ones in there, some not-so-good ones, but there are a lot of good
ones, so check those out.
You can even go to their website and offer them feedback on your favorite designs for
the Pocatello flag.
So Pocatello, I am very glad to hear that you have admitted you have a problem, and
are taking steps to correct it.
I believe in you, Pocatello.
You've got some great designs to choose from, I think you're going to get an awesome flag
out of this.
So, good job; I am excited to see what you pick.
So, thank you, everyone, for joining me in this February edition of This Month in Flag
News.
I am Vexillographer, and as they say in Texas and in Israel, buenos noches.