Kosovo's fiddly new flag

By Charlemagne

WHILE WE wait for the political fallout from Kosovo's declaration of independence, your blogger (a bit of a sad flag spotter) hurried to see which of three competing flag designs was chosen by the Kosovan parliament, just as they voted to secede. The winner is a bit of a disappointment, to be frank: a blue flag with white stars (a none too subtle nod to the flag of the European Union, which is about to become Kosovo's new best friend as it takes over protector status from the United Nations), bearing a yellow map of Kosovo. The problem is a simple one: once you have a precise outline of a map on a flag, it becomes a fiddly thing that can only be professionally reproduced by a computer, or flag-maker. The only other world flag with a map on it is that of the Republic of Cyprus, and a Cypriot colleague here in Brussels says many of his countrymen long to change it for something simpler. He summed up his objections with the thought that you need a flag that a child can draw on the cover of an exercise book.

On the other hand, you could argue that in a place as ravaged by nationalism as the Balkans (or indeed Cyprus), the last thing anyone should want is children doodling their flag on their books. But flags are interesting, mysterious things. Once you have one, you might as well have a good one, and simplicity and distinctiveness matter. Serendipity is often at work: did Canadians realise what a success their maple leaf flag was going to turn out to be, when it was chosen to replace the country's old colonial ensign? Yet Canada's flag is one of the greats. This blogger's young children are already drawn to the graphic power of the American flag, doodling versions of it on all kinds of pictures though they have no idea of America's temporal power.

Australia is another country unsatisfied with its flag: when your reporter was posted to Sydney many years ago, there was a pretty active campaign to replace the Australian flag (which is easily confused with the flag of New Zealand, and dominated by the British union flag in one corner). That campaign seemed to die a death, perhaps because so few of the alternative designs suggested were very satisfying: will calls for a new flag revive now that Australia has elected a centre-left prime minister, intent on shaking things up?

The new flag was chosen too late for anyone in Kosovo to wave one during the current independence celebrations: instead, it is the flag of Albania that has been everywhere, with its black eagle on a red ground. One can see why the government of Kosovo is keen to get away from that as soon as possible, to avoid the impression that this is a takeover for Greater Albania. But a new flag design carries the risk that it will simply be rejected by the people: who remembers now the proposed Iraqi flag that was dreamed up shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and which never achieved any support at all, not least because of complaints that it looked like the flag of Israel?