How well do you know the flags of the world?
I am currently reading “21 Lessons For The 21st Century” by the Israeli writer Yuval Noah Harari. I am stunned by the breadth of his knowledge of different subjects, different nations and different periods of history.
In a chapter about how the world has become a global civilisation, he instances how flags of the world are so similar:
“National flags display the same dreary conformity. With a single exception, all flags are rectangular pieces of cloth marked by an extremely limited repertoire of colours, stripes and geometrical shapes. Nepal is the odd country out, with a flag consisting of two triangles …
The Indonesian flag consists of a red stripe above a white stripe. The Polish flag displays a white stripe above a red stripe. The flag of Monaco is identical to that of Indonesia.
A colour-blind person could hardly tell the difference between the flags of Belgium, Chad, Ivory Coast, France, Guinea, Ireland, Italy, Mali and Romania – they all have three vertical stripes of various colours.”
If you would like to check out these flags and others, you’ll find a complete set of illustrations of the world’s flags here.
March 4th, 2021 at 11:53 pm
It depends on how you define rectangle – The Swiss stamp is square. Your link shows it rectangular, but if you click on the flag, the enlargement is shown correctly as square.