Original Maple Leaf flag back in Canada's hands

Saturday a story was posted about the widow of a former Speaker of the Canadian parliament, who was hold the first Maple Leaf Flag of Canada hostage. Yesterday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Mrs. Hoffmann had quietly handed the flag over to John McNee, Canada's ambassador to Belgium.

Flags of the Day

Today is Flag Day in Portugal and Tanzania; Independence Day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Armed Forces Day in Guatemala; and Salvation Revolution Day in the Sudan.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Flags of the Day

Today is Saints Peter and Paul Day in Malta; and Independence Day in the Seychelles.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Flying the Confederate battle flag

Near Verbena, Alabama, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) own a plot of land adjacent to I-65. Recently the SCV erected a flag pole and are flying a large Confederate battle flag.

The NAACP and others who have opposed flying the flag on State property have always said that they had no objections to flying it on private property. That policy seems to have changed now.

Flag of the Day

Today is Independence Day in Djibouti.

Animated flag provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Flag of the Day

Today is Independence Day in Madagascar and Somolia; and UN Treaty Day.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Flag desecration law in Morocco

While the US Senate ponders a consitutional amendment to allow Congress to prohibit desecration of the US flag, the govrnmental council is considering such law in the Kingdom of Morocco.

Original Maple Leaf flag held hostage by MP's widow

Elisabeth Hoffmann-Lamoureux has Canada's first Maple Leaf flag, the one raised on the Peace Tower on Feb. 15, 1965, tucked away in her home in Belgium. The flag was given to her late husband, Lucien Lamoureux, a former Speaker of the House.

The European woman who has the historic banner wants to "clear up" whether she's owed money from her late husband's federal pension.

"Why should I be in a hurry to hand this flag over to a government who refuses to me what I guess all widows are normally entitled to?"

In telephone interviews from her Brussels law office this week, she even raised the possibility of auctioning the historic national artifact on eBay.

Flags of the Day

Today is Independence Day in Mozambique and Slovenia; and Ratification Day in Virginia.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

New Zealand sporting legends want flag change

New Zealand sporting legends have thrown their weight behind a campaign to change their national flag because it is too much like Australia's.

Cricketer Sir Richard Hadlee, a champion fast bowler who often bore the brunt of abusive Aussie crowds in the 1980s, thinks New Zealand's four red stars next to the Union Jack, instead of Australia's six white ones, are not enough to tell the flags apart.

"Too many people confuse our flag with the Australian one and it also becomes embarrassing when New Zealanders cannot tell the difference either," Hadlee said.

Images of New Zealand and Australian flags courtesy of Flags Of The World.

Flags of the Day

Today is Countryman's Day in Peru; St-Jean Baptiste Day in Quebec; and Battle of Carabobo Day in Venezuela.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

School board won't ban flag clothing

The School Board in Hernando County, Florida, has shelved a plan to prevent students from wearing clothing displaying any flag other than the US flag. The proposal was abandoned because of legal concerns.

The proposed ban was reported here Saturday.

School Board member Sandra Nicholson questioned the ban. She wondered at the logic of preventing students from wearing Reebok sneakers since they display British flags as logos.

"I like my Reeboks," she said.

House passes desecration amendment

By a vote of 286 to 130, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would grant to Congress the power to "prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States".

In order for the proposed amendment to become a part of the Constitution, it must next pass the U.S. Senate by a favourable vote of at least 67 of the 100 member body, and then be ratified by at least 38 States.

Flags of the Day

Today is Victory Day in Estonia; and Discovery Day in Newfoundland.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Vast majority support anti-desecration amendment

Opinion Research Corporation conducted a survey of 1,004 Americans, finding that while 81-percent supported the concept of protecting the flag from being burned, 75-percent are actually in favor of it becoming law. The poll has a plus or minus three percent margin of error.

I have mixed feelings about this myself. I love the flag, and cherish what it represents. Certainly anyone who destroys a flag belonging to another can and should be subject to criminal sanctions. But I have a problem with makig it a criminal act to do whatever you want with your own property.

Monochrome flag grounded

This is not a black and white photo. The flag is black where it should be blue, and grey where it should be red.

Surrey artist Jonathan Parsons was commissioned by Norwich Castle Museum to produce the monochrome flag; but plans to fly a black, grey and white Union Flag above Norwich Castle have been scrapped amid fears it would offend British patriots.

Flags of the Day

Today is Anti-Fascist Struggle Day in Croatia; and Flag Day in Finland.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Flag Man of Laporte

For nine years Jim Roy has been buying flags to be mounted on telephone poles around Laporte, Indiana. With the city?s help he flies the 3-by-5-foot US flags on the poles along the major thoroughfares.

Now every year from late spring through summer, Old Glory waves in the wind along Lincoln Way, J Street, Monroe Street and Boyd Boulevard.

Stolen Scottish flag honored lost love

Ed Safford flew a Scottish royal banner at his home in Bristol, Rhode Island, as a tribute to his wife of 25 years. Nancy, who was of Scottish descent, died last August. The flag was stolen from its bracket on the front of Mr. Safford's house on June 9. "That flag was a symbol of our love," he said.

To honor her, Mr. Safford decided shortly after her death to fly a flag that not only would have meant a lot to his wife, as she was mostly Scottish, but to him as well. His father collected flags and growing up, he had an appreciation for other nations' flags, he said.

Image of Scottish Royal Banner courtesy of Flags Of The World.

Flags of the Day

Today is Flag Day in Greenland; and Ratification Day in New Hampshire.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Flags of the Day

Today is Flag Day in Argentina and Sweden. It is also Martyrs Day Day in Eritrea; and West Virginia Day in West Virginia.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Taiwan Flag Flap (continued)

In a follow-up to the story about the the removal of the flag of the Republic of China at a graduation ceremony visited by a delegation from Red China, the investigation of the matter by the Taiwanese government finds the school's explaination to be contradicted by a video tape of the ceremony.

Illlustration of the flag of the Republic of China on Taiwan provided courtesy of Flags Of The World.

Flags of the Day

Today is the anniversary of the adoption of the plain tricolour as the flag of the Republic of Italy. It is also Labour Day in Trinidad and Tobago; and Jose Gervasio Artigas' Birthday in Uruguay.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Another flag ban in the works

In Florida, the Hernando County School Board will consider banning clothing that displays any flag other than the American flag. Once again, the target is the Confederate flag, but in order to try an pass a constitutional regulation, in addition to preventing Southerners from displaying the Southern flag, they will prevent Floridians from displaying the Florida flag, Cubans from the Cuban flag, etc.

The American Civil Liberties Union, says the proposal was "overly broad" and would create "serious first amendment problems."

Lawyers want flag near courthouse

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Allen County Bar Association has offered to pay for a flag pole and flag for the county courthouse. The county government has accepted the offer, but now there seems to be a fuss over the location of the flag pole.

Flag of the Day

Today is Evacuation Day in Egypt.

Animated flag provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Mozambique to choose new flag

The government of Mozambique has announced a contest for the selection of a new national flag.

The competition is to run from June 15 to September 15, when the commission will collect all submissions from which the best three will be selected.

The three selected proposals will then be handed to the ad hoc commission that will table them to the plenary of the Assembly of the Republic for a final decision on the winner.

The winning designer will receive a prize of 250,000,000 meticals (about US$10,400.00).

Flags of the Day

Today is Workers Day in Germany; Constitution Day and National Day in Iceland; and Battle of Bunker Hill Day in Massachusetts.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

New Bougainville flag

The new autonomous government of Bougainville was inaugurated yesterday with the raising of its new flag.

The island's new flag, featuring a traditional red Upe head dress, was raised by a colour guard of the new Bougainville Police Force in the northern town of Buka before local school children sang the new song of Bougainville.

Unfortunately, the article does not include an illustration of the flag.

UPDATE:


The image of the Bougainville flag, shown here,is taken from the web site of TVNZ. It appears to be the same flag used by the Bougainville secessionist movement since 1975. So, while the individual flag is a new one (made by Flags of All Nations Pty. Ltd. in
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia a few weeks ago) the design of the flag is not new.

Taiwan Flag Flap

Hsiuping Institute of Technology in Taichung County, Taiwan is the center of a flag related controversy. Some students there have accused the school of removing the flag of the Republic of China and a portrait of Sun Yat-sen, "as a gesture to please" an academic exchange group from Shandong University of Technology in Red China who were attending the school's graduation ceremony on June 12.

The school, however, denies any such motivation. "We did not take down the national flag and portrait of Dr. Sun Yat-sen to welcome the representatives from China. We took them down to better display the background setting that had been designed specially for the graduation ceremony," school president Lin Bao-zong said.

According to Lin, the graduation ceremony was opened with the singing of the national anthem, followed by bowing to the national flag and a portrait of Sun. The school then removed the flag and portrait in order to change the background setting.

Illlustration of the flag of the Republic of China on Taiwan provided courtesy of Flags Of The World.

Flag of the Day

Today is Youth Day in South Africa.

Animated South African flag provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

Flag Banning

The Maryville Board of Education (in Blount County, Tennessee) has acted to ban Confederate flags at any Maryville school system events.

The Board of Education's lawyers were apparently aware of the several federal cases ruling that singling out the Confederate flag for banning is unconstitutional. So, to make sure no one show up with a Confederate flag, they have outlawed all flags at school events.

A Banner Day

Yesterday there were scores of Flag Day related articles and stories--too many and too generic to bother bloggin them. But this one from Bangor, Maine stands out. Of course, Dave Martucci is my friend, and is a past president of the North American Vexillological Association.

One of Dave's comments stands out for me. He says that flags are "the shorthand of history." I have found that to be true. My love for flags and my love of history go hand-in-hand. I have certainly found flags to be a great aid to teaching history (as a guest, not as a profession) in Tennessee, as has Dave in Maine.

Flags of the Day

Today is Statehood Day in Arkansas. It is also Valdemar's Day and Reunification Day in Denmark

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.

The President's Proclamation

You can read the text of President Bush's Flag Day Proclamation on the White House web site. In addition to Flag Day, the president declared the week of June 12th to be National Flag Week.

Flag Quiz

Check out the Christian Science Momitor's flag quiz.

Flags of the Day

Today is Flag Day in the United States of America; and Liberation Day in the Falkland Islands. It is also the Day of Mourning in Estonia and Memorial Day for the Victims of Communist Genocide in Latvia.

Animated flags provided courtesy of Pascal Gross.