Vexillology: My Least-Favorite Flags

I've spent the past nine days sharing with you some of my favorite flags from around the world. Today (as I'm still stuck in quarantine with very little else to write about), I would like to write about five flags that I don't particularly care for for one reason or other. Two of the flags were retired within my lifetime, and the other three are still in use.

Disagree? That's fine! It's all just my opinion!

Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Gaddafi-era Libya)

Boring.

I mean, a plain green rectangle? Really?

This flag was adopted in 1977 and officially retired in 2011 after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi's regime. It was the only national flag in the world to be just one color without insignia or design of any type. The green color was chosen to represent Gaddafi's political philosophy, and was derived from his "Green Book", the official collection of his political writings which was distributed to citizens throughout the country during his rule.

It's a bit self-aggrandizing, but hey, they guy carried a literal golden gun.

Union of South Africa (Apartheid-era South Africa)

Weird and ugly.

The tricolor is fine, if a bit simplistic, but adding all of the former flags of South Africa in such a weird pattern in the middle of it?? The flag features a horizontal Union Flag, a vertical flag of the Orange Free State, and a horizontal flag of the South African Republic.

Seen as a symbol of Apartheid, the flag is now illegal to display. It was retired in 1994 when Apartheid ended in South Africa. It's a good thing too, because the modern South African flag is one of my favorites!

Republic of Turkmenistan (current national flag)

Way too complicated.

As I've written before, one of the requirements for a flag to be considered "good" is if it's simple enough that a child can draw it in social studies class. For anyone, the flag of Turkmenistan is just far to complex to draw. Set vertically upon a green field alongside the Islamic crescent, the red stripe is a symbol of the country's famous hand-woven carpet industry. While such beautiful patterns may look great on a richly-decorated carpet, they don't belong on a national flag simply due to their complexity.

Kingdom of Morocco (current national flag)

Boring and the colors clash.

The flag is actually really full of great symbolism, but I just don't like the bright red and green color scheme. Red is the symbolic color of the ruling house of Morocco, and green is the color of Islam. The star in the middle represents the Seal of Solomon, and the five lines of the star stand for the five pillars of Islam. There is great meaning here, but it just doesn't work for me.

Guam (current territorial flag)

Bland and uninspired.

It's just a blue field with a small picture of the beach and the word "GUAM" in the middle. Most US territories have great flags that represent the island's unique culture and heritage. The flag just doesn't do service to such a beautiful territory.

Am I running out of flags to write about?

Not yet!

I do worry that two weeks of posts about flags might get a bit much. I don't want to more my readers too much, but as I mentioned last week, I'm trying to hold myself accountable to write more posts on my blog especially when I'm stuck at home during the COVID-19 crisis. Hopefully within a few weeks, things will get back to normal around here!