With too much indulgence, I'd say. For one, lack of originality (compare us to Greece, same grade!) should not be rewarded... The full rankings are here (alphabetical order here). For the grading criteria see here (and feel free to disagree, of course...). I do love this bit in the 'methodology' though, subpart of the author's rule number 3-- no tricolours (unless we're Europeans, since then we obviously deserve special favours) :
"Eastern Europe is also a bad case. Many of the states there had a chance to change their flags when they were all busy seceding from each other, and the best they could do was go back to these horrible tricolours."
Though I will emphasize that I totally disagree with the way he closes the above paragraph:
"Probably the reason their neighbours annexed them in the first place was that they couldn't stand to see such vomitous colours just over the border in Armenia, Lithuania, or Bulgaria. "
Hmm, hmm... I wonder whether this fellow feels too safe down there in NZ; I wouldn't want to meet any serious yoghurt drinker if I were him :-).
HT to Tyler Cowen on MR.
PS. You should know what I am waiting for, next: a ranking of national anthems (though more professional, please...). I honestly don't think we'd be that lucky in there. And I suggest we deeply think about that before we get graded :-). I even have a first (serious!) proposal as an alternative (if this wouldn't make us original, nothing else would). Wouldn't you prefer that over this? That's what I thought. Anyway, let us come back to this issue in a future post. But comment away already, should you feel inspired!
5 comments:
your flag is alright but your anthem sucks big time :) but love the ballad. how about that other thig you once mentioned the lark song
MM.
M&M, you mean 'Ciocarlia'. Well, another proposal, indeed. Though I think Porumbescu's ballad would be somewhat better for an anthem, with great emphasis on 'somewhat better' :-) since what I'd like to challenge is the whole idea of having anthems in the one register national anthems were typically designed in. Why not be the first to consider that outdated and come up with smth. new, exciting and much better catching the Romanian 'soul', should there be one? To the best of my knowledge, except for EU's official anthem (which is not a national anthem for our purpose...), none of them took it to another level...
PS. By the way, and this as a general comment to the flag ranking: Romania's and Chad's flags are identical. Nevertheless our NZ fellow who ranks gave Chad only 65/100, while Romania gets 70/100. Now, aside the fact that I believe even 65 is too high for this flag, I wonder whether he can show that Chad copied it from us or how else can he justify this 5 points discrepancy (or is it: Europeans have better rights to tricolours? LOL)?
Domnule Buhai,
Ce nu ati scris e faptul ca Ciprian Porumbescu a compus si melodia imnului anterior al Romaniei. Textul a fost desigur diferit de textul adoptat de comunisti. Ma intreb de ce nu am reveni la acea melodie, dar cu textul anterior? Il gasiti si pe wikipedia: http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trei_culori
Aveti dreptate, dar nu era neaparat parte a subiectului si chiar nu mi-am amintit pe moment. Oricum, o iau ca o alta propunere (utopica desigur, tot ce discutam aici tine de utopie :-) in locul imnului actual (desi raman sa cred ca e nevoie de o schimbare de registru totala). Partea instrumentala, adica. Nu e nevoie de versuri, fie ele cele anterioare sau nu.
PS1. Partea instrumentala a imnului Albaniei e tot pe muzica de Porumbescu. Asta chiar nu stiam pana acum cateva minute, cand am inceput sa caut :-).
PS2. Ar fi trebuit sa scrieti in engleza, comentariul ar putea fi interesant si pentru altii. Din pacate nu am timp sa traduc.
clarificare: 'pentru altii' in PS2 ar trebui sa fie 'pentru altii, care nu inteleg romana' :-)
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