Early June the provisional Kosovar government announced a public competition for the Kosovar flag and emblem. Since Kosovo is on the verge of becoming a new country these things have to be arranged too. The competition document specifies the criteria that submissions need to meet in order to be accepted. The criteria include the following: the flag needs to be simple in design and colour scheme (fine), without inscriptions (to avoid discussions about the use of the Latin (=Albanian) or Cyrillic alphabet (= Serb)), unique and original (okay), to reflect the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Kosovo (EU and/or NATO), not to resemble any flag of any political party (especially not the political offspring of the Kosovo Liberation Army), movement (especially not the radical independence NGO Vetevendosje) or institution of Kosovo (especially not the Serbian Orthodox Church), not to reflect allegiance to any ethnic community in Kosovo (not to the Albanians, not to the Serbians), not to contain any eagle symbol (not the Albanian black double-headed eagle, nor the Serbian white double-headed eagle), not to be solely based on the red-and-black (Albanian) or red-white-and-blue (Serbian) combinations of colours, and must in general be in accord with the Comprehensive Proposal for Kosovo Status Settlement. Pfffwwwttt....
What starts of as a good idea ends in a pretty boring braincracker. The new flag should do anything but reflect the history of this region and the identity of its citizens. It will be like a marriage without passion...
One example above is according to the rules. The other is not. Can you guess?
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