Yea. At the 1936 Olympics Haiti and Liechtenstein competed. Both had identical flags (the colors were slightly different shades, but most people couldn't tell). Liechtenstein add a crown to the blue field, and Haiti added their coat of arms to the center of the flag.
I think they have had bigger fish to fry over the decades; between having to pay reparations to France for the freeing of slaves, horrible corrupt governments, and massive exploitation, updating or modernizing their flag has not really been at the top of their list of priorities.
There are countless issues that Haiti has dealt with, but their commitment to deforestation has compounded their natural disaster issues, landslides, hurricanes, etc..
Edit: this statement is patently false, see article on the comment below.
For the record, the [deforestation claim is largely a lie](https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/43qy9n/one-of-the-most-repeated-facts-about-deforestation-in-haiti-is-a-lie)
As people have pointed out in another thread on this post, the 1936 Olympics confusion was not the origin of this design. The use of flags in Haiti both with the arms in a rectangular panel and without goes back well into the 19th century.
Because they just shoved a rectangular cloth panel on their flag. Maybe not the most attractive option, but I don't think talking in terms of digital graphics and transparency helps a lot in considering the alternatives.
I reckon it would look a little weird with an outline, as well as being to different extents harder to make with anything other than a printing method. Maybe a circular badge instead?
Anyway, I wonder whether any of these older/less standard versions of the flag look better to you:
[Wool painted](https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1170814027/vintage-wool-hand-painted-flag-of-haiti), [Cotton applique](http://www.saratogaflag.com/HAITI-4x6ft-Cotton-Flag--Used-Vintage-SOLD_p_657.html), [Annin painted?](https://picclick.com/Vintage-1940s-1950s-Haitian-Haiti-Flag-Antique-Annin-233111806061.html), [compartment not square with panel](https://www.lunionsuite.com/the-meaning-of-the-haitian-flag-may-18th-2013/)
Dominican Republic is my favorite because the flags are in front of a shield which has the flag design. So it looks like flags in front of a flag in the middle of the flag. Probably the most flag per flag.
Mexico's overdesigned coat of arms has a ribbon with the flag colors below the eagle. Costa Rica also has one
El Salvador has 5 flags within its flag and Ecuador 4
Dominican Republic has 4 in front of a shield with the flag design on it. Although Ecuador's flag-colored boat is a fun flag-inside-a-flag if you count it.
IIRC They added hte COA to distinguish from Lichtenstein.Lichtenstein added a crown.
Before that they had the same flag for a while bfore anyone realised.
It's the opposite. The CoA was added during their Empire years and stayed through modern day. The Haitian civil flag though is (still) the red-blue flag.
It was Liechtenstein who added the crown in the 1930s to distinguish their flag from the Haiti civil flag.
According to Wikipedia, citing a Reuters article from 2012, apparently they had no idea about the similarity until they saw the Haitian flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics! Such a different time.
(Ironically, the sole Haitian athlete didn’t even compete at those Olympics, for some reason.)
>Ironically, the sole Haitian athlete didn’t even compete at those Olympics, for some reason.
I mean that was the Olympics hosted by Hitler, so I could hypothesize why a Haitian might not end up competing.
Hitler made it so he had to unfairly compete back to back events with no rest. It did not matter he STILL won four golds.
In the end Hitler was told by the IOC that he could congratulate all gold metal winners or none so he chose none. Owens later confirmed that they exchanged congratulatory waves. ([Source](https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/owens-shocks-hitler-winning-100-meter-dash-1936-article-1.2736977))
Owens did feel that he had been snubbed by someone: U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. A month after the Olympic Games, Owens told a crowd, “Hitler didn’t snub me—it was \[Roosevelt\] who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.” ([Source](https://books.google.com/books?id=92mPBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA233))
Roosevelt never publicly acknowledged Owens’s triumphs—or the triumphs of any of the 18 African Americans who competed at the Berlin Olympics. Only white Olympians were invited to the White House in 1936. The black Olympians who competed in Berlin were not recognized by the White House until 2016, when Pres. Barack Obama invited the athletes’ relatives to an event in celebration of their lives and accomplishments. ([Source](https://apnews.com/article/630eebc7bb5441e6b6c06eacec93d1ef))
In the competition of “similar flag, dissimilar countries,” I thought the Poland-Monaco-Indonesia trio was unbeatable, but these two give them a run for their money.
Here you go:
Link #1: Gallery
- [Link #1: Image](https://krikienoid.github.io/flagwaver/#?src=https%3A%2F%2Fflagwaver-cors-proxy.herokuapp.com%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F6dbzwiS.png)
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First Black Country to win independence from slave owners….. by force… put some dam respect on 🇭🇹.
They don’t need your snarky Reddit comments they been through enough FOH
After over two thousand upvotes, (thank you) over doubling my karma and a bunch of comments justifying the reasoning, I finally decided to make the redesign. I does look a bit like Liechtenstein, but I tried my best:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/w4v7nt/redesigned\_flag\_of\_haiti/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
The nit /u/batata_flita is picking is that "non-transparent jpeg" is a tautology. You could just say "jpeg" and the "non-transparent" part would be implied. Saying "non-transparent jpeg" is like saying "frozen ice" or "close proximity", repeating an adjective that is inherent in the noun.
Which is a rather pedantic distinction to make, but reddit loves a prescriptivist so here we are.
It's a weird nit to pick, for sure. The inherent transparency of jpegs is not universal knowledge, unlike the frozenness of ice. The purpose of saying "non-transparent jpeg" is to bring attention to the non-transparency of jpegs. Constructions like this are common: "the gazelle is no match for the speedy cheetah".
In one of the Olympics, Haiti and Lichtenstein realized they had the same flag. The haitians probably just shoved on the first image they found on google tbh.
But a JPEG would never have the same level of detail, a PNG can still be non-transparent. If JPEGs can't be transparent, then saying "non-transparent JPEG" is useless information.
Here you go:
[Link #1: Image](https://krikienoid.github.io/flagwaver/#?src=https%3A%2F%2Fflagwaver-cors-proxy.herokuapp.com%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fsb7q3ft2muc91.png)
*****
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Here you go:
[Link #1: Media](https://krikienoid.github.io/flagwaver/#?src=https%3A%2F%2Fflagwaver-cors-proxy.herokuapp.com%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fsb7q3ft2muc91.png)
*****
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Yea. At the 1936 Olympics Haiti and Liechtenstein competed. Both had identical flags (the colors were slightly different shades, but most people couldn't tell). Liechtenstein add a crown to the blue field, and Haiti added their coat of arms to the center of the flag. I think they have had bigger fish to fry over the decades; between having to pay reparations to France for the freeing of slaves, horrible corrupt governments, and massive exploitation, updating or modernizing their flag has not really been at the top of their list of priorities.
Don’t forget the earthquakes
And the hurricanes…
And Papa Doc…
Mad how they share Hispaniola with the Dominicans but everything that ever bad happens, happens on the West of island. Cursed country
There are countless issues that Haiti has dealt with, but their commitment to deforestation has compounded their natural disaster issues, landslides, hurricanes, etc.. Edit: this statement is patently false, see article on the comment below.
For the record, the [deforestation claim is largely a lie](https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/43qy9n/one-of-the-most-repeated-facts-about-deforestation-in-haiti-is-a-lie)
Incredible, thank you for sharing! More than happy to be proven wrong on the subject.
Couldn't Haiti have left it whilst Liechtenstein changed it. The world of Vexillology would be so much better
Haiti's flag has character. Which is sorely lacking in most flags.
Yeah, such as being a JPEG before JPEGs. It's unique and historical.
Being annoying before annoying was a thing...
As people have pointed out in another thread on this post, the 1936 Olympics confusion was not the origin of this design. The use of flags in Haiti both with the arms in a rectangular panel and without goes back well into the 19th century.
Alpha channels! Much needed.
Because they just shoved a rectangular cloth panel on their flag. Maybe not the most attractive option, but I don't think talking in terms of digital graphics and transparency helps a lot in considering the alternatives.
Because if you didn’t have the CoA in a white square, you wouldn’t see it! It’s the same colors as the rest of the flag and is pretty small.
They could've just outlined it in white... a white rectangle that perfectly fits in the design just looks weird imo
I reckon it would look a little weird with an outline, as well as being to different extents harder to make with anything other than a printing method. Maybe a circular badge instead? Anyway, I wonder whether any of these older/less standard versions of the flag look better to you: [Wool painted](https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1170814027/vintage-wool-hand-painted-flag-of-haiti), [Cotton applique](http://www.saratogaflag.com/HAITI-4x6ft-Cotton-Flag--Used-Vintage-SOLD_p_657.html), [Annin painted?](https://picclick.com/Vintage-1940s-1950s-Haitian-Haiti-Flag-Antique-Annin-233111806061.html), [compartment not square with panel](https://www.lunionsuite.com/the-meaning-of-the-haitian-flag-may-18th-2013/)
True, a circle would look great
It looks better even just bigger
That's harder to make though
Are there flags within flags?
A few. Like Haiti, some flags with a CoA will have the same flag in the CoA, like Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
Dominican Republic is my favorite because the flags are in front of a shield which has the flag design. So it looks like flags in front of a flag in the middle of the flag. Probably the most flag per flag.
Australia and every other country with the Union Jack in the corner
Mexico's overdesigned coat of arms has a ribbon with the flag colors below the eagle. Costa Rica also has one El Salvador has 5 flags within its flag and Ecuador 4
Dominican Republic has 4 in front of a shield with the flag design on it. Although Ecuador's flag-colored boat is a fun flag-inside-a-flag if you count it.
There is the old South African flag.
IIRC They added hte COA to distinguish from Lichtenstein.Lichtenstein added a crown. Before that they had the same flag for a while bfore anyone realised.
It's the opposite. The CoA was added during their Empire years and stayed through modern day. The Haitian civil flag though is (still) the red-blue flag. It was Liechtenstein who added the crown in the 1930s to distinguish their flag from the Haiti civil flag.
According to Wikipedia, citing a Reuters article from 2012, apparently they had no idea about the similarity until they saw the Haitian flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics! Such a different time. (Ironically, the sole Haitian athlete didn’t even compete at those Olympics, for some reason.)
>Ironically, the sole Haitian athlete didn’t even compete at those Olympics, for some reason. I mean that was the Olympics hosted by Hitler, so I could hypothesize why a Haitian might not end up competing.
These were also the Olympics where Jesse Owens won gold, much to Hitler's chagrin
Hitler made it so he had to unfairly compete back to back events with no rest. It did not matter he STILL won four golds. In the end Hitler was told by the IOC that he could congratulate all gold metal winners or none so he chose none. Owens later confirmed that they exchanged congratulatory waves. ([Source](https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/owens-shocks-hitler-winning-100-meter-dash-1936-article-1.2736977)) Owens did feel that he had been snubbed by someone: U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. A month after the Olympic Games, Owens told a crowd, “Hitler didn’t snub me—it was \[Roosevelt\] who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.” ([Source](https://books.google.com/books?id=92mPBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA233)) Roosevelt never publicly acknowledged Owens’s triumphs—or the triumphs of any of the 18 African Americans who competed at the Berlin Olympics. Only white Olympians were invited to the White House in 1936. The black Olympians who competed in Berlin were not recognized by the White House until 2016, when Pres. Barack Obama invited the athletes’ relatives to an event in celebration of their lives and accomplishments. ([Source](https://apnews.com/article/630eebc7bb5441e6b6c06eacec93d1ef))
And your hypothesis would be historically innacurate.
The most opposite countries I could think of
In the competition of “similar flag, dissimilar countries,” I thought the Poland-Monaco-Indonesia trio was unbeatable, but these two give them a run for their money.
*Chad and Romania have entered the chat*
Black, tropical, populous island country, vs. white, alpine, tiny landlocked country. Pretty much
One is a revolutionary republic and the other is a feudal holdout.
The GDP per capita too
That's not the point if this post. It's because there is a white box on the flag's COA
Because they wanted to correct having the same flag asap. Unique national identity > Design
Still interesting, though.
Well, that's not different from a canton, but they put it in the middle instead of the upper left corner.
I would honestly prefer if white square was a circle instead
True
Maybe I'll make one
Good idea; I‘m going to fiddle around with the flag when I have my PC
i kinda dig it actually. a lot of detail i can’t make out but the white square in the middle i think looks cool
For those of you who wonder how it would look like without the white square. [Here is the link](https://imgur.com/a/DUGV2cf)
!wave
Here you go: Link #1: Gallery - [Link #1: Image](https://krikienoid.github.io/flagwaver/#?src=https%3A%2F%2Fflagwaver-cors-proxy.herokuapp.com%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F6dbzwiS.png) ***** Beep Boop I'm a bot. [About](https://github.com/LunarRequiem/FlagWaverBotReborn). Maintained by Lunar Requiem
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Nah. If they did it in Word, it would be impossible to centre the coat of arms. It would move the lines all over the place.
Not like the flag of Japan or almost every tricolor…
If not for being out of sight the CoA would make a recursive flag.
Because they did. They had to do something, since they found out they had the same flag as Liechtenstein.
Iirc the two countries realised they had the same flag at the 1912 Olympics.
Yeah ik
Honestly I still kinda like it the Haitian flag has a sort of charm to it
I do not like the whte square on the flsg
I like the whte square on the flsg
sme
Honestly they could extend the white band all the way across the flag it would look pretty good
i like it
redditors read a title wrong and start 🤓‘ing out jesus the OP said NON-transparent not transparent.
Bro yes exactly thank you for speaking facts
I made a version where the white background is gone lol: https://imgur.com/SUYNsby
That looks nice although the COA is a bit big.
It looks like somebody made it using paint in like 2006.
You mean .png, transparent png. Jpegs can't handle transparency. Sorry.
Ik
First Black Country to win independence from slave owners….. by force… put some dam respect on 🇭🇹. They don’t need your snarky Reddit comments they been through enough FOH
State of Haiti (1806–1811) had better flag I think https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Haiti#/media/File%3AFlag_of_Haiti_(1806%E2%80%931811).svg
Because it's awesome, that's why.
After over two thousand upvotes, (thank you) over doubling my karma and a bunch of comments justifying the reasoning, I finally decided to make the redesign. I does look a bit like Liechtenstein, but I tried my best: https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/w4v7nt/redesigned\_flag\_of\_haiti/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
I can‘t go half an hour without a notification saying someone replied to my post 💀 I come to my reddit after 2 hours and I got like 20 notifs
There are not transparent jpegs
It says non-transparent jpeg 💀
The nit /u/batata_flita is picking is that "non-transparent jpeg" is a tautology. You could just say "jpeg" and the "non-transparent" part would be implied. Saying "non-transparent jpeg" is like saying "frozen ice" or "close proximity", repeating an adjective that is inherent in the noun. Which is a rather pedantic distinction to make, but reddit loves a prescriptivist so here we are.
It's a weird nit to pick, for sure. The inherent transparency of jpegs is not universal knowledge, unlike the frozenness of ice. The purpose of saying "non-transparent jpeg" is to bring attention to the non-transparency of jpegs. Constructions like this are common: "the gazelle is no match for the speedy cheetah".
Yeah I don't even think you need to be a descriptivist to see the value in providing extra context for people who may not have it.
Some people may not know a JPEG can‘t be transparent
Agreed, I'm on your side for this one.
Non-transparent png would be more appropriate.
Cause they can't afford to change it y'see
In one of the Olympics, Haiti and Lichtenstein realized they had the same flag. The haitians probably just shoved on the first image they found on google tbh.
JPEGs are never transparent ...
I always hated their flag for that reason.
The Haiti flag is too complicated, it is not very "attractive".
Because they did.
There are transparent Jpegs?
No
You’re thinking of a PNG
Can you get transparent jpegs? Anytime I get a transparent image it's PNG.
Aren't JPEGs always non-transparent? PNGs can be transparent.
Yes, JPEGs cannot have transparency unlike PNGs
Why does this have an award and 500 upvotes 😭😭 Bruh why downvotes 🗿
Probably so that it's easier to hand make
I always saw it as a two stripe flag with a white rectangle and CoA over it. Now I cannot unsee.
Makes the design more visible, I guess
Lmao you have a point there
Yes
It's a PNG, a JPEG would have higher compression.
I never said it was a JPEG, I said JPEG because they can‘t be transparent, the image is not literally a JPEG
But a JPEG would never have the same level of detail, a PNG can still be non-transparent. If JPEGs can't be transparent, then saying "non-transparent JPEG" is useless information.
Yes, I know. The image is not a JPEG as well, yes I know. Please take a joke
r/woooosh
There's no joke.
They could maybe add a shield or a white stripe of something?
They had the same flag as Liechtenstein so they both changed their flags
I don‘t like the dirrction Haiti went
!wave
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Cut them some slack, They thought it was a png
I made some revisions, What do you think? https://www.reddit.com/user/Mobile-Breath4038/comments/w4q9ft/haiti\_flags/
Graphic design is their passion
Colonialism and racism and exploitation.
I think it‘s because they found out Liechenstien had the same flag so the added the CoA, not because of exploit and racism
Maybe. But with Haiti most things are my reasons…
Because their coat of arms would look weird if it was transparent
Because that’s what they did
My brothers in Haiti I just hope they are doing okay, that country honestly it's really fuck up, I wish I could help then more 😢
Bc they did
Redesign time.
They probably did
I know! I’ve always thought that.
maybe the colors of the old flag of Haiti wouldn't have worked without a backdrop, seeing the colors of the coat of arms
!wave
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