Modern Vespa

Australia wants to be the 51st state.

And before my Oz cuzzies shoot me down - New Zealand is 'Little Britain'.

Personally I like the look of the U.S. flag. It is one of my favorites along with the Korean and the Union Jack. They are all so easily recognised and graphically strong.
Ours was O.K. until the Australians copied it, now noone can tell the difference.

Hi Chadders - I had my sarcasm switch up on high and thought I'd get in ahead of any blind patriotism. Just 'cos I'm a naughty monkey sometimes.

Aw c'mon Boulty. Ours is better than yours!!

This really is silly.

Scooteriffic and Boulty you could fly one of these The hawaii kingdom/state flag

OOOOOOh Judy!!!!

That's verrrrry lairy!

Nice one Judy.
Like many countries we have had a long running flag debate here http://www.nzflag.com/default.cfm
Some of the submissions are cool but it seems our ties to the past (those who have died for the flag in two World Wars and numerous other conflicts) means we are unlikely to realise a more contemporary flag design any time soon.
Could you imagine the 'debate' if they ever tried to even suggest changing the Stars and Stripes!

Those Brits sure got around didn't they BOULTY i agree. However hawaii has been talking for years about succeeding from the union. Not that it will happen but they try. They do have a cool flag that might be the new one someday though. Our state flag is clearly half union jack and half stars and stripes. The new one will represent the hawaiian culture. I'll have to see if i can find a prototype and will post it.

i've never seen the hawaiian flag before. i think i stared at it for too long - i'm getting some very hallucinatory green and orange afterimages

GENIE Are you sure you put the right mushrooms in the spaghetti sauce

good one Judy.

Now for a Little Canadian flag.

bloody hell. i thought they tasted different than usual. that would explain why my boyfriend is still in the garden talking to the newts.

Oh well, while we're at it, two other Australian flags. Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islands (except I added them in opposite order to that).

That Torres Strait flag is hideous. Being a Torres, It would have been nice to use the Torres family crest. It reminds me too much of this...

Ah bad penguin, it's a traditional islander head dress.

You've gone and got it arse-about!

http://www.dpc.nsw.gov.au/publications/the_classroom/know_your_flags_and_emblems

Boulty, your 51st state comment is funny! I used something similar in England about 20 years ago and nearly got my arse beat.

Canada got our flag after a contest of submissions back in the 60's. The Red'n'white is instantly recognizable and evokes pride, even if it looks like a beer label.

Personally, I vote for the AllBlacks logo to adorn your flagpoles.

You make it sound like a quiet write-in contest. The flag debate was definitely not quiet, and they nearly brought down the minority government at the time. Thousands of people submitted their ideas, but typically Canadian - the current flag was chosen by an all-party committee.

I still like the government's proposed version of the time - the Pearson Pennant

Nah, that looks more Labbat's. The one we got looks more Molson's.

SCOOTERIFFIC here's the flag from the hawaiian sovereignty movement. The black is the earth,white the sky,yellow the people, purple guy the caretaker of the aloha spirit and the green is Ti leaves which are considered sacred.

I highly recommend all of you rent this movie now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy

"It's what plants crave. It's got electrolytes."

PARKA it sounds great i'll put it on my list. Reminds me of timothy leary's past.He's the harvard professor who made LSD famous with all his experiments. They made LSD illegal because of him and he persisted in doing his thing so they put him in jail. Back in the 60's they had a test they gave all incoming inmates and that test determined what type of prison you went to. Minimum or maximum. They gave leary the test not realizing HE was the one who invented the test and he escaped Man i wish i was a little older back then. I could of had a lot of fun

Meher Baba was a lot of fun too..

Thanks for that. We're having a nice cultural exchange here, aren't we?

at least ours is made of plastic, and will shrink nicely in a warm oven.

And we print money for other countries, including "luttil Brutin" acruss thuh Dutch!

Didn't think Hawaii was a part of the Union, I recall it was an annexure for other purposes (protection of sugar or something).

Maybe I need to have a look at some more history books

Put a canary in the Kooka and make a shrinky dink!

http://www.dreamtime.net.au/indigenous/flags.cfm

might help others understand the flags, and the geographical region of the Torres Strait

This is one alternate, replacing the Union Jack with the Aboriginal flag, so as to recognise the indigenous people as the "First Nation".

As (Boulty) noted, the usual arguments about the Wars (all fought at the behest of the British, or other imperialist force) crops up.

Some rational arguments, some not so rational arguments!

Little Johnie Howard did - but we gave him and his cronies the boot last year.

Now we are stuck with Tin-Tin!!!! Now now, Boulty - New Zealand is wonderful - am looking forward to heading back over there in a year or two for some fun.

Anyways - doesn't New Zealand want to be another State in the Commonwealth of Australia?

We need somewhere to dump all that Fosters Muck, and I'l love to have Speights on tap here!

I wish I had something to say here because I have no clue what is going on. Well conversation wize. Did we miss something? Are you talking about flags? The Australian language is hard to understand.

TWIN it was technically never part of the union and even though the hawaiians did kill capt cook The flag was because they liked the british. The brits had been coming here for so long and the hawaiian royal family liked to go and stay in england on long vacations so they used the union jack as part of the flag. The stripes are used to represent the islands. One stripe for each major hawaiian island. Hawaii has also been called the cook islands,sandwich islands after the earl of sandwich. SCOOTERIFFIC i'm enjoying this "piece of piss". Hope i remember that phrase right. Almost married a guy from sydney years ago so i do understand a lot of what you guys say. MISTERSMALL don't feel bad there wasn't a day that went by that my australian boyfriend wouldn't say something i didn't understand. He got some mileage out of the "old fella" phrase. That one went straight over my head the first time i heard it I thought he was hanging out with one of his older friends which technically he was

Check your mail - I've sent you a pm.

Thanks Judy

Are you sure it is not just a "piss-take" - I'd hate to "piss anyone off", or be seen to having a dog-pissing competition - although I am half pissed on a really nice red!

The Hawaiian People should not be too upset about knocking off poor old Cookie - he was about to Kark it anyway - it was his third big trip for the Old Blighty,and his health was heading south. I am sure that a few would think he deserved it. His sailors introduced clap to many parts of the world!

You should have married an Aussie - best barbies in the World, Prawns, Crayfish and all

Ah no it's a piss take. Which is actually an English expression. "Piece of piss" means "easy. And the polite form is "portion of urine."

Twin01, I doubt most Indigneous Australians would like that combination of flag. Me personally (being Aborigonal, Irish and Chinese), I have no problem with it.

We could get into an interesting chat about indigenous cultural issues, 'treaty' and such, but hey, me just like the pertty colours!!!

Now that is a combo!!

Indigenous culture is amazing, as is indigenous language - I think there were something like 750 different languages and dialects in Australia.

Knew a little of the Pitjanjatjarra tongue once.

it is time for Reconcilliation, definately agree with that one!

i have south african friends that would argue that point strenuously ... and Canadian ones too, come to think of it

here in the uk, unfortunately, a bbq usually means a couple of charred sausages and dessicated veggie burgers (still frozen on the inside) lying listlessly on top of a smouldering disposable tinfoil grill from tesco. in the rain.