14 May 2013

Brazil

Today it's time to discuss a little about the Brazilian flag. What I'll propose today isn't intended to be the definitive Brazilian flag, but only something to incentive the debate about the flag.

The current Brazilian flag is that:


















I'm not saying I don't like the Brazilian flag, actually I like it. Some people say it has problems, and I'll describe some of the most common there:
  • The motto, "Ordem e Progresso", is based on a positivist quote by Auguste Comte. Although the Brazilian republic was instituted by positivist military, you shouldn't privilege any ideology on a democratic state;
  • The star layout is excessively complex, not instinctive and, worst of all, astronomically imprecise;
  • The excess of details and the lettering makes the flag being double-sided, what makes it very expensive to be produced and less wind-friendly.
My proposal is inspired by a proposal by Eurico de Góis, lawyer and politician, during the Constitutional Assembly of 1933. See:


















This flag consists on the lozenge background of current flag (but with the lozenge now touching the borders), with the cross of the Order of Christ (flown during the Portuguese expedition that discovered the Brazil) and the center of current Brazilian "coat of arms", containing the Southern Cross and stars in the number of Brazilian states (then 21, now 27).

I made some small changes and obtained it:


















Some ratios and shades are the same of current Brazilian flag. I removed the stars, as the flag intends to be eternal i.e. don't change every time the number of states change or so and it won't have big problems if don't made double-sided. It represents, explicitly or not, the historically greatest Brazilian symbols: the Southern Cross, the cross of Christ, the armillary sphere (represented by the blue sphere) and the brazilwood ("brasa", in Portuguese, means "ember", and the tree is so named because of its red tincture). This star layout could be changed, for example, for the one on the medal of the National Order of the Southern Cross.

As a bonus, a proposal of coat of arms (as Brazil current coat of arms isn't heraldically valid), on the same style of current coat of arms. The white background favors the rule of tincture and the simplicity principle:













The debate is now open!

To be able to comment, you don't need to have a Blogger account. You are welcome to give your opinion!
If you want to know other historically relevant Brazilian flag proposals, you can read this from page 152.

1 comment:

Every comment is greatly welcome!