Monday 1 December 2008

Antarctica - Bartram Proposal


Another proposed flag due to Antarctica’s unique situation is that of Graham Bartram. The Graham Bartram design uses the flag of the United Nations as its model. A plain white map of the continent on a UN blue background symbolizes neutrality (Bartram was well aware of the overlapping territorial claims of the United Kingdom, Chile, and Argentina when he designed the flag). This flag has actually been flown on the Antarctic continent as recently as 2002, when Ted Kaye (editor of Raven, the scholarly journal of the North American Vexillological Association) took several full-size copies of the flag on an Antarctic cruise. The bases of Brazil, Ukraine, and the UK all flew it from their flagpoles, making its raising "official". He presented a paper ("Flags Over Antarctica") which described the first flying of the Bartram design over Antarctica in Stockholm in 2003, at the 20th International Congress of Vexillology. It is perhaps the most popular flag for Antarctica, as seen by is prevalence on the Internet.

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