Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Our Lady of Guadalupe on the Mexican Flag


A number of different turnings in history could have made this the official flag of Mexico - some for the better, some for the worse.
It even comes to mind in connection with this video, when the possibility of the Aztec empire surviving as an independent entity and adopting its own form of Christianity is raised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52yu6hA_k2Y

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Let's Redraw the Borders of Africa!

No, not us non-Africans -- there's been enough of that crap already! This is a fairly improbable alternate-history scenario in which the former colonies gathered at Addis Ababa after the Second World War  for a conference to redraw the borders of Africa to create new nations along ethnic lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_qR3ap-fKI

It's a charming notion, although as I say, it would be overseen by the Emperor Haile Unlaikle. Something like it might have come about if the warring powers of the Second World War (or the First) had completely exhausted themselves, and the former colonies had sought to avoid having their own self-destructive war.

Still, it's a lovely idea, and it certainly would have prevented a lot of bad things (he said in a stupendous understatement, considering how many millions have died in African wars and genocides since the end of colonialism).

Anyway, I posted about it here because some of those flags are top-notch.

I do have one suggestion to make: at 6:31, the Ubangi ethnic group are given the Republic of Ubangia, but I have always been fond of "Beafrika", a nickname of the Central African Republic which exists in about the same geographical location in our own world, because who can't love a country called "Heart of Africa"...?