Jan
16
Iraq’s New Flag (For Now)
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On the new Iraq flag, the text “Allah akbar” (God is great) changes from green to yellow, the Kurdish national color. It is also printed in traditional Kufi script, replacing Saddam Hussein’s handwriting.
The stars no longer stand for the three aims of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’th Party, (Arabic) unity, freedom and socialism but for the cornerstones of the new Iraq, peace, tolerance and justice. The flag’s colors now represent Islamic civilization, rather than Arabic glory.
A conference of Arabic parliaments is to be held in the Kurdish capital, Erbil, and this has led to the flag again becoming an issue. Now, the present flag will be accepted as long as a completely new one is eventually found.
by Chalaan Charif
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Jan
16
As if emotional campaign messages weren’t enough, politicians now have another way to try to win over the electorate. A study in Israel shows that voters can be manipulated into changing their attitudes by being shown subliminal images of their national flag.
A team led by psychologist Ran Hassin at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem divided volunteers into two groups: those who strongly identified with Israeli nationalism and those who identified with it only weakly. They then quizzed them about their attitude to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after showing them a brief image of an Israeli flag or a control image. The image appeared for long enough to be registered by the brain but not long enough for conscious awareness.
Those who had viewed the flag shifted their position towards the middle ground: both right-wingers and left-wingers became less extreme. The researchers also found that it influenced the way participants voted in national elections. Hassin says that the Israeli flag represents a sense of national unity, and that reminding people of it draws them towards that ideology. However, the psychology involved is unclear, especially since it remains uncertain whether subliminal advertising has an effect on consumers.
From issue 2632 of New Scientist magazine, 05 December 2007, page 20
Jan
8
Ground Zero
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REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
A man grieves outside the World Trade Center site in New York September 11, 2006. Stress brought on by the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington in 2001 led to heart problems for some Americans, even if they had no personal connection to the events, a study released on Monday found.
Jan
8
Kenya Elections
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AFP/Roberto Schmidt
A World Food Program worker hangs a flag on a truck carrying aid for displaced people in Nakuru and Eldoret. Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki has invited opposition leader Raila Odinga for their first face-to-face talks since the country’s disputed presidential poll, as several former African presidents arrived in Nairobi to try to break a political stalemate