ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The world flag (the World Flag) is an international flag created in 1988 by American Paul Carroll to raise awareness of the common challenges for humanity with regard to globalization in today's world. In the center of the flag, there is a map of the world surrounded by the flags of 230 countries and territories, as well as the UN flag.

History

In 1988, while Carroll took a bike ride near New Canaan (Connecticut), he was beaten by a cargo van and incapacitated. With partial use of its members, Carroll spent time in his bed in convalescence. Carroll came out of his rehabilitation with a goal: to create a symbol of global unity and cooperation that was universally recognized and complete. It began the "World Flag Project" to promote multicultural understanding with emphasis on geography and common problems for everyone through the global exhibition of the World Flag.

Working with a game of world flags (10 x 15 cm), Carroll spent his days configuring and reconfiguring different designs for the original world flag. Its goal was a flag whose underlying conception and symbolism could be easily understood throughout the world, and also that it could be produced and manufactured. Its goal was to create a global symbol that would change and develop just like the world. He wanted the world flag to expand organically, creating historical documents.

Its 1988 design represented the 159 UN members with their flag. To create a rectangular flag of 13 x 13 (32.5 x 32.5 cm), Carroll removed a piece 3 x 3 (7.5 x 7.5 cm) in the center. There he put a map of the world (the Dymaxion Map of Buckminster Fuller) and as a core around which the design expanded. All the greatest global challenges - the Cold War, apartheid in South Africa, the problems of the Middle East and other social and political issues - had an impact on design.

Carroll changed the flag design in 1992. With the end of the Cold War, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the end of apartheid and the continuing trend of a more global economy, it was clear that design needed to be updated to include the entire world, beyond the first members of the UN. So the flag currently comprises a total of 230 flags, and it contains a more recognizable representation of the Earth of space.

In 2006, the founders met in Portland, Oregon to complete an updated design after 14 years. In February 2007, they were able to manufacture a royal flag. They worked closely with Annin & Company to produce flags with the latest advanced digital printing process.

The design changed again in 2008 and then in 2011. By the 2011 design, Arab nations were forming the silhouette of a flying bird, in reference to the Arab Spring.

Symbolism
The world map in the center has a