Anja sketches

[Gaute B Strokkenes]

On Mon, 1 Jan 2001, jeff at llandre.freeserve.co.uk wrote:
> I vote for 
> 
> http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~anja/gnu/gnuhead-sterne.jpg

Over my dead body... 8-)

> The twelve stars do signify europe for most people. 

No.  The twelve stars is the symbol of the European Union.  The EU is
not universally European (that is, there are significant parts of
Europe that are not part of the EU,) nor is the EU universally
popular, even in those places that are part of the EU.

Using the EU flag in the FSFE logo will create an association between
the FSFE and the EU.  The strength of that association will vary
depending on where you are.  I don't think that it will matter at all
that much in Germany, for instance, but in Norway it will be
_extremely_ strong.  (Norway is not a member of the EU but is most
definitely part of Europe.  We have had a lot of very lively public
debate and a referendum on the issue recently.)  People will feel
either that the FSFE does not concern them, or will associate it with
the so-called `European' movement.

In short, using the EU flag in the FSFE's logo will be widely regarded
as a political move, even if not intended.  I think that it's a bad
idea for the FSFE to get mixed up in political issues that are
entirely orthogonal to free software.

> Strangely, despite Africa being far less united politically than
> europe, the choice of a symbol recognisable as meaning africa would
> be far easier!!

I don't think so, actually.  But that's OT for this list, so let's not
get into it...

-- 
Gaute B Strokkenes                      http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~gs234/
My nose feels like a bad Ronald Reagan movie...