Red Cross symbol to change to Red Crystal
Ivan | Fri, 2009-06-12 00:35
British foreign Office minister Chris Bryant said that the historic emblem of the red cross risked undermining the work of the humanitarian organization, because of the religious connotations of the cross and crescent symbols currently used by the international body.
The cross apparently references the cruel crusades of the medieval times against people living in the Middle East.
In fact the red cross on white background was never meant to reference the religious symbol of Christian cross. It's a reverse of the Swiss flag and it represents the neutrality just like Switzerland does.
I think this is a typical case of overdoing political correctness. I feel that the red cross is a symbol that is extremely well known world wide and to change it to any other symbol would do more harm than good. In a tense military situation where soldiers suffer from tunnel vision one should not experiment with new symbols. The red cross means stop fire, it's no danger. Do we really want to rely on false identification in such life and death situations?
In Muslim countries the red crescent was introduced, which I think was a bad idea. This differentiation of the cross and crescent only highlighted the false interpretation of the red cross as being a religious symbol. Now with the introduction of the red crystal we open up another Pandora's box and add to the confusion.
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...I really do.
This is really unfortunate, and frankly more than a little foolish. When do we stop bending over backwards to avoid offending someone? This is just going too far.
Something else that should be considered, the diamond IS a symbol that shows up rather frequently on MILITARY vehicles. You know just in case the Red Cross is concerned about making any unwanted associations to something that might offend the same group they are trying to placate.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” - Albert Einstein
Might as well make it a red dot on a white background.
Ah, led amburance coming over hill.
If you keep your ears open, you'll see better.
It really IS so sad. It's like the YMCA which used to be known as the Young Men's Christian Association. And the Salvation Army. And a host of other organizations founded by Christians at the end of the nineteenth century in Europe and America to bring healing and help to the needy.
Maybe we should make a universal symbol of the red question mark.
Has this guy got nothing else to do with his time, what a load of old twat!! Maybe he should get into the real world and get a life!!
petefletcher
My thinking here is that if you're going to go so far as to alter the identity mark for religious reasons, you're opening the floodgates towards cultural collisions as well. For instance, in Japan, red is frowned upon in identity as it closely relates to blood and has a tonal quality of death.
Second, the Red Cross symbol does not reflect the Christian cross, which has a longer bottom leg and shorter arms. As Ivan mentioned, the Red Cross logo is an inversion of the Swiss flag, suggesting neutrality. It has no religious undertones.
From a practical standpoint, medical personnel on the battlefield will likely still get shot if they tout a crescent on their uniform rather than a red cross.
As always, the deity is in the details, but the Red Cross shouldn't concern itself with whichever deity a culture chooses to worship.
Craig Michael Patrick
http://cmpatrick.com
They can't be serious with this move, their name is "THE RED CROSS" would they become the Red Diamond, or Red Crystal, or ? COME ON! This is just PC Crap gone crazy!
Diamonds are hardly an icon lacking in symbolism. To my mind they're associated with hideous mines in Sierra Leone, global greed and abject poverty. Not that it matters in reality given that it's just a graphic symbol, but if you're going to split hairs over the shape of a cross....
I can't believe that the "powers that be" would contemplate replacing a trusted, well known (and untarnished) identity, just to appease an issue that I don't think actually exists... ie. is anybody "actually" offended by the shape of a cross in this context, or is it just that somebody might be?
The real crunch though is the size of the branding job. How many vehicles, how many random bits of signage. Where do the funds come from.... could it be the money that the red cross would have used for something useful such as saving lives?!
Chris Bryant, you're fired.
Red Cross without a Cross?? It's known world wide already... this is a bad idea.
http://chriskalis.tumblr.com/
Interesting that on Eastern European forums people found the diamond to be particularly funny as it is a symbol for the female genital organ. Just like the Renault logo this will be met with smiles and frowns in those areas.
Next people will be offended by ..... well, anything!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
I am not Steve Ballmer pretending not to be me!
the cross on the swiss flag definitely HAS its roots in christianity. you can do research about the history of the swiss flag ;) but it's not important in this case. i mean, where does our civilization end, if we are thinking about saving lifes as an offense when it's done under cross or crescent or star?! i can't believe that anyone in need would have problem to accept helping hand just because it's signed by whatsoever sign? come on! are our religious differences more important than life itself?!?! darn, we are doomed!
I don't agree with them changing up the cross symbol either, however, if they are adamant about it, why not just reverse out a symbol in the cross-hair area of the red cross so that they've covered their political asses yet not destroyed the fundamental logo itself.
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
I've been worried about the adoption of the crystal image ever since I saw a photo in which it was half-obscured by a vehicle. The remaining top-half of the logo looked exactly like the 'friendly forces' inverted V that the US, UK and other military forces use on their tanks and vehicles.In other words, it looks like a tempting target to many armed groups.
And why is the Swiss National flag has cross? cause it's religiously related to christianity and crusade belief