Flag of the Day – Haiti
I mentioned Haiti in the last one of these, and as it happens – Haiti’s flag as an origin story. This is it, in brief.
Sugar cultivation in what was then Saint-Domingue was a real shit show for the slaves – but GREAT for the French Barrons, merchants and traders who amassed fortunes!
What was missing in Haiti was a Chris Coons type who might have found middle ground between the slavers and the enslaved. (Sunday’s off! or maybe 1/2 Day off from slavery every other Sunday?! Generous!) As it played out, owing to the brutality of slavery, the Haitian revolution was the story of horrific violence and and ever increasing cycles of brutality committed by whoever happened to have the upper hand at the moment.
When independence of Saint-Domingue was proclaimed after 13 years of bloodshed, Jean-Jacques Dessalines is said to have taken the French tricolor and cut out the center white strip and sewn the blue and red together.
This was not mere symbolism. It was meaningful symbolisms. One of Dessalines’ first acts was to have the Haitian Declaration of Independence written which stated:
“It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians who have bloodied our land for two centuries; … We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure the empire of liberty in the country of our birth; we must take any hope of re-enslaving us away from the inhuman government …. In the end we must live independent or die.”
Then Dessalines ordered the massacre of nearly all the remaining French white men, women, and children.
(For more on the Haitian revolution check out the Revolutions Podcast. I just finished the part on the Haitian revolution, but all of it is good.)
Anyhow, after a lot of Republicans, Kingdoms and Despotism (including the CIA backed regime of “Papa” Doc Duvalier) each with its own flag, the Republic of Haiti ended up this this flag (most recently readopted on 25 February 2012.) 
Wikipedia tells us that it is one of eight national flags whose designs incorporate a depiction of the flag itself, the others being the flags of Afghanistan, Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Venezuela.
The flag is also one of four national flags of UN member states to feature a gun, the others being those of Mozambique, Guatemala, and Bolivia.
What a tragic and bloody history! I followed you to Wikipedia to get a better look at that coat of arms at the center, and picked up the tidbit that before it propped up the murderous Duvaliers, father and son, the US actually occupied Haiti from 1915-1934. Always willing to lend a helping hand!