Monday, July 09, 2007
The Seven Wonders: UNESCO knows best
Most newshounds know that a Swiss foundation has organized a massive Internet-based campaign to name Seven "new" Wonders of the World. More than 100 million people voted online or by phone, and the results were announced today.
Voters chose the Great Wall of China; India's Taj Mahal; the centuries-old pink ruins of Petra in Jordan; the Colosseum in Rome; the statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro; the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru; and the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico.
Not surprisingly, the United Nations is outraged that these new wonders would be chosen by popular means:
The UN body for culture on Sunday blasted a private initiative that drew nearly 100 million Internet and telephone voters to choose seven "new" wonders of the world.
"This campaign responds to other criteria and objectives than that of UNESCO in the field of heritage," said Sue Williams, the spokeswoman for UNESCO, the UN cultural body that designates world heritage sites.
"We have a much broader vision," she told AFP.
Sue Williams is obviously a douche. At least in her professional capacity.
The appointed experts at the United Nations have exposed themselves as churlish fools. A private organization managed to get 100 million people to participate in an online poll about history and architecture, and how do the mandarins at UNESCO react? With delight that so many people care about our great architectural and cultural treasures? No. With outrage that the people used "criteria and objectives" different than those of UNESCO. What jackasses.
We really do not mock the United Nations nearly enough. Remind me to do that more often.
19 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Jul 09, 12:55:00 AM:
RONALD REAGAN pulled us out of UNESCO so frankly we should have absolutly nothing to do with UNESCO and its 7 wonnders or for a matter of fact their WORLD HERATAGES SITES ether SCREW UNESCO
By , at
Mon Jul 09, 03:34:00 AM:
This is a variant on the Wikipedia vs Encyclodpedia Brittanica discussion. I.e. how to weight formal expertise within a field versus the accumulated knowledge of an army of amateurs.
For my part, I use Wikipeidia almost daily and Britannica never because of the respective availability of the tools.
There is a real need for experts and persons with a "broad view". Don't get me wrong. That doesn't mean we need the UN for this kind of thing.
By , at
Mon Jul 09, 04:55:00 AM:
You don't have to mock the UN, they do it themselves.
By , at
Mon Jul 09, 06:07:00 AM:
Let us not forget how easily the internet can be manipulated.
By , at
Mon Jul 09, 06:09:00 AM:
PS:
I should have concluded my comment by reminding everyone that Ron Paul will be President based upon his appeal to those on the internet.
By , at
Mon Jul 09, 08:37:00 AM:
Not to offer a contrarian view, but it should be noted that the Swiss group isn't entirely without blame here. A few months ago, the Egyptian Director of Egyptology pointedly asked the Swiss group to remove the Great Pyramid of Giza from the list, noting that since it was already considered one of the great wonders of the world, it hardly needed a fresh vote to confirm it. They basically told him to go fly a kite.
As far as the UN goes, the pointed question is, If UNESCO had been in charge, how many mosques would have made the final cut? Or, perhaps the question should be, would there have anything but mosques on the list?
By 
Mystery Meat, at
Mon Jul 09, 09:51:00 AM:
You missed my favorite quote from the article:
"Christian Manhart, UNESCO's press officer, criticised the ballot, saying it sent out a "negative message to countries whose sites have not been retained".
This is the age of a cultural "special olympics" when everyone gets a prize and no one ever loses. Can terrorism from these disaffected, disenfranchised, dissed countries be far behind? Have we discovered another root cause?
By Purple Avenger, at
Mon Jul 09, 10:35:00 AM:
So who awarded these UNESCO pinheads this franchise? F'em and the horse they rode in on.
By Georg Felis, at
Mon Jul 09, 11:26:00 AM:
Broader vision? That explains how they can look up their own (censored) so frequently. They’re probably just upset that a statue of Christ made the list.
Oh, and Davod? Ron Paul came in Eighth :)
By , at
Mon Jul 09, 03:41:00 PM:
We really do not mock the United Nations nearly enough. Remind me to do that more often.
Ask, and ye shall receive.
By , at
Mon Jul 09, 03:43:00 PM:
Georgfelis:
The statue of Christ will be removed as soon as the ACLU, CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood get their appeal through the EU and International Criminal Court.
I stand by my comment regarding Paul. After all, as the only presidential candidate nominated, number eight still makes him number one.
By Cornelis Droog, at
Mon Jul 09, 05:37:00 PM:
Christ my Redeemer
About 100 million people over the whole world have chosen the seven new wonder of the world. … Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro …
Since Jesus Christ is Eternal God, it is blasphemy to make any kind of an “image” of Christ in ANY form. These are the words of God to the whole human race:
Exodus 20:4-5 “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD [JEHOVAH] thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” (This is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:8-9)
Romans 1:22-25 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”
By Purple Avenger, at
Tue Jul 10, 12:36:00 AM:
Pretty sure that's referring to worshiping golden calves, trees, piles of rotting sea urchins and stuff like that.
By , at
Tue Jul 10, 12:43:00 AM:
Yeah th statue of CHRIST THE REDEMER the ACLU and the various atheists wackos will demand its removal and have it replaced with a idol of the QUETZALCOATYLE and then the aztecs who were big time enviromentalists will again be sacrificing persons beneath it
By , at
Tue Jul 10, 12:52:00 AM:
Of course UNESCO is ticked off. They had already planned their great unveiling of the true Modern Wonders of the World: 1. Lenin's Tomb. 2. Mao's Great Portrait. 3. Marx's 'Das Kapital'. 4. Saddam's Sword Archway. 5. The Blue Mosque. 6. Nancy Pelosi's Gavel. 7. The UN building itself.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue Jul 10, 02:15:00 AM:
This comment has been removed by the author.
By , at
Tue Jul 10, 12:15:00 PM:
Dr. Mercury-
You ask about mosques. I believe the Taj Mahal is a mosque, it is at least Islamic architecture, with minarets and little flowery things.
I think the list is a good one, and UNESCO should go piss up a rope.
By , at
Tue Jul 10, 11:51:00 PM:
The Taj Mahal is a tomb and monument erected by the Indian Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Commissioned in 1632, it was completed in 1648.
Less well known is that the original plans called for a second mirror image of the Taj Mahal faced in black marble for the Shah's burial.
By , at
Wed Jul 11, 04:18:00 AM:
is it fashion to preach UN? donno
the so called campaign to collect voes is criteria to decide what is best in architecture.
this campaign is like "vote for taj on 7878, pride of india". it is false pride of nations which lead people to vote, mostly it is not love to architecture. those will vote who even dont know what are competitors of taj.
can u reply why pyramids are not there. what is architectural fault in dat?
it is always better to stay away from national pride conflicts when it comes to assets of human kind, like 7 wonders, and let nwutral experts to decide it from architectural view point only. rather that masses of brain washed people.
