The whole idea of people voting for the selection of the 7 wonders is a farce!!!
We have so many man- made wonders in this world and each one is unique in its own way. What one thinks as special may not be special to the other. But I agree with the idea of ranking the monuments (It's the same as the critics rating movies every week. We accept the reviews more often than we actually think we do). So a typical person will want to know which is the best, so he can plan to visit the same.
In this case, "7 wonders" are the "best" of all the "better" monuments. (I think it would be more appropriate if I said: "7 wonders" are the "very best" of all the "best" monuments).
What I don’t agree with is the way the wonders were selected. Now lets see how the seven wonders were selected.
1) Mr. Bernard Weber comes up with a novel idea about selection of 7 wonders of this world. (He gives some reasons why he always wanted to do this!!!!). He starts an organization, (and as anyone who wants to get recognized) starts a website and finally promotes it (with the spectacular landing of his amphibian aircraft in Sydney Harbor on 15th September 2000, a week prior to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. And television stations all over the world aired this event).
2) His organization designs a set of eligibility criteria. With the help of some well-known architects, they come up with 77 candidates. Whether the expert panel visited all the sites is only a God- Known fact. (Query 1: How can anyone come up with precisely 77 amazing monuments? Why not more? Why not less? There are more than 200 countries in this world. Are there more than 100 countries with nothing expertly man- made? and finally Who are they to judge which is a wonder and which is not?)
3) The architect panel selects the 21 finalists from the pool of 77. I am very sure that the panel knows what they are doing. The panel has UNESCO's Ex-director general, Head of MIT architecture department among others. So I am sure they would have selected the best 21.
4) Now comes the best part (for the founder can make some money!!!). The people were left to select the final seven. A person is allowed to vote only once and then if he wants to vote again, he has to pay. It starts off slowly. But once you throw in some patriotism, it starts catching fire.
5) The votes were counted and the final "7 wonders" were announced at a grand function at Lisbon, Portugal.
Query 2: Did the people who participated visit all the 21 places before they judged which is better?
Query 3: If a guy is crazy enough to pay some money and vote more times, does that means it is really liked by more people? (It is in fact liked by that one particular guy who voted many times giving us a wrong conclusion that it is liked by as many people as the number of votes he had casted).
Query 4: Are people with Internet access only are the best judges of the world wonders? (My grandma thinks Tanjore temple is way too better than the Taj, but unfortunately she couldn't convey her view because of her not having Internet access!!!).
My view is very similar to that of the UNESCO's:
"The list of the 7 New Wonders of the World will be the result of a private undertaking, reflecting only the opinions of those with access to the Internet and not the entire world. This initiative cannot, in any significant and sustainable manner, contribute to the preservation of sites elected by this public"
Query 5: Why was Egypt's Great Pyramid removed from the list and inducted as an honorary member. a) Did the organization fear what would happen if people did choose their countries' monuments and left Pyramid out of their selection. b) And what if the Egyptian people don't have many Internet -accessing people and at the end c) What if the Great Pyramid is left out of the list?
Query 6: What if the private organizations in Brazil had not sponsored the campaign "Vote no Cristo"? Would the people still have voted if they hadn’t received a message from the telecom companies advertising that voting by messaging (SMS) is free?
Query 7: What if the seven million Jordanians had voted only once? Will the Petra be still among the top 7. (By the way, the 7 million people had cast 14 million votes)
So, Please don't come and tell me today "These are the Seven Wonders of the World and it was selected by the common people".
I will say: “I know what the wonders are. So F*** off!!”
P.S: By the way, I still consider Tanjore and Madurai Temples to be way too better than The Taj. No offence to the Taj, but it is anything but a simple Indo- Persian architectural building. The only way it can be in any list is if someone comes up with “7 great one-of-a kind buildings”. Not always one-of- a kind buildings are wonders and neither is the other way around. Any building that makes you say, “wow” is a wonder. For me, building a temple in tanjore where there are no mountains around or building a temple as beautiful as in madurai are always wonders. But I do agree that the Taj is on par with these two but not more. I may be wrong. I may be biased. But this is my opinion and I am sticking to it.
This makes me ponder: What if Shah Jahan had built an another building similar to the Taj Mahal on the opposite bank of the Jamuna as he had initially planned? Will the Taj be still considered a Wonder?
