The results have been revealed and I’m not impressed. Though when you look at them they’re all obviously wonders, something is bothering me about this list.
But before I get to that, I said last time that I’ll tell you which ones I voted for, in the order in which I picked them. So here it goes, along with explanations:
– The Great Wall of China – Doubt I need any explanations for this. If I had to pick only one wonder to vote for, it would have certainly been this. You just can’t compare it to anything else.
– Stonehenge – While certainly far from the greatness of The Great Wall, I strongly feel that it’s an undeniable wonder of the world. It was an incredible feat of engineering for it’s time, and it’s durability it’s still a reason for awe. Shrouded in a mist of mystery and legend, yet still having a deep significance even today, this place deserves reverence.
– The Easter Island Statues – They’re even more mysterious than Stonehenge and their very existence is a wonder. Even if for this fact alone, I think they deserved to be on the list, albeit to a lesser extent than The Great Wall and Stonehenge.
– Angkor Wat – I couldn’t tell you why did this place stick in my mind, but it did. It simply felt right to vote for it.
– Taj Mahal – Exquisite… And this might sound strange, but Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat are somehow linked in my mind. If I think about one, I immediately also think about the other. That said, I only picked Taj Mahal after Angkor Wat because the list was sorted alphabetically.
– Neuschwanstein Castle – I know, there was no point in voting for this. But it looks to be not only from another time, most of the candidate sites look like that, but from another world as well, transporting you into a fantasy realm. I’m not talking only about the castle itself, but also about the setting. And no, I didn’t know about it before I went to vote, it was a decision made on the spur of the moment. Actually, Neuschwanstein Castle and Alhambra were the only candidates that I didn’t know about, or you could also add Kiyomizu Temple to that list in the sense that I didn’t exactly know about it, just about what it represented. I wanted to vote for Petra instead of Neuschwanstein Castle even before sending in my vote, and even more so after, but I didn’t change my initial list, not even to include Petra at #7.
– Acropolis – Choosing the last one was probably the hardest. After eliminating Petra as an option for #7 because I didn’t initially put it as #6, I was left with Acropolis, Chichen Itza, Colosseum and Machu Picchu. Seeing as I couldn’t make a rational choice between them, I allowed myself to go to the more familiar territory, ancient Europe, which narrowed it down to two. And the final choice between them was pretty much random.
Need to note that I voted for The Great Wall of China and Stonehenge by phone as well.
Now, the official list in alphabetical order:
– Chichen Itza
– Christ the Redeemer
– The Colosseum
– The Great Wall of China
– Machu Picchu
– Petra
– Taj Mahal
Plus the honorary position of the only ancient wonder still standing, The Great Pyramid.
When I first saw the official list I was very disappointed, but then I started thinking. Clearly, Stonehenge just has to be on that list, but was there any other reason? I mean, if I look at that list, they are all obviously wonders of the world, albeit of different kinds.
Firstly, out of all the five (including Petra) I considered for my last vote, the one that I finally voted for was the only one that didn’t make it into the seven! Secondly, if I’m to remove from my votes the sites that I had no real reason relating to the structure itself to vote for and replace them with those that I ended up not voting for despite the fact that I did have real reasons directly relating to the structure itself to vote for them, the only difference left would be having Stonehenge instead of Christ the Redeemer.
That’s six that I approve of out of seven. You’d think that’s quite enough, wouldn’t you? The problem is that the one that’s missing is one of the two that I’m convinced have to be on the list. So, yes, basically I’m very disappointed at the result simply because Stonehenge isn’t on the list.
As a final note, a newspaper from here published what they claim were the top ten sites less than a month before the voting deadline, right before this list was taken off the official site. That list, also ordered alphabetically, is as follows: Acropolis, Chichen Itza, The Colosseum, The Eiffel Tower, The Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Petra, The Statues from Easter Island, Stonehenge, Taj Mahal.
Which is the only one of the final seven that is not on this list of ten? Exactly… Something suspicious seems to have happened there, having one site go up at least four places in the final couple of weeks.
Just another quick post on the topic. MTV has a nice coverage of the matter. Caught a few really interesting short films there while zapping today.
Over here, there are stations taking up the cause, including themed shows throughout the day, but most news bulletins are still focused on local issues. And the concert organized here with the occasion was anything but a success. There were hardly more than a handful of people there until the last two or three acts, and only a few thousand now, towards the end.
The main problem is what I keep saying: Those who are interested in the matter are already aware of what’s going on and what they can do, while those who aren’t interested now won’t be after this either. I’m looking at the crowd response and noticing that most just don’t care about the cause.
Why do those who do care have to suffer because of the others who don’t? I mean, it’s already known that Africa is hit the hardest by global warming, yet it produces the least amount of greenhouse gases.
Promise I’ll be more coherent next time, this was just a mind dump.
If everything goes as planned, Live Earth will start in exactly three hours and there will be a full live webcast available.
Let’s see what will happen, if it will truly raise awareness or most people will just see it as the biggest party of all time. Hopefully a significant number will at least take the pledge and abide by it.
I think that successful Friends of Live Earth events will have a much greater impact that the concerts actually. (And wonder how many will attend the one organized here?)
I’ll write at least one more post on the topic after it will be all over, to comment on what happened.
Single use plastic bags are a plague for the environment, there’s no doubt about that. Taking 500 to 1000 years to decompose, they’ll probably still be in landfills, not to mention on streets or in trees, long after the human race will go extinct, at the rate we’re going. Yet most shoppers never think about that, considering only their availability and ease of use. Stores hand them out for free when you make purchases, so you don’t need to plan ahead and bring your own. Doesn’t even matter that you end up with piles upon piles of them at home, until you run out of storage space, fill a few of the larger ones with the others and throw them all away. No, most people obviously consider anything that makes them need to think less to be a good thing.
Thankfully, that very availability is slowly going away, in spite of protests from big business and even some consumers. There are many countries that are considering taxes on them, while in some, like Ireland, the taxes have already been in place for quite some time. But yet others are taking it even further and banning them completely. Bangladesh made a first attempt at it over five years ago, then Zanzibar brought it into focus and several small towns all over the world followed suit, then San Francisco put the issue on the front pages and now Boston is considering it as well.
Yet, excepting the UK, all of this seems to pass right by EU member states. Not only that, but the use of plastic bags is even enforced in some areas!
What made me write this entry is the annoyance I feel at all the very thin, transparent little plastic bags that pile up in the bread drawer of the kitchen cupboard. That happens because every loaf of bread comes in one of those, and that in turn happens because a law requires it! And correct me if I’m wrong but I think it’s an EU regulation, not just a Romanian law.
You read that right, bread needs to be stored and sold in those little plastic bags, supposedly in an effort to reduce contamination in case it is dropped before it gets on the shelf or touched by dirty hands. Some places still refuse to use the bags, and many fines have been handed out because of this, but most seem to comply. What I’m wondering is what happens if the loaf of bread is dropped before getting on shelf, which is when it’s usually put into a bag? Or what if the person putting it into the bag has dirty hands and no gloves, or dirty gloves? Or, since the bags aren’t closed in any way, what’s stopping people from touching the bread afterwards anyway, or what’s stopping the bread from falling out of the bag if it’s dropped? Not to mention that some understand compliance to the law as putting the bread into the bag right when the customer purchases it, therefore making that annoying little bag serve no purpose whatsoever.
Honestly, except littering even more and causing the bread to mold sooner, is there any point to this?
I really think we must reduce the use of plastics in general, and plastic bags especially, as much as possible and as soon as possible or we’ll end up choking in them just like that turtle and those albatross chicks… But how can you get rid of them on a large scale when lawmakers keep putting economy over environment, next month over next decade?
Don’t know how many know of this, but there is less than a week left to vote for the New Seven Wonders of the World.
It seems about time to choose some new wonders, since only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is still standing, don’t you think?
Of course, The Great Pyramid must stay on the list, and apparently it will. It actually seems that the entire complex has a Honorary New Wonder status, according to that notice. I don’t know whether that means the seven new wonders will consist of the Pyramids and six others, or there will be seven new ones plus the Pyramids. The first option would seem more reasonable to me, but I can’t seem to find what their plan really is, so if anyone knows please tell me.
Before you make your choice, if you haven’t already, you might also want to look through the shortlist of 77 from which the 21 (now 20) finalists have been chosen, just to get an idea. Actually, looking through that list makes you think there might still be hope for humanity, even if it’s lost somewhere in the mists a time when people lived slower and thought faster.
Once you do that, make your picks, register and vote. (There are two more voting options, therefore allowing you extra votes, but those cost money so I didn’t link to them. Find them on the site if you’re interested.) It just seems like something everyone should get involved in, if the list is to stand the test of time as the original one did.
Disclaimer: What foillows is a strictly personal opinion, don’t take it as an attempt to influence the vote, I certainly have nothing to gain by doing so. However, if you want to make up your own mind but feel that you might be swayed by reading my opinion, read no further until you have voted.
I feel there are certainly two candidates from that list of 20 that must make it among the final seven (or six). I’m talking about The Great Wall and Stonehenge. These two are in a league of their own, albeit for different reasons, and can’t be compared to any of the others.
I would also add a third to that list, The Easter Island Statues, though based solely on the mystery surrounding their very existence.
I’ll reveal my other four choices after the winners will be announced, on July 7th.
