A 16th century monument to love redeemed by 21st century technology!
Contributor July 14th, 2007
It appears that a Swiss based organisation – New7Wonders Foundation – had organized this global poll through their website – www.new7wonders.com — in which people could vote for their favourite monument either on-line or by phone or through text messages (SMS). The Foundation was created in 2001 by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber, ‘with a mission to protect humankind’s heritage across the globe’, as stated in their website. What is their locus standi to conduct such a poll? And why did people the world over get so worked up on such a non-issue?
These questions remained unanswered till date. While some hint can be gathered from another line in the Foundation’s website which states – ‘All New7Wonders voters are Members. In order to register your vote, you must provide us with several required details’. It is thus obvious this organisation has managed a massive database of e-mail addresses, landline phone numbers and mobile phone numbers. There could be some marketing organisation behind this or I suspect it is the work of a consortium of mobile phone operators who have made money on getting millions and millions of SMSs sent/exchanged during this entire exercise. In India, at least, it is very common practice to induce people to send SMSs, for the slightest of reasons, all adding up to massive revenues for these service providers. Virtually every programme on TV and FM radio in India is requesting for SMS responses for one reason or the other.
When I was young, and that was many many moons ago, we read in books on General Knowledge about the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World and the Seven Wonders of the World. That was it. We never questioned who voted them in or who set up any Foundation to select them. The Seven Ancient wonders included: The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in then Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and areas around), the Temple of Zeus in Greece, the Colossus of Rhodes on the Island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea, the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt, the temple of Artemis in Greece and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in ancient Greece. All these wonders were those that were built between 3000 BC and 5th Century AD.
We also had a list of the Seven Wonders of the World and without any question, the Taj Mahal found a place in that list. Always counted among the man-made marvels of the world, the Taj Mahal has refound pride of place in a new list of seven wonders virtually ‘elected’ to that position by people around the globe.
There is no doubt that the Taj, as the Taj Mahal is normally referred to, is the most photographed and thus the most visible monument in the world. In the list of seven wonders that were announced by the New7Wonders Foundation at a gala ceremony held in Lisbon, to coincide with the date 07.07.07, Bollywood actor Bipasha Basu did the honours. In this list of Seven Wonders announced are included the Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, Statue of Christ Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, Pyramid of Chichen Itza in Mexico and the Roman Colosseum.
While there has been huge media hype surrounding the campaign launched in 2000, it has also drawn criticism. UNESCO disassociated itself with the campaign when it reaffirmed that it has no link with the initiative, which it says would reflect — “only the opinions of those with access to the internet”. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 when it was described as a “universally admired masterpiece of the world’s heritage.”
After the launch of the voting campaign in 2000, the nominations were whittled down by public votes to 77 in 2006. This was further shortened to a list of 21 by a panel of architectural experts chaired by former UNESCO Chief FM Zaragoza. These twenty-one finalists were announced on 1 Jan 2006. Some in Egypt saw it as competition to the status of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the only surviving monument of the original Ancient Wonders. Egyptian Culture Minister Farouq Hosni said the project was “absurd” and described its creator, Weber, as a man “concerned primarily with self-promotion”. Nagib Amin, an Egyptian expert on World Heritage Sites, has pointed out that “in addition to the commercial aspect, the vote has no scientific basis.”
After complaints from Egypt, the Pyramid was given special status and removed from the voting list. A look at the website of the organisers of this campaign, states – ‘The New7Wonders Foundation designates the Pyramids of Giza — the only one remaining of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World — as an Honorary New7Wonders candidate, and removed it from the voting’. We thus have the odd situation of having an additional Wonder in an honoray capacity! Amongst the criticism levied, some have alleged that this campaign is strongly influenced by patriotism, especially since they allowed voting through internet and SMSs. Some countries have also given special incentives to voters so that the nominated Wonder from their countries could win. Nominees such as the Easter Island’s Moai statues and Angkor Wat were at the top of the rankings until eventually the choice was influenced by those with high mobile penetration or internet access.
Yet, some refute this ‘patriotism argument’ with the fact that while voting on the official website one had to vote for seven nominees and not only one, thus favoring the election of Wonders of real worldwide importance and meaning. Interestingly enough the website of the Foundation does not make any mention of its legal or other status. It simply asks you to vote as per your choice. Nor is there any apparent independent auditing to verify the accuracy of its poll results. In fact it has no known voter base or qualifications for voting nor is there any means of checking the number of times any one individual has voted by SMS.
To explain away these and other anomolies in the process the Foundation issued a Press Release, which, in parts, reads – ‘There is no comparison between Mr Weber’s mediatised campaign and the scientific and educational work resulting from the inscription of sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. 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.’
There is a very interesting side to this poll just concluded. It shows up the telecom revolution that India has gone through. Imagine the roughly 165 million mobile phones in use in India doubling up as voting machines! India’s youthful millions, aided by technology, voted favourably and thus effectively prevented the Taj from being eased out. In fact, there was clear danger of such a situation occuring, when global polling first began to decide the new Wonders when Indians were horified to discover that the Taj was languishing in the list at a low twenty first position.
This led to considerable panic since every one believed there could not be any threat to the Taj’s pre-eminent position. Following early alarming reports of a very sluggish start, a campaign to save the monument began in June with a Mumbai based marketing agency taking up the cause. Indian print and electronic media soon swung into action, running slick national campaigns urging viewers to vote for the Taj through SMS.
By all standards the campaign was a runaway success. Mughul Emperor Shah Jehan’s 16th century monument to love has been redeemed by 21st century technology!