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Vendaval -> "45 million vote for updated seven world wonders" (5/21/2007 1:42:43 PM)
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"45 million vote for updated seven world wonders"
Monday, May 21, 9:54 A.M, ET
" GENEVA (AFP) - More than 45 million people have voted so far in an Internet campaign to choose the seven "new" wonders of the world out of 21 shortlisted historical buildings or monuments, the organisers said Monday.
The contest, aimed at raising global awareness about the world's shared cultural heritage, was set up by a Swiss filmmaker, curator and traveller Bernard Weber, following the destruction of Afghanistan's giant Buddha statues at Bamyan by the Taliban in 2001.
In the most recent count published on May 7, the top 10 were the Acropolis in Greece, the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Coliseum in Rome, the Eiffel tower in Paris, the Great Wall of China, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, Petra in Jordan, the statues on Easter Island, Britain's Stonehenge and the Taj Mahal in India.
The organisers say they are trying to get ordinary people to follow the spirit behind the ancient seven wonders selected by intellectuals in the Mediterranean and Middle East around 200 BC. Only one of them, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, still survives.
"This is something that is supposed to create global memory, really for the first time: Seven symbols of global unity, seven symbols of shared global heritage," said New7Wonders spokeswoman Tia Viering.
"If you appreciate someone else's culture it's a lot harder to go to war with them," she told AFP.
Viering said votes were coming in from all over the world.
"We get a really incredible amount of enthusiasm from places where people are not used to voting and deciding things on their own," she added. The competition closes on July 7 when the result is due to be announced in Lisbon.
Much of the intenet and phone text message voting so far has also avoided national preferences, according to Viering.
Egypt's pyramids were granted the status of "honorary" New7Wonders candidate -- and removed from voting -- after Egyptian authorities protested that their historical value could not be called into question.
Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass dismissed the contest as a "publicity stunt" even after the change earlier this year.
"I am against this subject totally. I cannot accept a Greek historian choosing the seven wonders of antiquity and have a tourist company choosing the new ones," he said.
But Viering defended the popular vote.
"It's a different concept to what the Egyptians are saying. We think that culture is a supremely bottom up concept," she explained.
The other shortlisted sites are the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Kiyomizu Temple in Japan, the Kremlin and Red Square, Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany, New York's Statue of Liberty, the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Sydney Opera House and the ancient city of Timbuktu in Mali."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070521/wl_afp/worldculturetourism;_ylt=AoM8h2ALGTzcJG_v1UzO5SL9xg8F
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