Wonders! I've got Wonders for Sale!

June 2007 – We are closing in on the final selection date for the 7 wonders of the contem- porary world. The project has gained widespread publicity in all media around the world and I am here to question the legacy and validity of its selection process.

The New7Wonders foundation of the New Open World Corporation (NOWC) is a fantastic idea for a scam. I quite admire these people for trying but the historical community will hopefully scoff and toss aside the worldwide poll conducted by the Switzerland based organism. “Your vote counts! Help make history!” states their website. How is this impartially and objectively accomplished? 21 candidates can be voted for…as many times as you want. All you have to do is vote for the first free time and then pay each subsequent vote. The money is going to charity? Restoring historic landmarks? Promoting the new ones? No! I have no problem with this capitalist pursuit as a concept but when this corporation claims that it will “make history”, I start questioning myself as to how seriously these people take themselves. Surely, we must then also “make history” when we vote for the next has-been on American Idol.

The Corporation website also states impartial and objective terms and conditions such as: “NOWC reserves the right at its absolute discretion to exclude any votes that are cast”. This policy surely seems to strive to prevent fraud and massive bribery/vote-buying by individuals, companies or even governments. As an example, the Egyptian government complained and stated that the Great Pyramids of Gizeh’s nomination is a direct and voluntary insult toward the Egyptian Nation. The private corporation NOWC caved in to the demands and has since automatically elected the Pyramids as one of the new 7 wonders of the world.

Along with the Colossus of Rhodes, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Pharos of Alexandria, the Artemis Temple at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Great Pyramids at Gizeh were revered as one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. The term “wonder” referred to the mystical aspect of these locations, the miraculous aspect of such colossal man-made objects and the link with divinity that each one of them provided. It is true that a single man, Herodotus, chose this line up but at least he was a historian. Furthermore, Herodotus had nothing to profit from choosing one monument over another since no one could bribe him to push an agenda and most of these monuments would never have been seen by the common people.

This contest brings large sacks of money to NOWC, a nice plaque and potential tourism for the winning monuments and finally a top 7 that is meaning less due to a complete lack and disregard for methodology. These greedy people do not lack originality but they certainly lack subtlety. I invite you all to boycott or simply ignore this vote and watch the results fade into historical obscurity after the unveiling of the results on 7^th July 2007.

(Pictured: The Great Pyramids at Gizeh, only wonder left standing - The Sydney opera House, new contender)

End.

Thank you for not smoking; now here's some money.

June 1st 2007 – All around the world smoking is bad, not because of the toxic and cancer- causing substances or the chemical dependence factor but because the Western World says so. Yes, eastern countries are pressured into enforcing anti-tobacco legislation to be able to benefit from the patronage of the west.

In a concrete example, two countries have preoccupied themselves with anti-smoking advertising and legislation this week. First, the pacific island nation of Fiji has been increasing its publicity campaigns which boast such hard-hitting slogans as “the longer one smokes, the greater the risk”. They also encourage non-smoking with real approaches such as “positive behavioural changes through health promotion strategies”, powerful, powerful stuff. The article from the Fiji Times Online brings up awards and encouragements by hospitals and medical professionals…no, no wait, from the United Nations and the World Health Organisation to motivate the strong left-turn against cigarettes.

Secondly, the small, wealthy and new nation of UAE or the United Arab Emirates has gone further by informing the population of upcoming anti-smoking legislation. Soon, tobacco products will be illegal to consume in or near government buildings and in or near public spaces including bars. The article from their news website (http://www.gulfnews.com/) states that the population will support the law because it wants to stop but does not have the willpower. This, of course, is brought to us after we are told that the law was actually instated to conform to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention of Tobacco Control.

These are only two contemporary examples of non-Western countries accepting and enforcing Western values to “fit in” on the international checkerboard. You can guess that this is not a new phenomenon.

I cite the decolonisation of Africa in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. When the European masters left the countries without resources and after 70 years of administration, they left disorganised factions to fight for the power. This led to European-style conflicts with European and Western values at stake. As an example, when the Belgians left Congo (Kinshasa) in 1960, two factions were ready and willing to go to war for the power. Patrice Lumumba came out on top with a democratic reform and organised elections, something that was unheard of in this vast country and that has never happened again as of 2007. Somehow, the Congolese people fell victim to the Cold War. Lumumba’s opponents asked and received support from the capitalist Americans in return for the diamond and uranium deposits the country still contained. By consequence, Lumumba searched for support from the Communist USSR. Thus began the Cold War on the African continent. It was by an abandonment of African values and a willing submission to Western Values and conflicts. They had never read Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations or Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto but were fighting for the principles created by them. As an epilogue, it was discovered in the late 1990s that Lumumba’s mysterious disappearance in 1960 was in fact accomplished by his assassination and dissolution in a bathtub full of acid. It was also discovered that his political opponents had killed him days before the CIA assassination attempt had reached him.

This article does not condone smoking, smoking in bars or secret assassinations (thank you Freedom of Information Act) but it rather deplores the hypocritical application of western values to other nations. Some countries still have civil war but are pressured into adopting pro-environment reforms by the European Union or the World Health Organisation or the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund or the World Wildlife Fund or UNICEF or the United Nations… No one seems to see anything wrong with this, what a screwed up sense of priorities.

(Pictured: Patrice Lumumba in his 67 day term in 1960 - a smoking smoke)

End.