This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Khmer-Related, News, Travel, Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The 8th Wonder of the World
Rate It!
(12 votes, average: 3.83 out of 5)
Loading ...Angkor Wat did not make the New Seven Wonders of the World
Despite my best efforts to promote Angkor Wat on my popular blog, I am saddened to announce that we did not make the new “Seven Wonders of the World” as determined by www.new7wonders.com.
Just like previous attempts to name the world’s seven wonders, this one is seriously flawed and arbitrary. The new method is based on electronic votes casted through the internet and cell phone text messages.
The New Seven Wonders were announced on July 7, 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal at a celebrity-studded ceremony televised in more than 170 countries to an estimated 1.6 billion viewers. The winners are:
- The Great Wall of China
- India’s Taj Mahal
- Jordan’s ancient city of Petra
- Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru
- Brazil’s Statue of Christ the Redeemer
- Mexico’s Chichen Itza pyramid
- Italy’s Colosseum
Of these, only the Great Wall, which stretches over 4,000 miles and is the only man-made structure visible from space, clearly belongs on the list.
Since many of the 100 million votes came from Latin America, it’s hardly surprising that Machu Picchu of Peru, Brazil’s Statue of Christ the Redeemer, and Mexico’s Chichen Itza made the list. However, it is hard to conceive how any of these sites could top Angkor Wat in a fair and objective selection process. For instance, Brazil’s 100-foot Christ the Redeemer statue is only 75 years old and took just 10 years to erect. By contrast, Angkor Wat, the largest religious temple in the world, is more than 800 years old and covers more than 200 acres of ground.
The voting allowed one free vote to registered members and charged a fee for additional votes. In Brazil, there was a campaign Vote no Cristo (Vote for the Christ) which had the support of the country’s telecommunications firms to allow Brazilians to cast text message votes at no charge. The “Vote for Christ” slogan, which can be seen on bumper stickers throughout North America, seems to call on people to vote on their religious faith rather than the statue’s architectural merits. If you’re Christian, I think you’d be hard pressed not to vote for Christ.
Previous attempts to name the Seven Wonders had favored Greco-Roman structures. The Great Pyramids of Giza was withdrawn from the voting but was honored anyway as “Honorary Candidate” to placate the Egyptians’ indignation that their site should be included automatically rather than having to be voted on. As if the vote’s credibility isn’t already undermined by its own dubious methodology and outcome, there are actually eight wonders on the list of seven, counting the Great Pyramids’ special honorary status.
Perhaps we Cambodians should demand a similar special honor for Angkor Wat as well because it clearly dwarfs many of the current selections in size, splendor and architectural sophistication. After all, if there are already eight “wonders” on the list of seven, what’s wrong with having nine, ten, or even twenty?
I’ve had some misgivings about the voting from the beginning because Cambodia has a population of just 14 million, compared to 522 million in Latin America and over a billion each in China and India. Moreover, internet access is quite limited and expensive in Cambodia. For instance, unlimited broadband access costs almost $900 a month, not a trivial amount by any standards, but an astronomical figure in a country whose per capita income is less than $400 a year. Internet usage is largely restricted to foreigners and English-speaking Cambodians at internet cafes charging users hourly fees.
Despite Cambodia’s small population and highly limited internet access, I figured that Angkor Wat would have no problem making the Seven Wonders list given the sheer number of Asian tourists who visit Angkor each year. As it turned out, while the world’s two most populous countries, China and India, each had their sites, the Great Wall and Taj Mahal, respectively, selected, Asians tended not to vote as a unified bloc.
While the selection of the “New Seven Wonders” is trivial and worthless from a scientific standpoint, the huge sensationalism that surrounds this preposterous undertaking could lead to serious and far-reaching consequences. Cambodia, an impoverished country still reeling from decades of civil war and genocide, relies heavily on tourism revenues for its recovery. Apart from being an insult to Cambodians everywhere, the marginalization of Angkor could eat away at the desperately needed dollars generated by cultural tourism to the country.
Although the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the world body responsible for overseeing the restoration of World Heritage sites, has vehemently dismissed the Swiss-born Bernard Weber project and said it would reflect “only the opinions of those with access to the internet,” the massive fanfare created by the campaign could lead to public confusion about who the true Seven Wonders of the World are, leading to deleterious reallocation of restoration funds from truly deserving sites to less deserving ones.
If there is such a thing as the Eighth Wonder of the World, it would not be Angkor Wat, but the mere fact that this magnificent monument was not selected among the Seven Wonders. Anyone who has visited Angkor Wat can attest to its grandeur, sublime beauty and architectural splendor. In fact, Angkor Wat is just one of the many temples in an archaeological area stretching over some 400 sq. km. The complex, collectively known as “Angkor” (which means “city” in Khmer), is home to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple, many other magnificent remains of the once-mighty Khmer Empire which ruled from the 9th to the 15th century. Although Angkor Wat is the largest and most beautiful of them all, Angkor Thom and Bayon could have easily been nominated for the Seven Wonders as well. But don’t take my word for it– go visit Angkor and judge for yourself whether or not Angkor Wat belongs to the World’s Seven Wonders list.
About the Author:
Oudam Em is a Cambodian-American blogger committed to using the internet to promote Khmer pride, unity and prosperity. Please visit his Cambodia blog (http://www.oudam.com) for more articles related to Cambodia.
Please feel free to email, distribute, or republish this article. All that I ask is that you link back to www.oudam.com.
24 Responses to “The 8th Wonder of the World”
Leave a Reply
July 8th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
The foreigners don’t respect Khmer people because we let our sisters and daughters run around with ugly bald white men. Just go to Cambodia and take a look around.
July 8th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
I was really sad when Angkor Wat was passed by. It should definitely be on the list of seven wonders.
You’re right. Cambodia is a small country and has restricted access to the Internet. There just isn’t enough media coverage to get Angkor Wat on the global map.
When you consider that Brazilians were encouraged to vote for the Christ Redeemer, it hardly seems fair, especially when the statue is less than 150 years old. Cambodia’s Angkor Wat is priceless and deserves its place on this list.
July 8th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Carrie,
Brazil’s Christ Redeemer was actually opened to the public in 1931 and took just 10 years to build. The statue is actually just 75 years old.
It’s scandalous that it’s even nominated for the World’s Seven Wonders at all, let alone selected to the list.
I think the results speak for themselves, as far as the credibility of the selection is concerned.
July 9th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I am Brazilian and I totally agree with you. Here in Brazil there was a huge campaign for voting for Christ the Redeemer. It is very beautiful, but not one of the 7 wonders of the world, not in a million years.
The problem is, Brazilians were told by these campaigns that if the statue was elected as a new wonder, tourism would blossom, millions of job opportunities would be created, and basically all our problems would be solved. As we are very conformists and do nothing to effectively solve our problems, every once in a while we need to create these illusions that we are in the best country in the world (we are the best in soccer, we have the prettiest women in the world, we now have one of the seven wonders)…
Just for an example, 2 months ago there was a huge scandal regarding the parking lots around Christ the Redeemer. For about ten years, the money that we paid for parking our cars near the big statue, that should go to our National Secretary of the Environment, was going to the pockets of a gang formed by drug lords with the blessing of high-ranked Military Police officers. Does anyone talk about what they did with these people? No, and after all this is the best country of the world.
July 9th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I like the statue of Christ the Redeemer but I don’t think it was a justifiable decision to put it in the same league as Stonehenge, The great Wall of China, The Colosseum, The Easter Island Statues etc. These structures are thousands of years old, the statue of Christ the redeemer is about 75 years old!
I think that Angkor Wat is less famous than The Taj Mahal and that’s why they didn’t choose it, I think that the people who made the list wanted to have different types of wonders and since they chose to have the Taj Mahal, they couldn’t have another temple / mausoleum i.e. Angkor Wat.
Also, since they chose the Great Wall of China and The Taj Mahal, they couldn’t choose a third wonder from Aisia.
It’s funny however that they chose the pyramids in Egypt and Petra in Jordan considering that they are very close to each other.
Why did they choose the pyramids? They’re already on the original list anyway!
July 9th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Another contributive factor is the fact that many counties don’t have a great deal of people with access to the internet, and couldn’t vote. Another factor is media coverage, in England there was ZERO media coverage, I didn’t even find out that they were putting a new list together until after the list had been made. So therefore I can’t picture English people voting (since they didn’t even know about it.)
I definitely think Angkor Wat should be on the List, along with Stonehenge and The Easter Island Statues.
P.S. Sorry I misspelled Asia on my first post.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Certainly an informative post, but parts of it are ABSURD. You say:
“I had a bad feeling about the voting from the beginning because internet access is relatively scarce in Cambodia, and our country has a population of just 14 million, compared to 522 million in Latin America.”
Guess what? Jordan has only 5 million people, and yet Petra made the list. While campaigns to vote for Petra were also made in Jordan, every voter had to pay, and no campaign like those made in brazil were created.
I understand you are upset that a great wonder like the Angkor Wat didn’t make it to the list of the new seven wonders, but that doesn’t make the list dubious or unscientific.
Was money involved? Yes. Was it biased to those with internet access? Yes. But guess what: this time, 100 million people decided the new 7 wonders of the world, the old list of “Seven Wonders of the World” was decided by 2 people. This is certainly a list that more represents what the people think. [I said more, it still isn’t perfect as I indicated at the beginning of this paragraph]
Also, the whole thing about Egypt was misunderstood. What they said wasn’t that the pyramids where the only wonder of the world, but that it is the only remaining wonder of the original Seven Wonders of the World list, which is absolutely true.
Furthermore, the pyramids isn’t really the 8th wonder, its just an “Honorary Candidate” - not an honorary winner.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Just to further update my post regarding Jordan: no, Jordan isn’t an oil-rich country, its people don’t have lots of money. So you can’t assume that the five million people voted ten times as much to keep in balance.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Oudam,
I read your blog and I couldn’t agree more. It’s not fair at all. The basis of the votes was not right. To have something considered as a wonder of the world cannot be made in good judgment by a popular vote. The Khmer Empire and spanned for 630 years with the Angkor Wat site alone being anywhere from 850 to 890 years old to date. Although I have never been to Angkor Wat and it is not considered a new wonder of the world, I will and would much rather visit Angkor Wat than a statue that is only 75 years old.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I think some of your arguments are valid and I certainly concur that the contest was unfair and poorly organized.
However, with all due respect I must point out that after having participated in such contest, instigating people to vote for it, you are now in my opinion not qualified to point out the unfairness of a process you once condoned.
That said, I must point out I have only seen Angkor Wat in movies and pictures, but I was more impressed and “marveled” by those than by my visit to the Cristo Redentor. It has a nice view and it’s certainly not a work to be dismissed, but I can easily think of seven other things more qualified to be on the list.
Just my opinion.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:46 am
I’m Brazilian, but I agree with what was said before. There was a great amount of campaign for people to vote on the Christ, so I went to the website to vote for, but when I looked at the other options available, I decided that no matter how much I would like my city (Rio de Janeiro) to win, it simply did not deserve it compared to others. It really didn’t deserve because it is rather quite modest compared to the others, the only way it could have had a chance was if you included the sorrounding scenery and viw, which is bresthtaking, but that is not man-made.
I voted for Angkor and I’m sad that brazilian national pride and our endless seek for international approval have distorted the vote. And I strongly agree with the author’s last paragraph and think that it applies strongly to my country and city.
July 9th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Eyas,
Let’s not overlook the fact that Jordan spared no effort in their campaign to promote Petra. Millions of votes were cast by government and private sector entities, including ministries, schools, professional associations, businesses, and hospitals.
Furthermore, there is considerable regional unity in the Arab world, so it really doesn’t matter that Jordan has only 5 million people.
As for the Great Pyramids’ being the “8th Wonder” or an “Honorary Candidate,” I think it’s just an issue of semantics highlighting the inherently flawed notion that seven sites can be picked from the pool of the world’s wonders, either by cultural experts, online voting, or whatever.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I personally don’t think the statue of Christ the Redeemer should be apart of the wonders at all. Sure it’s big, but it’s not even a century old yet and what kind of history does it hold? Not much that I know of. I’m just going to keep it short and simple.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
That just tell you that the new seven wonder of the world is worthless, and people are bias to their own symbol and the fact that our world has become more artificial. The whole deal is a big marketing ploy!!!
I totally agree with Khmer Guy, after my visit to Cambodia, I’m disgusted by the sight of our people (young girls) being exploited by foreigners for a mere few dollars. I think the government should stop worrying about building new casino and karaoke bars and start investing in the youths of Cambodia, our infrastructure, and the educational system. Basically, you can put a suit on a monkey, but you can’t take the monkey out of the man. You know what I mean… I encourage all Khmer expats with talent to come back to Cambodia and lend your expertise b/c the Country really need you!!! God! What on earth has happened to our once great and beautiful nation???????????
July 10th, 2007 at 11:38 am
First of all, I understand that many are dissapointed that Ankor Vat wasn´t among the seven winners. Ankor Vat is a true wonder and It¨s in fact a big scandal the the statue i Rio was among the seven winners and Ankor Vat was not. In fact its incredible that the statue was nominated at all.
Then to the pyramids i Egypt. I´m not from Egypt but I can understand that the egyptians were angry, when the pyramids in the first place should compete with the others. My oinion is as fallows:
If you have a list with the seven wonders in the world it´s totally ridicolous to even suggest that the pyramids dooesn´t belong to the list. They are probably the most famous and legendary buildings ever constructed and these icredible buildings were built without any help from modern technology at all, they even didn´t use the wheel. They are also much older than any of the new wonders. And most important of all. They are the only surviving monuments from the ancient seven wonders. If a monument have been a “wonder” since around 400 BC, how ca it suddenly not be it?
Finally to the proud people of Cambodia:
Ankor Vat is one of the most impressing structers ever made and surely deserve a place among the seven wonders, no qestion about that.
July 10th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
With all due respect to the author and those who have taken their time to reply, you may be missing the point of the New 7 Wonders exersize.
While I too am disappointed by the exclusion of Angkor as well as a couple of others, this contest was not a scientific poll and I have never seen any of the organizers selling it as one.
It is impossible to scientifically measure completely subjective preferences.
Ask yourselves the question: Which is more beautiful, Angkor, or the Taj Mahal?
Is there a wrong answer to that question?
The statue in Rio de Janeiro has its own aesthetic merits, completely unlike those of Angkor, Petra or any of the other sites.
To get mad at one of the choices, in my opinion, misses the spirit of the competition which was to highlight human achievements worldwide.
It does not matter so much who had more internet users… if it did, the Statue of Liberty or another American landmark would have certainly made the final cut. Still, the list may not be perfect in many eyes, but it is a nice list nonetheless, reflecting world opinion, even if in an imperfect way.
The New 7 Wonders are what they are: a result of a well intentioned but unscientific poll.
To try to explain the results or argue against them on the basis of “scientific” principles (look to the author’s comparison of the size or age of the sites) misses the point.
My opinions–which on the basis of the poll count about as much as anyone else’s–would have placed Angkor in the final list along with the Sydney Opera House. Still, I can appreciate that the world may look a little different through my eyes than it does through someone else’s.
July 10th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Kris,
I have to agree with the author that Cambodia’s Angkor Wat was robbed of their rightful among the Seven Wonders.
The flawed election (and results) could have harmful effects since:
(1) It allows organized manipulation by government and corporate entities. In Brazil there was a “Vote for Christ” campaign organized by major telecommunications firms to allow Brazilians to cast text message votes for free.
In Jordan a government sponsored campaign was responsible for millions of votes from public institutions including schools, universities and hospitals.
Why didn’t the Statue of Liberty beat out Christ Redeemer, you ask? Well, for one there was not a similar “Vote for Freedom” campaign in the U.S. to support the Statue of Liberty.
(2) The flawed results could unfairly drive tourism to countries whose monuments do not deserve to be elected among the seven wonders at the expense of those who do. The flawed method and media attention on the vote can cause countries like Cambodia to lose tourist revenues.
So you see, it’s not about seeing the world through different eyes as it is about inviting organized manipulation of a flawed method and presenting it as a “democratic” election.
July 10th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
I agree with Rick. The Statue of Liberty is three times as tall as Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer and is 40 years older, and you can argue that Liberty has greater historical significance than Christ Redeemer. If there was a “Vote for Freedom” campaign in America, it wouldn’t have had any problem being selected among the “New Seven Wonders”. This just goes to show you why the vote is completely bogus. I just don’t understand why it received so much media attention, which, as Rick points out, can hurt many countries’ images and tourism.
July 11th, 2007 at 2:57 am
There are many wonders around the world, so it´s almost impoosible to present a list with seven wonders that it´s 100 % correct. Beside Ankor Vat (it was a true robbery) i see other candidates which deserve a place much more than the christ statue in Rio De Janeiro like Alhambra, Panteon in Athens or even the Versailles palace to mention a few.
The pyramids in Egypt are untouchable of reasons i mentioned above but if i choose a wonder from the 20 th centery it would be the Panama canal. It´s not beatiful like Taj Mahal etc but it was a incredible achivement to build the canal. It was in fact considered almost impossible to build at all.
July 11th, 2007 at 3:41 am
To prevent misunderstandings about the untouchable pyramids i mean the arguments i mentioned in post number 15.
July 11th, 2007 at 7:40 am
Poor Chinese!! They have a new wonder of the world and could not fabricate a souvenir, out of it.
I would say, in ten years nobody will remember about this poll. But their results are somehow interesting…
July 16th, 2007 at 5:40 am
[…] Oudam.com suggests a new idea for Angkor: Perhaps we Cambodians should demand a similar special honor for Angkor Wat as well because it clearly dwarfs many of the current selections in size, splendor and architectural sophistication. After all, if there are already eight “wonders” on the list of seven, what’s wrong with having nine, ten, or even twenty? […]
September 16th, 2007 at 3:36 am
well, even though Angkor Wat lost in the contest, many ppl get to know it more. they know that Angkor Wat belongs to Cambodian not Thai.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:52 am
The list of the new Seven Wonders of the World is not credible. Any thinking person would know the Pyramids of Egypt and the Temple of Angkor far exceed the Statue of Christ the Redeemer and even Petra in size, complexity, age and historical significance. Words of mouth from tourists will spread that the statue of Christ the Redeemer is impressive but in no way one of the seven wonders of the world. The glory of Angkor and the Egyptian pyramids will forever recognized by humanity, regardless of any voting.