7 New Wonders Might End Up a Joke

I found out today that there is an organization that is spearheading a movement to create a new list of seven wonders of the world. Egypt is pissed! And they should be.

Egypt is the host of the sole surviving Wonder of the Ancient World. The Pyramids of Giza. They are upset because they don't believe that the nominees for the new 7 wonders are up to par. They are right.

Here are what I consider the most ridiculous nominees:

• The Eiffel Tower in Paris
• The Statue of Liberty in New York
• The Sydney Opera House in Sydney (obviously)
• The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
• The Imperial Palace in Kyoto
• The Empire State Building in New York
• The Lotus Temple in New Delhi
  
• Big Ben in London
• The Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur
• Olympic Stadium and Park in Munich
• Houses of Parliament in London
• The London Eye in London
• Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro
• Mount Rushmore in South Dakota
• The Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa
• Burj Al-Arab Hotel in Dubai (that's right a hotel that was built 8 years ago. Woo Hoo!)
  
• The Canadian National Tower in Toronto

It seems like there is some confusion between what is a wonder and what is a landmark. Just because something is famous doesn't make it a wonder of the world. I always thought the wonder aspect had to do with the fact that people were able to construct these incredible objects with very primitive methods. The Wonders of the Ancient World were amazing feats of construction that make you sit back and wonder at how they could have been built by that civilization at that time. Not, "I wonder how that piece of shit got on the list."

The Statue of Liberty just doesn't cut it.

Imagine people looking at it in 1000 years. "Wow! Look at that statue! How could they have possibly made that thing with the primitive engineering skills of the 1800's? What kind material did they use for it? Oh copper!! Very impressive!"

The only way the Statue of Liberty could ever be considered a wonder would be if it had been built 2000 years ago!

Same deal for most of the above objects. If it was built using modern engineering and modern materials it's kind of like cheating. Today there is no limit to what can be built. Maybe a wonder of architecture but certainly not a wonder of the world. Here a good rule of thumb. If it contains steel girders it's not a wonder of the world.

In fact a lot of the nominees seem to be on the list more out of national pride. You can really tell the demographics of where the people nominating these 'wonders' live. As far as I'm concerned there should not be any items listed for the Americas, other than the pre-Columbian structures of Central and South America and possibly the Panama Canal.

Don't get me wrong there are some "real" wonders on the list. Like The Great Wall of China, Stonehenge and the Colosseum. I just think it would be a real tragedy to have the joke places on the list above make the final list. It would be the equivalent of having a list of the 7 greatest paintings of all time and having a movie poster make the list.

They also want you to suggest a possible slogan for the New 7 Wonders campaign. I think the only American slogan listed really sums it up well: " Out with the old, in with the new! Vote at New7Wonders.com!" What an ignorant fuck!

So you fight the power Egypt! The pyramids are in a whole different class. This whole New 7 Wonder thing reeks of commercialism. Please don't allow these false wonders to befoul the list. We only want "WONDERS" not "LANDMARKS".

Go to New 7 Wonders and vote to make sure that we don't end up with a list of jokes as our 7 Wonders of the World.