Yesterday I wrote at 7 new wonders: patriotism and business about the topic of election of the “7 new world wonders”, organised by a swiss firm with commercial reasons. While the first vote is free, any additional vote is not. Why would anyone vote more than once? In some countries big campaigns have been set to make internet users vote to, I suppose, leave the nation’s honor high.

Now, one of things I stated in that entry was that the election was organised by a private firm and not the UNESCO, that would be the institution that should validate this initiative in case it was actually relevant. But it turns out, that when reading the spanish newspaper El Pais I found this:

The swiss millionaire Bernard Weber organizes the contest, supported by the UNESCO an in which one can vote through e-mail, telephone and mobile messages.

The UNESCO supports the contest? I assumed the journalist Carmen Perez-Lanzac had access to information posted after my entry on the topic. So the first thing I did was go to official 7 new wonders site. And with the assumption that such information would be standing out in the site, since UNESCO’s support would be of enormous importance. And I found nothing; not only no mention about the subject in the homepage, but neither in the press news or any other sections. However, checking out the page dedicated to expert panel that participate in the event, I found out the president of the panel is Federico Mayor, an spanish citizen who was general director of UNESCO. But he participates in the contest as an individual an not in representation of the organisation, as the Wikipedia states.

I went to the UNESCO site. I checked the press official news with several search. I found nothing. Unfortunately, the note at the spanish newspaper El Pais has no links to any site where the UNESCO’s support to the contest appears, and I take for granted that the journalist checked that info before publishing. But at least with the public information that is in the Net, I haven’t been able to verify that affirmation. Now, I don’t know what to think. That a commercial initiative is presented as something supported by an international institution such as the UNESCO is something serious, and deserves attention.

If anyone has more information to clear our doubts, it would be really good .

A few months ago, many media started promoting a contest about the “New 7 wonders of the world“. Such task is not being carried ahead by the UNESCO or any other relevant global organisation, but by a private company that charges for every additional vote for a “new wonder” -the first one is free when issued on the web, but you’ll have to pay if you want to do it through SMS. The worst thing is that several countries have launched strong campaigns to promote the vote for its country’s “wonders”. That is, their citizen, in the name of national pride, have to increase the profits of a private company that is making business of a contest of argueable seriousness.

At Viaje Aqui, carioca Ricardo Freire says something quite interesting:

It’s an insult to intelligence to place Machu Picchu, Angkor, Isla de Pascua Islands, the Coliseum, the China Wall, Egypt’s and Chichen Itza’s pyramids next to the Liberty Statue, the Corcovado Christ and the Cinderella Castle in Baviera. Excuse me? Cinderella’s Castle?

An acclaration, just in case, the castle is in fact called Neuschwanstein, and Disney based in it to make Cinderella’s.

Tony Galvez’ blog de Viaje a Brasil also talks about the 7 new wonders of the world topic.

It’s not worth spending money in this. It’s not even recognized by an important organisation, so don’t waste your time and money in these things. The real sad thing is that there are governments that are taking this seriously, and spending public funds in promoting something that has no real value, like being recognized by UNESCO.

UPDATE: the egyptian government complays about the lack of seriousness of the contest, which they consider of poor scientific value. More at this link (spanish).