hankyoreh

Jeju Island has erupted in celebration after being selected one of the “New7Wonders of Nature” by the Swiss non-profit foundation New7Wonders. The natural beauty of Jeju was already famous even without such an event, but it is good to see it receiving more global attention and earning selection as a natural wonder. We also hope this helps with the island’s development. But there are a lot of aspects that detract from the celebratory mood.

New7Wonders previously named seven wonders of the world between 1999 and 2007. At the time, the British newspaper the Independent jeered that the judging arrangements were “so flawed that they make even Eurovision Song Contest judges look objective.” It was reported that over 100 million people took part in Internet and mobile phone voting for the event, which saw the selection of such landmarks as the Great Wall of China and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, but the figures are highly suspect. One person could inflate the point totals by voting under multiple individual or organizational names without any problem.

As a result, an Internet cafe in the ancient Incan capital of Cuzco was filled for weeks with Peruvians pressing the “Machu Picchu” button to get that site listed among the wonders, and things were reportedly no different in China and Jordan, where voters were respectively pushing for the Great Wall and Petra. The Los Angeles Times reported that countries like Chile and Italy, which had little need to let the world know about Easter Island or the Colosseum, were contemptuous or apathetic about the event, and that the spread of feverish voting among emerging countries came across as a somewhat backward phenomenon. The very idea of it is questionable: using a popularity vote of questionable fairness to select seven natural wonders with their own distinctive values.

The latest selection method was little different. Just like the Peruvians in Cuzco, government employees in Jeju were assigned 500 calls a day per person to vote for Jeju night and day, and a campaign was held to raise coins from elementary school students. As a result, there was reported a total of well over 100 million votes cast for Jeju from the island alone, with some 20 billion won ($17.8 million) spent in telephone calls.

The purported aim of the effort is to preserve the heritage of humanity, but this suspect event has been carried out by a group that has disclosed little about its profit and expenditure structure and is shunned by organizations like UNESCO. Is there any value in putting this much manpower, time, and money into it, even going so far as to establish a promotional committee at the national level? And how are we to explain the way so much energy is going into an event with the major goal of protecting natural wonders when the government is feigning ignorance about a naval base construction effort that is destructive to the natural environment of Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island?

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]