JohnDas FunDas & Ideas

New 7 wonders results declared in Lisbon, Portugal on 7/7/7

The New7Wonders organization is happy to announce the following 7 candidates have been elected to represent global heritage throughout history.
Chichén Itzá, Mexico	Christ Redeemer, Brazil	The Great Wall, China	Machu Picchu, Peru
Petra, Jordan	The Roman Colloseum, Italy	The Taj Mahal, India

A R Rahman composes Taj Anthem to inspire Indians (and all lovers passionate about the Tahj) to vote for the Taz Mahal

The Taj Mahal, tomb of Mumtaz Mahal built by her widowed husband (not actually widowed - he had several other wives though he loved Mumtaz the most) who wanted to build a tomb for his favourite wife and love of his life that the world had never seen before and would never see again.

A R Rahman composed this Taj Anthem to inspire Indians (and all lovers passionate about the Tahj) to vote for the Taz Mahal .

The audio version is available as an mp3 file here :

Taj Anthem audio track download mp3

The video is here at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP-YhQPnuNI

http://www.natural7wonders.com/

was released by the new7wonders group of Weber. Mr Weber, having made enogh money with the nw7wonders campaign has decided to start a natural 7 wonders contest based on the same principle.

The fact that the new7wonders was not an officially recognised contest by the UNESCO or any world body did not prevent it from becoming one of the most furiously fought for trophies by “patriots” around the world, most of them voting multiple times for their favourite monuments and especially their country’s monuments.

India’s Taj Mahal was in 10th place not so long ago, but by vigorous campaigning by the GOVERNMENT of INDIA !!! and AR Rahman - a world famous Indian music composer, it became a winner.

Taj Mahal’s rankimg in the votes has not been officially released by the new7wonders website, but it is very much possible that it was the first - A country with 1.4 billion people in its population, with quite a lot scattered around the world could easily vote their country’s national pride into the top slot for the prize of becoming a part of the New 7 Wonders .

Pleased with the national frenzies and crazy voting which gave the organizers more money than they imagined, Mr Weber has decided to make it his pastime to keep creating new contest for groups of 7 things.

Perhaps, I will start one too - 7 craziest videos ( www.fundazone.com/videos ) 

Until then, keep visiting this site for fundas on killing viruses and ideas that worked and worldwide schemes by brilliant geniuses which , though not official - made a gazillion people crazy enough to give money to a guy with a website.

A R Rahman composes Taj Anthem to inspire Indians (and all lovers passionate about the Tahj) to vote for the Taz Mahal

Also,  AR Rehman has composed customized music in six languages (Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Malayalam) for the Taj Mahal campaign. Airtel mobile users can download this as their Hello Tune by directly dialing 678777.

Vote for the Taj Mahal, Agra, India - Wah Tahj - New Seven Wonders 7 / 7 / 7

Web 2.0 , here I come !

• NEW: Online voters choose great works of humankind
  
• Star-studded event in Lisbon, Portugal, unveils the new wonders
  
• Voting in the final hours so intense the Web site crashed at times
  
• Pyramids of Giza given honorary status as a “wonders” member

The new7wonders.com is not releasing the actual rankings of the 7 wonders , but only the 7 winners are put up.

The FAQ page says :

4. Will there be a ranking within the top seven winners when they are announced?

No, the New7Wonders of the World will all be equal—there will be no ranking.

(CNN) — The new seven wonders of the world were named Saturday following an online vote that generated server-crushing traffic in its final hours.
The final tally produced this list of the world’s top human-built wonders:

• India’s Taj Mahal
• The Great Wall of China
• Petra in Jordan
• Brazil’s statue of Christ the Redeemer
• Peru’s Machu Picchu
• Mexico’s Chichen Itza pyramid
• The Colosseum in Rome

Before the vote ended Friday, organizers said more than 90 million votes had been cast for 21 sites.
Voting at the Web site, www.new7wonders.com, ended at6 p.m. ET Friday. Traffic was so heavy Friday that the site was crashing at times.
One message urged voters to use text messages as an alternative form of voting. “Keep on voting, as it is your votes that decide the New 7 Wonders of the World,” the message said.
“We have traffic that is simply off the scale,” Tia Vering, spokeswoman for the “New 7 Wonders of the World” campaign, told CNN.com. “Things are just going ballistic.”
The new wonders were announced at a star-studded event Saturday in Lisbon, Portugal, that featured performances by Jennifer Lopez and Chaka Khan. The event was hosted by Oscar winners Hilary Swank and Ben Kingsley as well as Bollywood star Bipasha Basu. Send CNN.com photos and video of your favorite “wonder”
The top contenders for the seven wonders were last made public in early June. Organizers have since been tight-lipped about the ever-changing list.
The oldest candidate was Britain’s Stonehenge; the newest was Australia’s Sydney Opera House. The U.S. Statue of Liberty also was among the choices.
Voting nearly doubled after the June results, when organizers said about 50 million votes had been cast. A single user can cast multiple votes.
To be considered for the competition, all structures had to be built or discovered before 2000. All are among top tourist attractions around the world.
Of the seven ancient wonders of the world, only one remains standing today, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
Some nations have enthusiastically endorsed the new wonders campaign. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Jordan’s Queen Rania actively promoted their countries’ hopefuls.
But the new wonders campaign hasn’t been universally recognized. The United Nations’ cultural organization, UNESCO, issued a statement saying it has “no link whatsoever” to the vote.
Egypt’s top antiquities expert also objected to the list. He said Egypt’s pyramids are a “symbol of the genius of the ancient people” — and are above any sort of online poll.
As a result, the organizers struck up a compromise. The pyramids have been assured honorary status, in addition to the new seven wonders.
The new wonders project was the brainchild of Swiss businessman Bernard Weber. He said he wanted to invite the people of the world to take part in selecting the world’s greatest wonders.
“So that everybody can decide what the new seven wonders should be and not some government, not some individuals, not some institutions,” he said.
Vering said she believes the vote has accomplished that goal.
“We’ve managed to bring culture out of the museum — out of the dusty, dry academic corners — and have people talk about it,” she said. “That, we feel, is the greatest achievement of this campaign.”

SEVEN WONDERS: NARINDERPAL SINGH POSSESSES A COIN RELEASED IN 1992 BY CONGO GOVERMENT ON THE TAJ MAHAL

Interestingly, India which boasts of having the Taj has till date never released a coin which Congo did one-and-a half decade back.

The numismatist said,”The Commonwealth Countries release a coin whenever any special event takes place in England’s royal family. A similar coin was released on the occasion of Prince Charles’ marriage too.”

He said that the coin also reflects India’s relations with the Royal family and the respect for Indian monument as Lady Diana has her head covered with scarf during her visit to Taj (as shown on the coin).

This coin collector who has collected currency notes of 140 countries and has rare and the biggest collection of coins of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s time said,”It was in 1967 when department of posts released its first stamp on Taj of denomination of 15 paise. It was in royal colour. And second stamp on the Taj came up in 2005 which is of Rs 15 denomination and is a large coloured stamp. It is ironical that Indian government never released coin on Taj.”

Narinderpal Singh, a mechanical engineer, said,”I also appeal to the public to vote for Taj so that it may figure amongst the modern wonders of the world list for which the voting concludes on July 6.”

Taj Mahal is facing stiff competition from 20 other heritage sites across the world.

A Swiss based organisation “New Open World Corporation” started the process in September 1999 for making a list of “New seven wonders of the world”. In November 2004, the list of 177 monuments for consideration as wonders of the world came up. It was reduced to 21 in January 2006. And now on July 7, the final list will be released.

Earlier, Puneet Singh Dhawan, Surinder Sharma and Mohit Arora, city based trio started their campaign for Taj Mahal on June 3 by making people aware about the voting pattern.

The wonder that was Taj Mahal

Also,  AR Rehman has composed customized music in six languages (Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Malayalam) for the Taj Mahal campaign. Airtel mobile users can download this as their Hello Tune by directly dialing 678777.

Vote for the Taj Mahal, Agra, India - Wah Tahj - New Seven Wonders 7 / 7 / 7

Till a few years ago, the only guy bowing and scraping for your vote was the politician. This was before the invention of the mobile phone and its fawning, totally wannabe twin brother, Reality TV. Now, just about every one competing for kneading the dough with one finger to becoming the greatest singer in the universe is queuing up to get your vote. The latest on the block is the Taj Mahal.

http://www.fundazone.com/ideas/taj-mahal/

A R Rahman composes Taj Anthem to inspire Indians (and all lovers passionate about the Tahj) to vote for the Taz Mahal

That makes you think. All your life you were brought up to believe that what Shah Jahan built was a wonder. (Though I had my doubts even as a student.) I have been to Agra and I have seen the Taj Mahal under the white light of the moon. It’s beautiful. And heavy as death. But I always seem to have thought that the edifice was too short for the massive dome. Really, I have been impressed more by the Silent Valley, whose existence is a wonder, especially in these carbon-traded times. Or the Himalayas. Neither of which strangely enough figures in the Wonder-List.

Still, the textbooks tell you that the Taj is a wonder. And you are after a fashion reconciled to that. Along comes Endemol, a TV company sourced in Europe, which wants to a do a series on seven new wonders based on a popular vote. And so I have at least 15 messages on my cellphone asking me to vote for the Taj. If Endemol would have its way, we would all be next voting the local paanwala as one of the wonders in the revised edition of its series. Do I have a choice in the matter? If I don’t vote, surely I am a traitor.

The patriotic majority of India wouldn’t think twice about who or what they are voting for, so long as they think they are voting for India. Service providers have stepped in with free or subsidised arrangements. Bollywood, ever ready to be seen as an agent of good feeling, has stepped up to canvass the public opinion. pr agents are organising events. And Endemol is rehearsing the laughter act before its bank.

Just goes to show that by voting for the Taj we are not only lowering its value, we are also saying we are foolish enough to think that mass sms-ing is a substitute for informed judgement. Surely, the real danger the Taj is facing is not so much the “Corridor” as being appreciated by a million countrymen who have no qualms spitting on its floor and littering its lawns, but who lose their sleep if the Taj is not on Endemol’s Wonder-List. Ah, to be appreciated by asses and courted by clowns! Mumtaz must be spinning in her grave.