A vote can work wonders

IF the Seven Wonders of the World had been chosen by popular vote, who knows whether the Great Pyramids of Giza or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon would have made the cut?

The original list of man-made wonders -- some of which no longer exist -- has come down to us as a synthesis of the efforts of a number of ancient writers. But now the process is being turned into a sort of global People’s Choice Awards by the New 7 Wonders Foundation, established in 2000 by Swiss filmmaker, author and aviator Bernard Weber.

Throughout 2006, via the organization’s website, www.new7wonders.com, the public is invited to vote on a recently announced shortlist of 21 contenders chosen by a panel of seven judges -- including architects Zaha Hadid of Britain, Tadao Ando of Japan and Cesar Pelli of the U.S.

That list, in turn, was compiled from the 77 most popular sites nominated earlier by more than 19 million online voters. The winning sites from the new vote will be announced on a live, worldwide television broadcast on Jan. 1, 2007.

The shortlist includes one of the original seven -- the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt -- plus other familiar landmarks, including the Easter Island statues of Chile, New York City’s Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower of Paris, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, India’s Taj Mahal and the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, Peru. Although the power belongs to the people, write-in candidates (“I {heart} my Pacoima condo”) are not being accepted.

Organizers say half the proceeds from the project, which has spawned TV deals for a series of special programs on the chosen sites, will go toward restoring and preserving monuments -- including the Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan, which were destroyed by Taliban forces in 2001.

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Diane Haithman