Text your say: Komodo New7Wonders controversy

Your comments on controversy over Komodo National Park, which former vice president Jusuf Kalla and NGOs are promoting to include in the New7Wonders of Nature, a competition whose organizers the government doubts the credibility of:

I wonder why the New7Wonders of Nature focuses on wonderful things. Why should we pay huge sums of money to promote these things?

Wouldn’t it be is wiser to spend this money on preserving nature than supporting such a costly campaign? If we do want to campaign, why didn’t we do it before the competition? It’s all about money, I think. No wonder.

Happy Indriyono
Yogyakarta

This shows that popularity contests rule over common sense.

In fact, National Geographic, Discovery and BBC Knowledge deserve more credit for exposing Indonesian wonders, including Komodo Island and the komodo dragons, to the world than this New7Wonders thing that is just a fad.

Iriawan Kamal Thalib

The most important thing is how to help the komodo dragons stay alive (with or without the declaration of the island as one of the New7Wonders of Nature.

Zoen Tc

JK has done the best for the Komodo National Park in efforts to attract global attention to the island.

Pangat Raharjo

I heard that US$10 million is needed to take part in the competition. That’s a huge amount.

Think of that before you send your “support”!

Yippee K. Yay

It is a wonder of the world, and I have always dreamed of going there. From all that I read, Indonesia is a place of amazing things.

Rick Wilson

It would be a good idea to spend those millions of dollars on some Indonesian tourism-promotion planning.

Why do we continue to support this program?

Since 1997, the UN has declined to join the New7Wonders campaign. It also said there must be no
comparison between Weber s media promotions and the UN Scientific Nature and the Education Process used to produce its World Heritage List. This was in effect a warning about how Weber’s system works.

Secondly, the New7Wonders organization under Bernard Weber has no relationship with UNESCO. The UN has said in its speech that what it has done is really different from what Weber has done.

The New7Wonders campaign may be good on the one hand, but you should see it from the other side. It takes millions of dollars for only a “magical” title.

Dien Stacy Heagen

The organizers are just a commercially minded entities, not part of the UN or UNESCO.

The process of the selection by voting through SMS reminds me of choosing Indonesian Idol.

Soebagjo Soetadji
Jakarta

Twee honden vechten twee schuld (a Dutch saying), two dogs fight two wrongs, so too with the Komodo New7Wonders controversy.

E. Nurdin
Jakarta

I think fighting for the inclusion of Komodo National Park in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign is a must although the organizers’ credibility is still doubted.

The main point is to awaken the international community to the fact that in Indonesia there is amazing living evidence of ancient animals that modern people should conserve and protect.

Nana
Jakarta

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