Conjectures

Isn’t it a Wonder?

Yes. The Chocolate Hills are a wonder. And this natural monument never fails to utterly amaze me each time I visit this loved Bohol landmark.

But no. It is not as spectacular as the other monumental marvels of nature elsewhere in the world.

This is truly revolting: Bohol’s and the Philippines’ sordid scramble for entry to this equally appalling new 7 Wonders of the World circus.

Gosh, and look at the top-ranked (votes-based) nominated sites. At the time of this writing (August 13th, 4:30PM), 3 Philippines sites are included in the top 10. (Tubbataha, Choco Hills, Palawan at # 8,9,10, respectively)

Could you imagine, if this race ends today, 3 of the 10 (well, if the list is extended to 10) Wonders of the Natural World are in the Philippines. What complete effrontery! What utter arrogance that only Filipinos could muster and ingest! (Ka-baga ug nawng!) I mean seriously, do we really want to believe that?

But then when I think of the other Philippine contenders – Palawan Underground River, Tubbattaha Reef and the Mayon Volcano – I believe the Chocolate Hills entry is not such a bad thing. These three’s ambition is much much worse. Again, they are beautiful and amazing but please…

The Chocolate Hills versus The Grand Canyon (USA)?
The Palawan Underground River versus The Victoria Falls (Zambia/Zimbabwe)?
The Tubbattaha Reef  versus The Great Barrier Reef (Australia)?
Mayon Volcano versus The Ayers Rock or Uluru (Australia)?

And then there’s The Amazon (South America), The Mauna Kea (Hawaii) and The Giant’s Causeway (Northern Ireland) and many more awesome, awesome freaks/wonders of nature that are truly, truly absurdly wondrous.

Blind devotion to one’s own must not prevail here. We should know what we are. But more importantly, we should know what we are not.

Seven of the most amazing natural sites on Earth are not located in the Philippines.

The 10-12 million annual visitors to Thailand know this. The millions more of tourists to India, China, Australia and the United States know this. The builders of that Dubai coast development where soon would sit human-size replicas of some of the world’s most-loved sites, know this. The world knows this.

Save for the Boholanos. Save for the Filipinos.

Mother Earth, save us.

But then again, I’m looking at the results of the new 7 (man-made) Wonders of the World proclaimed by these same organizers (slammed by UNESCO, by the way), with the effin Brasil’s Christ the Redeemer standing prominently and awkwardly among the genuine built marvels?

Wonderful, just effin wonderful!

Tags: 7 new wonders, chocolate hills