only one wonder for the Philippines

I just visited the new7wonders.com live ranking, and still, the Philippines is still on top of the list with the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River. The Tubbataha Reef and the Chocolate Hills stand close at the 4th and 5th spots respectively. Lingering not that far away is the Mayon Volcano at the 11th.

Four wonders, and this should be happy news. But I’m afraid it might not be for long. Although at present we have 4 amazing candidates for the 7 natural wonders, the sad thing is, by Dec 31 when the top 21 will be chosen, only one of these four can go into the next stage of the competition. Sadly, this is part of the rules. It is stated that a country shall have only one final natural wonder nominee.

How come this was not emphasized before? Sayang naman yung effort ng ibang bets. Mas masaya sana kung atin yung 3 out of the 7. *sigh*

The Philippines still on the number 1 spot

lo and behold the golden civilization

the kinnari …
a half-woman, half-bird hindu goddess…
but what makes this specific figurine special is that…

it is 3D (a one of its kind among the other kinnaris)…
it is made of gold…
it is made by Filipinos..
over a thousand years ago…

It is quite embedded in our consciousness, though some of us may deny feeling so, that the Philippines did not exist in importance before the Spaniards trampled our shores. The stretch of our history from then on made us seem more Hispanic-American than Asian as are our neighbors. We may have ethnic and tribal origins but even these do not collectively identify us as reminiscent of a civilization. it appears that we did not have one a long time ago. What is left for us as a consolation is that we are doing our best to build a contemporary identity however extraordinarily varied cultures might be at every island in our archepelago.

But we may be wrong. We may actually have had a civilization before the Spaniards came.

And realize that

if china is to jade
as india is to ivory
europe is to silver
what the philippines is to gold

click on:

going for the gold by jessica zafra
gold of ancestors: precolonial treasures in the philippines, ayala museum
gintong pamana, abs-cbn documentary

On a personal note, last night when I watched abs-cbn’s gintong pamana I was having goosebumps all the time. The magnitude of this archaeological discovery and its impact on our identity as Filipinos is so overwhelming my heart was pounding on my chest i was near to tears.

The first thing that came to my mind then was, “God, I want to go to the Ayala Museum!” I do hope that as this sure will invite scholars to pore once again into the precolonial history of Southeast Asia, may we be able to finally piece together and discover for ourselves that we do have a civilization, though not as brilliant as those of China and India, but certainly no less important in its contribution to the world.

pinas got a trio of wonders!

The night after I heard that an online poll for the new seven wonders of nature is on the move, I was already voting. And just a couple of months have passed, and indeed the wonders are moving!

Way back in March, the strongest bet the Philippines got was Tubbataha reef, which was only at 8th spot then, one notch short of the coveted top seven.

By May, Chocolate Hills went into the picture, and was skyrocketing from nowhere into the 9th spot. Following not that far at rank 21 was the underground river in Bohol. Dear Tubbataha unfortunately did not move.

Much as I want the Philippines to at least get these trio on the seven, I emailed all my contacts inviting them to – well, you guessed it – vote.

Since then I wasn’t able to check on the site regularly. And just this moment I did, and lo, I nearly jumped. the trio did get into the top seven! look:

Tubbataha is now in the 2nd spot, the Chocolate Hills in the 4th, and the underground river at 6th.

As an added surprise, another Philippine wonder joined the race. Mount Mayon is climbing up at rank 10.

The media coverage this voting is getting once in a while must have fueled the uprise.

I am not sure when but somewhere in the middle of the year, the daily top 77 will be trimmed down to 21. From 21, voting will again commence to finally choose the top 7, which will be announced next year.

Wouldn’t it be a blast to have the world know that half of nature’s most wondrous creations are in darling Pilipinas?

So for those who have voted, keep voting. For those who have not, just visit this site: http://www.new7wonders.com/nature/en/liveranking/