from National Geographic News -
Great Wall of China Overrun, Damaged, Disneyfied
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from Bloomberg.com -
War, Tourists, Climate, Gazprom Threaten 100 Sites, Fund Says
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from The Guardian -
Shrines devastated as militants target Iraq's ancient heritage
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Rush to modernity 'devastating China's cultural heritage'
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Unesco considers Tower for danger list
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Continual devastation to the world's built cultural heritage - some probably preventable, while others, perhaps, inevitable - is an ominous sign that long-term concerns are sacrificed for short-term gains. The road to universal preservation of the cultural heritage of the world is still a very long one, indeed.
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  1. tcw10:21 pm, September 05, 2007

    There is definitely a wanting and ambitious trend towards cities to be next "wannabe", reaching to be the next top entrepreneurial city or for now, the next cultural capital. Richard Florida(2002) once commented the economic progress of a nation is highly dependable on the concentration of the bohemians(which he also reckon as the "cool"). Progressing these, cities regulate themselves to "buy successful images" from which they will hopefully establish a channel for more developement and foreign investment and most importantly to raise the index of "liveable" as a prerequisite for being a well-functional city. "Buying successful images" now become a tidal cycle of highly anticipated events within the cities - buying the Guggenheim, castling Venetians, towering the once impossible unimaginables on every plot the country can sacrifice. The thumb rule goes: the bigger the taller the more branded, the better.
    No doubt, such transformations benefit cities in certain good ways. This disneyfication make-up could be a short quick fix to bringing more dollars. But it deserves a little more scrutiny. It imposes further questions like where is the authencity of the place. Can a place keep its authenticity and uniqueness through series of such make-over and spatial engineering, as Zukin(2007) cautions "Even when such policies work in financial terms, they threaten the authentic character of place that comes from a patchwork of existing uses and social groups"?

    Zukin S. (2007), "Beware conformity in the march of McGuggenheims", found at www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/beware-conformity-in-the-march-of-mcguggenheims/2007/07/22/1185042948156.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

    Davis M. (2005), "Fear & Money in Dubai", New Left Review, V41, found at
    http://www.newleftreview.org/?view=2635

    Florida R.(2002), "Bohemia and economic geography", Journal of economic geography, V(2), p.55-71

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