American Bureaucrats' Obsession With Perfection: The Ridiculous 100% Consent Rule for World Heritage

Hundreds of cities and districts with multiple ownership have been listed in the last 35 years in the Unesco World Heritage List. But there's one great absence - none other than the third largest and third most populous country in the world, the one with unsurpassed military and economic strength (no matter how much those in power are trying to run it down) - the United States of America!! Give thanks to the most asinine ruling for historic district preservation in the world: unanimous, perfect 100% consent for obtaining World Heritage designation.

America has had an obsession with property rights where land is not perceived as a common good of the earth, but as a private, disposable property. On a country where an aberration like Oregon's Proposition 37 can actually dismantle one of the few working land-use systems in the country (it is so horrendous that actually voters in the state are trying to roll it back partially!) it still is incredible that so much roadblocks are in the way of placing America's heritage where it should rightfully belong. Most other countries use simple majority consent or even establish historic designation on the merits of the places they want to protect. And this is so even in relatively "democratic" European nations.

Meanwhile, cities that were very significant for the Atlantic trade such as New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah and parts of New England and Mid-Atlantic towns and cities can not be inscribed as of world significance. So it happens with the Caribbean cities of St. Thomas, VI and San Juan, PR which were major players in the continuous power play of the Caribbean as the hinge between the Americas. Since the state party that controls designation there is also the USA, there is but no chance with them either.

The only American "town" that is designated in WH is the "Pueblo" of Taos, NM and this is due to the common tribal ownership of the town which is no longer inhabited, it is now used as a ceremonial place - Taosians now live in modern houses elsewhere in the reservation. The tribe assigned the houses to the occupants but there is no sense of deed-based fee simple ownership as in the case of modern Westernized towns and cities elsewhere in the nation.

To each side of the border there are whole historic towns. Mexico has about a dozen - and Canadians have two: Lunenburg in Nova Scotia and Québec City. Obviously if Canada, which has a legal system similar to the USA's, can do it, so can the Americans...

I always thought that returning to Unesco was an excellent decision on President Bush's part, but I think now: why is there not a mindset in Congress and the White House to repeal the silly unanimous consent rule for World Heritage designations?