Unesco is threatening to take the old city of Sana’a and Zabeed off of its list of world heritage sites. Unesco claims that neglect “by the government” and people’s modifying of their houses is changing the character of the cities. I understand that Unesco sends money to these places for being on the world heritage site, but this is a little weird to me. Paying the government to take care of people’s houses and to enforce restrictions on what they can do with their own property is odd. And that’s assuming a well functioning government was in charge. In addition to the ethical questions, Unesco sending money to maintain the status quo creates some really perverse incintives. First of all, people that have money move out of these places to houses that they can do what they like to them. People that stay have little to no incentive to take care of their properties since it is the government’s problem… If I were one of the officials that received this threat, I would respond like this:
To whom it may concern:
We received your letter stating your intention to remove both Sana’a and Zabeed from the world heritage sites list if the modification or deterioration of buildings in these cites does not stop. As you know, Yemen is considered a developing economy. We have made some significant advances and instituted structural changes that will allow us to grow. Our government services sector is stretched to the limit. As a matter of fact, many of our citizens are unable, due to a number of reasons, to avail themselves to the government services that are offered. As such, we have neither the time nor the money to police what people do with their own houses or maintain private property for them. If you are truly interested in preserving these buildings and in helping the Yemeni economy, we suggest that you buy, restore, and maintain the properties that meet your specifications. If you are unwilling or unable to do so, we respectfully ask that you get off our backs. Whatever agreement that had been reached before we will gladly repudiate in exchange for the freedom of our cities to grow and change as the residents desire. We realize that it will break your hearts to see residents of our city to live in newer buildings that fit their desires, but we feel that it is worth it.