In Cleere s opinion, the Taliban s action has ironically given heritage conservation greater significance. The publicity has managed to produce a positive effect, in terms of intensifying efforts in the preservation of world heritage sites and artefacts. Young agrees, adding that it won't affect conservation efforts anywhere else on earth. Maybe it will encourage people to value the ancient, unique things that survive from their culture's past, knowing that if they are destroyed, they're gone forever. Another Malaysian conservation advocate Khoo Salma Nasution, also based in Penang, begs to differ, condemning such acts as befitting those of barbarians and saying that how a society interprets and values its heritage often reflects on its civilization.
Destruction means no statues, no conservation efforts.
It's people who put a value on things. The recent desecration of Buddhist statues and pre-Islamic sculptures to a certain extent, parallels that of the 1992 destruction of the Babri Mosque in the Indian northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Some quarters claimed that the world was silent when a Hindu mob destroyed the 16 th century-old mosque to make way for the building of a temple. But it was to no avail. Usually done on a large-scale, these projects require huge investments in expert resources, time and effort.