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Shanghai World Expo 上海世界博览会 – USA Pavilion January 24, 2011

Our last stop of the evening was the USA Pavilion.

I had high hope for the USA Pavilion as we were approaching the big building at the southwest corner of the big complex. I couldn’t help but wondered that the Chinese government stuck USA Pavilion at this corner far away from the entrance for a reason. They probably purposely located USA Pavilion here so it was away from where the actions were near the Chinese Pavilion.

As I entered the building with many other people, I thought I would see examples of advance technologies. I would see medical researches that improve people’s quality of life and save people’s lives. I thought I would see an image of a rich nation that helped other troubled countries in the world. I thought I would see the superior military power that contributed to the world peace. I thought that I would see a Wall Street that epitomize the glory of capitalism. I thought that I would see a country that prided itself for exporting democracy to the rest of the world. I thought I would see the history of a strong nation that protect human rights as they preached to every leaders in the world who came to visit this nation.

The staff at the US Pavilion dressed up to make them looked funny. But why?

A chance to promote American companies at the staging area. .

Like I said that I had high hope for this short visit.

As we strolled into a staging area of the building with about 200 hundred other visitors, we were told in broken Chinese that our group was the last group ever to visit the USA Pavilion. And the door was closed for the last time. Tomorrow these volunteers would go back to where they came from in the United States. A sense of farewell permeated in the air and they told us that they had a good time here in Shanghai and they loved this country and its people.

There was a few words of welcome and explanation of what we would see in the next building. Then the doors opened and we were rushed into an open area for a 10 to 15 minutes of video.

I have to say that I was totally disappointed and disgusted by what I saw. The video depicted a group of people of many ethnicities in an inner city setting putting their efforts together to rebuild a small corner of their community. Of course, it was the tireless pursuit of a small girl who inspired other people to volunteer their money and effort. Flowers were planted. Trees were put in to provide shades. Grass was put in to symbolize green initiative has taken root here. A small piece of waste land was transformed into a small park right in front of our eyes. Everyone was happy as if for a moment everyone felt like they belong to a big happy family under the sky. There was peace. There was harmony. There was happiness in the air.

But the reality was far from what was presented in the short video. The inner city of any big city in the United States was filled with drugs, homeless people, rundown neighborhoods, kids skipping school, people with no jobs, crime and murders. In 30+ years I was in the United States, I have never heard people working together to transform anything with government grants. There was no little girls planting flowers in any corner of a city using her own money. The whole thing was a big lie. It was put together by liberals who cared more about making people feel good than presenting a true picture of what the United States was about.

Wasteful to the nth degree! Aggressive and in other countries’ faces all the time! Butt in other countries’ business and changed their governments to enhance America’s interests. Promote democracy as if it is the panacea for world peace. Pushes human rights to other countries but completely neglects areas in Africa where it needs the most.

Other areas of human rights violation were conveniently swept under the rug by the very same liberals who put the video show together:  woman’s rights in Muslim countries and discrimination against blacks, Latinos and Asians in the US by white people in America’s inner cities and work places.

I am sorry to say that the America I knew was no where close to what the video was trying to project.I felt cheated. I totally wasted my time there.

The other half of the room had short films and displays which also didn’t tell the story of what America really is. it merely used the opportunities to promote American companies such as GE, United technologies, Citibank, P&G, etc.

Chevron was well represented at USA Pavilion. Not ExxonMobil though. I wonder why. Valdez, maybe?

Well, all I can say was I was too naive to the point of being foolish.

The highlight of the tour was the sales of cowboy hats at ¥10 a piece, a deep discount from ¥50. I didn’t think that they wanted to ship all these unsold hats back to the US. They probably got them from China anyway.

Liquidation sales!

Well, I survived the Shanghai World Expo and all we got was a lousy bag from Turkey Pavilion.

Well, this was the first and the last World Expo I would ever go!