Hillary Clinton visits 'her' Shanghai Expo pavilion

BBC News ^ | 5/22/2010 | Kim Ghattas

[Dinah Lord]

Hillary Clinton has travelled to Shanghai to see for herself the results of her efforts to build up the American pavilion at the World Expo 2010.

The US secretary of state personally helped raise money for the pavilion last year, pleading with US companies to donate the $61m (£42m) needed to build the structure and the exhibit.

The construction of the pavilion was near death when the Obama administration came in, but Mrs Clinton came to the rescue.

She said at the time it would send the wrong message to China if the US was not at the World Expo. The event is at the top of Beijing's political and business and agenda as it seeks to assert itself as a rising power.

[Dinah Lord]

"Inside the American pavilion, a rather dull steel structure, visitors are treated to three short movies meant to showcase the "American spirit".

The first one showed various Americans trying to speak Chinese, including famous basketball player Kobe Bryant. The second movie, about the creative power of children, featured representatives from various companies and felt like an ad for corporate America.

It all concludes with a display of all the sponsors who poured the money into the pavilion and a souvenir shop where everything seemed to be "Made in China".

Increasing exports to China is a key goal of the Obama administration to improve the US economy but, privately, some of the US officials in the delegation seemed a bit disappointed by the bold branding of the exhibit."

[Dinah Lord]

"The USA Pavilion's theme at Shanghai Expo 2010 is "Rising to the Challenge." It tells the story of the American spirit of perseverance, innovation, and community-building in a multi-dimensional, hi-tech presentation. The Pavilion presents the U.S. as a place of opportunity and diversity where people come together to change their communities for the better."

USA Pavilion - World Expo 2010

Your tax dollars wasted at work.

[Dinah Lord]

USA boondoggle Pavilion

So here we are, with Clive Grout's $61 million megaplex. Inside, a "4-D show" of a Chinese-American woman's life in 2030 plays on seven screens, designed by BRC, the folks behind the Aichi film. Grout touts a couple greenwashing touches like an "urban courtyard," a "rainwater-fed pool," and recyclable aluminum siding, and makes a dubious claim that the building is supposed to look like eagle wings, but all in all he says, "We have not felt the need to do an architectural handstand to get attention." So sad, so true.

http://tinyurl.com/2f7gwjd

$61 million dollars later...

[afraidfortherepublic]

Did Hillary visit her million dollar gold bathroom trailer that she hauled around China on her “I don’t want to be in the same building as Bill and I’m going to spend all the taxpayer $$$ that I can lay my hands on the last year of his Presidency” tour?

[al baby]

Kinda strange but I miss the good old days when Bill Clinton was president

[hal ogen]

It seems somewhat insane to miss the clintoons; however, despising the current loser-of-a-President, nobama, seems more on the right course.