The USA Pavilion Is a Disgrace

That the USA has a corporate culture? Go figure..... I thought for sure we would have some awesome stuff from NASA, being that the US has the most advanced space program in the world.

*Sigh* Suddenly the future depicted in the original Rollerball movie doesn't seem so far-fetched. Soon, before every sporting event, we will hear the words: "Please rise for the Corporate anthem."

@ PuffNStuff326:

Soon we may not even have that. This whole scheme looks like it had ZERO creativity at all...

Who ever thought up this mess needs to be fired; he/she isn't making us look too good here.

I think that if it was run by a Hollywood director (i.e. Speilburg or Cameron), had cool video shots from our own citizens, showed off actual prototypes of new stuff we make, and a few touches like that it might have at least been average.

And yeah, a little less "corporate culture" would have helped a little.

But hey, there's always next year...right?

Thanks to John Mahoney for a thorough review, but the US Pavilion is only a symptom of a larger problem: the outsourcing and privatizing of US public diplomacy, what I call the "Blackwatering" of US public diplomacy.

Unfortunately, there isn't "always next year," as 10jacobf suggests. This was THE big deal, the historic gathering -- for the first time, in peace -- of almost every nation of the world and every global organization that serves humanity. For us to blow this event for mostly personal gain and ego gratification is not just a national disgrace, it's the worst sort of public diplomacy at the worst possible event.

The next big Expo, in Milan, is important and one hopes the US effort there will be better -- but Milan is hardly Shanghai.

There were better pavilions proposed for Shanghai in a formal RFP, one by seasoned Expo veterans, that would have wowed the crowd -- as the Chinese hoped. But for political reasons, the State Department decided to privately outsource the project to the current producers who had neither experience in pavilion production and operations nor very good relationships with the Shanghai American-expat community.

Only the Consulate got them through it -- allegedly, according to press interviews with the producers, with Chinese design, labor, and money, a major faux pas in terms of future US-China relations. This after the producers initially resigned, in October 2008, when there was still time to choose a more able team.

For continuing coverage on this and related topics, I've found The Atlantic correspondent Adam Minter's coverage the most complete, although NPR, The Independent (UK), and occasionally Fast Company and John Brown's Public Diplomacy blog provide good coverage. Minter's blog, Shanghai Scrap, can be found at (I have to break up the URL)

http : // shanghaiscrap DOT com /? cat=38

You can also read my story in the Huffington Post, May 3, "'Blackwatering' Public Diplomacy: The US Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo,"

http : // bit.ly / huffpo-uspavilion

Thanks again for a candid review. I add the observation that many of the US Pavilion's corporate sponsors are now involved in such anti-"Better City, Better Life," anti-sustainability initiatives as working to eliminate international labeling requirements for genetically modified food, oil drilling in deep seas, deforestation of rain forests, manufacturing using toxic materials (that ironically end up ironically in Chinese waste dumps), "big box" urban development that destroys small towns, and similar activities.

One company that sells fast-food stands to earn profits of tens of millions of dollars during the Expo serving obesity-promoting items to thousands of US Pavilion visitors over the next six months. Such a deal.

And it's all tax exempt, which means you and I are making up the difference in our taxes. For some, there is a free lunch -- bought by us.

THIS PISSES ME OFF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im american, im from MA and this freaking rediculous!!!!

wtf cant they show nasa and other scientific breakthroughs

this is a disgrace to our country and anyone who took part in its design SHOULD BE DEPORTED TO SOME OTHER FREAKING COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!

meant """"this is freaking rediculous """" not "this freaking rediculous" lmao

Too bad we can't just set up a Fight Club esc scenario and bring down corporate america or anything.

Well, that's how I feel being an American my whole life. Corporations. Boring, ruthless corporations that just want your money and will step on your child's soul to get it.

I bet most of the USA exhibit has "Made in China" labeled on it too.

This doesn't surprise me, what the article left out is that the US policy forbids the government from funding these events so we know where the private funding is coming from, they really should look at that policy after seeing all the wonderful displays by others and realize how bad it looks for the country, but some how I doubt that will happen.

Reminds me of those propaganda posters that the Soviets had during the Cold War but a little too true this time.

Well... I would propose that Apple with their abundant flair for great design, and as true visionaries, should be building and maintaining the next USA, World Expo pavilion. They would represent USA in the greatest way!!!

I see this as a near-perfect representation of what the U.S. of A. stands for: CAPITALISM. Is it such a surprise that your pavilion would look like this, in a country where socialism is considered something to be afraid of?

PS: I'm from the great white north (Canada), and though we're a bit less enslaved to the corporate overlords at the moment, we're certainly heading in the same direction. :(

What is the alternative? If you actually believe that our government is capable of making anything inspirational and on schedule, then I invite you to look at the hole in the ground where our twin towers were in New York.

Our corporations built a USA Pavilion display with no government money and on schedule. If you want "Shock and Awe" then go shut your eyes tight, rub them hard until you see virtual colored sparks and think about "Hope and Change" national debt.

It seems to me that this pavilion reflects the current popular
trend of self-abasing, we-hate-ourselves, we're sorry we're so successful, please don't hate us, we're not so hot, USA. I grew up believing in this until I was set straight by a European who told me I have the best country on the planet.

@rgetty Wrong, US law does not forbid public funding of a US presence at an Expo. It merely specifies that the State Department should get a formal appropriation from the Congress that allocates funding for the US Pavilion. That's true of every federal agency.

This deceit was spread by the Rice State Department to cover for a policy decision to privatize the US Pavilion.

A Congressional source reminded me that it was Congress that went to China in 2005 and that leaned on the Bush Administration to participate in the Expo. It then waited for an appropriation request that never came. It never came because State was committed under both the Bush and Obama Administration to outsourcing the US Pavilion. And that's what got us where we are today.

See my comment in response to this link.

This is the American dream - a second hand car dealership.

1) For once the US govt did not spend our money - and people are upset?

2) The US was polite enough to not "out Herod, Herod" in China, where that politness matters and where our spending more would merely obligate them to spend more and more.

3) We didn't waste money borrowed from China to build things in China for the purpose of sucking up to China. This is bad?

4) In a time of global economic crisis, we didn't spend money in the one country that is reaping from the world's woes - making our landlord only slightly more rich, rather that slightly more richer.

I am embarrased. Seriously dude. I don't know how popular this world expo is though. I mean, a world expo SHOULD be pretty popular (by popular I mean basically how many people attend) but I find it amazing that if that is the case we'd put on a shitbag of an expo that you showed above. Is that really what we want people to think of our country? If you knew nothing about the world and went to the world expo to learn about different countries you wouldn't even likely visit the USA pavilion much less take away that they're the largest super power in the world. I really wish our country would get their act together but things only seem to be getting worse. We're a culture dominated by greed and selfishness. Not everyone is that way, but a majority are, and that is definitely how we're viewed throughout the world. not sure how to change that. they say a few bad apples spoil the bunch, and we've got WAY more than a few.

I think it would be a lot more fun of countries could build pavilions saying what each country thinks about the host country. Meaning, each country would conduct a pole to find out what citizens of your country think about the host country and then build a pavilion using that.

The host country would then get a really good idea of the perceptions people in other countries have about them.

For instance. A lot of people in America think that there is a LOT of prison slave labor in China and that they make low quality products for very low to no pay.

Of course we Americans are at fault for demanding the absolute lowest price for everything so of course we end up having all our products being built there since they will build "everything" for lower prices than anywhere else.

I've been to China and I can tell you that what we as tourists get to see the prison labor. They want you to only see the good parts of China.

Hey John, maybe you can still get into North Korea or Iran....since you're such a fan. Are you seeing a theme here yet? Everywhere but the home that gave you everything is better than here. You're annoyed we arent spending more of our money to show Chinese people who well our science programs are doing? Is that really the goal of our science programs....to impress foriegners?

Mike

Bob Jackson

Thanks for the correction, I knew I wasn't 100 percent correct but was in the ball park for why the funds were so little, maybe not even in the ball park. Thanks

Even a purely capitalistic society wouldn't privatize something that represents the public. Our government has it's head up it's ass right now, big time, and any attempt to exercise Democracy ends up in picking a lesser of 2 evils. The world is preparing to rampage on us; we need to rampage on our government. Then, we need to set up an internet-oriented pure Democracy, where we elect ideas instead of corruptible, conniving, politicians.

John Mahoney,
A question. Is this pavilion approved by our government, congress and president?

You ever consider that with out bounding deficit they may have decided it was an unneeded expense? Just a reminder last I checked we owe something like 40-50k dollars per person in the USA, no I don't just mean the working taxpayer I mean that includes everyone working or not.

So do we really need to make a display to show what is already known?

To put this in a little perspective, the Expo is not doing all that well. The report that I read said that attendance was not what they had hoped.

There was also criticism of other pavilions e.g.
- The Chinese pavilion was good, but tickets to see it were nearly impossible to obtain

- The Seed Cathedral (much praised at popsci) is viewed by many as 'empty inside' -- as such, not worth entering.

There were more, but those stood out.

Bottom line is that it's probably not that big a deal. Media coverage seems awfully sparse. Even popsci didn't do any buildup as far as I can tell.

The seeker of knowledge who seeks to reach beyond the stars to go where no mans gone before to see things no man has seen and bring these experiences back for the whole world to hear and see.

Well the truth is it's becouse of congress and the lack of creativity of the designers payed to create the theme .but mainly the congress they secretly went behind the american peoples backs and passed a law to allow them to control our state money involvement in the expo it's another example of how un for the people our country's become the only reason we had an expo was couse the contributers and if their money wenrt the largest contributers this wouldnt have happened thank our goverment who care about keeping their same pay and job while every one else suffers and thank whoever went around the american peoples back and did this nobody voted for the or at least the people didnt

World's largest economy? What part of a Trillion doller dept does this guy not get? We probably got what we got with loaned money.

Of course all the others are beautifal and spectacular, whoever built them is probably getting a slice of our trillion doller pie. Everyone thank Obama/Bush for makeing the World Fair so beautiful! Well, except for our part of town.

Funny of Globalization works huh? -No wait...it doesn't.

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship will all nations--entangling alliances with none.“ -Thomas Jefferson

(that goes for NATO and INTERPOL)

I agree, we should fire the litle bastered. But hey, you elected him. :(

If the articles is accurate on how the Pavilion is....it Fu*#$& Sucks!
A true embarrassment to US creativity (http://www.tiket.cl)

This administration has sought to project a more modest USA to the rest of the world -- Obama's Rodney King speech to the Muslims in the epicenter of Islamism, Cairo, and kowtowing to the Saudis and the Japanese emperor. When when we present ourselves to the world like this -- as a crummy, outsourced commercial -- we only confirm that we indeed have much to be modest about.

Like us or not, the rest of the world expects us to act the part of a superpower and do it COMPETENTLY. We have acted the opposite. Nine years after 9/11 -- a grotesque travesty of Arthur C. Clarke's prophecy for 2001 -- Bin Laden is still at large, and every time he or his henchmen say Boo! we wet our panties at the cost of billions. It's rather pitiful, actually. Like our pavilion.

As the author says, it's not a matter of money, just competence. The pavilion reflects the fecklessness and mediocrity to which our media-addled, enervated, narcissistic nation has sunk.

Externally it looks like an industrial building of the sixties.

I visited the USA Pavillion and it was really great! I understand it wasn't the most mind blowing, but it had the best movie in the 3rd section. Better than any other pavillion. (PS. if your american, run to the front of the line and make buddies with some of the other americans, they will let you skip to the front!)

By the way, I got a snapshot off too in there, Very Impressive display, and wind and rain was an awesome touch.

http://thefoxxfamily.com/blog/?attachment_id=173

Terrible we are supposed to be a superior nation economically militarily definitely not culturuly but what happened to American ingenuity, this makes me sick! WE should have had the best pavilion AHHHHH!!! SCREW YOU OBAMA!

jvonrock Thanks again John Mahoney, excellent job !!! When I saw the USA building it looked like the Bathroom, now that I see pix's of people waiting to get in, and once in side, Yup a toilet. Canadians Travel freely all over the world and are well liked an received. And americans look like greenbacks and smell like bathroom deodorizer. To bad obammy was to busy saving the world an all and couldn't come and yak, that would of been his idea, Him yaking on an on, on a BIG Screen looking down at everyone. The Seed Exhibit wins my choice, low tech, High Tech Art.

I am glad to learn that tax payer dollars were not wasted on the World Expo. The only thing the US is good a making is expensive military weapons like the F-22 and the B-2 bomber. So the only thing that would represent the US government would be a military display of weapons.

To nonsquid:

Actually, the USA once had the best pavilions (link below). I also did a piece on Expo 2010, which you can look at here:

http://www.expo2017.ca/expo-2017/expo-2010-in-shanghai-expo-67-redux/

And here's the most famous USA pavilion ever built (scroll down when you get there, there are 37 shots):

http://expo67.ncf.ca/expo_usa_p1.html

Ahem, since 1935, the United Socialist States of America have not been capitalist, but socialist. Why blame corporations (artificial entities, with limited liability) as examples of the evils of "capitalism"? Capitalism only means private ownership. Private property is defined that which is absolutely ownership by an individual (and protected from government, saith the 5th amendment). Group ownership, as in corporations, who are creations of government, is a privilege and does not qualify as a property right.

Everyone knows what happens to one's property if taxes aren't paid - it's taken. In short, there is no more private property nor capitalism in the USSA.
Of course, such distinctions are not explained anymore, for it would confuse the sheeple.
[exasperated sigh]

The USA Pavilion is more an example of the heights of Group Think and mediocrity of political correctness.

ha ha communism lives again were all doomed to slavery by the governments
infallible power muahahahahahaha!!!!!!

The pavillion reflects how the us administration is investing in it's relationship with the chinese imo

There are a number of things I'd like to say both to the article and to the responses posted. First, I'd like to preface this by saying that I work for the USA Pavilion, so I promise you I know what I'm talking about.

1) A couple of people commented asking why we don't have NASA technology on display. There are any number of things to take into consideration about this. First is cost. NASA technology, as we all know, if far from cheap. Given the budget we're working with, we simply could not afford this. Someone else commented on technology prototypes. The same thing applies. Also, I'll vouch for the fact that putting these things on display would have been a logistical nightmare, and certainly could not have been interactive. We have 30,000 people coming through the pavilion daily, and are slightly understaffed so trying to prevent them from being broken would have been impossible.

2) Everyone needs to consider time constraints. The pavilion broke ground literally about 10 months before opening day. We didn't finish the interior until about a day before we opened. I think most people don't understand -why- we waited so long. Both the Bush and Obama administrations had no interest in the Expo (which lines up with the populace, most of whom don't even know what the Expo even is), so it wasn't until Secretary of State Clinton took the initiative to do something that we agreed to join. This was a very good move on her part, because it would have been a disgrace to China if we hadn't shown up.

3) Architecture: I'll admit that the pavilion is not necessarily the prettiest thing to look at, but it is leaps and bounds above some countries that are literally squares and rectangles. It also doesn't leave people confused. (I won't say country names, but I have heard people comment on the architecture of other pavilions and say that they don't understand why it's designed the way it is, or what it represents about the country.) Ours is interesting enough to stick out, but not so much to the point where people feel it has to mean something specific.

4) This last comment is directed pretty much at the article itself. First, we asked you not to take photos so as not to get this kind of publicity. Namely, it's misleading. The line that is pictured above gives the wrong impression for several reasons. First the only part of the line you can see is actual regulated by the Expo Bureau, so any disorganization is not our fault. Also, the wait from that point is still only about an hour to an hour and a half. (Versus the Japan Pavilion which loops around twice as much and takes 3 to 4 hours.) My second main point is actually a question: did you talk to a single Chinese person while you were there? Many of the people leaving the pavilion are very happy with their experience. They love hearing Obama's speech, and most think the second movie is inspiring (I've had several people tell me this). And what you say is true: most of them don't even seem to notice the corporate sponsor's influence, so that certainly isn't detracting from their visit. We have to consider that without our sponsors, we would not have a pavilion, and if it makes them happy to have these displays, the least we can do is oblige them.

Would it not have been better to just have several octagons in the Pavilion and introduced them to UFC by staging amateur fight of the visitors to the Pavilion after 15 minutes of coaching by Rampage Jackson?

@Shuangxuewei Your remarks are outrageous, uniformed and more than slightly arrogant.

It's obvious from your writing that know very little of what's occurred regarding the very organization before you started working there, and nothing about what's going on out of your sight while you so diligently shepherd the visitors around the very little that there is to see in the US Pavilion.

Don't shill until you know for whom you're shilling. It's not the American people, Shuang. It's Corporate America. There's a world of difference.

My new article on Huffington Post digs into the machinations of US Pavilion organizers in the State Department and the private sector who purposely corporatized our presence in Shanghai and who are bent on privatizing American public diplomacy generally. Two Secretaries of State are implicated.

"A Stalking Horse for Privatization? The US Pavilion Meets the IRS," HuffPost, May 20, 2010

(You'll have to search for it as this system doesn't accept URLs.)

This is a big story embodied in the plain building you inhabit each day but which is in a region of the world that is remote for most Americans. In the past, US Pavilion organizers ran programs and seminars educating average Americans during the run up to an Expo. The current crew (who pay you virtually nothing, even though they may stand to do quite well) had no such thing in mind. The fewer people other than State Department insiders and corporate CEOs who knew, the better. 

My article contains a link to a formal complaint I just filed with the IRS that is accessible online. My narrative reveals how the sell-off of the US Pavilion was accomplished. There are serious questions raised in the documents I obtained from the IRS regarding the US Pavilion's organizers.

I also provide a link to a "Request for an Investigation" that I made to State's Office of Inspector General, asking for a review of the State Department's role in ensuring that 62 American and Chinese multinationals, and no one else, would effectively "own" the US Paviion.  

The Request, which Secretary Clinton has ignored so far, offers a timeline of events.

It's not hyperbolic to claim that international finance and multinational corporations are running the show. Just today, the New York Stock Exchange, a US Pavilion "marketing partner" (i.e., sponsor), issued a fascinating release announcing the first opening of trading outside of NYC -- and it happened right there in the US Pavilion in Shanghai!

Again: the purpose of the US Pavilion is to promote American and Chinese multinationals, not the American people.

My "Stalking Horse" article was proceeded by another well-received article, also on HuffPost, that relates how the US Pavilion was conceived a privatized, not public, institution. The current organizers got the job because they made a Faustian bargain with the Bush Administration's State Department to only seek private funding.

"'Blackwatering' Public Diplomacy: The US Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo," HuffPost, May 3, 2010

You can read a day by day account of the behind the scenes US Pavilion on Adam Minter's excellent blog, ShanghaiScrap.com.

One more thing, Shuang: to your point about the vast crowds coming through, 30,000 people was the forecast throughput in 2007, before your bosses got into the pavilion game. Had they participated in the competitive RFP to select organizer, they would have learned that.

But they didn't. They got the job through insider connections, without expert review of their plan. They should have consulted experts who could have helped them to prepare this years ago. They didn't.

The whole operation is so bush that if it weren't for you sweet, innocent volunteers, the best thing the US Pavilion has going, corporations would have to come in and run it themselves lest it implode around them.

John Mahoney is so right and you are so wrong, together you're a classic example of why we rely on journalists and not people inside their bubbles to tell us the truth. You don't know the half of it.

@expo17 Your are right! The 1967 expo did showcase what America could do because we were a can do nation. We went to the moon and drove around in a car - that is American.

Now as a service industry nation of lawyers we can only snivel about why we can't stop an oil leak.

Thank you for taking the time to post those pictures of Expo '67, I enjoyed them.

The piping that is visualized above gives the evil incurvature for various reasons. Premiere the exclusive effort of the blood you can see is genuine regulated by the Expo Bureau, so any disorderliness is not our flaw. Also, the act from that saucer is works exclusive almost an minute to an distance and a half. (Versus the Nippon Tent which loops around twice as overmuch and takes 3 to 4 hours.) My secondment principal quantity is actually a ask: did you tattle to a azygous Island individual
=============
Tech Help USA
=============
Angelaric01