Chapter 1187 East African World Expo
July 13, 1915.
City of Dar es Salaam.
Today's Dar es Salaam is obviously different from the past. Various departments of the city government have begun to organize personnel to conduct unified inspections of the city's health, transportation, public security and other issues.
Traffic police in East Africa have been on duty one after another and began to comprehensively control traffic chaos such as illegal parking, illegal driving, drunk driving, speed changes, and running red lights.
The police station conducts orderly patrols in various neighborhoods to crack down on various illegal and criminal activities.
The industrial and commercial departments conducted targeted inspections on the hygiene and production and business activities of shops on both sides of the street.
Firefighters, urban management and other departments have also begun to regulate and rectify various safety hazards in the city, as well as street stalls.
Lighthouse Road.
"Officer Chris, is something big happening today? I see that there are many public servants on the streets today, going door to door to carry out various tasks. Is there any big move by the city government!"
Chris is a policeman at the Lighthouse Road Subdistrict Police Station, and the person who stopped him and questioned him was his neighbor Edson.
In the eyes of East Africans, the police are not a scary image, but rather public servants who "serve the people." This is the direct reason why Adelson dared to contact Chris directly. Of course, the identity of the acquaintance also has a certain influence.
After all, the East African police are only responsible for public security and convenience services. Other tasks that are likely to cause controversy and disputes are handled by the industry and commerce, urban management and other departments.
Especially the urban management department. It can be said that in the eyes of many small businesses and hawkers, they are "devils" and have a bad attitude. If it were the urban management department, I am afraid that Adelson would have run away long ago.
Chris said: "It turns out it's you! Edson, it's actually nothing serious. Don't you work in a mold factory? So this round of activities should have no impact on you. This time the city government is mainly conducting an investigation on the city's image. Large-scale political activity.”
Adelson asked: "The city government has never mobilized so much before, right? And this time so many departments are acting together. Even if the New Economic Policy was just implemented in 1910, it is not as scary as it is now."
Facing the East African government, the people at the bottom are still quite frightened. After all, the people do not fight with the officials, and the East African government is a typical authoritarian government. Therefore, with so many public servants and so many departments involved, Adelson also feels a little worried. Worry.
Chris didn't hide it. He said to Edson: "It's not a big deal. It seems that the city government has received a notice from the provincial government to hold an international event in our city of Dar es Salaam."
"It should be a world-class exposition similar to the San Francisco Exposition. There should be a lot of foreigners coming in by then. So in order to show the style of our city, we have to sort out the entire city in advance and correct some safety hazards, sanitation and public security, etc." question."
In 1915, when war was in full swing in Europe, the United States, just like in previous lives, held the Panama World's Fair in San Francisco on the pretext of the opening of the Panama Canal.
This exposition was quite famous in the Far Eastern Empire in its previous life. After all, many traditional brands in tobacco, alcohol, tea and other industries in later generations used the medals won in the Panama Canal as promotion.
Many Far Eastern Empire liquor companies hyped up the Panama Expo by winning awards, but in fact it was completely different from their marketing content, and instead became a laughing stock.
However, this also illustrates the success of the Panama Exposition, and its influence in previous lives has continued into the 21st century.
Edson said excitedly: "Does that mean our city of Dar es Salaam will also host a World Expo this time?"
Chris nodded and confirmed: "That's right. You have also seen that the city government and the provincial government attach great importance to this event. Otherwise, I would not have been able to work overtime today."
Chris is completely understandable about Adelson's excitement, because this is the first time that East Africa has hosted a large-scale international event in its own country.
The main reason for this result is that under the influence of Ernst's "hide your strength and bide your time" strategy, East Africa did not want East Africa to be too prominent in the international community. Now it suddenly has to host international events because the situation has changed.
On the one hand, East Africa has developed into a giant that cannot be hidden even if it wants to. With East Africa’s size and the frequent “heavy strikes” in the international community in the past two years, the conditions for keeping a low profile have disappeared.
On the other hand, now that European countries are at war, it is a good opportunity for East Africa to poach others. By holding the World Expo, East Africa can show its muscles in the economic field, so that regions and countries such as South America, Southeast Asia, and the Far Eastern Empire can realize the strength of East Africa. Thus bringing them closer to East Africa.
The Panama Expo in the United States probably has this idea in mind. The situation in Europe is now in chaos, and cracks in the old century system are obvious, so preparations must be made in advance.
Apart from anything else, if the Allied Powers led by Britain and France failed in the war, it would basically mean that the old world system collapsed. On the contrary, if the Allies failed, then Britain and France might be able to mend the old order after the war.
The East African government has just concluded a round of discussions and formally proposed the concept of a "Southern Hemisphere Economic System." So how to connect the countries in the Southern Hemisphere together requires an excuse.
Obviously hosting the World Expo is a good way to showcase the most economically developed city in East Africa, Dar es Salaam, in front of these countries, thereby making them realize that East Africa is not only outstanding in terms of military strength, but also in terms of economy. And industrially it is not inferior to those old imperialist powers.
Citizens of Dar es Salaam like Edson are naturally excited if the World Expo is held in Dar es Salaam.
That will greatly stimulate the patriotism and pride of East African citizens. After all, East Africa has been on the rise in recent years, and the national mentality will naturally expand accordingly.
However, in the past, the image of East Africa's economy and development was not active internationally, which made all citizens of East Africa hold a breath in their hearts, and the World Expo is a good opportunity to vent.
Adelson asked, "When will this fair start?"
Chris said: "If nothing else happens, it should be October this year, when the government will invite people and companies from all over the world to participate in Dar es Salaam. In addition to our city, the first town, Bagamoyo City will also The three cities will jointly host this World Expo.”
The first town is now the capital of Maritime Province and the seat of the provincial government. Bagamoyo has outstanding industrial strength in shipbuilding and other fields. Together with the city of Dar es Salaam, this constitutes the economy of Maritime Province. Core triangle.
Chris continued: "You will be in for a treat when the time comes. It is estimated that many cutting-edge technologies and foreign novelties will appear. If it can reach the level of the Panama Expo, in the next half year, Dar es Salaam will probably It will be more lively.”
The city of Dar es Salaam today is quite lively, which is mainly the result of trade with Europe, and the holding of the World Expo will obviously make the city of Dar es Salaam even more popular.
"By then, the number of people in Dar es Salaam will probably exceed two million, so the city government will be under great pressure."
Today, the population of Dar es Salaam has exceeded 1.3 million. This is only the number of citizens of East Africa. If people from other countries are included in Dar es Salaam, the number exceeds 1.5 million. Therefore, the Dar es Salaam Municipal Government predicts that during the expo, the number of people in the entire city of Dar es Salaam may exceed two million.
This will put greater pressure on the city's accommodation, catering, service facilities, etc. Therefore, after this round of rectifications, Dar es Salaam will temporarily build a number of new public service facilities to cope with the large influx of people during the expo. travelers.
As for this event, the Central Government of East Africa and the Maritime Provincial Government will keep a close eye on it. If it is messed up, the officials of Dar es Salaam City will not get any good. The reason why the department mobilized collectively.