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THE WORLD
Mass honors Polish president; ash keeps many leaders away
by Edward Cody
RADEK PIETRUSZKA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Soldiers stand with the coffins of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, in Krakow’s main cathedral before the Mass. Services marked the conclusion of more than a week of national grieving.
LETTER FROM CHINA
Shanghai fair offers a world
by Keith B. Richburg
shanghai —
As China’s largest city prepares to open the most ex- pensive world’s fair in history, the 2008 Beijing Olym- pics provides both a model and a cautionary tale. As with the extravagant Olympics, Chinese officials see the World Expo, which begins next month and runs through October, as another chance to showcase Chi- na’s rising clout and prosperity to a global audience. Shanghai has been constructing lavishly for the event, including new subway lines and an additional airport terminal.
But more than a year and a half
after the Beijing Games awed the world, some of the most iconic venues have fallen into disuse. The “Bird’s Nest” stadium, site of the lavish opening ceremonies, hosted just three concerts and two B-list sporting events last year, and nothing in recent months. The “Water Cube,” an engineer- ing marvel where American swimmer Michael Phelps made Olympic history, has not been used for a competition since, and has been closed for ren- ovations since October as officials try to transform it into an enter- tainment complex. So far, the huge maintenance costs of those venues is being sus- tained by Chinese tourists, who pay for tickets to visit them and
Shanghai
Indian Ocean
relive a bit of China’s glory. But of- ficials said interest is beginning to wane. Perhaps mindful of that history, authorities in Shanghai decided that almost all the World Expo pa- vilions will be dismantled immediately after the fair. The site, an old industri- al area that once housed a steel plant and scrap yard, will be used for exhibitions and conferences, a business sector this city is still trying to develop. Also, officials and Shang-
Ocean
hai residents say, the costly infra- structure improvements will con- tinue to benefit locals long after the fair has closed down. There have been contradictory
official statements about the cost of the expo. Officially, the budget is 28.6 billion yuan, or just over
krakow, poland — A solemn
Mass was celebrated in the city’s main cathedral Sunday for Presi- dent Lech Kaczynski, an unyield- ing Polish nationalist who died along with his wife, Maria, and 94 others in a plane crash in western Russia. The memorial ceremonies, in- cluding burial in a crypt at the Wawel Castle reserved for Polish monarchs and national heroes, were conducted without the pres- ence of President Obama and many other world leaders, who were unable to fly in because a gi- ant cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano drifted in the skies over Western Europe. President Dmitry Medvedev was on hand at the head of a large Russian delegation that traveled from Moscow. Also present were several leaders from neighboring nations, who arrived in helicop- ters, trains and automobile con- voys. The Krakow services were de- signed to draw an official close to an extraordinary outpouring of grief and patriotism touched off by Kaczynski’s death on April 10.
They followed similar ceremonies Saturday in Warsaw, where thou- sands of people lined up in front of the presidential palace for the eighth day in a row to pray and light votive candles for the de- ceased president. “We have been sad for the en- tire week,” said Henryk Zimba, 59, a retired farmer who drove in from the countryside to attend the memorial. “There is this mood of mourning. It’s all any- body’s talking about.” In the nearby square, tens of thousands of people listened to memorial speeches by govern- ment leaders and bowed in prayer during services presided over by the papal nuncio, Archbishop Jo- zef Kowalczyk, and the head of the Polish episcopate, Archbishop Jozef Michalia. Caskets contain- ing the bodies of Kaczynski and his wife were carried in a solemn procession to the Warsaw Ca- thedral for a funeral Mass. “There are certain moments in the life of a nation,when we know we are together, that our feelings and our emotions are one,” Parlia- ment speaker Bronislaw Komo- rowski, who is acting president, told the Warsaw crowd. “The ca- tastrophe of that airplane was
one of them.”
Kaczynski, accompanied by senior government and military officials, was on his way to a cer- emony commemorating the mas- sacre in Katyn, Russia, of about 20,000 Polish military officers and professional leaders by Soviet secret police in 1940, at the outset of World War II. In his funeral address, Komo- rowski saluted the compassion displayed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials. In particular, Polish peo- ple have been impressed by a de- cision attributed to Putin to show a documentary on the Katyn kill- ings for the first time on a Rus- sian television channel. During the Soviet era, the Ka-
tyn massacre was rarely dis- cussed. Kaczynski had been at the forefront of those demanding it be recognized in Russia and open- ly discussed around the world as an example of Poland’s long struggle against foreign domina- tion. It was in pursuit of such truths
that Kaczynski was on his way to Katyn, Komorowski said, adding: “Today the truth about Katyn is shared by the entire world.”
codyej@washpost.com
MONDAY, APRIL 19, 2010
of cost questions
Expo seeks to avoid Olympic mistakes
KEVIN LEE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
A construction crew works inside the U.K. Pavilion, known as the Seed Cathedral, at the site of the 2010 World Expo. The expo opens May 1.
Web sites.
$4 billion. But the China Eco- nomic Daily reported that the real cost could reach more than 400 billion yuan — or more than $58 billion — once all the costs for construction, the rail lines and the airport terminal are factored in. In addition, some 17,000 peo- ple were relocated, adding to the costs.
“Shanghai will be more beauti- ful, cleaner and have better infra- structure,” said Hong Hao, the di- rector general of the expo. “All the citizens will benefit from this.” He added, “We never stopped learning from the Beijing Olym- pics.” Most Shanghainese seem to
like the idea of their city being the center of attention. One of the few vocal critics was Han Han, a popular writer, blogger and rally car driver. Invited to an expo fo- rum for celebrities in November, Han Han began by saying the rap- id urbanization of Shanghai would “make life worse,” and the live video feed of his remarks abruptly stopped. His speech end- ed up being passed around on
With the expo a new point of
patriotic pride, such criticism has been rare and largely limited to anonymous postings on Internet sites. On one popular Shanghai discussion forum, some recent posters questioned whether the prestige of the world’s fair was worth the high cost. “I am just wondering why they are putting so many resources into Expo,” one poster said last week, using the online name Cfxianggang. “What benefits will this bring to the country?”
Another poster, using the name
Yi Tao, replied: “All this is for face. No other country would do this like China, and put so many re- sources into it. But the way China is doing it, it will still end up be- ing regarded as a developing country.”
Another area where Shanghai is taking a page from Beijing is se- curity. Metal detectors have been set up at Shanghai’s subways and in the lobbies of hotels. A special paper, first used at the Olympics, is being swabbed on baggage and
DIGEST
CYPRUS
Hard-liner wins Turkish Cypriot vote
Hard-line challenger Dervis Eroglu won a key Turkish Cypriot leadership election Sunday, vow- ing to continue peace talks amid fears his victory could grind re- unification negotiations with the Greek Cypriots to a halt and scut- tle Turkey’s bid for European Union membership.
Eroglu won just enough votes for an outright victory, with 50 percent compared with leftist incumbent Mehmet Ali Talat’s 43 percent, according to the Turkish Cypriot High Electoral Board’s Web site.
Eroglu assured supporters who rushed to his party headquarters that he would not abandon nego- tiations aimed at reunifying the divided island.
— Associated Press
THAILAND
Military pledges to punish protesters
Thailand’s military vowed Sun-
day to “punish” anti-government protesters if they march on Bang- kok’s central business district, raising fears of further violence after bloody clashes killed 24 peo- ple a week ago. Red-shirted supporters of oust- ed premier Thaksin Shinawatra said that they might take their protest Tuesday to the financial district, two blocks from their main downtown protest base, in defiance of an emergency decree. “We won’t let them go any- where further,” said army spokes- man Sansern Kaewkamnerd, who stopped short of using the word “crackdown” but said pro- testers occupying the shopping and hotel district for a 16th day would be dealt with.
— Associated Press
IRAN VENEZUELA
$20 billion deal with China announced
Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez said China is providing his nation with a long-term fi- nance plan for major projects in the South American oil exporter. “China is going to give financ- ing to Venezuela, to the Ven- ezuelan people, to the Bolivarian Revolution . . . in large volume of some $20 billion,” Chavez said. He said the deal is on top of a
$12 billion Chinese-Venezuelan investment fund in which Beijing deposits money in return for for- ward sales of oil.
— Reuters
AFGHANISTAN
VAHID SALEMI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In Tehran on Sunday, members of the Iranian army are in front of the mausoleum of the late Iranian revolutionary Ayatollah Khomeini as they watch a parade marking National Army Day.
8 medical workers released; 1 in custody
Afghan authorities released
three Italian medical workers Sunday who had been detained for a week, clearing them of charges that they were part of a Taliban plot to kill a provincial governor, officials said. The Afghan intelligence serv- ice said the three Italian as well as five Afghan employees of the aid group Emergency were freed because they were no longer thought to be part of the plot. A sixth Afghan employee remained in custody. The nine Emergency employ- ees were taken into custody April 10 after Afghan and British forces found explosives and handguns in an Emergency hos- pital in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. Officials in Helmand suspected
that Taliban insurgents bribed Emergency employees to smug- gle weapons into the hospital for an assassination attempt. Emer- gency denied the accusation.
— Associated Press
can detect explosives and other prohibited items. Kites and bal- loons are banned in the expo’s vi- cinity. And volunteers are being enlisted to be on the lookout for troublemakers.
Organizers also say this expo will be the “greenest” world’s fair ever. A solar energy system will produce up to 5 megawatts of power — making it the largest so- lar plant in China — and large rooftop canopies will collect rain- water to be purified for drinking. Heating will be provided through underground systems. Richard Brubaker, an Amer- ican business consultant who teaches a sustainability course at the China Europe International Business School here, said the green results will be known only after the event has closed. Bru- baker said that the design of all the buildings uses energy-effi- cient technology — but that after- ward it would be better to reuse the pavilions than to disassemble all the glass, wood and steel used to make them.
Also, simply moving 70 million
people to Shanghai on planes, trains and automobiles will in- crease China’s energy footprint, even if the expo is self-sustaining. Hong, the expo official, said it will bring “intangible benefits” to Shanghai — among other things, teaching residents to be “more civilized.” Residents have been or- dered not to jaywalk, not to spit on the sidewalks, not to hang their laundry in public, and to be polite to foreigners. The biggest change is that they are being told not to wear their pajamas in public, a longtime Shanghainese tradition. Wu Weikang, 67, was standing in his thick green-and-blue plaid pajamas outside his house on a chilly afternoon. Before the com- ing of the expo, he said, if he need- ed something at the nearby gro- cery store, he would just walk there in his pajamas. But no lon- ger.
“Now everybody knows,” Wu said. “If I forget and wear my pa- jamas out on the street, my neigh- bor will stop me.”
richburgk@washpost.com
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