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Comment by devoutsalsa | Hacker News Reader

At the Expo 2020 Dubai, I was amused to learn that the USA pavilion cost 60 million USD and it was paid for by the UAE. It’s illegal for the USA to pay for it’s own pavilion at an expo like this. [1]

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-appointed-dubai-expo-...

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That's surprising to learn. The US exhibit at Expo 2020 was pretty terrible though. Literally just stand on a treadmill and watch various videos on how awesome America is (and I'm sure there's some snide jokes to be made about the only treadmill-based exhibit being America..) And then afterwards look at some of the cool space stuff we're trying to do. A lot of countries used their exhibits to jerk themselves off - China was guilty of this too. Ironically, the Russian one was pretty cool.

I remember being very impressed upon visiting the US stand in the 70s, the cold war was good in showcasing the space rivalry, moon rock box and other artifacts. The USSR pavilion was nearby, and it was the 1970 at the Damascus fair, I was a 10 year old kid then, my dream was to go to the US, but when I visited Silicone Valley in the 2000s I was depressed after meeting some former WIMAX experts who were homeless, asking me for cigarettes, in San Jose. https://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/pavilion-at-the...

I'll be impressed when the USA pavilion shows how we solved affordable housing & healthcare!

To see what half of the others already have. That should get them queueing!

I'd thought that too, but the law in question only bars the State department from spending its budget on a pavilion. Nothing blocks congress from appropriating whatever it wants for that purpose.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/2452b

As the documentary I linked in another comment points out, this has been misunderstood for so long, even people in the State department think it's an outright ban on use of any public funds.

My little country of 5 million people spent a whopping $40 million USD on this expo. I hope we got our money's worth [1]

[1] https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/128187098/ho....

Can't speak directly to ROI, but the New Zealand exhibit was pretty memorable.

Yes, but did it feature the toothbrush fence?

> … was speaking to reporters at the U.S. pavilion which features a replica Space X Falcon 9 rocket …

After visiting the pavilion I left with the distinct impression that they had brought a real rocket.

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