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[MMarston]

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — I was the only visitor in Greece. As I walked through the tunnel of philosophers, eager young Kazakhs accosted me. “This is the Greek alphabet! It has 24 characters, and it was the original language of science. Here, please, come and take a photo by the sea.” They hustled me over to a Mediterranean backdrop. They outnumbered me five to one, I succumbed to relentless explanation.

It was a sunny afternoon on the second day of EXPO 2017, held on the outskirts of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The Expo boasts of being “the Olympics of economy, business, and culture,” a global event where each participating country showcases its national achievements in its own “pavilion” and crowds come to see pieces of the wider world. But today — at the first Expo ever held in a post-Soviet state — there weren’t any crowds.

The Expo was being held on the outskirts of Astana, near one of the city’s many construction sites, in a purpose-built park. Dubbed a “future city” but looking more like a vast conference center, the organizers claimed the site was self-powered, fueled by a mix of wind and water. Each pavilion takes up anywhere from one room to several floors in a giant ring of new buildings built to encircle a great sphere of black glass at the center, the Kazakhstan pavilion. Viewed from the west, the dome loomed over neighboring apartment buildings. “There’s two big ways to piss off the Kazakhs,” a delegate commented, “Mention Borat, or call the dome the Death Star.”

The obvious lack of attendees, by contrast, didn’t require mentioning. Greece wasn’t the only deserted pavilion. Many were barren of anyone except staff. A few of the big names — China, Germany, the United States — had clusters of a couple of dozen visitors at a time, but outside most nations I snaked my way through empty rail guards. On the avenues outside, two out of every three people were wearing lanyards. I eavesdropped on a conversation between two European delegates: “We have to plan for the worst-case scenario — if there are no visitors to our event.”

For years, the Kazakh organizers had been quietly ramping down the tallies of expected attendees at the three-month event; 5 million, 3 million, now 2 million. On opening day, the official figure was 10,000 visitors, and even that was a generous rounding-up. The next day, the crowds were even barer. In the Chinese pavilion, a CGI video showed a fly-through of busy Expo grounds; outside the street was empty save for a janitor having a smoke. Come dinner time, the empty plastic tables and giant windows of the second floor of the food court gave it the air of a provincial airport at 2 am.

At the last Expo I attended, in 2010 in Shanghai, the streets had been jam-packed; the event saw 73 million visitors. The last “specialized” Expo — the generally smaller events, like this one, held in between the quinquennial “world” Expos — was hosted by the coastal Korean city of Yeosu in 2012 and drew 8 million. Officially, Astana had sold 670,000 tickets — but there were serious doubts about how real many of those sales were. There were few doubts, by contrast, about the event’s $3 billion to $5 billion price tag.

There was also almost no effort to draw visitors from outside Kazakhstan. A desultory marketing campaign in Russia had looped in a handful of guests, but in Kazakhstan’s other neighbors, there was almost nothing. Air Astana promised free Expo tickets to anybody flying in; at both Almaty and Astana airports the machines issuing them were broken. I found a pair of lost Chinese tourists looking over a map in an Astana park (“I think we’re here, look, here’s the big glass pyramid.”) One of them, Mr. Tan, turned out to live a few miles from me in Beijing. A retired Communist Party official, he was an Expo enthusiast. “I loved Shanghai!” he said, delighted at the memory. “It had a little bit of so many countries! So I was so happy when I saw there was another Expo near China this year!” But they were the only ones. Being a host is wonderful, but it helps to invite guests.

On top of that, there was a palpable resentment toward the Expo from many Kazakhs. Plenty of people were proud of it — “We have been preparing for this for four years! Even little children know what the Expo is!” said Nikolai German, a Russian-Kazakh shop owner. But Kazakh social media was lit up with complaints about being forced to buy tickets, about pension funds being divested toward Expo funding, about the absurdity of spending billions on a vanity project when “half the country still shits in a hole in the ground.”

A lot more details at the jump (after you click through the subscription solicit gate).

Give me another hour in the ballpit if old.

 

[Blablurn]

That's so sad.


They tried though.

Give them a medal.

The concept of Expos is so strange but kinda interesting. I visited the one in Hannover in 2000. I don't know why.

 

[Reverend Funk]

 

[AlteredBeast]

Did they have Ping Pong and disco dance?

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Greatest country in the world.

Note: Canada wanted the Expo to take place here because of its 150 years anniversary. Too bad it didn't happen, would've saved the expo from embarrassment.

Dubai 2020 Expo is also going to create a bleak barren of desperation.

 

[Frozenprince]

Well, yeah.

It's a steppe country full of nomads.

Of course it did.

 

[Not]

OK really is this thread just going to be Borat jokes

 

[MMarston]

OK really is this thread just going to be Borat jokes

“There’s two big ways to piss off the Kazakhs,” a delegate commented, “Mention Borat, or call the dome the Death Star.”

Apparently.

 

[AlteredBeast]

OK really is this thread just going to be Borat jokes

He is their greatest export...

Spoiler

 

[-Deimos]

Great success!








NOT

 

[Temp_User]

Man . . . . thats just so sad to hear. I hope there is some way our Kazakh bros could make use of the stuff in the expo to make the endeavor worthwhile in the long run.

 

[BocoDragon]

I've had a few Kazakh friends, and Borat really is a sore subject for them.

 

[Chittagong]

Great success!








NOT

Lol, should be first post

 

[Frozenprince]

Guys, I get it, but Borat jokes stopped being funny when they got run into the ground fucking 12 years ago. It's just beating the piece of paper that the glue got stuck too after they made the horse into paste at this point.

Long past the point of hilarity.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Guys, I get it, but Borat jokes stopped being funny when they got run into the ground fucking 12 years ago. It's just beating the piece of paper that the glue got stuck too after they made the horse into paste at this point.

Long past the point of hilarity.

Nah, this is still hilarious:

Great success!








NOT

LOL.

 

[Martinski43]

Well Kazakhstan doesnt exactly have a thriving tourism industry, so i dont know what they expected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Kazakhstan

 

[BocoDragon]

Guys, I get it, but Borat jokes stopped being funny when they got run into the ground fucking 12 years ago. It's just beating the piece of paper that the glue got stuck too after they made the horse into paste at this point.

Long past the point of hilarity.

Pretty sure the use of Borat jokes looped around to being ironically dated mockery of people who'd make Borat jokes a couple years back.

 

[siddx]

Country is rife with corruption in both it's government and business world, wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was some kind of fuckery to make someone rich off construction contracts.

 

[Frozenprince]

Country is rife with corruption in both it's government and business world, wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was some kind of fuckery to make someone rich off construction contracts.

Look at pictures and you'd never guess it's the wealthiest country in central asia.

 

[Melon Husk]

A lot more details at the jump (after you click through the subscription solicit gate).

"There were few doubts, by contrast, about the event's $3 billion to $5 billion price tag."

Give me another hour in the ballpit if old.

Still 1000x cheaper than an actual Death Star, so that's a bargain. You can keep upgrading it little by little. Add a laser system when the times are good, maintain it with a skeleton crew during rougher times... I mean it's going to be permanently aimed at a point in the sky but maybe one lucky day the planets align just right.

 

[Flipyap]

“There’s two big ways to piss off the Kazakhs,” a delegate commented, “Mention Borat, or call the dome the Death Star.”

Apparently.

But... it couldn't possibly look more like a Death Star.

Guys, I get it, but Borat jokes stopped being funny when they got run into the ground fucking 12 years ago. It's just beating the piece of paper that the glue got stuck too after they made the horse into paste at this point.

Long past the point of hilarity.

Nuh uh. Kazakhs continuing to treat this subject seriously is going to breathe new life into Borat jokes for all eternity. Taking offense to something this harmless is basically comedy necromancy.

 

[Moff]

That's no dome.

 

[GasProblem]

That centre actually looks pretty cool. Will probably see pictures of it being abandoned and overgrown in a couple of years.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

That centre actually looks pretty cool. Will probably see pictures of it being abandoned and overgrown in a couple of years.

I hope Dredd sequel is filmed there.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

But Kazakh social media was lit up with complaints about being forced to buy tickets, about pension funds being divested toward Expo funding, about the absurdity of spending billions on a vanity project when ”half the country still shits in a hole in the ground."

Kazakh twitter keepin' it real.

 

[newtypepilot]

lol that's totally a death star

 

[Frozenprince]

Kazakh twitter keepin' it real.

We talk about wealth inequality a lot in the west.

Eurasian oil nations and steppe nations like Mongolia that hit it bi in oil.

The disparity is quite literally tangible. You can tell when you've entered a place populated by the wealthy by the very quality of the air itself being cleaner.

It's horrible how outwardly corrupt many of these nations are.

 

[cameron]

10k visitors on opening day only because Vladimir and other leaders were there for the ceremony.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Astana Expo 2017 'Future Energy' on Friday, during a two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in the Kazakh capital. Several events were organized simultaneously at different places: a multimedia show was held at the Congress Center, a concert at the Amphitheater and a laser show at the contemporary 'Nur Alem' pavilion. The latter was attended by Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Chinese President Xi Jinping, among other top officials.

Astana Expo 2017 will be held from June 10 to September 10 and is expected to bring together leading world experts in the field of energy, numerous official participants and at least 5 million visitors.

Good luck hitting 5 million. Maybe social media pity will give them an attendance boost, like when news spreads about nobody visiting an old person's birthday party.

But Kazakh social media was lit up with complaints about being forced to buy tickets, about pension funds being divested toward Expo funding, about the absurdity of spending billions on a vanity project when ”half the country still shits in a hole in the ground."

Then there was the corruption. The Kazakh government has already acknowledged that millions of dollars were stolen during the construction process. In part because of the fallout of squabbles among the country's oligarchical elite, the official in charge of the Expo, the chief construction manager, and the Expo firm's managing director were all arrested for embezzlement. This wasn't surprising; Kazakhstan is a deeply corrupt country, and the Expo, like any big event, a playground for thieves. The Milan Expo in 2015 was wracked by corruption scandals, adding to the prevailing cynicism about the event.

”The government is running tramps through the turnstiles to keep the numbers up," another resident of Astana told me confidentially, refusing to give me his name. (Kazakhstan ranks 157th in the world for press freedom, and dissenters are frequently arrested.) ”Of course I won't go!" proclaimed Talgat, a construction worker. ”That's for people like you!" He poked me in the chest with a calloused finger. ”Not people like me."

Maybe not.

 

[OminoMichelin]

I didn't even realize it would be so soon. When I went to the Milan Expo, the Kazakhstan installation, we were greeted by a smiling gigantography of their leader. It was entirely based on how good their rocks are and how much oil they produce, oh and I guess some dried goods in a corner.

 

[MikeHattsu]

Maybe they'd attract a few Star Wars fans to visit if they actually did call it a Death Star

 

[Ecotic]

Kazakhstan had that really beautiful volleyball player that made world headlines a few years ago. Maybe they could have hired her to bring in the crowds.

 

[waveuponwave]

Well it's Kazakhstan, they built a new capital in the middle of nowhere just because they could. This seems par of the course.

Pretty sad that all these big events are turning into just propaganda shows for authoritarian regimes.

But the Expo seems more and more anachroniatic, anyway. When international flights are so cheap, why would I go to an Expo pavillion of a country when I can visit the real thing?

The Expo in Hannover was cool as a child though

 

[Spaced Harrier]

Hmmm, I was in Milan during its expo, in fact I was directly outside of it, but i never actually went inside to see it.

I think I just went and got ice cream.


Maybe, strawberry, I want to say? Possibly rum and raisin. Can't be sure now.

 

[Aytumious]

This just seems sad.

Kazakhstan has spent billions on these events — a high cost for a nation where nearly half the population still lives on about $70 a month.

 

[Maxim726X]

At least they have superior potassium.

 

[Herr Schwarz]

Everybody dancing now

 

[Cyanity]

Did they do any advertising...at all?

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

This is really sad and unfortunate. Who the hell in Kazakhstan's government thought it was a good idea to host the expo??

 

[Orbis Tabula]

This makes me really sad.

 

[Drazgul]