Expo

While we were in Shanghai we went to the Expo.  I assumed that it was about showcasing new inventions and the like.  Turns out that - under the title of "Better cities, better life" it is a bizarre mix of tourism fair, self-promotion and abstract thought.  There are broadly three types of country pavilion: please come and spend/invest money; aren't we great and those self-confident enough to be more abstract or philosophical.  The first group tended to be third world nations.  The second group included the likes of Venezuela (they make the place sound like utopia - come the revolution and all that).  The Australian Pavilion was in this category too - slightly odd.  One of the great successes which they celebrated was the Sydney Opera House which they acknowledges was designed by a Dane and the engineers were British.  I also seem to remember reading that it was extensively panned in Oz when it was first built.  The UK Pavilion is really cool by the way.