DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran wants visitors to put politics aside and marvel at its decorated rugs. Syria wants you to forget about its brutal war and learn about the world’s first alphabet. Yemen, on the brink of famine, is very excited about its honey and coffee.
Welcome to Expo 2020 in Dubai, the first world fair in the Middle East with 190 participating countries. There is no Afghanistan, under new Taliban rulers who have not made an appearance.
Dubai has staked billions of dollars to build the Expo Village, a triumphant tourist attraction and symbol of the United Arab Emirates, from scratch – a feast for the eyes designed to be void of politics and built on the promise of globalization. . But while countries use their flags as commercial benign, the political turmoil of the world manages to loom.
“We had only one bullet,” said Manahel Thabet, director of the Yemeni ward. “We wanted to present Yemen in a different way … to show people and not a political agenda.”
But the convoluted journey that the exhibits followed, from the rebel-controlled north to the luxurious Emirati-funded pavilion, speaks of a very different Yemen. Traders described harrowing nights walking with sacks of stones, spices and honey destined for the Expo through the battlefields of Marib, the last stronghold of the Yemeni government and now besieged by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The Myanmar pavilion, where the military coup has led to a bloody conflict, displays a golden carriage and invites visitors to its pagoda-dotted plains.
The previous government, which was overthrown in February, had appointed a prominent Burmese philanthropist years earlier to lead and sponsor the show.
But a person familiar with the activity at the venue, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said that in recent weeks the military junta has tried to make changes to the exhibition and change the schedule of activities in hopes of holding nationalist marches. and military associated with the six-month fair. Expo organizers, the person added, were trying to prevent the change of address, but the fate of the pavilion was unclear.
After the Emirates announced last year that it would normalize its relations with Israel, outraging Palestinians and ending a long-standing consensus in the Arab community, the Palestinian Authority declared it would boycott the Dubai Expo.
And yet, just a two-minute walk from the arch of mirrors erected by Israel, the Palestinian flag rises. Its spacious exterior is decorated with Arabic calligraphy with the message “Yesterday it was called Palestine. Today it is called Palestine ”.
The exhibition offers a sensory experience that invites visitors to touch handmade ceramic jugs, watch vendors slice knafeh, a sweet cheese filling, and smell oranges from Palestinian orchards.
However, the Palestinian pavilion has not officially opened to the public and employees described a succession of complications in trying to get permission from the Israeli authorities to remove some products from the occupied West Bank. When asked what had prompted the change in stance on Palestinian participation, workers said it had been decided that the Palestinian absence from the big fair would be worse.
Although many countries received invitations to participate in the Expo almost as soon as Dubai’s bid was victorious in 2013, Syria said it was invited just two years ago, shortly after the Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus in a gesture of improved relations. with the president, Bashar Assad, after years of devastating civil war. It was the last country to start construction.
Employees in the black box-like theater, replete with inspiring slogans such as “we will rise together” and lengthy explanations about the ancient Mesopotamian alphabet, lamented the last-minute rush and lack of funds. The pavilion’s designer, Khaled Alshamaa, said that Assad is focused on rebuilding the shattered Syrian cities and that the government has mainly provided “moral support.”
The walls of the building are covered in illustrated wooden slats sent by 1,500 ordinary Syrians from around the world. But visitors will see no references to death or the displaced, something staff insist is a happy coincidence, not proof of restrictions on freedom of expression. Miniature portraits of Assad and his wife, Asma, look out from the mosaic. Other postcard images show musical instruments, bouquets of flowers and lavish Syrian breakfasts.
“The war is over,” Alshamaa said. “Although there are sanctions, we are alive. That is the message we want to show you ”.
A large mirror in the pavilion conveys a more cryptic message: “What you see is not all there is.”
Some delegations with sensitive political situations have had trouble even being present.
There is no trace of North Korea. The Libyan flag, which plunged into violent chaos after a 2011 NATO-backed uprising in which veteran dictator Moammar Gaddafi was toppled and assassinated, still smells like fresh paint. The windows are empty save for thick layers of dust and the screens go from children’s cartoons to still scenes of Tripoli beaches.
There are signs pointing to Afghanistan, but their pavilion seems closed, nothing more than a stark showroom for office furniture. The country’s previous government had worked on the pavilion before the Taliban seized Kabul in the final days of the US troop withdrawal on August 15, forced President Ashraf Ghani into exile in the UAE, and killed the show’s plans. , among other things.
At the Islamic Republic of Iran exhibit, a worker smiles at visitors and points out that her trip to the surreal theme park is her first outing outside the sanctioned country. Although portraits of Iran’s past and current leaders are featured on the booth, the display of the Shiite power makes no mention of religion or other sources of pride in the country, such as its controversial nuclear and missile programs.
Instead, Iran has gone for handicrafts and displays Persian rugs without alluding to US sanctions that strangle trade. Merchants sell saffron sweets. The cooks carefully season some kebabs. Several businessmen extol the virtues of tax-free zones.
The Iranian pavilion was perhaps the best metaphor for the Expo. In one room, visitors peered into small holes in the wall to see everyday scenes from Iran, where anonymous people dug copper mines, walked quietly through village streets and wove colorful fabrics. The brief optimistic glances revealed nothing more, and nothing less, than what the country wanted to show.