Secretary Clinton Names Commissioner for World Expo Shanghai
Secy Clinton and J. Villarreal and something that looks like Gumby, July 1, 2009
Secretary Clinton’s remarks:
“I am delighted that Commissioner General Villarreal has accepted this role. He has the background and stature required to ensure a strong United States presence at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Our national pavilion will showcase American business and technology, as well as cultures and values to foster stronger friendship between the American and Chinese peoples as it also demonstrates America’s commitment to a forward-looking, positive relationship with China,” said Secretary Clinton. “The theme of Better City, Better Life gives us a perfect opportunity to highlight U.S. innovation, particularly in environmental initiatives, and to share ideas with countries from around the world on ways to create better cities and communities for all our people.”
To view this animated banner you need to have Flash Player 9 or newer installed and JavaScript enabled. This 
secretaryclinton.wordpress.com 
After years of worrying that our country won’t be participating in the largest world’s fair in history, I’m very relieved that we’ve made a commitment to the Expo 2010 authorities. With just ten months to go, however, it’s going to be quite a rush to put build and staff the pavilion.
The United States should already be planning for Expo 2012 in Yeosu, Korea and Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy with a more permanent solution to the funding problem. The Cold War-era laws that disallows State Department money funding of pavilions needs to be reversed or Congress needs to appropriate its own funds to support our interests abroad so that we don’t end up making such last-minute commitments again or, worse, not show up as we did in Hanover, Germany in 2000 and Zaragoza, Spain in 2008.
Incidentally, the creature that “looks like Gumy” is Haibao, the mascot for Expo 2010.
Urso- thanks for the clarification about the mascot- I really did think it looked like Gumby but realized it would make absolutely no sense for them to be holding Gumby in that picture. So I was kind of making fun of myself in the caption. But thank you for letting me know it’s Haibao, the Expo’s mascot!
i am so happy to hear the news. i am looking forward to going to shanghai next year to visit the largest world fair ever.
It’s the 4th of July. Korea is firing missles. Palin resigned. NFL stars are being murdered. Not a peep. Where is Hillary?
Mary- With respect to Palin resigning and NFL stars being killed, I wouldn’t think the Secretary of State would make a public statement about those issues- not that they aren’t important, but it’s outside the scope of the State Dept. With respect to N. Korea, that clearly is within the purview of the State Dept. and thus hopefully they will be issuing some sort of statement this weekend- I would assume that they would have to coordinate with the White House on this. At the last State Dept. press briefing, the spokesman made clear that despite the holiday, they would be working and monitoring things around the clock and I have been monitoring their website and updates so that I can post them here.
If you haven’t seen it already, the Secretary’s 4th of July message can be found here.