July 13, 1915.
Dar es Salaam city.
Today's Dar es Salaam city is obviously different from the past. Various departments of the municipal government have begun to organize personnel to conduct unified inspections of the city's health, transportation, public security and other issues.
Traffic police in East Africa have taken up their posts one after another and began to comprehensively control traffic chaos such as illegal parking, illegal driving, drunk driving, speed changes, and running red lights.
Police Department conducts orderly patrols in each neighborhood to crack down on various illegal and criminal activities.
The industrial and commercial departments conducted targeted inspections on the hygiene and production and business activities of shops on both sides of the street.
Firefighters, urban management and other departments have also begun to regulate and rectify various safety hazards in the city, as well as street stalls.
Lighthouse Road.
"Officer Chris, is something big happening today? I see that many civil servants are on the streets today, going door to door to carry out various tasks. What big move does the city government have?"
Chris is a policeman from the Lighthouse Road Subdistrict Police Station. The person who stopped him and questioned him was his neighbor Edson.
In the eyes of East Africans, the police are not a scary image, but rather public servants who "serve the people." This is also the direct reason why Edson dares to contact Chris directly. Of course, the identity of the acquaintance also has a certain influence.
After all, East African police is only responsible for public security and convenience services, and other tasks that are likely to cause disputes and disputes are handled by the industrial and commercial, urban management and other departments.
Especially the urban management department. It can be said that in the eyes of many small businessmen and hawkers, they are "devils" and have a bad attitude. If it were the urban management department, I'm afraid Edson would have run away long ago.
Chris said, "It turns out it's you! Edson, in fact, it's not a big deal. Don't you work in a mold factory? So this round of activities should have no impact on you. This time the municipal government is mainly conducting a large-scale political activity targeting the city's image."
Edson asked, "The city government has never mobilized forces like this before, right? And this time so many departments are acting together. Even if the New Economic Policy in 1910 was just implemented, it is not as scary as it is now."
Facing East African government, the people at the bottom are still quite scared. After all, the people do not fight with the officials, and East African government is a typical authoritarian government, so with so many public servants and so many departments involved, Edson is also a little worried.
Chris did not hide it. He said to Edson, "It's not a big deal. It seems that the city government received a notice from Provincial Government to hold an international event in our Dar es Salaam city."
"It should be a world-class expo similar to the San Francisco Expo. There should be an influx of many foreigners by then, so in order to show the style of our city, we have to sort out the entire city in advance and correct some safety hazards, sanitation and public security issues."
In 1915, when the war in Europe was in full swing, United States held the Panama World Expo in San Francisco on the pretext of the opening of Panama Canal just like in previous lives.
This expo was quite famous in the previous Far East Empire. After all, many traditional brands in tobacco, alcohol, tea and other industries in later generations used the medals won at Panama Canal this time as publicity.
Many Far East Empire liquor companies are hyping up Panama Exposition for winning awards, but in fact it is completely different from their marketing content. Instead, it has become a laughing stock.
However, this also illustrates the success of Panama Exposition this time, and its influence in previous lives has continued into the 21st century.
Edson said excitedly, "Does that mean we Dar es Salaam city will also hold a World Expo this time?"
Chris nodded and confirmed. "That's right. You have also seen that the city government and Provincial Government attach great importance to this event. Otherwise, I would not have suddenly worked overtime today."
The excitement for Edson and Chris is completely understandable, as this is the first time that East Africa has hosted a large-scale international event in the country.
The main reason for this result is that under the influence of Ernst's "hiding a low profile" strategy, East Africa did not want East Africa to be too prominent in the international community, but now it suddenly has to host international events because the situation has changed.
On the one hand, East Africa has developed into a giant that cannot be hidden even if it wants to. With East Africa's size and the frequent "heavy strikes" in the international community in the past two years, the conditions for keeping a low profile have disappeared.
On the other hand, now that European countries are at war, it is a good opportunity for East Africa to poach others. By holding the World Expo, East Africa can show its muscles in the economic field, so that South America, Southeast Asia, Far East Empire and other regions and countries will realize the strength of East Africa, so that they can move closer to East Africa.
And United States Panama Exposition probably had the same idea. Now European situation is in chaos, and there are obvious cracks in the old century system, so preparations must be made in advance.
Apart from anything else, if the Entente Powers countries led by Britain and France failed in the war, it would basically mean that the old world system collapsed. On the contrary, if Central Powers failed, then Britain and France might be able to mend the old order after the war.
East African government has just concluded a round of discussions and officially proposed the concept of "Southern Hemisphere economic system". So how to connect Southern Hemisphere countries together requires an excuse.
Obviously holding the World Expo is a good way to display the most developed cities of East African economy and Dar es Salaam city in front of these countries, so that they realize that East Africa is not only outstanding in military strength, but also not inferior to those veteran Imperialism powers in economy and industry.
And Dar es Salaam city citizens like Edson will naturally be excited if the World Expo is held in Dar es Salaam city.
That will greatly stimulate the patriotism and pride of East African citizens. After all, East Africa has been on the rise in recent years, and the national mentality will naturally expand accordingly.
However, in the past, the image of East African economy and development was not active internationally, which made all citizens of East Africa hold their breath, and the World Expo is a good opportunity to vent.
Edson asked, "When will this expo start?"
Chris said, "If nothing else happens, it should be October this year. At that time, the government will invite people and companies from all over the world to Dar es Salaam city to participate. In addition to our city, First Town and Bagamoyo city will also participate, and the three cities will jointly host this World Expo."
First Town is now the provincial capital of Coastal Province and the location of Provincial Government. Bagamoyo has outstanding industrial strength in shipbuilding and other fields. Together with Dar es Salaam city, this constitutes Coastal Province's economic core triangle.
Chris continued, "You will be in for a treat when the time comes. It is estimated that many cutting-edge technologies and foreign novelties will appear. If it can reach the level of Panama Exposition, Dar es Salaam city will probably be even more lively in the next half year."
Today's Dar es Salaam city is quite lively. This is mainly the result of trade with Europe, and the holding of the World Expo will obviously make Dar es Salaam city's popularity even higher.
"By then, the number of Dar es Salaam city will probably exceed two million, so the city government will be under great pressure."
Nowadays, the population of Dar es Salaam city has exceeded 1.3 million. This is only the number of citizens in East Africa. Counting the people in Dar es Salaam city from other countries, it exceeds 1.5 million. Therefore, the Dar es Salaam city government predicts that during the expo, the total number of people in Dar es Salaam city may exceed two million.
This will put greater pressure on the city's accommodation, catering, service facilities, etc., so after this round of rectification, Dar es Salaam city will temporarily build a batch of new public service facilities to cope with the large influx of tourists during the expo.
As for this event, the East African Central Government and Coastal Province governments will keep a close eye on it at all times. If it goes wrong, Dar es Salaam city officials will not get good results. This is why all departments of the Dar es Salaam city government are now dispatched collectively.