Chapter 1205: Chapter 214: Steel Forest
Up to now, the shock experienced by the Brazilian participants at the Dar es Salaam City Expo mainly stems from three aspects: the ultra-modern high-rise buildings, the ubiquitous traffic on the streets, and the city’s infrastructure.
The main reason is that these three elements are the most direct, which is probably why the Far East Empire liked constructing numerous super-tall buildings in the past life, to the point of associating "building height with city development level."
Due to the Far East Empire’s excessive enthusiasm for this architectural aesthetic, even Ernst’s aesthetic became fatigued in the past life; after all, even small counties or special small towns could have numerous high-rises, making many cities seem devoid of uniqueness in such an environment.
Of course, for foreigners, especially from European countries or those backward nations, stepping into the Far East Empire in the past life was undoubtedly quite shocking.
This is not an exaggeration, but a result of different living environments. Most European cities lack high-rise buildings, while backward nations, apart from their capitals and a few important cities, don’t have the financial and capability for such constructions.
Just like people in the early 20th century visiting New York to see a forest of steel and concrete, there’s no doubt that this exaggerated architectural model would lead immigrants from Europe and other regions to unconsciously think, "America is so advanced."
The Brazilians in the latter vehicle were much more open than those with Pereira in the front vehicle, discussing enthusiastically the novel experiences encountered in Dar es Salaam City.
"Jodel, as a German, what do you think of this German nation in East Africa?"
Brazil is also an immigrant country, so there are naturally many Germans, and Jodel becoming Brazilian can be traced back to his grandfather’s generation.
After all, had it been a bit later, Jodel might not have been Brazilian but East African, as East Africa absorbed immigrants from the German region on an unprecedented scale during the latter half of the last century.
Jodel didn’t answer his colleague directly but thought for a moment before saying, "Dreamlike, that’s the word that comes to mind."
"If you exclude Black people, I don’t even think the population structure of East Africa is different from Brazil; it fundamentally doesn’t match my impression of a German country, especially not resembling what my grandfather described."
It’s widely known that both Brazil and East Africa are immigrant countries with large mixed populations; the difference is that Brazil has a lot of white people, plenty of Black people, but relatively fewer Native Americans.
East Africa, on the other hand, seems to have no Black people, at least the Brazilian participants haven’t seen any. Damn, isn’t East Africa supposed to be the homeland of Black people? How come they didn’t see even one! This is likely what most Brazilians are thinking.
Besides, East Africa’s mixed population scale is obviously much larger than Brazil’s, as the population in East Africa consists of equal parts white and Asian.
While Brazil isn’t as extreme as the United States or Argentina, there is still disdain among white people towards other groups, which is why even by the 21st century, white people can still make up half of the population, indicating that early Brazilian whites didn’t favor intermarriage with other groups.
East Africa is different, though. The East African Government’s policy of enforced marriage has had significant effects, with mixed-race populations holding a clear advantage. At least to Brazilians, randomly choosing an East African from the street gives more than a ninety-percent chance of encountering someone of mixed descent.
This makes the Brazilian participants appear out of place, as although there are indeed mixed-race individuals among them, over ninety percent happen to be pure-blood whites.
This evidently relates to Brazil’s social ecology, where whites are at the top of the social hierarchy. Those able to participate in this World Expo generally have some level of social status or wealth.
Jodel’s colleague wholeheartedly agreed, saying, "Compared to Germans, I actually think this place seems more like Russia, considering Russians have a noticeable amount of Asian ancestry, although I have never been to Russia myself."
It’s undeniable that Jodel’s colleague’s words are quite classic, likely related to Russia’s history. It’s widely known that Russians served as the "faithful dogs" of the Golden Horde. Moreover, Russia indeed has many Asians, and the Western world likes using this "evidence" to exclude Russia from Europe, unless Russia is overwhelmingly strong.
Just like when all of Europe fell under Napoleon’s iron heel, Europeans generously bestowed Russia with the title of "Europe’s policeman," showing that unless Russia strengthens itself, it could never integrate into the Western world by relying on subservience and sycophancy.
In this regard, East Africa and the United States are more pragmatic. Due to geographical separation, Europeans couldn’t allow either country to join "European membership." In contrast, Japan’s "departure from Asia to join Europe" is even more bewildering than Russia, as is Turkey, the Ottoman Empire’s successor, wanting to join Europe while also aiming to lead the Arab world, seeking both, yet wanting to become part of the East.
In general, Jodel didn’t feel much of a "German" characteristic in Dar es Salaam City, even though as a Brazilian, his life and mindset have long been Brazilianized.
But this doesn’t affect his affinity for East Africa, so he remarked without reservation, "East Africa’s city construction is at least twenty years ahead of Brazil. Comparing Dar es Salaam City to Rio de Janeiro, it is evident that in terms of urban construction and environment, it is superior."
"Look at those few skyscrapers in the West, filled with ultra-modern energy, completely different from the architectural style of New York in the United States. Although lacking in classical artistry, they feel comfortable and not out of place."
Though East Africa remains restrictive on high-rise buildings, with the evolution of times, it has made appropriate adjustments; restriction doesn’t mean non-construction, and Dar es Salaam City’s high-rises rank third in the entire East Africa.
The first is Dar es Salaam City’s old rival, once paired with Dar es Salaam City as the twin stars of East African cities, Mombasa. As for the second, it is East Africa’s capital, Rhein City.
Mombasa has numerous high-rise buildings, even comparable to any city outside of New York. This was intentionally done by the East African Government; undoubtedly, in the early 20th century, the steel and concrete forest was rare, greatly deepening the world’s impression of a nation, so as East Africa’s window to the world, Mombasa was given significant tasks.
Now why Mombasa instead of Dar es Salaam City, this returns to the advantage of location, as Mombasa is East Africa’s northernmost city on the Indian Ocean Coast.
Moreover, it’s a bridge for cultural exchanges between East Africa and areas along the Indian Ocean, the Far East, and Central and Eastern Europe, closer to the civilization center of Europe and Asia.
Thus, making Mombasa exaggeratedly constructed could amaze those "bumpkins" from the aforementioned regions.
This isn’t an exaggeration. Apart from East Africa, there isn’t any world power along the Indian Ocean Coast; they’re either severely underdeveloped or mere colonies, while in the Far East, although there’s Japan, as a powerful nation, Japan remains a genuine "impoverished imperialist" country. The situation in Central and Eastern Europe is slightly better.
But even counting Germany and Austria-Hungary among the world powers in this region, they’re merely on par with East Africa, and further east there are no rivals for East Africa.
Therefore, choosing to hold the expo in Mombasa might offer the nations’ personnel a more visually shocking feast.
However, the East African Government didn’t take this approach, naturally with its reasons, primarily the issue of carrying capacity. The Dar es Salaam City metropolitan area has other cities to share the pressure, whereas Mombasa long had a single-city dominance. As for the former Mombasa metropolitan area, it’s now entirely integrated into Mombasa, transformed into the appearance of Mombasa City.
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