To prepare for the distinguished visitors, the authorities moved all the tattered beggars and cripples of Colombo out to temporary "rehabilitation centers" in the countryside. At a cost of $40 million or so, they decked the streets with the flags of 85 nations, hastily widened roads, improved hotels, organized the tightest security precautions in years and even arranged for a band that could serenade the guests with selections from Oklahoma! And so the government of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) was ready to welcome more than 2,000 elaborately robed and uniformed delegates to...
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