![]() Further, by situating the fair on a former industrial wasteland, the Government has set in motion a vast program of urban renewal that includes construction of the stunning 10-mile-long Vasco da Gama Bridge across the Tagus River and of a new Oriente railroad station designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Thus, Expo '98 has become the occasion for restoring historic buildings and improving Lisbon's thoroughfares and public transportation. But, for all their new national pride, the Portuguese remain a pragmatic lot. ![]() Still, the $2 billion spent on the show would be a stiff price to pay were Expo '98 no more than public relations. Their messages are many: with oceans covering 70 percent of the world's surface, Planet Earth should really be called Planet Water the oceans that gave birth to life are now being polluted to death the oceans, the first highway of communication between distant civilizations, remain the last unexplored frontier and, yes, if Portugal's empire once stretched from Brazil to Angola and Mozambique as far as Goa, Macao and East Timor, it was thanks to its intrepid navigators. The story of the oceans, past, present and future, is recounted in six thematic pavilions, while 146 participating nations (including landlocked countries like Switzerland and Bolivia) have created pavilions that also deal with water, rivers, seas and oceans. And echoing its own 15th-, 16th- and 17th-century history as a great seafaring nation, its Expo theme is ''The Oceans: A Heritage for the Future.'' Portugal has used this year's 500th anniversary of Vasco da Gama's opening of the sea route from Europe to India to justify its show. Six years ago, Spain organized its own coming-out party, Expo '92 in Seville, around the quincentenary of Columbus's first trip to the New World, and chose ''The Age of Discoveries'' as its theme. For that, its Spanish neighbors conveniently pointed the way. ![]() And it wants to remind us that this country, too, has a glorious past. Quite simply, it wants the world to take note that Portugal, a tiny backward dictatorship 25 years ago, is now a modern, self-confident democracy. So Portugal can be forgiven for looking beyond education and entertainment in organizing its first international fair, Expo '98, which opened in Lisbon on May 22 and runs through Sept. EVER since Britain and France began holding universal exhibitions in the late 19th century to boast of their power and prowess, world's fairs have had a political agenda. ![]()
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