Italy's deadly flirtation with illegal building

Yahoo – AFP, Ella IDE, August 23, 2017

The Ischia quake measured just 4.0 Magnitude -- on the seismic scale, a modest
event. Yet houses collapsed and two people died. Now experts are pointing the
finger at Italy's chronic problem of illegal construction (AFP Photo/Handout)

Rome (AFP) - As Italy reels from another earthquake, experts warned Wednesday that widespread illegal construction is putting millions across the country at risk of being killed.

The tremor that shook the island of Ischia on Monday, toppling houses and killing two women, has sparked much soul-searching in a country with a weakness for rule-breaking -- particularly when it comes to building or renovating houses.

Geologists insisted that the relatively minor 4.0-magnitude quake should not have killed anyone and the civil protection agency laid the blame on the "many structures built with shoddy and illegal materials" on the island.

Residents there have put in 28,000 requests for amnesties for infringement of building regulations in the last 30 years.

Attempts by the council to tear down illegal constructions have sparked fury, with locals clashing with riot police.

The same battle is waged daily across Italy -- predominantly in the poorer south, the playground of Italy's mafias.

The mayor of Licata in Sicily was ousted this month by councillors infuriated by his campaign against illegal housing.

Italy's national statistic institute (ISTAT) warned last year of a "decisive rise in the level of illegality" in construction, involving nearly 20 new buildings in every 100. That number rose to 60 in every 100 in some regions in the south.

The scale "has no equal in other advanced economies," it said.

Worse, buildings allegedly restored under strict anti-seismic norms collapsed in quakes last year, including schools.

And while some buildings at risk due to poor-quality materials or unlicensed extensions are subject to demolition orders, only around 10 percent of them are carried out.

Corruption, incompetence

The worst offender is the Calabria region, followed by Sicily and the Basilicata in the instep of boot-shaped Italy.

But it is Campania -- encompassing Naples and Ischia island -- which is dubbed the "Russian Roulette of Italy" by experts because of its deadly mix of illegal houses, a high-density population and the active volcano Vesuvius.

There are over 4,500 schools, 259 hospitals and nearly 900,000 buildings in the highest-risk areas of the region.

"For at least the last 20 years the scientific community has been explaining the problem to the institutions, above all pushing for prevention measures," said Stefano Carlino, researcher at the national geographic institute in Naples.

"They are expensive of course, but also fundamental. Unfortunately the issue has not been given the attention it needs," he said.

Geologist Mario Tozzi warns Vesuvius is nothing compared to the activity seen at the nearby volcanic Phlegraean Fields over the last few years, including a rise in the ground-level of 25 centimetres (inches), tremors and ever-hotter gases.

"The Phlegraean Fields is a supervolcano made up of some 30 craters -- gaily occupied today by hippodromes and hospitals -- the eruption of which would spark the permanent exodus of half a million people," he said.

And how to forget Marsili, the undersea volcano south of Naples which is "70 kilometres (43.5 miles) long and 3,000 metres tall (10,000 feet), and just off the Calabrian coast", where an eruption could trigger a tsunami as well as devastate cities and towns.

As Italy marks the anniversary of a 2016 quake in central Italy that killed 299 people, Tozzi insisted it was not nature that buries children alive in rubble but "corruption, political incompetence and our incapability to learn from history".

And sometimes not even a tremor is needed to topple buildings: eight people died in July when an apartment block collapsed near Naples, killing among others the municipal architect in charge of building security checks in the area.

Three Dutch firms are sourcing granite from child labour quarries

DutchNews, August 23, 2017

Granite is widely used in luxury kitchens 

Three Dutch companies which import stone from abroad have bought granite from quarries in India where child labour is used, Trouw said on Wednesday. 

Some of the workers in the quarries are also vulnerable to debt slavery because of debts owed to their employer, according to a new report by three Dutch NGOs. The  NGOs base their claims on an investigation into working conditions and export data. 

The three firms supply granite for worktops for kitchen suppliers, window sills for the building industry and stone tiles for gardens, floors and bathrooms. All three say they are taking action to stop the abuse. 

India is the largest exporter of granite in the world. The researchers interviewed 172 employees at 22 quarries in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. They found evidence of child labour at seven of the quarries and debt slavery at 19. In total, 22 western companies were found to have bought stone from a quarry using child labour. 

The paper also states that the Dutch stone importers association VNNI has withdrawn from talks within the government’s SER advisory group which was working on a covenant for the sector. The VNNI says that the process is too expensive and that the companies concerned import relatively little stone from India. 

According to the VNNI, debt slavery is also a bigger problem than child labour in the quarries. ‘The quarries are in remote areas and there is often no school nearby so parents take their children with them to the quarry,’ VNN’s treasurer Niels Ros told the paper. 

Indian woman wins divorce over lack of toilet

Yahoo – AFP, August 20, 2017

An Indian urinates on a wall in front of a poster in Hyderabad for the Hindi film
"Toilet", about one man's battle to build toilets in his village (AFP Photo/NOAH SEELAM)

Jaipur (India) (AFP) - An Indian court has given a woman permission to divorce her husband because their home did not have a toilet, forcing her to seek relief outdoors.

The family court in the northwestern state of Rajasthan ruled on Friday in favour of the woman, who argued that her husband's failure to provide an indoor toilet during their five years of marriage amounted to cruelty.

Justice Rajendra Kumar Sharma said women in villages often endured physical pain waiting until darkness to relieve themselves outdoors.

The judge labelled open defecation -- a major health problem in India -- disgraceful and deemed it torture to deny women a safe environment for relief, the woman's lawyer Rajesh Sharma told AFP.

Divorce is only granted in India if proof such as cruelty, violence or undue financial demands are shown in court.

It is not the first time a marriage has been called off over a toilet.

Last year a woman refused to tie the knot in Uttar Pradesh state after her fiancé refused to build a toilet for the couple.

In June another woman refused to return to the home of her in-laws until they constructed a toilet.

Nearly half of India's population -- almost 600 million people -- defecate in the open, according to UNICEF.

Some 70 percent of Indian households do not have toilets, although 90 percent have access to mobile phones.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to build a toilet in every home by 2019 in a bid to stamp out open defecation.

The government says 20 million toilets have been constructed since the start of the scheme in 2014.

But experts say open defecation not only stems from poverty but a belief that toilets inside the home are unclean.

Rotterdam may get a new skyscraper – the tallest in the Benelux

DutchNews, August 9, 2017

Artists impression: DAM & Partners Architecten

The highest Dutch administrative court on Wednesday threw out objections to plans to build a 215 metre high skyscraper in Rotterdam’s Zalmhaven. 

Locals say the plan will increase traffic congestion, create too much wind and spoil the atmosphere in the area, which has undergone considerable regeneration in recent years.  The Council of State, however, ruled that the city council had correctly applied zoning laws and the building can go ahead. 

The tower, which the developers AM and Amvest hope will open in 2020, will have 475 apartments, offices, commercial space and a panoramic roof terrace. The tower, part of a complex with two smaller buildings, would be the tallest in the Benelux region if it goes ahead. 

The current tallest building is the Maastoren, also in Rotterdam, which opened in 2009 and is 165 metres tall. The Zalmhaven tower will be 190 metres high with a 25 metre antenna on top. 

Ten of the tallest things in the Netherlands

Architects, refugees team up on tiny houses in Berlin

Yahoo – AFP, Hui Min NEO, August 7, 2017

The Tiny Houses Project's construction site, with cafe (L) currently being built
as well as a small house (R), an experiment in providing housing to people in
need (AFP Photo/Adam BERRY)

Berlin (AFP) - Troubled to see a long queue of asylum seekers shivering for hours on a winter's day outside Berlin's notoriously chaotic registration centre, Van Bo Le-Mentzel decided to take action.

"I fetched my drill and collected some wood that I found randomly in the streets and brought it to the line where people were standing there bored to death and we just started building," the architect told AFP.

The end products were pint-sized playhouses that children could crawl into for shelter as well as break up the monotony of the endless wait.

It also marked the birth of the so-called Tiny House University, a project bringing together architects, designers and refugees to experiment with innovative ways to house a population in need.

"We are trying to create new kinds of housing forms in society in which it's possible to live and survive without having land or money," said Le-Mentzel.

Van Bo-Mentzel, head of the Tiny House University Project, sits inside a small 

house built on the construction site for the project at the Bauhaus Archive Museum 

of Design in Berlin. (AFP Photo/Adam BERRY)

The tiny house trend emerged several years ago, largely in the United States as people chose to downsize their living space out of environmental or financial concerns.

In Berlin, it has been given a twist for contemporary needs.

For a start, Le-Mentzel's team which includes six refugees, is collaborating with the Bauhaus Archiv to build 20 tiny houses occupying 10 square metres (100 square feet) each.

Together, the houses will form a temporary village on exhibition until March 2018.

Some will serve as lodging, while others are destined to be a library, cafe, workshop or community centre.

Each building is fitted on wheels -- which Le-Mentzel said means they can be parked on public streets as a form of trailer.

"In Berlin we have 1.5 million cars registered and they are all standing in the streets overnight, not in use. Each car is about 10 square metres," noted Le-Mentzel.

"So I'm asking what would happen if we just replace these 1.5 million cars with tiny houses or with mobile playgrounds for kids or with open spaces where neighbours can cook together, eat together, find company together, where refugees can create a start-up in the streets -- opening a restaurant, (giving) a haircut."

Ali Fadi, a Kurdish Syrian refugee and construction worker, is hoping his 

work on the Tiny Houses Project will help him get a job in his field (AFP 

Photo/Adam BERRY)

Microcosm of society

Like metropolitan cities worldwide, property prices in Berlin have shot up as the city shed its Cold War divided past to become a tourism and party hotspot, as well as an investment magnet.

Although new builds are mushrooming across the capital, refugees and low-income locals are finding themselves priced out.

Le-Mentzel views his Tiny100 as a prototype for small apartments which can be let out for 100 euros ($117) a month to low earners.

His ultimate goal is to fit out a building not only with regular-sized apartments, but also such compact homes, allowing the "rich and poor, students and entrepreneurs" to live together.

"It will be a house that mirrors society," he said, adding that talks are ongoing with "three or four investors" about making his dream come true.

"But we are at the beginning of the process."

Ali Fadi, a Kurdish refugee from Syria, has not thought that far to having his own tiny apartment.

The 33-year-old is simply revelling at being able to practise his trade.

Fadi is an experienced carpenter, but had found himself shut out of the German job market because he lacked the paper qualifications.

Measuring a piece of wood before sawing it off for the tiny house that would house a cafe, Fadi said he hopes that his work in the project would help overcome the bureaucratic barrier.

"I hope I can get a job doing this," said Fadi.

Material cost for the house is expected to run between 12,000 and 15,000 euros

 (AFP Photo/Adam BERRY)

Party for 13 in 6 sqm

At a warehouse area in southern Berlin, another member of the team, Noam Goldstein, is fitting insulation into one of the 20 tiny houses.

His version of the small home would feature not just the usual trappings of an apartment, but also include solar panels, a compost toilet and a hydroponics garden.

The carpenter expects material cost for the house to run between 12,000 and 15,000 euros.

While some components like windows have to be purchased, Goldstein said much of the wood used is recycled pallet wood.

"When you look at the financial aspect, it provides a very cheap way for people to build their own house," said Goldstein.

Researcher Amelie Salameh, who was among the initial ones to try out the first of the 20 tiny houses overnight, is a convert.

Measuring just six square metres, the first tiny house built by Le-Mentzel himself for the project is a self-contained unit with a living room, kitchen, sleeping area, toilet and shower.

"The way it was designed, there were mirrors, a lot of light, I never felt trapped inside," said Salameh, who lived in the house called Tiny100 for three weeks.

She even had two friends sleep over for a night, and once also hosted a visit of 13 people.

"We had a few beers, it was fun," she said, adding that "you just have to think about where you're putting your stuff, and to tidy up constantly, because the place gets full quickly."

Rats and mice cause ‘over half’ of unexplained factory farm fires

DutchNews, August 2, 2017

Pigs on a factory farm. Photo:
Depositphotos.com

Rodents gnawing through electricity cables are the likely reason for most unexplained factory farm fires, the Telegraaf reported on Wednesday. 

According to pest control advice centre KAD in Wageningen, factory farm owners must do more to keep ‘pyro mice’and rats away from where the animals are kept. 

Insurers should be more critical when considering insurance claims and owners who do not have a continuous contract to combat rodents or a pest control certificate to state they can do it themselves should get nothing in case of a fire caused by rodents, the paper writes. 

‘The role of rodents in infernos such as this is being underestimated. We think more than half of unexplained farm fires are down to insufficiently insulated cabling which has been gnawed at by mice or rats,’ KAD biologist Albert Weijman told the paper. 

The call for more stringent rules for  the prevention of factory farm fires comes in the wake of a devastating fire in Erichem in which 20,000 pigs died. Its cause has not been established yet. 

According to Joop de Jonge of the PvdD, fire safety at factory farms leaves much to be desired. ‘None of the factory farms has compartments, sprinklers or fire detectors, he told the Gelderlander. 

Insurance association Verbond van Verzekeraars told the Telegraaf that contracts with farmers are already stringent when it comes to the fire safety of animal holding areas.

Construction of two nuclear power plants in US halted

Yahoo – AFP, August 1, 2017

The US is the world's leading producer of nuclear energy but the sector
accounts for less than 10 percent of total American energy production

Construction work on two nuclear power plants in the United States has been halted because of cost overruns, the companies behind them said.

Santee Cooper, one of those firms, said that because of construction delays the two planned reactors in South Carolina could not come on line before 2024, four years behind schedule.

This means only two nuclear plants are now in construction in the United States, in this case in Georgia, while there are about 100 up and running.

The United States is the world's leading producer of nuclear energy but the sector accounts for less than 10 percent of total American energy production.

The project in this case, called V.C. Summer, was launched in 2008 with Westinghouse, which had been acquired in 2006 by Toshiba.

Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy protection in March of this year.

Nuclear energy was popular in the 1960s and 70s in the United States but took a big hit with the accident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania in 1979. No new plants have been added to the US nuclear grid between 1996 and 2016.

The initial cost of the Summer project was put at around $11.5 billion but cost overruns doubled that because of construction delays and safety requirements.

The other company involved in the project is South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G).

In a statement it said, "simply put, our evaluation showed that it would cost too much and take too long to complete construction on both units."

"Although it appeared to us that it may have been feasible to complete construction of one unit, that option was eliminated when Santee Cooper decided to suspend construction of the project," SCE&G added.

"It is not economically feasible for us to move ahead on our own, and the most prudent path forward is for SCE&G to cease construction of both units," it added.

Related Articles:

"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“… 4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet; again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much…

Water

We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet. 

There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four.”

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“... Japan

Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.

Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."

Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.

So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise.  …”