An employee walking along a thermal pipe at the Kamojang geothermal
power plant near Garut, West Java, on March 18. State utility provider
 Perusahaan Listrik Negara is targeting an additional 135 megawatts of
electricity from three new geothermal plants. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)
 

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,.. etc.)
"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)

“.. 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. …”

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Disregarding safety: A reality in Indonesia's building design

Zenin Adrian, The Jakarta Post

The recent shocking accident that involved a falling car from the sixth floor of the parking structure at the Menara Jamsostek building in Central Jakarta, has raised an important question: How safe are our buildings?

Sadly, this was not the first such event. There were at least two other previous similar incidents in 2007, one in January 2007 at the Pangrango Bogor shopping mall in Bogor, West Java, and the other one was in May 2007 at the ITC Permata Hijau building in South Jakarta.

These unfortunate events not only raise questions about building safety in the country, but also about the competency of our architects and engineers in this competitive building construction industry.

The issue has raised concerns among architects for the urgency to strictly enforce the 1999 Construction Service Law, which requires building construction professionals to be certified by their professional association.

Licenses and certification are essential to ensure professional responsibility for building design. Currently, there are still a lot of architects and other building professionals in Indonesia who practice without proper licenses or certification.

According to Ahmad Djuhara, the chair of the Jakarta Chapter of the Indonesian Institute of Architects, this situation is a result of how the architect profession is not legally recognized yet by the government in the law.

In other words, legally architects in Indonesia cannot be held responsible for their designs. Among Asian countries, Indonesia is the only one that does not have an architect's act law.

In practice, a building owner's autonomy to hire different architects in different design stages for the same project diminishes the architect's responsibility for the design.

Nobody would want to claim responsibility because of the separate tasks.

I think this is a terrifying situation in an industry which involves millions of lives and shows how chaotic the country's construction industry is. Safety is sacrificed and replaced by aesthetic and economical interests.

If we look at the parking garage at Menara Jamsostek, in my opinion, the guardrail was only designed for people, not moving cars.

Sadly, our building code does not regulate secondary structures such as parapet walls, guardrails or anything that concerns building safety. Although we adopt international standards for reference, there are no legitimate mechanisms to ensure their implementation.

The government never conducts comprehensive building audits that go beyond fire regulations. The 2002 Building Law also does not discuss who would be responsible for conducting such building audits.

In the United States, the roles of the government and architects in ensuring building safety have been overshadowed by the insurance companies.

These companies play a greater role because of their higher interest and liabilities. Banks require the buildings to be insurable in order to give out construction loans to building owners.

It is a kind of economic pressure that could be adopted and implemented in Indonesia in order to quickly raise safety standards.

With the fast growing construction industry in Indonesia, the government should immediately enforce this safety issue and set tighter mechanisms before it is too late.

Zenin Adrian can be reached at zenin.adrian@zadl.net or www.zadl.net

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