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. …”

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Montenegro learns true cost of China-backed $1 bn road to nowhere

Yahoo – AFP, Olivera Nikolic, May 27, 2021 

Chinese wprkers have spent six years carving tunnels through solid rock and
raising concrete pillars above gorges and canyons in Montenegro, but the road
in effect goes nowhere


Two sleek new roads vanish into mountain tunnels high above a sleepy Montenegrin village, the unlikely endpoint of a billion-dollar project bankrolled by China that is threatening to derail the tiny country's economy.
 

The government has already burnt through $944 million in Chinese loans to complete the first stretch of road, just 41 kilometres (25 miles), making it among the world's most expensive pieces of tarmac. 

Chinese workers have spent six years carving tunnels through solid rock and raising concrete pillars above gorges and canyons, but the road in effect goes nowhere. 

Almost 130 kilometres still needs to be built at a likely cost of at least one billion euros ($1.2 billion). 

"The construction looks impressive, but we must not stop at this," says 67-year-old Dragan who retired to the village of Matesevo. 

"It's like buying an expensive car and just leaving it parked in the garage." 

Critics question how the rest of the road will be paid for and highlight environmental damage caused by the construction along with corruption allegations over the awarding of work contacts. 

But locals are inclined to talk up the positives. 

"This story has some good sides for us villagers. Some managed to sell their land and leave, which was impossible before," said one villager, whose two-storey home now sits metres from gargantuan concrete pillars propping up the four-lane highway. 

"I manage to sell some vegetables and chickens to the workers," added the man who did not want to be named, reflecting also that dirt mounds from the construction site stop the river from flooding. 

If Montenegro cannot pay its debt to China, it faces arbitration in Beijing and could
be forced to give up control of key infrastructure, according to the contract.

'Big trouble' 

The section linking Matesevo to a town near the capital Podgorica -- the most difficult part to build -- is set to open in November. 

But the road is meant to connect the Adriatic port of Bar in the south with the Serbian border in the north, with the intention that the Serbians will then extend it to their capital, Belgrade. 

It is unclear where the money will come from or how Montenegro -- a country with a GDP of 4.9 billion euros -- will repay its existing debt to China. 

If Montenegro cannot pay, it faces arbitration in Beijing and could be forced to give up control of key infrastructure, according to a copy of the contract seen by AFP. 

China has been widely criticised for saddling small countries with unmanageable debt as part of its global Belt and Road Initiative. 

Critics worry that it will use financial leverage to boost its political power, in what they dub "debt-trap diplomacy". 

But Chinese officials have strenuously denied any ulterior motive to the investment in Montenegro and the wider region. 

"This cooperation is mutually beneficial and win-win," said China's Montenegrin embassy in a statement last month. 

"If someone puts negative labels on China's investment, it is not only unfair to China, but also disrespectful to the countries of the western Balkans." 

With Montenegro's first repayment due in July, it could become the first European country to put those claims to the test. 

"If we do not find sources of funding to build on, then we are in big trouble," Infrastructure Minister Mladen Bojanic told AFP, saying he was committed to finishing the road. 

Critics question how the road will be paid for and highlight environmental damage caused
by the construction along with corruption allegations over the awarding of work contacts.


'Out of public eye'
 

Bojanic is now trying to get help from the European Union to rescue a project he bitterly opposed when he was in opposition, labelling it risky and reckless. 

Risky, reckless and, according to campaigners, corrupt. 

More than one-third of local subcontractors chosen to work on the project had links to the former ruling socialists of President Milo Djukanovic. 

There were no public tenders and the relationship between payments received and the work carried out was not clear, according to anti-corruption watchdog MANS. 

"Decisions on construction were wrongly made out of the public eye, and that is something we will now have to pay for," said the group's Dejan Milovac. 

The government has promised to investigate any corruption claims. 

Further questions have been asked about the environmental impact after the construction work ruined a UNESCO-protected stretch of river near Matesevo, the Chinese firm agreeing to fund work to undo the damage. 

The construction work ruined a UNESCO-protected stretch of river near Matesevo
Montenegro. The Chinese firm agreed to fund work to undo the damage

Tolls not enough 

Problems with the project were not unforeseen -- experts queued up a decade ago to tell the government that it was not viable. 

They warned that any benefits to commerce and tourism on the Adriatic, or development for poorer northern regions, would never outweigh the costs. 

The current government has admitted revenue from tolls will not even cover the road's annual maintenance, estimated at 77 million euros ($94 million). 

"It would take at least 22-25,000 vehicles a day for the highway to pay off," civil engineer Ivan Kekovic told AFP, roughly four times the number he could envisage on the busiest stretch. 

Even this gloomy assessment may be optimistic if all Montenegrins do their sums like Zeljko Rajkovic, a 55-year-old teacher in Kolasin, close to Matesevo. 

He weighs up the benefits of heading to Podgorica on the new road: 30 minutes travel time rather than 90 minutes on the old road, improved safety. 

Then he considers the downsides: tolls each way, extra fuel consumption. 

"I'll only use the new road if there's a big storm or an emergency," he concludes.