After spending a week in France, I came across this true story. During World War II, France was occupied by Nazi Germany. Anyone caught helping Jews would be killed or sent to concentration camps. In the small village of La Chambon, Pastor Andre Troceme and his Protestant church decided to hide Jews in their homes, provide them with new identities, and integrate their children into their schools. This pastor and his parishioners were credited with saving 5,000 Jewish lives. They violated the Nazi’s hateful law and risked their own lives to help others.
During Jesus’ time, a man with a deformed hand had worshipped in the synagogue for years. But on one Sabbath, he met Jesus. Jesus said, “Get up and stand” in front of everyone. As the man got up, he was probably not sure what would happen, but he was willing to obey. And Jesus was willing to demonstrate, especially on the Sabbath, that God was interested in helping and healing his people. Jesus was God’s answer in ushering in his Kingdom of mercy, grace, and restoration. Doing good on any day, especially on sabbath is the best way to live by the will of God. Visit a sick friend, help a single mother, mentor a child. Let’s go and act like Jesus today! And like Pastor Troceme break non biblical traditional law to save lives.
Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” (Luke 6:9).
Let’s Pray
Yahweh, today I want to bring your Kingdom into my own family and neighbourhood. Father, please help me and Nudge me to serve you and usher in a culture that saves lives and shows mercy. In your name, Amen.
Over two hundred
churches attacked in France in the past two years, twenty of them burned to the
ground. And now Notre Dame… what on earth is happening in France?
I was channel
surfing last month when I caught the tail end of a news report: Notre Dame was
on fire. I couldn’t believe it! Memories of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, The
Aristocats, Ratatouille, and The Three Musketeers all surfaced as I watched the
news report. How on earth did a building as long-standing and well-known as
this simply go up in flames?
My mind started
spinning with possible reasons for the fire such as arson, a terrorist attack,
or faulty wiring. The building is over 800 years old, maybe some old wiring
sparked and caused the fire. However, according to Benjamin Mouton who served
as Chief Architect of Historic Monuments in France, this cannot be the case.
All electrical wiring of Notre Dame was updated in the 90s; furthermore, they
had alarm mechanisms in place for things such as fires. And what about the two
men that were meant to patrol the area? For such a historic building, there has
to be some form of security in place, and there was, day and night. What
happened to those two men?
I waited for the
result of the investigation to be released, expecting it to take a couple weeks
due to the size of the cathedral. To my surprise, the authorities were able to
give information to the public before the ashes had even stopped smouldering.
How is that even possible? How were they able to rule out arson and terrorism
so quickly? Where was the thorough investigation? Did they take into
consideration that many churches in France had been attacked, and some even
burned down? I smell a rat here.
What the
authorities were saying and what I was seeing and hearing was just not making
any sense. First of all, we are talking about wood that is over 800 years old-
that stuff is not easy to burn! It would take an extraordinary amount of effort
to ignite the amount of oak in the cathedral, but somehow it wasn’t caught soon
enough to avoid the amount of damage sustained. Once again, where were the two
watchmen who were meant to keep an eye out for such things? Why did the fire
have to get to that stage?
Youtube has a
wealth of information on every topic that you could ever think of, and many
people take it upon themselves to look for the truth. I happened across a video
of a mysterious figure on the Notre Dame rooftop before the fire began, but
what really caught my eye was the figure’s odd movements. The person seemed to
be going to specific spots on the roof, and once they moved away, there would
be a flash of light in the area just vacated. With all the conspiracies going
on in the world, could this be one of them?
The President of
France has promised to rebuild the monument and make it even more beautiful
than before, but he said something else that caught my antennae. He said that
he wants to rebuild the building to reflect their modern multi-diversity…
Multi-diversity? Considering that France is no longer known as a Christian
country, what could he mean? Now, I am aware that Christianity and Catholicism
are two different things although the world lumps us into one box. The
cathedral was even consecrated to the Virgin Mary, something that has nothing
to do with our faith. However, his statement raised warning flags in my mind
because I immediately thought of either a mosque-like building being built or
something that reflects the One World Order that is coming to existence at an
alarming speed. When I read that many billionaires and companies were pledging
millions of dollars to rebuild the cathedral, I found it fascinating. Why put
so much money towards building Notre Dame when people around the world are in
need? The contribution racked up a staggering $1 billion in a matter of hours,
and pledges were still pouring in. What is their interest in the building? What
does this building truly represent for them?
Then the bombings
in Sri Lanka took place, and it left no doubt in my mind that all of these
events, the timeframe of them, the type of media coverage, hiding of the truth,
etc. all seem to be part of some global plan. This is not just a coincidence!
We need to have ears that hear and eyes that see for us to take note of all
that is unfolding around us. It’s both an exciting and dangerous time to be
alive. Exciting because Jesus is most certainly on His way, and dangerous due
to Christian persecution being ramped up. Make no mistake: things will unfold
whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.
The rise of violent anti-Semitism in Europe has made Jews justifiably concerned about their personal safety. In 2017, a study authored by Dr. Johannes Due Enstad of the Center for Research on Extremism was released, providing the public with a methodological and comprehensive report that dissected the growth of Europe’s anti-Semitism problem.
The study spans the years 2005-2015 with seven countries being analyzed. The countries include France, the U.K., Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Russia. Due to a direct consequence of violent anti-Semitism, one in five Jews in Sweden and the U.K., one in four in Germany, and half of the Jews in France have considered emigrating. In 2015, many Jews took action and about 10,000 Western European Jews left Europe for a better life in Israel, the largest number leaving the continent since 1948. What was interesting was that the period measured did not show an upward or downward trend level of anti-Semitism. When compared with data from the 1990s, there is a consistently elevated level of anti-Semitism.
It seems that French Jews are more likely to have personally experienced a violent attack during the last five years of the study. The Swedish and German Jews are not far behind in their experience of personal attacks, but the largest gap in anti-Semitism lies between British Jews and Jews living in Norway, Denmark and Russia.
Out of all the European Jews mentioned, it is those living in France and Sweden that are less likely to attend Jewish events or even visit Jewish sites because they do not feel safe. More than half of them will avoid wearing, carrying or displaying anything that would reveal their identity as Jews. Although this behavior is not reported to be at the same levels in Germany and the U.K., nevertheless a growing number of Jews in those countries also tend to avoid doing things in public that would label them as Jewish out of fear for their safety.
French Jews have more of a reason to be fearful for their lives as France has experienced more violent, dramatic and fatal anti-Semitic incidents than any other European country. In 2012, three Jewish children and a rabbi were murdered in Toulouse. Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old al-Qaeda terrorist, had carried out the Toulouse attack, stating that he wanted to kill the Jews because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Fearing for the lives of the Jewish people in France, the head of the Jewish community of Marseille cautioned his fellow community members not to appear in public in any way that would identify them as Jews.
The main people responsible for these attacks are of Muslim background. These attacks are on the increase due to certain trigger events happening in the Middle East. What has been surprisingly dumbfounding is German authorities refusing to classify anti-Israeli incidents as anti-Semitism. Germany should know better, especially with their history.
The only country where the perpetrators were not necessarily of Muslim background, was Russia. In Russia, the Jewish and Muslim populations are separated by a vast expanse of land, with most Jews living in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and most Muslims living in the Eurasian Caucasus region.
As refugees continue to make their way into Europe due to the war in the Middle East, anti-Semitic attacks are rising. On the 14th of May, 2018, The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv was moved to Jerusalem, sparking outrage among the Palestinians. This move coincides with the 70th anniversary of Israel as a state- a prophecy from the Bible that came to pass in 1948. We, as Christians, need to open our eyes to the world events taking place. It is alarming that there are so few people today, especially in the Church, who recognize how important the modern state of Israel is in GOD’S plan. GOD has predicted many times in Scripture that the sons and daughters of Israel would return to the land of Israel just before Jesus would come again. What more do you need to convince yourself that our LORD and Saviour is on His way?
Global resourcing specialist BPS World has warned that one of the main challenges facing employers in the UK in 2017 will be the impact of Brexit on the ability to attract talent, particularly in the high-value digital, technical and engineering industries where recruiters are already struggling with severe skills shortages. This follows the publication by BPS World, of: “Brexit: What the World is Saying” which, for the first time, researched the global impact of Brexit and how other countries believe it will impact on skills.
Simon Conington, Founder of BPS World, has urged the government to ensure that the UK continues to have access to skilled professional from Europe, particularly in the sectors where there are already skills shortages, or face a sharp decline in the UK’s ability to compete.
Although the UK will not be leaving the EU until 2019 we can expect an announcement this year on the shape of Brexit and what it will mean in practice.Under so-called ‘hard-Brexit’ freedom of movement would be restricted and it would be as difficult for talent to be recruited from France as from the US. It is this that alarms those at the sharp end of skills shortages, such as BPS World. Recruits themselves are already showing signs of being aware of these new competitive forces: research revealed that almost half (48 per cent) of UK jobseekers were more concerned about finding a job than before the referendum.
Last year BPS World spoke to business leaders, representative bodies and professionals in the recruitment and retention sectors in Europe, India, Australia and the USA. The research focussed on the sectors most affected by skills shortages in the UK and overseas. It is in these sectors that the impact of Brexit and any restrictions or changes to work permits, is likely to be most keenly felt.
One of those they spoke to was Marco Dadomo, from the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI, Association of German Engineers) in Düsseldorf: “As we know, Britain has already problems finding enough specialists in this sector. Brexit will make it less attractive for international experts to work in Britain for a British company. We have also heard that quite a lot of UK experts of different sectors plan to leave Britain when Brexit will be implemented.”
Simon Conington, Founder of BPS World argued;
“2017 is going to be a pivotal year for the UK economy. The decisions the government makes now on the implementation of Brexit will affect our ability to attract the talent we need to grow. The impact will be felt immediately as talent will not come to the UK if they know they will have to leave within two years.We urge the government to continue to ensure we have access to skilled people, particularly in sectors where we’re already struggling to find the talent we need.”
Kevin Green, Chief Executive of the REC welcomed the report:
“This review of the international community’s fears and needs following the EU referendum contains warnings about the challenges employers could face in the future. The prospect of skill and talent shortages intensifying in higher-end sectors is a huge concern. The government must ensure that any changes to immigration policy as a result of the EU negotiations reflect immediate labour market needs so that businesses can continue to grow.”
Brexit: What the World is Saying is available free to download from www.bps-world.com
Notes to Editors
BPS World are global resourcing experts who work across a number of sectors, specialising in technology, marketing and engineering.
STRASBOURG, France, June 29, 2016 (Godinterest) Unanimously, the World Court of Human Rights has established, verbatim, that “there is no right to homosexual marriage”, making it clear that homosexual partnerships do not, in fact, equal marriages between a man and a woman.
The 47 judges of the 47 countries of the Council of Europe, which are members of the full Court of Strasbourg (the world’s most important human rights court), issued a statement of great relevance that has been surprisingly silenced by information progressivism and its area of influence.
In fact, unanimously, the 47 judges approved the ruling that “there is no right to homosexual marriage” as announced June 9 in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and closed out a discussion dating to 2004.
The court’s decision was in response to an unlawful same-sex “wedding” conducted June 5, 2004, by Noël Mamère, mayor of the French city Bègles and a member of the Green Party and based on a myriad of philosophical and anthropological considerations based on natural order, common sense, scientific reports and, of course, positive law. Within the letter, in particular, the judgment was based on Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Mamère had advocated same-sex “marriage” since 2002 and chose to approve the 2004 “wedding” despite 4,000 letters sent to him. “I take the risk, I accept to be a provocateur,” Mamère said. The “marriage” was canceled shortly after and the mayor was suspended from office for one month.
This month, 12 years after the incident, the European Court has put an end to the matter with a ruling that is equivalent to the articles of human rights treaties, as in the case of 17 of the Pact of San Jos and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In this historic but not disclosed, Resolution, the Court decided that the concept of family not only contemplates “the traditional concept of marriage, that is, the union of a man and a woman”, but also that they should not be imposed on governments to “obligation to open marriage to persons of the same sex”.
As for the principle of non-discrimination, the Court also added that there is no discrimination, since “States are free to reserve marriage only to heterosexual couples.”
The decision of the European Court for Human Rights should bring to a halt pressure exerted by the ILGA and similar groups, especially in Eastern European countries, who fight for legislation that recognizes the uniqueness of a marriage between one man and one woman.
Since the beginning of recorded time, construction projects have always been a major part of history. In fact, grandiose construction projects to erect the architectural visions of Pharaohs, Kings, Rulers, and Monarchs was used as a way to put the wealth and power of leaders on display for all of the people their lands to see.
Not surprisingly, all of these projects came at a great cost to the leaders that initiated them.
The Great Pyramid at Giza is one example of a grand architectural vision. This massive structure was built under the leadership of Egyptian pharaoh Khufu in the 26th century B.C.E. By the time work on the structure was completed, Knufu spent a great deal of his kingly fortunes on the project. According to sources, it is estimated that this project would cost more than $5 billion dollars to duplicate today.
Since then, there have been many other building projects that have cost significant amounts of money to build, some that were so grand in their scope they effectively broke the bank.
We will examine more of these projects here.
The Three Gorges Dam
1. The Three Gorges Dam
This massive Chinese construction project took place over the Yangtze River in the Hubei province of Central China. This scope of this project was enormous and came with quite a bit of controversy due to the changes to the environment that were needed to make the project become a reality. When this project was approved in 1992, the Vice Premier at the time, Zoa Jiahua quoted the project cost at $8.35 billion to complete. In 2006, when the project was officially ended, the total cost ended up being closer to $37 billion dollars, or roughly four times more than the original estimate.
The Ryungyong Hotel
2. The Ryungyong Hotel
The ground broke for this 105 story luxury tourist hotel in 1987 in North Korea, despite the country being closed off to foreign visitors. After investing approximately $750 million dollars in the structure, the project came to an abrupt end when the Soviet Union, North Korea’s major economic supporter, collapsed. Today, the building remains unfinished and is recognised as being the tallest unoccupied structure in the entire world.
The MOSE Project
The MOSE Project
The MOSE Project
3. The MOSE Project
This building project was originally intended to help control flooding in Venice. However, it primarily served as a project to sink money into. The original budget for the project was $1.7 billion dollars but jumped to $8.1 billion over time. None of the work that was completed did anything to prevent flooding. Many people involved in the initial construction were arrested on bribery and corruption charges in connection with the project. Venice continues to have problems with flooding and sinking.
The Mirabel Airport
4. The Mirabel Airport
This airport was originally opened to serve Montreal, Canada inmid-1970. The Government seized 100,000 acres of land and displaced thousands of residents from their homes for the land that was needed to construct the airport. The cost of the land was $140 million dollars. This amount was eight times more than the costs that were originally projected. Once construction on the airport began, the price skyrocketed to a total cost of around $276 million dollars. Adding further pressure to the Mirabel Airport project was the fact that the Montreal-Dorval International Airport was located within a short driving distance away. While this airport did operate for a number of years, it ceased operations in 2004. In late 2014, demolition of the site began which added another $15 million dollars of cost to the failed project.
The Sagrada Familia
The Sagrada Familia
The Sagrada Familia
5. The Sagrada Familia
There is no doubt that building a Cathedral is no small undertaking. For the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, it is a project that has advanced at a snail’s pace and with a hefty price tag that can not even be calculated due to how slow the project has been to finish. Construction on the house of worship began in 1883. In 2015, it still needs to be completed. In 2011, the President of the Building Committee said that it might be completed in 2026 – 143 years after construction originally began.
The Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome
6. The Millennium Dome
This is a London based project that has a happy ending, despite a shaky, and very expensive start. When construction of the Millennium Dome began in the 1990’s, the original budget of 758 million pounds was exceeded when it ended up costing 789 million pounds, so it lost money from day one, even without including maintenance costs. However, in 2007 the structure was sold to AEG and renamed the 02 Arena, so some of the initial investment money was recouped. This site is now a top venue for sporting events and concerts in the London, UK area.
The Channel Tunnel
7. The Channel Tunnel
Sometimes referred to as the “Chunnel” is a tunnel in the English Channel that links the United Kingdom with France. It’s not surprising that a project of this scope would cost a lot of money and time to complete successfully. In total, it took six years of work and $21 billion dollars to finish. In financial costs, it ended up being 80% more expensive than originally forecast. This privately funded project caused many of the initial investors to lose most of their investment due to over run costs. Today, their diligence to the project has made it widely successful. Hundreds of millions of people use the Chunnel trains to commute between France and the UK, with a travel time of around 35 minutes.
The Central Artery Tunnel Project
The Central Artery Tunnel Project
8. The Central Artery Tunnel Project
In 1991, Boston began construction of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, also known as the Big D, to provide commuters with an alternative to using the main highway through the City. This project is one of the most expensive construction projects in the history of the United States with a ‘real’ cost of $22 billion dollars once interest on the funding for the project is paid off in 2038. The Central Artery/Tunnel Project included the construction of roads, bridges, and even a tunnel that was built under the Boston Harbor. While this project did have the original effect it was supposed to have by alleviating traffic congestion in parts of Boston, overall traffic in the areas where the Big D serves has also increased.
Panama Canal, Centennial Bridge
9. The Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is another example of a building project that came with many personal and financial losses during its construction in the early 1900’s. The project was hexed with obstacles including outbreaks of deadly malaria and mudslides that, according to hospital records, resulted in over 5,600 labourers deaths. Today, the Panama Canal remains a key part of the shipping industry between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. In 2014, work at the Canal ground to a halt after a dispute between the Panama Canal Authority and a conglomerate of European construction companies disagreed who would pay for a $1.16 billion overrun in costs. All parties involved in the dispute agreed on stop-gap funding that put the project back in action. In 2015, expansion work on the Panama Canal continues and the overall costs of the project continue to rise.
