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« on: November 23, 2008, 11:41:41 AM »
Additional Info for the 2nd half of the Quatrain sets the timeline for 2010. A Bridge May Abridge!
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New Danube Bridge project to bring Bulgaria-Romania border prosperity
posted by C Mahida on May 14, 2007 | More articles about: Bulgarian Property, Overseas Property News, Romania Property
danube bridgeThe historic Danube Bridge II began its construction yesterday, with the prime minister of Bulgaria, Sergei Stanishev, symbolic ground breaking at the bridge's proposed location at Vidin-Calafat reported the Bulgarian News Agency.
Once complete in 2010 and at a total cost of €236 million (£161 million), the Danube Bridge II will span nearly 2 km and is claimed by the Bulgarian government to be one of the country's "biggest and most complex" infrastructure projects to date.
Located at the 796th km of the Danube River, the decision to construct a second bridge between Vidin on the Bulgarian side and Calafat the Romanian town opposite commented Stanishev,"is an important part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor IV passing from Thessaloniki through Sofia and Vidin to Romania by providing connection to Central and Western Europe". Mr Stanishev added that the construction of the bridge is not only a significant event for the local region, but also for the entire European Union. It will reunite the European continent bringing Turkey closer to Europe.
"The start of the construction of Danube Bridge II exemplifies what Bulgaria's EU full membership means because without … the European Commission's support, Bulgaria would have hardly ever begun the real construction of the bridge," he commented. Mr Stanishev concluded his speech by saying that a strong transport infrastructure system is a requirement for a prosperous economy.
Vidin Calafat Danube bridge IIFor the 18,000 people of jaded Calafat and downtrodden Vidin, population 68,000 "this bridge is the bridge of hope," says Ivan Tsenov, the mayor of Vidin. Apart from literally joining these formally estranged countries closer together, the Vidin-Calafat bridge should help one of Europe's least developed regions. Vidin, is the main city in one of Bulgaria's poorest regions in it's northwest corner close to the border with Serbia. The city's former Viennese opulence remains shrouded by ramshackle buildings, decrepit streets and empty shops and the official unemployment rate stands at 26 percent. Ivan Tsenov, told Balkan Insight, the prospect of a new bridge had already provoked the interest of numerous Bulgarian and foreign investors, raising real estate prices in Vidin and neighbouring towns. "It will bring investments, new jobs and higher payments." he said. "The bridge will not be so important to the development of Calafat as what will be built around the bridge," said Romania's Calafat Mayor Petre Traistaru, locals are very optimistic about the long-term economic impact in the region. Local residents have high expectations since the bridge has been talking about the bridge for so many years and believe it's important for young people to have work so they don't have to leave the area. People are expecting jobs and the bridge should mean people will have more money. According to a consultant's report, the construction itself will directly create 980 jobs and pump €57 million into the local economies on both sides.
Currently these two towns have the closest relations along the lower stretch of the river the regular ferry service ensure locals here have regular interchange with their neighbours across the border but this has not always been the case given that during the Communist era many Romanians felt "the best neighbour of Romania is the Black Sea."
Despite their geographical proximity and never having had any serious conflicts Romania and Bulgaria have never been close, at odds over politics, language and culture. Romania's then leader Ceausescu pursued an independent foreign policy whilst Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov aligned himself with Moscow. Romanian linguist roots are closely tied to latin whilst the Bulgarian mother tongue is Slavic in origin like most other Eastern European languages.
Ruse Giurgiu Danube BridgeIt is these factors which have made the Danube form a barrier between Romania and Bulgaria despite being an essential artery for cultural and commercial exchange in Central Europe, making this bridge only the second connection over two neighbours 500km river border. Built in 1954, the Ruse-Giurgiu "Friendship Bridge", also known as the Danube Bridge is currently the only other crossing over the Danube shared between the countries and lies 3 hours from Bulgarian capital Sofia but just half an hour from Romanian's central city Bucharest.
Since their isolation from the rest of Europe due to the wars in Yugoslavia , the bridge will bring Romania and Bulgaria closer together and will be a concrete result of their mutual cooperation to resurrect themselves as part of the European Union. This union has led to 'intensive' development of Romanian-Bulgarian relations and according to the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, trade between the countries has increased more than sevenfold since 1995, to $1.12 billion in 2005.
However, it wasn't until 2000, courtesy of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe, an international institution designed to promote stability in the region after the Yugoslav wars, pushed the two countries to sit down and agree on the Danube Bridge II project. Now after years spent arguing over the location and funding secured in 2004 from the EU Phare and ISPA programs, the European Investment Bank, the Frankfurt-based development bank KfW and Agence Francaise de Developpement Development (AFD), and co-financed by Bulgaria's Exchequer, Spanish firm Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas is expected to finally start construction of the new Vidin- Calafat Danube II bridge in August and with it a much needed economic jolt to the region.
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Germany Facing Tough Times
November 3, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com
The locomotive that has driven the European Union to the status of the world's leading trading entity has struck a snag.
Ron Fraser
Ron Fraser
Three weeks ago, as I scanned the headlines in the newspapers at Frankfurt's busy airport, the stock markets were caught in the grip of the galloping fear that is the dread of every investor. The markets had tanked.
A few days ago, as I transited through Frankfurt returning from the Middle East, it was apparent from scanning German news commentary that the seriousness of the effect of the global economic crisis on the German and, in the wider sense, the European Union economy is beginning to dawn on the German people.
Having faced recession only a few years ago, Angela Merkel's government has presided over an aggressive export-led recovery leading the German economy into what appeared to be a rosy future of market expansion up to a year ago. However, warnings of tough times ahead are now being sounded from Berlin as the global recession begins to bite all across Europe.
"Germany's export sector will suffer particularly under the international financial crisis, and the country is unlikely to emerge from its economic doldrums anytime soon, the Finance Ministry said" (Deutsche Welle, October 23).
According to a monthly report from Germany's Ministry of Finance, the country's "crucial export sector is likely to hobble the economy at some point. … The report said the 'weakness of the global economy has weighed on exports' that contribute significantly to the economy, given that Germany is the world's leading exporter" (ibid.).
The Bild newspaper reported that Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piëch expects the German car industry to face a prolonged downturn, declaring that the problems of the capital market are continuing to damage the already weak German economy (October 23).
Piëch's gloomy outlook follows a slew of cutbacks in the German automotive industry. Last week, Deutsche Welle reported that "German luxury carmakers Daimler and bmw said over the weekend they would temporarily close factories as a result of slumping sales. General Motors' German arm, Opel, has also announced output cuts, as have Volkswagen's Spanish subsidiary Seat and Czech subsidiary Skoda" (October 26).
Germany's senior citizens are making connections with similar events embedded in their history of the last century. In last Monday's edition of the New York Times, a page-1 report headlined "Some Europeans Prepare for the Worst" cites the fact that "Germany, where many people lost their savings twice in the 20th century, is one of the richest laboratories of European historical scars, welds that help explain the country's fears of inflation."
The Times quotes Tony Pierenkemper, a professor of economics at Cologne University, as insightfully declaring that "History matters. In times of crisis you really get to know a country and its people. Traumatic events are seared into the collective consciousness and often survive into the next generations."
A significant problem arises when that which is seared into the collective consciousness of a particular element within society sees demagoguery as the solution to the chaos and confusion of economic, social and political turmoil, as is the case with that element within German society that unfortunately is still moved by a persistent Nazi spirit.
The Trumpet has been strident in publicizing a warning to the world that the Nazi spirit that arose amid conditions such as we see ripening in Europe today, never died. As Herbert Armstrong declared, it survived to continue its work underground, biding its time for one last-ditch resurrection!
History does matter!
Certainly, as Professor Pierenkemper declared, "In times of crisis you really get to know a country and its people." To no people more than the German folk does this particularly apply, especially given their nature to seek to impose order by military methods over prevailing chaos.
The German mind hates disorder.
The rising crisis in Europe is creating a fertile environment for the revival of the Nazi spirit.
Watch Europe!
Watch Germany!
And watch for the rise of a demagogue who is right now, no doubt, biding his time, behind the scenes, awaiting his moment to be thrown into the limelight by "flatteries" (Daniel 11:21), captivating the minds of a multitude of followers and their leaders, intent on imposing a very Germanic solution on the emerging chaos that is even right now rippling across the European continent and indeed the whole world.
Read our booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. It will give you a very real historical and prophetic vision with which to follow unfolding events within Germany, Europe and indeed across the whole globe. The situation of increasing chaos and confusion rapidly spreading around the world needs a clear explanation. Our booklet gives both the historical and prophetic scope within which to make sense out of this great repetition of history that is unfolding before your eyes today.
It is, in reality, the most powerful demonstration of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy for our times!
The ancient Holy Roman Empire is back, calling the tune in the effort for a grand "new" economic system that will soon hold the whole world to ransom! (Revelation 13:16-17). •