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| Notre-Dame's spectacular Gothic spire collapsed as fire engulfed the cathedral (AFP Photo/Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT) |
Paris (AFP)
- President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday vowed to rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral
"even more beautifully" within five years, as France reeled with
shock from the fire that gutted the great Paris landmark.
Macron
announced the fast timescale -- for a process some experts said would take
decades -- in an address to the nation where he hailed how the disaster had
shown the capacity of France to mobilise and unite.
Pledges
worth around 700 million euros ($790 million) have already been made Tuesday
from French billionaires and businesses to restore the Gothic masterpiece.
Most of the
roof has been destroyed, its steeple has collapsed and an unknown number of
artifacts and paintings have been lost. The main organ, which had close to
8,000 pipes, has also suffered damage.
But the
cathedral's walls, bell towers and the most famous circular stained-glass
windows at France's most visited tourist attraction remain intact.
'Our
history never stops'
Macron's
defiant comments indicated he wants the reconstruction of the cathedral to be
completed by the time Paris hosts the Olympic Games in 2024.
"We
will rebuild the cathedral even more beautifully and I want it to be finished
within five years," Macron said from the Elysee Palace. "And we can
do it."
Macron said
that the dramatic fire had brought out the best in a country riven with
divisions and since November shaken by sometimes violent protests against his
rule.
"What
we saw last night in Paris was our capacity to mobilise and to unite,"
Macron said, hailing France as a nation of "builders".
"Our
history never stops and that we will always have trials to overcome," he
said.
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Firefighters
said the blaze had been extinguished after 15 hours (AFP
Photo/Hubert Hitier)
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'Saved in
half an hour'
Images from
inside the cathedral Tuesday showed its immense walls standing proud, with
statues still in place and a gleaming golden cross above the altar.
However the
floor was covered in charred rubble from the fallen roof and water while parts
of the vaulting at the top of the cathedral had collapsed.
Junior
interior minister Laurent Nunez told reporters at the scene that work to secure
the structure would continue into Thursday, allowing firefighters access to
remove remaining artifacts and artworks.
He said the
building had been saved within a critical time window of 15-30 minutes by a
team of 400 firefighters who worked flat out throughout the night.
Though
"some weaknesses" in the 850-year-old structure had been identified,
overall it is "holding up OK", he added.
President
Donald Trump relayed Americans' "condolences" to Macron over the
fire, the White House said.
French fire
chiefs had earlier dismissed as "risible" comments by Trump that the
fire should be tackled with water bombers, saying this risked destroying the
entire edifice of the cathedral.
The Paris
fire service said that the last remnants of the blaze were extinguished
Tuesday, 15 hours after the fire broke out.
Renovation
work on the steeple, where workers were replacing its lead covering, is widely
suspected to have caused the inferno after the blaze broke out in an area under
scaffolding.
Investigators
interviewed witnesses overnight and began speaking with employees of five
different construction companies that were working on the monument, said public
prosecutor Remy Heitz.
"Nothing
indicates this was a deliberate act," Heitz told reporters, adding that 50
investigators had been assigned to what he expected to be a "long and
complex" case.
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The world
reacted in shock after the blaze enguled Notre-Dame (AFP Photo)
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'For
future generations'
A public
appeal for funds drew immediate support from French billionaires and other
private donors as well as from countries including Germany, Italy and Russia
which offered expertise.
French
billionaire Bernard Arnault and his LVMH luxury conglomerate, rival high-end
designer goods group Kering, Total oil company and cosmetics giant L'Oreal each
pledged 100 million euros or more.
Support
came from outside France as well, with Apple chief Tim Cook announcing the tech
giant would give an unspecified amount to help restore a "precious
heritage for future generations."
But experts
had warned a full restoration will take many years. "I'd say
decades," said Eric Fischer, head of the foundation in charge of restoring
the 1,000-year-old Strasbourg cathedral.
Treasures
evacuated
Thousands
of Parisians and tourists watched in horror Monday as flames engulfed the
building and rescuers tried to save as much as they could of the cathedral's
treasures.
Many more
came Tuesday to the banks of the river Seine to gaze at where the roof and
steeple once stood.
A
firefighter suffered injuries during the blaze, which at one point threatened
to bring down one of the two monumental towers on the western facade of the
cathedral that is visited by 13 million tourists each year.
The Holy
Crown of Thorns, believed to have been worn by Jesus at his crucifixion, was
saved by firefighters, as was a sacred tunic worn by 13th-century French king
Louis IX.
Rescuers
formed a human chain at the site of the disaster to evacuate as many artifacts
as possible, which were then stocked temporarily at the Paris town hall.
Related Article:
Firefighters were praised for helping save many of the most-celebrated treasures of Notre-Dame by dashing inside the burning cathedral, but officials warned that others were in a precarious state or entirely lost in the flames https://t.co/pF0qxYfXeL pic.twitter.com/MTeRjyI2dN— AFP news agency (@AFP) 16 april 2019
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".... Europe
Let's talk about Europe - Eastern and Western Europe. Look at the history. I want you to look at the history of the Europeans. What do you know about them? What did you study in school about them, American? You had to learn all those dates and facts. You sit in a country that's barely 200 years old and you had to memorize all the battles and all those conquerors and all those army specifics for hundreds of years! Fourteen hundreds, 1300s - all the way to the present century they seemed to be conquering each other on a regular basis. They warred with each other like the tides of the ocean, constant and predictable. When they got tired of that, they conquered other continents. The small country of Spain alone is responsible for conquering all of South America, middle America and well up into North America. Millions today are speaking their language who never did before they arrived.
The armies of Napoleon spread across parts of Europe like water flowing in a river, conquering everything in its path. There are some cities today in Europe that still don't know which country they belong to! This is because their borders kept changing so often! Now, that's history. I want you to look at it carefully. Still, there would be those who say, "This is just what men do. They create borders and cultures and they go to war. That's Human nature."
Fifty years ago, this new energy started to arrive. Oh, the alignments go slow, dear Human Being, but it was here. It was starting; it was beginning. Fifty years ago, something happened in Europe and you didn't hear much about it back then. Some very clear thinkers got together after World War II and said, "If we don't do something different and out of the box of today's thinking, it's all going to happen again because this is what we do. Men make war." Even the young country called America was involved in war. America itself almost split apart before that, because that's what men do. They split good things apart. It was obvious to these wise men that they could try something, something that might work - a uniting instead of separation. And so they formed an idea. Let me tell you what it was.
They said to themselves, "What if we could get as many countries as we can to agree to become a collection of 'country states'? If we start this now and go at it slowly, we could eventually have a system where we would trade together to the point where the borders come down, no checkpoints and no passports. All these cultures and former enemy countries would all trade evenly together, and for that to happen we might even have a common currency. Look at the United States, for this is how it works there. Europe would never go to war with itself again. It couldn't, since it would be allied financially."
Of course, they were laughed at! Everyone who heard it said it couldn't' be done and that there were just too many issues to solve. Those who objected said, "No, no, no. That's not what we do. We have too many different cultures. There's some with strong currencies, there's some with weak currencies. There are too many objections. Imagine going from one country to another without being inspected at the border? That won't work. Who are you to suggest something of this nature?" And the forward thinkers said, "We are unifiers. And we think it's a good idea so we will have strength and will never war again." That was two generations ago, 50 years.
Today, you have the European Union of States. There are more all the time, way past the original number of countries. Some are "standing in line" to be accepted! The borders are gone and the checkpoints are missing and the currency called the Euro is the strongest currency on Earth - stronger even than yours [the USA]. Now, let me tell you what did that. It's a consciousness shift that even 50 years ago was developing. Through two generations, it slowly allowed for free thinkers to unify things that had never been unified before. The result? These countries will never conquer each other again, because "history" ended at that moment. They started a new paradigm for Europe and one that has no historic profile known to man. The old history of the area is gone, and it will not repeat itself.
Those in the old Eastern Bloc of Europe, where there is still to this day very little unity, will still say, "History will again repeat itself. We are victims of it. It's only a matter of time." But not all of them feel this way. There are some who are starting to feel a unity of spirituality within their own cultures that they were never allowed to speak of before. So they are free thinking, out of the box of the old paradigm. It's new.
There are those who are standing on podiums and in pulpits and are proclaiming, "History is ended. It's the end of suffering. It's the end of dictatorships. It's the end of those who would put us in a low place. Instead, it's the beginning of discovering who we are." And although they don't say it in these exact words, they are discovering the creator inside - that which is the unity of God. So it's a full circle back to what the Angel told Muhammad, isn't it? For unity was the key to peace, and still is. It is a sacred principle and will never change.
Who would have thought this would have happened? The United States is what it is because 200 years ago the founders said, "Let us make a group of state countries without physical borders in a system that's never been tried. It's one of unity - the UNITED States of America." Oh, it had its tests, but the unifiers won. And it is why this country is what it is and is seen and respected for what it is and for what it's done. So young, it is, but representing the new energy, it is.
Your Declaration of Independence was channelled. Did you know that? It was collective effort channelling by those who had asked God for help. Go read it and feel that which is sacred inside, for it unifies and does not separate.
Your Declaration of Independence was channelled. Did you know that? It was collective effort channelling by those who had asked God for help. Go read it and feel that which is sacred inside, for it unifies and does not separate.
