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Day: 7 October 2020

Rallying behind storm victims

by: Cassandra Tanti
07/10/2020

French President Emmanuel Macron has toured the towns devastated by storm Alex as Monaco continues to do its part for the victims in Vésubie, Tinée and Roya valleys.
Five days after disaster truck, and relief operations continue in the Alpes Maritimes and Liguria, with a total of five bodies recovered since Sunday.
More than 1,000 rescuers are involved in search operations and delivering aid to communities devastated by the floods.
Eight people are still missing while the number of suspected disappearances – people who have not been heard from since Friday – was at least 14 on Wednesday.
Three towns remain inaccessibly by land – Tende, La Brigue, Saorge and Fontan.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited Tende and Breil on Wednesday afternoon, before heading to Saint-Martin-Vesubie.
The government has confirmed a state of natural disaster for the affected towns, facilitating compensation claims.
After a request by the Alpes-Maritimes Regional Health Agency, the Monaco government said on Wednesday that it will be sending 45 nurses and caregivers from the Cardio-Thoracique Center and the Monaco Red Cross to support the Tende Hospital.
https://www.facebook.com/721217880/videos/10158532466712881/
On Tuesday, Minister of State Pierre Dartout announced to the National Council that Monaco would be giving €4 million to relief efforts, to be allocated evenly to each affected French town, as well as to Ventimiglia and the Italian side of the Roya river.
Mayor Georges Marsan and members of the Council will also be making a financial donation to the Department of the Alpes Maritimes to contribute to the reconstruction of infrastructure.
Numerous support efforts are currently underway in Monaco, and the Mairie is now setting up a special collection point at the Espace Léo Ferré on Thursday and Friday welcoming all foodstuffs, hygiene products and other everyday items.
The Unité Légère d’Intervention et de Secours (ULIS) will be responsible for distributing the items to affected communities.
The collection point will be open from 9am to 5pm on Thursday, and 9am to 2pm on Friday.
It is requested that only the following items be donated:
Foodstuffs, Flour, Salt, Sugar, Yeast, Preserves (tuna, pâté, peas …), Pasta, Rice, Lentils, Compotes, Sweets / chips / peanuts, Cereal bars, Cereals, Biscuits, Tea, Instant coffee, Chocolate powder, Jam, Water (still & sparkling), Milk, Fruit juice boxes (large and small), Hygiene products, Soap, Shower gel, Shampoo, Baby & adult diapers, Female hygiene products, Toothbrush and toothpaste, Tissues, Deodorant, Toilet paper, Hairbrush – comb, Candles – lighters, Matches, Camping tableware (cutlery – plates – glasses), Flashlights with batteries, Dry food for animals, Notebooks / Coloured pencils Coloring pages, Scotch, Markers, Ballpoint pens, Pencils, Erasers, Scissors
People wishing to donate other types of food and non-food products other than those listed above can contact the Ulis association directly on 06 60 10 87 68 / http://ulisfrance.fr/contact.php
 
Top photo: Prefecture des Alpes Maritimes
 
 

3D printed panels to improve marine biodiversity

by: Stephanie Horsman
07/10/2020

New 3D printed panels created to improve current marine biodiversity projects were unveiled on Tuesday to Prince Albert II and several high-ranking government officials.

The panels, when put in place, will rest at a depth of 35 metres below the sea off the coast of Fontvieille. They were designed by the Environment Department and the SETEC design office to aide in the ecological functions of the current underwater structures in place since 2014 that have not been attracting marine life as anticipated. The engineers blame this failure to attract more colonies of wildlife on an absence of sufficient textures and roughness.

The panels were inspired by natural coastal rock formations, and from this research, 20 different panels were created as 3D models. They used naturally-occurring features such as faults, overhangs and rock thickness to make realistic facsimiles of actual sea arrangements that are meant to entice fish and other marine life to the protected area.

© Manuel Vitali / Government Communication Department

The designs were then printed by the XTREE company who specialise in manufacturing complicated designs using 3D printing. They used a fibre-reinforced concrete, which is incidentally safe for the environment, to make panels with enough roughness to promote colonisation.

The technique used in this process could eventually have other purposes such as dressing artificial structures like dykes and stabilisation blocks that are already used along coastlines to help improve biodiversity.

 
Photo: Next to Prince Albert II: Marie-Pierre Gramaglia, Minister of Equipment, Environment and Town Planning; Stéphane Valeri, President of the National Council; Robert Calcagno, Director General of the Oceanographic Institute, Prince Albert I Foundation, Prince of Monaco; Valérie Davenet, Director of the Environment; Raphaël Simonet, Head of the Natural Heritage division © Manuel Vitali / Government Communication Department
 
 

Principality launches new digital services

by: Stephanie Horsman
07/10/2020

Four new online services will be launched in Monaco by the end of 2020, streamlining administration and contributing to the move towards a digital future.

Digital transition project Extended Monaco has announced it is debuting four new online service options that will be available to the public by the end of the year.

The new services come at a time when taking care of business online makes more sense than ever.

“If the Covid-19 crisis mobilised the DITN at the beginning of the year to provide solutions in the sectors of work, health, education or communication, digital is extremely concrete as it is it is about meeting the needs of the Monegasque population,” said Frédéric Genta, Interministerial Delegate for the Digital Transition (DITN). “By going from four tele-services in 2018, eight in 2019, 18 in 2020 and a target of 30 in 2021, we are accelerating our program at the service of users.”

Julien Dejanovic, Director of Digital Services added, “Our objective is to work on the dematerialisation of the relationship between the user and the administration, not to replace a service, but to improve the quality of this relationship, whether one is a parent of a student, a motorist, a civil servant or a tenant.”

The four new tele-services offer digital solutions in response to the practical needs of the population. The first of these will be an online payment system set up for the 3,200 students of the Principality to be able to pay for the canteen online. This app has already been launched, and has allowed parents to choose a method of payment, such as direct debit or credit card, thus lessening the need to process in excess of 5,000 cheques each year.

‘Mon Espace Domaines’ will let tenants access documents, receive information on their building, communicate with their building’s administration and pay rent online. The end game is to provide the Principality’s 4,200 renters with better service and to cut the 120,000 paper documents generated each year down to nil. This app will be launched by mid-October.

The third app will make getting a technical controls for vehicles far easier by allowing visitors to book and pay for appointments online. This small change will save the government from sending out more than 60,000 mailers. Launch date is set for 10th November.

Finally, the State Medical Benefits Service (SPME) app will allow online consultations for reimbursements and treatment sheets, offer a digital registration card and transmit complementary and mutual insurance information at the touch of a button. This will save €150,000 per year on the 180,000 documents sent out. This app will be ready for use by year’s end.

 
Photo: Frédéric Genta, Interministerial Delegate for the Digital Transition (left) and Julien Dejanovic, Director of Digital Services (right). © Communication Department / Michael Alesi
 
 
 

OceanoScientific Contaminants Expedition

by: Cassandra Tanti
07/10/2020

Local navigator Yvan Griboval is set to take off on another oceanographic campaign, this time to study contaminants in the Mediterranean ahead of a larger expedition in the Spring.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Yvan Griboval, navigator of Club des Explorateurs from the Yacht Club of Monaco, announced that he will set off on another oceanographic campaign on Thursday, 15th October at 3.00pm from the YCM’s main pontoon. He will be at the controls of the Amaala Explorer maxi-catamaran, which had its heyday as Club Med 20-years ago, flying the flag of the Yacht Club of Monaco and winning The Race 2000, the first non-stop round-the-world race in a crewed multihull.
The campaign will consist of collecting samples of chemical contaminants – metallic and organic – according to the recommendations of the Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (Ifremer), which is supervising the scientific aspects of this OceanoScientific Contaminants Mediterranean Expedition 2020. The 2,800km course will run from Monaco to Porto Cervo, Barcelona, La Seyne-sur-Mer and Monaco. The expedition will end on Thursday, 29th October at 11.00am in Monaco.
On recommendation from Ifremer, two distinct scientific methods will be applied.
The Amaala Explorer maxi-catamaran will allow the crew, including the young Swedish marine biologist Linn Sekund, to study the mouths of the three main rivers of the western Mediterranean: the Tiber, not far from Rome, the Ebro between Barcelona and Valencia, and the Rhone, west of Marseille. There, Yvan Griboval and Linn Sekund will collect samples and also install two sets of passive sensors approximately 1.50 metres below the surface of the sea on beacon buoys.
The sampling will concentrate on the trace metals of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni) and mercury (Hg). Although naturally present in the environment, it is their exceptionally high concentration which poses a risk for marine fauna and flora, starting with plankton, the first organisms to be poisoned at the outset of the food chain.
During the expedition, nine locations will be used to collect samples, which will then be stored in the onboard freezer and handed over to researchers at Ifremer Toulon on Wednesday 28th October during a port call in La Seyne-sur-Mer. The scientists will quantify and analyze the concentration of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and tributyltins (TBT), all of which are organic compounds. They too poison the food chain until it ends up in our plates.
The Amaala Explorer is named after the main sponsor of the expedition, a luxury tourism project on Saudi Arabia’s northwestern coast that is inspired by the Red Sea. The site has been tasked by the Saudi Kingdom to preserve its environment and, in particular, the magnificent coral reefs in the Red Sea, and to balance its carbon footprint.
“In fact, this short two-week expedition will allow us to see if the yacht is genuinely suitable for our forthcoming OceanoScientific Expeditions,” explained Yvan. “We know that the maxi-catamaran is capable of sailing in the difficult conditions of the Far South, but we want to check that it is also suitable for our work on contaminants and, potentially from next spring onwards, to carry out a series of unprecedented assignments to discover, study and save coral.”
 
Related stories: 

Sailor’s historic expeditions to help save the ocean

 
 

Dream auction for coin collectors

by: Stephanie Horsman
07/10/2020

Rare and unusual coins, bank notes and medals will go under the gavel as Editions V. Gadoury auctions off over 1,700 pieces at an event taking place at Le Meridien Beach Plaza Hotel at the end of the month.

Monaco-based numismatic house Editions V. Gadoury will be hosting two exceptional auctions on 30th and 31st October with a giant 1,700 lot selection of coins, bank notes and medals from around the globe.

A collector’s dream, the lots will be comprised of pieces ranging from antiquity to present day, some truly extraordinary with “provenances that can be traced by for many years.”

One of the highlights of the sales will be the ‘Gentlemen of the Royal House’, a collection of medals and coins from the House of Savoy. This is only the third time this lot has gone up for sale.

The auction can be attended in person at the Meridien Beach Plaza Hotel, where all the necessary health regulations will be put in place to ensure a safe experience. For those who prefer to stay at home, or who are too far away to be there in person, bids will be taken both online and by phone. Additionally, the lots can be viewed beforehand at the shop located at 57 rue Grimaldi.

Some of the pieces being sold include a coin stamped in Roman Empire in 44 B.C. going under the hammer for €30,000, a rare Chinese Ming Dynasty-era (1368-1399) bank note with an opening bid of €1,000, a nearly uncirculated US $2 note signed by Andy Warhol opening at €900, and a rare and amazingly conserved coin featuring 13th century Carlo I d’Angio, King of Sicily and Count of Provence opening at €25,000.

Editions V Gadoury has been based in Monaco since 1973 and has been well-known for its numismatic collections as well as for publishing respected books on currencies from around the world.