Madeira News Blog

Source : Diário de Noticias 29/10/07

Whoops! Sorry, we forgot to tell the locals …

Or was it not as ‘low cost’ as we were led to believe?

Whilst its not reported whether or not TAP and BA are enjoying ‘business as usual’, it appears that the new low cost flights bringing masses of ‘new blood’ to Madeira failed to catch the attention of the locals, as they returned without too much human cargo.

The new flights to Madeira (five in total), come from Dublin, Bristol, Copenhagan, London Stanstead, and Edinburgh.

Air Lingus arrived on Saturday, Easyjet had two flights in yesterday, and ‘Sterling’ one. 

Only around 130 passengers left on the four flights out of Madeira.

The first Easyjet flight arrived with 156 passengers and left with only 13 people (whether this includes the flight crew is unclear at this stage).

The second flight (London) arrived full and left with barely 90.

The ‘Sterling’ flight from Copenhagen brought 180 and left EMPTY! (so how did they manage to fly it back?)

The ‘Aer Lingus’ flight arrived pretty full, around 170, but returned to Dublin with just twenty something passengers. 

Still the good news is … next week they hope to have some tourists to take back

<http://www.madeira4u.com>

Source : Diário de Noticias 29/10/07

It seems that for some parts of Madeira, christmas spending is going to be tight. More for some regions than others, with cuts in the budgets for festivities. In part this is due to restrictions imposed by council financial spending rules.

In Câmara de Lobos, the usual fairground activities in the town are to be pretty much shelved, whilst the street decoration and festivities will carry on as normal, with highlights from the municipal band and some live music events.

In Porto Moniz, the budget cuts will hit the street lighting and decorations, and cuts are also likely to hit Ponta do Sol and Machico, although the latter say they still hope to produce something equivalent to last year, intending to switch on the lights on the 7th December.

Funchal is mentioned in the article, with some details of the highlights given, but with no real suggestion of any budgetary cuts So if one were to conclude that christmas in Madeira is more for tourists than for the Madeirans and the other taxpaying residents, then that can be added to the already long list of financial and social injustices that exist between Funchal and the rest of Madeira.

<<http://www.madeira4u.com>>

Source : Diário de Notícias 28/10/07

It is reported today that over a period stretching from 1997 to October 2007, 119 murders were committed on Madeira, pretty much one a month. A similar level to that found in Porto or Coimbra.

Many of the cases investigated were the result of alchool induced bar fights, which were not normally premeditated, but often involved people who were prone to quarrels and disputes.

The second cause cited, is domestic violence, more usually committed by males, whilst the third is the result of fights between neighbours or families, often related to matters of inheritance, boundary disputes, and rights to water (which is probably a problem fairly exclusive to Madeira).

Very few murders involved firearms, and in most case the deaths were due to a severe beating, or through use of weapons ‘to hand’ such as sticks and stones, with a few garden tools thrown in.

I was somewhat surprised to read these statistics, but having delved through the detailed facts, one should take comfort in the fact that these are not gang crimes, street crimes, or gun crimes, are rarely premeditated, and are very unlikely to affect safety on the street during the day or at night.

Compared to some big cities, I suppose these statistics are pretty insignificant.

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