Madeira News Blog

TODAYS PHOTO : Thanks to “J” … it is forbidden to take photos in the Theatre in Funchal for the musical “Les Miserables”, so I cannot possibly say where or when this was taken.

Source : Diário de Notícias 29/4/2008

Top story is the shocker about rice! Prices are forecast to shoot up by 50% by the end of this year. The reason … India and Venezuela are to suspend exportation, with the possibility of Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil and Egypt following suit. A local spokesman believes that eventually the price of rise could double.

ESSENTIAL RICE FACTS: 15 kgs of rice is consumed annually, on average, by each Portuguese person. World rice consumption rose from 415.6 millions of tons in 2005 for 424.2 millions in 2007. Portugal is self-sufficient in ‘carolino’ rice, but imports approximately 50% of it’s total rice needs, mainly from French Guyana and Thailand. 

It’s a big public holiday here tomorrow ‘The Day of the worker’, with some special sporting and musical events planned around Madeira. The regional secretary for Madeira said that there is good cause to celebrate given “that the regional economy continues dynamic and that there are two consecutive months that  unemployment in the Region has diminished”. Oh my God! Is that party political BS or what? Probably half the island has left to find jobs elsewhere, or starved to death ‘cos it couldn’t possibly be politicians telling lies or manipulating statistics. As for the dynamic economy … I am left speechless by such utter *!”??* €£@ç.

Don’t leave it to late to book your TAP ‘€1′ flights, out of the 20,000 seats mentioned in last weeks blog, nearly 4,500 have already sold. Perhaps that’s how the government influences unemployment figures … they get TAP to do a promotion to ship out all the unemployed whilst the government counts who is left.

Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United will be feeling pretty smug today, as he and his team mates ‘earned’ a place in the Champions League final after a pretty average performance last night against Barcelona. Their opponents will be either Chelsea or Liverpool, to be decided tonight. Whichever it may be, there is only one team that the Madeirans will be supporting on the big day.

Had the Modelo new sale flyer yesterday morning, as usual big enough to wallpaper the bathroom. Highly unusual for it to arrive on the first day of the new offers … they at least wait until everything is sold out. The ’sale’ has nearly 50 items at 50% discount (on their loyalty card), including some of life essentials such as beer, wine, and …. rice!

I expect there will already be a ‘rice stampede’ by the time you read this, and unfortunately it’s too late for me to join in … as it’s the big journey later today. I have plans to do a blog tomorrow if I can get internet access, so please don’t wander off!

Sheila’s brand new May update for SPAD and animal news is online . Please take a look, and help in any way you can … many thanks from us both.

http://www.madeira4u.com/m4u_RI/resources_i_zz_animal_news_madeira.html

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses, please send any unreported Madeira news, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – thank you!

TODAYS PHOTO : Thanks to Tobi … this is the ‘Bis Bis’ bird I am told … it looks very tame.

Source : Diário de Notícias 28/4/2008

A 26 year old Madeiran man from São Vicente was shot dead in Venezuela after he witnessed an armed robbery.

In an effort to ease the dependence on oil based products, a new project under the banner ‘Foundation Excalibur’ is going to use a budget in excess of €1 million to create a bio-diesel production facility. Using ‘microalgas’ (I think these are to do with organisms that convert solar energy) and maybe used oil. Sometime in the future it should be able to sell its energy production.

A story seemingly aimed at highlighting poverty features a 3 year old girl named Laura, who lives in Cancela. She walks around barefoot, and lives in a small dwelling (looks like a mobile home in the photo) with 11 other family members that is her great grandmothers home, where they sleep on the floor, and the where the roof has needed fixing for the last 8 years.

I remember back around 4 years ago, someone told me that there were very few sheep on Madeira because they government has forced sheep farmers to remove their animals from the mountain ranges (I recall, without certainty, that it was because the sheep cause so much damage through their feeding, and facilitate land erosion). The article refers to the confiscation of some sheep stocks. The supreme court which deals with such matters has now said that the action was wrong, and that farmers have the right to graze sheep in the mountain ranges, within certain rules.

The 200,000 escaped Dourada fish (or what’s left of them) have apparently moved around to the north on the island now. Unusually high numbers of fishermen with bucket loads of ‘catch’ have been reported at Porto Moniz and Santana.

Saturday night’s concert by Blasted Mechanism on Calheta beach was a busy night for the emergency services. 8 people were admitted to hospital in Funchal with alcoholic ‘poisoning’, 5 of which were in a coma and in possible life-threatening conditions. The idiots involved ranged from a 15 year old local girl, to a 38 year old English woman … the ambulance service and hospital will no doubt be sending you a hefty bill!

A survey/report on the price of ferry trips from around Europe reveals that the Porto Santo line ferry ‘Lobo Marino’ charges reasonable prices. Compared with prices charged for ferries in the Canary Island, Ireland,  Scotland and others it came out as good value. I just had a look at the Porto Santo Line website, and a day return trip this week would cost over €60. As it’s a 100km round trip, I reckon that’s around the same price that a taxi would charge for that distance (that’s local rates, not tourist  prices).

I have had several enquiries about the new vehicle tax system, and how to renew or apply for car tax. I have written a simple procedure for anyone who might need it. It’s on the main website, under DRIVING, in the RESOURCES & INFORMATION section.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses, please send any unreported Madeira news, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – thank you!

TODAYS PHOTO : Thanks to Helen … the jet ski competition held at the weekend in Funchal

Source : Diário de Notícias 27/4/2008

It’s the season for sugar cane, broad beans and new potatoes, but nothing that makes any money. Farmers keep their land going because it’s what they do best, and their families have done if for generations, and money is the last motivation because it’s just not worth the effort put in. With the younger generations finding more ‘attractive’ ways to make a living, so much land is under threat of abandonment (in terms of agriculture) as the older generations pass away.

In an article about the increased amount of beach fishing going on along the south coast this year, the Diário questions the fact that much of the fishing takes place in public and designated swimming areas (often where it is prohibited) unchallenged, and goes on to make the point about the danger of fishing hooks that get left in the water. (That had never occurred to me, but it sounds quite unpleasant). Those beaches are also likely to be particularly busy as there are several facilities and beach areas still out of action due to the storm damage this month.

Along with the hot weather comes the annual problem of forest fires, either through negligence or intent. 6 fires were attended to on Saturday in Ribeira Brava, Machico, and Câmara de Lobos.

A new catamaran is due to arrive in Madeira today, to join the growing fleet of boats servicing the tourist industry. It cost €650,000 and has the capacity for 50 passengers. Equipped with a bar and audiovisual system, it also has 2 bathrooms.

Another article looks at the strong possibility of privatising Madeira airport, saying that doing so would make it more aggressive and dynamic. Hmmm … as it’s the only airport we have, and we are on an island, I am not sure that would be a good thing … at least not without some strong legislation about it’s operating procedures.

Nacional got a 3 – nil walloping at home yesterday … on current form I dread to think what will happen next week when they play at Porto! Marítimo put up a good fight playing at Sporting yesterday, but lost in the end.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses, please send any unreported Madeira news, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – thank you!

TODAYS PHOTO : Thanks to Wil … another great underwater picture off the coast of Madeira … Can anyone name the species? (Ginga … bet you can’t get two on the trot!)

Talking of fishing, the 200,000 escaped Dourado fish from the week of the storm have now cleared the locality of their original imprisonment (Campanário), and the fishing has now ‘dried up’ in Rib. Bra. Reports are that there a now huge numbers of fishermen as far west as Calheta, and in Funchal also.

Source : Diário de Notícias 26/4/2008

In a week already marred by stories of violence and bullying in schools, today’s Diário frontpage reports on children and the drink and drugs problems. 22% of students use drugs. Cannabis and wine are becoming less popular, whilst the use of inhalants and solvent abuse, such as glue or petrol, are on the increase. In a study promoted by the Department of Health here (which rather unhelpfully includes the Azores as well as Madeira), these are some of the preliminary findings, with the final report due for release on Monday. 19% of students have admitted smoking a ‘charro’ (cannabis), and 7% to solvent abuse.

88% of students (2nd stage education) have admitted drinking alcohol … 80% to drinking beer, 75% for wine, and 55% have admitted to smoking tobacco (a decrease from 70% in 2001).

If these are the figures ‘admitted’ by students, god only knows the real extent of the problem, but there again perhaps they are allin the Azores.

Bullying is on the up, with both psychological and physical violence affecting more younger pupils than before. Teachers are losing authority … 9 were victims of crimes inside their schools in 2007. 201 school crimes were reported to the police, including 34 assaults, 29 thefts, 23 vandalism, and 9 robberies. Of the victims identified, two thirds are male. 129 (80%) of the cases involving the police were in Funchal, followed by Ribeira Brava (9%), Câmara de Lobos (6%), and Machico (4%).

Despite the huge rainfall earlier this month, some farmers are now without water.

SATA (Azores airline) has announced it’s prices for the new route to Las Palmas (Gran Canaria), being on average €55 per journey, plus taxes. In the low winter season this will €41. SATA is now the second largest operator on Madeira, with 20% of the aircraft movements. With its ambitions to serve Lisbon, Azores, Madeira, and Las Palmas, I don’t know why it doesn’t move its operation from the Azores to Madeira. Logistically it makes a lot of sense. In a week full of airline and flight news, I hope the last story is the one about the direct flights between London Gatwick and Porto Santo Island. It starts on the 5th May, and is run by Atlantic Holidays. The secretary for tourism was in London on Friday to introduce the island to the travel industry.

With the last deadline for internet tax submissions approaching fast, I was somewhat relieved to get my own tax return finished yesterday. Always a difficult and onerous task, and that’s even for fluent Portuguese speakers, but I had to break new ground this time with the first accounts for madeira4u. I have made mistakes I am sure, but it’s impossible to know until they tell you, unless you are prepared to pay a small fortune for an accountant. For anyone else with difficulties, you might want to try what I do, and email with your queries and possible errors to the IRS. They never reply, but at least if you do get called to account, you can say you made an effort to get it right … whether that will save you from a fine or not … who knows.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses, please send any unreported Madeira news, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – thank you!

TODAYS PHOTO : Thanks to Alan … Hanglider shot from Madelena do Mar (there is a hangliding club up there somewhere if anyone is interested?)

Source : Diário de Notícias 25/4/2008

As expected, lots about the revolution, democracy (or lack of) and freedom, to mark 25th April. Also a special mention for decolonization, for those poor people who have to leave Madeira because they cannot earn a living here. I generally nod-off when I get to the politics section, so excuse me for not saying any more.

If you fancy visiting the airspace of Porto Santo this weekend, get yourself off to Porto Santo airport for a flight around the island. The Flying Club of Madeira is offering trips for €30 in a Piper Cherokee 180C, or in a Zlin 142 for €80 … choose carefully though, as the latter will be doing some acrobatics, including flying upside down. The trips will continue until sunset on Sunday, and you need to sign up near the xray machine at the airport, near passenger embarkation.

After yesterday’s blog about the TAP ‘€1′ flights to Portugal, the Diário reports that 3,000 of the 20,000 seats were sold within the first 12 hours of the new offer being available. (did you read the response to yesterday’s blog from TAP’s greatest critic?)

When you are out buying your next laptop computer paying through the nose, think of the 4,000 lucky children here who have subscribed to buy one for just €150. Probably lacks bells and whistles, but for most daily and school needs it’s just the job.

A grandmother from Venezuela was on Thursday sentenced to 6 years in prison for smuggling in over 6 kilos of cocaine to Madeira airport last October. Her ‘defence’ was that she needed the money to pay for cancer treatment, and that she was smuggling the drugs for someone else. The court took this into account and it seems that the sentence was lighter than it normally would have been. I expect as a prisoner, she will probably get the cancer treatment free now.

In another drug story, a man in Amparo was arrested with nearly 4,000 doses of heroin and cocaine stashed in his vacuum cleaner sack. It doesn’t actually say that the sack was in the hoover at the time, but if it was, then surely when the police knocked on the door he would have switched the hoover on to ‘blow’ so he could have got rid of all the evidence, and made the neighbourhood and the police very happy, all at the same time.

In national news, the government announced changes in the law regarding driving licences. The licence can in future be suspended following 3 very serious offences, or 5 serious offences, and I think the last one was ‘a lot of not so serious offences’. Surely there must be something a little more specific than this? Imagine going before a judge with 2 very serious and 3 serious, and several not so serious offences and trying to work out whether the driving licence was suspended or not … I know! … they need a points system!

A shocking story in today’s Diário … don’t miss it on blog 201!

Our football teams are in action on Sunday:

Nacional v Academica, 16:00

Sporting v Maritimo, 20:30 (SportTV)

Have a good weekend!

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses, please send any unreported Madeira news, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – thank you!

TODAYS PHOTO : Thanks to Tobi … a great photo and a final reminder of this month’s flower festival

Source : Diário de Notícias 24/4/2008

Having typed it out and got it all ready, I lost everything for todays blog … so I am having to do it again from memory, but only two top stories.

The first one is about the new labour laws which were announced on Tuesday by the Portuguese Government. Seemingly designed to improve the lot of employees, it in fact in places works the other way, making it easier to fire people who do not adapt to change / technology. It also gives more support to working parents, and allows for more flexibility in the schedule of a worker. Social security payments will rise for companies employing staff on term contracts, holidays stay at a minimum of 22 days but can be increased to 25 for the reliable workers. Anyway, it’s all causing a lot of controversy.

TAP (Portuguese airline) surprised the travel industry by anouncing ‘budget prices’ on it’s Madeira routes, well for 20,000 passengers anyway. For those who are residents, it’s theoretically possible to travel for €1 plus all the taxes and extras, taking into account the Madeira residents subsidy. In reality, all the added charges mean you will more likely pay €90 net if you qualify. This is all in aid of the ‘clear skies’ agreement which is now in effect, and effectively disables TAPs 50+ year monopoly on the Madeira route. TAP have pledged to maintain the services currently operated despite the threat of increased competition, and have set themselves a target of a 36% increase in passengers from last years 700,000+

Also mention of a Porto to Madeira route, and confirmation of the flights already known about to Paris (shared code), London (7 flights a weeks), and Madrid (weekly). They will be operating 218 Madeira connections a week over the coming months.

SATA (the Azores based airline) not to be outdone, also announced a not quite so stunning deal (no details given), but gave details of a scheduled flight planned from Madeira to the Canary Islands (Gran Canaria, Las Palmas) starting this July.

All offers are available through the internet and travel agents for both TAP and SATA. Links on the ‘Travel / Flights’ page on the madeira4u website.

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We now have an advertising taxi driver on the main website now, so please give ‘Rafael Taxi’ a go, and mention madeira4u when booking (if he knows where the bookings originate, he is more likely to look after you, and renew his advertisement next year) – many thanks!

I am sure you will all be waking up this morning thinking ‘ah! Revolution Day!’ ‘cos we have a feriado here today (public holiday) to celebrate, though blog writers work as normal of course. Portugal lost it’s monarchy nearly 100 years ago and became a republic before falling into dictatorship in 1926. That situation lasted until 34 years ago exactly, when the army overthrew the dictatorship. Last night I asked a local dignatory whether life was better or worse on Madeira since 1974, and she replied it was much better until about 10 years ago, and now it’s got worse.

She also let me have a look at her budget book, so a quick flick to the Rib. Bra. section revealed that for 2008 a staggering €3.8 million! has been allocated to the existing sport stadium here … which she was very quick to point out came from the regional government, not from local taxpayers. Funny thing football here, it’s practically all funded through government (tax payers money) and all the league clubs get generous handouts and all make huge financial losses. Of course Nacional and Marítimo get the most, but it’s rumoured that Marítimo get even more because that’s President Jardim’s favourite team.

Anyway, I strayed a little … so what goes on on Revolution day now you ask? Aside from the previously mentioned biggest ever ski jet event in Funchal bay which starts today and lasts until Sunday, it’s also a big musical weekend. Tomorrow night in São Martinho is a big music dance festival with internationally recognised DJs, so I won’t be doing that one.

More interesting is the ‘Antena 3 on tour’ event on Calheta beach tomorrow night (Antena Três being a nacional radio station). This event will only have Madeiran DJs, but the Madeiran group ‘On Mute’ will also be playing, and that’s just a warm up for the main attraction BLASTED MECHANISM, one of the best known groups in Portugal.

If you are over that way go and have a look, as they are very visual (they all dress up as aliens on their video’s). It’s a sort of middle rock genre so it’s not too heavy … and don’t forget to send me a picture.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses, please send any unreported Madeira news, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – thank you!

TODAYS PHOTO : Thanks to Alan … I’m guessing that’s in Paul da Serra, probably the longest straight bit of road on the island.

Source : Diário de Notícias 23/4/2008

One of today’s lead stories is about an 87 year old man living alone in São António who was paid a visit by 2 women claiming to be from the social security and saying he was entitled to a bigger pension. They asked him if he would like a cup of tea, which one of the ladies went off to make. Whilst they were talking about his pension, the elderly gentleman drank his tea and promptly passed out due to drugs put in his tea. When he awoke, he checked his wallet to find €250 missing, which was his only money to pay for food and bills, and clothing and other items were also stolen.

Another article talks about growing concern about “Bullyng” in schools. Ok they can’t spell it quite right, but it’s notable that they have had to adopt an English word to describe a phenomenon which presumably is a fairly recent concern here.

Since 1994, more than 600,000 trees have been planted up in the mountains of Paul da Serra, helping to increase the areas of natural forest in the region. Madeira now has 16,000 hectares of “natural” forest, as opposed to the 12,000 as recorded in 1972. School children have deliberately been involved in the work so they can learn about wildlife and professions relating to forestry.

Theorising about the origins of Madeira has been a preoccupation of many both on and off the island. In a project titled ‘Geological Cartography of the island of the Madeira’, developed in partnership with the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, it is stated that the ‘cabo girão’ (presumably the end of the island, not the place, as there are no capital letters) is not the remainder of a volcanic structure, and that volcanic activity here is not extinct, just sleeping. “Another fact is that the Arco’s of Calheta and of São Jorge would have been considered ‘caldeiras’* of half volcanic structures destroyed by the erosion of the sea, when in fact they are big landslides” said a specialist.  These are some of the resulting knowledge of fieldwork carried out by a team of six investigators, in the 20 years of existence of the University of the Madeira. 

*Caldeiras are formed in a number of ways. They usually form when huge amounts of magma are erupted out of sub-surface magma chambers. The removal of all this magma leaves a void below the surface and the top collapses in to form the caldeira. Subsequent eruptions usually fill them in partially so that the jumbled debris is buried”.

Confused … me too. Whilst learning my relatively poor grasp of Portuguese, geological terms were not high on my priority list, and as the technical words don’t even appear in dictionaries, then it’s all a bit of pot luck.

The Government of Madeira is to apply for a loan of €154 million in order to pay it’s suppliers and shorter term debts. The application will be made under a national programme aimed at encouraging organizations to pay their debts on time. Lets hope they are successful, as we wouldn’t want that €7 million ‘Whale Museum’ cancelled as a result of poor debt management … would we?

The CTT (mail company) has obtained 15 ‘all terrain’ quad bikes to facilitate the distribution of the post in the trickier’ parts of Madeira. Ten operate in Funchal, and the remaining five in the most distant localities elsewhere. I first spotted one in Rib. Bra. about a month ago and have seen it nearly every day since, and it certainly was not doing ‘all terrain duties’, just pottering around town with the post lady delivering mail to local shops.

The European Treaty of Lisbon was due to be ratified in the Portuguese Parliament yesterday … no big obstacles were foreseeable in the ratification process. Probably all a bit of a waste of time if the Irish people don’t accept it in the only referendum amongst the 27 member states.

Madeira’s favourite son got a black mark last night when he missed a crucial penalty in the champions league semi final. Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t miss often, but as a result the tie between Barcelona and Manchester United ended up as a goalless draw.

Can you help Lucas or Boris, a dog and cat looking for new homes? Please take a look :

http://www.madeira4u.com/m4u_RI/resources_i_zz_animal_news_madeira.html

This Saturday brings the madeira4u 200th blog so I am looking for ideas to do something special, but so far have drawn a blank … any ideas, please let me know.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses, please send any unreported Madeira news, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – thank you!