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!