Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Dave … “The Belladonna Lillies alongside the Levada Nova above Arco da Calheta were a sight to behold today (Tuesday). Forest glades full of beautiful colourful flowers. If any of the readers wish to see them, they are only a couple of hundred metres from the road at the Loreto end of the footpath.”

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 23/9/2008

The political party PS-M (socialists), the main opposition party, has been told by it’s president that there will be no vacations in 2009. Three elections during the year mean there is just to much work to be done, and he laments the fact that his party just does not have the resources of the PSD-M (Social Democrats). Oh dear, already I can feel another ‘dry’ news day ahead!

A new school was inaugurated yesterday in Câmara de Lobos replacing its prefabricated predecessor. It has 11 classrooms on 3 floors, and is for 1st cycle infants. The building is equipped to run on solar energy. Like other schools on Madeira, parents are upset about new rules for school transport that only allow students that live more than 2 kilometres away a free ride to and from school.

The programme for sale of state own lands and building to raise funds for the government, is not going well, and is affecting the state budget. After two years that raised €250 million, the current receipts guarantee just one million Euros (didn’t make much sense to me either).

Other news :

A couple of emigrant Madeiran’s who returned here from Belgium for holidays found their home had been expropriated (compulsory purchased) by the government, without any contact or negotiation. The move was necessary to allow the building of the new via Rápida Machico – Caniçal. It turns out that the authority responsible sent the notification to the wrong person. Whoops!

The number of accidents on the via rápida (Ribeira Brava to Caniçal) were double the average, with 25 reported in the week up until Sunday. Luckily only two people were injured, one of them seriously. During the same period 75 breakdowns were reported, and 14 animals and 27 objects of ‘risky’ dimension were removed. The torrential rain was blamed for the increase in accidents. No I don’t quite agree with that, the torrential rain made driving more hazardous, but in the main it is people who don’t make allowances for the conditions that are responsible.

Thanks to all for the new photos sent in yesterday, they will all appear during the next few weeks.

I saw the front page of the government owned Journal yesterday, and it said that Machico beach would open next month, whereas I thought (and mentioned) that it had already opened. Can anyone pop their head out of a window for me and take a look please? (or is there a web-cam?)

It’s not Madeira I know, but a great story for mainland Portugal on the news last night, leading the world in wave generated electricity. The Portuguese government has ordered 25 ‘machines’ that look like massive red metal sausages, from a company in Scotland. They bend up and down in the waves and move hydraulic components that generate electricity. Each one will provide enough electricity for 500 homes. The only downside is that they will look a right mess. Add to that the massive solar farm in Moura (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/06/renewableenergy.alternative…) and you have a small country like Portugal leading the way in clean generation. Madeira would be so great for being self sufficient in power generation, and it’s such a shame that we burn so much oil here. We have wind, sun, water for hydro plants, and waves in abundance, but I guess the investment cost is just too prohibitive.

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