Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Tobi … one of the Spanish warships skulking around the island on secret operations at the weekend.

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 28/9/2008

Most the front page is taken up with a photo of the football match Saturday night, in which Benfica beat Sporting 2-0 … that result keeps our very own Nacional at the top of the league, for the 5th consecutive week. Força rapazes!

Celebrating a 25th anniversary in primary teaching, the Diário spoke to teachers about what has changed in school since 1983, for better or worse. In 1983 the hardest problem was getting to school due to poor roads and transport, that has completely changed for the better. Now the students are less “stable” and have less respect for their teachers, and the school has to take far more responsibility than it used to, particularly as often both parents work these days. “The students always want more and the teachers nowadays have a certain difficulty in dealing with them” said one teacher. Teachers in 1983 worked as a team, but now there is competition between them. All those interviewed all said that they had no regrets in their chosen profession, and one said if they could go back in time they would still choose the same job.

Cardiovascular disease on the up for younger victims’. On ‘The World Day of the Heart’ the watchword continues it be ‘Prevention’. In the last couple of decades heart attacks here were in the realm of the more elderly, but now the tendency has already reversed. It used to be that the women were much less affected than men, and that is also changing. Funchal Hospital recently treated an 18 year old youth who suffered a heart attack. The director of the Service of Cardiology there said “We are now a developed country and the  development increases some risks in cardiovascular terms. Persons begin to eat worse, are busier and begin to do less exercise, obesity increases and people continue to smoke, and it seems like that more and more, for the women specially.”. 

Both those stories just really prove the point that technology and cultural development etc. whilst making life much more comfortable for the majority, do also deliver some major problems for society. This once quiet beautiful little island has changed beyond recognition in such little time, sometimes with good things, other times not. Globalization has certainly hit Madeira big time!

If you missed yesterday’s blog, please go back and take a look.

Other News :

From Wednesday flu vaccines (vacinas contra a gripe) will be available through chemists, at a price and with a doctors prescription. ‘At risk’ groups get theirs free, with 27,500 doses sent here just for that purpose. In 2007 the region received 7,000 ‘doses’ of the treatment to sell, but demand was low so many were returned to the suppliers, and as a result this winter less supplies will be sent to the chemists in the region.

Whether you are Portuguese, English, or another eligible nationality, getting access to America (USA)  without a whole lot of hassle and waiting has just become a whole lot easier. You can actually apply and get your entry authorisation (visa waiver) online at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/ If all goes well, once the online form is completed, your authorisation should take just seconds.

The Câmara (council) of Santa Cruz owes €10.7 million to it’s suppliers. It will have to apply for a bank loan to meet it’s obligations, but that may mean getting authorisation from a court.

Ribeira Brava Câmara has voted not to increase council tax (IMI) for its residents. Newer buildings will still be taxed at 0.35% (0.0035) of building valuation, and older and rustic buildings at 0.8% (0.008). The Câmara Municipal of São Vicente, has also agreed to freeze it’s IMI taxes at 0.3% and 0.6%. As a Rib. Bra resident I suppose I should be happy, but as I am still in my 10 year council tax exemption period, I am ever happier.

Saturday was supposed to be a fuel protest day across Portugal and including Madeira, when drivers left their cars at home and certainly not to go to a petrol station and fill up. The Diário did a quick look around Funchal to see if anything was noticeable, but concluded it was a pretty normal quiet Saturday. The organisers say that the campaign had a big following, the petrol stations and fuel suppliers said ‘what boycott?’. (OK, I made that last bit up, but that was the gist of it).

The company Zon, formerly known as CaboTV will announce today that it is going to enter into the mobile phone market, making it the fifth operator available to the Portuguese public. However in reality, although ZON will be the face and body of it’s new product, somewhere behind the scenes will be those fine people from Vodafone pressing the buttons. The new prefix will be 929 (hence the announcement on the 29th of September). No surprise for most of us then, as PT (Portugal Telephone) is eating away at Zon’s TV client base. Zon have just given me the home phone absolutely free with unlimited free land-line calls for 12 months, so I will be licking my lips in anticipation of that trendy new mobile, or maybe just a SIM card,  dropping into my mailbox.

—————————————–

The ‘contact us’ form and the excursion and car hire booking forms on the main website have developed a fault which I only found out about yesterday. Nothing is coming through to me. If you have send anything or made a booking please email me. Very sorry for the inconvenience, I am trying to fix it asap.

www.madeira4u.com

Aside from your valued blog responses (you can reply direct using the form at the bottom of each blog comments page), please send any unreported Madeira news, photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!