Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Jon & Debs … A nice beach scene with one of the Funchal 500 tall ships in the background.

Front Page News : source Diário de Notícias 29/10/2008

An analysis of national exam results (1st phase, secondary) does not show Madeira’s schools in a good light, with just one in Santa Cruz achieving a top 100 position nationally (69th), with an average rating of 12.2 (out of 20). There were 610 schools in total in the league table. Gonçalves Zarco and the Secundária School of Ponta do Sol were amongst the five worst in the autonomous regions. The only good news is that the results for Madeira were slightly better than last  year.

The main front page picture relates to the film ‘Blindness’, from the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles, and based on the work of José Saramago, which marks the official opening of the International Film Festival in Funchal.  The film starts at 9pm on Saturday the 8th November, in the Theater Baltazar Dias. That is 5 days before the official Portuguese release date. It is about an epidemic that causes blindness, firstly in a city, and then worldwide and stars the actors Mark Ruffallo and Julianne Moore. It is in English.

Madeira’s cocaine problem is being fuelled more and more by drugs coming from Africa, where the traffickers are able to bribe officials in order to do their dirty work. The Cabinet of the Organization of the United Nations for Drugs and Crime (ONUDC) is worried about the growing volume of cocaine that comes from the west coast of Africa in the direction of Europe, utilizing, amongst it’s various routes, the sea corridor between the islands of Cape Verde, the Canary Islands and Madeira.

An agreement has been reached for the posting of propaganda / publicity posters in Funchal. The areas agreed and excluded are published in today’s Diário, but I won’t bother to name them as the agreement is purely based on ‘word of honour’ and has no legal basis.

The last headline story is about the forthcoming weekend’s football game between Nacional v Marítimo, in particular the animosity between the two club presidents.

Other News :

The churches here are feeling the pinch of the financial situation in the collection boxes. Apparently there are more and more ‘black coins’ appearing (‘coppers’ or 1, 2, & 5 cents) and less and less notes. Nationally the donation level has dropped 30% in recent times.

Easyjet again! A bad start for the new route between  Madeira – Lisbon, as the early flight Tuesday was cancelled due to bad weather, or bad atmospheric conditions? Passengers who still wished to go were allowed onto the 18.15 flight instead. The runway was closed for one hour, and other flights were also delayed.

For the third time this month, the massive cruise ship ‘Independence Of The Seas’ has broken the previous best for the most passengers brought into the port of Funchal. Yesterday it brought 4,113 passengers, beating the record set on 18th October of 3,933. In fact, including the crew, the total on board yesterday was over five and a half thousand.

The Association for Promotion of Madeira approved its budget for 2009 at over €5 million. As well as the usual presence in fairs, exhibitions, roadshows and workshops, some of the budget this year will be spent on internet promotion, with ‘Google’, ‘Youtube’, ‘Flickr’, ‘Travel Trip Planner’ and ‘Trip Advisor’ named as the chosen partners.

The 11th edition of the ‘Used Car Market’ opened yesterday in Madeira Tecnopólo, and runs until Sunday. Around 200 cars and motorbikes are on display and for sale. It opens at 6pm, but at the weekend it will open earlier at 3pm.

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I see that Zon, or CaboTV are now advertising their new prepay mobile phone service, as mentioned recently on the blog. A quick summary:

My recommendation for me … none, I pay far less with my existing company (UZO), but ZON might well suit other profile users.

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