Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Sarah … who had her photos in within a couple of hours. These ‘orange ladies’ may be making a political statement, or perhaps they just like oranges?

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 24/2/2009

There are conflicting weekly reports about the unemployment situation on Madeira, depending on who provides the statistics, but this article comes up with a staggering statistic. It alleges that since December unemployment has increased by 6.8%, and by 12.4% since January last year. In a headcount, that represents 630 more unemployed from one month to the next, and 1,100 over a year. The current unemployed figure is 9,932, although trade unions report numbers well over that. Over a year, the number of job vacancies has dropped 44%. These figures come from the Instituto de Emprego e Formação Profissional (IEFP) (institute of employment).

Aside from that not a big news day, but I will persevere a little longer …

‘Oscars far from the Madeirans’ : Aside from lamenting the lack of Madeiran Oscar winners, the Diário seems a little peeved that the winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, or in Portugal ‘Who wants to be billionaire?’ has not yet arrived on Madeira, despite hitting the continent on 5th February.

The Marítimo manager, Lori Sandri, has been sacked along with his assistant after a meeting with the club president on Monday. An ex-manager of Sporting Braga is favoured to take over. No reasons given for the sacking, as Marítimo are in a comfortable 7th place in the league, just 3 points away from the European placings. I bet President Bertie had a hand in it though, as there is nothing he hates more than to see his favourite team trailing behind Nacional.

The Diário sent a reporter out with one of the three ‘Rapid Response Teams’ that are part of the Public Security Police. The teams each have 9 officers, and have been in place since 2004, but the three teams are unable to provide 24 hour coverage, being two teams short. Unlike the normal police, the team works across the island, concentrating on ‘problem areas’. A decision is awaited on whether to set up two more teams.

The other story is about the nervousness of the social democrat politicians in Santa Cruz, where President Jardim has left his people hanging in terms of election candidates for 2009. The other concern is the lack of public works in the area, presumably seen as an important factor in winning votes from the local electorate, as election years are famous for a flood of inaugurations.

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Anyone join in or watch the ‘trapalhão’ parade yesterday? Any good? I watched an hour or so on TV, and was very impressed with some of the entries, quite a few of which were protests (against Bertie, the cable car at Rabaçal etc.). Many thanks to those who sent in photos.

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, topical photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Sarah … a show in the municipal gardens of Funchal on carnival Friday

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 23/2/2009

Main headline : ‘Calote Italiano’ which can translate to swindle or bad debt, depending how you want it to. This follows on from last weeks story that the Italian tour operator has restarted it’s charter flights and holidays on Porto Santo Island, albeit for now just until next month. It seems the company has a million €uro debt with hotels, local services, and suppliers. That situation is understandably generating a little apprehension with local businesses. The biggest debts are over €100,000, and include the Hotel Vila Baleira.

Most of yesterday’s front page was taken up with a photo from the Marítimo game on Sunday, announcing that as a result of the two losses for our local teams, Sporting Braga had sneaked above them into 5th place in the league.

The social democrat party of Madeira (PS-M) has said it has uncovered more cases of corruption in the public sector, which it will be taking to the authorities. Letters have been received, highlighting corruption cases, from members of the public. The president of PS-M says that a change in administration is needed to combat such cases, saying that the public will no longer accept behaviour from the time of Salazar (the dictator from more than 30 years ago), when stealing from the state was the norm rather than a crime.

More on the carnival parade on Saturday of course, again with another mention that President Jardim joined in dancing with a troupe(s), but again with no picture.

Another article is about the neighbourhood of Romeiro overlooking Funchal. It talks about alcohol abuse, drugs, social problems, poor maintenance and services, adolescent pregnancy, all the usual stuff that the Diário has been highlighting recently. It looks like the newspaper has taken on the role of bringing these matters to public attention on a near daily basis, and whether this a political motivation in a year of elections, your guess is as good as mine.

Around 27 thousand Madeirans (16%) have benefited from training and education initiatives, supported by European social funding, during 2008. The beneficiaries are aged between 15 and 64, have already consumed over €43 million in funding under the programme for lifelong learning. Some of the funding is aimed at the fight against failure and early exits from schools, by diversifying and increasing the number of vocational options for young people. Altogether the EU has €125 million allocated for approved projects in education and training.

Other News :

There is video footage of one of the carnival floats from Saturday causing a scare when it started to run away backwards downhill. It eventually regained control, and thanks to a number of the crowd intervening to push the vehicle, it managed to complete it’s journey.

The restaurant fire, early Saturday morning in the ‘Marina Shopping’ centre in Funchal, has revealed some weaknesses in the safety procedures for the building. Although the fire was quickly controlled and extinguished, instead of venting out as it should, the smoke went to apartments above the mall, and forced the evacuation of residents. Add to that that the smoke detector didn’t work, nor the fire alarm, then it is a miracle that there were no casualties.

Remember some months ago a report that a new Madeiran based airline was being formed, called ‘Madjet’? Well that has now moved on a stage with the arrival of it’s first aircraft, a brand new executive jet ‘Hawker 900XP’, last Friday. The Calheta based company is expecting it’s next aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air 350i, to arrive next year.

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Aah … nice sunny public holiday, just what the doctor ordered. Someone brought me a huge bag of lovely looking bananas this morning, enough to last me three months if that was possible. If anyone wants some, come and collect, otherwise they will end up rotting.

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, topical photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!

TODAY’S PHOTO : Many thanks to Josie … Friday’s children’s carnival parade in Funchal, which Josie took and had to me by midday the same day!

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 21/2/2009

Main Headline : ‘Finanças terrorize those who legalise what is theirs’. “To receive a letter from Finanças is a moment of terror”. This story is about some citizens in Caniçal that decided to legalise the ownership of some small plots of land with buildings that they had owned for decades, not knowing that they were going to get stung with huge tax demands in stamp duty. The fuss is about people on low incomes, pensions of €300 per month, being billed €3,000 or in some cases much more. Hurts I know, but we all get stung with that whether we are rich or poor, but perhaps waiting 40 years to formalise the ownership is not the best way to avoid taxation when property values tend to rise.

A fire has burnt out a restaurant in the Marina Shopping Centre in Funchal. A electrical problem started the blaze early yesterday morning on the ground floor, but nobody was hurt. 

The chief coach at Marítimo says the club will not be investing to ensure a place in Europe this season. The club cannot compete with the superior budgets of others.

Skipping the politics story about the leadership problems in the socialist party (a temporary leader has been appointed to stand until July), the other story is about some final year students wanting to go on the Easter holiday to the Canary Islands by plane, but something was causing problems and they were having to go by boat instead, but I was pushed for time. This is a Portuguese tradition from what I understand though, with final year students who can afford it going off abroad together before their final term.

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 22/2/2009

The carnival parade is of course the main story, with nearly everyone delighted with the razmataz. Thousands of people turned up as always to see the seven troupes perform to the theme of ‘astronomy’, along with President Bertie, who also danced alongside some of the the participants (anyone get a photo of that?). The Diário has some nice photos, but nothing like our blog readers contributions. Take a look here if you haven’t already :

www.madeira4u.com/m4u_RI/carnival_2009_madeira_funchal.html

It seems that Porto da cruz, population 2,793,  is the featured location this week, “Lacks so much” is the headline. It has an elderly population who want a decent supermarket and a chapel for the cemetery, and there is nothing to occupy the young people in terms of leisure, who want a cinema, sports facilities, and bars to use at night. A mother of three says the village lacks a health centre and nursery.  That’s pretty much it … that’s all the article says, so it’s not going to be an action packed week in Porto da Cruz by the sound of things.

Last year the Madeiran homeowners with mortgages owed on average  €70,000 to a bank, and the borrowing for homes for the whole island amounted to 2,471 million Euros (there is no continental Portuguese word for ‘billions’). The article illustrates how the demand for home-loans has fallen, in Portugal as well as Madeira. Likewise bad debt is on the rise, with the Bank of Portugal reporting a 32% rise over a year. Funny how continental Portuguese has no word for ‘billion’, yet there is a word for ‘billionaire’ according to the coverage of the Oscar award ceremony!

Other News :

The first day back in the legislative assembly of Madeira next month will be a busy one, with 40 matters of business for discussion … the last one caught my eye … presented by the New Democratic Party … the construction of a 50 metre statue of ‘Jardim’. This is one time when my translation skills must have gone to pieces I thought, but I tried an electronic translator and got the same result. If it is true, the sheer fact that it is tabled by the PND (Rabbit’s party) must mean that it is another one of their political stunts.  

One article covers the comment from a trade union official that the restaurant trade is not doing very well so far in 2009, but when you read a later story, about one restaurant that has been robbed six times in less than two months, it puts a different perspective on the matter. The restaurant ‘Jardim da Carreira’ (it looks like it is Funchal from the photo) had €200 in cash and €150 in spirits taken this time, but in the last two months the owner estimates the total loss to be around €5,000, including the damage caused during the break-ins.

There were quite a few articles on carnival activities, particularly the various children’s parades that took place on Friday, and an interesting admission from the chief of police that Saturday night his officers were going to be more tolerant with driving and parking matters for those going into Funchal.

In football, both out teams lost yesterday. Marítimo lost 3 – 1 at Academica, and Nacional 1 – 0 at Amadora.

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I had an unsolicited  lesson in Fado appreciation on Friday night, and whilst I can think of better ways to spend my weekend, it was actually quite interesting. According to the man who was controlling the music in a local restaurant, there are two types of fado : ‘Coimbra’ and ‘Lisbon’, and he was ‘kind enough’ to play me several tracks of both types. I wasn’t wild about either, but with a gun to my head I would have picked ‘Lisbon’ as being slightly more bearable. Apparently there is no such thing as Madeiran fado, although for sure I have seen fadistas performing here several times so it must have been the other types.

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, topical photos, events information, or snippets for the madeira4u blog to blog@madeira4u.com – anyone can join in! Thank you!