Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Eiryl … An unusual Madeiran resident found in the zoo in Prazeres.

A bit of a rushed shortened news summary today, due to other commitments yesterday that I explained.

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 26/3/2009

The Port of Funchal has received an international award for services to cruise tourists. The magazine “Dream World Cruise Destinations” also emphasized cultural and scenic interest when awarding of the prize for ‘Best Destination Experience”. The distinction was made during the largest fair for the cruise ships of the world, in Miami, which ended last Thursday. Madeira participated in the Seatrade Cruise fair through a partnership with the Canary Islands, called ‘Cruises in the Atlantic Islands’. Great news, but I bet those 1,100 passengers that came with Thomsons on Monday, and couldn’t dock through lack of space, wouldn’t agree.

‘Child begging is coming back in Funchal’ – The economic situation, and the lack of policy to control begging, is encouraging families to send or allow their children into the streets to ask for money. The majority of the youngsters are coming from Câmara de Lobos. The coordinator of the ‘Movement of Apostolate Children’ (MAC), confirms the current scenario that has been returning in force recently, saying that many of the youngsters are from institutions or knocking off from school lessons. She says there is little that can be done to take these children off the streets, as it means intervening with the families, who don’t want to know, and often seriously need the money. The regional government had promised “that it would resolve the situation in the medium term, and withdraw children from the streets”, but so far nothing has been done. The consumption and trafficking of drugs also escalates the problem, and sexual exploitation also gets mentioned.

Main headline : ‘Separatism in the Pharmacies’. Cuts by the regional government in subsidising prescriptions through the national health service, means that purchasers of medicines are having to pay the full price. People are outraged, and don’t understand why they now have to pay the full price for their medicines, as it becomes clear that the region failed to pay it’s dues in 2008. The change is now official, and whether you get your prescription in the pharmacy or the hospital, the system now rejects any discounting. The Diário gives two examples of the difference in costs (with / without discounts) : Flu medicine €9.43 / €26.43 and Insulin €0 / €32.76. I remember a story some months ago that Madeirans were unable to get discounted medicines on the continent, so it seems it is now the case here? CAN ANYONE CONFIRM? When I had sciatica a couple of months ago, I noticed that I paid the full price of the medicine I needed, and I thought at the time that maybe that was because it was actually an over-the-counter medicine and the prescription wasn’t actually needed to buy it. 

In the political story of yesterday, the quality of democracy on Madeira gets criticised, because of the continuing election of the president of Madeira and his party of social democrats, without a serious challenge.

‘Another defeat for Madeira in an almost full house’ – Portugal under 20′s football team beat Madeira 1 – 0. The 4 team tournament will finish today. I could have sworn that it was the under 21′s the day before yesterday, but regardless, a 1 – 0 defeat against the resources of Portugal is no disgrace.

40 dancers show their talents in the Madeira Technopólo on Saturday. The Association of Dance and Art presents “Peer Gynt, etc.’, which combines several genres of dance. It starts at 8.30pm, and tickets cost €10, or are half price for ‘seniors and students’. The other highlights are excerpts and pieces from ‘Swan Lake’, classical jazz ballet, Tchaikovsky, Lloyd Webber etc. The choreography is original.

Other News :

Three species of birds considered “vulnerable” and who are under a special care of conservation, the ‘woodcock’ and two species of seabirds, have been identified as the ones that die regularly through collisions with power lines in the region. Each year, 24 of these birds die in these circumstances, more than was expected, and due in the main to their nighttime activities. The best solution to avoid these deaths is to bury the power lines, but that is too expensive. Another option being considered is to place low level solar powered lights on the power lines in the danger spots. The project looking into the matter is being funded by the Electricity Company of Madeira. How on earth do they know there are only 24 every year? Do these birds ‘phone in’ as they plummet towards land, or do locals trained to recognise these three species scour the island and notify the authorities when they find an incident? Of course no one wants these birds to die, but if there are just 24 a year, it is hard to believe that so much effort is going into this area with so many other urgent problems on the island. It smells of European involvement somewhere, probably those same people who want to ensure that our bananas are not too curved or too straight.

Consideration is being given into building a promenade between Ribeira da Janela and Porto Moniz.

A national nurses strike is set to take place over 2nd and 3rd April, with the trade union appealing to those on Madeira to take part. The dispute is over proposed changes to nurses career structures (or something like that).

The Empresa de Cervejas da Madeira (the company that makes Coral beer), are most disappointed that the trade union representing workers went to the Diário to warn them that a strike was on the cards. The company is to meet the union on Monday, and has expectations that the dispute will be resolved. PLAY SAFE – STOCKPILE ANYWAY, you know you can’t trust a trade union representing brewery workers.

The Ambassador for Ireland in Lisbon wants more tourist exchanges between Madeira and Ireland. In a meeting with with President Jardim they explored ways to lay the foundations for a new relationship between the two islands. In a difficult environment, we must find new ways to stimulate the economy, said James Gerard Brennan, Madeira and Ireland can only gain by promoting more flights and tourism initiatives. Brennan stressed his concern about the economic situation worldwide, stressing that Ireland “is in great difficulty.” He believes that everyone should do their best to address these problems and, perhaps, “within two to three years it will be possible to restore the economy”.

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For 5 days only Easyjet are running a special half price sale to all your “favourite destinations”. You can save up to 50% on over 250,000 seats for travel between 22 April to 10 June 2009. the sale ends at midnight on Tuesday 31 March 2009. I haven’t checked it out for Madeira, but as these sales are now pretty much fortnightly, if not just wait for the next one!

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The trip into Funchal yesterday (business aside) was nice, with trigo soup and a couple of non-alcoholic bevvies. Two coffees at the Golden Gate cost €3.10, exactly what it said on the price list. Another café, of which I forget the name (it says Pelourinho Cafe on the receipt but it wasn’t that on the sign), had 3 different tariffs on their price list, – inside service, – outside service, and – even more outside service, with the most extreme prices just about matching the Golden Gate’s wallet crunching rates. Needless to say we were sat in the ‘even more outside’ zone, where a couple of beers, five coffees, and a coke came to almost €11. On ques
tioning the bill, a very apologetic waitress reissued the bill with the lesser outside prices, and all was well.

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Alan asked me to post this response to a question on yesterday’s blog:

Can anyone give me an indication as to how much more is needed to keep the blog running thanks & how do I make a donation (cash or paypal?)

ANSWER (from Alanf)

Hi Anon?

First , the short answer: there are NO wrong answers, just think what you would pay if this was on a news stand and make a pledge.

Lonnnnnnnnnng answer.

I don’t know,

What i will tell you is this.

When this started I made a promise to myself that I would NOT discus with anyone what is pledged by any person. To be brutally honest I don’t care what you want to give, if you only think that it’s worth a centy-thing a year, what the hell, go with that. We all have a limit on what any one item is worth. In this case my limit is €1.00 per day, So now you have to remember my promise and I apologise if I bend my rule.

The minimum wage is about 20 Euros per day, that is a start point and a very low one at that.

So it is like this:

Per day

Me     $ 1.00

Will      $1.00

Nut      $1.00

TB        $0.50

JD      $ 1.00

Jccc      $ 0.50

Sheep.s  $1.00

TOTAL    $ 6.00

That dose not look good, but we have a few pledges that are one offs. The lady long way north who sits on flowers is in for £ 100 and Mc is good for £20. that little lot comes out at 6.33 Euros per day so at this point in time we are 13+ Short of our target. There is a possibility of commercial sponsorship that comes with some strings and is reliant on us raising the lions share of the funding.

You can not leave this to others to sort out you all need to do your bit, large or small every pledge counts and is gratefully received. As they say let your fingers do the walking, get on that keyboard and send a pledge to alanflowerman@mac.com

So, there you have it Anon, we make or break this by April 1st, If you have DEEP pockets that would be nice but if you can spare 50 centi-things you are just as welcome at this table.

Please also consider this. If we lose this resource we can’t go back and save it. Also If you make a pledge  you are morally obliged to pay, This chap has to make a living and it is a waste if that is on the dark side in a supermarket.

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!