Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Sarah … “I stayed at the Quinta Splendida, Caniço for a few nights this month, may I say the gardens are beautiful, shame about the standard of accommodation, its not all deluxe like their images show!!!, after 3 nights and problems we checked out and went to a 5* in Funchal, much better!!!”

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 27/3/2009

In yesterday’s main headline ‘Government Wants To Pay A Packet To A Group Of Barons’ – “The regional government has just ordered the payment of €25 million to a consortium that includes amongst others a politician(s?) and other businessmen (of AFA, Somague and others)”. The money will go to the consortium that  managed the solid waste treatment plant at Meia Serra, to help clear it’s debts. Meanwhile other smaller companies are going bust because the government has failed to pay up on it’s debts to them. The consortium, OTRS, had the management contract up until last November, and had threatened the regional government with court action over ‘credits owed’ totalling €22 million, and even they were surprised to be told that they would be paid so quickly. I have to be restrained how I express myself here, but one member of the consortium called Jamie Ramos, surely purely by coincidence, happens to be the the parliamentary leader of the social democrats of Madeira (PSD-M).

‘Lorries and Cars Squabble on the Via Rápida’ – It was an accident in a tunnel near Cabão Girão, that saw a man hospitalised (now under observation), and quite severe traffic congestion, but is not normally something that would make the front page.

‘Crime Statistics Down On Madeira’ – The annual report on crime on Madeira shows a significant reduction of incidents compared to 2007, down 3.8% with 7514 crimes reported (around 20 a day). The general trend is in the opposite direction from Portugal’s main cities, Lisbon, Porto, Setúbal, Aveiro, and Braga, that all show increases in criminality over the same period. Domestic crime however does not show Madeira in such a good light, as it is amongst the worst areas of the country for complaints made to the police. There were 10 deaths labelled as ‘domestic’ in 2008 for Portugal. Problems of a criminal nature in the schools of Madeira were also still on the increase, with theft (22.6%) and ‘harm to physical integrity’ (33.2%) dominating the complaints nationally, and with Madeira amongst the worst parts of Portugal. Great news indeed generally, as I know drug criminality is down in numbers, but perhaps we can put this down in part to the exposure of the levada mugger and his family on this blog at the end of 2007, forcing the little bugger into early retirement. I wonder if the figures take into account crimes by politicians, but somehow I don’t think they count.

‘Inadequate legislation may undermine monitoring on the beaches of Madeira’ – referring to the Summer season lifeguards, that only seem to appear in force on most beaches when the kids are off school. The organisation SANAS says that new regulations will increase the cost for the câmaras (councils), with clear disadvantages for safety. The new rules, which were published last August for implementation this year, requires that beach surveillance is licenced, and that an inspector from Lisbon needs to come here to carry out evaluations … “a long journey”. In addition, the cost of registration for the lifeguard course has inexplicably increased by 80%, making it inaccessible to young people wishing to provide a public service during the school holidays. It doesn’t get mentioned in the article, but if I recall correctly, the new rules also specify the number of lifeguards needed per 50 metres of beach, which wasn’t there before. From this year, two lifeguards are needed to supervise  any beach of up to 100 metres, and then one for every 50 metres (or part of).

There are outraged parents who have been told that contrary to the current law, some private creches that look after their children, will be closing during the Easter holidays. The education authority has said that it wants to hear the parent’s complaints.

Back to yesterday’s story about the discounts for prescription charges for health service users, the President of the Order of Pharmacists declares that the solution to the problem of contributions (to ensure the discounts return) is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health. In a part clarification about who is affected, the article says “the regional government decided to cut the subsidization to beneficiaries who visit Madeira. In this way, the drugs are all for the user of the continent, that have to pay for them in full.” Still not clear? … nor me … but yesterday’s comments have now hopefully clarified the matter. One Diário reader commented that the move stops people from the continent getting medicine discounts on Madeira, and that it was already the case that Madeirans in Portugal could not obtain the discounted prices. That is the correct situation, but there is still confusion in the air amongst the public.

In today’s sport headline, the new manager of Marítimo has said that “the dream is to be champion”, and that he wants to celebrate winning honours before joining ranks with the ‘big ones’. Carlos Carvalhal says he is confident of success for Marítimo that will put them in the exclusive group of the big three (or four, as it will then become). In an interview with the Diário, a month after his appointment, he was asked if he was happy with the one victory and two draws his team had obtained so far under his leadership. Surprisingly, he said ‘no’ he wanted all nine points. OK, clearly one has to be positive for ones bosses and the teams fans, but this goes to the point of sillyness, as no Madeiran team can ever achieve the height of joining the ‘big ones’ without masses of money from some Russian or Arabic buyer. And with crowds of just a few thousand a guaranteed fifteen times a season, staying in the premier league year after year is in itself a miracle.

The last article, in a bumper day for headlines, is about the failure to pay staff salaries in the Experimental Theatre of Funchal, because the regional government has not been making its support payments. One actor, who has a part in the TV series ‘Flor do Mar’, is reliant on his salary from that work in order to live, whilst four colleagues are having to look for loans to see them through the two months so far without a salary payment.

Other News :

Interpret this how you wish, as I am going to try. In the first two months of 2008, 32 thousand contraceptive pills were sold on Madeira, but in the same period this year only 26 thousand were sold. So why was 2008 23% higher than this year? OK, expenditure on medicine is down generally due to economic conditions, but to make up the complete picture we are left with three possibilities, and that could be any combination of the three. Firstly, and the one I really want to believe, is that in the latter part of last year women, decided to stockpile contraceptive pills. The latter two possibilities will result in either a very untimely baby boom, or a lot of very grumpy men, or both.

It has now been revealed that the military exercise, involving 140 personnel, that took place over the last week on Porto Santo, was a test for ‘future actions of cooperation’ between the various armed forces and security forces. However the colonel of the Military Zone of Madeira, at the end of the exercise made a statement, explaining why there were no other forces involved. I still think the collection of lost golf balls during the ‘Madeira Open’ last week was the most plausible reason, and looking at the photo, some of those soldiers have very bulky trouser pockets.

I he
ard on the radio this week that work was starting again on control of the pesky ‘Aedes Aegypti’ mosquito, which started to spread out of Funchal last year. We now have to talk about this potential dengue carrier in terms of ‘control’, as the possibility of eradication has long gone out of the window. Perhaps those bitter winter temperatures we had might of knocked off a few though.

Whilst trying to find out a bit more news on the subject I stumbled across an English newspaper readers letter and answer on the subject, from last year, which I thought you might find interesting.

Q : “I have heard that Madeira is mosquito-free, and would like to take my wife there. Can you confirm this for me … ” ****** A : “As far as I know, Madeira is mosquito-free, mainly because it is an island in the middle of the Atlantic and never gets quite hot enough for the devils to breed.”

No league football this weekend due to the world cup qualifying matches. Portugal host Sweden tonight (TVI channel 4 at 8.45pm).

Portugal won the under 21′s tournament of Madeira, after beating Finland 3 – 1 yesterday. I watched a bit of the match yesterday afternoon on TV, and I couldn’t see a single spectator.

Loads more good stories I could have done from yesterday’s news, but I am all out of time and puff.

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Don’t forget that the clocks change tonight, they spring forward a hour at 1am. So if all goes to plan, it won’t be dark until after 9pm tomorrow.

Also occurring later on today, in a worldwide initiative called ‘Hour of the Planet’, between 20:30 and 21:30 all people of the world are invited to turn off the lights in their homes and save on the consumption of electricity. Funchal is officially taking part. As long as it’s just the lights that’s OK, but in view of the football tonight, it is essential that the TV and fridge stay switched on. Why they didn’t just make the ‘switch off’ time a bit earlier beats me?

Have a good weekend, and if you have the urge please don’t forget to drop Alan an email alanflowerman@mac.com, as the end of the month is almost upon us.

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 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!

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Jon & Deb … “View from our house in Gaula for the blog (if you think suitable) taken last weekend – just to prove to your readers that the sun does shine here!”

Thanks Jon & Deb, any topical and interesting photos always welcome. I don’t normally pick or choose which get shown, except where I get a lot of the photos with the same subject.

Front Page News : source : Diário de Notícias 25/3/2009

The temporary diversion of a river in Faial, that has been used for illegal extraction of sand and stones, has meant that adjoining land used for growing crops, belonging to private individuals, has become contaminated with sand. That sand has technically been obtained ‘without a licence’, but the land owners affected are able to gather it and dispose of it, by selling it if they choose to do so.

Main Headline : ‘Garrote to the companies’ – The debts accumulated by the regional government currently amounts to around €100 million, even though it is lower than it was a few years ago. Bad debts with the government have already led to company insolvencies and bankruptcies, and those that are surviving are obliged to turn to the bank for bridging help. Because of the lack of money circulating in the economy, many companies are struggling to pay wages, suppliers and bank loans on time, and much of that is due to the regional government failing to pay it’s bills on time. The commercial debt of the Government has declined since 2005 after having reached an astronomical figure. And although the government has not disclosed the debt value at the end of 2008, the Diário knows that it is close to €100 million. When these government debts are unpaid longer than the statutory 45/60 days, as well as late payment interest, it has to pay a supplementary interest fee of 9.5%, and that totalled €17.7 million in late payment charges in 2007. Often these payments can be delayed for two years, and in some cases even more.

In a different but ironically related story, during an inauguration this week President Jardim helpfully said : “It is better to have little profit, or almost no profit for a year or two and hold the social situation, because this is cyclical, and until there is increased demand and normality returns, it is indecent to use this situation to lay people off”. If companies are making no profit because the government is taking two years to pay their bills, I am not sure that anything ‘indecent’ is the fault of that company rather the fault of Uncle Bertie’s government.

‘Satisfied but not radiant’ – has the lions share of the front page, and is an interview with Ruben Micael of Nacional, who has been selected for the Portugal national ‘B’ team. His international debut is on 1st April against Romania.

Another article is about the festival ‘Artmar’ which takes place in Câmara de Lobos between 4th and 6th June. The event, which is renowned for it’s star musical performers (not that I have heard of any of the ones mentioned apart from Mariza), has been brought forward from September, after rain affected the event in the last two years.

Other News :

In the most important story of yesterday, that in my view should have been on the front page, workers at the Empresa de Cervejas da Madeira (ECM) are quite likely to go on strike. If the next management – union meeting in the next few days doesn’t settle the pay rise dispute, then disaster could strike our main brewery and leave us without any Coral. WARNING – STOCK PILE NOW!

The 3 planned strike days of the pilots of SATA, the Azores airline that serves Madeira, have been cancelled. The company has made an improved offer (on what I don’t know) and that is being given consideration by the pilots trade union.

I think it was Tobi who mentioned it a few days ago, but the cable car at Garajau is now officially ‘back to normal’, after a year out of action following damage and lack of an operating licence. The round (up and down) trip costs €2, with that price being held throughout the Summer.

I think we must be in ‘bad medical news week’. After yesterday’s article about tuberculosis, today there is a report saying that more than 26 thousand Madeirans are affected by diabetes, the worst affected region in Portugal.

The Regulatory Authority for Social Communication has rejected the applications of Telecinco and Zon in the competition for a fifth channel of open signal. According to information provided by official sources, the two candidates were excluded for not meeting “the requirements and regulations for admission to the contest”. The new TV channel will compete with those from RTP, TVI, and SIC, and will be available free and without satellite or cable subscriptions. I am not sure where this goes now, as it seems that Telecinco and Zon were the only companies interested in taking on the fifth channel.

The old prison in Funchal, Cadeia dos Viveiros, that was emptied of prisoners this month, is to be in part turned into a day centre for old people. The PSD, with CMF and the Junta de Freguesia of Imaculado Coração de Maria, met to decide it’s future, which will include 40 apartments for social housing. I am just trying to picture this social housing project, and I would predict 40 studio flats, 3 metre square, very secure,  with open plan toilet, but no bath or shower, and rather small windows that will not help remove the smell of a history of incarcerated men.

Reducing interest rates in the Eurozone are now reflecting in the new Eurobor mortgage interest rate, and will make the average mortgage holder €21 a month better off per €100,000 borrowed. The 1.5% rate is predicted to fall even further, and stay low for a long time, and at present it is possible to borrow €100,000 and pay as low as €367 a month in repayments, depending on the offer chosen.

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!