Madeira News Blog

(21st September). ‘Return To School : Quality Is Higher With Less Students’. This is an interview with the regional secretary for education and culture, Francisco Fernandes, who says that with less students this year, the quality of teaching will improve. He also talks about the 37 projects of construction, improvement and expansion (individually listed) in higher education in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. Two challenges being faced are the extension of full time schooling to 100%, as some children still have to ‘work shifts’ due to limited teaching resources, and the extension of compulsory education until the age of 18, something eased by a reduction generally in student numbers. 40,230 children and youngsters return to school today, although 2,941 will in truth be attending for the first time. They will be full time in school, apart from some small deviations in Funchal, Calheta, and Câmara de Lobos. 173 schools will be involved in the education of our children, one more than last year. Teaching staff have increased in number from 6,867 to 7,621, including 1,402 on temporary contracts. Non teaching staff have diminished slightly from 3,231 to 3,226.

Staying on the subject of schools : ‘School Ready In April – Government was counting on having the infrastructure enlarged for a thousand extra students this year’. The new basic and secondary school in São Martinho is not ready in time for this new academic year, as was targeted, due to a series of problems has put the completion target back to April 2010. The main problem arose when large storm drainage pipes were detected in the foundations of the new structure, which needed diverting at an additional cost of nearly €400,000. Funny time to be announcing it on the first day of the new school year?

’13 Already Died On The Roads This Year – A nasty accident on the via rápida, in the early hours of yesterday, was fatal for a 34 year old man’. The car lost control and hit the central barrier in the area of Magi Reis, close to the Caniço junction. It seems likely that the dead man was not wearing his seat belt. A woman in the car was also hurt, with a suspected fracture, and suffering from shock and bruising. The same night another serious injury was inflicted in Santo da Serra, when a car hit a wall at speed, and the driver had to be freed from the vehicle. It was a black weekend on Madeira’s roads, after a 79 year old man was run over and killed on the Estrada do Aeroporto, in Abegoaria, Caniço. 22 people died on Madeira’s roads in 2008 (but that does not include those who died later in hospital under strange counting rules).

‘Tourism Nationally Distinguishes João Borges’. The state is to officially award João for his services in tourism and promoting Madeira, and Bernardo Trindade, secretary of state for tourism will present him with the gold merit medal. Known around the world as ‘Mr. Madeira’, he assumed the role of public relations for our island, and was a key figure in the consolidation of tourism here as former Regional Director of Tourism. A medal of merit is also to be given to the Museum of Sacred Art for the provision of services relevant to the satisfaction of tourism, and enriching the tourism experience. The Secretary of State for Tourism, feels that the museum exhibits one of the finest collections of Flemish art in Portugal, and even in Europe, and for that is the most visited museum on Madeira. Much of the collection was assembled through past generations producing and exchanging sugar in exchange for Flemish art.

‘Day Without Cars’ On Porto Santo Will Have Free To Use Bicycles – Companies on the island join in with the challenge : "Improve the environment in the city". Tomorrow Porto Santo joins in with the European initiative ‘Day Without Cars’. The main road ER120 will be controlled between 8 am and 4pm to take the pressure off of traffic in the city, and bicycles will be loaned free of charge.

A photo from yesterdays’ football epic, Nacional v Marítimo, has most of today’s front page : ‘Race And Efficiency Make The Difference – Edgar doubled up in the first victory for Nacional in the Portuguese Premier League’. Edgar scored twice to give Nacional the three points, and spoil the 99th birthday part of Marítimo, who failed to take advantage in the second half of a 10 man Nacional side. ‘After the game, Marítimo’s Bruno forced his way into the changing rooms, resulting in the involvement of the police’.

‘African Association wants to know the size of the community’. One hundred members of the African community in Madeira were present yesterday at the taking on of the social body of the Cultural and Recreational Association of Africans in Madeira (ACRAM). After several years of low activity, the association wants to undertake work from scratch. The new president Augusto Mané wants to carry out a survey about the community on Madeira. Mané admits to not knowing the number of African immigrants on the island and their needs, and wants to address this. Regardless of the outcome of the survey, Augusto Mané assures commitment to social and economic issues. "The biggest problem in the community is legalization [in immigration]," notes the president of ACRAM. "In second place we are concerned about housing and employment". The regional secretary for Human Resources, Brazão de Castro, attended the event. The politician stressed the attitude of the Regional Government on immigration as "responsible and serious", stressing the openness to dialogue, especially since 2003, when the it supported the establishment of the headquarters of ACRAM in the neighbourhood of Nazaré.

‘Robbed Three Times In A Month And A Half – A robbery in Gaula, in the early hours of yesterday, yielded over a thousand Euros to the thieves’. The bar of Alexandre Caldeira has been robbed again, with the robbers entering through the toilet window, and breaking into several machines with cashboxes, and causing a lot of damage in the process.

‘Lacked Fruit And Money – Business was poor for the farmers and traders who went to Ponta do Pargo’. The Festa do Pêro ought to be at the beginning of the month when people have more money, suggested one farmer, who was disappointed with the level of trade. "This year is worse. They come, they look and go away. They do not buy hardly anything", she said. In ‘food and drink’ things did not go any better. Manuel Costa gambled in taking "one hundred and something kilos" of meat. "This is worse", he said, still hoping that he might sell half of what he sold last year. Did anyone go? I am curious to know what the fruit is, as what I always thought was the ‘Pear Festival’ is in fact technically sweet apples, as the word for pears is PÊRA.

I expect a few people, like me, saw this ship bombing along the south coast yesterday, and wondered what it was. It is the sail boat ‘Cisne Branco’ (White Swan), that has just finished the ‘Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge’, where it finished first in its class and second overall. It is now travelling between Europe and Brazil. It belongs to the Brazilian Navy, and was built 10 years ago for the purpose of representing Brazil in commemorative events and tall ship races.

From yesterday’s Jornal da Madeira : ‘€300 Million For Improvement In Water – Madeira will have a strong investment in the water sector in the next six years’. The president of IGA, the new water management company, says that there are in hand new investment programmes of renovation and reform of the main water pipes and ducts, public distribution networks, and agricultural watering, that will run through to 2015. The investments will address the problems of water loss through leakage, and provide for the storage of large quantities of surface water from Winter rain, as well as improve the treatment of residual waters and water for recycling. The measures will also provide contingency for reduced rainfall through climate change. The article doesn’t actually say where this €300m is going to come from, but presumably there are grants and European funding up for grabs, although the article does mention that water services are very cheap for the public, which does suggest that one source of expected revenue raising could be from us. €300m works out at €1,200 for every man, woman, and child on Madeira, so maybe it would be cheaper all round to import it and deliver bottled water to our homes.

That’s just about it from everything in the Diário, except ‘politics’, and I will be back with that and today’s main headline later.