Madeira News Blog

Today’s Photo Thanks to Jon … the last of the hand-coloured postcards … very enjoyable

Where has concrete city (Chocabloc) gone ???

Ever seen a Zino Petrel, or fancied a trip to the Ilhas Desertas? BIRD WATCHING EXCURSIONS If you go don’t forget to share some photos with us.

"The soil and climate of Madeira were found to be ideal for the production of wine. But many arduous years had to pass by, since the first plantings – circa 1470, before the land was cleared and enough vines planted to make an industry". A worthwhile article on growing the grapes and producing Madeira’s most famous export. A Glass of Madeira, My Dear

Fir Park to Funchal "Maritimo’s quaint Estadio dos Barreiros ground is built into the hillside in Madeira’s capital Funchal and is the place where Rangers lost 1-0 in the 2004 UEFA Cup. The call the stadium The Cauldron – and not because the weather’s always hot". I can’t imagine any other reason why it would be called the ‘Cauldron’, as the ground is practically empty during match days. Anyway, even if you don’t like football, it was a good article (despite ‘The Sun’ spelling mistakes), finished off with a quote by the Marítimo manager Mitchell van der Gaag "That’s the only down side to Madeira – life’s TOO good here" 

This weekends football sees Nacional (4th) host Naval today (11th) at 5 pm and Belenenses (14th) host Marítimo (5th) on Sunday at 6 pm (SportTV1).  The highlight of the weekend is at 9.15 tonight, when Sporting take on Benfica. The Porto v Rio Ave game is on RTP tomorrow at 8.15 pm.

OK, you put the pressure on Debs, so here it is. This is called the Platamo banana, and these specimens came from Madalena do Mar, the home of the best bananas. The lady who gave me a small bag of them told me that if you ever see them in the shops (and I never have) they would cost at least €3 a kilo,  more then double the normal price. I have never seen bananas with such girth, and when I got home I weighed them, and 3 weighed slightly over one kilo = €1 per banana. That’s a 10 cêntimo coin by the side. I had one for breakfast yesterday, and I didn’t need anything else to eat until tea time.

As regards the €20 a kilo vegetable, I am not going to say anything on that yet. All I will say that it is a very very very close relative of one of the most common vegetables grown on Madeira, joined at the hip you might say, which is currently priced at about €1 a kilo (Pingo Doce this week). It is also very very very closely linked with the ATLANTA BEAM PIPI. Any ideas anyone? No chance, unless you are a local!!!!

Sue very kindly sent in this article :

Prisoner of 35 steps. One by one, there are 35 steps that Maria Ilda has to overcome, dragging and using only the strength of her arms, whenever she has to leave home. Also there many more for the return, because access to the residence on the site of the Wheel Massapez, the Belfry, is made only by steep steps and is certainly not adapted to the physical problem that affects this 59 year old lady. The call for the solidarity in Madeira for the purchase of an electric wheelchair and the construction of a ramp, made on 23 November in the ‘letters to the editor’ DIARY were made, as a kind of last resort, because all applications for help did not work. "The best gift Maria could have this Christmas would be a wheelchair ramp and a motor in order to reach the road," which would be the only solution to her problem. Mainly because now she is beginning to lose the strength in her arms, a consequence of osteoporosis that is also affecting her. "I have a lot of pain in the arms and shoulders and, in most cases, I can no longer climb the stairs," and the situation is aggravated when it rains. Maria suffered from a case of meningitis when she was one and a half years old which led to paralysis and the thinning of the lower limbs.  Maria to date has always depended on the other, but with an electric wheelchair and a ramp she could have again some independence, but as she expressed, she cannot afford the high costs. Maria gets a pension of 200 Euros and adds that the family does not have sufficient income to help her even they all work for a living. For three years, Maria Ilda requested support Social Security, with the great help of Helda Andrade," the nurse specialist in rehabilitation of the municipality of Ribeira Brava, who was interested particularly in this sensitive case, but the support for the electric wheelchair has not been achieved due to the substantial cost (more than five thousand Euros) and there is no money available. The same applies to the elevator/stair lift, the cost of which is estimated at around 25 billion Euros. The decision on the ramp on the regional road is still under study in the City of Ribeira Brava, due to height of the slope.

Solidarity march
A ‘card reader’ to account for the delicate situation of Maria had instigated a series of reactions from readers of the Diary, who agreed at once to help the dream of this lady to be independent and not an invalid. In this sense, a fundraising campaign fundraising has been started to try and minimise the effects of physical limitations in daily life of Maria Ilda. All those who want to collaborate with this charitable initiative can do so by NIB: 003506870000567430024 (on behalf of Ascension Ilda Maria Andrade) or by direct contact with the residence (291,953,807 or mobile phone 919013446).

I read her letter in the Diário earlier this week, and how she must have felt sending in a begging letter to a newspaper I don’t know, but added to her mobility and health problems it’s a very sad story indeed. Der

… and many thanks to Elaine for yesterday’s top news stories :

Togolese suspect vessel may be towed. The mystery of the ship ‘Newhope’ that since November 9 has been hovering 12 miles from Funchal thickens. The vessel continues in Portuguese waters, with lack of food and fuel, a situation which the authorities consider strange for a ship travelling between Brazil and India. During the past three weeks the ship has asked permission to anchor, claiming to need supplies, a claim the Maritime Authority does not authorize as there is information that the ship’s certificates are expired and that the ‘Newhope’ is included in a list of ‘black flag’ ships, which constitute a threat to safety and the environment. Now a representative of the shipowner is in Madeira, who in recent days has been trying to encourage the regional authorities to find a solution through supplying while offshore, without the ship entering port and subject to an inspection. The presence in Madeira of the seagoing tug ‘Fairmount Summi’ thickens the mystery. Because there is suspicion that the presence in our seas for five days and without a port of destination, it is linked to the situation of the ‘Newhope’. With lack of water, fuel and oil for the generators and other equipment, the captain of the Togolese boat may request aid and thereby triggering a maritime rescue operation, that would justify the presence of this tug of Dutch flag. Recently the tugboat has towed a ship for 20 days from Brazil to Europe, at high cost, which may link the presence of the ‘Fairmount Summi’ with the situation of ‘Newhope’.

TAP has lost passengers but thanks to liberalization. The liberalization of air transport between the mainland and Madeira has helped everyone. The conviction was shared by the President of TAP, defending free competition, admitted the airline lost passengers but has become more competitive. "Madeira has won. It has more service and we have a better service." The losses of TAP reached 60 million Euros last September but he ensures the company will survive the crisis. "TAP has its second best year ever in numbers of passengers but not in terms of income." The reason is simple, the prices are much lower. In addition to lower prices, he noted that in a time of crisis it was necessary to reduce supply by 10%. The result is expressed in the occupation on board the aircraft of TAP rising to 74%. Liberalization and the contribution of domestic tourism have mitigated the numbers of tourists. But the Portuguese are not available to holiday in Madeira for 12 months and we will have to find alternatives and domestic tourism can be short-lived. To increase domestic tourism, a 2 million Euros advertising campaign ‘Find a Greater Portugal in 2010′ for the Spanish market and to migrant communities in France, Venezuela and South Africa. This is to attract migrants and descendants of second and third generations. These countries have good air links and South Africa will be in the spotlight in 2010 with the World Cup.

Two boulders threaten road. Two large stones are likely to fall on the road linking Pestana Junior to the access to the motorway. The rocks are about 40 metres away from the road that is used daily by thousands of cars. The warning was made to the Diário by householders residing in the area, who became aware of the situation while searching for mosses and ‘cabrinhas’ for presepios which they are making for Christmas. The two rocks should weigh close to half a  ton each, appear to be based on an area of land capable of being easily altered by the elements of erosion, particularly in the event of high intensity rainfall over an extended period. Note that the slopes of the area, limiting the Ribeira de Joao Gomes, have been subject to several visits to remove earth and stones, some of which were conducted in the wake of some landslides or to prevent such an occurrence.

Prisoner of 35 steps. Maria Ilda, 59 years old, has to overcome 35 steps by using her arms whenever leaving and returning home. There was a call for the purchase of an electric wheelchair and the construction of a ramp on 23 November in the letters section of the Diário, as a last resort, but it did not work. She now has osteoporosis causing pain in her shoulders and arms and has difficulty climbing the stairs, especially when it rains. Her wasted and paralysed lower limbs are due to contracting meningitis when she was one and a half years old. A wheelchair would give her some independence but she only has a pension of 200 Euros and the family all work and have no spare income. She has requested support from the Social Security for three years with the help of the specialist rehabilitation nurse but the cost of more than 5,000 Euros could not be met. The ramp would cost about 25,000 Euros. There is a fundraising campaign by the readers of the Diário. The NIB no:00350687000056743002 in the name of Maria Ilda Ascensao Andrade.

Volunteers Fair in Jardim Municipal. In years of crisis, the numbers of requests which have come to various charities have shot up, but fortunately the contributions followed this trend. The Fair of Volunteers opened yesterday afternoon and runs until Sunday. President of the Casa do Voluntário said, "Expectations are very high because we have more associations (56) and we extend the time of this fair to four days". "In times of crisis, associations that deal with issues relating to economic difficulties have had more users, more users means that the technicians have more work and need more volunteers, in that respect I think that civil society has responded." The Support Centre for the Homeless is just over a year old but already has 30 volunteers. "We distribute food every night (except Saturdays) in Funchal and although we have more people in need, we have been able to respond." The purpose of the fair is to make a Christmas dinner for users. Unemployment is the main factor for the increase in requests for help. The purpose of the fair is to promote the work of the association. "We also use the fair to recruit volunteers."

Jardim punish those who voted against him. Following the recent visits of Jardim to the 11 Municipalities, the aftermath is that seven public works that had been promised and were part of the Government Program will not be undertaken, at least in the current term. The exorbitant cost of some of the planned investment was the main ‘excuse’ used to make them leave the ‘map’ of priorities, although there are also other cases of less expensive works, which were also part of the Government’s commitments, ’smelling’ of political revenge. Coincidence or not, the most penalized was Santa Cruz Municipality where the PSD had the worst result. Here, the mayor of the Council has recognized the need to rethink the program for the parish of Gaula, following the defeat of the PSD, who lost the Parish that they had regained from the Interim of 2008. Jardim did not apply ‘half measures’ and withdrew three investments that appeared in the Government Program for this county, and the ‘dissenting’ Parish  was the most impaired, with two works cancelled. Probably also to pay the ‘bill’ for not being Social Democrat, a ‘distant’ neighbour the Socialist parish Achadas da Cruz, Porto Moniz, also saw the disappearance of building a road that would allow access to Fajã das Achadas da Cruz, currently only accessible by cable-car. It was a work that had been ordered by the ex-mayor Gabriel Farinha and the newly elected Valter Correia failed to hold onto it. The cancelling of works was not limited only to locations not favourable to the PSD. In the case of Porto Santo, which has seen ‘erased’ a bus station. However on the ‘orange’ island, Jardim has been careful to announce counterparts, saying that ‘compensation’ would be the improvement of another public investment. In the wake of the cuts announced, is only missing Funchal. They are not going to get sand at Praia Formosa and the restoration of Toco area will just be a ‘mirage’. Two large investments that Jardim emphasize were not annulled, but only postponed. Jardim has double standards: hostile terrain has works cut without any alternatives, yet when forced to announce restrictions on ‘orange’ ground, he is careful to divert some money for other works or just postpones them.

Caritas collecting food at Pingo Doce. Caritas again calls on the generosity of Madeira under another campaign to collect food, which will be held Saturday and Sunday in all Pingo Doce stores in the region. Last June, the campaign collected about 33 tons of food and articles for personal hygiene. This second initiative is to replenish the stocks that are to support people in need until May 2010. The charity currently supports about 300 families and has increased the number of persons and households that use the institution for the ’support-SOS’.

Chocolate Island. 12 and 13 December at the Congress Centre. Visitors will have the opportunity to appreciate and buy chocolate in its various forms and flavours. Also combination products for example jams, sweets and teas and many others. An area for children to make sweets and desserts. Entry 2.50 Euros and accompanied children under 12 are free. Revenues for the Foundation of Gil.

Jardim remains on the Committee of Regions. One of the twelve representatives of Portugal on the Committee of Regions, a position that he has occupied in 2000 and 2001. Since Portugal joined the EU and the creation of this body, Jardim has been Portugal’s representative on the Committee. Besides Jardim are Carlos Cesar (Azores) and ten mayors, five elected by the PSD, four by the PS and one by the CDU. The mandate is until 2014. —- I’ve never heard of this Committee. Does that mean it does little but give the members nice ‘jollies’?

Illuminations in Calheta on 11 December. 19.30 hours, switch-on ceremony. On the same day and at the same time, the inauguration of the Nativity scene at the Praceta 24 de Junho. Christmas party 10 December for more than 1,000 children of the county. 13 December a Christmas lunch for just over 1,000 elderly people.

Mobility allowance approved in the Assembly of the Republic. Parliament today approved the creation of a travel allowance for travel of residents and students form Madeira. The opposition united against the PS to approve two bills originating in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira to create a grant to support air travel for residents and students from Madeira. They voted to change the law governing the allocation of a social mobility allowance when travelling between the islands and the mainland, following the liberalization of air transport, which offers variable pricing in tariffs. One proposal that, instead of the 60 Euros currently allocated as subsidy per journey, there is a refund of 50% of the total value of travel for residents, and 65% for students on four trips back, per academic year. The other proposal seeks to counter the double insularity to the residents of Porto Santo, which increases costs of routes, offering a subsidy of 65% of the tariff on four trips, providing that they are connecting Funchal-Continent, made in 24 hours. This approval is a ‘warning to the Government of the Republic’ as it was not adopted by the previous Government and it is only possible due to the balance of forces in parliament."It is a political signal, it is the first vote that the opposition is claiming a majority against the minority Government."

Madeira Wine and Barbeito distinguished in London. The Madeira Wine Company was last night awarded ‘the best producer of fortified wine’. Francisco Albuquerque was elected the winemaker of the year three times. The International Wine and Spirit Competition elected Barbeito Malvasia 30 years as the best fortified wine. The company also earned a gold medal for the Malvasia Old Reserve 10 years and another five silver medals, best in class for the wines: Veramar 5 years Boal, Malvasia 20 years, Barbeito Single Harvest 1977 Meio Seco, Verdelho Old Reserve 10 years and Sercial Old Reserve 10 years. Two silver medals for Malvasia 1994 Colheita Single Cask and Boal Old Reserve 10 years. All the wines were produced by Ricardo Diogo. In 2008 the competition received more than 7,000 competitors from 80 countries. The medals and trophies are the most prestigious awards in the market representing the best wines in the world. Competitors are entered in categories divided by country, region, variety, style and vintage. This is the third international recognition gained by Barbeito during the year 2009 for different wines. The fist was achieved in the International Wine Challenge when Old Verdelho Reserve 10 Years Old won the Madeira Trophy gold medal and Champion Trophy in the class fortified wine. In the Japan Wine Challenge, the Old Reserve Malvasia won the Best Portuguese Wine and Best Fortified Wine and the Malvasia 30 years won the Trophy for Worldwide and Fortified Wine 2009 gold medal (Best in Class) at the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

My turn (Der) :

Today’s main news headline from the Diário de Notícias : Socialist Party in the minority stay at war with Madeira – Against the absolute majority of the opposition, the socialists confirmed yesterday that they were not going to change their stance regarding Madeira. And so, the residents air travel subsidy was passed but not through the Socialists. Taking advantage of the fragile Socialists, the Legislative Assembly of Madeira already has 6 proposals in São Bento. Top story belongs to someone else today, although already partly covered above re the transport subsidy … any takers?

Controversy : Convention of APAVT: Conceição Estudante (Regional Secretary of Transport & Tourism) criticises Tourism of Portugal through it’s failure in the promotion of Madeira, Luís Patrão denies. The campaign ‘Discover a Bigger Portugal’ was criticised by Estudante for not really identifying the destinations. She says there is a lovely picture of Madeira, but unless you already knew you wouldn’t be able to identify it. Patrão, boss of Tourism (civil servant level), denies the allegation, saying "We were very strict about including the right images in the campaign partly, because we have the Secretary of State who is from Madeira". Bernardo Trindade of the Socialist Party is of course his boss, so maybe this is more about politics than anything else, but as Estudante is not an elected Regional Secretary then it’s probably just mischief making to keep Uncle Bertie happy. One thing that is certain is that Trindade looks after Madeira very well, probably better than anywhere else in Portugal in his national portfolio in tourism. If I was Estudante I would keep my gob shut and let Bernie get on with it, otherwise she might shoot herself in the foot.

Lightning bolts in the unveiling of the illuminations. The lights in downtown Funchal were switched-on on a stormy night with a widespread power-cut, but symbolised the initiation of the Christmas spirit : academics deliver presents and the charity Cáritas collects donations. The actual front page photo shows Xmas decorations like lightning bolts hitting the ground, but unfortunately I can’t reproduce that photo for technical reasons. Anyway the gist of the headline is that the switching-on of the Christmas lights coincided with a very noisy storm last night that put nearly the whole island (more so in the West) into darkness. Here in Ribeira Brava we were in blackness for about half an hour. It was indeed a spectacular storm with numerous dazzling lighting bolts, window-rattling thunder, and very heavy rain. It was almost without wind here which was great as I was able to stand out and watch the sky for a while. An hour or so after it started you wouldn’t have known there had been a storm, and even the moon was visible. Smarty Alec me must have had a premonition as I brought a pack of candles this week! The bit about the charity collections is already covered above in Elaine’s article.

Fleeing under pressure – Sporting – Benfica : Managers reject the duty to win. Nothing to do with Madeira of course.

The derby game Barcelona v Real is tomorrow with Ronaldo in the centre. As I can’t raise much interest in Portuguese football, I can’t see much point in moving to the Spanish game! … moving on …

H1N1 claims its first fatality. It didn’t make the front page today, but it was all over yesterday’s news bulletins that Madeira yesterday has it’s first death attributed to Gripe A swine flu. A 52 year old woman from Câmara de Lobos died in hospital, but there were also other illnesses involved. A man was also hospitalised with Gripe A, the fifth case since this all began. The article says that the peak of the pandemic will hit Madeira worst between January and February, although the lead up to the Christmas period will see an intensification of cases.

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