What’s happening in Madeira this weekend?; Frida Kahlo tribute Casa das Mudas Art Centre Calheta; Festa dos Compadres, Santana; Clarinet Concert;New Funchal Port quay tender cancelled; Independence Of The Seas returns sick passengers; Palm Tree disease continues; Ribeiro Bonito Film; Germany assured Portugal informally open to a renegotiation of the country’s bailout deal;
International, National and Madeira News from Paul Abbiati:
Madeira Newstories from Madeira’s Diario de Noticias includes:
Contributions from Peter, thanks Peter:
From Peter in the comments section:
New Funchal Port quay tender cancelled
From the Diario:
“Cancelled tender for the new wharf in Funchal…The jury that reviewed the four proposals for the contract for construction of the new cruise pier in front of maritime security deposit of inert, created the source of Funchal quay, proposed in the Preliminary Report, not to award this work, since all competitors had higher values than the base price set in the specifications.
The base price set for this contest stood at 15 million euros. But all competitors exceeded this value, violating the legal provisions laid out in Decree-Law n. º 18/2008, the legislation approving the code of public procurement, so that the jury decided to exclude all proposals, just inform APRAM in statement.”
link to article: http://www.dnoticias.pt/impressa/diario/306837/madeira/306894-anulado-concurso-para-cais-de-cruzeiros
Again from Peter in the comments section:
The article on the Cruise ship “Independence Of The Seas’ leaving Funchal on Thursday and returning shortly to return 2 sick passengers a 3 year old child and an elderly person.
link to article: http://www.dnoticias.pt/impressa/diario/306837/mar/306920-independence-teve-escala-atribulada-no-porto-do-funchal
http://www.dnoticias.pt/actualidade/economia/306835-doenca-subita-trouxe-independence-de-novo-ao-porto
From Paul:
Palm Tree disease continues
Local authorities such as Funchal City Council have been treating trees and some have had to be felled.
link to article:
http://www.dnoticias.pt/impressa/diario/306837/madeira/306897-praga-do-escaravelho-ja-dizimou-400-palmeiras
Ribeiro Bonito Film: latest version
Events in Madeira this weekend include:
-Frida Kahlo tribute at Casa das Mudas Art Centre in Calheta (images below), including dancing and singing at 9pm Friday, 7pm Saturday
-Clarinet concert, admission free? of the CEHA by Conservatório students 21 horas, Friday night at The Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico, Funchal.
Festa dos Compadres, Santana
International and National Portuguese stories include:
From Portugal Daily View:
“Portuguese exports are at their highest level for the last 15 years following an ‘excellent performance,’ Pedro Reis, President of the Portuguese Agency for External Investment and Trade, said Thursday.
Describing the results as challenging in terms of maintaining the pace of growth heading forwards, Reis said “the numbers were the highest for 15 years, 15% better than 2010 and beating the previous best year ever, 2008.”
“They show the resilience of both exports and exporters, who knew how to overcome austerity, the recession and the slowdown in export markets with Portugal even able to boost its rate of coverage with exports rising from 64% to 73% of imports,” the trade and investment czar affirmed based on statistics released Thursday by the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE).
Reis pointed to the consolidation in “levels of exports to non-EU markets surging by 25.9%”, with Angola leading the way, up 22%, but with good growth rates in China, Mozambique, Algeria and Japan, in addition to what he termed “good results” in Germany and France.
Reis also dismissed worries about the dip in December’s export figures pointing out that this was seasonal and that December 2011 returned better figures than the same month in 2010 in any case.
“Portuguese companies are gaining market share in the global marketplace..”
Speaking in Helsinki, Finland where President Aníbal Cavaco Silva is on an official visit, Reis concluded: “Portuguese companies are gaining market share in the global marketplace” and thus “deserved congratulations”.
Exports: external commerce: Portuguese footwear sector would seem very much to be leading the way
Above fashiontv | FTV.com – NELSON CAMACHO directs SUMMER SHOES PHOTOSHOOT of Miguel Vieira Summer Shoes Collection
Germany assured Portugal informally it is open to a renegotiation of the country’s bailout deal
From Portugal Daily View:
“Germany assured Portugal informally it is open to a renegotiation of the country’s bailout deal. The news surfaced after an indiscreet camera recorded a conversation between the Portuguese and German ministers of finance during the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Thursday, 9 February.
“We will be ready to do it“, the German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble told his Portuguese counterpart Vítor Gaspar during a private conversation . “That’s much appreciated”, answered the Portuguese official.”
link: http://www.portugaldailyview.com/
All images from the Diario unless otherwise stated
Its sad to see so many palm trees being cut down, they have had to chop a lot down by me , and just driving around you see so many dead trees, and i fear these will never be replaced.
1Tobi I agree with you on palm trees they will not be replaced. A easy replacement would be a seed of another type of tree. That way when it grows you can smile I did that and its been here so many years. Do any readers any other comments.
2Peter , where do you get the seeds?
3Ellen When I go for walks I look what fallen by near by trees, or gardens a good location. The schools could give children seeds and start a planting tree seeds. That way the feel they put something back into Madeira nature life.
4The Porto Santo ferry seems to be back in service after it’s winter maintenance – just sailed by en route to PS.
Dying Palm trees being heavily pruned or cut down here also …. sad. Strangely those further inland seem largely unaffected – we have two huge old lovely palm trees near to us (1 km from the shore line, 200 mtrs high) and they are in lovely condition…
Showers today then – garden surely needs the water – and maybe some sunny spells.
Have a good weekend everyone…..
5Going back on the issue planting seeds. In the uk I planted lot of different types of seeds, including Hazel nuts. I was amazed how easy they where to grow, once the winter dampened them. I noticed prices here in the shop Hazel nuts not cheap.
6anyone know when the tax forms are available from I.R.S. ?
7Vic, On line now …..
8Or available from the offices.
cheers Jon,meant to have asked about what date they have to be in by
9From the Dnoiticias Cold in Funchal and snow in the mountains….Cold weather will continue this Monday and the forecast return to take as given the snowfall in the mountains of Madeira. The sky will be cloudy in Funchal, the light wind, the temperature will oscillate between 13 and 17 degrees, but according to the Institute of Meteorology will rain on slopes facing north and snow on the higher peaks, which are also expected to moderate wind northeast.
The state of the sea, waves are set up to five feet on the north coast and south coast waves southeast of a meter. Temperature of the sea water will be approximately 17/18 degrees.
10Vic, pretty sure in by the end of March = electronic and manual differ I believe.
Exact info on the following site (www) – they have a calender you can click on without logging in…….
portaldasfinancas.gov.pt/pt/calendario.action?month=2012-3#15
I intend to give my “stuff” to my accountant beginning March…..she does it “on-line” and charges VERY little.
11from noticias Taxpayers will receive this year less income tax returns and some will have to pay…Most taxpayers will receive less reimbursement of IRS and some will still have to pay tax due to cuts in allowances, despite having been without half of the Christmas bonus.
The warranty is given by Paul Ralha, president of the Workers Union of Taxation (STI) that, in statements to Lusa, recalls that “most taxpayers will have a drastic reduction of reimbursement [IRS] that was accustomed to receive.”
The reason, he adds, are “new rules” in terms of settlement and the IRS surcharge of 3.5 percent which, despite having taken a cut of 50 percent of the Christmas bonus in 2011, will also make feel after the end of the tax clearance.
In practice, during 2011, taxpayers were subject to withholding tax every month and in December, had a special retention of 50 percent over the Christmas bonus.
This retention was found to apply as early as 2011 a surcharge of 3.5 percentage points added to the Government at all levels of IRS.
However, only in 2012 after the IRS delivered the statements relating to 2011 and the Revenue have calculated should be and each contributor will you know if that was discounted in 2011 was sufficient and not have to pay plus tax.
And the Government’s own calculations now suggest that there is tax to pay since the Ministry of Finance expected to raise 840 million euros in 2011 with the cut half of the Christmas bonus, but also admitted that this would lead to entry the coffers of 185 million euros in 2012.
“[The IRS 2011] There is a decrease in the specific deduction, there are cuts in tax allowances and benefits. All this plus the surcharge IRS follows that most taxpayers will see their income reduced to the level of IRS and others will have even to pay the IRS, “added the president of ITS.
The IRS deductions relating to income from 2011 have changed in areas such as health, education and housing, and the last two steps of IRS were limited in the amount of deductions that could be made.
There were also changes in specific deductions, rebates automatic that if you are eligible according to the number of children or dependent ascendant and the income in question, besides the higher taxes the IRS.
Almost all the ones that usually pay the IRS, single, married or retired, with or without children, this year may pay more tax on their income in 2011, but pensioners are the most jeopardized.
The simulations performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Lusa show that only taxpayers with lower incomes will have an increase in IRS refund this year. For all other a refund will be lower and there are even cases where there is more tax to pay.
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