Madeira News Blog

(30th September). ‘President For Teachers Defends Against Insinuation – In The Jornal da Madeira, Jardim encouraged the president of SPM not to forget who helped in her election. Marília Azevedo reacts’. The president of the Teachers Union of Madeira (SPM) reacted with a certain irony to the suggestion of Alberto João Jardim, who expressed an opinion in an article published yesterday in the ‘JM’, which alludes to some help, not specified, that was supposed to have led Marília Azevedo to victory in the election for the presidency of the union. "Dr. Alberto João is a lawyer, so he did not vote for me for sure", she said, noting that only teachers in the union could vote in that election. Therefore, she says that she has no knowledge "to whom he is referring" in his article.  She added that his statement did not bother her and she will not waste "a lot of time thinking about it, because it is an opinion". Jardim made the insinuation after the union expressed concerns about the fact that teachers career progressions had been stalled since 2005.

‘Manor House Donated To The Region Falls Into Abandonment – The ‘Solar do Aposento’, in Ponta Delgada, is shown in the guide books, but the tourists knock on the door with their noses’. The north coast historic building was given to Madeira 6 years ago, that is also known as the Museum of D. Hilária Freitas, is part of Madeira’s heritage, but it is abandoned and the maintenance neglected, and outside the weeds are taking control. The building is also not secure with old doors and windows, and there are fears for the security of the contents. The Solar was bequeathed to Madeira by the owner, who died in 2003. It is a building of 18th century civil architecture, and contains works of arts, antique furniture, chandeliers, and religious artefacts. It was officially adopted as a "property of public interest and local value" by the government in 2002. Ponta Delgada council are talking about it’s use as an old peoples home, and this could happen by 2011. ‘Knock on the door with their noses’ .. what a wonderful expression. I must remember that one next time the postman says he called (leaving a card) but no one was home, when for sure I was.

In today’s football headline : ‘Marítimo Not Rushed For Manager – SAD maritimista presents €1.4 million of losses’. At the general assembly of the club, attended by 92% of its capital holders, Marítimo declared losses of €1.4 million for the last season. The temporary coach appointed this week for Marítimo’s first team is also staying in charge of the ‘B’ team, and will remain in charge until a new coach with a proven track record can be appointed. Just as well Marítimo didn’t have to pay for it’s stadium then, or the €45 million needed to revamp it, thanks to Madeira’s government and taxpayers, otherwise the end of season accounts would have looked much much different.

‘Culture is the new ‘trump card’ for the promotion of Madeira – Department of Tourism increases its investment in the domestic market. Exhibition, theatre [?] and a new mini-series of TVI were some of the initiatives of the campaign launched on Tuesday in Lisbon’. In order to raise the awareness of the richness and cultural vitality of Madeira, the secretary of tourism, in partnership with the Department of Education and Culture will promote an exhibition of pieces from various museums on Madeira, in the Ajuda Palace, in Lisbon. Madeira has also been confirmed as a venue for a new mini-series on TVI (channel 4). These initiatives are part of the package that the government is banking on to attract tourists from Portugal to our region. In the latter case, the belief that the national TV series made here, Flor do Mar, has already increased tourism and warrants further exploring. As well as a new advertising campaign presented in Lisbon yesterday, the half yearly tourism figures were presented, showing a 15% rise in tourists coming from Portugal, with over 30,000 more coming here. Over the last two years, around 220 to 230 thousand Portuguese have come each year, increasing Madeira’s share of the domestic market. Another article talks about the initiatives outlined costing €680,000.

The new mini-series set on Madeira will run when the existing soap ‘Flor do Mar’ has finished, and filming will start in November. The new series doesn’t yet have a name, but will be the project of TVI, as was Flor do Mar, that received some funding from the Madeira government.

"One Doesn’t Even Make A Cêntimo For A Coffee" – Taxi drivers of Porto Moniz pass through days without having a fare’. The Diário’s featured location this week, covers the taxi drivers plight, where they go days without a customer and have weeks where they earn little more than €5. The crisis has not helped. The two drivers interviewed say they are tired of spending the day sitting on the rank at the Praça do Lyra, and also complain about the transport service provided for the sick, saying that the ambulance charges twice the price per kilometre that they do. The traders of Praça do Lyra are also suffering, with one seller of regional handicrafts saying his sales have dropped by 25%. Limited car parking also affects business.

‘PSP seized 300 doses of cocaine and €1500 resulting from drug trafficking – Officers from the Funchal Police detained a foreign individual and identified two drug drug addicts. The alleged activity was operating in the area of Avenida Arriaga’. Police intercepted on Sunday morning a male of foreign nationality in possession of several packages of cocaine and €1,500 in cash, allegedly resulting from illegal activity. Police had spotted a number of individuals seemingly buying / selling drugs and moved in. Subsequently they identified a house used for transactions, and in the house was found a precision scale, a prohibited weapon, several mobile phones and money. The individual detained is now subject to weekly reporting at a police station until investigations are complete.

12 suspected Gripe A cases were tested on Madeira in the last week, but only one man of 46 years from Venezuela was found to test positive for swine flu. He was taken into intensive care, but his condition is stable. That takes the total from the beginning to just 40 confirmed cases, with just one case in two weeks. Early days I know, but isn’t it reassuring that we are in the lucky position of knowing the age, sex, and nationality of all our Gripe A victims, whilst other countries have lists amounting to hundreds or thousands on a weekly basis. Just doing my bit in case any potential ‘non infected’ tourists come across this posting and fancy paying us a visit.

‘Oral Health Month Also On Madeira – 17 dentists on Madeira and Porto Santo join the initiative running during October’. In order to prevent oral diseases and improve education for proper oral hygiene among the Portuguese population, Colgate and the Portuguese Society of Estomatologia?? and Dental Medicine (SPEMD) are carrying out in October the 10th edition of "Oral Health Month". 15 of the dentists are in Funchal. They will be available next month to do free dental check ups (without treatment or radiographic examination). The annual initiative has allowed so far 95,000 free check ups since it’s first year, and more dentists are joining up. The main conclusion from 2008 was that less than 1% of adults have completely healthy gums and teeth.

Next Tuesday the cruise ship ‘Black Prince’ arrives in Funchal on its 594th and final visit. The ship has been in service nearly 43 years. Several initiatives are being planned to mark the final visit, including a short lecture on the ‘Black Prince’, which will take place tomorrow, 1st October at 18:30 pm, in the auditorium of FNAC in Madeira Shopping. The ship has been sold to a Venezuelan company, and it expected to remain in tourism activities.

(25th September). Today’s main news headline : ‘Metropolitiana Forgets Santa Cruz – It’s been six years since the people of Santa Cruz saw any new project coming to their region’. That was the multi-storey car park asked for by the câmara from the Sociedade Metropolitana de Desenvolvimento (SMD – Metropolitan Development Society). SMD is the responsibility of the vice-presidency of the Madeira government, and has the responsibility of improving the supply of social and economic infrastructures, through the promotion of sustained investment, to enable new local developments. SMD also covers the areas of Porto Santo, Funchal and Câmara de Lobos. The work of the SMD is often obscured by the local council presidents who take the credit for any new and popular developments, but now the local politicians are not so pleased with the lack of recent activity in the area. Asked about the lack of work, the president of Santa Cruz admits that he would like to have more developments in his region, but tried to play-down the situation. “I would have liked to have more projects, we all would, but it was not possible. We must remember that Santa Cruz has already received four works conducted by the Metropolitana in recent years”. The four projects referred to are : Aquaparque, the sea front at Ribeira da Boaventura, the Largo do Caniço, and the beach zone at Reis Magos. 

The main front page photo today shows a traffic jam : ‘War Of Neighbours In Order To Park Occupies Carriageway – The Chaos on the [road] 5 de Outubro has worsened since the start of school. The council gives in to residents and complicates the life of those who come down through Viveiros’. The traffic of Funchal needs routes, as getting in and out remains awkward, and the hope now is on the new Via Expresso at the port. Peak traffic times are particularly difficult, despite the completion of improvement works completed in central Funchal, and now it’s ‘back to school’ the problem has worsened. The Cota 40 and especially at largo da Cruz Vermelha are highlighted problem areas. The article goes on to list and debate just about every problem on every major road in Funchal, but isn’t it the point that traffic problems are the best way to get people to look to alternatives, such as public transport, and park and ride, and even if I might be so bold to suggest ‘on foot’. If the council keeps looking to make improvements in the traffic flow, it is going to counter its attempts to create a ‘green’ city. Bus lanes on every major road would be my solution, with a few well placed ‘park and ride’ schemes.

‘Convict Beats Up Man In Funchal – The accused of the aggression that sent the man to intensive care, had already robbed the house of a police commissioner’. The 20 year old convict was detained, but subsequently managed to escape, after also being taken to hospital. His 44 year old victim is in a serious condition in Funchal Central Hospital with head injuries.

‘PSP Receives New Guns – The regional command is one of the first in the country to be equipped with the ‘glock’. They are the “latest shout” in firearms, and Madeira already has it’s new stock ready to issue to police officers. The 9 mm weapon is “Characterized by its high taking-out power”. I for one intend to be very well behaved over the next few weeks, as no doubt our fine officers will be keen to try out their new toys. I might even have to be nice to Uncle Bertie when he is over this way again, and even shake hands with him, in case he tells the police to sort me out.

In football, a picture of Cristiano Ronaldo, with the headline ‘Spanish Change Their Opinion – Finally they give in. In Spain, the same press that ‘attacked’ CR9 now appears to idolise him’. After 5 goals in 4 league games, and 8 goals for Real Madrid altogether, Ronaldo has turned a doubtful Spanish press into a bunch of slobbering hero worshippers. He is now the top topic in newspapers and sports circles.

In entertainment : ‘Comedy Brings ‘Aces’ From The TV In October’. National comedy arrives on Madeira next month, with stars from Flor do Mar and Malucos do Riso / Morangos Com Açúcar. The theatre comedy is called ‘I Love My Penis’ (and that has not been translated), and has been doing the rounds in theatres throughout Portugal. It’s for over 18′s. 

‘Via Expresso In The North Ready In 2011′. During a visit to the new road construction yesterday, the regional secretary responsible said that the new road between Boaventura and São Vicente would be ready in 2011. The total length of the extension is 7.1 km. The road is being constructed in three phases, with two phases already underway (Boaventura – Ponta Delgada 1.341 km, and Ponta Delgada – Faja da Areia 3.254 km). 4 new tunnels will be needed to complete the route.

‘Child psychiatry unit opens with a lack of professionals – It needs two child psychiatry doctors, but at present there is only one’. The new centre, São Rafael, was inaugurated yesterday, and is the first one on Madeira, and just the third one in Portugal, that specialises in children aged between 10 and 18 with acute mental health problems. The unit can accommodate 10 patients, with an emergency reserve that can be called upon if needed. Amongst other mental problems, the unit will deal with children who suffer psychotic episodes, make suicide attempts, and suffer severe depression and behavioural changes.

Portugal had 2,213 new case of Gripe A swine flu between 14th and 20th September. Around 20 of the victims were hospitalised.

The ongoing strike by customs officers is causing some problems with incoming freight by sea. Two container ships, the ‘Apolo’ and the ‘Portdouro’, suffered significant delays yesterday in the unloading of containers, posing a threat to the restocking of Madeira’s supermarkets. The deliveries included 30 refrigerated containers, which were released thanks to ‘shortcuts’ permitted by the Director of Customs, but the other containers will remain in Caniçal Port until the strike is over and the release can go through the normal customs channels.  

‘Easyjet Increases Weekly Flights Between Madeira And The United Kingdom – One more connection on the Stansted route will start operating at the end of October’. The UK airport will now have 5 weekly flights for the start of the Winter season. As a result of the same negotiations with Tourism of Madeira, Easyjet will also operate 4 weekly Gatwick to Madeira flights in the Winter, and 3 in the Summer, which is one extra. Including the Bristol route, that will make 12 Winter and 11 Summer flights to and from the UK.

‘Luxury Italian Ship In Port – The new cruise ship of the Costa fleet makes it’s debut today in Funchal Port’. The €450 million Costa Luminosa brings over 2,700 Italian tourists, before leaving for Malaga at 5.30 pm. It underwent the usual inauguration process early this morning, with a good soaking from a powerful water ‘canon’. It will be back again on the 6th October, with 4 more visits to Madeira scheduled for this year. Among its specialities, the ship is a floating art gallery, with nearly five thousand works of art, of which 288 are original works.

(23rd September). ‘Green Line Inaugurated – Two buses operate the route between the Electricity Museum and Piornais’. In the first phase of the new ‘Linha Verde’ in Funchal, the buses will run every half hour until the end of October. In November eight more eco-friendly vehicles will join the team, and the service will then run every 7 minutes. The buses comply with European rules and it is possible to reduce pollution by 80%. I thought the new buses might be different in appearance, or in colour at least, but the feature on last nights TV news showed what looked like the usual yellow buses with a green window sticker. Great initiative though.

‘Port Doesn’t Have Conditions To Welcome Mega Yachts’. A mega yacht, ‘One More Toy’, coming from Gibraltar on Monday was forced to drop anchor in Funchal bay, after an attempt to moor in the port failed, even though the harbour area itself was almost empty. The attempt to moor was "completely frustrated by a lack of technical conditions", as it is necessary to remove fenders placed in the area, which will damage the hulls of mega yachts. Access to the pier for the crew is also complicated, because much depends on the height of the tide, which can make crew departure / access dangerous. The inadequate effort made for a port of this kind does "absolutely nothing for the image of the region", and many of the skippers choose not to return to Funchal, going to other ports of the Azores or Canary Islands instead. ‘One More Toy’ was eventually able to dock properly yesterday morning. It only stopped here just for refuelling en route to the Caribbean. 

‘ACIF Presents SOLGEST’. The chamber of commerce of Funchal presents tomorrow at 9.30 am, in the Electricity Museum, a programme of optimisation of energy consumption for the hotel industry of Madeira. The initiative is co-sponsored by the European Economic Area through the EEA Grants Fund, and is open to all our hotel owners. The central objective is to implement a concept of continuous local monitoring, with centralised analysis of the data, ultimately identifying areas for intervention and savings opportunities leading to reductions in costs and energy consumption. The initiative involves a team of expert consultants in technology intervention.

(22nd September). ‘Saga Holidays Distinguishes Monte Mar – The Hotel of Ponta Delgada continues in the ‘top ten’ of the units of European brochures’. The Monte Mar Palace, in Ponta Delgada on the north coast, returned this year amongst the ten most desirable hotels by the customers of UK tour operator Saga Holidays, in its brochure for Europe and the Mediterranean. It is a fact that since almost the day of the opening of the hotel in 2003, it has received the best reviews from the British operators, who awarded it its first distinction of ‘Top Stay ‘in 2004, after just a year of operation. Some brits like it so much, they spend 3 months alternating between there and elsewhere. Saga holidays are only available to those aged 50 and over.

‘Funchal Port Is Number 28 In Europe’. In terms of the number of passenger movements, Funchal is the 28th busiest in Europe, but last year dropped 3 places in the world(?) rankings. In what is termed the ‘Iberic’ ports Funchal occupies 6th place. Lisbon, which last year robbed Funchal of first place in national ports, is now 60th in the world ranking, and 27th in Europe. The busiest cruise port in the world is Miami, with 4.13 million passengers. Barcelona is the biggest cruise destination in Europe with 2.06 million passengers. 

‘TAP Secures Half Of The Flights To Madeira On The Days Of The Strike – Pilots of the flagship airline company on strike Thursday and Friday’. The administration of Portugal’s favourite airline have guaranteed that at least four of the eight flights on each of the two days of the strike will take place. A spokesman for TAP advises that any passengers due to fly on those two days check the situation before travelling to the airport. The pilots are striking over a pay demand.

(21st September). ‘Monte Train Returns – The project has a budget of €6.5 million’. The works haven’t started yet, but the Monte train project is a certainty. Once the land is obtained (by expropriation / compulsory purchase) and the works that will take 18 months to complete, it should be open in less than two years time. A spokesman for the various stakeholders said it is a good initiative uniting public and private input that will benefit Madeira. The train will run the same course of the original route, but only between stations at Largo da Fonte in Monte and Terreiro da Luta. The old train will be will be replaced by a modern funicular, similar in appearance, with room for 60 passengers. The expropriation process has already started.