We are starting off with local news reports today, from our various correspondents around the island of Madeira :
(21st May). "It doesn’t do enough to sell a kilo of dough" states Gabriel Goveia, referring to his shop window display. Food and other items are just not selling in his old grocery shop in Ponta do Pargo (The featured Madeira village in this week’s Diário). "Trade is very bad in Ponta do Pargo" he adds. The oldest shop in the parish is stacked with food products, from the counter to the shelves, with lots of cereals and milk. In the window near the door are religious and decorative items. It’s 9.20am, and only a packet of cigarettes sold so far today. "I don’t want to talk about these things, but they ought to pay me a grant for keeping these doors open" says Gabriel. Nearby, next to the church, around 10 people gather at a small local café, where the young unemployed mix with the retired folk. Agriculture is abandoned in the area, one of the reasons why there is such a lack of work for people.
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Our correspondent in Santa Cruz sent in a report of what’s going on in that area. With a fear of reprisals, he just wants to be known as CP of Gaula :
Just a link to good ole Santa Cruz Câmara Municipal …… and Bertie’s mate ….: SANTA CRUZ COUNCIL
Note first (top) article is some political infighting / bitching between CDU / Madeira and the Câmara re "Edificio Quinta do Garajau" = of course our Câmara are whiter than white…….
Also note fourth item re "Oferta Publica" – the last open green space at the back of the town – not the "green party" then …..
Also, the photo of Santa Cruz bay (as web page header) shows a lovely "low rise" Santa Cruz minus the new Hotel now standing on the old town football pitch!?!? A picture is worth a thousand words ….
Just for info – if you do put anything on the blog, please can I be "CP" of Gaula? …. having fought a successful action against Câmara / RAM for illegal apartment buildings nearby and now awaiting updated "European standard" licence for B&B, don’t want to upset anyone – see, it IS a dictatorship ….. maybe the president doesn’t realize that it was me who subpoenaed him to court – !?!?!?
Jolly Days . . . . did you know that if you hang a dirty great big red fire extinguisher on the wall (and you HAVE TO) then you have to have a sign saying "dirty great big red fire extinguisher" just in case nobody notices it?!?!?!? AND a first aid kit can no longer have a RED cross, as that is now a "danger" colour – it must be a GREEN cross – but there is NO legislation as to the contents, it could be empty! ……plus you must now display a list of all emergency ‘phone numbers in languages various…..how many "’phone answer people" here speak German/French/Danish/Swiss/Polish etc. etc. …..ah, the power of the European union! Just how many sub/steering/focus groups and committees earning vast sums of taxpayers monies, printing reams of paper from dead trees, consuming electricity and fossil fuels and all adding to the carbon imprint AND claiming expenses can the Earth sustain?!? Still as long as we’ve got a plastic sign then that’s all right then ……..
Editor’s comment : Not the most exiting website on earth either CP, but it is pleasing to see that the câmara don’t waste public money on keeping it up to date!
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Finally, a report from our correspondent in Ribeira Brava, who wishes to be known as Red, again for fear of reprisals:
The rain is just chucking down … can’t even get out to the gym yet this morning!
