Madeira News Blog

(10th June). Today’s main news headline : ‘Veto Of Cavaco Affects Jackpot – The President of the Republic gives back to parliament the finance law of the political parties. Cavaco Silva contests in a decision that has an effect on Madeira : hindering the legalisation of the ‘Jackpot’ of the ALM’. By way of background, the ‘Jackpot’ is a budget that was designed to fund the Madeira assembly (ALM) for a greater number of politicians than there are presently, and the current law allows the keeping of the excess money. This used to be split between the political parties, but that was found to be against the rules, so last year it was shared out amongst the politicians, who then gave it back to their political parties for funding. All the political parties nationally then came up with and agreed a different model, which will increase public funding, and that in itself would take the matter away from public scrutiny. But the President of the Republic has rejected it because of issues with exterior funding.

At an inauguration speech on Tuesday, President Jardim again expressed concerns on the growing popularity of communism, as expressed in the European election results on Sunday. He warns of widespread indiscipline and "civil disobedience" on Madeira, should the communists come to power.  He then went on to reassure us that "We have, in my opinion, the security forces fully prepared to safeguard democracy". What on earth is this stunt Uncle Bertie is pulling here, clearly he is sending a message to the voters about something that will never happen in his political lifetime.

There are several new courses running this month in Funchal, one of which is ‘Local Authority Communications’. I think it is likely that my câmara won’t be sending anyone alone, as they are all already absolute experts. The policy is to tell nobody anything, and they execute that policy perfectly.

It goes without saying that after the poor turnout in Sunday’s European elections, that the debate is on about making voting compulsory for all eligible Portuguese.

‘Aigle Azur Working Out Connection Between Paris And Funchal – The French company  has already announced a boosting of links between Porto and the French Capital’. "It is in deep analysis the possibility of making the connection between Funchal and Paris", announced the chief of Aigle Azur in Portugal, after breaking the news that the Porto – Paris connection was to be doubled from July. Is there a new airport in Funchal then? Beats me how I missed that!

‘Madeira Lost 380 Flights In 5 Months – Madeira Airport registered 68,385 less passengers between January and May’. That’s a reduction of over 355 in the number of flights coming from outside of Portugal. The national sector is holding up quite well, especially with increased demand for Madeira from Portugal, and the additional flights from Easyjet to add to those from TAP and SATA, resulting in a 10.8% increase in domestic passengers between January and May (407,445 to 450,455). the Diário concludes that the loss of passengers represents around 40,000 hotel guests, compared with the same period in 2008. Porto Santo Island has it even worse, with a fall of 58.3% in foreign visitors movements by air (down from 7,327 to 3,052) over the same 5 months.

Bit of a thin newspaper today, maybe to do with the public holiday today, so the odd few news stories left I will take over to tomorrow.

(28th May). "Undeniably Portuguese Territory" – ‘Jaime Gama and António Manuel Correia work to enhance biodiversity and conservation in the Selvagens Islands’. The President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal said that the visit made on Tuesday to the Selvagens was a "statement of presence in a territory that is undoubtedly Portuguese", a warning to the Spanish who have been using the airspace in a long running dispute. Gama spoke from the biggest island ‘Selvagem Grande’, that forms part of the sub-archipelago of Madeira, accompanied by a group from the National defence Commission for the Assembly of the Republic. Gama also stressed the importance of work for the preservation of biodiversity, stating that "it is a wild landscape of great natural beauty," as recognized by Jacques Cousteau, who said that the local waters were the clearest in the world. The regional secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, Manuel António Correia, said that this visit disproved the feeling that "Portugal does not recognize properly the environmental work done by Madeira. This is a real environmental sovereignty" the secretary said, adding that with all the work done on nature conservation, along with the presence of wardens "Portugal meets all requirements to maintain jurisdiction over land and surrounding sea areas".  The Chief of Staff (CEMA), Admiral Fernando Melo Gomes, stressed that "this paradise will continue with the support of the Navy", and announced that from the summer period he will put a team of Marines on the islands to help maintain order and preserve the beauty. How did Gama get back to Lisbon by plane? The question was answered, and he took a helicopter to Madeira and a plane from there.

‘Medical journals of the Atlantic Islands – Meeting runs from 3 to 6 June in Funchal. Vaccines, ageing, and breast cancer are the major topics of discussion’. The meeting, which will unite around 150 professionals from Madeira, the Azores, the Canaries, and Cape Verde, comprises three round tables, which will discuss the advances in vaccination, ageing and breast cancer. Work will start with a conference on ‘Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases’, which will have as speaker Jorge Atouguia, associate professor of the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

(27th May). ‘Drugs Seized Worth One Million – Since the beginning of this month police have impounded more than €1 million in drugs’. Judicial Police (PJ) have prevented the hauls reaching the streets of Madeira, and according to the coordinator of the Criminal Investigation Department of the PJ in Funchal, the €1,088,230 euros of drugs seized were the fruit of hard work, and not the result of operations planned for this month. In all there were eight seizures, all detailed in the article. There were a lot of foreigners involved, and in the last bust on Monday, two men of African origin were taken into custody after being caught with 2,000 cocaine fixes, and 600 of hashish, worth altogether on the streets around €53,000.

‘Recreational Park At Matur – The project should include a facility for observing planes’. At the end of 2010, the zone of Matur in Água de Pena, should have a ‘modern and sophisticated’ leisure area, in the area where the Hotel Atlantis used to be, before it was demolished because of it’s proximity to the airport. The responsible regional secretary, who is preparing the project, has a main objective "to create a green area for public recreation", with one aim being to accomodate plane spotters because it has a good outlook over Madeira Airport. Plane spotting, according to the article, is a hobby growing in popularity on Madeira. Young visitors to the new site will also have climbing equipment, and swings and slides to play on.

Under the programme to provide all school kids with a simple and cheap laptop computer, of the 13,800 eligible youngsters at basic level school, around 8,000 (60%) have already made their applications, and that has happened just since the 8th May. The eventual level of requests is expected to provide laptops for at least 95% of all kids. The programme for older kids (5th to 12th years) is also providing low cost laptops to around 11,000. I presume these are all for recreational and research use, as without 100% adherence I can’t see that they can form part of school lessons.

Madeira’s population has a very low feeling of insecurity, thanks to the population at large and the work of the security forces. Tuesday morning, at the swearing in of Jorge de Freitas as president of the Office of Regional Security Coordination, President Alberto João Jardim praised the climate of cooperation that exists between the different services that ensure public security. The role is intended to enhance cooperation between the various police and security services in joint actions, and will not interfere in the work of them individually. That’s good to know. Unlike Portugal, where people are feeling much more insecure according to recent reports, as crime increases with economic depression. One day this week someone gave me a newspaper from Portugal, called ‘O Crime’, which is purely dedicated to reporting crime on the mainland. I presume it is to draw attention to the growing issue, but with a cover price of €1.40, it seems the publishers don’t practice what they preach. It’s quite a big talking point here on Madeira about the continental crime levels, but most people are really not sure it is as bad as get reported in the media.

A dockers strike scheduled for today and tomorrow, and again in limited form between 1st and 5th June, will affect refuelling of ships visiting or stationed in Madeira waters.

(26th May). ‘Investigations To Find Out The Cause Of The Aircraft Crash Have Already Begun’. According to an airport spokesman, a team from the Nacional Institute of Civil Aviation, and another from the Office of Prevention & Investigation of Accidents, were on the scene at 9am yesterday morning. The 49 year old pilot in Funchal Hospital is out of danger, but will be staying in the hospital for a while. The passenger, in Porto Hospital, with third degree burns affecting 60% of his body, "drew a rather reserved prognosis". Another long article into the causes of the accident, state that the pilot was very experienced, and had the necessary authorisations to do the flight on Sunday afternoon, but also confirms that the Zlin airplane was doing acrobatics prior to the accident. The Diário says "Witnesses at the site at the time of the accident said that the plane was doing acrobatics on the airport runway when it crashed". Rather oddly in my opinion, the newspaper then choose to do a year by year summary account of all of Madeira’s past air accidents.

The day’s main news headline : ‘Colombo Resort Goes From Bad To Worse – The Regional Government says it will provide €5 million for the solution of the ‘stopped’ hotel on Porto Santo if Lisbon comes up with €150 million to ‘pay the time and hours’. The timescales are tight, and there are €9 million from PITER at risk’. The Government continues without a clear position on how to tackle the problem with the stoppage of the work at the Colombo’s Resort on Porto Santo. Although initially Alberto João Jardim said publicly, that government had nothing to do with the problems of private investment, later the government was represented at the negotiating table with the state and the main creditors of the Society of Real Estate and Tourism Campo de Baixo, to look at rescuing the project. Yesterday, Alberto João Jardim publicly accused the Government of the Republic of having a compromised solution for the rescue of the Colombo’s Resort. It’s a confusing story, so when I have a clearer understanding of what is going on I will let you know.

Then also on the same day, version 2 of the story is also published :

The rescue plan for the Colombo Resort on Porto Santo, where construction work stopped some time ago due to lack of financing, has some limited intervention from the government of Madeira. President Jardim has guaranteed an input of up to €1 million, but not beyond. According to the Diário, the matter was also discussed with Prime Minister José Sócrates, who intended to stump up €5 million, an offer that it seems was refused by President Jardim. I don’t think Porto Santo needs the accommodation or facilities of the Colombo Resort now or in the near future, so maybe a more imaginative and drastic solution is needed. Knocking it down surely wouldn’t be out of the question, and might be the cheapest option.

The police have issued a statement saying that between last Thursday and Sunday, 43 road accidents were reported, resulting in one death and fifteen injured. That brings the road deaths up to four so far this year. In 2008 25 people died in road accidents on Madeira, including 3 that died later in hospital, but don’t officially count in road death statistics.

Today is ‘European Day Of The Neighbour’, and several places on Madeira are holding events to mark the day. The event started in 1999 to combat isolation and indifference between neighbours. The biggest causes for complaints here are from noise and animals, and sharing of common areas, although other types of aggravation through delinquency, alcoholism or drug addiction are making matters worse. 

Seixal Review – ‘The Tranquillity And The Image Of The Mark Of Seixal’. It was the tranquillity and feeling of security that made João Pestana trade Rio de Janeiro for Seixal. The son of a Madeiran, born in Brazil, he has lived in Seixal now for 9 years and he says "I don’t want anything else". He continues "In the beginning it wasn’t easy, but after 6 months I was feeling at home. Without permanent work, you do anything you can", highlighting the lack of jobs as one of the main problems of the parish. The (big) works finished, and so did the work in civil construction. That finished also the popularity of bars and restaurants in the area. A cafe owner, Inocência Rodrigues, said "there is a lack of movement, but at the weekends, and at the festival of the ‘Panelo’ (you can search on this blog to find out more), the parish has visitors". She adds with conviction that "who likes to come to Seixal always returns". Without safety concerns, and with new facilities, the population now requires a pharmacy. The nearest at the moment is in São Vicente or Porto Moniz.

For the first time in the history of Portuguese football, the ‘Ball of Silver’ comes to Madeira. Nenê, the Brazilian playing for Nacional, as well as being the top scorer for the season, also has the distinction of being the top goal scorer for a Madeiran team in the premier league competition. A nice long interview with the player, but I reckon most will skip it so I will too.

(25th May). ‘Program To Help People With Alzheimer’. Carriers of Alzheimer Disease on Madeira will be able to register into a national program, that will enable quick notification to families when a sufferer finds themself disorientated away from home. The scheme works though an identification tag that the person has on a necklace or bracelet, that will allow easy identification. The program ‘Rumo Seguro’ can be joined through pharmacies, and fire stations, and costs €60 for a three year subscription, and lasts 3 years. Nationally there are estimated to be 70,000 sufferers, and 60% of these at times wander off and have difficulties getting home. A good idea, but it sounds like a right rip-off to me, charging so much, and I am surprised that ‘Alzheimer Portugal’ has put it’s name to it. It should be free, and anyway such a tag could easily be made by a family member with the necessary home contact number(s).