Madeira News Blog

(27th August). Today’s main news story : ‘Forensic Medicine Deals With Two Thousand Examinations A Year – Of the 10 experts in 2005, only 4 continue in functions in the forensic office in Funchal and only as a second job. Only in October will the function be strengthened with a full time professional’. I thought we had flogged this to death on Sunday, but it’s back as the top story today. Amongst the annual workload are 300 autopsies, 1,500 examinations for personal injury (law), 150 carried out under employment law, and others in the area of civil law. In terms of rape and sexual assault it undertakes around two or 3 a month, with 21 so far in 2009. Other work includes evaluations of drug abuse and samples for DNA testing. 3 of the 4 forensic experts are currently employed with most of their time spent as family doctors, the other works in orthopaedics in Funchal Central Hospital. Anyway, the new addition to the ‘team’ will arrive in October and work on forensics full time. 

‘Summer Has 13 Gatherings Per Weekend – There are 268 festivals annually in the churches and parishes of Madeira. August is the champion month, with 70 great festas’. Or put another way, there are an average of 5 festivals a weekend, throughout the year. The Sunday following Santo António this year had the most with 19 (14th June). As far as the church goes, Santíssimo Sacramento (Holy Sacrament) is the most popular event with the church, with 12 celebrations. Most of the festivals on Madeira (201) are held between June and September, an average of 12 or 13 per weekend. This does not include other festivals, such as gastronomic events and ‘Dia do Conselho’ (annual day of the town / area). April has no festivals due to Easter. After that, February and March have the least festivals (both 3), as these months are associated with Lent.

The main photo today shows a JCB digger taking a first ‘bite’ from a piece of wasteland – ‘Future Cemetery Divides Caniçal – The machines move in to Feiteirinhas against a petition. Also there are those who defend the location of the project’. Work started yesterday on the Machico Council project, despite a 1,100 protest petition, from locals who believe that the new site will hamper future urban expansion in Caniçal, as it is the only expansion direction possible. The signatures collected represent nearly half the affected population and was led by a PS socialist counsellor. He believes the correct location would be on the lands of Zona Franca, which is already public property. He also says that the work yesterday commenced without completion of the expropriation of the lands being completed. The president of Machico Câmara, who is on the opposite side of the debate for the new Caniçal cemetery, said that this is proof that the majority of the population was misled when signing the petition. "I think people believed that the cemetery would be built right on top of the houses, right next to the neighbourhood of Feiteirinhas. That’s not true … that would be a bad option".

‘Woman Caught With 800 Grams Of Heroin At The Airport’. A careful search by customs led to the detection of the drugs hidden in the clothing of the passenger. Another drugs courier caught says the chief of customs. The woman, of African origin, aged over 40, was caught during checks on Tuesday, and she had her return trip booked almost immediately. The very pure heroin haul was enough for up to 14,000 fixes, and would not have been detected without a thorough body search. That’s the second arrest at the airport in a week for hard drugs smuggling.

Police units from Funchal and Câmara de Lobos have arrested 6 people in the last few days for drugs offences, including growing cannabis, when enough for nearly 6,000 fixes was seized. All 6 were foreigners. The police are said to be on a bit of a high after all their successes this week.

The search for the 76 year old man who went missing on Porto Santo on Sunday continues today, but the scale of the search operation is being reduced.

‘Kidnapping Of Another Madeiran In Venezuela Troubles Jardim da Serra’. The 64 year old emigrant was taken a week ago. In December last year the brother of the man from Jardim da Serra was also kidnapped in the same city, but was released 6 days after when a ransom was paid. It is estimated that more than one hundred Portuguese people and their descendants have been the target of kidnapping since the beginning of this year.

‘House Of Deceased Was Robbed Four Hours After The Death Was Known – Opportunist thief didn’t manage to take the stove because neighbours stopped him’. It is a case so ridiculous and immoral. A house in the neighbourhood of Nogueira was robbed four hours after it was known locally of the sudden death of the resident. The 61 man died, most likely from illness, not through crime. A police source reports that the thief was seen leaving the house of the deceased, carrying a small stove on his back. But the opportunist was caught by a group of neighbours of the deceased, who condemned the act and alerted the police.

(26th August). From the Jornal da Madeira : ‘PSP To Have New Police Station On Porto Santo – It will go in the area currently occupied by the firemen’. The area currently occupied near to the centre of Vila Baleira is due to be demolished in the next year.

UPDATE :

(27th August). The Gripe A count in Portugal has now reached 2,244, but as the minister for health said they were not doing the tests anymore, then I can’t see how this can be accurate. That’s the latest count up until 23rd August. Madeira has / had 30 cases, but this article takes it down to 27?

And in politics today :

(27th August). ‘Secretary Of State Reacts To Rui Alves And Refuses Invitation Of Nacional For Today’s Game’. (Sport or politics?) Bernardo Trindade (secretary of state for tourism) turned down the invitation of Nacional, having been angered by statements from Rui Alves, president of the football club. Trindade announced yesterday that he would continue his program of official contacts with tour operators in Russia, but will not attend the big match this afternoon against Zenit St. Petersburg in the Europa League, as was originally planned. Trindade told the Diário that he is surprised by the statements of the football club on Madeira, since it was a few weeks ago that the issue was triggered, of taking the opportunity to use the football match as an excellent means of promoting tourism to Madeira. Alves spoke yesterday in Funchal, making a severe accusation against the Government of the Republic, about taking advantage of the visit to Russia for national propaganda purposes. Trindade in response criticized Alves saying he was the one who initially raised the issue of using the opportunity. President Jardim is known to have been annoyed at the interference of Trindade, having ignored the opportunity to promote Madeira at the event through the regional government. "Now it looks like someone let the dogs out, and Rui Alves became frightened and reversed the position he had taken previously" said Trindade. Russians will be reading their newspapers today and seeing the new campaign, a beautiful picture of Madeira with the slogan "The land of Ronaldo and Danny’.

The daily interview with the head-of-the-list for the elections to the Assembly of the Republic : ‘Guilherme Silva Doesn’t Exclude Support To The PS Majority – The candidate of the PSD admits to giving support to a PS government, in the event that it benefits Madeira’. This guy is either giving us some serious BS or is not an ordinary PSD politician of Madeira. Asked if he wanted to see a crushing victory in the legislative elections next month, he said he didn’t like the work ‘crushing’, but hoped that most of the votes and 6 places go to the PSD. In fact if he hadn’t stated that constitution revision was an absolute social democrat priority in the new mandate, I wouldn’t have believed that he was in fact a social democrat. In the last 5 years, in the various elections, the PSD vote on Madeira has varied between 45.2% (2005 national) and 64.2% (2007 regional). It was in 2005, with the 45.2% share, that the PSD had to evenly share the 6 seats in the Assembly of the Republic with the PS socialists.

The last of today’s headlines : ‘Serrão Takes Place Of Leandro In The ALM’. Just a swopping of candidates in the socialist party. zzzzzz

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Tobi … Cricket in Caniçal

Jon & Deb sent me in this link … very nice film and music, a great 5 minute fix for anyone with ‘saudades’ da Madeira.

Don’t forget that news / articles will be posted at various times during the day – Check back regularly and keep yourself up to date.

Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.

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(26th July). Today’s main news headline : ‘Succession Generates Doubts’ separates images of President Jardim and Miguel Alburquerque, President of Funchal Câmara, glaring at each other. ‘Survey reveals that Alburquerque is the ‘pretender’ best placed to succeed Jardim in the PSD-M party leadership, but also there are 40% of undecideds’. After Albuquerque with 25.8% in the survey of ‘favourites’ is Sérgio Marques, the ex Euro MP, with 9.1%. I don’t believe Jardim is retiring until 2011 if at all, so a bit of a pointless survey if you ask me … I will bore you no more.

The leader of the PSD nationally is off sick with the flu, so won’t be able to attend the big PSD-M party rally at Chão da Lagoa today. Bet she’s gutted, and Uncle Bertie too, but she sent a message instead. The event is said to have cost €200,000, including €100,000 for 230 bus and coach hires. Those from Porto Santo wishing to attend pay just €5 for the sea crossing, with the PSD-M making up the difference, estimated to be around €20,000. The main entertainer is expected to cost €15,000 for his show. The social democrats won’t discuss the costs, so the figures given are the Diário estimates. Must be great for those supporters on Porto Santo of other political parties, a very cheap day out in Funchal at the very least, all at the expense of the PSD-M.

From The Journal da Madeira : ‘The Autonomy Has To Develop To Keep Up With The World’. Madeira’s president stressed yesterday that it is in the genes of the Madeirans to resist and fight, adding that many Madeirans thrive in the world because of the advent of the Autonomy. President Jardim pointed out that Madeira has always been a land of resistance, and of struggle, due to the territorial problems of distance from Europe. The youth of today, he reminded, are the heirs of the spirit of resistance and struggle, of the ability to overcome difficulties. Yes I realise the risks of taking politics from the Journal, but this story seemed harmless enough with no obvious reason to fabricate and spin political propaganda. Besides from that I can honestly claim that any news from The Journal comes without me even touching the newspaper or visiting the website.

‘Debuts In Caniçal – The Port of Caniçal has two inaugural visits, one ferry and a tanker’. The ‘Volcán de Tauce’ arrives Monday at 3pm bringing all the cars and equipment for the Madeira Wine Rally starting on Thursday. The other debut is a brand new tanker, the ‘Nepheli’ bringing asphalt to fill the holes in the road ready for the rally. The ship was inaugurated in April this year. Also, anyone intending to use the Porto Santo ferry on Friday should note that the normal hours have been changed to allow two return journeys to be made that day.

(25th July). ‘Public interest of the ‘Armas’ challenged with new evidence – Letter from APRAM demanding that the Armas follows the rules or will be subject to legal action’. The association of ship owners, is preparing a new offensive to thwart the continuing operation of the Madeira / Mainland passenger ferry in carrying freight into Funchal Port. This time the move may include holding shareholders in Naveira Armas responsible for losses. Armas dodged the last court injunction aimed at stopping freight loading / unloading in Funchal, after a case was made that it was against the public interest to do so. The issue is the unloading of trailers and containers of cargo, something other shipowners cannot do in Funchal port due to different licence conditions. This time the case may be built around illegality of permission, but legal matters in Portuguese are not one of my strong points, so moving on …

‘Tourism Coaches Stopped And Waiting For Tourists – Madeira companies will have over 30% of their fleets parked-up this Summer’. Lack of business and cut-price competition is affecting the income of coach operators. With the crisis in the tourist sector and price cutting practiced by some companies, business for the coaches dedicated for tourism is being hit badly. It is hitting home more now because the high season for cruise ships has now passed. Some smaller coach operators say that half of their fleets are now not being used. Some operators have slashed their profit margins in desperation, whilst those on a better financial footing have not, and they are the ones complaining about lack of business. Also this time of year, the coaches that are used for school travel and are normally hired by the councils, are rented out for the Summer months for use in the tourism sector. Maybe some coach owners have never passed through a recession before, or have never understood economics, or heard of a relationship between supply and demand, but the survivors of a recession in a competitive market are not those that stand still and do nothing except complain … give me patience O Jedi master!!!

In the UK junk newspaper ‘The Sun’ (not my normal read I promise) it seems that airport taxes are to be raised again for UK air travellers to all destinations. For passengers within Europe, the rise will be £1 more this year, and another £1 in November 2010, but that is for journeys of up to 2,000 miles. For over 2,000 miles, it goes up £5 this year, and another £15 next year to £60, but unless you are flying from John O’Groats I think the lower band should apply.

Its a strange thing the internet, how it can influence people into decision making. Over the last week, 3 of the top 5 keyword searches on Google that have brought people to find this website have used combinations of the words madeira-swine-flu, amounting to around 15% of all searches that have ended up here. The chances they will end up at an article written last month ‘No Swine Flu Here’, which comes up as second on the first page of search results. I reckon these people doing the search, in the English language, are either people who have booked here for a holiday and are concerned, or are thinking about booking and checking out the Gripe A situation here. In a world of dog-eat-dog, wouldn’t it be great if the Gripe A problem here never really took hold and tourism here started to recover as people realised the risk was very low, and chose Madeira for their holidays in preference to other locations. I know I am just dreaming that it could happen, but of course it is unlikely in theory, as the more tourists that come here the higher the risk of new carriers and cross infection.