Madeira News Blog

(23rd August). Today’s main news story : ‘Forensic Medicine Troubles The Hospital Of Funchal – The specialists are half of those necessary, they are close to retirement and at the weekend they turn to obstetricians of the emergency department’. It is necessary to double the number of forensic experts. The three doctors are aged between 50 and 60. At the weekends there are no forensic doctors working in Funchal Central Hospital (HCF), no one to qualified to examine the victims of sexual assault. In the end is is left to obstetricians or gynaecologists who are working in accident and emergencies to provide cover. "In reality there is still not enough (experts of forensic medicine) to allow them to provide this service in full. Therefore, when there are not sufficient, it is done as it used to be: by the obstetrician who is working in emergencies, who collects the evidence", explains Miguel Ferreira, clinical director of the HCF. According to police data, every month there is a person aged over 16 that is raped on Madeira. The average number that arrive at HCF is certainly higher, but the police coordinator did not wish to disclose more. Specialists of the Institute of Forensic Medicine are the most qualified to perform the collection of organic elements (semen, hair, and other cells) that, in pathology laboratory tests, may prove the existence and culprit of sexual crimes. What most worries Miguel Ferreira is the future. It is the age of the current specialist of the Institute of Forensic Medicine employed on Madeira, being between 50 and 60 years old, in pre-retirement age. The aging of the limited staff makes it urgent to train new specialists in this area. "If someone does not appear in the next ten years it will be difficult" admits the doctor obstetrician. But the field of pathology is unpopular, with doctors completing the course and then deciding not to continue in that field. "They prefer to deal with the living rather than the dead", says Miguel Ferreira.

Today’s main picture is of a normal looking street in Porto Santo : ‘Case Of The Kidnapped Businessman Changed Habits On Porto Santo – The population has recovered from the shock of the murder, one month after, but there are a series of precautions. The foreigners give rise to mistrust’. "Now anything is possible", "but everything changed" two of the leads quotes in the article. "People think now that everything is possible," says Roberto Silva, president of the council of Porto Santo, noting with some irony, that "nobody believes in Santa Claus". "Initially, it was putting some pressure on people," recalls the president, as the tragic and violent circumstances surrounding the death of 78 year old businessman José Guilhermino Alves turned out to be "abnormal, both at regional and even national level". The man was lured to a fake business meeting, and murdered, and the Diário went to hear the after effects of the event on the people of Porto Santo, and how they view safety on an island that in the last 10 years has changed as much "as the night into day". The article also looks at crime on the island, which was low anyway, but is even lower now, so the fear of crime generally should make people feel more comfortable, but as one man said "people no longer leave home or leave the car parked without ensuring that the doors are firmly locked". Alexandra Castro Brito says that since the murder (that occurred on Madeira) she is "very scared" when she has to go to Madeira to consult the doctor who is monitoring her pregnancy. Another man said "I know one person that was coming here every year and no longer comes because their house is far away and isolated". Also he said, he views with some suspicion, at least at first, the many people that now come to the island.

‘Merlin And Lobo Test Evacuation Of Crew – The crew of the helicopter EH101 ‘Merlin, of the Air Detachment of Madeira, tested yesterday the operational ability of the aircraft in an evacuation exercise of an injured person from the ferry boat Lobo Marinho’. The exercise was to prove the rescue a seriously injured victim of an onboard accident from the top deck of the ship, and take him to Madeira Airport on route to hospital. The exercise took place off the Praia da Fontinha beach, roughly half a mile from the coastline, and captivated the curiosity of many tourists who were on the beach despite the lack of sunshine. I bet it did, probably thought it was for real. Wall to wall sunshine here again in Rib. Bra.

‘Drugs Were Arriving Inside Heels – Customs seize 750 grams of coke and heroin’. A foreign national was caught and arrested by customs at Madeira Airport smuggling in cocaine and heroin drugs inside the heels of a pair of designer ladies shoes, inside his luggage. Supposedly a gift for someone living here. The baggage control system detected the presence of illegal substances within a package wrapped in a bag. The passenger was searched and the customs officers eventually found the drugs: 580 grams of heroin and 180 of ‘coke’. The heels of the designer shoes, were very well sewn so that to the naked eye, the package had a perfectly normal appearance and was far from suspicious.

‘Police Grab 21 Feet Of Cannabis In Ribeira Brava’. The Public Security Police (PSP) carried out a seizure of 21 feet of cannabis, which were planted on land located in Eira do Mourão, in São Paulo in Ribeira Brava, some 50 metres from the roadside. A couple were identified as having planted the plants. At the beginning of last week another seizure of plants was made in Ribeira Brava, enough for 270 individual doses. I am not sure that ‘feet of cannabis’ is the correct interpretation even though the translation is technically accurate.

Most of the twenty or so cases of Gripe A have passed without not even the need for hospitalisation, but a 39 year old man from Santana has already spent several days in hospital connected to breathing equipment, and is likely to be there for 10 days. His condition has now stabilised after he was affected by bilateral(?) pneumonia.

Another article looks at the high number of days on Madeira with high UV radiation warnings, and basically concludes that people don’t "always" take the issue and warnings seriously.

Today’s sports headline : ‘Opening Game With The House In Works – Marítimo receive Leixões at The Barreiros, Nacional Play tonight in the Dragon’. Referring mainly to the fact that Marítimo play their first home game at a building site, as reconstruction work is already well underway for the new look stadium.

(22nd August). This was in yesterday’s economy section, to mark the success and profits of the company concerned, but I though it was better as an article on the attitude to smoking and the continuing strength of the disgusting habit : ‘Dismade Turned Over €125 Million In Six Years – The company is the leader in the distribution of tobacco products on Madeira’. Friday was the 6th anniversary of the company in the company premises in Água de Pena, Machico, where it has a warehouse. Many clients and local politicians attended the event, besides its employees and business partners. Of the €125 million in 6 years, €21 million was turned over last year, and the business has grown every year, with a 5% growth expected for 2009 to €22 million. The company is responsible for around 85% of the Madeira tobacco market, with 2,400 outlets here. It has made it through the crisis with new and diversified products to meet demand. The company offered guided tours through its preparation and production facilities. Funny how attitudes differ, as I expect this would be a low key event in Portugal where smoking is less acceptable, and probably most tobacco companies go to great lengths not to talk about profits, and success if they can help it (except direct to shareholders of course). Here of course we have a smoking president and the habit is far from discouraged, and we even have weaker smoking laws for public places. Hence we can safely celebrate the growth in the profits of a supplier for the world’s deadliest habit … no namby pamby stuff like that here, and maybe I shall have a puff tonight to mark the event.

and in politics, mostly along the normal theme of course :

(23rd August). ‘PS-M Expects 15 Thousand For Today’s Visit Of Sócrates At Fonte do Bispo’. Prime minister José Sócrates participates for the first time in the annual rally of the socialists of Madeira. This time he is not here as prime minister, but as general secretary of the socialist party. He is always invited but this time is the first acceptance, an event that a local PS-M leader feels will "alleviate the feeling of orphanhood" amongst the party activists, as well as give encouragement to other activists and socialist sympathizers, especially on the eve of two elections. The “Festa da Liberdade”, according to the Jornal da Madeira, is for the first time this year not selling alcohol on the ‘barracas’, with the excuse that the space normally allocated is needed for other ‘cultural’ things.  That hardly fits in with the "festival of freedom" sentiment, and I wonder if the activists already knew this? Uncle Bertie says that the arrival of Sócrates here always sinks the socialist vote. I think he has only been here once since becoming prime minister, and that was earlier this year. So he is technically correct, as the European election results did go the wrong way, but I would hardly put that down as a ‘track record’ though.

The last of the front page stories : ‘Block Insist On A Pact To The Left – Roberto Almada, head-of-list of BE (Left Block) in the legislative national elections, holds PS and PCP responsible for the non-existence of a anti-PSD coalition. But he still has hopes’. This is the Diário daily interview with the top of the list candidates. It’s not worth covering as another no-hoper party, but as regards the headline where he refers to attempts to form a coalition with the PCP and PS, he said this has been an aim of BE since 2004, but he talks about the elections for Funchal council rather than national elections. To win this he said would put an end to the reign of the PSD, and start "the beginning of the end" for Jardim.

‘PS Of Sócrates Doesn’t Have Ideology – Jardim says that the actual socialist party is not that of Soares, Almeida, Guterres or Alegre’ (being previous party leaders I presume). President Alberto João Jardim, who reiterated that he is close to leaving politics, accused prime minister Sócrates of having finished with the party ideology. He accused him of being responsible for the worst economic situation in the country since April 25 (1974?) and to be the mentor of the "greatest propaganda campaign" of ever in Portugal, in order to hide the true state of the nation. He appealed to the disenchanted socialists to vote for his party the PSD social democrats, and also challenged Sócrates to explain how he managed to help the communist political forces to achieve together 20 percent of the votes in the recent European elections. For the Social Democratic leader, the only concrete proposal of the present Government of the Republic was to propose homosexual marriage.

In the Jornal da Madeira . "I Always Translated The Sentiments Of The People", was the headline quote from president Jardim, returning to his holidays on Porto Santo after the Funchal 501 celebrations. Explaining why he goes to Porto Santo for his holidays, he said it is because of official commitments, but more so to relax and be with friends. Asked about the initiative of the PND (New Democratic Party) who were on Porto Santo asking people to donate money to help Jardim pay for his holidays (see also yesterday in Funchal), he said "As you know the PND is a party of the extreme right that lives on clowning around. This form of begging is not unusual, because one of the PND leaders is heir to the fortune of Padre Lopes, in a way that I don’t admire such a method of obtaining money through donations" he snapped.

Back to the Diário : The police unit on Porto Santo was asked to despatch two officers and other elements of the maritime police authorities, in response to a rumour that the PND had arranged to walk two pigs on leashes along Porto Santo beach at the same time that president Jardim was taking the same stroll, on the way to the famous ‘Bar do Henrique’. The stunt was cancelled for hygiene reasons, because the leaders of the PND couldn’t find away to "stop the animals satisfying their physiological needs on the beach". Sounds like a bit of a wheeze to me, but why two pigs? Was this to be a remake of the famous story ‘The Three Little Pigs’ with houses of straw, sticks and bricks, and a big bad wolf? Which role would Uncle Bertie have played, with such a clear conflict of interest on both sides. And if asked to play along do you think he might have said "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin"?

I am having big problems with the Diário website today, and it’s taking sometime 5 minutes to get from one article to the next. I will have to carry some stuff across to tomorrow.

(30th May). ‘There Are Gaps In The Tobacco Law – Portuguese Society of Pneumology launches an awareness campaign on the harmful effects of cigarettes’. To mark world ‘no smoking day’ the organisation is launching a campaign which will hit Madeira from Monday. The aim is to highlight the harmful effects of smoking, exposure to passive smoking, and gaps in the law which came in last year. In terms of the gaps in the law, a spokesperson says that there is lack of enforcement. In order to put people off smoking, aggressive images should be printed in cigarette packets, something that is not permitted on packs sold in Portugal. Also prices should be increased, and smokers should be given improved access to ‘giving-up’ consultations.

‘Neighbourhood Policing Comes To The Zones Of Sé And Monte – The Police also announce that night time police checks in Funchal are to be increased’. It has already happened in Santo António and São Martinho, and the PSP commissioner said that the reinforcements "will work exclusively patrolling on foot" thus allowing permanent contact with the local population. He also said that new measures would continue to be developed to prevent deviant behaviour, including prostitution. Operation ‘STOP’ will also be intensified in Funchal, particularly to target drink drivers.

(29th May). ‘Madeira Consuming Tuna From The Azores – The Azores are having a really good month for tuna fishing, but the problem is they eat little tuna’. A harvest "extraordinaire" of bigeye (species of tuna) is forcing the Azorean fishermen to market their fish in Madeira, where this species is "more valued" when sold fresh, and there are more guarantees of demand. "In the first fifteen days of May there were so many fish, and no capacity to absorb them in the Azores market, so our boats went off to Madeira, where the fish is more valuable", said Hélio Neves, President of the Producers Association for Tuna and Similar Things of the Azores (APASA). The catch has been high, "close to 200 tonnes this month alone" on the same boats that throughout the season last year, captured only between 180 and 220 tonnes. "In times of exceptionally high catches in a short space of time there is a difficulty in disposing of fresh tuna for sale in (the Azores), so the alternative is to go to Madeira" said the president. Hmmm! It’s probably a bit late for my somewhat ecologically friendly suggestion … just fish for what you need and leave the rest of the tuna to breed further, and then next season you will have a bumper harvest once again (or is someone going to tell me that tuna migrate to other waters?)

OVERVIEW

The Madeirans love to go out and eat, and whilst it is very affordable for many western Europeans, it is comparatively expensive for many people on Madeira on minimum wage of around €500 per month.

Madeira has snack bars and restaurants in vast numbers from one end to the other. Most of the snack bars prepare steak sandwiches and burgers, but there are a great many restaurants specialising in local recipes, and others serving more familiar dishes, including Italian, Indian and Chinese food, with some excellent seafood establishments.

Vegetarians are catered for on Madeira, but mostly in Funchal, where there are several restaurants serving a variety of dishes.

All restaurants and snack bars serve a large variety of soft and alcoholic drinks, and tea and coffee also. The wines are both Madeiran and imported, the main beers on offer will almost certainly come from Coral,
a local producer that has a huge dominance over the Madeira market, and produces light and dark beers, as well as non-alcoholic brews. Many of the soft drinks will be familiar too, with Coca Cola being a major brand. Most of the other juices and fizzy drinks come from Brisa, who also manufacture on the island, with a huge range of the usual and more exotic flavours. 

Most of the locals and visitors like to eat outdoors when out for the night. The people of Madeira tend to eat quite late at night, often with friends and families, including children.

Service charges are not normally included in the bill, and tipping is optional.

FOOD SHOPPING

Madeira is well blessed with 3 large supermarket chains, with one or more represented in most larger towns. Modelo and Pingo Doce are Portuguese national brands, whilst Hiper Sã is a local supermarket, just trying to reach out and establish itself in mainland Portugal. There are plenty of other smaller privately owned supermarkets and food shops to choose from, but the larger ones have a significant pricing advantage, and small businesses struggle in the competition.

However, on Madeira, there is a third source for fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and fish, and that is direct from the farmers and fishermen, of which there are many, If you live outside of the city, and you get to know your neighbours, for sure there will be packages and boxes turning up with bananas and oranges, as these are plentiful and often surplus to requirements. Once you know your way around a bit, if you live in the country you will probably find that a lot of your heavy and fresh shopping comes home this way, with a bit from the neighbours, something from the man in the fish van, some wine from a local winery, and so on.

Having established your bulk food sources, you go out and buy everything else in your local shops or supermarkets, and quite likely end up with some goods imported to Madeira.

The quality of food is good, the fruit and vegetables are wide in variety, and usually good in flavour.  Prices fluctuate widely, due to seasonal availability and importation costs.  The meat (limited in choice) and fish (big choice) prices usually stay more steady.

Here are some rough price guides
for basic food & drink from 2008:
Potatoes €0.60 – €1 / kg
Oranges €0.50 – €1 / kg
Tomatoes €1 – €2.50 / kg
Bread €0.70 – €2 medium loaf
Lean beef €4 – €6 / kg
Chicken €1.70 – €2.50 / kg
Small fish €1 – €3 / kg
Large fish €4 – €8 / kg
Milk €0.40 – €0.70 / litre
30cl local beer €0.20 – €0.45
Wine starts at €0.70 / litre, up to several Euros for a reasonable bottle

The average Madeira family shopping bill for 2007 was €399 per month

EATING & DRINKING OUT

Portuguese & International Cuisine

If you are up for a burger, steak sandwich, chips or whatever, then you will need to walk no more than a few meters in any town to satisfy your appetite, as there are numerous snack bars and cafés on Madeira, catering for the most popular local tastes in snacks. There are also plenty of restaurants, but as you will no doubt wish to try some local dishes, this is where we will start.

Several dishes stand out as being particularly Portuguese or Madeiran, and are very popular with the locals. The first is Espetada, which is a kebab type meal of grilled or barbecued beef, in very large chunks, well flavoured with garlic. You will often see the huge skewers hanging upright on the tables. You may see it served with chips, vegetables, or salad, or fried corn is also popular. This dish and other grilled and  barbecued meat will certainly be found in any restaurant marked or named as a churrascaria, and if you go to a street festivals you will almost certainly see it on sale, and perhaps even cook it yourself.

Fish is also very popular, and one deep sea fish caught locally is called espada (scabbard fish), and although you won’t recognise it on your plate, if you look in a Madeira supermarket it will be the very long black fish with large eyes and wicked razor sharp teeth. The other very popular fish dish is ‘bacalhau’ or cod fish. This is familiar but imported cod, usually dried and salted when brought, but this is unnoticeable when rehydrated and prepared.

There are specialist fish restaurants, mostly in Funchal, but as much of the more exquisite fish is imported, they can appear expensive, and you may pay for the fish by uncooked weight. Look out for ‘Marisqueira’ outside a restaurant.

One stew of worthy note, named feijoada, is made of boiled beans, and can be made with a variety of meats and flavourings, in a sauce. It’s very filling and very popular with Madeirans.

International cuisine restaurants are common place in Funchal, but are much harder to find on the rest of the island, with the exception of Italian style restaurants serving pizza and pasta dishes. In Funchal there are several Chinese and Indian restaurants, as well as the Italian ones, and French, and a few more obscure themes dotted around the city. Also, but barely under the theme of ‘International Cuisine’, you will find MacDonalds & Kentucky Fried Chicken, and familiar looking fast food Pizza outlets in Funchal.

Money Saving Tip – Meals are well renowned in Portugal & Madeira for being rather large, so if you have children with you often you can ask for a half portion "Meia dose de … se faz favor". It will probably cost more than half the price of a full portion, but that’s to be expected.

The Madeiran ‘Café Culture’

Cafés and Bars form a huge part of the social life enjoyed by many Madeirans and Portuguese people. As well as a simple and often practical way of feeding and hydrating yourself, the bigger role is the social environment it provides, with friends and family, business acquaintances and anybody else who might turn up! This life is generally a daytime affair, with little if any alcohol being consumed, but plenty of very strong black coffee in very small cups.

Most of this socialising takes place daily outside the numerous cafes and bars that are spread out across the island, weather permitting of course, and mostly during the day. At night-time, especially later on, it is more normal to see younger people, often with children but still sitting outdoors. Again, drinking mostly coffee and juices.

Not so much these days (unless you ask), the staff will give you a dish of something to eat with your drink, known as ‘dentinhos’, something like the tapas bars of Spain do. Sometimes you will be given a small plate of yellow beans (tromoços), or salted peanuts or monkey nuts, others may give you something hot like tripe, or chicken hearts, or ‘patinhas’ (pigs feet).

Bars, Pubs, & Drinking Establishments

The opening times of most the bars, pubs and cafés is pretty universal, and usually pretty early, but the closing times vary from town to town and from establishment to establishment, with the bars further away from residential areas usually having later closing times (later licences are allowed if the establishment is not going to be disturbing people).

All bars / pubs / cafes sell alcoholic drinks, but they would normally represent the smaller part of the days trade where coffee, juices and snacks give the owners their main income, though that may vary with establishment that serve a lot of tourists.

Many of the bars have TVs, but most people don’t watch them unless there is a big football match on.

Smoking

On 1st January 2008, Portugal introduced measures to stop smoking in public places. Madeira was equally affected, but the president of Madeira, a cigar smoker, had the law changed for Madeira. Now there are bars and restaurants that allow smoking, and by law they have smoke extraction equipment installed.

In public places such as the airport and on buses, smoking is not permitted. Bars, cafes and restaurants can choose to be a smoking or non smoking establishment. There are stiff fines for businesses, and fines for smokers themselves who do not comply with the law. A red sticker is used is used to indicate ‘no smoking’ establishments and areas. The majority of places have opted for the ‘no smoking’ option.

However, for those who still wish to smoke, it shouldn’t be a problem, as with a climate like that on Madeira, who wouldn’t rather sit outside anyway? Cigarettes are priced in the range of €1.50 to €2.80 per
packet, the higher price being for imported cigarettes. Most bars and cafes have vending machines that are operated by a remote control to stop underage use, so you may have to ask for the machine to be switched on.

The prices in bars, pubs & cafes vary enormously around Madeira, and going from one extreme of a café in a busy tourist area in Funchal, to a small bar in a small Madeiran village, exactly the same drink could cost you half as much, maybe less. At the lower end of the scale, a small beer should cost between 80 cents and €1, a large white coffee 70 to 90 cents, a bottled juice or cola probably €1 or just under, a large shot of spirits between €1 and €2, depending on the measure and spirit chosen.

The food is limited in choice, burger and steak sandwiches being more popular with the locals on Madeira, but you can buy your lunch for between €3 and €5 as long as you don’t stray from the regular menu or the dish of the day which should have it’s own price marked up.

The prices discussed above are the prices you should pay and those normally advertised or listed somewhere in view, but legally, owners of bars, pubs & cafes are permitted to charge a service charge if they take your order and serve you outside, and normally this would be as little as 10 cents a drink, but some owners or their waiting staff take this to new levels by adding 50% or 100% or more onto a drinks bill, and this is a big problem with foreigners whether they realise it or not. Normally with food there is never a problem, and most bars, pubs and cafés do employ honest staff.

Another favourite trick is to take your €5 note, and ‘forget’ to give you the change, unless you ask for it of course, so you should keep an eye open for these small but annoying and costly tricks. Another warning, some bars / pubs / cafes & restaurants have tills that can produce different priced bills / receipts for the same item!

The staff and the customers in the Madeira bars & pubs are generally helpful, friendly and understanding, and you will see this manifest itself in different forms, from the busy city centre bars & cafés to the remote snack bar in the middle of nowhere. You ought to experience this for yourself.

Tips To Avoid Being ‘Had’

1. Use the bars / pubs you know and trust.
2. Order your drink at the bar, and make a mental note if you see the price list  (which should be displayed). Likewise, if you order anything from the menu. By law, these establishments are permitted to charge more for outside service. The chances are the locals will not be charged this, or if they are it will be 10 or 20 cents per drink. However, some pubs / bars / cafes will mark up huge amounts in order to charge foreigners more.
3. Where convenient, pay your bill inside the bar / pub / cafe, and check your change.
4. If you don’t see a bill and are unhappy with the amount charged , ask the bar man or pub manager for a ‘recibo’, and check that what is printed is correct.
5. If you want to ask for the manager, ask ….. "quero falar com o gerente"
6. As a last resort, ask for the ‘Livro de Reclamacões’ (complaints book), and that should resolve matters. This should always be as a last resort, as there can be serious repercussions for the business involved.

DISCLAIMER – THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HERE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE PROFESSIONAL ADVICE, AND IS PROVIDED FOR BRIEF GUIDANCE ONLY, ON A BEST ENDEAVORS BASIS.

NO RESPONSIBILITY CAN BE ACCEPTED FOR THE ACCURACY OF INFORMATION SHOWN HERE, AND YOU SHOULD SEEK INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION OR PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE. THIS PAGE WAS LAST UPDATED IN 2008.

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