A lot of good initiatives and announcements coming through from our leaders at the moment: measures to tackle child poverty and behavioural issues, more facilities to feed the poor, new initiatives for drug problems, tourism showing an upturn. All great news. By the way, anyone heard when the elections are? 

Airport access and exit roads will be closed / diverted whilst works are done to improve pavements(?). The dates given are 2 to 7th July for airport passengers, and 11th to 15th July for cargo / freight routes. I guess that means leave a bit earlier if you are planning to fly off somewhere.

Lucky university students that travel between Madeira, the Azores, and the continent during September will be allowed to carry an extra 10kg of luggage on TAP flights, free of charge.

I guess by now most people know that tonight is the final night of the Atlantic Festival fireworks competition. Macedo from Portugal provide the final display, accompanied by the Classical Orchestra of Madeira, in what is called ‘Concert of Stars’. That will see the last of €500,000 of public money literally go up in smoke.

‘Police Recover €45,000 from Robbery’. Thanks to a tip off, an investigation led to police recovering nearly all the money stolen from a residence in Câmara de Lobos. €50,000 was stolen. 2 arrests have been made. I am wondering, and perhaps the police are also wondering, why a resident in Câmara de Lobos had such a large amount of cash at home.

This was in the Welsh press today : Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers had agreed to compete in a tournament in Madeira along with Portuguese League teams Nacional and Marítimo. But organisers made a shock decision this week not to go ahead with the four-team event and the Cardiff manager is now hurriedly arranging a trip to Portugal, which will include two pre-season matches against Vitoria Setubal and one of Benfica or Belenenses. City officials had spent months arranging their trip to Madeira and a spokesman said: “The decision not to go ahead with the tournament was out of the blue for both Blackburn Rovers and ourselves. We have talked through a number of options and the decision is that the team will be going to Portugal.” Cardiff had in-depth talks with Blackburn Rovers about going ahead with the trip to Madeira anyway with the two clubs covering costs for the tournament. I haven’t seen this in the Madeira press yet, but I found confirmation elsewhere. On another website it mentions the blow for many fans of both clubs who have booked at high season prices to come to Madeira for the tournament.

(27th June). ‘Government Sets Local Elections For 11th October – The decision has already been given to the President of the Republic’. The date was that preferred by all the political parties, that according to law, were consulted on the preferred date. So what happened to the last preferred option reported a week or so ago, that they will probably be held on the same date as the national ones? That means we have to put up with all the political garbage for another two or three weeks!

(26th June). Today’s main news headline : ‘Arrests For Trafficking Triple – Even before the first 6 months of this year are over, 36 arrests for drug trafficking have been made. Last year, by this time, there were just 12. The quantity of drugs seized also grows’. Important I know, but this story crops up every couple of months in the headlines, so no need to be too shocked. In a nutshell, heroine seizures have increased substantially, and the number of arrests too. In 2007 there were 28 arrests, last year just 12, and this year 36, but all three figures refer just to the first 6 months of that year. It is clear that demand for drugs is increasing. What is quite interesting is that the routes and origins for smuggling drugs into Madeira has changed. Flights from Venezuela to Madeira were popular, but not so now. More frequently now are foreigners travelling from Portugal. Attempts to bring drugs into Madeira are now moving more towards the two ferries, and in some cases the trafficker will even transfer by air to Porto Santo from Madeira airport to avoid detection there, and then come back by boat to Madeira. There is no doubt that the police and customs are getting better at detection of drug trafficking, so you can look at the situation from two angles, and that doesn’t really leave us a with any firm conclusions. The Diário has produced an illustration for hashish, heroine and cocaine showing arrests and seizures for 2007 – 2009 which explains it better than I can, and it is easy enough to understand even if you don’t speak Portuguese : MADEIRA DRUG SEIZURES 

I did take a look at the article on whales and whaling, and although it is in this context a mainly international issue, the article also says that Madeira will not revert to whale hunting, and there are plans to introduce new legislation to further protect whales, dolphins, and other marine species. 

‘Day Of The Region Celebrated Inside And Outside Of Madeira’. The first of July is a public holiday to mark the ‘Day of the Region’ for Madeira, and it will be celebrated not just here but also in Venezuela, South Africa, and Canada, in Madeiran communities, where Madeira’s politicians are also planning to be. Here next Tuesday and Wednesday there will be concerts in St. Catherine’s Park Funchal (9.30pm), and a special service will be held in the cathedral on Wednesday.

‘Firemen Retrieve Body At The Pináculo – Search operations had commenced on Wednesday night’. Firemen found the body yesterday morning of a 37 year old man around 120 metres from the miradouro (viewpoint). It is believed that he fell.

There are discussions taking place about twining Hatillo in Venezuela with Calheta. The president of the municipal council there said "Calheta is very special". She is here at present, but her responsibility covers a population of 150,000 people back home.

(25th June). ‘PSP Tests Radars In Via Salazar – The same will take place in other zones with previous warning to drivers’. In a pilot project the Public Security Police have placed radar speed traps in via Salazar, with drivers being warned through road signs, and according to the police commissioner the reaction has been good. The positioning of the traps will normally be in accident black spots and where speeding is known to take place. The next road to be equipped may be "for example" Avenida das Madelenas.

(26th June). ‘Madeira Assembly Works For 5 Minutes Without Quorum – It was a short period of 5 to 7 minutes and without any votes taken. But it was a gross and formal error’. There were just 21 members present at the start of the session, a situation that the secretaries who are responsible failed to pick up. The Diário made a bit of a big deal out of it, but it happened and it passed without any impact, so not worth the debate really.

‘PSD Suspend Work In The Legislative Assembly – Jaime Ramos made the request after an exchange of words with Fernando Letra of the Left Block (BE)’. Yesterday Letra cited recent statements made by the President of the Government about people on benefits who were able to work, and asked him to identify these people. Ramos then used a motion called ‘defence of the honour of the president of the regional government’ to get his majority party of social democrats to vote to suspend works. No word yet of when work will be resumed.

‘Government Announces Measures To Safeguard Children – Training for parents and candidates for adoption amongst the new requirements’. The measures will apply to children through infancy and adolescence, with training for adoption candidates and a school programme for parents. The measure will also tackle child poverty and include measure already taken in some neighbourhoods (such as Nogueira), with ‘street teams’ that will guide children through to becoming adults. There will also be some changes in education that will aim to teach children discipline and how to live in society, beyond the normal academic subjects.

President Jardim is set to present his list of eleven social democrat candidates for the councils of Madeira later today. 8 will be existing post-holders, and the 3 new ones will be in Santana, Porto Moniz and São Vicente. Jardim chooses the candidates, and in a flash of semi-democracy, the Political Commission of PSD-M ratifies his choices. Now shall I stay in to hear the results tonight, or shall I be irresponsible and trundle off to enjoy the warm-up for the festa of São Pedro in town … it’s a tough call I know!

‘Barardo Remembers That He Invested Here Instead Of Favouring Brazil – The businessman is irritated with the delay of the Câmara that holds up the demolition of the Savoy. Among many messages, he says that "talk doesn’t create jobs" ‘. Joe Barardo, the administrator of the group responsible for the Savoy’s plans, believes the plans submitted for demolition are complete, and that Funchal council (CMF) has no real grounds for delaying the matter. In the plans the destruction of the two hotels by implosion is preferred as being quicker and cheaper, but CMF are looking into dismantling as a safer option. Referring to Sunday’s election results, Berardo is "concerned with the dissatisfaction of the Portuguese people" with the political situation, enough to "spread fear also in the business world", and he shows growing concern for the growing support for the Left Block and Communist Parties, and fears for nationalisation. Joe Berardo again emphasized that "investors can not wait that long for the administrative decisions of licensing authorities, because the market position is very complicated". He also refers to the plans to 10 years ago to demolish the site for the Royal Savoy, and said there were no reservations or objections then. I think I must have woken up on a different planet this morning … communism, nationalisation, implosions in busy tourist zones … what has this guy been smoking!

‘Fishing Boat Was In Danger At Open Sea Near São Vicente – 5 crew members were rescued by another boat in the area’. The ‘Encumeada’ was spotted adrift early this morning, with the alarm raised at 5am. The authorities mustered all the resources they could from civil protection and the fire brigade, to rescue the crew members from the boat that was taking on water 3 miles offshore, and even the Merlin helicopter was summoned. But a nearby boat, the ‘Felicidade Rocha’ actually beat them to it and made the rescue, and was in the process of towing the vessel in distress towards Porto Moniz.

‘The Cherry Festival In Jardim da Serra next Sunday’. The regional secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, Manuel António Correia, will be present next Sunday in the festive ceremonies of another year of the ‘Festa da Cereja’ in Jardim da Serra. The celebrations start on Saturday, at 2pm, with great entertainment, followed on Sunday by a number of initiatives, which include several musical performances, sporting tests, allegorical parade, and a cooking demonstration, among others. The event is organized by the Casa do Povo (House of the People).

An employee of Funchal Council (CMF) was convicted yesterday of ‘diverting’ €46,000, and sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment, suspended for the same period. The case dates back to 3rd July, 2007 when the Funchal Police announced that it had arrested an employee of a council, on suspicion of the crimes of embezzlement and falsifying of documents. The 47 year old woman admitted the charges, apologised, and acknowledged the need to repay the money.

Porto Moniz hoisted its ‘blue flag’ for beach quality this morning.

The residents of different parts of Caniço are dissatisfied with the current postal service, that is being undertaken by a company subcontracted by CTT (Post Office / Mail). The problem is not only in Caniço, but also in other areas of Madeira complaints are being made. Important correspondence such as bank letters, and water, electricity and telephone bills disappear without trace. Even if the victims go to the post office (Correios) to complain of the disappearance of letters, they are poorly served and end up without an answer. If the ‘CTT’ does not solve the problem, and refuses to reveal what it intends to do, the people of Caniçal are considering taking the case to another extreme. Join the club, my postal services went downhill two years ago. I am still waiting for my June TV magazine, which was sent from Portugal two weeks ago.

This from the UK Daily Telegraph today : Cristiano Ronaldo could miss Manchester United’s pre-season training next month, after withdrawing from Portugal’s squad for Wednesday’s friendly against Estonia with a suspected hernia injury. Ronaldo, 24, has returned to his home island of Madeira after complaining of pain in the lower abdomen prior to, and after, Saturday’s World Cup qualifying victory over Albania in Tirana.

‘Nenê Is No Longer Going To Dubai – Nacional and Al Nasr don’t reach agreement on the payment terms. Germany could be the destination for the goal wizard’. Following on from the news yesterday about the €5 million offer from Al Nasr.

(8th June). ‘Giant Fig Fed Five People – It was the result of a graft, and grew to 300 grams’. Found in Caniço, the fruit "seems to have been blessed with divine generosity". This fruit was protected from blackbirds until it split naturally, and then went to provide pudding for a family of five.  Not my area of expertise, but it doesn’t look that miraculous to me. I know a lot of readers here like to discuss fruit, so that’s why I included the story.

Madeira News :

(29th May). ‘Baby Still-Born In An Ambulance – The birth happened 3 hours after the mother was released from the health centre in Porto Santo’. The 25 year old woman was at the end of her pregnancy and having contractions of 10 in 10 minutes, but was advised to go home and rest by the emergency clinic on Porto Santo, much to her surprise, deemed to be having a normal pregnancy. She was expecting to be sent to Funchal, as she felt was normal at this stage. The Diário reporter contacted the Health Centre on Porto Santo, but the director is absent because of illness. The clinical director of hospitals, health centres and a midwife with 30 years of experience, does not want to comment on the case now. "I do not know what circumstances occurred, many things can go wrong during a delivery, with many causes possible for the death of the baby. The only normal births are the ones that end well" he said.

‘Disused School In Curral Passed To Become The Shooters Lounge – It is a nightmare for the population of Seara Velha. The council of Câmara de Lobos promises a solution’. The school, disused since last year, has become a refuge for drug addicts, and as well as the usual filthy habits, windows and doors have been forced open and ripped off, glass broke, and even the toilets have been vandalised. The intruder alarm is deactivated, and does not discourage anyone who chooses to enter the old school in Curral das Freiras (Valley of the Nuns). The locals are understandably upset. but is this just a case of ‘not in my back yard’. These junkies are better off the streets than on. Anyway, rather in your back yard than my back yard.

‘Police tackle Prostitution – Many women aged between 17 and 45, of various nationalities, were identified’. The crack-down has been ongoing over 3 days, with police (PSP) using preventative measures against deviant behaviour, that might encourage crimes of sexual exploitation of minors, and prostitution. The focus has been on urban and sensitive tourist areas, where a larger than normal police presence has been visible.

(28th May). ‘Sea Front Of São Vicente In Works This Year – President of the council presents a project of €3 million’. He had promised that one day he would silence his critics, being the traders near the sea front, and Wednesday that day finally arrived. The work will start at the end of year to transform and upgrade the ‘downtown’ area. Poor conditions generally dissatisfied many, especially the lack of car parking, health and safety issues with customers, and exiting problems, to name a few. At the start of the meeting, some showed up reticent about what they expected to see. However, in the end everyone left the meeting in the Town Hall extremely satisfied. The work will take around one year to complete. The commercial area will be expanded, and the sea walks will take on "another dimension". Landscaped areas of leisure will also be added, and the number of parking places along the sea front increased. One detail of the improvement will be to mark the identity of the commercial units, with everybody having a different colour in order to distinguish their space, plus all the shopping esplanades will gain ‘comforts’. The sloping area will have sets of night lights, providing an interesting effect for visitors after dark.