Madeira News Blog

(26th September). Today’s main news headline, and also the main photo, shows a beautiful landscape blighted by ugly yellow storage tanks and a black barrier : ‘Temporary’ For Six Years – The site in Meia Légua occupies more than half a kilometre extended. Quercus alerts : The safety of the town of Ribeira Brava is in danger’. The facility, towards the narrow end of Ribeira Brava valley and alongside the access road to Serra de Água, was started in 2003 and completed and inaugurated in 2004. It is in effect, a builders yard, belonging to the construction giant AFA. But it has now grown to over half a kilometre long. The excuse of the government for the site being there for so long, is that it is intended to build a walkway on the left hand side between Ponte Vermelha and the via rápida junction, with the delay blamed on the compulsory purchase of land not being completed. The AFA site is not only a blot on the landscape, but it occupies a strategically important site, that allows central access to all parts of Madeira. The assurance is given is that as soon as work is complete on the via expresso road, the site permit will be withdrawn. That could be a long way off with the stretch between Meia Légua and Serra de Água still outstanding. The president of Ribeira Brava council showed some discontent with the situation, but refuses to get involved in what is a matter of regional government. The environmental agency Quercus says that the site poses a danger to Ribeira Brava town, as long heavy rain could flood the river and site, taking materials downstream into the town.

‘MAC Exposes Illiteracy In Youngsters That Went To School’. The Apostolate Movement for Children (MAC) has exposed the cases of youngsters, now 18, 19, or 20 years old, who went to school but forgot everything they learned. Some cannot understand a simple SMS text message, or even sign their name. One teacher is now voluntarily giving weekend lessons to help these people, in what the teachers union describes as a “dramatic situation”. A spokesperson for MAC says that they had access to school, but because they were rebellious or had behavioural problems, stayed away, or just forgot. Not knowing how to read or write at 18, 19 or 20 years is a worrying development, stresses the coordinator of the Teachers Union of Madeira. Strangely, there are no numbers given, but MAC say it doesn’t have sufficient volunteer teaching resources available to adequately manage the situation. 

‘Pestana Group Awaits For The Court In Order To Enter Lugar de Baixo [marina] – Works will move forward one year after the decision of the Constitutional Court’. The administrator of the the Madeiran Pestana group says that there is no doubt: “The project of the Marina of Lugar de Baixo interests the Pestana Group, provided that it adopts to the philosophy that we stand for”. A year has passed since the announcement of an agreement in principle between Pestana and The Development Society of Ponta Oeste, to form a company that will progress the concept through to the construction of a tourist hotel on the marina site. “We’ve already done the outline of a project and have presented a mock-up to the regional government. We will build it on stilts and redimension [the marina?], because we want a hotel of only 80 to 100 guest rooms”. The option to use stilts reflects the continued concern about the invasion of the sea in times of bad weather, and the project will downsize the marina to little over one hundred berths. The group is waiting for the court to decide on some litigation issues before it can proceed, particularly on the change of use of the marina zone and the rights for private development, and will then need around a year to prepare the plans. The intention is to develop the project in phases, that could extend the total development time for up to ten years. The marina at Lugar de Baixo is the biggest political embarrassment for the Madeira Government, because the investment of €32 million is of no use because the designer did not consider the actual conditions for sea waves in that area, resulting in the sea at times engulfing and destroying the infrastructure. To use it as a marina, it will need millions of Euros spent on improving the protection zone.

Today’s sport / football headline : ‘Naval Battle’ Decisive For Carvalhal – The Marítimo Coach complains about a lack of efficiency in his attack but, in today’s game he is only going to change the defence’.

If anyone is interested, the league game between Benfica and Leixões is on RTP 1 at 9.15 pm tonight. Should be good for a few goals, or famous last words?

In entertainment : ‘Madeiran Theatre Sets Upon The Câmara – The amount paid for ‘Calcinhas Amarelas’ stirs controversy’. The comedy play ‘The Yellow Panties”, by José Vilhena, with the participation of Tozé Martin (from TEZEEME Productions), currently playing, is causing some upset amongst other producers in the region. At issue is the value of the contract between Funchal Council and TEZEEME Productions, of € 87.500. The council say that it is only €62,500, taking into account the receipts from ticket sales. Nether the less, it has rankled in theatrical quarters the fact that an outside production has attracted extensive funding, when there are theatrical and cultural groups much closer to home that can’t get the financial assistance they need.

‘Machico In Festival Starting On The 28th – Astronomy, music, exhibitions and sport highlight the Festas do Concelho’. The celebration lasts from Monday until 13th October, to mark the day of Machico district. FESTA PROGRAMME

A 39 year old man died yesterday after being taken to hospital, after he was run over on the via rápida near the school Horácio Bento Gouveia in Funchal. Having been hit by one car, he was then hit by a second surprised driver. After the rescue, firemen had to go out and clean up the area. That’s the 14th road death so far this year. In another incident last night near the Savoy Hotel in Funchal, two women aged 74 and 79 were caught in a ‘hit and run’ case and taken to hospital with grazing, but police have information about the vehicle responsible.

A power cut affected the whole of Madeira early yesterday morning, at around 3 am, for around 40 minutes for some, longer for many. A cable fault was responsible, causing a system overload. The Diário curiously has a picture of Madeira at night, either without a power cut, or teaming with fire flies.

‘Avenida do Amparo Eases Traffic In The West – Road inaugurated yesterday cost €10.5 million and connects Nazaré to the [estrada] monumental’. Government officials were out in force for the opening (can’t imagine why that would be?). Access to the via rápida for those in the west will now be much easier. The new road has two lanes in each direction and extends to 1.2 km.

The pope is to visit Portugal in May next year, but no there is no indication that he will visit Madeira. It will be the first time that Papa Bento XVI has visited Portugal.

The 1.5 km connection between the roundabout at Funchal Port and Pilar will be inaugurated next Friday. It includes the tunnel of ‘Pontinha’ which is nearly 700 metres long, and a new rebuilt bridge .

‘The First Vaccines Against Gripe A Arrive In Portugal Starting On 12th October – Deliveries are going to be phased weekly in proportion to the delivery made’. The pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is to share it’s production releases of Pandremrix amongst countries that have ordered, proportioned according to the amount ordered in total. Portugal ordered 6 million vaccines, in theory enough to immunize at least 3 million people, at a cost of €45 million. It may be that one vaccine dose per person will suffice, but that is still to be determined. Pregnant women and children over 6 months old will be the first to benefit, with children receiving half the adult dosage.

(21st September). ‘Return To School : Quality Is Higher With Less Students’. This is an interview with the regional secretary for education and culture, Francisco Fernandes, who says that with less students this year, the quality of teaching will improve. He also talks about the 37 projects of construction, improvement and expansion (individually listed) in higher education in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. Two challenges being faced are the extension of full time schooling to 100%, as some children still have to ‘work shifts’ due to limited teaching resources, and the extension of compulsory education until the age of 18, something eased by a reduction generally in student numbers. 40,230 children and youngsters return to school today, although 2,941 will in truth be attending for the first time. They will be full time in school, apart from some small deviations in Funchal, Calheta, and Câmara de Lobos. 173 schools will be involved in the education of our children, one more than last year. Teaching staff have increased in number from 6,867 to 7,621, including 1,402 on temporary contracts. Non teaching staff have diminished slightly from 3,231 to 3,226.

Staying on the subject of schools : ‘School Ready In April – Government was counting on having the infrastructure enlarged for a thousand extra students this year’. The new basic and secondary school in São Martinho is not ready in time for this new academic year, as was targeted, due to a series of problems has put the completion target back to April 2010. The main problem arose when large storm drainage pipes were detected in the foundations of the new structure, which needed diverting at an additional cost of nearly €400,000. Funny time to be announcing it on the first day of the new school year?

’13 Already Died On The Roads This Year – A nasty accident on the via rápida, in the early hours of yesterday, was fatal for a 34 year old man’. The car lost control and hit the central barrier in the area of Magi Reis, close to the Caniço junction. It seems likely that the dead man was not wearing his seat belt. A woman in the car was also hurt, with a suspected fracture, and suffering from shock and bruising. The same night another serious injury was inflicted in Santo da Serra, when a car hit a wall at speed, and the driver had to be freed from the vehicle. It was a black weekend on Madeira’s roads, after a 79 year old man was run over and killed on the Estrada do Aeroporto, in Abegoaria, Caniço. 22 people died on Madeira’s roads in 2008 (but that does not include those who died later in hospital under strange counting rules).

‘Tourism Nationally Distinguishes João Borges’. The state is to officially award João for his services in tourism and promoting Madeira, and Bernardo Trindade, secretary of state for tourism will present him with the gold merit medal. Known around the world as ‘Mr. Madeira’, he assumed the role of public relations for our island, and was a key figure in the consolidation of tourism here as former Regional Director of Tourism. A medal of merit is also to be given to the Museum of Sacred Art for the provision of services relevant to the satisfaction of tourism, and enriching the tourism experience. The Secretary of State for Tourism, feels that the museum exhibits one of the finest collections of Flemish art in Portugal, and even in Europe, and for that is the most visited museum on Madeira. Much of the collection was assembled through past generations producing and exchanging sugar in exchange for Flemish art.

‘Day Without Cars’ On Porto Santo Will Have Free To Use Bicycles – Companies on the island join in with the challenge : "Improve the environment in the city". Tomorrow Porto Santo joins in with the European initiative ‘Day Without Cars’. The main road ER120 will be controlled between 8 am and 4pm to take the pressure off of traffic in the city, and bicycles will be loaned free of charge.

A photo from yesterdays’ football epic, Nacional v Marítimo, has most of today’s front page : ‘Race And Efficiency Make The Difference – Edgar doubled up in the first victory for Nacional in the Portuguese Premier League’. Edgar scored twice to give Nacional the three points, and spoil the 99th birthday part of Marítimo, who failed to take advantage in the second half of a 10 man Nacional side. ‘After the game, Marítimo’s Bruno forced his way into the changing rooms, resulting in the involvement of the police’.

‘African Association wants to know the size of the community’. One hundred members of the African community in Madeira were present yesterday at the taking on of the social body of the Cultural and Recreational Association of Africans in Madeira (ACRAM). After several years of low activity, the association wants to undertake work from scratch. The new president Augusto Mané wants to carry out a survey about the community on Madeira. Mané admits to not knowing the number of African immigrants on the island and their needs, and wants to address this. Regardless of the outcome of the survey, Augusto Mané assures commitment to social and economic issues. "The biggest problem in the community is legalization [in immigration]," notes the president of ACRAM. "In second place we are concerned about housing and employment". The regional secretary for Human Resources, Brazão de Castro, attended the event. The politician stressed the attitude of the Regional Government on immigration as "responsible and serious", stressing the openness to dialogue, especially since 2003, when the it supported the establishment of the headquarters of ACRAM in the neighbourhood of Nazaré.

‘Robbed Three Times In A Month And A Half – A robbery in Gaula, in the early hours of yesterday, yielded over a thousand Euros to the thieves’. The bar of Alexandre Caldeira has been robbed again, with the robbers entering through the toilet window, and breaking into several machines with cashboxes, and causing a lot of damage in the process.

‘Lacked Fruit And Money – Business was poor for the farmers and traders who went to Ponta do Pargo’. The Festa do Pêro ought to be at the beginning of the month when people have more money, suggested one farmer, who was disappointed with the level of trade. "This year is worse. They come, they look and go away. They do not buy hardly anything", she said. In ‘food and drink’ things did not go any better. Manuel Costa gambled in taking "one hundred and something kilos" of meat. "This is worse", he said, still hoping that he might sell half of what he sold last year. Did anyone go? I am curious to know what the fruit is, as what I always thought was the ‘Pear Festival’ is in fact technically sweet apples, as the word for pears is PÊRA.

I expect a few people, like me, saw this ship bombing along the south coast yesterday, and wondered what it was. It is the sail boat ‘Cisne Branco’ (White Swan), that has just finished the ‘Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge’, where it finished first in its class and second overall. It is now travelling between Europe and Brazil. It belongs to the Brazilian Navy, and was built 10 years ago for the purpose of representing Brazil in commemorative events and tall ship races.

From yesterday’s Jornal da Madeira : ‘€300 Million For Improvement In Water – Madeira will have a strong investment in the water sector in the next six years’. The president of IGA, the new water management company, says that there are in hand new investment programmes of renovation and reform of the main water pipes and ducts, public distribution networks, and agricultural watering, that will run through to 2015. The investments will address the problems of water loss through leakage, and provide for the storage of large quantities of surface water from Winter rain, as well as improve the treatment of residual waters and water for recycling. The measures will also provide contingency for reduced rainfall through climate change. The article doesn’t actually say where this €300m is going to come from, but presumably there are grants and European funding up for grabs, although the article does mention that water services are very cheap for the public, which does suggest that one source of expected revenue raising could be from us. €300m works out at €1,200 for every man, woman, and child on Madeira, so maybe it would be cheaper all round to import it and deliver bottled water to our homes.

That’s just about it from everything in the Diário, except ‘politics’, and I will be back with that and today’s main headline later.

(19th September). Today’s main news headline : ’65% Without ‘Morals’ – Each time there are less students signed up for the option of Religious & Moral Education. There are less than 10 thousand between the 5th and 9th grades, and just 37 in the secondary school’. The older they get, the less interested the students are in the discipline, and now religious education has been selected by just 35% of children for the new academic year, that starts on Monday. The religious classes are optional for students under the law of religious freedom.

‘Sentence Annulled – António Henriques, condemned for the crime of active corruption in sport, won his appeal’. A court in Porto annulled the suspended sentence of 28 months in prison for the man who was tried after a game between Marítimo and Nacional, in the 2003 – 2004 season, that secured a place for Marítimo in the UEFA Cup. The referee in the game was also convicted at the trial last November, and given a suspended prison sentence of 20 months. Unreliable evidence and unclear facts helped clear the former vice president of the Refereeing Council, for his alleged part in the ‘golden whistle’ game, which became known as the game ‘well robbed’. No doubt destined for a career in Politics now. Uncle Bertie is probably on the phone to him right now, especially as the alleged act thrusted his favourite team into Europe that year.

’50 Students In A Basement – Paralysed works in the school of Lombo de São João oblige the controversial transfer to the basic school of Ribeira Brava’. Families of around 50 pre-school students demand real classrooms in the return to school. The usual school in São João is undergoing improvement works, that were promised to be completed in January this year, but the works were suspended for 6 months due to the contact being transferred to another company, due to insolvency. Meanwhile the kids occupy two basement rooms at the Basic School of Ribeira Brava, where the temperatures are high, and there is very little natural light.

‘Officers On Waiting List – The regional command of the Public Security Police is going to receive 23 new Madeiran officers, but there are 79 transfer requests still unanswered’. The ‘green light’ has been given by the PSP nationally to transfer the 23 officers to Madeira to strengthen the regional command. But there is no shortage of further candidates, with 79 officers on the mainland asking for transfers to Madeira. Some are desperate to come here, and join the region of Portugal that has the lowest ratio of police to population, just 3 officers per thousand inhabitants. The last influx was in January 2008 when 15 officers were transferred from Portugal. The new recruits are due to start duty next month, and will take the PSP numbers up to around 750 officers. The trade union spokesman for the police said that he had not been informed of the transfers, and preferred to wait and see before commenting, but did say that 23 recruits was not enough to provide the total contingent needed.

‘PSP Seize Arms In Machico – Domestic violence triggered a search’. 7 fire arms were seized, various forms of rifles, along with around a thousand rounds of differing calibres of ammunition. Police managed to obtain a warrant for a search of domestic premises, and were seized on the basis of elevated risk in a case of domestic violence, which applies even if the firearms are legally held.

‘All The Schools Now have Contingency Plans For Gripe A – Rui Anacleto says that self-control is needed’. All schools will start the new academic year on Monday with a swine flu contingency plan. The regional director of education guaranteed yesterday that all schools are prepared and ready to deal with the H1N1 virus, but only in terms of procedures and prevention in the spread of the virus, with the reinforcement of hygiene requirements. Disinfectant products, masks, and isolation rooms form part of the plans. Anacleto said that everything was being done to minimise the situation, and asked all involved to show self-control. He said he did not want "to transform the pandemic of Gripe A into a pandemic of fear".

Monday will see the official presentation of the Monte Train Project. Funchal Council will reveal the project ‘Comboio do Monte’ on Monday afternoon, that will provide a route by rail between Largo da Fonte, in Monte, to Terreiro da Luta.

The Festa do Pêro is tomorrow in Ponta do Pargo, Calheta. President Jardim will be there around 1 pm to make a speech to the farmers. On Monday he will be performing inaugurations at two schools, one new, the other enlarged.  

Police (PJ / Judicial Police) are warning people to ignore emails that are seemingly coming from them. The emails have been sent to many on Madeira, advising them to install a Microsoft security programme, that in fact is a virus. The emails seem to be coming from South America, and the exact source is being investigated.

A young man, who has had an arrest warrant outstanding for over a year, was finally captured yesterday in Nazaré, Funchal. The arrest was made after a routine check in the area. The man is wanted in connection with of thefts and robberies in Funchal going back over several years.

‘Albuquerque promises better quality of life – Centre of São Martinho is enhanced with a garden overlooking the sea’. A new garden was opened yesterday in São Martinho, Funchal. The garden, with sea views, is located at the Centro de São Martinho. The president of Funchal Council who was at the inauguration, promised more such urban open spaces that offer the population "more quality of life". The new garden occupies a site of nearly five thousand square metres, and was transformed at a cost of €450 thousand. It has 145 trees of 60 different species, seat, litter bins, and play equipment for children.

This weekend’s football : Only one football match worth watching on Madeira this weekend … the local derby. Nacional v Marítimo Sunday 6 pm, on SportTV 1.

Petrol and diesel prices drop 1 cêntimo on Monday. Petrol will be around €1.19 a litre, and diesel €0.93.

UPDATES :

‘Registered Unemployed Rose 50% In August, Compared To 2008 – In August 2008 there were 8,209, one year on there are 12,315. But there are 74 less than in July’. The registered unemployment on Madeira and Porto Santo continues to show signs of improvement, for the second month running. However, August is normally the best month of the year for job offers.

‘Another Fine Mess – Madeira was involved in another case that shakes the country, this time the bugging of the Presidency of the Republic’. The scandal is believed to have connections or even origins on Madeira, after information about bugging the President’s office in Belém was revealed by an aide of Cavaco Silva. First it was the free ride in the car of the regional government to the national leader of the PSD, and her presence at inaugurations, then it was the "**** ****" of president Jardim, and now the listening device(s) in the office of the President of the Republic. Several controversial episodes, separated by just a few days, and in one form or another, they all have Madeira in the middle. Madeira and the PSD that is. It was on the front page of the Daily News of Lisbon yesterday, that the principle aide of Cavaco Silva had revealed there had been a possible interception of information through monitoring of the President’s team. The news is full of this story, but Cavaco Silva himself has refused to discuss the matter publically, as he thinks it is better to wait until after the elections.

In the latest poll by SIC, the PS socialists have moved ahead of their only real rivals, the PSD social democrats, in the race for seats in The Assembly of the Republic, due to be contested a week tomorrow. The poll indicates that the ruling PS have increased their vote share from 33.6% to 34.9%, whilst the PSD have fallen back to 31.6%, a difference of 3.3%. The BE Left Block has remained steady in third place with 9.6%, whist the CDU communists have fallen back 1% to 8.4%. 15% of those involved in the poll said they were still undecided on which way to vote.