Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Sheila … “A photo of the lights at the Prazeres festival which is taking place this weekend. It started on Friday evening and is really well attended, with very large crowds last night, good music from 9pm with a different band on the last two nights”.

“Apart from the fact that it’s the birthplace of Cristiano Ronaldo, I must admit that my knowledge of this part of the world was fairly limited. However, I don’t think you can ever go wrong by visiting a place with the same name as a cake”. IRISH HERALD

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(2nd July). The second photo front page photo today shows the ceremony yesterday to mark ‘Madeira Day’ : ‘The Format Of The Commemoration Is Now Unsuitable – The president of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira wishes that the day of the region would belong to the people; the speeches omit the excitement of the Madeirans’. Miguel Mendoça, president of the ALM, believes that the format of the commemoration that marks 1st July ‘Dia da Região’ is no longer relevant, and says he is "thinking about a new format, involving more people". Under the current structure the event is moved to a different region on Madeira each year, 11 in all, but the concern is that each year it is seen as a local event, and not for all Madeira. Only 200 public turned up for yesterday’s event. The day commemorates the autonomy of Madeira, as established in the Portuguese constitution in 1976. I have to agree it does seem a bit of a dead duck, and although it was televised, and I don’t think many people took that much interest, other than the fact it was an extra day off from work / school.

‘Câmaras Cut Back On The Festivals Without Thinking About The Elections – The cost paid per artist has reduced. In an election year it is important to maintain quality’. In an election year it is supposed that the 11 councils of Madeira look to provide great festivals of cultural entertainment, using well known artists, prepared to pay their ‘weight in gold’, but it is not happening. The financial crisis has led to cutbacks, and at best to maintain the spending the same as usual.  Porto Santo spent the same or less on its recent festivities, with the exception of the fireworks which cost more. In Ribeira Brava, for the 3 day festival of São Pedro, the câmara president said he budgeted €60 to €65 thousand, saying that the objective was efficiency in attracting visitors to revive trade. He adds: "This has nothing to do with the elections. I don’t think any party will mix-up the festivals, such as São Pedro, with an attempt to exploit politically. We work for four years to win the elections". Besides being famous for doing nothing but putting down obstacles when it comes to ‘helping trade’, the president of Ribeira Brava ought to have a discussion with his boss who is currently on a pilgrimage of inaugurations, with construction work completion timed especially for election purposes, using these ‘non-political’ events to make PSD propaganda speeches.

(30th June). ‘Jardim Compares Teixeira dos Santos To The Minister of Information of Saddam’. At an inauguration in Campanário on Tuesday, President Jardim compared the Chancellor of the Exchequer for Portugal to the minister for information of Saddam Hussain, after Santos reckoned there was a bettering of financial conditions for both companies and consumers in the Portugal economy, saying "they are signs frankly positive", affirming that Portugal could be coming to the end of the economic crisis. I think that unusually I am siding with Uncle Bertie on this one, though I think a more politically correct subject of comparison could have been picked … errr, how about you Uncle Bertie?

Jardim also spoke out about the "rascals" of drugs, encouraging people to take to justice rather than donate money, saying that the police could not do everything without help. I presume he was saying not to give money to those begging, because the recipient might buy drugs?

On the main night, there was a much lower turnout than last year, maybe the weather put people off. The rain held off until about midnight, and then it didn’t really ease off again. We sent our reporter out with his cheap camera to record the highlights of the night, with not very impressive results. He claims he was out until 4am this morning because of the rain … I reckon there is more to that story than meets the eye!

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