Madeira News Blog

Today’s photo – Many thanks to Martin … A Bentley Derby 1923, that competed in the 2009 ‘Volta da Madeira’.

OLD CASKS (PIPAS) NEVER DIE 

Well I certainly missed some notable news stories whilst ‘off line’, and the transfer of Câmara de Lobos hero Rúben Micael from Nacional to Porto must take the tastiest biscuit. Rúben Micael Freitas Ressureição player profile Anyone know how much Porto paid for the lad?

Another one of those travel / destination guides for Madeira … but I don’t mind the extra effort if it persuades a few more tourists to take a holiday here and spend their luverly dosh EVERY LITTLE HELPS 

Becky wrote in about helping out with material for the blog : “Once you’ve had a chance to read all the various suggestions re. the blog and submissions, maybe you can let us know what you think is best – I’m happy to contribute the best I can but maybe need pointing in the right direction as to when and where and what”.

It seems that we may have some extra contributors after the blog ‘time out’, and many thanks for the offers and half-offers. We will never have enough helpers I guess, so please help us balance the workload and share information. If you are thinking of sending in a news story, I guess the only way to ensure there is no duplication is if you put something in the blog comments to say what you are going to work on so other helpers don’t do the same thing. Any other ideas on how to manage this gratefully received, but people should really do what they want to do, as it is not right for me to dictate.

What would be ideal of course would be to have a number of regular contributors with either particular areas (like Vanessa has) or days of ‘duty’, but we are probably far from that at the moment. If someone would like to ‘specialise’ please let me know, but it does mean a regular commitment.

Another thing someone could help me with is the ‘snippets’ or ‘titbits’ like those above. As there is no translation involved, then it might be quite easy for someone to do. I could arrange for the alerts to be sent once a day, not necessarily every day for just one person, and then someone could check them out and if they are worth a mention it’s just a question of formatting them to be ‘cut ‘n pasted’ ready to go into the next blog (that would be explained) and emailing me. That alone would save me up to an hour a day to do something else. Or perhaps someone would like to a be a YouTube monitor (or any similar website) and just check every few days to see if there is are any new interesting and relevant videos posted.

Many thanks to Elaine for this huge contribution.

Ribeira Brava Philharmonic Band travels to Venezuela. The Banda Municipal da Ribeira Brava will tour Venezuela this year to perform to the large immigrant community. It will probably be during the summer, including the Day of the Region. 30 to 40 band members will stay for a week. The Mayor of Ribeira Brava promised to support the trip although it is the result of an invitation by a group of Luso-Venezuelan emigrants. The council supports such projects because they promote culture, represent the country and allow closer ties with the immigrant community. It benefits the emigrants as they meet together at such functions and many migrated decades ago but they never forget their roots.

Communists suspect the CDS will no longer back the Regional Finance Law / PS maintain their position. The regional directorate of the PCP-Madeira suspect that the CDS-PP will approve the State Budget of the Socialist Government and not the Regional Finance Law, as wanted by the Prime Minister José Sócrates. The PCP leader Jorge Cordeiro said, “The signs are worrying for Madeira.” “Everything indicates that the Regional Finance Law and the interests of Madeira have been transformed into a bargaining chip, particularly by the CDS.” The communist leader said the vote on the law was postponed twice then the PS and CDS approved another postponement. If the law is not passed, it is likely that poverty and unemployment will increase in Madeira. The PS-M maintain the position on the Regional Finance Law that they held in the 2007 elections, when they only received 15% of the vote. They insist there is an error as the GDP is inflated by the effect of the Free Trade Zone which has resulted in a loss of transfer of 500 million Euros from community funds. PS leader, Jacinto Serrão, says the relationship between Lisbon and Funchal leads to insults and attacks on the Government of the Republic and asks the Minister of Finance, Teixeira dos Santos, not to be so stubborn so both parties can negotiate.

Panelo with lack of cabbage. Today, Chão da Ribeira in Seixal hosts a festa for the traditional free panelo. The problem this year for residents is to obtain enough cabbage or grelos (similar to spinach). The wild pombos (pigeons) have devastated the local crops. The panelo is usually cooked using cabbage and semilhas (Madeiran potatoes) grown in Seixal and salted pork from the tradition of ‘killing the pig’ in December. This traditional panelo started around forty years ago when families decided to gather on the last Sunday in January at the Chão da Ribeira to consume the remains from Christmas. Pork, chicken or beef are cooked in a Portuguese manner then served with wine from Seixal. Tradition dictates that the panelo is served on a tablecloth on the ground and the afternoon spent with family and friends.

Diocese collects 18,000 Euros for Haiti. The Diocese of Funchal has received 18,000 Euros in donations and the charity Caritas will forward it to Caritas in Portugal which in turn will deliver the money to Caritas in Haiti. Both the headquarters and warehouse in Port-aux-Prince are still standing. Caritas always helps areas where reconstruction and rehabilitation are needed, for example after the December 2004 tsunami and more recently, in Peru. One or two years after the money has been sent, a commission goes to the area to see how the funds have been used.

‘Park and Ride’ this year in Funchal. Funchal City Council want a single fare to cover using the car parks situated outside the city and transport into Funchal on buses run by Horários do Funchal. ‘Park and Ride’ has been attempted before but failed due to a lack of adherence. Car parks with spare capacity are located at Clube Naval and Rua Bela de São Tiago, near Largo da Força. The council are in talks with the companies managing the car parks as they want to make the price attractive to users so they gain financially. The service will benefit people who commute daily from Câmara de Lobos and Caniço. The council want to reduce the number of cars travelling into the city centre to reduce pollution and petrol consumption. Economists talk of an increase in the price of petrol in the near future. The cheapest monthly cost for a car park in Funchal is 90 Euros and the council want the new scheme to reduce this to 55 Euros.

Romeira closes municipal company. The Mayor of São Vicente, Jorge Romeira, will close a municipal company created four years ago by his predecessor Humberto Vasconcelos. The company Promovicente was created with the approval of the PSD councillors and the PS have always been against this decision. This company was created to promote the municipality and they were almost exclusively paid to promote cultural, social and sports activities. Jorge Romeira insists the activities of the company are only suspended. His motto is ‘clean’ and he has a tendency to cancel projects of his predecessor.

37 accidents in a month and a half at Porto Novo. The majority of accidents occurred on a 26.8 km stretch of the Via Rápida 1 in the direction Funchal/Santa Cruz, after the end of the bridge at Porto Novo. Some drivers blame the maintenance of the road by Vialitoral but the area has road signs that indicate danger in unfavourable weather conditions, as experienced between this period of 1/12/2009 and 17/01/2010. The firm’s statistics taken from speeds measured by 54 counters indicate that the majority of accidents were due to excessive speed.

Azores receive two billion Euros more than Madeira. Plenty of numbers in this article which are summarised in the diagrams shown. A study by the Regional Government condemns the State and Europe for guaranteeing in the past 12 years, 28% more for the Azores. The Regional Government is considering a full-scale campaign in national newspapers to publicise the amount the State has allocated to each region, especially the disparity between the Azores and Madeira. Declarations by the leader of the Azores have led to a break in the relationship with Alberto Jardim. Carlos César has said that the revision of the law would undermine the Azores. Under the present law, the Azores receive 60.5% of the money transferred from the State and Madeira receives 39.5%. With the revised law, the Azores would receive 52% and Madeira the other 48%. At present, the Azores receive 20% of the Cohesion Fund and Madeira receives 4%. The Regional Government say that the GDP (PIB) of Madeira is more than that generated by the Azores, due to high public investment and it should not be penalized for this. Since the 1998 Regional Finance Law, the GDP of Madeira grew 97% whereas that of the Azores grew 73%. Accused of spending, Jardim says that the Regional Government has spent 26.6% GDP whereas the Azores has spent 31% GDP. The State has spent 45.8% GDP which rose at the end of last year to 51.3% GDP.

Today’s news headlines from the front page of the Diário de Notícias :

Socialist Party of Madeira criticizes the “stubborn ones” affecting finances – The congress closes with some stick given to President Jardim and [Finance Minister] Teixeira dos Santos.

Minister ‘buries’ the Finance Law. Finance Minister Teixeira dos Santos is sticking to his guns with a ‘no’ to the Regional Finance law amendments, put together and submitted by President Alberto João Jardim of Madeira. “Why is it that one would give several tens of millions more Euros to Madeira in this conjuncture?” he asks. He says that both the Assembly of the Republic, and his own Socialist Party, are not available to do the revision requested, and that no one would understand why a government would approve the amendments of the Social Democrats of Madeira at a time when the county needed to keep a tight reign on public expenditure. It looks like Uncle Bertie will have a tough end to his dictatorship long period of rule then, with some tough choices ahead. What will he do … stop lining politicians pockets … cancel the €45 m redevelopment of the Marítimo stadium … flog off a few more publically owned assets. No I don’t think so, they would be easy solutions. Look out for cut-backs in job-rich community projects I reckon, especially in those areas where the PSD-M didn’t fare so well in the recent elections.

Today’s main news headline : GARBAGE CONSUMES 31.5% OF BUSINESS SUPPORT – The Regional Government has committed almost a third of the support destined for extra help given to company operations. And it did it to the benefit of the public body that manages the waste, the ‘Valor Ambiente’ [Environmental Value].

Scrap collections reduce to a half. Less scrap metal in the streets, with just 8 abandoned cars towed away per month during the last year. The considerable reduction comes after concerted efforts by local councils and police to do something to stop the problem. Making people aware of the importance of protecting the environment and the image of this tourist destination has been a key facet of the actions taken. Abandoned vehicles have been a problem for a long time, especially in areas distanced from population centres and main roads, and that problem still remains. Anyway, the figures in 2006 were 20 a month, and that last year was down to 8 a month. Owners traced as having abandoned cars face a fine of between €250 and €750, with the upper limit rising to €2,500 if the car is in a state of scrap. I don’t suppose it could be anything to do with the fact that people don’t have the money to replace their cars these days? The Diário mentions several such zones, popular for car-dumpers, but fails to mention Boa Morte [Good Death] which last time I went through was littered with decaying vehicles, but nether-the-less I was tickled that the place was perhaps named as such as it was the final resting place for old cars.

Crisis obliges working in unfamiliar areas – Not even the marketplace for work  can offer opportunities that match university qualifications. Find out about some examples.

The main sport / football headline today, and also the main picture :  Rúben makes an almost perfect debut – The Madeiran debuted for FC Porto in the League Cup and deserved praise. Saturday he plays in the Choupana [Nacional, Madeira ... the club he has just left].

Victory of Nacional was insufficient. Nacional beat Guimarães 1 – 0 yesterday in the league cup, but it wasn’t enough to move from the group to the next stage of the competition.

Manuel Machado retakes his place tomorrow. The manager of Nacional, who was critically ill in hospital with a post-operation infection before Xmas, is back at work tomorrow, some months sooner than originally expected.

There are still 3 more sports headlines to go, but that’s enough for me, save to say that my lads of Ribeira Brava beat Porto Moniz 2 – 0 yesterday, leaving them clear at the top of the Madeira Series league table.

Many thanks to Elaine out West for this from the Jornal da Madeira :

New link to Madeira. In early summer the Azorean airline SATA will start a new route between Ponta Delgada, Funchal and Faro, using the new Bombardier Q400 Dash, the first of which will be delivered today in Toronto. “This new service, which will be held twice a week, will depart from and arrive the same day in Ponta Delgada, allowing the connection between the Azores, Madeira and the Algarve,” said one SATA source, speaking to journalists in the Canadian city. In a ceremony at the Bombardier plant in Toronto on Monday SATA received the first of four Q400 NextGen Dash, acquired by an investment of 74 million Euros. The aircraft will arrive at Ponta Delgada at the end of the month, allowing SATA to begin the certification process to enable them to start operations in late February. The four planes purchased by SATA should all be flying by the end of the first half of this year, replacing the existing ATP aircraft. The new Dash Q400 NextGen will operate routes between the islands of the archipelago on routes between the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands and the link between the two islands and the Algarve which starts operating at the beginning of Summer. Fleet renewal SATA Air Azores began last year with the arrival of two Bombardier Q200, which replaced the Dornier that the company used for links to the smaller islands. The two Q200 will ensure links between Funchal and Porto Santo and the routes to the islands with lower demand in the Azores archipelago, in particular Corvo, the smallest island of the Azores.

If anyone else can oblige with the translation of any of the ‘blank’ or sparsely filled headlines, or other news stories, here is the link. All contributions much appreciated. 

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If you can, please contribute something Madeira related. A funny story or good or bad experience, a news item, or a story from a Madeira newspaper, a photo or video, a teaser, news of a bargain flight or item in a supermarket. Please help keep this blog going … without user contributions it won’t survive. Please don’t send in automatic translations (like Google translator) without checking them through and correcting them first, thanks.

You can email blog@madeira4u.com with any large contributions and photos / videos.

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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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(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

(15th June). Today’s main news headline : ‘Minimum Salary Pays Drugs – The residents of Bairro da Nogueira condemn the habits and consumers of all social classes and the wretched traffickers ; the arrests by police triple compared to last year’. Drugs that come to Madeira are primarily from Portugal, but manufactured in South Africa. The consumers are mainly male, but come from all social classes of various ages. In the area mentioned, consumption and trafficking is widespread, and goes hand-in-hand with social problems such as unemployment and alcohol. Those not gripped by the vice, live in fear, and compare the neighbourhood to a morgue. Those interviewed "risked their skin", and were unanimous in saying that unemployment benefits were paying for drugs in Nogueira. Police say that in the first 4 months of this year there has been a significant increase in drug seizures, being mostly hashish and heroin. The number of arrests increased from 10 to 35. However the police were keen to clarify that that does not signify a worsening of the drug problem, because they consider the situation stabilised, and that their agents are more efficient and committed, and that there is a good cooperation between the various entities involved in dealing with drug problems. Clearly the public and police do not agree on the current seriousness of the problem.

‘Madeirans Opt For Holidays Close to Home – The price is decisive in the choice of destinations. The Canary Islands lead the preferences’. The Balearic Islands, Southern Spain and Portugal, Cape Verde, the north coast of Africa, and of course Porto Santo island also are in the preference lists. A travel agency ‘Madeira Viagens’ confirms that the Canaries, Tunisia and even Malta are top of the preferences, with prices under €900 for a family holiday. Another agency ‘Top Atlantic’ says demand is slow, and people are more price conscious and taking longer to decide, often waiting for better deals to come along, only to find them gone before they reserve. He says that the cruise market is the best bet this year for his agency, especially in the Mediterranean. Loads more deals and prices mentioned, but I think the highlight for the budget conscious is a week in the Canaries for €290.

‘Hundreds Attracted By The Parades Of Santo António In Ponta do Sol – Colour and much entertainment liven the sea front of the town’. Around 650 participants in 11 troupes took part. No pictures in the Diário, nor any photos sent in, so I can’t show you anything yet of the two festas in Ponta do Sol and Santo António.

‘Regional Secretary for the Environment Announces Madeira Product Seal – The government initiative aims to stimulate the consumption of regional products of the primary sector’. He also estimates that cherry production this year should reach 220 tons. "It is an excellent year" he said, adding "I am taking a chance in saying that it is one of the best years ever in commercial cherry production". He was speaking from the Cherry Festival at Jardim da Serra, the main cherry production area where the cultivation area has been increased. The festival attracted many visitors from Câmara de Lobos, where it was also announced that priority would be given to farm roads there, as much of the crop movement is still done ‘by hand’.  The new ‘seal´of Madeira will be used in the whole ‘primary sector’, and include agricultural products, livestock, and fishing, with the aim of stimulating consumption of the produce of Madeira. Excellent idea with the Madeira ‘seal’ I think, but isn’t there already one for the bananas, or is that just an unofficial eyecatching sticker?

Portugal has it’s third confirmed case of H1N1 Swine Flu, and there is another suspected case being tested.

Another front page article is about the rally team of Bernardo from Madeira winning their first points for this year in Greece, and another two headlines are in politics and economy so I will cover later on.