Madeira News Blog

(21st August). Today’s main news headline : ‘Houses To Order – The crisis attacks home construction on Porto Santo, where the fall is at a dive: 69.3%. Up until June, the council had issued 35 building permits, against 198 in 2008. The builders only build to order now’. I did read the full article, but it is much the same story as anywhere else, which has already been covered here several times. Falling demand, bank credit hard to come by, and housing construction plummets as a result. Now if you want a house on Porto Santo, you choose from one already built, or have your own house built, but the investor / developer led initiatives have now dried up.

‘Fire Consumes Considerable Area Of Eucalyptus – Difficult access made it difficult to combat the flames that spread in Fajã da Ovelha’. With unfavourable conditions (wind, heat, and low humidity) the fire spread Wednesday afternoon around 6 pm in the serra, and was expected to be extinguished by last night by Calheta firemen. 5 vehicles and around 20 firemen were involved. No residences or people were in any danger. The cause of the fire is unknown.

‘Emergency Landing Injures One Person – 14 passengers were travelling on board the SATA flight’. A plane heading for Madeira was forced to do an emergency landing on Porto Santo this morning, after a problem with one of the engines. The ATP of SATA (the Azores based airline) SP1691 landed at around 8.40 am.  One person was lightly injured, but operations at Porto Santo airport are now back to normal.

‘Future Crematorium Already Registers Demand – The first equipment of its kind in the Region’. The crematorium burner that will be housed in a building being constructed in Porto Santo cemetery (Santa Cantarina), has already prompted enquiries from Madeira’s local authorities. It is scheduled to be inaugurated on October 9th. How does one inaugurate a crematorium burner … barbeque or oven roast? Mind you it would have to be a strict ‘one-off’.

‘PJ Investigate Car Fire In Estreito’. I am not sure why this belongs on the front page, but the judicial police are investigating a car fire in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos. Was the early morning blaze a short circuit or arson, asks the Diário? The car was completely destroyed at 5 am yesterday morning, waking the local population into panic. The police have examined the car and have nothing conclusive to offer yet. It was a Renault Clio Sport that fell victim to the flames, and any car that has the words ‘Clio’ and ‘Sport’ so close together in my view is asking for trouble, and the act could indeed have been deliberate, symbolic, or even sacrificial, and possibly even justified.

Today’s big front page photo is of the Nacional footballers celebrating last night : ‘Nacional Close To Perfection Put-Off The Dream For Russia – The four goals scored by Nacional against Zenit St. Petersburg came very close to making a magic night in the Choupana stadium. Despite of the sparse advantage (4 – 3), the Madeirans go to Russia in a position to make come true the dream of continuing in the Europa League’. Fantastic result against one of the richest clubs in the world, who were in theory well above National’s station. Shame nobody could watch it, thanks to the greed of Nacional’s management in demanding ridiculous TV rights fees that no one would pay. I couldn’t even get to see the goals on the news this morning. Full match report in English HERE

Diesel prices rise by 1 cêntimo on Monday. Petrol stays the same.

A new ‘Voters Portal’ went live yesterday at www.portaldoeleitor.pt . It’s a guide to all matters electoral, and how, where, and when to vote. As it’s only for those eligible to vote and all in Portuguese, it’s probably not worth saying any more.

The minister of health for Portugal announced yesterday that from now on tests for Gripe A will only be done for patients who have a clinical reason for needing them. Ana Jorge said that the objective now is to "treat the flu symptoms", whether it is H1N1 or any other variety of flu. Preventative medicine will only be given to people considered at risk (pregnant, children, and people with respiratory diseases) or to people known to have had close contact with a Gripe A sufferer. Gripe A, or swine flu, has now hit 1870 people in Portugal. In future the national updates will be done weekly on Wednesdays, as is already done on Madeira. If they don’t do the tests, how will they know the numbers? Anyway, seems sensible to me, and certainly better than mounting numbers including people that have already recovered.

The 4 eco-buses that serve parts of Funchal will be free to use from 1st September, as previously mentioned. They cover routes that include schools and tourism areas, and are operated by the yellow bus company Horários do Funchal. Plans to expand the scheme were also announced at a press conference yesterday.

‘Messy Funchal Celebrates 501 Years – Festivals Today With Planes And Parade’. Don’t forget the Funchal 501 celebrations today. It is a public holiday today in Funchal, but most places are expected to be open. I can’t comment about the bus services, but even outside of Funchal they could be affected. I remember they were reduced was last year and nobody was told.

The messy bit refers to an article about the state of the peripheries of Funchal, which sprawled out of control, like all the big Portuguese cities over the last 30 years. Many communities, especially in the high zones have no community facilities other than the nearest church yard, and the efforts to correct the situations now are hindered by budgets, space, and planning issues.

‘Exhibition Unites 155 Works Of 30 Writers from Funchal’. The exhibition in Rua da Carreira at the PCP-M HQ, in Funchal, shows the works of 30 local writers of poetry, fiction, romance and theatre. One of the authors listed is represented at the exhibition with 31 books.

‘Fourth Dog Show In Funchal 5th September’. Any dog can take part if aged between 4 months and 10 years, regardless of race (or lack of). It will take place in the Lido Gardens in Funchal at 2.30 pm. Any dogs thinking of entering must take their owners and certificates of vaccination with them. All entrants of the canine variety will receive a prize of participation, as well as the prizes for category winners of course. Entry forms are already available at SPAD (Society for The Protection of Domestic Animals), the website link is at the side of this page, and in Vet Funchal. Even if one doesn’t have a dog, SPAD will be there if you are able to make a donation, and food and other donations will also be accepted, and you can even join as a SPAD associate. There will be a kiosk there and you can ask for Rachel, one of the Vet Doctors, who speaks English.

One more event : ‘Miss Summer 2009′ Elected This Weekend – The Beach of Ribeira do Natal hosts the event’. The event starts on the beach at Caniçal today with all the candidates being presented. The election starts on Saturday. After the catwalks, the entertainment continues with special guest DJ’s including the ‘Nasty Brothers’, Dj ‘Azz’, and ‘Miss Sloppy’ (all on Friday), and other DJ’s, with not nearly such entertaining names, performing on Saturday. Doors open 9 pm (do beaches now have doors?). €5 entrance for one day, or €8 for both days.

(11th August). ‘Trade Unions Of TAP Call A Strike For The End Of August And In September – The strike will hit flights for Madeira’. 5 trade unions representing TAP workers have called the coordinated strike for 28th & 29th August, and 11th & 12th September. In a statement to the media, Vitor Mesquita, leader of the Workers Union for Aviation and Airports, said that workers are demanding a wage review and clarification of collective bargaining.

(10th August). ‘Unfair competition and unlawful acts in the ‘Safaris’. The off-road trips for tourists are a growing activity on Madeira, but often the law is disregarded. That creates a particularly difficult situation for an island that depends heavily on tourism, and where the necessary care is not present in the the quality of services offered to visitors. Some voices however criticise the law that is detached from reality. One way or another, the truth is that the extent of illegalities detected is extensive and ranges from the use of drivers without proper qualifications for the job (the law requires a tourism approved driver / mountain guide / guide-interpreter), to the use of vehicles in a poor state of repair and of questionable safety, and through the placement of cards (permits?) allocated to ‘jeep’ agencies’ in unlicensed vehicles belonging to third parties. One company in the sector said "For a start there is little regulation. Since 2006, when my company began to operate, I can assure you that we never had any checks, and never saw anyone doing them. Also, I see almost every day examples of the companies that do not comply with the law, including the provision of qualified drivers. The market is being distorted and those, who like me, comply with the law are the worst affected".

‘Passengers In The Airport Of Madeira Fall 3.2% – The airport lost seven thousand passengers in July compared to the same month in 2008′. The numbers relate to arrival and departure movements. The airport operator ANAM reports that there were 213,941 passengers last month. The decline was mainly due to a 19.1% fall in international traffic, down to 96,135 (118,839 in July 2008), but was mostly offset by an increase in domestic travellers, up 15.4% to 117,086, now representing 55% of all airport passenger movements.

‘Hotels On Porto Santo ‘Resolved’ This Year’. With the threat of the closure of several hotels during the low season this Winter, and still without a tour operator interested in bringing tourists to the island during the low season, the matter of new bed capacity is being questioned, taking into account the prospect of the three new hotels promised. With the Colombo Resort (on hold with financial difficulties), the hotel promised by Cristiano Ronaldo, and the Pestana Dunas (postponed), the council believe it will be a matter of some time until they are moved forward. The Pestana unit will go ahead, and although the work was originally planned to commence early in 2009, work should start at the end of this year, or early next, with the opening in 2011. Pestana already have the licences necessary, and have already started marketing units priced at €259,000. The socialist candidate there in the forthcoming elections is challenging the hotel strategy, asking "who benefits from all this?", with no guarantees of more jobs or opportunities for businesses, whilst tourism is so depressed.

‘Doggy Hotels Also Feel The Crisis’. Apparently dog hotels in the Algarve have seen a drop in bookings of 50 to 60%. A cat hotel too, that was full last August, is just 30% booked for this month, but 80% of their clients are English, French and German. People who used to travel back to their birth countries 3 times a year, are now travelling just once, and leaving their pets with friends and neighbours to be looked after. For one day at €7, the hotel for felines, offers custom hand-painted rooms, "room service" with morning greetings to each guest by the name of the animal, delicacies and water. There are also hygiene care and veterinary services in case of sudden illness. The "check in" Hotel for Dogs can be done between 09:00 and 19:00 and the service is door to door, with taxi, which collects and returns the animal to the owner. If the owners can’t afford to put their dogs in the hotels, when they go off on holiday I guess their pets have to sleep ruff?

There is a general article about the bus company Horários do Funchal, financial stuff and so on, but I was amazed by some of the facts and figures in the article. In 2008, it carried 27.2 million passengers, on journeys amounting to 9 million kilometres. It has 626 employees, all men apart from 35, costing in wages, employment costs, etc. €13.4 million a year.

(9th August). ‘Not Even With Jellyfish And Pollution – During July, the beaches of Funchal continued very popular’. A somewhat more upbeat account than the recent Jornal article about the jellyfish. Even with the complaints about pollution and jellyfish, Madeirans continued to frequent the beaches last month. The company that manages the beach and pool complexes in Funchal, Frente MarFunchal, reports that the number of entrances at Lido, Barreirinha, Ponta Gorda, and Doca do Cavacas rose to 92,000 in July, compared to just 31,000 in June. Lido alone saw 41,138 admissions in July, up also on 2008, with Ponta Gorda admitting 39,251 people. Sea water tests taken up to 2nd August all indicated good quality clean water for swimming at all the Funchal beaches. Sea water quality tests will continue until the end of September. The results can be seen here WATER QUALITY but to save a look, all the beaches of Madeira currently rate GOOD, except Ponta do Sol and Porto da Cruz (both ACCEPTABLE). On the website go to the tab at the top DADOS SINTETIZADOS, and then QUALIDADE DA ÁGUA,  then click Madeira when the map comes up.