Madeira News Blog

Today’s photo – Many thanks to Elaine out West … View looking over Cabo Girão cliff.

God’s Garden – at the Royal Opera House (London). Date: February 11th until the 13th. "As the sun beats down on the village of Porto Moniz, Madeira, a young man prepares to take the biggest step of his life and get married. While his family and friends rejoice at this momentous occasion, he is uneasy. The young man decides to take matters into his own hands and flees on his wedding day to sow his wild oats, leaving his heartbroken bride behind. When he eventually returns to the village, his family are delighted and celebrate his homecoming. He laps it up, believing that everything is as it was before he left, ignoring the fact that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. God’s Garden is the latest full-length work from choreographer Arthur Pita and is based on the parable of the Prodigal Son. Using a combination of text, live music and dance, Pita’s exploration of love and betrayal promises a highly-charged and exciting evening’s entertainment". Anyone who happens to be in London on the dates mentioned might like to savour a little taste of Madeira MORE

I noticed one or two ears pricked up with this story yesterday, so this article gives more details on the birds affected … "Ponta do Pargo – the destruction of an IBA for a golf course. Unfortunately the economic crisis did not hit Madeira Island as it should and money is still being spent on the worst things… One of Madeira’s Important Bird Area (IBA) is being destructed for the construction of another unprofitable (the 3rd one already!) golf course… Ponta do Pargo is the westernmost tip of Madeira island and it was a very good spot for bird watching some of the endemic birds as Berthelot’s Pipit, Rock Sparrows and Spectacled Warblers but also for migrant birds where Stonechat, Wheater, Woodchat Shrike, Lapwing, Golden Plover, Hobby, Peregrine Falcon, Buff-breasted Sandpiper were some of the species already recorded there. MORE

And the last of today’s web snippets came in from Becky … many thanks :

Anyone need a Life Coach?! You have one on the island, and here she describes her move to Madeira: LIFE COACH – IS THAT A REAL JOB?

Extracts from an old (2003) BBC radio programme about Madeirans on Jersey, learning the language and some returning to Madeira. You need ‘Realplayer’ to hear the clips.

Becky has also very kindly donated a couple of stories from yesterday’s Diário de Notícias … many thanks.

Custody for suspected drug trafficker – The cocaine seized could yield close to 126 thousand Euros if it were to be sold on the street. A man of 33 years, of foreign-birth, is in custody in the Prison of Funchal (EPF) after being caught by the Judicial Police (PJ) last Tuesday with 5,070 individual doses of cocaine. The arrest, revealed yesterday by the coordinator of the Criminal Investigation Department of the PJ in Funchal, Ricardo Silva, was made in Madeira International Airport, where the individual, who is originally from an African country, landed on a domestic flight. "From the prevention investigations carried out, we collected strong evidence that culminated in the seizure of 5,070 individual doses of cocaine, carried inside the body, which was aimed at being trafficked in the Autonomous Region of Madeira," said the Judiciary in a statement. The man was taken to the Hospital Dr. SMF Mendonça, where the drugs – valued at around 126 thousand Euros – were withdrawn from his body. This was an isolated situation, which is not related to other investigations of the PJ, which has already prevented about 10 thousand individual doses of drugs – heroin, cocaine and cannabis – from arriving on the streets of Madeira. The numbers given are not read as indicators of increased consumption, but with a more effective police force and the dwindling supply of drugs in Madeira.

Aldo Lima takes ‘stand-up comedy’ to Chega de Saudade. It is an initiative of solidarity that brings Aldo Lima to Madeira. The comedian presents a show of ‘stand-up comedy’ this Friday at Chega de Saudade. The event will help the earthquake victims in Haiti and will also feature live music and dj’s. According to Chega de Saudade, there will be no entrance charge at the door, so it is through the consumption at the bar that the money will revert to the AMI.

Many thanks to Elaine once again for yesterday’s top news stories :

DIÁRIO 29/01/2010 – FRONT PAGE NEWS

Jewellers feel unsafe and make their own security patrols. There have been a number of robberies on jewellery shops in the centre of Funchal despite alarms, surveillance cameras and reinforced doors and windows. The shop owners complain about the low police presence on the streets at night and at weekends and visit their shops several times to inspect the premises. Most of these jewellers are uninsured against burglary because of the expense, conditions imposed and not many companies will provide cover due to the high risk involved. Most of the robbers are not caught or items recovered. The target of robberies at these shops and private residences are gold items as the price is high because of global demand.

MADEIRA

Work at Jardim da Serra moving ahead without a budget. The Parish Council of Jardim da Serra has draft plans for the renovation of the Quinta Leonor but have not costed the project. This building belongs to the Region but has been assigned, on a temporary basis, to this Parish Council to be used in a project for the development of socio-cultural research and agro-forestry. It is thought to be a potential use of community funds and will also need private and public investment. 4,000 square metres of land in the Sítio da Fonte Frade, practically opposite the School of Jardim da Serra, are included in the plan. This project is of public interest as it concerns the development of rural communities, the development and promotion of farming and regional products and the social, economic and cultural role of farming. There will be three areas of work: preservation of ethnography, preservation of biodiversity and rural tourism, leisure and education.

Over €58 million spent on medicines. During 2009, Madeirans spent more than 58 million Euros on medicines and pharmaceuticals, buying 6,700,000 units (packages). There has been a decline in the amount spent since 2007 despite more units dispensed in 2009. The explanation is the decrease in prices ordered by the Government of the Republic and generic medications accounting for 9% of those bought. There is still a lot of self-medication and Infarmed (government organization) warn of the dangers of buying over the Internet as there are many illegal sites. They produce a list of approved sites on their website: APPROVED PHARMACIES.

Giga Park continues in Ponta do Sol. A smaller version of the Christmas entertainment park will remain until at least Easter, possibly until October. It has been renamed the Amusement Park of Ponta do Sol. The new opening hours are: Friday 19.00 to 2 am; Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 16.00 to 2 am.

Customs seize a kilo of drugs. Customs at Madeira Airport arrested a Madeiran man in his 30s who had heroin and hashish hidden in his underwear. This kilogram of drugs is equivalent to 5,500 doses. He had flown from Lisbon. This is the second arrest this year by Customs, the previous amount was two kilos of heroin or 27,000 doses.

ECONOMY

A classic in port. The tall ship, Stavros S Niarchos, returns to the Port of Funchal and will stay until 14.00 on Sunday. This ship belongs to the Tall Ships Youth Trust, a non-profit making organization. Since 1956, TSYT has catered for 70,000 young people of different nationalities. Madeirans first joined this initiative in November 2006 with the support of Navigation Blandy. The ship will take on youngsters at Funchal for an 11 day trip of the Canary Islands at a cost of 229 Euros each. Tomorrow, 40 youngsters of different nationalities, some flown in, will join the ship. The ship has two masts with 18 sails, is 60 metres long and was built in Devon in 2000, modelled on a XVIII Century sailing ship. The ship has two engines, an air conditioning system, desalination plant and modern radar, sonar, GPS and communications systems.

55 fishermen were considering protesting. Due to the renovation of the Port of Funchal, São Lázaro was to be closed at the end of this month. The boat owners, who said it was difficult to remove their boats, met yesterday afternoon and were considering various forms of protest. The area has been used for 40 years, some boats for fishing and others for sport, some to earn a living. The owners were pleased to negotiate the permanency of their craft in this area.

JORNAL DA MADEIRA

Carnival 2010 – Turma do Funil depict mythical figures of the oceans. In line with the Carnival Parade overall theme, Seas and Oceans, this group takes the theme, The Ocean in Folia (Infopedia – lively dance or great fun, spree). On the night of 13 February, there will be 150 participants in this dance group and the costumes will focus on orange, green, purple, black, white, silver and turquoise. Accessories include feathers, stones, pieces of mosaic and chains of coloured sequins. Rehearsals take place in the Casa da Cultura de Câmara de Lobos. The Flag Bearers are the Goddess of the Sea and the ‘Mestre de Sala’ symbolising the King of the Ocean, Neptune, in foaming waves. Following, there will be fishermen delighted by mermaids, and floats depicting the lost island Atlantis with oysters containing precious pearls in the ruins of the submerged island. Then young children will depict pirates looking for treasure followed by animated girls dancing next to sailors. The Rainha da Bateria and revellers will pay tribute to the people of Câmara de Lobos introducing the Espada-Preto fish and  the boat ‘O Xavelha’. At the opening of each group of dancers, there will always be a pair of open wings representing the magnificent coral reefs. A guest will represent Vasco da Gama.

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

Catalogue lacking from the war in the west – The artists of the exhibition ‘Linha de Partida’ [Line of Departure] that has been running for a year in the Casa das Mudas, has Ricardo Veloza under fire.

Today’s main news headline : Horários of Funchal in technical bankruptcy – the company shows it’s own capital as negative and has already had a passive loan [debt] of €30 million at the end of 2008.

Government puts forward another €250,000 for management of the Jornal da Madeira. Is this never going to end? Despite the complaints of the Diário de Notícias at an international level, nothing changes, and the taxpayer is still funding the political mouthpiece of President Jardim’s government. And no doubt the other negative aspects of this state sponsored propaganda mechanism are alive and well, with government advertising expenditure deliberately targeted to ensure that the competition to the Jornal is pretty much excluded from benefitting.

Salaries in arrears prompt rout in the Association  of the Casas do Povo [Social Centres].

Opposition make possible inquiry of the Socialist Party about regional debt – The PP and PCP ensure enough signatures to allow a commission of inquiry proposed by the PS , in order to determine the value of the debt denied by President Jardim.

In Lisbon, after several concessions, there is discomfort on the Social Democrat bench with the Regional Finance Law.

Agreement : Transition period began and nobody understood. I bet a few people will look at this headline today and wonder what this is all about, as it shows a paper with various Portuguese words shown and their new replacements with simplified spelling. The idea is to ensure some level of language consistency in the Portuguese speaking world, a move which is not going down particularly well on this side of the pond at least. Some examples : Lectivo will become Letivo, Correcção will become Correção, and Jóia will become Joia. The changes should also reflect better the way the words are actually pronounced.

The main sport / football headline today :  Madeira doesn’t attract stages – Other regions of tourism try to attract teams. Through here there is a lack of reaction. Today Nacional – FC Porto 17h – SportTV and TSF. Despite what it sounds like, the article is saying that at the moment there are national teams looking for warm-up games in preparation for the World Cup this year in South Africa, and are looking for fixtures, or training venues at least, in Europe. The article says it is up to the Regional Government to attract interest, since there is no other entity that can promote all the sports facilities and stadiums of Madeira and Porto Santo. The Diário was unable to get any response from the relevant government department.

An extra headline article that I thought was worth a mention, or a look rather, shows our great President Alberto João Jardim in his famous peg-leg pose. "I will not resign". Jardim asks the parties not to further postpone the vote on the Regional Finance Law. The guarantee of Jardim is that if there is no change in the Law of Regional Finance (LFR), the president of the Regional Government of Madeira is not going to resign. Well he has given them Hobson’s choice really, and getting rid of Uncle Bertie in exchange for losing a few million Eurobucks would have been a worthy exchange indeed. Back to the grassy knoll plan then I think.

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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Today’s Photo : Thanks to Eiryl … the Fountains outside Machico Civic Centre

Yesterday’s top news stories :

Fear and discontent among doctors. Doctors in the region are concerned and dissatisfied with certain situations in the Health Department. This is demonstrated by the growing number of applications for legal help to the Independent Union of Doctors throughout the year. Between 2001 and 2008, there were on average 4 requests per year and the number has soared to nearly 95 this year.  Most complaints are related to salary, working hours, working legally and young doctors enquiring about the new labour code. People are "scared and unhappy" with the current management of SESARAM which is why the number of complaints has increased in the past few months. There is also concern about recruitment of doctors and the lack of career advancement when working in the region. They are meeting with representatives of the Nursing Union to have a concerted action for fighting for better working conditions and health care, as nurses are also "unhappy, worried and discouraged". Family doctors are concerned about new rules that SESARAM want to implement for lists of patients at health centres.The numbers of patients assigned to each doctor will not exceed 1500, to include for each household only the people who most often seek health services. So there will be people of the same family, who because they are healthier, may be excluded from the lists of users of health centres.

More violence and drug abuse this year. So far this year, 780 domestic violence cases (663 last year) and 232 cases of drug crimes (177 last year) reported to the police. The police are also encountering more resistance to arrest, from 11 cases to 28 this year. Overall, reported crime has increased, from 8,641 to 9,139 cases. The crimes on the increase were crimes against property, against the person and bounced cheques. On the decrease were corruption, driving without a licence or under the influence of alcohol, and violence against the elderly or children. There are more cases than last year still waiting to be heard by the Prosecution Services, up from 5,753 to 6,082, of these 135 waiting since 2006 or earlier. Only 13.2% of the cases end in a criminal charge, most of the others are filed due to lack of evidence. In the first half of 2009, the police served 478 warrants, resulting in 260 arrests and 37 individuals escorted to prison under tight security.

More people taking up Occupational Unemployment. This year, 755 people were placed on the Occupational and Unemployed Workers Benefit Program. The unemployed undertake an occupation-related activity and it reinforces the workforce, especially in social institutions, people’s homes, local cultural and sports associations and public administration services. Preference is given to those who have been unemployed longer or belong to social groups more difficult to integrate. It is beneficial as it keeps people employed, they receive an additional allowance and they might be taken on permanently. There are three programs, including one for people over the age of 55 years, some with restrictions on the length of time on the program, and everyone receives at least the minimum wage of 459 Euros.

New church in Jardim da Serra. Cost €2.6 million, of which €1.9 million was from the Government and new land had to be acquired. It occupies an imposing site at the top of a hill in Machico municipality, visible from a distance. Although it has traditional elements, it is based on a new design and has the capacity for 425 worshippers which by the seat / aisle arrangement can be doubled to provide for up to 1,000. The architect has designed seven other churches on the island and three more are in the design stages.

SITAM wants the Church to state its position on Christmas and Sunday opening hours. The Office, Commerce and Services Union wants the Church to help in its negotiations with the Town Hall on the schedule for Christmas trade opening hours to ensure that workers get enough rest days. They are awaiting the Diocese response to a one and a half year old petition against shops opening on Sunday. The Union also proposes a 5% salary increase and this year, there have been 5 or 6 bankruptcies in this sector.

Levada worker died yesterday at work. He was 47 and died after being semi-buried by a landslide of rocks on the Levada da Serra, between Ribeiro Frio and Santa da Serra. He was an employee of a private company and a colleague warned him and could not free him, already unconscious, due to the volume of rocks. The bombeiros (fire brigade) from Santa Cruz had difficulty accessing the area quickly as it is about 4 km from the nearest road and the Emergency Medical Team declared him dead in situ. The Regional Inspectorate of Labour have opened an investigation.

A 63 year old British tourist was rescued by the bombeiros after a  fall in the Levada dos Tornos and had a suspected broken leg. A number of foreign tourists have fallen in this area.

‘Missing Face’ inquiry extends to Madeira. This corruption investigation, ‘Faca Oculta’, based in Lisbon is about Manuel Godinho and the rapid licensing of his waste treatment firms. The network of his firms in the region is being investigated for evidence of corrupt ‘illegal favours’ from Government officials.

Prints of Paula Rego to be exhibited in Prazeres. The prints from galleries in Lisbon and Porto will be at the Galaria dos Prazeres from the 27th November (10 – 13 and 14 – 19 hours). There will be 17 lithographs from this famous Portuguese artist shown in two rooms. Six prints are in the ‘Series of Wine’ and confirm the importance of literature to Paula Rego’s artistry.

Regulatory body ruling on political fairness in broadcasting. The Regulatory Body approved a resolution calling on the insistence of the whole RTP television network to comply with regulations concerning the equal representation of all political parties. The regulations were begun to be broken in 2007.

Atlantic Holidays (Pestana) returns to Porto Santo from May 31 2010. Resumption of direct flights from Gatwick to Porto Santo on Mondays until November 1 2010. The flights will be with Viking Airlines which uses a Boeing 737-300 with a capacity of 148 passengers. This replaces the bankrupt XL Airways. Between 26 July and 31 August, the flights will alter and be from Norwich to Madeira due to the busy domestic tourism period to Porto Santo.

Portugal is the top EU country with a rapidly ageing population. From 1980 to 2008, the percentage of people aged over 65 increased from 11.2% to 17.4%. Following Portugal are Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece and Sweden. Ireland has the youngest population with an average age of 35.1 years. In Portugal, the average is 40.5. It is also below the European average for assistance to families. The birth rate is at a ‘critical level’ of 1.34. —– The EU wants Portugal to reduce the high deficit and debt levels by 2013, so the future does not look good for either Portugal or Madeira.

Used car market. Opens today at Tecnopolo until Sunday 15th. Free entrance. Opening hours are 18.00 to 22.00 and at the weekend from 11.00 to 20.00. There are 200 cars and motorcycles and 15 companies (3 dealers and 12 multi-brand stands) are participating. Some companies also have promotional campaigns to attract customers.

Tivoli Hotel 10th anniversary. The Atlántico Restaurant has been refurbished and is to reopen with capacity for between 550 and 700 diners, one of the largest restaurants on the island. The opening event on the 18th at 19.00 will be attended by Alberto Jardim and there will be different celebratory activities in the following 10 weeks. The hotel has 317 rooms, of which 43 are suites and last year had a 62% occupancy rate which has increased this year.

Many thanks to Elaine, who did all the work today!

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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. 

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

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.

(more…)