Madeira News Blog

(29th June). Today’s main news headline : ‘Business Millionaire – €45,360,000 is how much a businessman is going to collect in rent from the council of Santa Cruz, over 30 years, for a ‘citizens shop’ situated in Quinta da Escuna’. This refers to the construction of new ‘Loja do Cidadão’, like the one in Funchal, where one can go to find all the government departments under one roof, as well as utility companies etc., also referred to in the article as a ‘building of shared services’. The Diário refers to it as the ‘deal of the century’ for the businessman. The photo shows the site involved, and it seems the owner was the only businessman to come forward with a proposal when the council launched a public offer (tender) earlier this year. The council has already passed the motion approving the deal, using it’s social democrat majority. The site owner will spend €5 million on the construction of a new building, on top of the €1.25 million for the purchase of the premises, meaning that he will recoup around 7 times his outlay over 30 years. The monthly rental cost works out at €126,000, payable by the council. If it manages to persuade all the companies and organisations it wants to share the building with, this cost will reduce to around €26,000 a month. The proposed building will have 7,559 square metres above ground, and 2,160 m2 below ground, including 350-400 parking spaces. This sounds like Santa Cruz playing the keep up with the Jones’s game (Funchal) again, and only an idiot would see this as a sound economic investment. They should take a leaf out of the book of their neighbours Machico in terms of sensible investment and generating jobs. The rental contract does have a buy out clause, but that does not kick in until after the good people of Santa Cruz have already forked out €26 million in rental costs. 

‘Law Favours Illegal Arms – The new rules are demanding. The gun sellers complain of losses in the black market’. The Diário talks to the coordinator responsible for the new gun laws that came into force on 5th June, explaining that they centre on the production, trade, and proliferation of small arms. All gun permits and renewals are controlled by the police, but there is some concern that criminals will turn to the ‘black market’ for weapons, a situation that might also occur with citizens wanting a gun for their own protection if the new gun laws squeeze their options too much. In particular because the police not only take months to process permit applications, but they also usually reject them. The law also requires certain things that can involve a lot of expenditure and hassle (paperwork, expenses, insurance, gun safes or even strong rooms). Being a small island, gun control should be easy, once existing illegal arms are dealt with. I don’t know what security is like on the Portimão ferry, but if it is anything like at airports, then surely gun import controls and records can be pretty stringent.

‘Rain Causes Damages – Bad weather sets-off rock falls and floods’. The picture shows a farmer in São Roque, where top soil was washed away with some ending up in his house. The very heavy rain early on Sunday morning flooded houses, caused mud slides, rock falls, and road blocks. Worst hit were Câmara de Lobos, Funchal, and Santa Cruz. The most famous miradouro (view point) of Madeira at Cabo Girão was also closed to tourists after a mud-slide.

‘Mini Market In Câmara de Lobos Robbed Five Times In A Week’. The latest robbery at knifepoint in Ponte dos Frades, at the shop of the company Januário & Filhos, was motivated by drugs according to the manager. They steal money and items to sell to pay for drugs, and even steal ‘to order’. After money, spirits are the most sought after he said, so much so that they have now put them out of sight. Even the 84 year old founder of the business has been threatened with a knife. The manager also says that he filled some spirit bottles with water and put them on display to try and fool the thieves. Two bottles were stolen, and wait for it … the thief came back and complained to the shop assistant that he had been cheated!

"It’s going to be a bullfight". Jorge Romeira, social democrat candidate in São Vicente, promises to fulfil his mandate to the end, if elected. It’s an interview with the politician, standing for the câmara presidency for PSD-M, which I know nobody will want to read, so that’s that.

‘Left Boycott Commemorations Of The Day Of The Region’. The event to mark ‘Madeira Day’ on Wednesday, is to be held in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos and involve the members of the legislative assembly of Madeira. But the socialists (PS-M) and three other parties (BE, PND, & PCP) are going to boycott the event because they are denied the opportunity to speak at the event. The leader of the PS-M says the event is "is more a crowning of the PSD." "This is a dictatorial imposition of the chiefs of the social democrats, and we don’t go along with it" he adds.

(28th June). The timetables for the two election campaigns have been determined now that both election dates have been fixed. For the national elections (27th September), the campaign will run from the 12th to the 25th September. For the local elections (11th October) the campaign will run from 28th September to the 9th October). Portuguese law limits the window allowed for party campaigning, though no doubt the posters will be out and about outside of the dates permitted.

The President of the Republic of Portugal justified the decision not to hold the national and local elections on the same day, as requested by the PSD social democrats. He said he could not "fail to consider the arguments presented by the other parties", since only the PSD wanted the merged elections. Anyway, there is a sad ending to this story, as all the politicians will now have their holidays cut short.

‘Tourism And The Environment Are Priorities. Rui Moisés promises competent people in the Câmara of Santana’. An interview with the PSD candidate aged 38, with 14 years political experience. Just the usual social democrat nonsense I expect, so I didn’t even bother to read it.

Just finishing up with sport on today’s front page, and last nights football final in the Confederations Cup, where Brazil eventually won 3 – 2 after going 2 nil down to the United States.

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LATE EDITION (the rest of today’s news, not worth doing another blog page for):

(29th June). The road through Lugar de Baixo is closed today (until 6pm) at the west end, and again tomorrow, to deal with some areas at risk from rock falls. Vehicles will have to use the old long windy route between Ponta do Sol and Tabua, though work should be finished by 6pm tomorrow.

The thousands of new small laptop computers (Magalhães) that are in the process of being issued to school kids will also provide for ‘distance learning’. The software used allows a network connection, and will allow a child at home sick to connect with another colleague in class during a lesson, in order to keep up with their education. Also, if a teacher is absent, it is possible for the class to see a lesson being given elsewhere, with just a teachers assistant in attendance. Excellent in theory of course …

There are now 11 cases of Swine Flu (Gripe A / H1N1) in Portugal.

I was thinking I might get a nice easy blogging day today, as three of the front page stories I won’t be covering, the death of Michael Jackson being one, the confederations football cup where Brazil just about beat South Africa to reach Sunday’s final. The other from the International Whaling Commission conference on Madeira, where you will find similar news stories in English on hundreds of websites. That leaves just two, the one below, and one in politics.

(26th June). Today’s main news headline : ‘Arrests For Trafficking Triple – Even before the first 6 months of this year are over, 36 arrests for drug trafficking have been made. Last year, by this time, there were just 12. The quantity of drugs seized also grows’. Important I know, but this story crops up every couple of months in the headlines, so no need to be too shocked. In a nutshell, heroine seizures have increased substantially, and the number of arrests too. In 2007 there were 28 arrests, last year just 12, and this year 36, but all three figures refer just to the first 6 months of that year. It is clear that demand for drugs is increasing. What is quite interesting is that the routes and origins for smuggling drugs into Madeira has changed. Flights from Venezuela to Madeira were popular, but not so now. More frequently now are foreigners travelling from Portugal. Attempts to bring drugs into Madeira are now moving more towards the two ferries, and in some cases the trafficker will even transfer by air to Porto Santo from Madeira airport to avoid detection there, and then come back by boat to Madeira. There is no doubt that the police and customs are getting better at detection of drug trafficking, so you can look at the situation from two angles, and that doesn’t really leave us a with any firm conclusions. The Diário has produced an illustration for hashish, heroine and cocaine showing arrests and seizures for 2007 – 2009 which explains it better than I can, and it is easy enough to understand even if you don’t speak Portuguese : MADEIRA DRUG SEIZURES 

I did take a look at the article on whales and whaling, and although it is in this context a mainly international issue, the article also says that Madeira will not revert to whale hunting, and there are plans to introduce new legislation to further protect whales, dolphins, and other marine species. 

‘Day Of The Region Celebrated Inside And Outside Of Madeira’. The first of July is a public holiday to mark the ‘Day of the Region’ for Madeira, and it will be celebrated not just here but also in Venezuela, South Africa, and Canada, in Madeiran communities, where Madeira’s politicians are also planning to be. Here next Tuesday and Wednesday there will be concerts in St. Catherine’s Park Funchal (9.30pm), and a special service will be held in the cathedral on Wednesday.

‘Firemen Retrieve Body At The Pináculo – Search operations had commenced on Wednesday night’. Firemen found the body yesterday morning of a 37 year old man around 120 metres from the miradouro (viewpoint). It is believed that he fell.

There are discussions taking place about twining Hatillo in Venezuela with Calheta. The president of the municipal council there said "Calheta is very special". She is here at present, but her responsibility covers a population of 150,000 people back home.

(25th June). ‘PSP Tests Radars In Via Salazar – The same will take place in other zones with previous warning to drivers’. In a pilot project the Public Security Police have placed radar speed traps in via Salazar, with drivers being warned through road signs, and according to the police commissioner the reaction has been good. The positioning of the traps will normally be in accident black spots and where speeding is known to take place. The next road to be equipped may be "for example" Avenida das Madelenas.

(26th June). ‘Madeira Assembly Works For 5 Minutes Without Quorum – It was a short period of 5 to 7 minutes and without any votes taken. But it was a gross and formal error’. There were just 21 members present at the start of the session, a situation that the secretaries who are responsible failed to pick up. The Diário made a bit of a big deal out of it, but it happened and it passed without any impact, so not worth the debate really.

‘PSD Suspend Work In The Legislative Assembly – Jaime Ramos made the request after an exchange of words with Fernando Letra of the Left Block (BE)’. Yesterday Letra cited recent statements made by the President of the Government about people on benefits who were able to work, and asked him to identify these people. Ramos then used a motion called ‘defence of the honour of the president of the regional government’ to get his majority party of social democrats to vote to suspend works. No word yet of when work will be resumed.

‘Government Announces Measures To Safeguard Children – Training for parents and candidates for adoption amongst the new requirements’. The measures will apply to children through infancy and adolescence, with training for adoption candidates and a school programme for parents. The measure will also tackle child poverty and include measure already taken in some neighbourhoods (such as Nogueira), with ‘street teams’ that will guide children through to becoming adults. There will also be some changes in education that will aim to teach children discipline and how to live in society, beyond the normal academic subjects.

President Jardim is set to present his list of eleven social democrat candidates for the councils of Madeira later today. 8 will be existing post-holders, and the 3 new ones will be in Santana, Porto Moniz and São Vicente. Jardim chooses the candidates, and in a flash of semi-democracy, the Political Commission of PSD-M ratifies his choices. Now shall I stay in to hear the results tonight, or shall I be irresponsible and trundle off to enjoy the warm-up for the festa of São Pedro in town … it’s a tough call I know!