Madeira News Blog

(16th August). Today’s main news headline : ‘Priests Critical But Not Political – José Luís Rodrigues, the controversial parish priest of São Roque and São José, doesn’t mix faith with politics. But he will continue to intervene and give his opinion. On the sacraments, he says that he resists the baptism. And the times show that it is not worthwhile that the parishes continue with festivals on the day of Chão da Lagoa’. The first part of the headline deliberately rhymed in Portuguese, and can you believe it also still does in the English translation! Anyway, this is an routine interview with the said parish priest, but it makes the Diário’s top story today.

‘São Pedro : Contrasts Of The Hospital At Achada. Problems in the neighbourhood of the hospital contrast with the development of Achada’. It’s another one of those Diário featured locations, not really news. Achada is in the high zone in the Funchal parish of São Pedro.  Angelina Baeta has to climb 119 steps to get to her home, on the 7th floor of block 14 of the Bairro do Hospital. It has been around two months since the lift that served the building broke down, the other one as far as Angelina recalls, stopped working around 20 years ago. She doesn’t suffer as much as others with the delay in the repair, it is much worse for the aged and sick that live there. "I have a neighbour aged 92 that lives on the 6th floor who hasn’t managed to get out of her home since the elevator broke", she uses as an example. She has to rely on neighbours to do her shopping. The blocks have other problems with access, allowing drug users to enter the buildings, poor hygiene conditions and unpleasant smells from urination inside the building. Another neighbour says that the majority of people who live there are good people, but the frequency of problems with drugs, assaults, and violence are a concern. Ismael has lived in Achada almost 50 years, and has seen all the big changes in the area. He says many people live there, and it is quiet, without much thieving. What is missing is a supermarket, as with the old one closed down, it is now necessary to go into Funchal. The crisis has hit hard. One shop owner said "everything is closing".

‘Constructions In The Sand Livens Up The Beach Of Porto Santo’. This years national sand sculpting competition continued yesterday with an event on Porto Santo, with around 40 children taking part. The ‘senior’ event was won by a local lad with a lion sculpture, who also won the event last year, and will now go on to compete in the final in Portugal next month. The competition has been going since 1952, with two categories for those aged between 6 and 10, and 11 to 14. The junior event yesterday was also won by a local lad who sculpted a rat (or mouse). In the centre of the picture you will see ‘Panda’, from the TV channel with the same name, that has been covering the event.

‘Moped Licences For Youths Aged 14 Years – The Association of Motorcycling ensures that the young Madeirans have equal conditions with Portugal and the Azores’. The provision to drive a moped (under 50cc) at 14 or 15 already existed here, but there has been no ‘driving school’ available here to conduct the training, so one had to go to the mainland to obtain the certificate. Now the AMM is taking on this responsibility on Madeira. The law says that those aged 14 and 15 are treated differently from those aged 16 and over, as they are not able to show the maturity needed to ride a moped on the roads without training.

‘Draw Very Fair In The Debut Game Between The Europeans – João Aurélio was the figure in headline yesterday in the Choupana: he scored the goals of Nacional and Sporting. Today Marítimo challenges Benfica in the stadium of light’. In the opening game for Nacional yesterday, the Nacional player João Aurélio scored twice in the same goal, but the result ended up as a 1 – 1 draw.

The CDU (communists) of Santa Cruz have launched an on-line petition to save the city centre market in Santa Cruz, which the council want to move to the edge of the city. PETITION www.simaomercado.blogspot.com

(15th August). Yesterday’s stories from the festival at Monte left one with mixed stories about whether trade was up or down for those with ‘barracas’. The Jornal da Madeira did it’s own piece yesterday, and I am sure purely by coincidence interviewed the same seller of bolo de caco, who said that business was better than last year, and he had already sold 300 bolos de caco by 8pm on Friday, as well as the bread with chouriço (sausage) preferred by the tourists (who obviously haven’t seen the sausage in it’s complete form). But meat sellers were struggling, and I don’t know the price per kilo, but it’s clearly many times more than a €2 bolo de caco, so there’s the answer.

(29th July). Today’s main photo headline is of a part completed building : ‘Not Even The New Plan Saves Minas Gerais – The plan of São João that CMF wants to approve tomorrow leaves the building embargoed’. The story is more about an urbanisation plan for the Ribeira de São João (PURSJ) in Funchal, something covered here before in a recent blog. The zone of the plan includes the partly built offices of the company Minas Gerais, which had work stopped over a year ago when CMF (Funchal Municipal Council) noticed that it had two more floors than in the plan approved by the council. The plan PURSJ will go to public consultation next month, but includes major change to roads, a new roundabout, and defines residential and business areas and the green zones. The zone is huge and starts at the Rotunda do Infante going north towards São João, and incorporates the building mentioned, meaning that it stays in limbo whilst the PURSJ plan goes through the necessary approvals.

‘Parole For Father Of The Girl That Didn’t Reappear – The man served 5/6ths of his sentence and already has work’. Sofia Catarina Andrade de Oliveira went missing on 22nd February 2004, from the residence of her mother in Câmara de Lobos, taken by her father Luís Encarnação that evening. She is now 7 years old. The couple were separated after living in the Azores, and the mother moved to Madeira with her daughter. Only the father knows where she is, and he was sentenced to prison for nearly six and a half years in prison for his kidnapping act after being arrested back in the Azores, but he never revealed her whereabouts, only saying that she was well. He is now out on early parole for good behaviour, and has already found work.

‘Domestic Violence Gives Suspended Sentence To Doctor’. The court in Funchal sentenced yesterday a dentist for abusing his wife. The one year prison sentence was suspended for one year, with the aggressor achieving the minimum sentence, in what could have been up to 5 years in prison. He was also ordered to pay €13,500 to his victim in damages, including personal injuries, when the victim was seeking €50,000. The reports of insults, threats, and physical violence went back as far as 1996, with the victim spending several periods of up to 3 months in illness as a result. The man didn’t even attend court for the sentencing, and now has the option of appealing.

‘Prizewinning Fagundes Vasconcelos In Cerveira’. A work of the Madeiran artist was acquired by the museum in Via Nova de Cerveira for €3,600. It is called ‘Parade of Vanity’.

If you are interested in the Madeira Wine Rally starting tomorrow, it is worth buying today’s Diário to get the free supplement with maps and timetables.

‘Market Of Ribeira Brava Goes from Bad To Worse – Half of the commercial units are already closed. The others agonise’. Of the ten units available, just 5 have survived the crisis. The low movement of customers, the redesign of the sea front that reduced passing traffic, the high level of competition between the traders, and the switch from the escudo to the €uro, are some of the reasons given for the situation. The latest to close its doors this year, was the restaurant / pizzeria located on the 1st floor, where they also occupied the terrace area. The fruit traders on the same level complain that since that happened business has got even worse, as even less people go upstairs. Shame, but normally people complain about the high rent charged by the council, but no mention in this article. One of the fruit sellers is OK, but the other one, Senhor 3in1 repof, keep well away from if you value your money.

‘Police Vehicle Targeted During An Arrest On Porto Santo – No police were injured as shots were fired by a 23 year old man’. But the car was pretty messed up by fire from the shotgun. The man was arrested shortly after the gunfire. Need I mention that it was over charges of drug trafficking, and 390 doses of heroin were seized. I ask you … what idiot would open fire on police on Porto Santo … even if you did get away where would you run to, where would you hide? Lets hope the king of Spain doesn’t pick up a copy of today’s newspaper, as he is off to Porto Santo at the weekend.

‘Prohibited access to the sea at Lido – Presence of jellyfish results in cordoned access to the sea for swimmers’. Access to the sea in the Lido Bathing Complex was ‘closed’ to the public due to the presence of jellyfish in the water. I think that was on Monday, but a later article says that yesterday a yellow flag was raised, and there was restricted access to the sea. There were also jellyfish reported at Praia Formosa.

The programme for the visit of the King and Queen of Spain tomorrow has been released, and it is pretty much as already stated. Anyone into royal visits will have the best opportunities for a royal wave at the airport at 6.30pm tomorrow, or an a Funchal walkabout on Saturday. It is confirmed that the trip will finish with a visit to Porto Santo.

(28th July). This story came from the ‘dark side’ yesterday : ‘Autonomy frees us of ‘silly laws’ – Alberto João Jardim said the new law will not apply to the roundabouts of Madeira’. Jardim said yesterday that a new law that prohibits the placement of statues and trees on roundabouts will not be applied. He points out that our independence allows us "to get rid of silly laws", ensuring that we keep our values and principles. The new law was (I think?)made by the president of Funchal council, and Jardim dealt with him in the most diplomatic way he knew, by saying "whoever made this law on the roundabouts is mentally retarded, and the danger is that these retards try to treat other people as retarded". Uncle Bertie! … that is your most likely successor you are talking about … show restraint please.

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to ???? … Sorry, I forgot to note who sent it, but a nice shot of the farmers / fruit market in Funchal.

Desperate times mean desperate measures … another bar here in Ribeira Brava has become a smoking bar, nearly 18 months after the ban was introduced and implemented. As the owners don’t smoke, I guess it was a case of even smoking customers are better than no customers.

Two new write ups on Madeira at CHANGE DIRECTION 1  and CHANGE DIRECTION 2 

This site has a great slide show of photographs taken by a paraglider, of other paragliders, paragliding over Madeira, with some great scenery, and some shots even taken above the clouds. MADEIRA PARAGLIDING

Don’t forget that news articles will be posted at various times during the day – Check back regularly and keep yourself up to date.

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