SPAR Comes To Madeira ; 31 Years For Two Murderers ; Baby Rodrigo’s Transplant
(31st May). ‘Rodrigo Underwent The Bone Marrow Transplant – The baby is going to spend a few days in recovery in isolation’. The half-hour procedure took place in Lisbon yesterday afternoon, and the first results of the intervention are awaited. He was diagnosed with leukaemia 6 weeks after birth here on Madeira, and after months of searching, a bone marrow donor was eventually found in Germany.
‘Security Worries Estreito de Câmara de Lobos – The population demand the reopening of the police post there’. It is not difficult to hear stories of assaults in Estreito. In each corner there is always someone that has a relative, friend, or neighbour that has been assaulted. With the drug dependency associated with criminality, the feeling of insecurity is a principal problem of the area. The closing of the police post left the population feeling even more vulnerable, and people don’t understand why this measure was taken. The other ‘weak point’ is the health centre. The residents complain that it has insufficient capacity to deal with the number of users. I think Estreito de Câmara de Lobos must be the featured town of the week, but it doesn’t actually say so. Anyway, it should be a long and interesting story to tell after the relative calmness of all the other places visited in this weekly feature.
Ah, in fact there is a second story for Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, this one takes the biggest part of the front page with a picture of a couple of elderly ladies, though the significance of that is not clear. The headline reads : ‘Estreito Of Torment – The assaults and drug trafficking worry’. I ought to explain that an assault means a mugging, or robbery, or assault, or a burglary, but the Portuguese word doesn’t differentiate between those.
Well my secret is now out of the bag, with today’s main news headline : ‘More Supermarkets – The Dutch company SPAR is going to open shortly several units on Madeira’. The biggest food distribution network in the world bets for now on Santa Cruz, Porto Moniz, and Prazeres, but with more shops being planned. The shops are operated on a franchise basis, and so any interested party can open one, as long as they have on average €150,000 to invest. The spokesman for SPAR on Madeira explains that the brand has different characteristics, in that the service is very good, and that special focus is given to fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and meat. Porto Moniz will not have a full fish and meat range because of it’s limited size, but the other two will have everything, including access to a range of 10,000 types of goods, including many ‘own brand’ products. The rest of the article is about the statistics and history of the group. I was told there would be a shop in Funchal as well, but no mention of that. Maybe I will now get that telephone call I have been expecting for the last 3 months, as I was offered a job in the Prazeres SPAR, but it says it won’t be opening for another month or more, so the big blogs continue for now. SPAR WEBSITE
(30th May). ’31 Years In Prison For Two Killers – Court orders payment of €80,000 in compensation to the child of the victim’. The court of Santa Cruz on Friday sentenced two knife killers, who murdered a 28 year old man in Machico nearly a year ago, to serve sixteen and a half and fourteen and a half years in prison. They were charged with crimes of qualified homicide and possession of a prohibited weapon. The two men attacked the victim from behind in a bar at around 11pm, and according to one witness "killed him like he was an animal", stabbing him six times. The murder was planned at 5 hours before. The main judge had powers to impose a sentence of between 12 and 25 years imprisonment. The court was on high security alert during the trial.
