Madeira News Blog

Today’s photo – Many thanks to Pete … "On today’s (Thursday) blog the article on Cleaning reveals the Fontes de João Dinis. You said there is a well, are here two photos for you, 2nd well is working water coming out, The 1st again another well, but dry. I am not clear which one in the blog, so I thought I’d send you both photos".

Many thanks to Paul for this. It was covered yesterday, but with different articles I think :

4 marine protected areas on the extended continental shelves of the Azores as well as mainland Portugal. On the 24^th March the WWF in Funchal, Madeira “praised Portuguese authorities for announcing the establishment of four marine protected areas on the extended continental shelves of the Azores as well as mainland Portugal.” “The four sites – on the southern Mid Atlantic Ridge, Altair Seamount, Antialtair Seamount and Josephine Bank – together cover an area of 120,000 square km rich in vulnerable deepwater communities, including cold-water coral reefs, sponge fields, coral gardens, and deep sea bony fish, sharks and rays.”

OSPAR Convention. The announcement of marine protected area status was made at an international North Atlantic environmental commission (OSPAR Convention) meeting attended by UN fisheries and seabed agencies in Funchal, Madeira. It follows three of the four sites being declared being declared off limits because of the use of destructive bottom fishing gear just under a year ago.

Image : Map of the marine area and the 15 contracting parties of the OSPAR Commission for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.

Ground breaking progress on ocean governance. Stephan Lutter, International Marine Policy Officer with WWF Germany said it was ground breaking progress on ocean governance : “It comes at a time when the political and economic boundaries in our oceans are shifting. We would wish that all Coastal States who have submitted claims for an extended continental shelf beyond the limit of 200 nautical miles were taking their obligation to protect the marine wildlife out there as seriously as Portugal.” All four of the new marine protected areas will be unique in legal terms, with the coastal state in charge of protecting the natural resources of the seafloor, and international bodies to protect marine biological diversity in the corresponding High Seas waters.

“Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone”. This new legal arrangement opens up possibilities of improving protection to the first pilot marine protected area in international waters of the North Atlantic, the so-called “Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone” located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which was agreed by contracting parties to the OSPAR Convention on the in 2008.

Also from Paul :

No danger of Portugal being sucked into the same sort of debt whirlpool as Greece. "European Union president Herman Van Rompuy said on Friday (26^th March) there was no danger of Portugal being sucked into the same sort of debt whirlpool as Greece. "The problem is completely different for Portugal," Van Rompuy said when asked if he feared that Lisbon might be next to seek help dealing with a bulging annual deficit and national debt. "I really believe that the situations are not in the least comparable and that the markets realise that, and will realise that in the coming days," he added.

Photo : Herman Van Rompuy, ex-Belgian prime minister now EU President

"You can only compare what’s comparable," Van Rompuy added, also distinguishing between what had happened in Athens and fears over Spain’s high deficit.

Portugal’s decision to freeze public sector wages was "a step in the right direction”. European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet meanwhile said that Portugal’s decision to freeze public sector wages was "a step in the right direction." Link to full article

REMEMBERED TO PUT YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD ONE HOUR?

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

DIÁRIO 27/03/2010

FRONT PAGE NEWS

Ancient bridges should stand.  Funchal Council want to keep the old pedestrian bridges wherever possible. Two that are repairable after storm damage are Cidrão (photo) and D. Manuel over the ribeira de Santa Luzia. Bridges that have to be demolished or partially rebuilt are: near the old headquarters of Nacional connecting rua do Tanoeiros and Rua da Alfândega; Til and Rua da Carne Azeda over the ribeiro do Livramento (behind the Jardim de Santa Luzia); over the ribeiras and ribeiros near the Mercado and Minas Gerais; in Laranjal (Estrada Comandante Camacho de Freitas), Fundoa, Quinta Falcão, Casabranca and the ponte do Livramento.

MADEIRA

Two thousand truckloads of inerts. Over two thousand lorry loads of aggregates have been dumped at a landfill at the mouth of the ribeira da Alforra in Câmara de Lobos. Thousands of cubic metres of material, mainly earth, have stained the sea front of this fishing town. This landfill is now closed. The mayor admits the brown stain in the sea has a bad visual impact but the urgency of the situation justifies using this option.

PSP accused of violence and torture. The family of a 46 year old man has made a complaint to the prosecutor against the Public Security Police for aggression and acts of torture committed by agents on that individual. According to the brother of the alleged victim, it started around 17.30 on Thursday when Rui Duarte Nunes, known as Dude, was approached by two police officers of the Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR) in the area of Quinta Deão. The officers took his brother to an area close to the parish council building and began an unprovoked attack. They punched and handcuffed him and reinforcements came, witnessed by family members who live nearby. Rui Nunes was taken to the Regional Command of the PSP and when released at 20.30, he could hardly walk. He was taken by ambulance to hospital where he was treated until 2 am. Wounds were on his face, back, abdomen, behind his ears, feet and pepper spray had been thrown in his eyes. Rui Nunes attended court where the judge ordered him to go to the Forensic Medicine department for photographs to be taken. The PSP argue that he had attempted to assault them. His brother said that Rui is a drug abuser but neither violent or a criminal.

ECONOMY

Traders received 136.7 million Euros of aid. A month after the catastrophic events on February 20th, 800 traders have received 136.7 million Euros in compensation. 45 applications of less than 75,000 Euros, totalling 2.3 million Euros have been approved and another 130 are being processed by the banks for a total of 8.3 million Euros. In the final stage are 15 applications totalling 3 million Euros that are for more than 75,000 Euros each. The total so far is 5.4 million Euros of funds set up by the Governments of the Republic and Madeira granted to 180 traders, averaging 30,000 Euros each. Funchal Council has secured 350,000 Euros for 150 traders or 2,500 Euros each. Insurance firms have paid 123 million Euros for 683 claims, an average of 180,000 Euros. Firms with 40/60 employees can ask Social Security to pay 70% of wages and contributions for three months. Among the companies that have received bank aid to secure jobs, 32 are micro-sized, 12 small-sized and one medium-sized firm. They received 2.3 million Euros or 51,000 Euros each. Support has been given to 10 firms in the tourism sector, 8 in the service sector, 3 in the transport sector and 2 construction firms. The most support has been to firms in Funchal and other areas are Santa Cruz, Câmara de Lobos, Machico and Ponta do Sol. 40 other companies have benefited from 1.5 million Euros from credit lines to help with cash flow problems.

ANAM current debt is reduced to 206 million Euros. ANAM manages Madeira Airport and the results in 2009 are an improvement since the previous year due to better management. The passenger numbers fell 4.3% despite a fall of 6.5% through European airports. The main shortfall was a 20% decrease in passengers from the United Kingdom, made up by Easyjet passengers from Lisbon. The net income for 2009 fell from minus 10.3 million Euros in 2008 to minus 7.2 million Euros. ANAM paid 60 million Euros to the banks to reduce the debt by 25% and interest rates were lower. This left a debt at the end of 2009 at 206 million Euros.

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

Socialist Party of Madeira already assures support for Passos Coelho – Guilherme Silva was the delegate of Rangel [loser in the PSD elections], but accepts the victory of the new leader, from whom he expects solidarity. The party activists of PSD-Madeira backed a loser, with 86% of the vote going to Paulo Rangel. Madeira was the only region of Portugal that gave Rangel a majority. Silva said "we always count on each other on the day following the result of an internal party election … it is a saying that the PSD always had". He highlighted the "significant victory" of Pedro Passos Coelho and added that he believes that this is a "strong leadership, capable and consistent to provide opposition to the Socialist Party and José Sócrates". Hmmm … normally that sort of statement would come from the party leader for Madeira, but perhaps Uncle Bertie was just too busy to face the press!

Pharmacies flee from supplying syringes – Complaints accuse drug addicts of ruining the environment. Chemists say that they were obliged to refuse the exchange of syringe ‘kits’ in their shops in order to restore a ‘good environment’. Thefts, threats, injuries, altercations, and a bad atmosphere are the reasons given from withdrawing from the syringe exchange programme, with some shops in downtown Funchal having left the scheme a year ago. "It was a service that we offered for the State and society, but today we can not afford to lose customers because things are not easy," says Ana Mafalda Rodrigues, technical director of the Portuguese Pharmacy, located on Rua João Tavira. The movement of drug addicts in the establishment troubled customers who felt intimidated with the way they spoke and asked for assistance, without regard to who was ahead in the queue, she explains, adding that for such a decision to be taken the occurrence of "some thefts" was also taken into account.

Today’s main news headline : 409 companies leave Business Centre – It is a sharp fall in just one year, but the exit from the International Business Centre of Madeira was already happening since 2001. In 9 years, 3021 companies abandoned Madeira.

Geraldine Chaplin come to the Festival of Cinema. I had no idea who she was, but a quick peek at the article says that she is an actress of great renown, but also the daughter of Charlie Chaplin. However, there is another famous guest who I am well aware of, as he features in my DVD collection … Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame. The festival runs from the 10th to the 17th April, in Funchal of course, in the Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias.

The main sport / football headline today : Benfica ‘tidies up’ Braga and the Premier League – The Benfica ‘nation’ can start to celebrate : yesterday, Luisão scored the victory goal before Braga and will have ‘swept away’ the issue of the title for this season. There are still six games left this season, and with a gap of 6 points between league leaders Benfica and second placed Braga, it’s a bit too early to be celebrating methinks, although I don’t have much doubt that the Diário’s assumption is correct. 6 weeks of noisy gloating Benfiquistas to put up with until the season end, and then even more after … I think I might go into a Spring hibernation. It’s been a long long time since Benfica have has a successful season, and I don’t actually begrudge them that, it’s just that obnoxious manager Jorge Jesus that I can’t stand. His behaviour cannot be described as anything other than legalised yobbery and he sets a disgraceful example to football supporters. No wonder hooligan problems are hitting the Portugal headlines with increasing regularity.

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 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 other material.

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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 Der … Another one of those old bus photos I started showing some months back. I must emphasise that it is a photo of a photo, and I was not actually around to take this shot many years ago.

Many thanks to Elaine (East) for these website links :

The Rede – traditional transport now for hire in Funchal. HERE

The Classical Orchestra, OCM, has a new website with an English version. HERE

Many thanks to Paul for this interesting piece and the link to the WSJ video:

The socio-economic and employment situation in Madeira. Over the past decade, Madeira has seen dynamic economic growth with GDP per capita in 2003 reaching 90 % of the EU-25 average – above that of most of mainland Portugal.

Much of this growth has been driven by the increasing importance of the services sector in the economy, including real estate and tourism services, which complement more traditional industries such as agriculture and fishing. While in the past Madeirans would emigrate to find work, economic growth has largely reversed this trend and today the region has generally lower unemployment by Portuguese standards.

Employment also grew by 5 % in the decade up to 2004, in particular in the 25-44-year age group. Growth in the services sector has contributed to rising levels of female employment that reached 41.8 % in 2004, although this remained below the EU target of 60 % then. Education levels are also improving. Between 2000 and 2003 the number of workers without basic qualifications fell to 8.6 % and those with basic, secondary and higher levels of education all increased. This feature is due to earlier investments in the education and training system in Madeira.

However, among job-seekers, 3 in 4 of them have less than a secondary level of education. The number of long-term unemployed has been stable at around one-third of the total unemployed. Madeira is making extensive efforts to develop its economy and private sector in ways that capitalise on the particular advantages the region can offer, including by making significant infrastructure investments even though these are less than in the earlier 2000-2006 funding period.

To sustain economic growth and rising employment Madeira now needs to expand its labour market and provide its workers with the skills the Madeiran economy and businesses need today and in the future.

The European Social Fund. The European Social Fund, created in 1957, is the European Union’s main financial instrument for investing in people. It supports employment and helps people enhance their education and skills. This improves their job prospects.

Source: Information service of DG Employment, Social Affairs & Equal Opportunities Communication Unit, Brussels

ESF priorities in Madeira. Madeira’s strategy for ESF funding has global objectives :

-to significantly increase the level of education and training among its people, and in

particular in technology-related areas,

-to create more jobs in ways that support entrepreneurial initiatives

and the requirements of the regional labour market;

-to improve social cohesion and regional governance.

To achieve these objectives the ESF Operational

Programme has two main priorities:

Priority 1 : Education and training

Priority 2 : Employment and social cohesion

Portugal Downgrade Adds To Debt Woes. A solution to Greece’s budget woes remains elusive for the EU. Now Fitch’s downgrade of Portugal reminds investors, again, that Athens is not alone in the dark. WALL ST JOURNAL VIDEO 

Also an article on the issue and impacts from the BBC HERE

Madeira fungi                    Thanks to Pete

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

DIÁRIO 24/03/2010

FRONT PAGE NEWS

Cleaning reveals the Fontes de João Dinis. This water source has been buried for decades in the gardens that separate the Palácio de São Lourenço from the Avenida do Mar. The mudslide that hit Funchal on the 20th February entered these gardens and on removing the debris, this public water supply was uncovered. It was built 520 years ago. In 1490, Funchal Council approved the water from the ‘Altinho das Fontes’ when they built the first fort which became the Palácio de São Lourenço. Historians have identified the Fontes de João Dinis from photographs from the 1930s, before the Avenida do Mar was constructed. Photographs from the twentieth century prove that the fountain was still in good working order. The fountain is to be left on view when the centuries old pebble pavement and gardens are renovated.

MADEIRA

Luso-Canadians gather one million Canadian dollars. Over the past month, 700,000 Canadian dollars have been collected for Madeira and the community hopes to reach one million. The campaign started on TV and radio stations for the Portuguese in Canada. A festival of folklore arranged by the Canadian Madeira Club brought together 18 dance groups and the club hosted three dinners to raise money. Last weekend, the largest union for civil construction workers held a dinner for 1,100 people and collected 280,000 Canadian dollars. The union has 46,000 members of which several thousand are Luso-Canadians.

Solidarity takes three mayors to London. Miguel Albuquerque, Ismael Fernandes and Arlindo Gomes, the Mayors of Funchal, Ribeira Brava and Câmara de Lobos, respectively, will go to the solidarity dinner in London on Saturday. All 800 tickets have been sold and the organizers could have sold another 500 if the room at the Ibis Hotel at Earls Court could accommodate more. It is uncertain if the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson can attend and the event will not be broadcasted live on RTP-Madeira as previously reported. The dinner costs a reasonable 30 pounds per person including drinks. Also present will be the President of Marítimo (Carlos Pereira), Ricardo Pestana from the Banif bank, the Ambassador of Portugal, the Portuguese Consul, the Madeiran Advisor and the leader of Lambeth Council. More than 60 volunteers will help prepare and serve food and drinks. The two singers, Vânia Fernandes and Adelaide Ferreira provide live entertainment.

ECONOMY

TUI Germany should have two winter flights again. Two charter flights that were cancelled three years ago during the winter season 2007/8 are being renegotiated. Until four years ago, these flights brought 70,000 tourists to Madeira. Over the past four years, the German market along with other European markets fell by 20%. Last year, TUI brought 50,000 tourists from Germany. Negotiations are for two flights from Frankfurt and Dusseldorf with Stuttgart as another option. If the deal materialises, TUI will no longer use Air Berlin, a low-cost carrier that connects Madeira to more than a dozen German cities, although many are indirect flights. Proposals for more routes for Air Berlin to fly to Madeira are not as promising as hoped.

Reid’s Palace is one of the ten top historic hotels.  Reid’s Palace luxury hotel, part of the Orient-Express chain, is listed as the fifth most outstanding historic hotel in Europe and the United States. The list was compiled on the British Trivago hotel comparison website from customer evaluations and prices. It is cited as having an excellent location on the south coast of Funchal and a brief history of the hotel is included on the Trivago website. The top hotel is the 1861 five-star Palace Beau Rivage in Lausanne, Switzerland. The list is HERE

JORNAL DA MADEIRA

REGION

New leader of PSD will not be invited. A few days before Friday’s election of the new national leader of the PSD, Alberto Jardim warns that there will be no-one from Lisbon invited to this year’s PSD-M Festa do Chão da Lagoa. The festa is scheduled for the last weekend in July. Jardim thinks the internal bickering and intrigues will continue within the national party. Regardless of who wins, even if it is Paulo Rangel, he says the leader could not efficiently organize the party structure. Although there are 15,000 PSD members in Madeira, only 8,000 can vote at the national level. — Jardim said the national PSD would continue "um albergue espanhol" – Spanish hostel, asylum ? Anyone know what this phrase means?

RAM wants to integrate into OSPAR. A meeting of representatives from six countries in OSPAR is being held in Funchal. The inclusion of Madeira in the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Northeast Atlantic would be beneficial to the region, along with the inclusion of the Canary Islands. The Azores are already in OSPAR. This would help to protect the marine environment which is a vital resource for Madeira. This intention must be formalized by the Regional and Republic Governments. At the conference, Madeira won praise for the protection of marine species and preservation of biodiversity. Illegal fishing in international waters is a worry for the representatives and the Madeiran fishermen are having to go further out to catch fish in deep water.

Several hypotheses for the inerts stored at the bay of Funchal. The Regional Director for the Environment acknowledged that the debris stored at the bay of Funchal prejudices the image of the city. He says it was the right decision due to the circumstances of the tragedy. It is unthinkable to move the material elsewhere on land, especially to higher areas from where it could be washed down again. It would take thousands of trucks to move it all. The several hypotheses would have to be studied both economically and environmentally. The material could be kept where it is to add another zone by the sea. It could be moved to other coastal areas requiring protection from the sea, for example the bathing complexes at Lido and Barreirinha. It could be dumped at sea, as allowed by law as it is from a tragedy, and to reduce environmental impact would have to be deposited between 2,000 – 4,000 metres deep.

EVENTS

Whale sighted off the coast of Paul. A whale was spotted about 400 metres off the coast of Paul do Mar for a few minutes at around 11.30 am. It could have been a sperm whale and was offshore near the cafe area and the statue of fishermen. Although it is normal to see whales in the region, especially in this area, it is unusual for them to be so close to land. The information is recorded on a database at the Whale Museum for the regional authorities and the European Commission and used in studies and educational programs.

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

Those made homeless forgotten in Campanário – Storm left people without house losing hope : the authorities just photographed the damage.

Collapse in telecommunications obliges the move of the networks to safer locations.

Today’s main news headline : Rangel plays down autonomy – The motion of the candidate preferred by [president] Jardim to lead the Social Democrat Party set aside just one paragraph on the autonomy issues. Hmmmm … I reckon this is a bit of naughtiness by the Diário to put a spanner in the works of President Jardim’s voting plans in tomorrow’s national PSD leadership election. I don’t think Jardim cares for any of the candidates to be honest, and he has given the PSD members on Madeira his blessing to vote for who they want (theoretically at least). What would be really interesting is if Passos Coelho wins the leadership election, because Jardim hates him with a vengeance. Should Coelho win, then we will have a bizarre situation where Jardim is then more closely aligned to his new buddy, and ex-worst enemy, Prime Minister Sócrates of the Socialists, than to his own party at national level. 

Social Democrat Party already agrees to give the votes asked for by the Socialists – Another mess in the Parliament. Serrão was not elected and asked for the intervention of [president] Cavaco. At night, the PSD said that it would give the necessary votes.

Socialist Party has an alternative PEC [Programme of Stability and Growth] for Madeira.

Incentives to businesses without tax demands.

The main sport headline today : FIA confirms triumph of Vítor Sá on Porto Santo [rally] – The software used was approved. A rival of the Madeiran had claimed that the winning car had been ‘enhanced’ outside of the rules, after last weekends victory.

Football : Twist in the ‘Hulk case’ leads to resignation of Hermínio Loureiro from the League of Clubs.

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. 

BTW – Someone sent me an email today, one of those supposedly funny ones, titled ‘How to tell male and female birds apart [without a close inspection]. It used these two Madeiran Gaivotas to illustrate the point. I am not sure I really understood the joke, and I certainly didn’t find it at all amusing, but I thought I had better warn people that it is going around. Der

Finally, from me at least, going back a few days, there was a controversial article on the website of a Welsh newspaper, which has prompted at least 3 blog readers to comment that the article is inaccurate. The article practically claimed we suffered an event of Haiti proportions last month, and that it was necessary to flee Madeira. Have a look! and maybe also comment HERE

Update from Sheila : Alone in the garden of an empty Garajau apartment, this dog is dying from neglect. The Police know about this; SPAD knows about this and many of us know about this. Attempts to trace the owner of the dog are being made, even by the President of SPAD, Sr. Goncalo Santos himself. He told me over the telephone yesterday: "I cannot break into private property to save a dog". The English tourists, who have been staying in the flat next door to the dog, have been trying to lower water and food over the wall down to the animal. Tomorrow, these visitors are returning to the U.K. Then the plight of this dog will become even more desperate.

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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 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 other material.

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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.

(more…)

Today’s photo – Many thanks to Tom … Vintage hidden view point on St. Luiza street behind house # 152. No one knows about it I guess (the correct photo this time, but I bet no one noticed except Tom)

Many thanks to Becky for these two videos :

I’m sure you must have seen this footage of a base jumper hurling himself off Cabo Girão on a motorbike, as it’s from 2006, but I hadn’t seen it before and having recently stood at the viewing point of Cabo Girão, it has made me feel a little queasy …  just the thought of it  (and what a waste of a motorbike, too!)

Some great footage of someone’s day trip to Madeira (hang on, a day trip?!) in January 2010, with a Levada walk to Queimadas, Caldeirão Verde.

Thanks a lot to Paul for these three pieces :

Should we go to Madeira? The UK Daily Telegraph, 12 March 2010: Pat Dawson, from Bath, writes : "We have booked a week’s holiday in Funchal, Madeira, starting on March 23 but it’s difficult to discover what the situation is after the terrible floods. We are reluctant to cancel as we know how much the island depends on tourism, but if the centre of Funchal is cordoned off and most of the excursions aren’t running, is it worth going? We have booked independently so we can cancel our hotel up to seven days beforehand, but we would forfeit the flight".

Gill Charlton replies : In response to the many emails we have received from readers, Telegraph Travel sent Louise Roddon to Madeira this week to assess the damage. Link to Louise Roddon article. She discovered that the capital, Funchal, has recovered remarkably quickly, while areas in the interior, such as Ribeira Brava, have borne the brunt of the landslides. The island’s famous gardens and levada walks are almost all open, as the clean-up effort continues in earnest." The Telegraph, 12 March 2010

Support for Madeira from the American Senate, Washington. “Senator Kerry said the state of Massachusetts stands proud of its long-standing historical ties to the people of Madeira. "With their seafaring and cultural traditions, Portuguese-Americans have en-riched the Bay State beyond measure," he said. "I am fortunate to be married to a woman who takes great pride in her Portuguese heritage. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Madeira as they work to overcome this disaster and rebuild their island paradise."

Photo : Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts

Sen. Brown reminded how a tragedy like the one occurred in Madeira can reveal the strength of the bonds that exist within communities.

"In this case, the bonds are very strong as Massachusetts owes a good deal of its history to the contributions of Portuguese-Americans," he said. "We offer thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families, and our full support in their time of need."

Sen. Reed said U.S. officials continue to work to ensure the safety and well being of about 400 U.S. citizens on the island.” Link to full article

Archaeologists declare nail a ‘fantasy’ crucifixion-relic. "AN ARCHAEOLOGIST who identified a first-century Roman nail, which has been claimed as a possible holy relic kept by the Knights Templar in Madeira, said last week that it could not possibly have been used in a crucifixion."

Elaine found a couple of articles in The Portugal News Online:

Government measures welcomed. Prime Minister José Sócrates was this week the recipient of unprecedented praise as he unveiled a host of measures to quell fears Portugal could follow in Greece’s footsteps and further undermine confidence in the financial stability of the Euro Zone and its members. HERE

Guess what? It was a wet February, says Met Office. Data from the IM shows that large quantities of rain fell last month, particularly in Madeira, where average daily quotas of rain were between 144.3 millilitres (on February 20th) and 129 millilitres (February 2nd), in Funchal. HERE

Diário today repeated this article but added that Funchal had 3% more visits and 8% more passengers in transit (yearly total of 435,821). Portugal sets new record for number of cruise ship visitors. Last year cruise ships brought a record-breaking number of passengers to Portugal, setting a new high after more than 940,000 tourists disembarked from their liners at a Portuguese port. HERE 

Tess emailed with this, thanks : "A few days back you had a feature on the blog about UK company ‘Naturetrek’ promoting a whale-watching holiday to Madeira.  This was also featured in the Travel Section of last Saturday’s UK Guardian under recommended family activity breaks in Europe.  A 5-day holiday joining a team of marine biologists for daily whale & dolphin watching trips on a privately chartered vessel costing from £895 inclusive of flights, transfers, accommodation, most meals, boat trips & guiding.  Seems that the UK papers are doing their bit to get the tourists coming back.  Fantastic!" TESS’S BLOG

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

DIÁRIO 13/03/2010

FRONT PAGE NEWS

Police officers have to pay hospital charges for treating offenders. Police officers are being notified by the Hospital of Funchal to pay the cost of medical care of individuals with whom they have engaged in physical confrontation while working for the police service. The president of their union said this is unique in the country and is "absurd and unacceptable". The bill for medical treatment is sent to those whom the victim perceives to be the perpetrator of the aggression. 98% of notifications are not paid and the health service resorts to litigation procedures. The police are taking their case to the national director of the police force.

MADEIRA

Santa Cruz seeks justice in resettlement. Delays in the relocation of 51 homeless families in Santa Cruz is intentional and designed to avoid situations of injustice among the population in need. This is the conclusion drawn from words spoken by the Deputy Mayor of Santa Cruz. "We could have already relocated all the families but they would be more satisfied if they were in other areas. We have talked to the homeless on the situation and they all prefer to be resettled in their parish of residence. We do not rehouse the families from Santo da Serra in Funchal." "The Council has made every effort so people can return to their homes, but this was only possible in cases that just required clearing the access or the threat of landslides." In total, 12 families have been resettled and the five who remain in shelters should be relocated next week. The number of homeless families in Santa Cruz decreased from 83 to 63 this past week. 12 of these are related to the housing recovery project, leaving a total of 51 requiring permanent accommodation.

Caracas reunion of 600 people for Madeira. More than 600 people attended the Thursday evening party of solidarity (vinhada) in Caracas for the victims of the storms in Madeira. The organizers are counting on the support of the Venezuelan authorities, taking into account the system of exchange controls in force in the country that prevent freely obtaining foreign currency. If the money is transferred at the official exchange rate, it will be worth three times as much (in Euros) than at the unofficial market rate. It helps that the Venezuelan Government understands the great need of Madeira at the moment. —Hugo Chavez offered help to the Regional Government but I never found out if they took up the offer, so I presume they did not.

AJAMPS gave a homeless baby a surprise. The Young Entrepreneurs of Madeira and Porto Santo (AJAMPS) surprised Letícia Oriana on her first birthday with birthday cakes and a performance by clowns. The family were made homeless after the storm of February 20th and are staying at a Youth Hostel. They lived with their grandmother near Trapice in Santo António, Funchal. The house accommodated six people and sustained considerable damage and the ceilings are at risk of falling down. The 57 displaced people staying in the hostel were invited to lunch and dinner paid for by AJAMPS. Contributions were from members, friends and businesses and the vice president said it was rewarding to see these people smile.

Penalties in civil service affect region. Government employees in Madeira did not join the nationwide strike on March 4th, due to the recent disaster that hit the region. The Stability and Growth Pact passed by the Portuguese Government applies to civil servants in Madeira. Measures introduced to decrease the budget deficit are: freezing of wages; increased taxes on income over 150,000 Euros; retirement age increased from 62.5 to 63 and to 65 in 2012/2013; for early retirement the penalty increases from 4.5% to 6% of pension for each year. The latter measure was envisaged for 2015 but has been brought forward to 2010. The autonomies have some power to mitigate some of the points in question but the regional governments have not expressed an intention to reverse these national rules.

Madeirans complain more. The Serviço de Defesa do Consumidor (SDC) has been in greater demand by local people. Last year they received 624 complaints, far more than the 467 in 2008. In 2009, SDC responded to 4,398 requests, of which 3,774 were for information. The remaining 624 cases were complaints that centred around: movable property (208), real estate (108), banks and finance companies (93), essential services (90), transport (47), tourism and leisure (22), distance selling (21) and insurance (16). More people (1,068) needed debt counselling and information before using credit. 104 cases involved arbitration. They can also resolve complaints from citizens of other European countries who purchase goods or services from entities located in the region.

POLITICS

Solidarity in London unites mayor and Albuquerque. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London and Miguel Albuquerque, the Mayor of Funchal are the leading players in a day of solidarity for Madeira, which takes place on Saturday March 27th in London. A fundraising dinner for 800 diners in Earls Court is the primary activity of a day that will also have other events with a single objective; raising money for authorities and institutions that are spearheading the reconstruction of affected areas and supporting people affected by the floods. The dinner is in the Ibis Hotel in Earls Court, one of the most prestigious in London. The Madeiran businessman José Silva has organized the events after being contacted by a group of friends in London. All the local Portuguese community organizations and the Ambassador and Consulate of Portugal in London have been directly involved. Other fundraising events are: raffles, auctions and other similar activities; contributions from individuals and large companies; contact with the media and exclusive interviews with Sky News and Sky Sports are being negotiated to highlight the cause. The President of CS Marítimo will be present, along with other sporting personalities who will be announced soon. Entertainment at the dinner event is provided by Maria Aurora from the program ‘Atlântida’ presented by RTP-Internacional, and possibly Madeira’s celebrity singer Vânia Fernandes will attend.

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

Users want Lido ready for Summer – Even without the swimming pool, the bathing complex is in the Summer projects. But Funchal Council does not guarantee reopening, even partial. Come rain or shine, Summer or Winter, the weekends are not the same without a trip to the Lido bathing complex. The destruction caused by the storm does not deter the regulars at the Lido complex, remaining faithful to the location, at least whilst the beach remains open. The restoration works needed will mean the closure of the complex, which is not going down well with some regulars, who want the sea access to remain open, and other spaces left open, with just the pool closed. I have to say that this ‘statement’ from the Diário took opinions from just a handful of people who frequent the facility at Lido, and is hardly representative of many thousands of people who at the moment have far more important and complex priorities.

Today’s main news headline : Stone of the storms causes row – Santa Costa ordered the taking of stones from the storm torrents to the marina at Lugar de Baixo. Then, he retreated, the president of Ribeira Brava appearing in the confusion. The question persists : the stone is being given or sold?

One doesn’t mess with nature – The alert comes from Segadães Tavares, an engineer that has received awards, by the way of the destruction of February, for example with the bridges. "That what is cheap ends up expensive", he reminds. Accompanied by a picture of the bridge over the Ribeira Brava, in the process of being pulled down after the February stone damage. It’s about time someone with credibility came along and said this. A few days after the storm that caused so much death and destruction, President Jardim was quoted in the media [I can't remember the exact words, but this is close enough] … "We have been hit by nature before, and come back to win, and we will do so again". What sort of message does that send to a population who look to Jardim for leadership, and even sensible advice? Everyone with their head screwed on knows that you don’t mess with nature, you work in harmony and within constraints … that is if you want to avoid problems in the future of course.

Beneficiaries of social integration growing – In just one year, the social security payments increased to take in another 1,277 claimants. Today the total is 8,122.  The beneficiaries of this social support received, on average, just €92.81 in January, a little below the national average. The growth in the claimants shown is from December 2008 to December 2009. The number of claimants has been growing since 2005, except for a slight exception in 2008. The true number of poor people who need this support is not discussed, as not everybody qualifies of course, but there are I know many many more worthy cases than stated in the headline figure from the Social Security report.

Storm confuses the strategy of [Jacinto] Serrão – Leader of the socialist party of Madeira believes that it is possible to beat Jardim.

Jardim considers that the extraordinary convention "is not going to get anywhere". In the week that precedes the direct [leadership] elections Jardim is going to get together with the PSD party activists in all the regions of Madeira.

The main sports / football headline today : Wave of red invades the Choupana [the stadium of Nacional] this afternoon – Nacional hosts the league leaders in a stadium where one foresees a clear majority of Benfica supporters. L.F. Vieira promises housing to some families made homeless by the bad weather.

Many thanks to Elaine (West) for this piece from today’s Jornal da Madeira:

“Help for Madeira” in Machico Forum. On Saturday, April 20 there will be a solidarity show entitled "Help Madeira” in Machico Forum. The event, organized by the Council of Machico, is aimed at raising revenue to help in the reconstruction of Madeira. Beginning at 20.30, the show will feature several figures and prominent guests in the field of regional music and, in particular, of the county.

The programme includes performances by Vânia Fernandes (closing the show), Pedro Garcia and Sara Cooper, former competitors from "A Song For You", the group Flores de Maio, Claudia Nobrega, São de Leste, the Grupo de Fados de Machico, the “tuna” of the Banda Municipal de Machico / Casa do Povo of Machico, Amigos da Música/De Passagem, Prestige Dance, Metamorfose, Nuno Nicolau, Folk Group of Machico, among others. The show is expected to last about three hours.Tickets are on sale from the Freguesia in Machico and at the Machico Forum priced ten Euros.

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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