Madeira News Blog

(24th July). Today’s main news headline : ’296 More In The Army Of Unemployed – Madeira was the region of Portugal that registered the highest (%) leap in unemployment in June. One year ago we had 8,244 without work and today we have 12,483. They are the worst numbers in 40 years’. Unemployment Increased 2.4% In The Month Of June, with 12,483 people signing-on in the Regional Institute of Employment. Or to make it sound even worse, the increase is 47.4% up on the same month in 2008. The 2.4% is the increase from May to June this year. Madeira is in 2nd place for the worst unemployment deterioration in Portugal over a year, with the Algarve registering an increase of 91.5% since June last year, whilst the Azores are in 3rd place (40.3%). What a nightmare, and whilst it doesn’t say what the current rate is against people who work / want to work, it is about 5% of the whole population. 1st quarter figures from the National Institute of Statistics showed official unemployment here at 6.8%. The Government of Madeira, through the Regional Secretary of Human Resources, gave the usual comment on the registered unemployment with the statement: "We continue to notice some slowdown, because the increase in the month of May is less than the case for April" (or something along those lines). I reckon that makes employment here around 7.4%, still lower than the national level of around 9%.

‘Portuguese Point Out Communication Failures In Banks – 75% of those asked consider that nothing has improved in the ability to talk to the account managers’. Nothing has changed due to the crisis a study reveals that was published yesterday, and 48% of respondents expressed concern about the security of their savings.

‘Tourism Lost €309 Million In The First 5 Months Of This Year – The secretary responsible for tourism promises a pro-active attitude from the government’. The €309 million (12%) lost is for all of Portugal, and the prime reason is a 25% drop in receipts from English tourism. Despite the headline, no mention of what this pro-active attitude here is? Doesn’t pro-active mean doing something before it goes pear-shaped?

‘Air Nostrum Starts Charter Operation From Bilbao And Valencia To Madeira – Four weekly connections will run until the end of September’. The charter company of Iberia starts the service today, with flights on Fridays and Sundays, and if all goes to plan should bring over 3,000 Spanish tourists here. The Spanish market for tourism on Madeira dropped 32.6% last year compared to 2007, in terms of tourist numbers, and 24.3% in hotel night reservations.

This from the Journal : ‘Increased Metrological Stations – Two new units installed in Santa in Porto Moniz and São Lourenço in Caniçal’. The Institute of Meteorology has just installed two new weather monitoring stations, that are now activated. The new facilities will provide better weather vigilance and hence forecasting, and reflect in the safety of people and property, as well as air and sea transport, says a spokesman. The operation and collection of data is completely automated, and the two new additions bring the total number of weather stations on Madeira to seven, the others being in Funchal, São Jorge, Ponta do Pargo, Ponta do Sol, and Areeiro.

And another from the Journal : ‘Promenade Of Porto da Cruz Will Proceed in 2011′. The Madeira government has approved a project to construct the promenade, that will serve as an access to Maiata beach, with 2011 being the most likely date for construction to start. The article lists quite a few projects that were approved, including public gardens, a music hall, and car parks in various locations, but as the headline was Porto da Cruz I will leave it there.

I noticed today that the Diário has put the letter of complaint, submitted to the competition authorities, back on the front page of the website. I didn’t remember that it was as long ago as April last year, well that is the date of the letter at least. The complaint is about the anti-competitive practices of the technically bankrupt government owned newspaper ‘Journal da Madeira’, as well as inappropriate use of taxpayers money to keep it going. The whole situation seems to have died a death since the complaint was made. The letter in English is here if anyone needs a refresher DIARIO COMPETITION COMPLAINT

President Jardim has gone quiet, reluctant to talk to the press, but I don’t think it will last. He is cheesed of at the press boycott of coverage of his plans for constitutional review and the debate in the regional assembly on Wednesday. "The debate wasn’t transmitted, just some small reports,  and even the radio went to Curral das Freiras as if it were more important", he said. Poor Bertie, no doubt the management of your newspaper the ‘Journal’ will be punished for their lack of effort.

As you know most of the opposition parties boycotted the debate on Wednesday, organising their own session to discuss the ‘real issues’. They returned to assembly yesterday to find that the PSD were continuing the debate in an attempt to revive interest. The PS, PCP, BE and PND were all back in force, but sat through the session in silence. The discussion will continue on Tuesday, the final meeting of this legislative session.

(16th June). ‘Revalue Emigrants – Strengthen partnerships with Portuguese Abroad’. The Secretary of State for Communities, António Braga, warned yesterday of the need for the entire government to engage in the "revaluation of the Portuguese living abroad", and converting that into "concrete actions". "I speak of a population estimated at around five million people, of businessmen, that already exceed about 120 thousand companies". He believes that there is an urgency to strengthen the visibility and recognition through programs and activities "in the field of economy, culture, and preservation of language". He adds "the programs devoted to stimulating investment in Portugal have to take into account those partners living outside of Portugal". That had never occurred to me before, but it makes a lot of sense in a country of 10 million, to rope in another 5 million emigrants to buy products and materials here through their businesses abroad. Now if Madeira were to take the same approach on it’s own, if successful it would probably be out of crisis in a month, there being so many emigrants, but there is one flaw in that plan … how does one export tourism, our main industry.

’73% Of Portuguese Do Not Trust Government Policies To Combat Corruption – The majority believe that government policies are ineffective in this area’. That’s according to an international agency that specialises in this area, and means in terms of confidence the Portuguese people have the 5th lowest opinion in this area in Europe, just behind Greece and Bulgaria, with Israel leading the corruption belief stakes with 86% of their public vote. The author of the study said "corruption is now a truly global phenomenon". Was it ever any different? I am surprised that only 73% were untrusting, but perhaps the other 27% had nice cars and houses, and worked in government.

‘Permits For Foreigners Limited From Yesterday – Until the end of this year only 3,800 new permits of residents will be issued to foreigners’. I already covered this a few weeks ago, and should mention that this does not include European Union citizens who have a right to live here. The justification for the restriction is of course the economic crisis. That limit itself imposes a maximum number of 89 permits for Madeira for the rest of this year. Last year Portugal allowed 8,600 non-EU foreigners to live and work in Portugal. Associations representing immigrants felt that this was "regrettable", "disturbing", "discriminatory", "protectionist", "immoral" and "incoherent."

The Employers’ Confederation yesterday warned Prime Minister, José Sócrates, that the ‘breath’ of Portuguese companies is coming to an end, and consider that there is an urgent need to strengthen measures to support business and to revive the economy. Also, the President of the Confederation of Tourism of Portugal (CTP), asked the Prime Minister to not reduce the measures to support business in the country, because they think that the crisis is now coming to an end.

‘The Government Will Order Vaccine Against Influenza A – Only 5 to 30% of the population will have access’. That was revealed yesterday by the Health Minister Ana Jorge. "This has to do with the sectors of society that we have to cover" she says, stressing that has not yet been defined the sector of the population that should receive the vaccine. "Today, the Ministry of Health and its team are in discussion to reach a decision within a few days" she said, and was expecting the World Health Organization (WHO) "to give some guidance on who should be vaccinated, with the certainty that there will not be enough vaccine for everyone in the world".  Currently, Portugal has confirmed three cases of patients with influenza A H1N1, or Gripe A as it is known here. Ok, let me try and help start the list off … Health Ministers, families of health ministers, politicians, families of politicians, senior civil servants, families of senior civil servants … that should be the 30% quota reached already.

‘Marote Confesses Fear Of The Madeira Series – The President of AFM is nervous with the uncertainty’. Rui Marote, President of the Football Association of Madeira, is concerned that with just three months to go until a new league structure is introduced, most clubs have no idea of where they fit in, or what the overall format is. This was all supposed to be resolved and communicated at the end of January, but some developments in the Portuguese Football Association delayed everything. The fine details won’t be known until after another meeting on 23th of this month, but the gist is that by the 2010 / 2011 season there is pro-national division, with regional first and second divisions at a national level. Confused? Join the club!

In Wednesday night’s derby football match between Nacional and Marítimo, the away team won 0 – 2. Marítimo will now go on to play Caniçal in the final of the Taça da Madeira (Madeira Cup), which I think is next Tuesday. That will have Uncle Bertie drooling then, but sorry to spoil it, ‘cos the competition is pants. I even reckon Nacional missed their penalty on purpose. Qualification for Europe is something special, whereas winning the Madeira Cup is pretty much a 50/50 chance between two teams.

Cristiano Ronaldo can start reorganising his trophy cabinet to make way for the English premiership title award. Manchester United need just one more point to be sure, with two matches remaining. However, wonder boy was overlooked this year for the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year Award, as it went to some other bloke in a red shirt.

This weekend’s football highlight is the visit of second place Sporting Lisbon to Madeira, to play Marítimo. Sporting have nothing to play for except pride, so maybe a shock result is on the cards. That’s on Saturday at 7.45pm (SportTV2). Nacional receive Paços de Ferreira on Sunday, and still have a faint glimmer of hope for a champions league play-off place, although that is in the hands of others. That is also on TV at 7pm (SportTV1).