"Docking early in Funchal meant there was plenty of time to explore the city before taking an afternoon excursion. A member of the crew then introduces everyone to each other which is a nice and informal way to get to know your shipmates. Funchal is a bustling city and I soon found myself at the indoor flower, vegetable and fish market. It was fun to wander around the groaning stalls of fruit and to see the magnificent display of fish. And as for the flowers, they were stunning and I couldn’t resist buying a bunch of roses for my cabin". A reporter for the UK Daily Mirror newspaper took a cruise that took in Madeira, a place she seemed pretty struck by. FULL ARTICLE

Boeing 737-800 – From Wien to Madeira Funchal with Lauda Air. Yes, it’s another one of those ‘pilot’s view’ videos, but this one is a little different if you have 8 minutes to spare. It shows the take of from a snowy runway, and the landing at Madeira Airport from the other ‘easy’ end.

Some more from Becky’s latest batch of interesting web links :

Madeira is a property hot-spot according to this recent article. VESTED INTERESTS?

Here’s a blog from some cruise passengers.  Although I love to see the cruise ships coming in and out of Funchal, is it just me or is the photo of all those identical balconies rather depressing.? I love to look at them, but would hate to be on one. Which makes it all the more puzzling why "Torsten" only got off the ship to go to a shopping centre! bem-vindo a Funchal

Caught in the act? Becky reckons this lad was having a grope of this statue’s feminine assets in Santa Catarina Park and was caught on this webcam grab on Saturday. Captions invited.

Vanessa Swesnik has kindly done a full and exact translation of the article covered yesterday by Elaine. The original article link is given below, for any Portuguese students who might find it useful.

Region has a Scarcity of Park Rangers – Currently, the regional corps has about 30 staff members. Currently there are only a few more than three dozen people in the region working as Park Rangers. The number has grown substantially since 1988 when the first corps of Rangers (then three or four) was created; however, there are still not enough for the large array of tasks undertaken by these professionals.

During this week in which another National Park Ranger Day is celebrated, João Paulo Mendes, president of the Association of Madeira Park Rangers (Associação de Vigilantes da Natureza da Madeira- AVNM) explained to the DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS that with the current legislation in force, the area allows for up to 50 Rangers. “Even that wouldn’t be very many,” he states.

Over the past few years, protected areas and natural reserves have grown under the auspices of the Madeira Park Services (Serviço do Parque Natural da Madeira- SPNM). Additionally, every year the number of conservation and preservation projects (in terms of animal and plant species) grow and the SPNM Rangers are asked more and more to support awareness-raising actions and environmental education projects in schools and other establishments.

João Paulo Mendez says that even though much of the community associates Ranger work with just keeping an eye on things, the truth is that these professionals do much more than “keep watch over” important areas.

“We work in a variety of functions,” he clarifies. “From environmental education to conservation projects of the Park Services – we also work as guides when people visit reserves and when we are stationed on the Desert and Savage Islands we have to do a little bit of everything because we are more isolated.

Despite currently being few in number, one of the other challenges faced by the regional corps is that no new Park Rangers have come aboard over the past past few years. “All of them are in the same age group [between 30 and 35], and if no new Rangers enter the corps, we will have a group that is too old to respond to daily demands within 15 years.”

According to the AVNM President, the daily work is complicated because in the grand majority of cases it demands a lot of skill and physical strength. “For example, some surrenders are made by boat, we have to load materials, collaborate on Freira da Madeira’s and Freira do Búgio’s conservation projects, and we have to know how to mountain climb and rappel,” João Paulo Mendes explains.

The three week tours on the Desert and Savage Islands aren’t easy either, although improvements in mobile communications have minimized the effect of separation from family and friends.

“Park Rangers either enjoy their work, or they don’t make it.” Regardless, João Paulo Mendes says the work is very gratifying in that Park Rangers can see the results up close of that conservation projects implemented by the Region.

Celebrations: National Day of Celebration in the Region on Tuesday : The AVNM is promoting a commemorative event for National Park Ranger Day this Tuesday, February 2 with the objective of “raising awareness of the profession and its importance in the world of nature and biodiversity conservation.”

The event will take place in the auditorium of the Regional Authority of the Environment and Natural Resources in the Golden Building (Secretária Regional do Ambiente e Recursos Naturais – Edifício Golden) at about 9:15 AM with an opening session presided over by the Director of the Madeira Park Service, Paulo Oliveira, and followed by another opening statement by the President of AVNM, João Paulo Mendes. Afterwards at 9:30 AM there will be a presentation by Park Ranger Nélson Pereira on “The Park Ranger’s Contribution to Nature Conservancy in Madeira” and another on “Biodiversity post 2010” by Domingos Abreu, President of The Order of Biologists.

There will even be a debate moderated by Paulo Oliveira followed by a speech at 11:00 AM by the Regional Environmental Secretary, Manual António Correira, and then an appreciation ceremony to praise local Park Rangers with outstanding job performance. The Closing Ceremony is scheduled for 11:30 AM.

In addition to this celebration, AVNM is working with its National counterpart in placing a bid to receive the 2012 International Rangers Convention. João Paulo Mendes says that if the event takes place here, it will be a good opportunity to publicize Park Rangers’ work here and throughout the world. FULL ARTICLE IN PORTUGUESE

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

Madeira Tourism Site – Information for February.

Tourist Entertainment Calendars for 2010, 2011 and 2012 in Portuguese, English, French, German and Spanish.

5th to 16th – Carnival Celebrations – Funchal. Carnival, one of the main tourist attractions of Madeira, is fiercely enjoyed by both Madeirans and the hundreds of tourists who visit us. It is a week of "revelry", which invades the hotels, bars and nightclubs, transforming them into continuous parties. This atmosphere of boundless joy bubbles with astoundingly creative and imaginative initiatives that find themselves audaciously parodied in the Slapstick Parade that takes place on the Tuesday of Carnival. The highlight of the celebrations is on the Saturday night (13 February) when the majestic float parade takes to the avenues of Funchal. Various groups with thousands of participants take part in this parade, flooding the city with music and joy.

The Tuesday of Carnival (16 February) is reserved for the Slapstick Parade. This is a typically Madeiran parade, open to all, where humour and social satire are the main themes. Gigantic puppets, floats and many "bunglers" entertain and interact with the public in a manner that nobody takes the wrong way. The detailed programme can be found HERE

6th to 7th – Festa dos Compadres – Santana. The Festa dos Compadres is a celebration that marks the start of Carnival in Madeira. Giant puppets travel the main streets of Santana, a small and peaceful town located on the north coast of the Island of Madeira, transforming it into the setting for a parade of humour, lots of colour and joy.

DRAC site – Cultural Agenda for February can be downloaded.

DIÁRIO 01/02/2010 – FRONT PAGE HEADLINES

Serrão asks Cavaco to intervene in debt. "It is a problem of the regime. There must be an upper intervention. The President must intervene." This is the position of Jacinto Serrão on the amount of debt of the region, its consequences and the attitude of the Regional Government, especially Ventura Garcês. The new president of the Socialist Party, Serrão, said he would inform the President of Portugal, Cavaco Silva, to intervene in the case. During the debate and approval of the Regional Budget for this year, Ventura Garcês only admitted to 1.2 billion Euros of direct debt and hid the indirect debt, despite being confronted by deputies of the opposition parties. Serrão considers this a serious situation and shows that Ventura Garcês cannot resolve the situation and must resign. According to this socialist’s calculations, at a 5% interest rate on the 5 billion Euros total debt of Madeira, the interest is 250 million Euros per year, 20% of the Regional Budget. He says this is an impossible situation which cannot be solved without the intervention of the State. But you have to assign responsibilities and they are on the side of Jardim’s Government. It is an episode with negative consequences for the lives of Madeirenses. During the debate on the budget, the socialists calculated the total debt as nearly 6 billion Euros but Ventura Garcês said it would not exceed 2 billion Euros and he would "teach the opposition how to make accounts," and that the direct debt would not exceed 18% PIB (GDP).

MADEIRA

Landings limited. The reason why several SATA and TAP planes could not land in poor weather conditions during the last two weeks of December whereas other planes, EasyJet and some from European capitals could, was the extra safety restrictions of TAP and SATA airlines.  A TAP spokesman said the planes only land when the conditions are ideal for security and every company sets its own security standards. Aircraft failing to land cost more than those that land. Despite this, the other airlines are not breaching safety regulations of the airport or INAC, National Institute of Civil Aircraft.

ECONOMY

Campaigns that marked 2009. Still end of year round-ups. The most remembered adverts were for Meo and Orange telecommunications firms and Pingo Doce supermarket chain. Marktest survey found 4/10 respondents remembered the campaigns with Meo Gato Fedorento, 3.4 the TMN advert and 3.4 the Pingo Doce brand. Of the brands recalled, Coca-Cola dominated followed by Optimus, Jumbo (Portuguese supermarket chain), Modelo and Zon, showing that advertisements of telephone operators and supermarkets are the most successful.

Investment in a forest has a good return. The Portuguese can now invest in a forest. A Spanish company, Madeiras Nobres, has a branch in Portugal and will start planting trees this month at the Casal do Serrão in Loures. The return on the investment is between 8 and 13% per year depending on the batch of trees purchased. The company buys the land, plants hardwood trees – carvalhos, castanheiros or nogueiras – and cultivates them. The investor does not pay anything beyond the initial outlay and when the life cycle is complete and the tree harvested and sold, 90% of the sale goes to the investor and 10% to the firm. "This is a forestry investment with a big return." People who invest in forests "will have an economic return in the future". In addition to providing income, the trees produce oxygen, water-retaining soil, absorb carbon dioxide, combat desertification and produce high quality woods, helping to preserve virgin rain forests. Carvalhos (oaks) will be planted and the life cycle lasts 22 years. Each lot costs 1,700 Euros and a conservative annual return is around 9%.

Brazilian tourists this Easter. The Brazilian tour operator, Bis, in its program for Portugal includes an extension to Madeira this year. Tourists will fly from Salvador to Lisbon then to Madeira. Since last year, customers have shown more interest in visiting Madeira. The program is in conjunction with Windsor Travel, representing the Brazilian operator in Madeira. There are no official regional tourist promotion agencies in Brazil although interest was shown last October at the largest Latin American tourist fair in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s economy is in the fifth place globally and the currency is robust, so Brazilians are a great potential in terms of holidaymakers.

POLITICS

Câmara de Lobos asks for more than 900 thousand Euros. Espada to Venezuela and help to Timor. At the council’s public meeting, they focused on the need for a short-term loan of 900,000 Euros. This decision needs ratification by the Municipal Assembly. The Carnival in Câmara de Lobos will need an investment of 21,000 Euros; money is required for the air fares for a câmara-lobense, Tiago Brito, to take part in the 19ª Maratona de Lisboa; approval was given for the membership of the council to the Associação de Municípios Portugueses do Vinho; 1,250 Euros for the renovation of the Mercado de Bacau in East Timor and expenses for sending 300 kilos of espada preto to Latin America for the  4º Encontro dos ‘Filhos de Câmara de Lobos na Venezuela’. — 300 kilos of black scabbard fish – how many will that feed / costs?

CULTURE

‘The Nature of Things’ in John dos Passos. The Centro Cultural John dos Passos in Ponta do Sol, opens on Thursday 4 February a group exhibition entitled ‘The Nature of Things’. This is the first of ten exhibitions scheduled for this year. The centre can show new talent and allow local artists to exhibit their work, an opportunity they would not normally have. This exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, photography and drawings. One of the five exhibitors is António Pascal, who interprets various stories and legends of the region and draws satirical cartoons. Examples of his work HERE. — His webpage is interesting.

JORNAL DA MADEIRA

CRIAMAR have new project. This association supports young people and has a new project named the Sol da Esperança (Sun of Hope). This was unveiled at yesterday’s car boot sale (Feira da Amizade). Funds raised from this new venture are for young people too old to continue in institutions but too young / unable to be employed, i.e. 15 – 20 years old. Two ex-users of Aldeia da Paz are funded to help with the renovation of Abrigo da Nossa Senhora da Conceição, one of whom is waiting for a place on a course run by the Pestana hotel group. There are already more than ten names on the waiting list for funding. Yesterday’s Feira da Amizade was poorly attended by both vendors and visitors as it rained heavily all day. There were 10 stalls and the visitors were mainly foreigners. The fairs will be held in the car park of the Pestana Casino of Madeira, from 10 – 17 on the last Sunday of every month. Anyone can sell items for this charity and further information is at: CAR BOOT SALE.

Two more acupuncture centres in the region. Since the opening of the Acupuncture Centre in Funchal in 2001, the response rate has been quite large as people have seen good results in various illnesses. People are more informed today and have either previously used acupuncture or know others who have. Two more centres will open this year and they hope to have demonstrations at this year’s Chinese Medicine meeting. Most of the treatments are given for pain and allergic conditions, especially respiratory. Combined with a diet plan, weight loss can be achieved and Chinese medicine can treat almost all illnesses. Children of any age can be treated and they can use a laser device instead of needles.

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

SIAP gives deadline to the command in order to keep the commissioner away – After going to the Ministry, the Trade Union is preparing itself to go to take the case of Roberto Fernandes to the Public Prosecutor. This follows the headline from a few days ago, when the TU representing police officers tried to escalate within the political system in Portugal, the case of a police commissioner who is alleged to have different sets of rules for his troops and the senior officers. Now the Independent Union for Police Agents (SIAP) has launched a national petition calling for the acquittal of police officers charged under the disciplinary regime of commissioner Roberto Fernandes, and has given the Regional Police Command a two week deadline to remove Fernandes from his current duties, under the threat of exposing the ‘dossier of protectionism’. The ‘dossier’ has already been given to the national director of the PSP police force following advice given to the TU official by the responsible Minister for Internal Affairs. This story just gets weirder and weirder, but hopefully will expose any wrongdoings and result in a cleaner more accountable police force.

SIC refuses to divulge voting in the [Pop] ‘Idols’ [competition]. Carlos Costa complains of the jury, that made biased appeals. The young man from Porto Moniz is out of the competition, saying that the jury on the TV show appealed for votes for the other contestants.

Today’s main news headline : Four years of losses given as profit – Engineering accounting allows ‘Valor Ambiente’ to present an administration with a negative result of 10 million Euros as a profit of €5 million. And the total liabilities are 177 million Euros. A bit of trouble translating that headline, and I am not sure that even now it is 100% right, so I certainly won’t be attempting the whole story.

In politics : Albuquerque against the Jardim theory – The leader [Jardim] wants the major meeting of the national Social Democrat Party closed to the media. The Funchal counsellor already feels "foolish" about the ‘closed door’ conventions. President Jardim and leader of the PSD-M feels that a closed event is needed because the party is going through a difficult time. The previous Regional Convention was also behind closed doors.

Filipe de Sousa rejects return to the Socialist Party of [Jacinto] Serrão. Sousa and his ex-PS-M pals in Santa Cruz broke away from the party to form the JPP (Juntos pelo Povo), which had some impressive success in last years local elections. But now that ex-party leader Gouveia has been sidelined, the new leader has appealed for those who distanced themselves from the party to return. "Out of the question" says Sousa. A shame really as the PS is the only party that has any chance of scoring any victories over the PSD-M in the coming years, and some sort of alliance would benefit all concerned, especially now the new leadership gives opportunities for a fresh start, and Uncle Bertie’s lot are really in the hot seat over debt and finances. Maybe our man in the Cruz will have a word in the ear of Sr. Sousa, for the benefit of Madeira, not just politics.

The main sport / football headline today : Victory in Matasinhos interrupts the suffering of the Verde-Rubro [Green-Reds] – The end of the game yesterday was a double relief : to guarantee a victory suffered away to the detriment of Leixões (1 – 2) and for interrupting a cycle of four defeats.

Argelino Abdelmalek Cherrad reinforces the Verde-Rubro attack. The normally unflappable Tánia Spinola, the news presenter for the TV station RTP Madeira, was stopped in her tracks on this story this morning. Eventually she got a similar sounding name out, making the excuse that it "was very difficult to pronounce".

Also lots of bad weather stories today, or should I say damage caused by the bad weather. Bad weather causes collapses, floods, and fall of trees. Santana was the area worst hit, with various streets cut off due to landslides or rockfalls. Walls also fell, but there is no account of any personal injury. The airport is working as normal, although one plane was diverted to Lisbon due to the rain. Three schools in Madeira closed due to bad weather. The children of the schools of Porto da Cruz, São Roque do Faial and Santana will be most disappointed today. Der forced by rain to stay in pub until long after closing time. Blog writer Der, when out for a walk last night, was forced with a friend into a pub by driving horizontal rain. Unable to borrow an umbrella, the two were forced to stay there with other customers who were unable to leave on foot. After two hours the landlord called time, and gave those stranded a lift home. Jesus … poor guy! No wonder his blog is late today.

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 photo or video, 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.

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More titbits (2) from Becky … many thanks. "In 1420, a genuinely epochal event took place on a small, isolated, previously uninhabited island in the Atlantic, some 360 miles west of Morocco. That year, the Portuguese fleet – the most advanced in the world at the time, thanks to Prince Henry the Navigator – located Madeira. Within two years they had established an agricultural colony there. It was the first great stride in European imperialism, the first of the west’s extra-European, extra-Mediterranean possessions, the first overseas colony to be settled and developed for the benefit of the motherland … "Madeira is a quirk, a lovely quirk". A SHORT HISTORY OF MADEIRA I don’t know if it is all factual, but definitely an interesting short read. Der

"The slave, in many societies, apart from the economic function, also affirmed itself by the sumptuary value, being, in some of them, a way of social distinction. In Madeira, just like in some European areas, this is evident, as it can be observed in the works of Gaspar Frutuoso. In relation to Machico, he says: "there were many coloured females and very well treated and of rich voices, which is a sign of the old nobility of its residents, as in all the big and rich houses there is this multiplication of the servers". However, in the Lombada of Arco da Calheta, lived Dona Isabel de Abreu, the widower of Joao Rodrigues de Noronha, son of Funchal’s captain, with two farms "very thick", having at her service a female moor as "her private". Slavery in Madeira in the 15th and 16th centuries

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"I think I found heaven in Funchal. It is this small, beautiful island owned by Portugal. I even asked the car rental place if they were hiring, but since I don’t speak Portuguese, they had no idea what I was saying!! The city was really beautiful and clean, the mountain villages were so romantic, and the cliffs by the ocean … oh the cliffs!! I lovered it!" An extract from a cruisers blog, but not much else said, but there are a few photos HERE. We lovered having you here too Hayley, on the island of Funchal.

Paul (Paul do Mar) kindly sent in this next contribution :

Surfing in Madeira: Paul do Mar, Calheta

link copyright free

“Paul do Mar is the most consistent spot on the Island”. “Paul do Mar is the most consistent spot on the Island” writes a Brit here in Madeira last year 2009 surfing and on his honeymoon!

“Madeira is basically a huge rock sticking out the sea, about 1 hr wide and 30 minutes top to bottom by car.” So let’s talk about the surf in Madeira first. Madeira is basically a huge rock sticking out the sea, about 1 hr wide and 30 minutes top to bottom by car. There’s 18 known spots and ALL of them are pretty tricky to surf.

"here’s the bad news..". 5 of the spots are very rarely surfed due to being difficult to access. 4 have been severely compromised by sea walls or swimming pools (which is heartbreaking … truly). 2 are highly dangerous (which around here means don’t even think about it!). 3 are just not that good wave wise.

"And the good news..". The remaining spots are all pretty much sick! There’s no kooks! by that I mean everyone is super friendly and courteous and knows how to take their turn -very refreshing.

"I think the gnarlyness will always keep the numbers down". I’m really not sure I should be writing this, I’d hate the place to change, but I think the gnarlyness will always keep the numbers down. These pics were all taken with surf in the 2 – 4 ft barely breaking range, I’m not sure I’d fly over on a big forecast!!

The blog and great photos of surfing in Madeira: HERE Thanks a lot Paul, not sure I understand all the surfing terminology, but great photos including mid-air dolphins! Der

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

You might have had this link before when the book was first published but it relates to the present exhibition in Funchal, and nostalgia seems popular. The text is in Portuguese but it is well worth a look for the numerous coloured illustrations of this artist’s work, especially from page 58 through to the final page (p 202). ‘O Funchal na Obra de Max Romer 1922/1960′.

This has 3D panoramic images of Madeira website (beta version). visitmadeira

DIÁRIO 27/01/2010

MADEIRA NEWS

More alleged victims of sexual crimes. In 2007, there were 38 alleged victims of sexual crime, in 2008, there were 23 and 29 last year. Most were under 16 years old and nine (7 girls, 2 boys) were under the age of 14 and 11 (10 girls, 1 boy) were aged between 14 and 16 years. Those over 16 were females aged 17, 24, 30, 32, 46, 59 and 65 years old and males aged 35 and 50 years old. It is known that depending on the country, only 50 – 90% of sexual crimes are reported, usually due to social reasons, embarrassment, fear, slow justice system and dependence on the offender. Only 8% of abusers are total strangers (paedophiles) as the crimes are usually a result of family behaviours associated with alcoholism and social factors (incest or aggression).

Funchal kennel receives 10,000 Euros a month from the council. This is the amount SPAD receives from Funchal City Council and presently houses 124 stray animals in 53 cages. Money is required to manage the kennel, animal feed, vet consultations and medical treatment. The previous five year contract with the council has just been renewed for another five years. The main option for the animals is adoption and they are only destroyed if clinically necessary. There are stray dogs on the streets fed by private individuals and do not come to the attention of SPAD and some of these dogs are too aggressive to be domesticated. The kennel is situated in Vasco Gil, Santo António. — Costs around 80 Euros per dog per month.

Funchal has 106 square metres of gardens per inhabitant. Funchal is the city with the highest number of square metres of green areas per inhabitant. It contains 500 hectares of green areas (14.9% of the county) and the numbers of both public and private gardens are increasing. Local schools have educational activities to promote awareness of urban agriculture, the care and diversity of botanical species and the need to preserve urban gardens and trees. Presently, there are 159 allotments distributed in S. Martinho, S. Pedro and Santa Maria Maior. The Mayor of Funchal opened an exhibition which is the first initiative by the council in the International Year of Diversity. As well as endemic species, the climate allows the cultivation of species from Latin America, Africa and Australia. Work will begin on the Jardim do Amparo at the end of March.

Nurses on strike hits all services. The Nurses Union asks people not to attend health centres today and tomorrow (Wednesday and Thursday). This regional strike is in support of the national strike and to show how angry nurses are with the way they have been treated by the governments. Only minimum services will be guaranteed. Some health centres do not employ nurses and the president of the union asks people not to seek out these centres. Nurses are dissatisfied with salary issues, workload/overtime and changes in the regional health service. UPDATE: 91% on strike today.

ECONOMY

Marco Polo in port for 50th time. The first visit was on the 25 December 1966. This cruise ship arrives from St Lucia in the Caribbean and after a 12 hour stay, goes to Lisbon. 600 passengers on board. The ship was built in 1965 in Germany and named the Alexander Pushkin. She was used for scheduled services between Montreal and Leningrad. From 1975 – 1979, the ship started to be used for cruise itineraries and was owned by Transocean Tours until 1990. The ship was renovated and Orient Lines renamed it the Marco Polo in 1991. The first stop in Funchal under this name was on 22 November 2000. The ship can accommodate 848 tourists and 450 crew. She is in Madeira five times this year; 8 and 21 March, April 7 and 25 October.

99,000 passengers less. Madeira International Airport received 2,336,114 passengers in 2009. This was 99,616 passengers less than during 2008. This represents a decrease of 4.09%. In the country, Lisbon airport had the most passengers. There were 0.81% fewer passengers through Madeira Airport between October – December 2009 than during the same period in 2008. The most used airports were Lisbon, Porto and Faro and overall in all four airports, there was a 2% increase in passenger numbers over the last quarter of 2008. As for movements at Madeira Airport, during the last quarter of 2009, there was a decrease of 3.2%. Overall, there was a 8.74% decrease in flights in 2009 than 2008. —Flights must have had an increased occupancy rate.

POLITICS

Members give a day’s pay to the Haiti appeal. The Legislative Assembly will send a day’s pay to the Haiti earthquake victims fund. The day’s pay of 47 MPs is 3,600 Euros. This was proposed by Leonel Nunes (PCP) and approved unanimously. — Salary must be about 3 times the minimum wage.

UPDATES

Diocese gathers 32,830 Euros for Haiti appeal. Donations sent to Caritas and any further ones can be made via the Diocese of Funchal website. 

JORNAL DA MADEIRA

Funchal Pharmacy has fast robot. From the 15th February, the pharmacy in Dolce Vita will have a robot for storage and dispensing of medicines. The investment is 200,000 Euros. The employee enters the request in the computer and the robot dispenses the medicine in 18 seconds. The storage capacity is 14,000 boxes and it takes 18 seconds to dispense 3 packages, which are sent to the counter. This gives a more personalized service as the medicine is dispensed quicker. This is the first pharmacy in Madeira to use this equipment and there are only nine such robots in Portugal.

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

Nurses : Some on strike and others coveting – International company recruits graduates in Madeira University. Strike adherence yesterday was 92%. Hospitals and health centres were very affected on the first day of the nurses strike. Vaccines against Gripe A swine flu were suspended, and also no tests were undertaken in most of Madeira’s health centres. The hospitals were pretty much closed, with just enough cover for emergencies and inpatients. In the health centre in Santo António for example there were just two nurses working the morning shift, but none in the afternoon. Those patients or customers with appointments are forced to reschedule their visits for another day. The strike finishes today says the Diário, although on the radio just now they said it was tomorrow?

Today’s main news headline : Cavaco orders understanding – President of the Republic intervenes in the negotiation process that returned to delay the voting on the Regional Finance Law. Several lead stories on the proposed amendments of the Regional Finance Law yesterday, which was delayed yet again. A working group was then set up to negotiate an agreement with the government, on the suggestion of a PSD deputy, after the socialist government indicated that it was willing to discuss the matter [rather than face a defeat in the vote]. The vote is seemingly rescheduled for today, giving the working group just 24 hours to reach an agreement. President Jardim of Madeira said that the setting up of the working group is proof of "goodwill" by his PSD party, although in his opinion the deadline for voting is now Friday. What Madeira wants is "0.05% of public expenditure", he added. Finance Minister, Teixeira dos Santos, who threatened to resign if Madeira got its way, said he believes that the working group will take his appeal for responsibility and common sense seriously.

Budget penalizes Madeira by four million Euros.

Controversial proposal in dispute in the Naval Club – Allowing a new mandate to the current administration is the controversial issue that the members of the CNF reassess today.

Funchal Council authorizes urbanization in green zone – The plan for the valley of Socorridos was proposed by Tâmega and will be approved today in the Câmara Municipal of Funchal. There are elements of the Social Democrat Party of Madeira with interests in the zone. Also today’s main photograph, showing an unsightly builders yard full of plant and machinery

SATA is going to connect the Azores to Madeira every day. Using one of it’s new aircraft, SATA has announced that aviation history will be made in terms of regular connections between the two archipelagos. The changes, that will come in from the end of March using a Q400, will bring in daily connections between Madeira and São Miguel (Ponta Delgada) in July and August, and allow connections with the Algarve and Canary Islands. One extra advantage of the additional flights will be the transfer of tourists from Ponta Delgada who started their journeys in Canada (Toronto) and Boston in the USA with SATA International, with just very short transfer delays. This will allow Madeira tourism to better directly promote Madeira in and around the two cities. No mention of any new prices, but the new timetables are already in the process of being delivered to travel agents.

The main sport / football headline today : Can you believe it … there isn’t one!!

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 photo or video, 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 photos / videos.

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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.

If you post a comment and are not registered on this site (free), your comment will be moderated, so please do not waste time with spam postings.  If you register, your comment will be posted automatically. If you register, your email address will not be passed to any other party … promise!

Please send any topical or Madeira related photos or videos to Der at blog@madeira4u.com to appear on this blog. Photos may take a while to appear, depending on the number waiting. Please don’t send copyrighted material.

The headline news & other snippets reviewed here on the blog are mainly from the Diário de Notícias of Madeira, although news from any source is used and welcome.

The blogs in the ‘uncategorised’ category come from the old madeira4u blog.

IF YOU NEED HELP WITH ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE, TRY THE MENU ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE ‘USEFUL LINKS’ & ‘TIPS & HELP’

Madeira News Blog © 2007 – 2009 All Rights Reserved

This is Dorrie’s private video diary taken on Madeira, when on hols I guess. Hear about the bad side of her stay as she struggled with our weather problems.

A short private blog of a cruiser : WE’LL BE BACK WHEN IT’S SUNNY

"The pebbled beaches of Madeira such as the Praia Formosa beach at the western end of Funchal with its palm tress and splendid botanical gardens bordering it make for a delightful attraction for tourists. Calheto and Machico are important tourist beaches where the golden sand has been imported.  The golden beach that stretches to about 9 kilometers in neighbouring Porto Santo is of course, magnificent and cannot be missed out". QUITE A NICE REVIEW OF OUR ARCHIPELAGO

I see that the GUINESS BOOK OF RECORDS is still showing 2006 as the world firework display record – "Largest firework display : The record for the largest firework display consisted of 66,326 fireworks and was achieved by Macedo’S Pirotecnia Lda. in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, on 31 December 2006". Has anyone seen any official confirmation that the 2010 display reset the record for Madeira?

This from Elaine out West … many thanks

Only eleven flocked to the “cut price” circus – Bad weather and small audiences forced the cancellation of the session, but there were the complaints … On Tuesday night some people who wanted to see the 21.30 Circus Aquatic Show, which was in Ponta do Sol until yesterday, saw their hopes dashed because of the cancellation of the show.

A situation which caused dissatisfaction and even prompted some complaints from those who felt aggrieved by making the trip to Ponta do Sol to watch a circus show that ultimately did not materialize. Moreover this was not the first time this has happened during the circus’s fateful stay in Madeira, mostly because of bad weather that has been fairly relentless.
Antonela Gouveia was one of those present for what would be the penultimate session of the show in the Region. She told the DIÁRIO that while she was waiting in expectation of the opening of the show a young man appeared who said he was the owner’s brother (Jorge Cardinali), trying to justify the cancellation of the show as "it was not worth opening the circus, with tickets at only five euros”. Antonela criticized the lack of information determining a minimum number of spectators to allow the show to take place.

João Azevedo, who is responsible for the show, confirmed the cancellation of that session "because in total there were only 11 people". Faced with such a small number of spectators, he said there was no justification for holding the show and regretted the resulting inconvenience.

"We are here to work. We did not come here for holidays," he added, pointing to the effects of bad weather, which yesterday also made itself felt at the time of the show. He felt that had been responsible for poor attendances and called for understanding and even tolerance in the circumstances.

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

Jardim cancels test period promised to successor. At the last political meeting at Quinta Vigia, Alberto João Jardim changed the deadline so the new leader will now be announced at the Easter 2011 congress. For a long time, he has guaranteed his successor will be chosen in 2010 and have a year to prepare for the October 2011 regional elections. He will resign during the summer, leaving the new leader two months to prepare, which is considered not enough time.  Another scenario is that Jardim will stay on but this seems unlikely after his recent speeches.

Recording failure requires new statements. A public complaint has been made against the Police Commissioner Roberto Fernandes. In 2004, when he was sub-commissioner at Câmara de Lobos, a traffic accident occurred involving one of his family. There were discrepancies over times, dates and alcohol test results, which were investigated after an anonymous letter. He was investigated for abuse of power, falsification, denial of justice and malfeasance. He was then promoted to Commissioner of the Police of Funchal. For his defence, he submitted audio recordings of the witnesses statements but the judicial authorities now realize these are inaudible, so if the case goes to trial, new statements will be needed.

Vandalism – revenge attacks. On farmland in Campanário, vandals have destroyed banana plants. Some had been deliberately cut, sometimes only the bunches targeted. This act occurred during the first week of this year and was only discovered last weekend by the owner. The land owner has no doubts as to the perpetrator as he has been previously threatened by the owner of neighbouring land. It is not the first time this has happened and this time, he has reported the case to the police. It is bad enough with some of the crop destroyed by the bad weather.

Increases in illegal limpet harvesting, amongst other crimes. Statistics of crimes detected last year by the GNR (National Republic Guard – part of the police force). Increased limpet harvesting was due to bad weather and fewer preventive measures. In 2009, 26 illegal harvesting of limpets were detected by the GNR and Service for Protection of Nature (SEPNA). The maximum catch permissible is 2 kg/day/person. 16 offences occurred in Garajau Reserve and one in Rocha do Navio Reserve (Santana). 10 cases of caça submarina (underwater spear fishing) but no instances of using explosives. 5 cases of illegal sport fishing. 747.45 kilos of fish were seized, worth 4.067,22 euros. Other offences detected were mainly: 458 tax offences, 657 breaches of the Highway Code, 7 cases of illegal gambling and 5 breaches of the street trading laws. Both at Santo da Serra and Funchal, counterfeit goods were confiscated, worth 14,960.30 euros – clothing, CDs, DVDs. The GNR consists of 194 individuals and now have a new commander. There are also 28 officers based at Caniçal (commercial port), 20 at the airport and 15 at Porto Santo. They have maritime powers, up to a range of 12 miles. — A quick calculation, overall crime has decreased.

Flights from Moscow bring more to the region. The five weekly flights from Lisbon to Moscow have had a good occupancy rate, a service that began last June. Several Russian travel agents now have packages to Madeira especially with the ease of flying between Lisbon and Madeira. 50% of the Russians arriving in Lisbon come to Madeira and the rest either stay in the Portuguese capital or go to the Algarve.

SATA confirms flight to Faro. SATA will have two weekly flights between Madeira and Faro in the Algarve in the coming summer season, using the new Q400 NextGen aircraft which have 80 seats. At present, passengers must go to Lisbon and this discourages holidaymakers. In future, these new aircraft will be used on the Madeira – Ponta Delgada link and in summer, for the Canary Islands and the Algarve. The increased number of passengers carried over the last quarter was not enough to counteract the global economic crisis in which SATA Internacional had 1.5% fewer passengers than 2008.

Regional Government allow GESBA to borrow 7 million. The public owned management company of the banana sector, GESBA,  has authorization from the Regional Government to obtain a banking loan of 7 million euros. This is to pay the liabilities of two cooperatives. These cooperatives have severe financial problems despite the strong community support they have received over several years. There is a history of guarantees at high cost to the government as the banana business cannot exist without public subsidies.

Jardim accuses Teixeira dos Santos of using the review of the Finance Law for tax rises. Alberto Jardim today accused the Minister of Finance of using the fair review of the Regional Finance Law as a pretext to threaten the Portuguese with tax rises. The review, according to Jardim, seeks only to restore justice under the law legislated by the Gutterres Government/Sousa Franco. The socialist government has for political purposes destroyed a law that was agreed by the Socialist Party itself.  José Sócrates said, "The Government of the Republic will not give more money to the Government of Madeira and the PS does not accept the Law on Regional Finances defended by PSD-M." The changes introduced by his government were "fair". This was in reply to the national PSD leader, Manuela Ferreira Leite accusing the Government of the Republic of pursuing a discriminatory policy in relation to Madeira for political revenge. Guilherma Silva, a PSD member of the Assembly of the Republic said, "The money is not for the Portuguese Government, it is for the Portuguese."

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

Today’s main news headline : Sócrates says "enough!" – "Enough! With this government my lady deputy cannot count on the alteration of the Regional Finance law and giving more money to Madeira". The warning of [Prime Minister] Sócrates to Manuela Ferreira Leite [leader of the Social Democrat Party] was given yesterday in São Bento. It’s bad news for Jardim and is even surprising to the politicians in his own Socialist Party. Already one is talking about new national elections. I was thinking this the other day, that the Socialists without an overall majority in the Lisbon Parliament, are finding it a real struggle to govern either with or without the support of the opposition parties. It was always going to be a tall order, and of course as always the politics and monkey business take priority over the needs of a floundering economy and it’s people. Even with another election, I don’t see how it will necessarily resolve matters, and if it is still possible then the PS should first look again at the possibility of a coalition.  Uncle Bertie will be hopping mad no doubt, and after Marítimo get thumped by Benfica tomorrow, it will be a weekend he would rather forget.

Horários do Funchal opts for the ecology but changes don’t please  – The issue is in the West zone : the [bus] passengers are obliged to flow onto the Estrada Monumental.

Accidents force the stopping of dumping – Only after 5 accidents in the area muddied due to the movement of mud laden lorries, in São Vicente, the Regional Government suspends the clean up operation. The 5 road accidents occurred in the space of just 3 days, with one person receiving facial injuries, and the Regional Secretary, responsible for the big mud clean up after recent storms, has given the order to suspend the clean up works in the area of Paço da Areia. The accidents have been happening where cars are skidding out of control near to the mud dumping site at the coast (in the sea).

Rock fall in Madalena flattens banana crop.

‘City Council of Culture’ remains for Santa Cruz.

The main sport / football headlines today : 5 thousand places in the ‘Cauldron’ sold out in the last 4 days – Mitchell can’t count on Marcinho for the coming of Benfica. How on earth Marítimo’s stadium ever got the nickname of the ‘Cauldron’ is still one of life’s great mysteries for me. You would be lucky to see two men and a dog there during some games.

Nacional fight for fourth place in Alvalade today.  That’s the home of Sporting in Lisbon of course. G’luck!

A sea of colour. The first mention I have seen this year I think of next months Carnival. The article mentions an organisation that is preparing it’s piece for the parade (Cortejo) on 13th February, that has the theme ‘Fantasias de Ninfa’ [Nymph] which sounds intriguing. Preparation for some of the participants started in last October.

and just a few more snippets to finish up …

This is a nice blog, and account of somebody’s visit here, with lots of photos. A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY

Biggest IT retailer expanding to Africa, Madeira and Azores (from Portugal News Online). Chip7, Portugal’s largest computer retail chain, is expanding its business this year to Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde in Africa and Portugal’s autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores, the company’s founder said. Miguel Monteiro, also Chip7’s majority shareholder, told Lusa he expected to conclude master franchise contracts in the three African Lusophone states and the two Portuguese Atlantic archipelago by the end of this year. Good news for us computer buffs!

Hundreds of different locations from north to south of mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores, have been nominated as candidates to become one of Portugal’s ‘Seven Natural Wonders’. The official list of places that can be voted upon was made public last Thursday in Lisbon. Organisers of the project New 7 Wonders of Portugal, have dodged giving the specific number of valid applications, but confirmed the number was in “the hundreds”. MORE

Have a great weekend!

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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.

If you post a comment and are not registered on this site (free), your comment will be moderated, so please do not waste time with spam postings.  If you register, your comment will be posted automatically. If you register, your email address will not be passed to any other party … promise!

Please send any topical or Madeira related photos or videos to Der at blog@madeira4u.com to appear on this blog. Photos may take a while to appear, depending on the number waiting. Please don’t send copyrighted material.

The headline news & other snippets reviewed here on the blog are mainly from the Diário de Notícias of Madeira, although news from any source is used and welcome.

The blogs in the ‘uncategorised’ category come from the old madeira4u blog.

IF YOU NEED HELP WITH ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE, TRY THE MENU ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE ‘USEFUL LINKS’ & ‘TIPS & HELP’

Madeira News Blog © 2007 – 2009 All Rights Reserved

"Due to the long established fishing tradition on the island, fish plays an important role on the daily menu of the locals.  When you have spent a few days on the island, you will soon discover that Madeirans also have a sweet tooth!  Everywhere on the island, in all the cafés, snack bars and restaurants, you will find a wide variety of cakes, sweets and desserts.  Besides the world-renowned Madeira Wine, locals produce their own wine from different grapes – the so-called ‘vinho seco’ (dry wine)". A well written and researched article from a cruise website TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT

"Madeira is, essentially, 2 island, and not only does a little over 98% of its population live on just one island, but a huge part of that live in just one city, Funchal. This makes things incredibly easier from a managerial standpoint because then you CAN have any type of flight you want. All the Madeira Regional government has to worry about is the littler under 5,000 people living in Porto Santo". This article was written by a blogger in the Azores, on the problems of servicing the many islands with flights, including the ‘low cost’ factor. Quite an interesting read, and shows that we do pretty well here in comparison. LUSO’S LAIR

A short private blog with a few photos, mainly of the author … CARROT TOPS ARE GREEN

"Discovered in 1419 by Portuguese explorers, its strategic position and warm sub-tropical climate led to quick colonisation and nowadays around a quarter of a million Madeirans call this beautiful island home. Known locally as the ‘Island Of Flowers’, or ‘The Floating Garden’, Madeira certainly lives up to its nicknames and, in fact, boasts some of the most beautiful natural scenery you’ll find anywhere". ANOTHER MADEIRA REVIEW – CREST HOLIDAYS

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

Der, small news items today. If you want to make money, sell on the black market in Venezuela or become a doctor. No wonder the Health Service is in debt – I bet the article on the doctor’s cars gets some comments. The paper misprinted ‘Austin Martin’. This was the Google translation to a photo caption of the story I covered yesterday about a falling wall damaging a roof: ‘The day before yesterday, Matilde Gonçalves not resist the temptation to go to her house to lie down to eat three cats.’

Wind looses force from tomorrow. Today, yellow alert for wind up to 50 km/h and gusts up to 90 km/h in mountainous regions. A slight reduction in wind speed from tomorrow, a moderate 20 – 30 km/h wind from the west becoming weak, below 15 km/h. In mountainous regions, the wind will be moderate but should not exceed 35 km/h. Temperatures slightly below today’s maximum of 22 C and 18 C minimum temperature. Sea conditions about the same, temperature 18 C, 1.5 – 3.5 metres waves.

‘NetMadeira’ fraudulent e-mail. An e-mail asking for personal details was received yesterday by 1.5% of NetMadeira customers who use the 880 mailbox. NetMadeira, like other companies, does not ask users for their passwords or identification.

New Civil Protection website. This site has been updated to make it easier and quicker to find useful information. I had a look and it has a version in English and contains useful information. Examples include road closures, phoning about emergencies, location of fire stations, weather and health alerts, emergency first aid and there are good links. Website: Civil Protection — Might be one for Der’s right-hand side toolbar. OK, make a comment if you like it and we’ll see, but I know the sponsor wants to shorten the list rather than grow it. Der

Dates when nurses are on strike. For two days, 27 – 28 January. On the 29th, some will participate in the national demonstration at the Ministry of Health. There is a three day national strike but it is only for two days in Madeira. The proposed wage scale presented by the Ministry of Health in January is worse than the one presented in November.

SATA also increase fuel surcharge. As expected, following TAP’s announcement yesterday that they will increase the fuel surcharge for flights between the Continent and Madeira, SATA will similarly increase it for flights between the Continent and Madeira and the Azores. Increased from 9 to 12 Euros for flights from 20 January. In effect, this means an extra 3 Euros on each ticket except promotional fares. Promotional fares SATA Discount are unchanged for flights between Funchal and Porto Santo, and for other tickets the surcharge increases from 4.5 Euros to 6 Euros. Fuel surcharge is updated quarterly.

Caracas – Funchal ticket doubles in price. Flights between Caracas – Funchal will cost twice the present price due to the exchange rate between the strong bolivar and the dollar. Last Friday, Hugo Chávez announced a devaluation of the national currency, which rose from 2.15 to 4.3 bolivars to the dollar. Thus, Luso-Venezuelans will have more difficulty in leaving Venezuela. The airline ticket between Caracas and Funchal rises more than 200%. The sale of flight tickets was suspended last Monday to allow the airlines to update the reservation system, as they have to be sold at the official exchange rate. There is no change in price for tickets sold in Portugal because the exchange rate for euro – bolivar stays the same. Exchange rate controls have been in place in Venezuela since 2003 to prevent obtaining unregulated foreign currency in the country. This also means imported goods are more expensive and people have been rushing to the shops to stock up. On the black market, due to demand the euro is worth three times more than the official exchange rate. Venezuela is said to be like a pressure cooker with no escape valve. — I think there will be mass exodus of Madeirans back here. The old houses in Madeira owned / inherited by Madeirans who have emigrated to Venezuela might finally be restored and made habitable. Many have been murdered recently, especially in Caracas.

Garage claims a doctor owes 83,000 Euros for work on his ‘fast-cars’. A well-known physician who works in family and occupational medicine, known for his display of top-of-the-range ‘fast-cars’ is facing a debt of 83,000 Euros owed to the workshop. At the end of December at Santa Cruz Court, a claim was lodged to recover the debt accumulated between March 5 2002 and September 10 2008. The garage, as far as Diário could establish, is ‘Auto Lazareto’ in Cancela and the claim is for unpaid mechanical repairs, bodywork and panel beating, painting and upgrades. The cars involved are: a red Ferrari, Jaguar, Golf, Aston Martin, 2 Toyota Yaris, Opel Astra, Maserati, Audi A6 and a Citroen AX. The claimant provided goods and services to the amount of 75,898.86 Euros plus interest, which have not been paid for. They acted in good faith and in a climate of friendship. Over seven years, the debt grew and the doctor postponed deadlines claiming financial difficulties and debts from third parties. Since September 2008, the doctor suddenly failed to appear at the garage to pay the instalments although he had been gradually settling the bill. He used his reputation as a reputable and distinguished doctor and it was his social status that led the workshop to grant credit. The doctor asked for urgent repairs to his Ferrari (photo) so he could lend it to Cristiano Ronaldo on his trips to Madeira, and repairs to other cars to lend to the singer Marco Paulo and other media figures whom he knows well. Diário contacted the doctor who denies he owes the money. He said he has not been notified of the court action, and if and when notified will challenge it, and if necessary will sue for defamation. — "Trust me, I’m a doctor."

Potato more than 10 kg in Tabua. This sweet potato was dug up from agricultural land in Tabua and weighs 10kg and 600g. The potato is of the type batata vermelha (red potato).

CDU support agricultural reserve areas. The communists want the region to adopt agricultural reserve areas. These would be located in areas where agriculture is most profitable in the region and would be adequately protected for this activity. They would not be ‘eaten away’ by construction works, for example the places chosen for the Câmara de Lobos football stadium (zona do Carmo) and the future Hospital of Funchal (Santa Rita), which absorb significant agricultural areas. Such reserves already exist on the Continent and the Azores. Edgar Silva accused the Executive of being "the grave digger of regional agriculture".

Census 2011. The National Institute of Statistics in conjunction with the Regional Government will hold a census in 2011. The last one was in 2001. 450 people are already being recruited who will carry out the survey and the period for the census will last from January to July 2011.

New Pestana hotel in Porto Santo. The Pestana Group are preparing to build a second hotel in Porto Santo. The work will begin later this quarter and will be a four star tourist village named Pestana Residence. It will include 250 apartments and the investment is 50 million Euros. The financing of the Colombo’s Resort is still uncertain as the banks are not interested in loaning the money to complete the development.

Vote of congratulation of the EU Treaty rejected. A vote of appreciation of the entry of the Treaty of Lisbon was rejected yesterday by the PSD, BE, PCP and only favoured by the Socialists who proposed the vote. The Socialist Serrão Jacinto considered that the Lisbon Treaty resolved the impasse the EU was plunged into and economic problems, thus constitutes "a tool that will give more power to the EU". He said that Madeira should appreciate the EU as it has used their funds to develop the country. "We must stand together in solidarity with those who were with us."

79 People in ‘virtual home’ in hospitals. 51 people who remained unnecessarily in hospital with ‘high dependency’ status have been transferred to homes; 28 to Dr. João de Almada, 15 in Lar de Bela Vista, 8 to Lar do Porto Moniz and one transferred to the Health Centre in Calheta. This has been after a joint effort by the Department of Health and Centre for Social Security. There are still 79 people left in a ‘virtual home’ in the two hospitals in Funchal. This is not ideal as they are likely to become infected and are ‘bed blockers’. The situation is aggravated by a waiting list of 800 elderly people for care home places. There are plans to provide 400 more nursing home places in the near future but with an increasingly elderly population, an additional solution is needed. To help keep people in the family home, there are 3,000 people receiving daily nursing and social care at home. Since 2008, the aim has been to pay family members to function as carers and there are 179 such people who receive 220.79 Euros from Social Security.

State will have to pay 82 million Euros in 2010 to restore justice to Madeira. The Technical Unit for Budget Support has proved that the current Regional Finance Law has lost Madeira 157 million Euros from 2007 to 2009. To remedy this, the State would have to transfer 82 million;  74.6 million to Madeira and 7.4 million to the Azores.

11.5 million investment in Câmara de Lobos football stadium is sinking. The soil along the wall that supports the newly opened stadium is sinking. This stadium, promoted by the Regional Government, has been open for six months and is already causing concern. The stadium cost 7.5 million Euros to build and an additional 4 million Euros to stabilise a slope overlooking it. The athletics track is uneven, also due to subsidence. The Regional Secretariat for Social Infrastructure say that this is normal settling of land.

Dog disappeared from the circus. Circus Brazil in Machico was yesterday without two of the three dogs that were part of the show. One was a hit and run victim. The other, Nina, was the star of the show and has been missing since last night. The dog is a brown poodle wearing a pink collar. The dog is two years old and has been in training for eight months. The circus goes to Lisbon on Saturday. Any information, please phone 968072755. If found after Saturday, please contact Joaquim who works at Circus Dalas at Madeira Tecnopolo.

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

Very unusually the Diário moves out of Portugal for the big photo and headline : Earthquake in Haiti kills 100 thousand – The numbers are of course not confirmed, because there are bodies buried. But the tragedy results in the destruction of one of the poorest countries in the world, very vulnerable to natural disasters.

Video catches boss that wanted to fire – Bakery in Machico filmed employee suspected of stealing, but the video didn’t serve as proof and the management even incurred expenses.

Moisés opened presents sent to employees – The president of Santana [council] took care of the Christmas presents and opened them in front of everybody, with the names of the benefactors. Bottles and cheeses were kept for the office Xmas party. Moisés diverts the presents for employees to the council. Bottles, cheeses, liquors, wines, chocolates and watches were kept. Not everybody was happy. The new president of Santana Câmara never ceases to surprise. This time, after the office Xmas lunch held in the school canteen in Porto da Cruz, the boss ordered all Christmas gifts to be received at work to be taken directly to his office. And it wasn’t just the employees, with bosses, politicians / councillors also told to fall-in-line, with the spoils claimed as property of the treasury. Rui Moisés confirmed to the Diário that he had taken the action … "I respect everything that is personal. However, from the time the delivery is made in the council it ceases to belong the individual", justifies the president to explain the his position, not withstanding that the move has a questionable nature. Some of the bottles (costing in excess of €30 each) were drank at the staff gathering, but the rest of the goodies were retained. It has been suggested that things like the watches be auctioned, but Moisés guarantees that they will serve as ‘offerings’ in official functions. Since he was elected last October and took up his post, PSD politician Rui has made waves throughout his constituency, with staff, locals, local businesses, and even his predecessor, and since then has probably made the front page more times than Uncle Bertie himself. But is he the real thing we ask? Is he a PSD politician determined to crack down on corruption and special favours, as Portugal portrays as an urgent priority, or are there ulterior motives more in line with what we are accustomed to in the Socialist Democrats of Madeira? Will there be a man with a boné and dark glasses with a stall at the nearby Sunday market selling certain goods this weekend I wonder? I would like to think that his motives are genuine, but I think we need to give this a few more months, or even years, before concluding that someone has broke that stereotypical image we all know so well.

Today’s main news headline : Strike and lack of vaccines threaten to make matters worse in health – The ventilators [breathing aids] arrive at the end of the month, guarantees the company that won the public tender process. But the vaccines for Gripe A have run out again. And the nurses foresee more disruption during the three day strike.

Jardim keeps quiet over Regional Finance Law and State Budget – But he praised the stance taken by the CDS / PP, MPT, and PCP over the Regional Finance Law.

The main sport / football headline today : Nacional draw and stay with one foot out of the [next phase] of the League Cup – The ‘Alvinegros’ now depend on the results of others to progress to the next stage. With just one point from their first two group games after a 1 – 1 away draw yesterday, Nacional are bottom of their group, with a tough game remaining against Guimarães on Madeira.

‘Chapéu da Esperança’ [Hat of Hope] delivers donation of €5,000 to charitable institutions. I have no time to read the article this morning due to a rare foray into Funchal, but I hope that this annual fund raising event managed more than €5,000, with all the effort put in. It must cost so much more than €5k just to organise. It all seems a waste of effort when you compare with the €45 million of taxpayers money given to Marítimo to redevelop its stadium. And yes I am getting repetitive.

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 photo or video, 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 photos / videos.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.

If you post a comment and are not registered on this site (free), your comment will be moderated, so please do not waste time with spam postings.  If you register, your comment will be posted automatically. If you register, your email address will not be passed to any other party … promise!

Please send any topical or Madeira related photos or videos to Der at blog@madeira4u.com to appear on this blog. Photos may take a while to appear, depending on the number waiting. Please don’t send copyrighted material.

The headline news & other snippets reviewed here on the blog are mainly from the Diário de Notícias of Madeira, although news from any source is used and welcome.

The blogs in the ‘uncategorised’ category come from the old madeira4u blog.

IF YOU NEED HELP WITH ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE, TRY THE MENU ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE ‘USEFUL LINKS’ & ‘TIPS & HELP’

Madeira News Blog © 2007 – 2009 All Rights Reserved

Today’s photo – Many thanks to Elaine (west) … presépio in Santana

 EIB loan for air transport within Azores and Madeira – The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a €37 million loan to SATA Air Acores for the acquisition of four turboprop aircraft to provide inter-island transport services within the Azores archipelago, replacing the same number of older aircraft. The aircraft will be operated by SATA from its home base at Ponta Delgada (Azores) on essential public services within the Azores and Madeira islands as well as on services to the Canary Islands in Spain. The new aircraft will replace less fuel efficient aircraft. Source Europolitics : Are the new aircraft operating yet on the Madeira – Porto Santo domestic route?

"Dear Friends, walking on Madeira is a spectacular experience. You have the oppertunity to walk a " thousand miles" track on the levada’s around the island and in the mountains. Funchal is the best starting point for walks for the east side. Ribereira da Brava, app. 10 miles from Funchal a very good starting point for the west side of the island. We have been here to celebrate the "Reveillion 2009/2010" with fireworks not seen before in the world". A short explanation of the "levada" walks 

Ribereira da Brava eh, that rings a bell somewhere.

Not really what I was expecting at all, but worth a quick visit for something a little different :  A Walk thru Funchal’s Dark Side

Dear Madam or Sir, I am sending you an article or letter about Madeira and sustainable mobility, which I hope will be interesting for you to publish. Kind regards. (Marta).

BETTER ISLAND FOR LOCALS AND TOURISTS – Yesterday, my husband and I came back from our wonderful holidays on this island, thinking about a couple of improvements for locals and tourists.

Firstly, there should be more road security especially for pedestrians. Non-expensive traffic calming measures, which would reduce excessive car speed, would certainly favour all citizens. No tourist wants to be almost run over by a car and no local citizen wants his or her child involved in a serious accident either.

Secondly, considering the effects of climate change and also the increasing overweight problems of some locals and tourists, a basic environmental traffic plan should be carried out. That would include car sharing, car pooling and electric vehicles including electrobikes. If traffic calming on small roads and streets were to be achieved, electric bikes should only need some bike lanes in places where the road could easily be widened. Of course electrobikes have a limit and could not be used in all the steepiest places but in some places they would prove efficient.

Finally, the implementation of all mentioned would be a major benefit for everybody in terms of general health and economic growth.

MARTA POMBO SALLÉS, SANT BOI DE LLOBREGAT (BARCELONA)

Thank you Marta, and I can assure you that I cannot be of the least assistance, but I do hope that somebody super-important will read your comments and suggestions. Der

This is from Elaine (west) from yesterday’s Diário … many thanks.

December rain breaks records - The city of Funchal had its highest amount since 1931. In December 2009 Funchal had its highest rainfall since 1931, when records began. According to Mafalda Mitchell, a meteorologist at the Meteorological Observatory in Funchal, there has not been a day in the month in which rainfall was not higher. The amount of precipitation for December in Funchal reached 286.1 millimetres. In terms of daily precipitation it was lower than usual. The maximum stood at 38.8 millimetres. What was crucial, according to Mafalda, was the fact that it rained heavily for several days during the last month of 2009.

In Pico do Areeiro, the figures go up much higher. The amount of monthly rainfall was 1102.9 millimetres, whereas the average between 1971 and 2000 was 447.7 millimetres. In terms of temperature, there were no major changes. In Funchal, the maximum temperature in December was 23.6° on the 14th, and the minimum of 13.5 on the 30th and 31st. These figures reflect a rise of a degree in the norm for the month of December. In Pico do Areeiro the maximum temperature was around 14.1°, also on the 14^th and a minimum of 1.2 on the last day of the year.

The Institute of Meteorology (IM) yesterday announced the data for December, reporting the month as having the most rain of the 21st century in continental Portugal. The IM also observed high winds associated with low pressure systems that affected the whole of the continent, particularly in the west (23 December), when there were exceptionally strong winds. "In Madeira there was an extreme situation in terms of intensity of winds, with gusts registering above 100 km / h for more than 20% of the month“, the report states.

In the Azores, the rainfall was also much higher than normal, being the second largest amount recorded since 1931. In terms of temperature in Portugal in December, the trend of recent years was confirmed. This was the seventh consecutive December to have temperatures below normal, with an anomaly of -0.6 °, -0.4 ° and -0.5 ° for maximum temperatures, minimum and average, respectively. The heavy rain ended Portugal’s 10 month drought and means that the Water Institute can confirm that there will be no restrictions on water use.

Marítimo blew it at home yesterday against Guimarães, losing 0 – 1.

Many thanks to Elaine for yesterday’s top news headlines :

Fuel prices increase on Monday Price of fuel will rise two cêntimos.

Agricultural Cooperative teaches gardening Workshops are free, begin today and take place every Saturday between 10 – 11 am, until the end of the first quarter of 2010. Promoted by the Agricultural Cooperative of Funchal to provide basic knowledge of gardening to the general public. The events are limited to the first 20 arrivals and occur at the premises of the Cooperative in Sao Martinho.

Contingency plans to be updated Next week, the Civil Defence has meetings with the Councils. The municipal emergency plans require updating and new plans are being prepared to include recent legislative changes in 2008/9. These plans identify critical areas and measures to deal with different situations. Rather than just the municipal assembly approving plans, they must now also be approved by the Regional Service for Civil Protection and the Bombeiros of Madeira.

Two elderly ladies gagged and bound at home Two sisters, one 79 and the other 81, with mobility problems, were gagged and bound inside their house in Amoreiras in Arco da Calheta. This was around 1.30 am on Wednesday morning when two individuals, wearing gloves and with their faces obscured, forced an entry and threatened to murder them if they did not say where their savings were. The two aggressors stole cash and gold articles, then later one of the women managed to free herself and ask the neighbours for help. The local population are worried, especially elderly residents living alone because the two robbers have not yet been identified or caught. The women were frightened and shocked, suffered bruising from the tape wound around their face and were taken by the police to Calheta Health Centre. Maria da Conceição Teixeira continued to explain what happened. "They began by locking the dog in the kennel. They broke down the door of the residence with an iron crowbar (pe-de-cabra). They burst in with lanterns, to prevent using the lights so as not to draw the attention of the neighbourhood. They said, "We are not aggressors" but the first thing they did was to put tape on our mouths to keep us from screaming. Then they tied our hands so we could not do anything and asked us with threats where the money was. I said that the retirement money was in the post but they would not know that. They searched everywhere, emptied drawers, looked under beds and took all the money we had left for expenses. They stole the valuable pieces we had, including a two metre gold chain, two rings and a necklace, all made of gold.  We experienced moments of terror inside the house. When the individuals left us in those conditions, I manage to free, with difficulty, the adhesive tape around my mouth and phoned the neighbours for help. – who were celebrating the Dia de Reis – and they almost immediately came to our aid." Yesterday morning, scattered around the floor of the access to the house, were cigarette butts and a cigarette packet of a particular brand that is not known locally. This indicates that the attackers spent time hiding near the house before engaging in the crime, smoking cigarettes.

Lobo acquitted with the four defendants The former mayor of Ponta do Sol, António Lobo, who was accused of serious crimes of fraud and bribery and four other defendants in this case, charged with bribery, were all acquitted due to lack of evidence. António Lobo was accused of receiving three cheques from a developer to facilitate the licensing of an apartment block in Ponta do Sol. The four other defendants were a contractor, financial advisor, and ex-deputy and ex-councillor, both PSD. All three cheques from the promoter of the apartment block had been deposited into the personal account of António Lobo but the court could not establish any resulting benefit to the contractor. The same decision was made for the alleged corruption by Lobo since it was the Council which approved the project. António Lobo is still serving six years in prison in Lisbon. All defendants said that justice had been done and criticized the media interest but the public present thought it was a controversial decision.

Madeira present five alterations to the law  Five proposed amendments to the Regional Finance Law which are discussed next week in Lisbon. The changes are aimed to receive the recovery of money owed to the Region due to the Regional Finance Law being enforced. Madeira wants to recover the money which the Region should be entitled to under the previous law of 1998, without prejudicing the Azores. The Madeiran Government wants to recover the 111.56 million Euros in budget transfers from the Portuguese Government which it failed to receive between 2007 – 2009. The second major change relates to existing penalties to the Region for exceeding the debt limit. This money should be retained by the State to pay the Regional debt or support projects of common interest. Projects of common interest should be included in the State budget (e.g. new Hospital of Funchal). The final changes are that adjustments should be made in the budget transfers.

Department of Infrastructure guarantees that aggregates are the property of the Region Reply to yesterday’s article in Diário about the dredging of more than 700 truckloads of stone from storm damaged regions. The methods taken are deemed necessary and urgent to restore the normality of physical spaces and the lives of people affected by the unusual recent storms. "It is necessary to act immediately, assessing the costs and benefits of decisions and above all, setting priorities for intervention, which are weighted by various factors in the present circumstances."  "In Madalena do Mar, the immediate dredging of the stream was identified as a priority because the weather is unstable, to prevent or minimize the impact of possible storms that may occur again." "Faced with this emergency, the SRES, acting within its powers contacted the two companies for this purpose, and all the material that is removed and deposited in their yards will be quantitatively controlled by monitoring." "Staff of the Secretariat will also identify and evaluate the areas adjacent to increased erosion, followed by the removal of selected materials by the process of dredging to strengthen these areas where it is technically justified." "The material taken from the mouth of the stream by the purpose of dredging is the property of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, and only in the case of leftover material, can be purchased by businesses. Should this occur, the value as may be determined is, yes, minus the total cost of dredging."

PS denounce illegal firms in Ribeira de São Vicente The Socialist Party call for an end to all industrial activity in the Ribeira de São Vicente. The activity is not licensed and the parish council, municipal council and Regional Government do not receive any contribution. The Socialist Party leader, João Gouveia, condemns not only the exploitation of the geological wealth of Madeira, mud and stones are deposited in the stream, threatening the flow of water and the town of São Vicente.

Passenger traffic drops 4.3% The number of passengers recorded in December passing through Madeira Airport fell 4.3% compared to 2008. In December 2009, there were 160,858 entries and exits against 168,065 in December 2008. Therefore, 7,207 fewer passengers. The decline reflects a drop of passengers on international flights (-15.7%), which is mitigated by the growth of domestic routes (6.5%).  In 2009, the number passing through the airport totalled 2,335,811 which is 101,756 less than 2008.

12% more patients treated in 2009 than 2008 in the Hospital of Funchal Data from the Office of Internal Medicine. Of the 10,756 patients treated, 5,735 were high problematic. The average length of hospitalization was 8 days with 12 days for those high problematic. Positive changes have come from the unification of the three previous departments: Medicine I, Medicine II and Medicine III. The areas of Internal Medicine are Internal Medicine, Hypertension, Prevention of Atherosclerosis and Dyslipidaemias, Prevention of Vascular Diseases, Metabolic Diseases, and Pulmonary Hypertension (in collaboration with Cardiology). Included are blood coagulation disorders / thromboembolic events in collaboration with Obstetrics.

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

Today’s main news headline : It is illegal to dump earth [mud] in the sea – Domingos Abreu, biologist and ex-regional director for the environment [DRA],  is against the view of the current holder of that post : There is no exception to the law and authorized dumping at the coastline of São Vicente should be prohibited. Abreu says that one "cannot combat evil with another evil, even though it may be lesser". Correia, the current DRA post holder says however that he has no official knowledge of dumping on the coast of São Vicente, and that the law allows exceptions for these sorts of cases. "It is a situation of public interest" he says, refusing to brand the dumping operation as illegal. One thing that is clear is that this island should have contingency plans for dealing with such matters, and despite of having had several years of similar weather problems and the consequences, still nothing seems coordinated or organised in coping with the aftermath.

Carlos Costa shakes ‘idols’ – Fátima Marques is anxious. In each show, the mother of the contestant rings 20 to 30 times to 760300508. I guess that is the number to vote for her, and the Diário has no shame in publishing that number on it’s front page. Just like I always say, it’s a big farce, but it seems that big farces are as popular as ever.

Jacinto Serrão reconquers PS-M – Serrão is the new leader – Victor Freitas lost the contest by 52 votes. At 8 pm Jacinto Serrão breathed a sigh of relief. The ‘blogs’ are singing victory, but the competition was fierce and the result did not become official until shortly after 10 pm. Overall Serrão won 665 votes, for leadership of the Socialist Party of Madeira, against the 623 of Freitas (and I have noticed that the difference is only 42, not 52). Funny thing that yesterday his name was spelt Vítor, so losers get a name change perhaps, or more likely an overworked Diário reporter with maths difficulties? COMPLETE RESULTS

APRAM [Port Authority] fosters unfair competition – The accusation is made in the action of the shipping companies in the scope of the operation ‘Armas’ Saturday. Naviera Armas has assured the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Lisbon that will comply with the law of Portugal, including the terms under which the operation in Funchal is licensed. The judge in the case had warned Armas that it was not operating within the law last Thursday. The port authority APRAM have also taken measures to ensure that the operations are legitimate, in which the ferry will use tractors carried on board to move freight from ship to land. The accusation of unfair competition is undeniably true of course. The Armas passenger ferry between Madeira and Portugal and the Canary Islands has an exclusive licence to carry freight as well as passengers in and out of Funchal, whilst the other shipowners have to load and offload freight elsewhere. The Armas operation needs the freight to make the ferry financially viable, so if it were to be stopped you can imagine the impact on this island … less tourists … and higher transportation costs, being two of the more obvious. I can’t see any way out of this except by giving the other ship owners a ‘sweetener’ to keep them quiet, and then at some time in the future go out to tender for a mainland ferry service for fright and passengers, when every one can compete (theoretically at least).

The front page headlines in sport / football : Marítimo continue leaky – The Verde-rubros register a third consecutive defeat at home to Guimarães in game played on a waterlogged pitch. That is also the main photo today, and it does look very wet. Marítimo lost 0 – 1, which also put their opponents in spitting distance of local rivals Nacional.

Footballers of Pontassolense threaten to boycott the derby game today, with União, if they don’t receive part of their wages in arrears.

F. Vieira confirmed in the ‘Dinner of the Supporters of Benfica’ on Saturday

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 photo or video, 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 photos / videos.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.

If you post a comment and are not registered on this site (free), your comment will be moderated, so please do not waste time with spam postings.  If you register, your comment will be posted automatically. If you register, your email address will not be passed to any other party … promise!

Please send any topical or Madeira related photos or videos to Der at blog@madeira4u.com to appear on this blog. Photos may take a while to appear, depending on the number waiting. Please don’t send copyrighted material.

The headline news & other snippets reviewed here on the blog are mainly from the Diário de Notícias of Madeira, although news from any source is used and welcome.

The blogs in the ‘uncategorised’ category come from the old madeira4u blog.

IF YOU NEED HELP WITH ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE, TRY THE MENU ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE ‘USEFUL LINKS’ & ‘TIPS & HELP’

Madeira News Blog © 2007 – 2009 All Rights Reserved

Some people publish their family holiday snapshots online, never expecting anyone to ever see them, so naked sunbathing photos are not recommended. I expect this lady will have a bit of a surprise when she sees her visitor stats tomorrow. TÂMARA’S MADEIRA HOLIDAY

"These two astronaut photographs illustrate the northern (top) and southern (bottom) Savage Islands. The two views were taken 13 seconds apart from the International Space Station; the geographic centre points of the images are separated by about 15 kilometres. Selvagem Grande, with an approximate area of 4 square kilometres, is the largest of the islands. The smaller and more irregularly-shaped Ilhéus do Norte, Ilhéu de Fora, and Selvagem Pequena are visible at the center of the lower image. Spain and Portugal both claim sovereignty over the Savage Islands". ILHAS SELVAGENS

"In an attempt to liven things up a bit, we started trying to determine which of the interesting looking fruits might be edible.  These rather attractively purple bananas (you will need to click on the link to see the photo) turned out to be not only ripe, but deliciously sweet, and rather oddly crunchy, with seeds the size of peppercorns. I SUSPECT THOSE ‘WILD’ BANANAS WERE FAR FROM RIPE OR WERE NOT BANANAS worth a read and some nice photos

British lawyer laundered bribes to Nigeria – "The entire Nigerian bribery scheme was organised through London, according to the US authorities, taking advantage of Britain’s weak laws against overseas corruption. Labour ministers waved through a British loan guarantee for part of the deal in 2003, describing it as an example of "sound financial judgment". Cash flowed down an elaborate route, involving a subsidiary registered in Madeira, a Tesler company registered in Gibraltar and bank accounts in the Netherlands". LINK I doubt if the Madeira free zone needs this type of publicity as it is under so much scrutiny at the moment with accusations that it is effectively an ‘offshore’, but as this article was published in the UK Guardian newspaper, I doubt that reproducing this here will cause any further damage.

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

Government outlines new goals for organic production. Bio Madeira Week. At the time when the region has 5% of agricultural land classified as organic, the Regional Secretary for the Environment and Natural Resources yesterday set a challenge of increasing this area from 240 hectares to 500 over the next few years. In 2000, there were only 21 hectares devoted to organic farming. For these producers there are added incentives, e.g. payments higher than for traditional farmers – 30% more for organic grapes and bananas. The expansion of this type of agriculture is an opportunity and a factor of competitiveness. As Madeira is only a small island, farmers cannot compete on price so the produce must be of high quality and organic certification is a critical distinction.

Verandim yields and ‘betrays’ two elderly people. Two women, aged 69 and 79, were yesterday admitted to the Central Hospital of Funchal from injuries suffered in a fall from a balcony, about two feet up. They were leaning against a varandim (balcony) of iron when, for reasons not known, it gave way causing both to fall. They were assisted on site by the bombeiros and taken to the hospital. One had a cut on the scalp and both complained of back pain. The older woman was kept under observation in the Emergency Room and the younger one admitted to Orthopaedics. The accident occurred at a private house in Sao Roque.

Man denies domestic violence case. Following on from yesterday’s article about domestic violence in Porto da Cruz. "For 20 years I do not drink." The outburst from the man accused of scaring the daughter and ex-wife who live in a secluded area of Porto da Cruz. He denies the allegations that he appeared drunk on the doorstep and is sure that he has not seen his daughter since the divorce. Outraged and hurt about the complaints to the police and the Commission for the Protection of Children, he says he will proceed with a criminal complaint against his ex-wife and son. The marriage lasted for 25 years. In his version, the ex-wife will have given false information about the alleged appearances at the old family home. As for drink, every time he has been breathalysed in police stops over the past 20 years, the reading was zero. He has not seen his 11 year old daughter since the divorce at the beginning of this year, although access is guaranteed by the divorce ruling. It is the ex-wife who prevents him from seeing the daughter and he abides by her decision. He stills pays the maintenance every month. He insists he never injured the daughter and has only been to the house to collect his belongings.

Regional Development Forum. The current economic situation determines the theme of the World Forum of Regional Economic Development, which is taking place in Funchal until tomorrow. A key objective is to find concrete measures that are feasible and apply them to the various regions, whatever they are. About 70 people of various nationalities are participating in the Forum which began yesterday. They are from places as diverse as China, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, United States and Europe. Energy is expected to be a fundamental aspect of the future. Hence the presence of the Russians and Ukrainians in the meeting, " They open and close the tap." One aspect that is certainly discussed at the meeting is the importance of social aspects. Today the world and regions face a social crisis. "In some countries, more than half of young people are unable to find work."

PS does not celebrate November 25. As the Legislative Assembly of Madeira did not celebrate April 25 1974 by a special sitting, members of the PS (Socialists) will not participate in any ceremony dedicated to 25 November 1975. In the commemorative session they will recall the military action that led to the stabilization of democracy. On 25 November 1975, according to the PSD, a party which for years promoted the realization of this plenary, models of Communist rule were rejected. ALM celebrates this ‘consolidation’ of democracy but does not devote any space to the celebration of the Carnation Revolution that ended more than four decades of dictatorship in Portugal. The leader of the PS, João Carlos Gouveia, explained that it is a celebration by a right wing party that does not accept democracy, and is closer to the fascist regime that oppressed Portugal. A year ago, the session on November 25 did not have any members of the Socialists, Left Bloc or New Democracy Party.

Junta de Gaula against Jardim’s cuts. The JPP party (Together for the People) on Sunday in public denounced the cutting of public works by the Government and Council of Santa Cruz. The leader of the local Freguesia, also JPP, was also against the cuts. Élvio Sousa said it revealed a profound disregard for the interests of the Gaula population, a situation which needs to be explained by the mayor of Santa Cruz and the former executive responsible for the Freguesia of Gaula – that the analysis deceived the people of Gaula. He cannot understand how the work has been postponed when a framework contract has already been signed in March 2009. Élvio Sousa asks the following question: "To what extent are local councillors, who must defend the interests of the people of Gaula, ‘slaves’ of the masters in Funchal?"

ALM budget approved in eight minutes. Less than 10 minutes were enough to discuss and approve the budget for the ALM. Only the PCP communists referred to the famous ‘jackpot’ for the parties and the questions raised by the Court of Auditors in relation to the use of funds transferred by the Assembly. In discussing the accounts of the ALM in 2008, Baltasar Aguiar of the PND New Democrats commented on the high cost of parking, paid by Parliament (165,000 Euros per year). He also asked Miguel Mendonca why a trip to America that was to last 3 days ended up lasting 11 days.

Christmas Outreach Project. The Regional Secretariat for Tourism and Transport put forward an action of solidarity, aimed at the young. There will be a large Santa Claus in the Avenida Arriaga where you can deposit toys which will be distributed to children in institutions in the region. The toys will be distributed at the show ‘Singing of the Kings’ at the Municipal Park on January 5, 2010 at 20.00.

There will be less money in 2010. Presenting the budget for next year, Ventura Garces announced several cuts. The budget has been reduced to €1,531 million, €50 million less than 2009. The region should experience an increase in net debt of around €178 million resulting in a loan of 230 million Euros (still lacks the authorization from the State) and €52 million is needed to repay the loan. Another loan worth 50 million Euros might be applied for from the European Investment Bank. Sport will receive 11% less and agriculture will receive 14% less. The opposite applies to business development that increases 111%, employment over 37%, and tourism 6% more than 2009.

Meeting of the Union of Embroiderers in Turkey. The Madeira Union of Bordados (traditional embroidery) at a meeting in Turkey, want the creation of an International Federation of Home Workers. They want an Internet site to unite home workers from every country, and a Federation to fight for their rights. The Union has delivered its proposal to IBTAM to double the payments made to embroiderers, as an incentive. There are fewer and fewer workers due to the low income.

Car caught fire on motorway. A car caught fire yesterday on the Funchal – Ribeira Brava motorway. The incident occurred around 15.30 and the front of the Peugeot 206 was completely destroyed. Manuel Rodrigues, the owner, said that while going from Funchal to São Vicente, at the exit from the tunnel after Quinta Grande the car started to emit smoke and then fire broke out. This continued until the exit to Campanário. He used a fire extinguisher but it was the bombeiros who eventually extinguished the fire. The car was purchased in London and was brought to the region yesterday via the Naviera Armas. The fire might have been caused by a short circuit.

Cruises yield €40 million per year. The Ports Authority want to increase the number of calls by cruise ships, which is close to 300 per year. The objective is outlined at a time when the administration is preparing to make a new study on the satisfaction of cruise tourists who visit the island. Cruise ships tourism generates revenues of €40 million per year, but APRAM want to end the seasonality when May to August are quiet months. One way is the association with Medicuise which should give access to new routes. The last survey was in 2005 and this one will occur in the first half of 2010. It aims to update the data on spending patterns of the passengers and crews while on the island. It is recalled that in 2005, the study concluded that each passenger spent around 70 Euros a day. An EU survey concluded that crew members spend an average of 25 Euros per day. The inauguration of the new Maritime Station has been scheduled for next year, but no date fixed. The building will be completed by the end of this year then in the first half of next year, the equipment to operate it put into place. The cost will not be passed onto cruise ship passengers. The Traditional Trade Association want an extension of Saturday and Sunday opening to catch the weekend trade of hundreds of tourists when cruise ships call. Only last weekend there were 6,300 tourists who found a city deserted and empty. The authorities should promote tours to the city center and the Farmers’ Market. Sights of interest should also open at the weekend.

Government will encourage ‘Park and Ride’. The Horários Bus company, the Council of Funchal and the Regional Secretariat of Tourism and Transport are studying this concept. This initiative is intended to relocate parking from the city center to the periphery and make public transport sufficiently attractive so that people do not want to drive into the centre. A previous attempt at Viveiros did not work due to low compliance. The idea is to have two parking areas, one at the Western side and one at the Eastern side.

Police detain nine suspected of stealing from several homes in Funchal. Nine men between the ages of 20 and 59 are suspected of burglary and are thought to belong to a gang "presumably involved in concerted behaviour." Several items were seized including several pieces of gold, worth more than 6,000 Euros. The suspects are residents of Funchal, Santa Cruz and Lisbon.

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

Top story today : Demolition of Savoy starts in January – The hotel comes down in a process without implosion that will take 10 months. The developer Horácio Roque says that he intends to spend the New Year eve 2012-13 in a new building, budgeted at €120 million. Perhaps Mr. Roque is thinking of staying in another new hotel then, or perhaps in a hotel outbuilding? If it needs 10 months to knock down the old one (using traditional methods) and clear the site, that leaves just over two years to build a new one. This is Madeira … I have seen houses that have taken longer than two years to build. The bets are on! The idea is demolition with as little disturbance as possible, but that is of course impossible to avoid. I have pity for people in that zone that will have to put up with all this for years to come, particularly as this project was never necessary, and better options were available to revitalise the fortunes of the Savoy hotel, and for the loyal staff that were all sacked.

Debate concludes that the crisis is going to endure – The ’100 Biggest and Best’ (companies) united bosses of success in times of difficulties. I agree. An economy based so heavily on leisure will always be amongst the last out of recession, and I didn’t need to attend a conference of company bosses to work that one out.

In the Madeira budget for 2010, 29% of the revenue needed is not guaranteed. Someone else fancy a look at this one?

Health is in contention in the screening for Gripe A – Each exam costs more than 100 Euros and should be reduced. In January support for private analyses finishes. There seems to be two intertwined stories here, but the one in front of me says that tests and analyses samples taken by hospitals and health centres on Madeira, that went to private companies for processing, will no longer have the costs reimbursed from January. All such work will in future be undertaken by the Pathology Laboratory in Funchal Central Hospital. That’s old news, but maybe the effective date is new?

SATA wants to continue the operation Funchal – Porto Santo. President of the company showed himself to be interested in the contest anticipated for 2010. That can be no great surprise, as it has been well known for a long time that the Azores airline SATA brought two new (not brand new) planes to service the route. Quite why they will be flying from Funchal I am not sure, perhaps the usual airport at Santa Cruz is expected to fall into the sea next year. Cruise ships go to Funchal, not air traffic. You know what I have actually met people who think this island is called Funchal.

Madeira ground-breaker in the inventory of organs. Church organs that is. The inventory of church organs started on Madeira recently is the first of it’s kind in Portugal. It seems a book is to be published ‘Organs of the churches of Madeira’. It must be a job creation scheme? Surely no one is going to buy the book in sufficient numbers to make it a financially viable project.

Today’s sport headline, well two in one actually : Cristiano returns and Barcelona defeat Mourinho – The Madeiran is back tonight in the Champions league. Barcelona shone yesterday. Ronaldo is back for Real Madrid v FC Zurich after injury. Portuguese José Mourinho watched his team Inter Milan lose last night.

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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 photo or video, 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 photos / videos.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.

If you post a comment and are not registered on this site (free), your comment will be moderated, so please do not waste time with spam postings.  If you register, your comment will be posted automatically. If you register, your email address will not be passed to any other party … promise!

Please send any topical or Madeira related photos or videos to blog@madeira4u.com to appear on this blog. Photos may take a while to appear, depending on the number waiting. Please don’t send copyrighted material.

The headline news & other snippets reviewed here on the blog are mainly from the Diário de Notícias of Madeira, although news from any source is used and welcome.

The blogs in the ‘uncategorised’ category come from the old madeira4u blog.

IF YOU NEED HELP WITH ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE, TRY THE MENU ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE ‘USEFUL LINKS’ & ‘TIPS & HELP’

Madeira News Blog © 2007 – 2009 All Rights Reserved

I mentioned a few weeks ago about a big party organised by a famous international magazine called ‘Faces’, that is due to take place next weekend, with lots of celebrities expected to come to Madeira. ‘More Beauties – Liliana Campos Is Another Of The Famous That Comes To The ‘Faces’ Party’. All in all around 50 VIP passes are being issued to national celebrities for the event, where the main focus is a party in The Vine Hotel. As usual, I have no idea who she is, as my celebrity knowledge is very thin on the ground in these modern times.

Today’s sport headline : ‘Unprecedented Feat – The tennis player Martim Trueva, still a junior, conquered the national championship completely in the pairs’. He could go still further today in the singles. he is the first Madeiran ever to win an absolute(?) victory in a national championship. I would like to offer my congratulations to Martim, not for the comparatively mundane achievement of winning a national doubles title, but for the much harder achievement of keeping football off the front page of the Diário on a Saturday during the football season. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an editorial oversight.

‘SATA Plane Departs For Porto Santo Four Hours Late – One of the crew was showing Gripe A swine flu symptoms and had to be substituted’. The 8 am SATA ATP flight from Madeira to Porto Santo didn’t leave until midday. Four hours to find a crew member (or three hours according to another article) … I doubt if the delayed passengers would have found that very acceptable for an airline with a base on Madeira, and it wasn’t even the pilot with the with symptoms.

The crowds gathered in Machico yesterday in sítio do Paraíso, where president Jardim inaugurated a new road, which leads to the mouth of the tunnel that goes to Caniçal. The new road is 1,300 metres long, and cost €1.85 million to build. I am not sure whether these inauguration articles belong in the political section, or in Madeira news, these days. I think it all depends on whether Uncle Bertie is wearing his PSD lapel badge.

‘Minor assaults elderly man to steal €10 – After the theft, the thief assaulted the victim, hitting him with a shoe on his head’. The 15 year old minor was identified by police after assaulting a 63 year old man in Nazaré, in Funchal. After knocking the man to the ground, the thief took the money from the man’s pocket, and then took his victims shoe so he could whack him around the head before fleeing the scene. It all took place in front of witnesses. The police managed to identify the boy, and quickly arrested him, only to find that he had already spent the €10, and so they took him back to his grandmothers house. The matter will be reported to the Court for families and minors. It all sounds a little surreal, and with crime this sophisticated, I think the police have little problem in catching the criminals. No doubt granny will give him a good spanking, send him to bed without any supper, and withhold his pocket money to repay the €10. 

‘Colombo Disembarks On Porto Santo’. As is traditional in the Colombo festival, Christopher Columbus sails to shore along with Mrs. Columbus (or soon to be) to recreate the arrival and passing of our famous hero (which hopefully is not a tale as fictional or improvable as the claim that Columbus is Portuguese). The event finishes today. In a later article, the secretary for tourism for Madeira said that the 10th festival had been such a success that she wants to promote it nationally and in Spain next year. "It caused a true filling of the streets of Vila Baleira" she said. €108,000 was the cost of the event, and a 53% hotel occupancy rate was achieved.

‘Two Suspects Detained For Drug Trafficking – 2,100 doses of cannabis seized’. Funchal police arrested a man and woman with the drugs, destined to be sold on the streets of Madeira. In another article, police from Câmara de Lobos seized 590 doses of heroin and arrested two individuals on Thursday.

The hit and run driver who seriously injured a man in Lugar de Baixo, before fleeing the scene in a silver grey VW last Sunday, has now been identified. The driver committed the crime of "Omissão de auxílio" (Failure to help), as set out in article 200 of the Penal Code, and now faces up to 2 years in prison, or a hefty fine and / or loss of his driving licence. The victim is still in hospital awaiting surgery. 

Petrol and diesel prices drop another cêntimo on Monday.

In this weekends football, Nacional travel to play Rio Ave, currently 5th in the league. The match is at 6 pm, but is not televised. Marítimo play at home against top of the table Sporting Braga on Sunday morning, on SportTV 1 at 11.15 am.

From yesterday’s Jornal da Madeira : ‘Digital Terrestrial Television now covers  65% of the Autonomous Region – Funchal, Porto Santo and the areas west and east already have the signal’. Free DTT, the technology that allows one to receive television of better image and sound quality, is now available to 65 percent of the population of Madeira, according to a government spokesman. DTT will replace the current analogue terrestrial broadcasting, which provides the four general national channels (RTP, RTP 2, SIC and TVI), and also RTP-Açores and RTP-Madeira. Anyone delved into this yet? I am thinking of packing in with Zon, so I am interested to know if anyone has the ‘free’ option and what they think of it.

UPDATE : You won’t see it on TV, but after extensive research the last minute Nacional goal (and the OTT celebrations) is available to blog readers HERE along with a match report in English. In the draw for the group phase made this afternoon, Nacional will play in Group L with Werder Bremen (Germany), Austria de Vienna, and Atletico de Bilbau (Spain). The first games will be on 17th September.

‘CMF ‘Occupies’ Old Buildings’. Funchal Municipal Council is to take administrative possession of 4 old run-down buildings, to use for social housing. The buildings are in an advanced state of degradation in the old city. CMF will take possession of the buildings, which are protected in legal terms, for turning them into housing. There are at least four of these buildings, whose expropriation process determines a substantial investment, not only to pay the owners, but also to pay for the restoration work. One house in Rua de Santa Maria will cost €53,000 to buy, and another €102,000 to restore. There are many such houses in the area, and the process of expropriation (compulsory purchase) is there to allow CMF to take on the restoration, to keep Funchal looking in good shape, when the owners fail to do so with their property. The process has four stages, and is usually made more difficult because owners cannot be identified or traced, often as a result of complex inheritance issues, as often happens here.

‘(Social) Security Investigates Fraud – The scheme involves false claims for unemployment benefit. Bernadette Vieira alerts citizens to the serious consequences of illegal claims’. An allegedly fraudulent scheme involving false unemployment claims, may be undermining the social security system, and costing many thousands of Euros. The case is now being investigated by the inspection branch of Social Security Madeira (CSSM), following a whistle blower complaint, and as required by law, they immediately suspended unemployment benefits awarded to people under suspicion. In practice, they suspect the existence of companies that, in return for a monetary consideration, have sent false statements to the CSSM in support of claims for unemployment benefits, for workers who in fact never worked there. Research by the Diário revealed that this scheme is suspected of taking place in the north of Madeira, involving an unspecified number of people. In the parish of Boaventura, the number of individuals suspected of improperly receiving the unemployment benefit is around 10. If the bogus claims are confirmed the matter will be turned over to the Justice Police. Bernadette Vieira, president of CSSM, alerts citizens to the seriousness of a situation like this, as well as for the obvious consequences for those involved. The first of which, is the immediate suspension of unemployment benefit. In addition, offenders are obliged to refund the entire amount obtained unlawfully. This, warns the president of CSSM, in the absence of an immediate repayment, will lead to the suspension of all subsidies and other social benefits, that will continue until the amount owed is paid off in full. To further aggravate the situation, the culprits are also subject to a fine of up to one thousand Euros. For companies involved in fraudulent situations like this, the amount of fines can go up to €2,500. In addition to all this, there are criminal consequences for some. In addition, she appeals to the public who are aware of schemes like these, to report the matter. Sounds almost like it is a new phenomenon, but surely it can’t be. A certain small percentage of human beings will always try to rip-off the system, that’s an unfortunate fact of life, but here it’s almost a national sport as far as the financial authorities go, with so many people working and claiming benefits, and working and not paying tax, or businesses earning and siphoning. Normally it doesn’t it seem to bother anyone, let alone the IRS and Social Security, and it almost seems to be socially acceptable. The fines hardly seem much of a deterrent either. I wonder if there is anything we could learn from our politicians about how to behave in this sense?

‘Weekend With The Famous – Dates 4th And 5th – The event ‘Faces’ Divine Experience’ ends with a VIP party at The Vine Hotel’. Fun, elegance and dozens of familiar faces from the world of television. This is what promises to end the weekend special summer that the famous celebrity magazine ‘Faces’ will present in Madeira, on the 4th and 5th of September. The actress and TV presenter, Liliana Aguiar, and Sofia Marques, are named guests, but the final list of celebrities is still being prepared and in the coming days there should be more news. The Vine will be an unforgettable party. For these two days, specifically Friday, after a ‘welcome drink’ at The Vine Hotel (in the hotel’s official event ‘Faces Divine Experience’), there follows a visit to the ‘Madeira Wine Festival 2009′ which will take place at Avenida Arriaga, then the night will finish with a dinner at’ Chega de Saudade’, one of the most popular restaurants in downtown Funchal. On Saturday, there is a boat trip planned along the coast to the Marina Quinta do Lorde, in Caniçal, followed by lunch there. At night, there will be a dinner at the restaurant at The Vine, followed by a media VIP party for about 400 invited guests. Having never heard of the magazine ‘Faces’, or the only two guests named so far, I thought I ought to do some Google research and it seems that ‘Faces’ Magazine is a free magazine about the nightlife, restaurants, fashion, stores, and people of Halifax in England.

‘Law of compulsory education until the age of 18 published yesterday – Students in the next school year to stay until the seventh grade are already covered(?)’. The law which extends compulsory education to the age of 18, and establishes pre-school education from the age of 5, was published in the Diário da República (official Journal). Law No 85/2009 states that "compulsory education implies, for the guardian of the child, the duty to make the registration of the child in public or private schools, in institutions of education, and / or training recognized by authorities, determining for the student the duty of attendance".

‘SATA repudiates the strike of Groundforce – Company accepts no responsibility for the inconvenience that passengers will suffer’. If the TAP strike today and tomorrow isn’t bad enough, the handling company at several airports, Groundforce, has also chosen the same days to strike. This will affect passengers using the airports of Madeira, Porto Santo, Lisbon and Porto. The strike will cause congestion with luggage movements, and problems in check in, embarking and disembarking. Passengers are advised to travel with cabin luggage only, and also to check in by telephone where possible. The SATA customer contact centre number is 707 22 72 82, or information can be obtained on-line.

‘Rockfall Along The Seafront Of Ribeira Brava – Boulders fell on the section prohibited for use’. The old sea road, closed to traffic for several years, that leads to the roundabout at Tabua, suffered another rock fall yesterday. No one was hurt, but the damage was evident both to the pavement and in the outer sea wall which runs alongside the road. The route is correctly identified with warning signs, and also signs prohibiting pedestrian and bicycle traffic, but many ignore them.

In yesterday’s Jornal da Madeira : ‘New measure against social exclusion released – The program was published this week in the Journal of the Region’. The Government has just launched a measure to combat social exclusion. This is the Local Contract Program for Social Development, published this week in the Journal of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (JORAM) whose purpose, is to ‘bridge the current needs of society in the face of persistent poverty and social exclusion’. According to the regional secretary for social affairs, it is a set of opportunities that are created locally for the social development of people who are in situations of social downfall, to give an opportunity that these people can take part in’. He said ‘this is a project of great social importance’, as it will offer them "an opportunity for integration". It involves the the creation of units that develop, train and thus provide new job opportunities for those people in need of support. It will be targeted at critical areas, urban or rural, hard hit with problems. A bit tricky to dig out the exact details, but will this be the PSD ‘election special’, designed to attract those voters suffering the worst hardship, that until now thought the government of Madeira had done little to help them?

UPDATES

‘Study Records Weak Presence Of Mosquitoes – The study was done in July by technicians of hygiene and tropical medicine’. The preliminary study says that there is no great abundance of insects, not in adult or larvae form. That is confirmed by a reduction in people attending the health centres in Funchal and Câmara de Lobos, complaining of bites by the ‘Aedes Aegypti’ mosquito. The news has surprised the experts, with the explanation being given as partly due to the use of a new ‘cutting edge’ insecticide, instead of that recommended by the World health Organisation. A colder Winter may also have helped. Another reason given for the reduction in complaints at health centres, is that people are becoming less sensitive to the bites of this species over time. However people are urged to continue the action they have been taking, particularly avoiding leaving stagnant water around, which provides breeding conditions. The worst months are yet to come, with the heat, humidity and rain of September and October, providing the best conditions for the mosquitoes.

’200 Cases Per Year In The PSP Of Madeira’. The police are the target of complaints relating to misconduct, breaches of discipline, or practices that could be considered illegal. The trade union representing police says that there is protectionism in play for more senior officers, whilst the rank and file police are subject to a quicker and more severe sanctions. The TU officer gives the example of damage to vehicles, with some officers fined and suffering a reduction in salary, whilst more senior officers were not even subject to the same process. The Regional Command of the PSP makes it clear that the process, does not discriminate between rank or function. "The disciplinary regulations of the PSP are applicable to all police officers" he said. The majority of disciplinary proceedings, which are led by an officer of higher rank to the person charged, end up being closed due to lack of evidence.

A 24 year old man has died from his injuries after a car crash in Calheta on 16th August. He had been in a coma since the accident between Prazeres and Maloeira. A 19 year old man in the same accident is still in hospital waiting surgery, but is out of danger. The funeral is tomorrow at 4pm in the church of Raposeira.

‘TAP Guarantees Flights On Day Of Strike – Resort to the company ‘Portway’ is the solution found to not leave passengers on land’. Passengers are catching their flights as normal at Madeira Airport today, despite the strikes by staff represented by 5 different trade unions at TAP airlines. So far no cancellations or delays. A TAP spokesman said that (today?) there will be just isolated small delays. TAP has contracted the handling services of Portway to minimise problems, a move that one trade union leader has said is illegal. TAP assures that the move is within the law.

"Black Stains" Appear Like Mushrooms Leaving Funchal Disfigured – CDU criticises urban growth in the city’. The election candidate of the communists for the câmara municipal of Funchal criticised the various developments that have left the city "violated and disfigured". In a pre-campaign initiative prior to the elections on 11th October, Artur Andrade said that the city had been "marked by interest groups and by speculation in real estate", and that the municipal master plan (PDM) has proved "insufficient to deal with the speculative interests and was twisted and violated". The result of the total permissiveness over the years is for the gain of "a minority whose aim is simply to make as much profit as possible". The examples chosen to illustrate the accusations are Marina Shopping, the expansion of the Hotel CS Madeira, the embargoed building of Mina Gerais, and even the cement wall at the port of Funchal for the construction of a car park. What about the complete development in and around Ajuda? If that wasn’t done for a quick buck and with total disregard for sensible planning, I will eat someone’s hat.

‘Autonomous Regions Forgotten In The Programme Of PSD – Ferreira Leite doesn’t take on any questions involving controversy’. Alberto João Jardim said during the week, that the PS electoral programme presented by prime minister José Sócrates was worth "zero", in respect of Madeira and the Azores. An evaluation (according to the Diário) that he should now extend to the programme (prospectus?) of his own PSD party, presented yesterday by party leader Manuela Ferreira Leite, who said the party did not exaggerate its promises. The autonomous regions had a quarter page and some general references, with none of the issues considered fundamental by the social democrats of Madeira addressed with a clear commitment, including the constitution revision considered as a top priority by president Jardim. It does however promise to patch up the terrible relationship between central government and the regional government of Madeira, if elected. It also promises to ensure ‘healthy market competition’, which will conflict with the government stance here in terms of the newspaper Jornal da Madeira.

(23rd August). ‘Bombardier Dash Q200 Substitutes Broken Down Aircraft – SATA Air Azores brings forward the maiden voyage for Madeira for the aircraft intended to arrive in 2010′. The Q200 ‘Graciosa’ started the inter island connections on Saturday. The plane was being used for inter island connections in the Azores, but was called in to replace the British Aerospace ATP ‘Açores’ after the engine fire that caused an emergency landing on Porto Santo on Friday morning. Also the replacement Pratt & Whitney engine for the ATP has arrived along with engineers to make the swop, with the job expected to be complete on Tuesday. After satisfactory test results, the Q200 will return to the Azores, returning again in January as a permanent replacement for the ATP.

‘Luxury Brands In Crisis Due To Sales – The crisis keeps away the customers of shops of luxury goods, and the companies confront problems caused by the fall in sales, motivated by the search for cheaper products’. Many companies manufacturing or retailing luxury goods have seen their financial performance fall in the first few months of this year, but the opinions and the circumstances vary. 

‘Growth in Line With Germany And France Is Mere Coincidence – Chief economist of BPI Bank says that the reasons for the growth are very different’. The growth in GDP announced a week ago for the second quarter of 2009 is a coincidental statistic she assured. Although Portugal did have a rise in consumption and a slowing of the fall in exports, she said.

‘Fire Consumes Considerable Area Of Eucalyptus – Difficult access made it difficult to combat the flames that spread in Fajã da Ovelha’. With unfavourable conditions (wind, heat, and low humidity) the fire spread Wednesday afternoon around 6 pm in the serra, and was expected to be extinguished by last night by Calheta firemen. 5 vehicles and around 20 firemen were involved. No residences or people were in any danger. The cause of the fire is unknown.

‘Emergency Landing Injures One Person – 14 passengers were travelling on board the SATA flight’. A plane heading for Madeira was forced to do an emergency landing on Porto Santo this morning, after a problem with one of the engines. The ATP of SATA (the Azores based airline) SP1691 landed at around 8.40 am.  One person was lightly injured, but operations at Porto Santo airport are now back to normal.

‘Future Crematorium Already Registers Demand – The first equipment of its kind in the Region’. The crematorium burner that will be housed in a building being constructed in Porto Santo cemetery (Santa Cantarina), has already prompted enquiries from Madeira’s local authorities. It is scheduled to be inaugurated on October 9th. How does one inaugurate a crematorium burner … barbeque or oven roast? Mind you it would have to be a strict ‘one-off’.

‘PJ Investigate Car Fire In Estreito’. I am not sure why this belongs on the front page, but the judicial police are investigating a car fire in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos. Was the early morning blaze a short circuit or arson, asks the Diário? The car was completely destroyed at 5 am yesterday morning, waking the local population into panic. The police have examined the car and have nothing conclusive to offer yet. It was a Renault Clio Sport that fell victim to the flames, and any car that has the words ‘Clio’ and ‘Sport’ so close together in my view is asking for trouble, and the act could indeed have been deliberate, symbolic, or even sacrificial, and possibly even justified.

Today’s big front page photo is of the Nacional footballers celebrating last night : ‘Nacional Close To Perfection Put-Off The Dream For Russia – The four goals scored by Nacional against Zenit St. Petersburg came very close to making a magic night in the Choupana stadium. Despite of the sparse advantage (4 – 3), the Madeirans go to Russia in a position to make come true the dream of continuing in the Europa League’. Fantastic result against one of the richest clubs in the world, who were in theory well above National’s station. Shame nobody could watch it, thanks to the greed of Nacional’s management in demanding ridiculous TV rights fees that no one would pay. I couldn’t even get to see the goals on the news this morning. Full match report in English HERE

Diesel prices rise by 1 cêntimo on Monday. Petrol stays the same.

A new ‘Voters Portal’ went live yesterday at www.portaldoeleitor.pt . It’s a guide to all matters electoral, and how, where, and when to vote. As it’s only for those eligible to vote and all in Portuguese, it’s probably not worth saying any more.

The minister of health for Portugal announced yesterday that from now on tests for Gripe A will only be done for patients who have a clinical reason for needing them. Ana Jorge said that the objective now is to "treat the flu symptoms", whether it is H1N1 or any other variety of flu. Preventative medicine will only be given to people considered at risk (pregnant, children, and people with respiratory diseases) or to people known to have had close contact with a Gripe A sufferer. Gripe A, or swine flu, has now hit 1870 people in Portugal. In future the national updates will be done weekly on Wednesdays, as is already done on Madeira. If they don’t do the tests, how will they know the numbers? Anyway, seems sensible to me, and certainly better than mounting numbers including people that have already recovered.

The 4 eco-buses that serve parts of Funchal will be free to use from 1st September, as previously mentioned. They cover routes that include schools and tourism areas, and are operated by the yellow bus company Horários do Funchal. Plans to expand the scheme were also announced at a press conference yesterday.

‘Messy Funchal Celebrates 501 Years – Festivals Today With Planes And Parade’. Don’t forget the Funchal 501 celebrations today. It is a public holiday today in Funchal, but most places are expected to be open. I can’t comment about the bus services, but even outside of Funchal they could be affected. I remember they were reduced was last year and nobody was told.

The messy bit refers to an article about the state of the peripheries of Funchal, which sprawled out of control, like all the big Portuguese cities over the last 30 years. Many communities, especially in the high zones have no community facilities other than the nearest church yard, and the efforts to correct the situations now are hindered by budgets, space, and planning issues.

‘Exhibition Unites 155 Works Of 30 Writers from Funchal’. The exhibition in Rua da Carreira at the PCP-M HQ, in Funchal, shows the works of 30 local writers of poetry, fiction, romance and theatre. One of the authors listed is represented at the exhibition with 31 books.

‘Fourth Dog Show In Funchal 5th September’. Any dog can take part if aged between 4 months and 10 years, regardless of race (or lack of). It will take place in the Lido Gardens in Funchal at 2.30 pm. Any dogs thinking of entering must take their owners and certificates of vaccination with them. All entrants of the canine variety will receive a prize of participation, as well as the prizes for category winners of course. Entry forms are already available at SPAD (Society for The Protection of Domestic Animals), the website link is at the side of this page, and in Vet Funchal. Even if one doesn’t have a dog, SPAD will be there if you are able to make a donation, and food and other donations will also be accepted, and you can even join as a SPAD associate. There will be a kiosk there and you can ask for Rachel, one of the Vet Doctors, who speaks English.

One more event : ‘Miss Summer 2009′ Elected This Weekend – The Beach of Ribeira do Natal hosts the event’. The event starts on the beach at Caniçal today with all the candidates being presented. The election starts on Saturday. After the catwalks, the entertainment continues with special guest DJ’s including the ‘Nasty Brothers’, Dj ‘Azz’, and ‘Miss Sloppy’ (all on Friday), and other DJ’s, with not nearly such entertaining names, performing on Saturday. Doors open 9 pm (do beaches now have doors?). €5 entrance for one day, or €8 for both days.

The political parties will this week begin delivering their lists of candidates for the local and national elections to the governing tribunal. The lists must be all in by the 17th August for both elections.

‘Tourists Stir Little On Porto Santo – There are hotels on the island with good occupation, but others are lower than last year’. This weekend has been good, and next week has higher bookings than expected, but there are complaints about the loss of business since 2008 in some quarters, especially those that are less than a third booked. After the episode with the Italian tourists, the island is being (re)discovered by Venezuelan emigrants and many French who are new this year, and also there has been an increase in the number of Spanish visitors, and those using the new charter flights from Lisbon and Porto. The Torre Praia, Aparthotel Luamar, and the Praia Dourada all have reservations of about 90%, but they all belong to the same group, and offer packages tied in with the ferry company Porto Santo Line. The Hotel Quinta do Serrado on the north coast of the island has bookings at just 30% of occupancy this week.

‘A Difficult May For Regional Hotels – Hotel prices on Madeira dropped around 11.22% during the month’. All the indicators for the month showed varying negatives, compared to May 2008. The summary of market indicators was released by TTT Hotel Monitor of the Association of Hotels of Portugal (AHP). In percentage terms, the average price per room available fell 11.22%, the occupancy rate per room showed a negative of 4.71% and the average price per room sold also registered a decrease of 6.83%. In Portugal as a whole, the May to May comparison showed a fall of 11.76% in occupancy, and a fall of 17.52% in the average revenue per room.

‘Gripe A Attacks Cruise Ship That Visits Madeira – The ship has a visit scheduled for Funchal on 2nd December’. The French authorities lifted a quarantine yesterday afternoon due to swine flu (H1N1) for the 5,000 people who were on board the cruise ship "Voyager of the Seas" that docked in Marseilles. 3,600 passengers were allowed off the ship after Gripe A tests, but another 146 people (66 passengers, and 80 crew) who were infected, or had had contact with the infected, were kept on board.

‘Madeira Promotes Itself In The North Of Europe – Action that will support the creations of new flight routes of SATA to Madeira and that will inform people about the region’. Campaigns addressed at travel agents and tour operators, in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) and Finland, will be held next month. The actions are being planned under the guidance of the Association for the Promotion of Madeira, with the support of regional hotels and travel agents, and is in the form of a ‘road show’, in the cities of Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. SATA (the Azores based airline) has already set up new flights from Stockholm and Copenhagen, and it is hoped that the road shows will stimulate new initiatives. The four countries are perceived to be amongst those less affected by the crisis in tourism terms.

‘Police Issues Arrest Warrant For The Murder of Guilherme Alves – Business man of 45 years will have fled to Brazil’. Interpol has received the request from the Portuguese police to locate and detain the man accused of the kidnapping and murder of the businessman from Porto Santo. The man on the run, from the construction sector, is said to be called José Martins.

‘Only 15% Of The Houses On Madeira Are Rented – Madeira has a high rate of ownership’. The market has started to move again due to changes in the access to credit through the banks. The repayments to the bank can be expensive, but for now, the Madeirans prefer a mortgage to paying rent to a landlord. Data on the housing sector here reveals that just 15.6% of residential buildings are occupied by tenants, and ownership at 84% is higher than the national average of 74%. The figure are revealed by IHM, a housing investment company here, and show that the rental sector is currently weak. In 2007 the tax declarations to IRS said that 3,298 families were paying rent, yet according to the last census (2001) there were 72,000 families on Madeira. The article also mentions a sort of ‘black market’, where premises are rented out without the correct licences. Tax avoidance is also a motive, as there are also plenty of properties to rent ‘on word of mouth’, where no rental agreements exist.

The reopening ceremony of the landmark church at Campanário is set for Friday, also the day of the parish, with the Bishop of Funchal attending the ceremony. The ceremony is set for 7pm, followed later by musical entertainment, and with fireworks to close.

‘Enjoy The Sun In The Shade For Protection – The nationwide campaign will also be run on Madeira’. The initiative is promoted by the Portuguese Association For Skin Cancer (APCC) in collaboration with the Directorate General of Health (DGS), and aims to increase the awareness of the general population to take precautions with sun exposure in the country, on the beach or in the pool, whether in leisure or through working outdoors. Besides posters, several information leaflets on avoiding sunburn and skin cancer and diagnosis are also available.

This is the new image to be used for a campaign of awareness and education for the population of Madeira in respect of the mosquito ‘Aedes Aegypti’. The campaign will have several fronts, and is the responsibility of the regional health service IASAÚDE. "We are vigilant and we fight for this cause" said a spokesman, pointing out that the whole community, without exception, must come together for this purpose. The female of the species is the one that bites us humans, hence the catchphrase "She’s Out There Somewhere". All hope of eradicating the species that arrived on Madeira 4 years ago have now disappeared, and now the task is to control it, particularly as it is a potential carrier of dengue disease.

This hole appeared on a public footpath in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos over a year ago, and it has been reported to the council several times. A person who was partially blind has now fallen in it and suffered several injuries. It seems if it doesn’t grab the headlines, for the council, and / or for the PSD, then it’s not worth bothering with. Well it’s got headlines now.

In politics : ‘Left Block Denounce Pressure On Candidates In The Council Elections – Cases in Porto Santo, Machico, and Santana’. The Left Block (BE) party coordinator says that he will start criminal proceedings against those who overstep the mark. Firstly it was the socialists (PS-M) to complain, and now the BE. The BE coordinator says the problem is mainly for candidates in the local elections, who are subjected to "threats and pressures", just for taking on the candidacy. The accusations are levelled against the social democrats. Typically the problems do not come from the presidents of the councils, more the second line troops or local chiefs, who hide their actions but leave a clear message, often with the aim of dissuading candidates from standing for the BE. No surprises there I suppose, but as the BE is a ‘no hoper’ party, I don’t really understand why the PSD-M would bother to make the effort, but there again I don’t really understand what would make someone want to be be a candidate for a ‘no hoper’ in the first place.

‘Protest In The Assembly Against TAP & SATA’. The social democrats, PSD-M, delivered a proposal for a vote of protest yesterday in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira. At issue is the reintroduction of fuel surcharges on flights between Madeira and Portugal, due to recent price rises in the purchase of aviation fuel. The charge has been reintroduced at €4 per journey. The PSD-M consider it "inappropriate given an island reality", and is a barrier to the people here when it is necessary to increase the mobility of citizens.

According to the weather people, we are in for a spell of bad weather on Madeira. The temperature is going to drop starting today, and winds will pick up with gusts up to 50 km/h, more in the high zones. The north coast is due to have heavy rain. Tomorrow winds could pick up gusts of as much as 100km/h tomorrow, but matters should start to calm down again on Wednesday.

‘SATA Grows On Madeira – President of the company talks of a slight increase in passengers’. In an interview he gave, the president of SATA (the Azores based airline) said that its Madeira operation had seen a slight increase in passenger numbers, whereas other routes had suffered a 4 to 5% drop in the first 4 months of this year. He also emphasised the importance of renewing the fleet, because some aircraft were no longer manufactured and were becoming very expensive to maintain. SATA have already acquired replacement aircraft to operate the service between Madeira and Porto Santo.

(14th June). A new hotel, the ‘Santa Cruz Plaza’ was inaugurated on Saturday in the ‘city expansion zone’. The investment was around €15 million.

The Spanish company ‘Armas’ that operates the ferry ship between Madeira, Portugal, and the Canary islands, has established a Portuguese subsidiary company on Madeira, 100% owned by the parent company. The move is seen as a sign that Armas sees growth and expansion opportunities in sea transportation in Portugal.  Naveira Armas is preparing to bring in a new ferry ship to operate the existing routes that serve Madeira. The new 176 metre vessel will have more cabins, and 9,000 m2 of passenger accommodation over three decks. As well as restaurants and bars, it will also have a swimming pool and large sun terraces, and can travel at up to 25 knots.

(15th June). ‘Internationalization Yields Millions – AFA, Promosoft, and the Sousa Group invoice €80 million a year outside of Madeira, showing that they are competitive at an international level’. The construction giant AFA (in Madeiran terms anyway) now makes 35% of it’s income outside of Madeira, and has a 100 of its own workers, dozens of vehicles away, and employs 700 other workers in it’s outside contract locations. It has contracts worth €210 million in Angola, Mauritania and Senegal. The group Sousa makes 20% of its revenue on the continent. Both companies have previously been accused of getting contracts based on ‘political favours’. The technology company Promosoft started in Funchal around 20 years ago with 8 employees, and now has 170 employees with a presence in six countries, and plans to expand to Latin America, Romania and Malta. 75% of its revenue comes from international markets.

(1st June). ‘Madeira And Poland Connected Weekly – SATA started on Tuesday the first of two operations to Eastern Europe’. The connection goes to / from Varsóvia every Tuesday, finishing on 27th April 2010. The first flight has 312 passenger bookings. On the 16th June another weekly flight goes to Pojznan in Poland, and that service will also continue to 27th April 2010. In 2008 9,000 Polish tourists came to Madeira. 

’5,683 More Madeirans Submit IRS – Higher incomes, pensioners, and tax dodgers lead to more taxes paid’. The efficiency of the ‘tax machine’, the obligations of more pensioners, and the start of new professional lives explain the fact that the number of tax returns rose over the last two years by 15.6%. 111,533 tax returns were delivered this year. System cross-referencing with employers, social security, and other entities identified Madeirans actively living outside the tax contribution system. Use of the internet to submit tax returns increased 22.2%, representing 77,766 submission, or 69.7% of the total, thought to be encouraged by the earlier repayment or tax rebates. The total income declared amounted to just over €1.6 billion.

A new campaign to drink ‘Madeira on the rocks’ is to launch in the next few days. The Institute of Wine is going to repeat its initiative of last year that introduced to many the pleasures of Madeira Wine with ice. The campaign by poster and other methods, that will include ‘tasting in bars’, is mainly aimed at 30 to 45 year olds. The Madeira market for Madeira Wine represents 25% of the total consumption, or 530 thousand litres per year, worth €3.8 million.

A Wind Orchestra, the Metal Quintet, the Orchestra of Accordions, and the Clarinet Ensemble will entertain on the streets of Funchal on Saturdays, between the 4th (6th?) and 26th (27th?) June. The performances are are part of the Atlantic Festival, and start at 7pm on the Avenida Arriaga. The dates given in the Diário don’t correspond with Saturdays, so I inserted the dates in brackets.

‘The Thematic Park At Santana Is Going To Have A Time Machine’. The attraction will show visitors old images of Madeira "which curiously continues until the year 2419", a thousand years after Madeira was discovered. I wonder if Uncle Bertie will feature in those later years, or perhaps that will be saved for another display about the dinosaurs of Madeira.

Ribeira Brava Distinguished With ‘Accessible Beach’ Flag – It is the first beach on Madeira to display the flag that shows that there is special access provisions for disabled people, people with mobility problems, pregnant women, and the elderly. The award is made by the National Committee of Coordination for the European Year of People with Disabilities. To obtain the award, six criteria must be met : Pedestrian access,  parking provision, access to bathing area, beach crossing path, adequate sanitary provisions, and access to help / first aid. Other less critical considerations are access to bars and restaurants, and availability of amphibious wheelchairs (which Ribeira Brava doesn’t have). The award, which has been running since 2004, already covers dozens of beaches in Portugal and the Azores. 

(30th May). ‘The ship Santa Maria offers tickets at €15 for the Atlantic Festival – Cheaper tickets for Madeirans’. Demand to see the firework displays is high, and the company that owns the ship will do Saturday night trips out to see the event from offshore. The tickets are on sale at the booking office at Funchal Marina. The outing departs at 10pm, returning at 11.30pm, and includes a glass of Madeira Wine. Other Portuguese and foreigners can book tickets at hotel receptions and travel agencies for €25. I am sure someone will have something to say on the price differential … over to you!

(29th May). ‘SATA Brings New Aircraft To Porto Santo – The new plane has less seats, but will be more modern’. The two Bombardier Dash Q200′s have already arrived on the Azores, but for now have a Canadian registration. They will fly the Madeira – Porto Santo route from the start of next year. They have already been painted in the new SATA group ‘brand’ that uses the slogan ‘The Atlantic and you’. The planes already have 11 years of service, having been used by the North American company Horizon. They will substitute the ATP which currently does the Porto Santo route, and will be more modern and more efficient for the job. There will only be 37 seats, compared to the 65 currently, but the new planes will be able to make more journeys. SATA also awaits delivery of four new Dash Q400′s, with capacity for 80 passengers, and these will be used in the new year on routes between the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands initially, and later for Faro and also the islands of Cabo Verde.

‘Post of Madeira In Lisbon ‘Despejado’ By The AICEP’. A couple of things there I can’t work out, but the gist of the article is that Madeira has been kicked out of it’s space in the tourist information offices in Lisbon, a space it had shared with the Azores over many years. Turismo de Lisboa took the action without consultation, and surprised Madeira, although the Azores had already made alternative arrangements. The Regional Secretary for Tourism and Transport may have known, but probably wasn’t given time to make alternative arrangements. The search is now on to find somewhere else suitable.

 Yesterday’s main headline : ‘Madeira Loses Flight And Four Thousand Tourists – Thomson Airways ceases to operate it’s weekly flight between Cardiff and Madeira. It was a well sought after and used flight, with an occupation rate of 87%’. Thomson are currently responsible for 8% of the tourists coming to Madeira. One of the reasons given is the high cost of airport taxes here, compared to many other destinations, some even having no costs through government subsidies. Last Summer the flight brought in 7,813 tourists, so why the loss will be just 4,000 I am not clear. If that is the main reason, then that is a cause for concern, as no doubt Thomson will be eyeing up other changes to it’s offerings, as well as other tour operators. Lets hope that at least this will shake up the politicians into doing something quickly, and stop tinkering around the edges of this problem which has been known about for years. If the airport expansion had been done with public funding instead of private investment, then we wouldn’t be in this situation.

The Naviera Armas ferry will not make the already promised second weekly trip between Madeira and Portimão (Portugal) this Summer, alleging that the U-turn is due to restrictions imposed by the port of Funchal. The Spanish company regrets the decision, saying that it was generating plenty of demand, and will now just keep the same service as previously. Bruno Freitas was incredulous. The president of the Administration of Ports of Madeira was caught by surprise, assuring us that that APRAM had already given approval for the second docking here. It doesn’t give any details of the restrictions mentioned, but it’s nice to know that the Port of Funchal has sufficient confidence in future visitor and passenger numbers to be able to turn down another potential source.

TAP Portugal and SATA have broadened their commercial cooperation and joined forces in increasing a joint offer of flights to new markets, namely the Azores region. Intensification of this cooperation is reflected in the widening of the scope of the code-share agreement that the two companies have maintained since the year 2000. This now covers a vast network of destinations in Europe and also in mainland Portugal, reflected in the offer of a better service and more benefits for customers as well as contributing to greater visibility abroad of the potential of the Azores as a tourist destination with unique characteristics.