Flood in full flow ; Was Jefferson a Madeira fan? ; & other news headlines (to follow)
Today’s photo – Many thanks to Tobi for sending them in : I don’t actually know who took the second photo … Serra de Água. You will have already seen the ‘after’ photos? But here are the ‘before’, and ‘during’ … taken on 20th February 2010 … staggering.
"Here’s something different. Local Madeira spider, may be someone can tell me what type it is?" Pete.
Many thanks to Becky for these videos :
How to find the British Cemetery in Funchal
Tragedy in Madeira – Before and After (interesting side by side photos accompanied by some truly awful music… has anyone ever written a song about Madeira that was any good?! Come on, Der, I’m expecting ‘Ribeira Brava, Ribeira Brava’ to buck the trend…).
Many thanks to Paul for this :
Cedary, layered 1780 Borges Bual Madeira ($2,450) that could have been drunk by Thomas Jefferson.
Image caption: A bottle of 1843 Bual Madeira
John Pierpont Morgan likes to sip old vintages of Madeira with his fellow industrialists while cruising New York harbor on his steam yacht Corsair.
Why vintage Madeiras have begun to attract more collectors in the past three years
Image caption: Thomas Jefferson, portrait 1791, the 3rd President of the United States.
“The wine is surprisingly delicious, its caramel and candied fruit flavors and lively acidity intact after more than two centuries.
Which is why vintage Madeiras have begun to attract more collectors in the past three years. For several hundred to several thousand dollars, you can sip pieces of history that still taste good and aren’t in enough demand to inspire fakes.” Link to full article
Sheila sent in these photos of the ‘Garajau dog’ abandoned at home by his owner :
Today’s news headlines from the front page of the Diário de Notícias :
Storm interrupts holidays holidays of the deputies – The Peoples Party pressured and the parliamentary recess will be suspended to approve urgent assistance to those harmed.
Arsenal supportive towards Ribeira Brava – The shirt of footballer Eduardo delivered to the ‘face’ of the tragedy. The photo shows Ismael Fernandes, president of Ribeira Brava, presenting the Arsenal shirt to José Feliz, the lad that lost 7 family members and was badly injured himself on 20th February in a landslide in Pomar da Rocha. The official shirt of the number 9 of Arsenal of London, Brazil born Eduardo da Silva, was given to young José Feliz. All of the Arsenal team signed the shirt, which was first of all auctioned for £600 and then given to Ismael, who was in London for a weekend fund raising event.
Today’s main news headline : Taxman and Social Security facilitate reconstruction – Reduced bureaucracy in response to the storm : based on a legal counsel the Directorate of Finance waives the bank guarantee for traders and businessmen engaged in reconstruction. Social Security will also facilitate.
[Recovery] Works in all the city except in Laranjal – The complaint continues. After the street clean the machines just disappeared. The debris remains there. And there are three bodies to be found. That’s the big picture today, and it’s certainly not the first time the Diário has given front page coverage to the plight of Laranjal in Santo António, that seems to have got left behind in the clean up and rebuilding. There are not even any men or equipment there on clean up work, whilst the rest of Funchal is still busy in that respect. The Diário refers to it as a "scene of death and destruction". Still missing are a young lady and her 9 month old baby, and a 16 year old neighbour. Few of the residents have been able to return home, through damage to their homes and fear of new landslides.
United Nations widens campaign to Madeira – In April, there will be launched here a mineral water for commercialisation to help in humanitarian causes of the ONU. The ‘Earth Water’ brings Fátima Lopez, the boyfriend of Madonna and maybe Luís Figo. As for who that is in the yellow dress in the bottom right hand corner to today’s front page, I have no idea, as it doesn’t appear to be Fátima Lopez (I thought she was older with shorter hair). The launch of the initiative will be at the Vine Hotel in Funchal on 14th April. All seems a bit odd to me … Madeira itself will be targeted to raise money for the ONU and it’s causes, at a time when it needs money raised for itself?
Swan Lake is "an extraordinary challenge" – The Diário watched two scenes of the ballet that joined together the Moscow Tchaikovsky Ballet and the Classical Orchestra of Madeira. It must have been a spectacular two and a half hours with 50 rather fit Russian ladies, probably some blokes too, and that was just the dress rehearsal. But unlike the Diário, Der’s blog doesn’t get free tickets for reviews, especially for the real thing tonight, so no review from me. There are still some tickets left (€50) if you are quick.
The main sport / football headline today : No sport headline … that’s two days running!
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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You can email blog@madeira4u.com with any large contributions and other material.
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Please use the comments here for general chit-chat, or feel free to ask any questions … someone usually has an answer.
Table tennis in Madeira. “Table tennis in Madeira, with its headquarters in Funchal, has made notable progress; nowadays there is an annual international tournament, an ITTF Junior Circuit event and Marcos Freitas is the islands leading light.”
He is a former winner of the Boys Singles event at the European Youth Championships; now a formidable force on the ITTF Pro Tour. Table tennis for Abilio da Cruz started at the age of nine as a player in Lisbon, he became the national champion, later the Technical Director and organised a series of programmes for schools and coaches. Later, he became a global traveller; his coaching exploits are a geography lesson.Furthermore, he has no intention of resting on his laurels.”
Homeless and neglected. There are still people homeless in the high area of Lugar da Serra in the parish of Campanário. In the locality of Terreiros de Baixo, one house has disappeared, another is partially destroyed and the roof of the third has been damaged by a landslide. Two houses are situated below the road that leads to this isolated settlement in the hills. The seven occupants of one of these old houses have lived for more than a month in an annexe to their badly damaged property which is unfit for habitation. There is no water and the electricity supply is precarious as a street lamp has fallen onto the house. The owners of the uninhabited destroyed house live abroad and regularly come to Madeira. The woman living in the house with a damaged roof is frightened to return as she lives alone. They say they are forgotten about and without any support. The council has photographed the damage but has not returned or communicated. The farms have also disappeared. As time passes their hopes fades.
Dog rescued had no chance of survival. The president of SPAD said the dog rescued on the 17th March in the vicinity of Palheiro Golf after about a month buried in debris, has been subject to euthanasia. The dog had lethal serious injuries, fractures to the limbs and lumbar spine, and a humane and dignified death was the only option. Several people were interested in adopting the dog but he would not survive. As a result of this case, there have been serious threats made over the phone to vets working at SPAD. One vet has had to stop working with the association. On the issue of overcrowding, the president said they house 200 animals but being confined in a small cage for a long period of time harms the quality of life. The adoption rate is 40%.
Top tip for UK folks … thanks to Paul : Top 10 late holiday deal of the week – March 28: Madeira! Head for Madeira and stay at the luxury five-star Madeira Regency Palace in Funchal for 414 pounds pp including seven nights’ b&b and flights from Gatwick leaving April 30. 
£70,000 to date from Jersey Appeal for Madeira disaster. “CUSTOMERS and staff at one of the Channel Islands’ biggest retailers have dug deep and raised nearly £19,000 for the Jersey Side by Side appeal for Madeira.
RTP, Sonae and Mota Engil rehabilitate the Serra d’Água. Those responsible for the RTP and Grupo Sonae solidarity campaign will meet tomorrow with the Governing Board of the Investimentos Habitacionais da Madeira (IHM), in order to determine which applicants should receive the donations. The campaign Together for Madeira (‘Juntos pela Madeira’) has raised 800,000 Euros already and the promoters have donated 1.5 million Euros, enough to build a small housing complex. Over one million phone calls were made in response to the RTP campaign, and the Sonae Group challenged thousands of Portuguese to round up their till receipts in Modelo, Worten and other stores in the group, a campaign that will continue until the 18th April. RTP is preparing a mega-program to be broadcasted on Sunday between 15.45 and 19.00 hours, also helping to promote the 7 Wonders of Portugal competition, in which the beach at Porto Santo and the Laurisilva forest are 2 of the 21 candidates. RTP is preparing a fundraising concert with one of the top Portuguese musicians. It will be transmitting the Flower Festival Parade and the program is to be dedicated to Madeira in solidarity with the reconstruction effort. It will include images of the cleaned baixa (lower) area of Funchal, without forgetting of course the strickened area of Serra d’Água. In the latter area, 25/26 houses need to be rebuilt, for which Mota Engil guarantees 1.2 million Euros on top of the donated 1.5 million Euros by the Sonae Group and RTP. A Portuguese company is offering 25 Teka kitchens, Tintas Dyrup is giving 25,000 litres of paint and Indutora will install the electrical wiring in the new houses. The company Paços de Ferreira is donating furniture. Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Lusíada and the architect José Paradela are offering their services for free. Donations are deposited in a fund specially created by the Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa.
Beach walls are provisional. Santos Costa, the Regional Director for Social Infrastructure, replies to yesterday’s report about walls built in the middle of the beach of Porto Santo. He explained that the walls are only provisional, built to prevent damage by the abnormally violent storms that occurred from last November to February 20th. The photo shows the threat that the government is attempting to alleviate and the technicians will be able to decide on a technically and environmentally desirable solution when the sea is calmer.
Court of Auditors stop work by the council. The Court of Auditors has stopped a road being built in Camacha by Santa Cruz Council. The road was to link the Caminho Municipal da Portela, by the old church of Camacha, to Mato Grosso. The work was financed by both the Regional Government and Santa Cruz Council but the contract did not stipulate details of the co-payments. In 2005, the Tribunal could not obtain assurances that the council could honour their financial commitment and the work was prohibited. The municipality wanted to build a bridge linking this road to Mato Grosso, where the population is of a significant size. They began to build the bridge then were ordered to stop by the Court of Auditors. During the last storm, retaining walls were washed away and earth deposited inside the bridge, threatening the flow of the ribeiro Pedro Lourenço and houses downstream. A date for the completion of the bridge depends on an agreement being made.
Today’s news headlines from the front page of the Diário de Notícias : 
Saved from the rubble after almost 30 days. A dog was rescued alive yesterday in São Gonçalo during cleaning of the site. A unique situation for those who witnessed it. Yesterday morning, a group of employees of a company that specializes in building found a dog trapped beneath the debris resulting from the tragedy of the 20th of February during a cleanup operation in the area of São Gonçalo,. Nearly a month after the storm, to everyone’s surprise, the animal was healthy, but with its hind legs, preventing it escaping and fleeing the scene. The black cocker spaniel was helped by another dog, which faithfully kept him company. According to the DIÁRIO, the animal was freed by firefighters and taken to the Society for the Protection of Domestic Animals (SPAD), while the dog which had protected its friend ran behind the car. "It was a shame not to bring those two together, because they seemed to be great friends," said one worker on site. As the animal appeared to have been well looked after, there is every reason to believe that it has an owner and that he was caught by the flood. The dog was found yesterday morning around 10 o’clock, when a group of workers took over the clean-up operation by Palheiro Golf in São Gonçalo. After the initial cleaning, the workers returned yesterday to the site to continue the work. The DIÁRIO also tried to establish with SPAD the state of the animal, but was refused any access to information by the management. 
