Madeira News Blog

(13th June). Today’s main news headline : Porto Santo Closes Chinese Shop – The challenge started 3 months ago, with a petition of signatures to condemn the "invasion". The case involved SEF, Police, and the courts. The shop, in a building on the golden isle, hasn’t opened for two days’. The owner of the shop was up in court last week, and was ordered to leave the country as he was not legally allowed to be here. The clothes and accessories shop has now closed down. The case, according to the Diário, has been a considerable conflict over the last 3 months, since a petition with 25 signatures of local businessmen was given to the council. OK it was all resolved through the proper channels in the end, but from what I have read it seems some may detect a slight whiff of racism left hanging in the air. (SEF = Service for foreigners and border controls).

‘Roque Gives Hope To Personnel At The Savoy’. At a time when the Savoy Hotel is going through a controversial stage for dismissal of over a hundred workers, Horacio Roque gives a public guarantee that the company will give job priority in the new hotel to be built to former staff. The administrator of SIET that operates the soon to be demolished hotel, wished to give a sign of recognition to all those soon to be unemployed. There there, didn’t hurt that much did it, and after all it will probably take years anyway … but will he want the redundancy money refunded? And what about that rude cleaner and clumsy waiterperson, surely you’re not going to employ them again?

‘Real Madrid Pays For Ronaldo 57 Times His Weight In Gold’. That’s the headline from the Spanish newspaper ‘El Mundo’ (didn’t know I could read Spanish did you? nor did I until today). The Diário has a picture showing several Spanish newspapers, all featuring Cristiano on the front page. The Diário headline for it’s own news article is ‘Transfer Of Ronaldo Shocks – Spanish in crisis criticise so many millions spent. And there is one person of Portuguese descent in baseball that actually earns more than Cristiano’. The Diário also points out that a CR7 costs more than a Boeing 737 (although I reworded it to make it sound funnier). In fact perhaps he should now be known as CR737, what do you think?

‘Earth Tremors In South Africa Damage Houses Of Emigrant Madeirans – Four families were forced to leave their houses after hours of continuous violent tremors’. I don’t think we have much interest in emigrants living in South Africa, but of course I hope it sorts itself out OK.

The government of Madeira has decided to increase the price of fuel again, and from Monday petrol will go up to €1.20 a litre, whilst diesel will go up to €0.931.

‘Creches : Law Regulates Breaking Point. Before the existing void, only a legal intervention will be able to define what constitutes minimum services’. This goes back to the story a couple of days ago about a court case that decided that public creche services were not essential, leaving the government free to provide just a minimum service level. That means there are now just 6 creches on this island, and nearly a thousand children enrolled to use them. Now it seems no one has any idea what ‘minimum services’ actually means, and the creches themselves are being staffed by auxiliaries rather than child care professionals, just to confuse the issue.

The two public holidays Wednesday and Thursday saw 22 road accidents, resulting in two seriously injured and two light injuries. 10 arrests were made for drink driving, half of them in Santa Cruz.

The minister of health from the Portuguese government is here at a convention of charity organisations involved in health care. Ana Jorge welcomed the idea of constructing a new public hospital on Madeira, but wouldn’t commit herself on whether the state would stump up the money, or contribute. However, she added that it is a matter also under investigation by her colleagues in government, particularly in terms of finances, but there was no decision to announce yet. Of course not, that will be in the week before the national elections in 3 or 4 months, if the answer is yes, or later if no. Silly question Sr. Reporter!

She was also questioned on the subject that dominates the world headlines, influenza A and the maximum degree of alert decreed by the World Health Organization. The minister stressed that the entire national system is ready to tackle the problem, and that the testing undertaken when bird flu broke out will be capitalized in the prevention of the current pandemic. Ana Jorge also stressed the good cooperation that exists between central and regional health authorities. So flying pigs really do exist?

You may have noticed that I couldn’t resist a spoof article today … sorry, but I thought I had better come clean in case someone took the tsunami threat seriously, and I have been preparing you for this for two weeks. I bet for some it didn’t even register.

(31st May). ‘Rodrigo Underwent The Bone Marrow Transplant – The baby is going to spend a few days in recovery in isolation’. The half-hour procedure took place in Lisbon yesterday afternoon, and the first results of the intervention are awaited. He was diagnosed with leukaemia 6 weeks after birth here on Madeira, and after months of searching, a bone marrow donor was eventually found in Germany.

‘Security Worries Estreito de Câmara de Lobos – The population demand the reopening of the police post there’. It is not difficult to hear stories of assaults in Estreito. In each corner there is always someone that has a relative, friend, or neighbour that has been assaulted. With the drug dependency associated with criminality, the feeling of insecurity is a principal problem of the area. The closing of the police post left the population feeling even more vulnerable, and people don’t understand why this measure was taken. The other ‘weak point’ is the health centre. The residents complain that it has insufficient capacity to deal with the number of users. I think Estreito de Câmara de Lobos must be the featured town of the week, but it doesn’t actually say so. Anyway, it should be a long and interesting story to tell after the relative calmness of all the other places visited in this weekly feature.

Ah, in fact there is a second story for Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, this one takes the biggest part of the front page with a picture of a couple of elderly ladies, though the significance of that is not clear. The headline reads : ‘Estreito Of Torment – The assaults and drug trafficking worry’. I ought to explain that an assault means a mugging, or robbery, or assault, or a burglary, but the Portuguese word doesn’t differentiate between those.

Well my secret is now out of the bag, with today’s main news headline : ‘More Supermarkets – The Dutch company SPAR is going to open shortly several units on Madeira’. The biggest food distribution network in the world bets for now on Santa Cruz, Porto Moniz, and Prazeres, but with more shops being planned. The shops are operated on a franchise basis, and so any interested party can open one, as long as they have on average €150,000 to invest. The spokesman for SPAR on Madeira explains that the brand has different characteristics, in that the service is very good, and that special focus is given to fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and meat. Porto Moniz will not have a full fish and meat range because of it’s limited size, but the other two will have everything, including access to a range of 10,000 types of goods, including many ‘own brand’ products. The rest of the article is about the statistics and history of the group. I was told there would be a shop in Funchal as well, but no mention of that. Maybe I will now get that telephone call I have been expecting for the last 3 months, as I was offered a job in the Prazeres SPAR, but it says it won’t be opening for another month or more, so the big blogs continue for now. SPAR WEBSITE

(30th May). ’31 Years In Prison For Two Killers – Court orders payment of €80,000 in compensation  to the child of the victim’. The court of Santa Cruz on Friday sentenced two knife killers, who murdered a 28 year old man in Machico nearly a year ago, to serve sixteen and a half and fourteen and a half years in prison. They were charged with crimes of qualified homicide and possession of a prohibited weapon. The two men attacked the victim from behind in a bar at around 11pm, and according to one witness "killed him like he was an animal", stabbing him six times. The murder was planned at 5 hours before. The main judge had powers to impose a sentence of between 12 and 25 years imprisonment. The court was on high security alert during the trial.

The neighbourhood of Nazaré (Funchal) was the subject of a major police operation from Friday evening through to the early hours of Saturday morning, in a fight against crime. ‘District of Nazaré passed through ‘a fine tooth comb’ – Three arrested and three guns seized in the mega-operation of the PSP’. It all started around 7pm on Friday, when police sealed off the area with barriers and police apparatus. There were around 100 agents involved from the units of Criminal Investigation, Traffic, The Rapid Intervention Squad, the centre for Arms and explosives, and the centre for Private Security. The police made 3 arrests and seized two handguns, a shotgun, and an extendable baton. 416 vehicles were checked, and 5 shops were also targeted. 3 vehicles were seized, and 53 traffic offences identified. 

A slightly more interesting and detailed account than mine appeared on a news website from Pakistan: ‘Ronaldo’s sister robbed in Portugal’ (May 9th, 2009 – 3:06 am By Sindh Today) – Manchester United and Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister, Elma, was robbed by soccer yobs in revenge for the Portuguese ace scoring against their side. Three Porto fans looted her clothes shop. Elma, 34, could only watch as they took gear worth thousands, snarling: “Your brother’s a cuckoo. He scored against us.” Elma, whose store in Madeira was bought for her by Ronaldo, 24, said: “I couldn’t do anything in case they hit me.” Cuckoo eh! Could have been worse.

Accompanied by a large photo of Calheta Beach – ‘Discharges In The Sea Threaten Summer – Madeira achieved 15 out of 20 Blue Flags, but important beaches like Calheta and Ponta do Sol lose the badge of quality for the soon forthcoming beach season. What one fears most are the discharges into the open sea’. The results were published on Friday, and the Regional Director for the Environment considers the number as a victory for the region. He adds that only the illegal discharges, from ships offshore, may prove to spoil the quality of the water during this summer. This happens  through oil spills, and the cleaning of tanks and bilges on boats, and is now the main concern for the Summer beach season. He expresses disappointment about Calheta beach, but reminds us that the Blue Flag is an award for excellence. Unfortunately Calheta had two consecutive negative tests, failing the first as a result of illegal discharges, and the second after heavy rains put much debris into the sea. Ponta do Sol is much more of a mystery, with tests not determining the cause of the water quality shortfall, but it is now out of the Blue Flag arena for two years. In the 9 months to February, 13 cases of oil pollution were reported along our coasts, and with 8 of these the cause was never found.  You can check here if you want to know which are the 15 beaches to be awarded the Blue Flag : BLUE FLAG BEACHES Pretty disappointing to lose 25% of our certified quality beaches. When you think that along the sunny south west coast, going west from Funchal, there are only two Blue Flag beaches along that whole stretch, making it a bit of a poor show as far as tourism goes.

With less than a month to the European elections on June 7, there has been a timid start to the election campaign. The posters of PCP and the BE, on Friday joined those of the PSD and PS on the streets. In general, all the political parties are beginning to address European issues, but without a great show of propaganda on the streets so far. But that will change after this week-end. Traditionally, the elections for the European Parliament have less involvement from the local party presence. Also it is expected that abstentions will be higher this year, as is usual, because there are two more elections to run after the Summer at national and local levels, and it is traditionally these that focus the attention.