Madeira News Blog

I was thinking I might get a nice easy blogging day today, as three of the front page stories I won’t be covering, the death of Michael Jackson being one, the confederations football cup where Brazil just about beat South Africa to reach Sunday’s final. The other from the International Whaling Commission conference on Madeira, where you will find similar news stories in English on hundreds of websites. That leaves just two, the one below, and one in politics.

(26th June). Today’s main news headline : ‘Arrests For Trafficking Triple – Even before the first 6 months of this year are over, 36 arrests for drug trafficking have been made. Last year, by this time, there were just 12. The quantity of drugs seized also grows’. Important I know, but this story crops up every couple of months in the headlines, so no need to be too shocked. In a nutshell, heroine seizures have increased substantially, and the number of arrests too. In 2007 there were 28 arrests, last year just 12, and this year 36, but all three figures refer just to the first 6 months of that year. It is clear that demand for drugs is increasing. What is quite interesting is that the routes and origins for smuggling drugs into Madeira has changed. Flights from Venezuela to Madeira were popular, but not so now. More frequently now are foreigners travelling from Portugal. Attempts to bring drugs into Madeira are now moving more towards the two ferries, and in some cases the trafficker will even transfer by air to Porto Santo from Madeira airport to avoid detection there, and then come back by boat to Madeira. There is no doubt that the police and customs are getting better at detection of drug trafficking, so you can look at the situation from two angles, and that doesn’t really leave us a with any firm conclusions. The Diário has produced an illustration for hashish, heroine and cocaine showing arrests and seizures for 2007 – 2009 which explains it better than I can, and it is easy enough to understand even if you don’t speak Portuguese : MADEIRA DRUG SEIZURES 

I did take a look at the article on whales and whaling, and although it is in this context a mainly international issue, the article also says that Madeira will not revert to whale hunting, and there are plans to introduce new legislation to further protect whales, dolphins, and other marine species. 

‘Day Of The Region Celebrated Inside And Outside Of Madeira’. The first of July is a public holiday to mark the ‘Day of the Region’ for Madeira, and it will be celebrated not just here but also in Venezuela, South Africa, and Canada, in Madeiran communities, where Madeira’s politicians are also planning to be. Here next Tuesday and Wednesday there will be concerts in St. Catherine’s Park Funchal (9.30pm), and a special service will be held in the cathedral on Wednesday.

‘Firemen Retrieve Body At The Pináculo – Search operations had commenced on Wednesday night’. Firemen found the body yesterday morning of a 37 year old man around 120 metres from the miradouro (viewpoint). It is believed that he fell.

There are discussions taking place about twining Hatillo in Venezuela with Calheta. The president of the municipal council there said "Calheta is very special". She is here at present, but her responsibility covers a population of 150,000 people back home.

(25th June). ‘PSP Tests Radars In Via Salazar – The same will take place in other zones with previous warning to drivers’. In a pilot project the Public Security Police have placed radar speed traps in via Salazar, with drivers being warned through road signs, and according to the police commissioner the reaction has been good. The positioning of the traps will normally be in accident black spots and where speeding is known to take place. The next road to be equipped may be "for example" Avenida das Madelenas.

(26th June). ‘Madeira Assembly Works For 5 Minutes Without Quorum – It was a short period of 5 to 7 minutes and without any votes taken. But it was a gross and formal error’. There were just 21 members present at the start of the session, a situation that the secretaries who are responsible failed to pick up. The Diário made a bit of a big deal out of it, but it happened and it passed without any impact, so not worth the debate really.

‘PSD Suspend Work In The Legislative Assembly – Jaime Ramos made the request after an exchange of words with Fernando Letra of the Left Block (BE)’. Yesterday Letra cited recent statements made by the President of the Government about people on benefits who were able to work, and asked him to identify these people. Ramos then used a motion called ‘defence of the honour of the president of the regional government’ to get his majority party of social democrats to vote to suspend works. No word yet of when work will be resumed.

‘Government Announces Measures To Safeguard Children – Training for parents and candidates for adoption amongst the new requirements’. The measures will apply to children through infancy and adolescence, with training for adoption candidates and a school programme for parents. The measure will also tackle child poverty and include measure already taken in some neighbourhoods (such as Nogueira), with ‘street teams’ that will guide children through to becoming adults. There will also be some changes in education that will aim to teach children discipline and how to live in society, beyond the normal academic subjects.

President Jardim is set to present his list of eleven social democrat candidates for the councils of Madeira later today. 8 will be existing post-holders, and the 3 new ones will be in Santana, Porto Moniz and São Vicente. Jardim chooses the candidates, and in a flash of semi-democracy, the Political Commission of PSD-M ratifies his choices. Now shall I stay in to hear the results tonight, or shall I be irresponsible and trundle off to enjoy the warm-up for the festa of São Pedro in town … it’s a tough call I know!