Madeira News Blog

(25th September). Today’s main news headline : ‘Metropolitiana Forgets Santa Cruz – It’s been six years since the people of Santa Cruz saw any new project coming to their region’. That was the multi-storey car park asked for by the câmara from the Sociedade Metropolitana de Desenvolvimento (SMD – Metropolitan Development Society). SMD is the responsibility of the vice-presidency of the Madeira government, and has the responsibility of improving the supply of social and economic infrastructures, through the promotion of sustained investment, to enable new local developments. SMD also covers the areas of Porto Santo, Funchal and Câmara de Lobos. The work of the SMD is often obscured by the local council presidents who take the credit for any new and popular developments, but now the local politicians are not so pleased with the lack of recent activity in the area. Asked about the lack of work, the president of Santa Cruz admits that he would like to have more developments in his region, but tried to play-down the situation. “I would have liked to have more projects, we all would, but it was not possible. We must remember that Santa Cruz has already received four works conducted by the Metropolitana in recent years”. The four projects referred to are : Aquaparque, the sea front at Ribeira da Boaventura, the Largo do Caniço, and the beach zone at Reis Magos. 

The main front page photo today shows a traffic jam : ‘War Of Neighbours In Order To Park Occupies Carriageway – The Chaos on the [road] 5 de Outubro has worsened since the start of school. The council gives in to residents and complicates the life of those who come down through Viveiros’. The traffic of Funchal needs routes, as getting in and out remains awkward, and the hope now is on the new Via Expresso at the port. Peak traffic times are particularly difficult, despite the completion of improvement works completed in central Funchal, and now it’s ‘back to school’ the problem has worsened. The Cota 40 and especially at largo da Cruz Vermelha are highlighted problem areas. The article goes on to list and debate just about every problem on every major road in Funchal, but isn’t it the point that traffic problems are the best way to get people to look to alternatives, such as public transport, and park and ride, and even if I might be so bold to suggest ‘on foot’. If the council keeps looking to make improvements in the traffic flow, it is going to counter its attempts to create a ‘green’ city. Bus lanes on every major road would be my solution, with a few well placed ‘park and ride’ schemes.

‘Convict Beats Up Man In Funchal – The accused of the aggression that sent the man to intensive care, had already robbed the house of a police commissioner’. The 20 year old convict was detained, but subsequently managed to escape, after also being taken to hospital. His 44 year old victim is in a serious condition in Funchal Central Hospital with head injuries.

‘PSP Receives New Guns – The regional command is one of the first in the country to be equipped with the ‘glock’. They are the “latest shout” in firearms, and Madeira already has it’s new stock ready to issue to police officers. The 9 mm weapon is “Characterized by its high taking-out power”. I for one intend to be very well behaved over the next few weeks, as no doubt our fine officers will be keen to try out their new toys. I might even have to be nice to Uncle Bertie when he is over this way again, and even shake hands with him, in case he tells the police to sort me out.

In football, a picture of Cristiano Ronaldo, with the headline ‘Spanish Change Their Opinion – Finally they give in. In Spain, the same press that ‘attacked’ CR9 now appears to idolise him’. After 5 goals in 4 league games, and 8 goals for Real Madrid altogether, Ronaldo has turned a doubtful Spanish press into a bunch of slobbering hero worshippers. He is now the top topic in newspapers and sports circles.

In entertainment : ‘Comedy Brings ‘Aces’ From The TV In October’. National comedy arrives on Madeira next month, with stars from Flor do Mar and Malucos do Riso / Morangos Com Açúcar. The theatre comedy is called ‘I Love My Penis’ (and that has not been translated), and has been doing the rounds in theatres throughout Portugal. It’s for over 18′s. 

‘Via Expresso In The North Ready In 2011′. During a visit to the new road construction yesterday, the regional secretary responsible said that the new road between Boaventura and São Vicente would be ready in 2011. The total length of the extension is 7.1 km. The road is being constructed in three phases, with two phases already underway (Boaventura – Ponta Delgada 1.341 km, and Ponta Delgada – Faja da Areia 3.254 km). 4 new tunnels will be needed to complete the route.

‘Child psychiatry unit opens with a lack of professionals – It needs two child psychiatry doctors, but at present there is only one’. The new centre, São Rafael, was inaugurated yesterday, and is the first one on Madeira, and just the third one in Portugal, that specialises in children aged between 10 and 18 with acute mental health problems. The unit can accommodate 10 patients, with an emergency reserve that can be called upon if needed. Amongst other mental problems, the unit will deal with children who suffer psychotic episodes, make suicide attempts, and suffer severe depression and behavioural changes.

Portugal had 2,213 new case of Gripe A swine flu between 14th and 20th September. Around 20 of the victims were hospitalised.

The ongoing strike by customs officers is causing some problems with incoming freight by sea. Two container ships, the ‘Apolo’ and the ‘Portdouro’, suffered significant delays yesterday in the unloading of containers, posing a threat to the restocking of Madeira’s supermarkets. The deliveries included 30 refrigerated containers, which were released thanks to ‘shortcuts’ permitted by the Director of Customs, but the other containers will remain in Caniçal Port until the strike is over and the release can go through the normal customs channels.  

‘Easyjet Increases Weekly Flights Between Madeira And The United Kingdom – One more connection on the Stansted route will start operating at the end of October’. The UK airport will now have 5 weekly flights for the start of the Winter season. As a result of the same negotiations with Tourism of Madeira, Easyjet will also operate 4 weekly Gatwick to Madeira flights in the Winter, and 3 in the Summer, which is one extra. Including the Bristol route, that will make 12 Winter and 11 Summer flights to and from the UK.

‘Luxury Italian Ship In Port – The new cruise ship of the Costa fleet makes it’s debut today in Funchal Port’. The €450 million Costa Luminosa brings over 2,700 Italian tourists, before leaving for Malaga at 5.30 pm. It underwent the usual inauguration process early this morning, with a good soaking from a powerful water ‘canon’. It will be back again on the 6th October, with 4 more visits to Madeira scheduled for this year. Among its specialities, the ship is a floating art gallery, with nearly five thousand works of art, of which 288 are original works.

(10th September). Today’s main news headline : ‘Money Of The Festivals Disappeared -  Restlessness lives in the parish of Água de Pena. Everything because of the ‘theft’ of donations, to the value of €10 thousand, left in a car of a member of the Commission of Festas’. The money was in envelopes inside the car of one of the festa organisers, and was taken early in August. The matter has been kept secret since. The money had been collected from various sites around the parish before the theft, but no one really knows what happened. The Diário managed to speak with the person who had the stolen money in his charge, who was very upset about the matter, but takes the blame and said he intends to ‘regularize’ the situation. The locals are worried. Very recently a grocery store next to the church was robbed, when thieves broke in through the roof and stole €500 and other items. There is a feeling of impunity, and there are those who say that it is not worth complaining to the police.

The sports headline & main photo today : ‘Victory In Bad Game Feeds The Dream – Portugal won in Hungary 1 – 0. Pepe scored the goal that keeps hope alive of qualification for the World Cup. Ronaldo squandered opportunities’. The mood in town last night, despite the result, was sombre. "A weak performance" I heard said several times. Who cares, with all the toughest games out of the way now, and 6 more points for the taking. The problem is we still needs someone else to slip up.

‘Lack Of Agricultural Water Causes Protest – A 20 year old promise yet to be kept takes the population of Penha D’Águia to deliver a signed petition in Santana’. The residents of ‘Eagle Rock’ in Faial are tired of waiting for the 20 year old promise to be fulfilled. A 65 signature petition was raised and delivered to the council in Santana. Signed by residents, family, friends, and land owners in the area, fed up with irrigation problems and being unable to produce crops as they should. "Many times we were waiting for a little rain, but could not grow anything", said one resident. The problem in the area often also affects drinking water. "Sometimes there is no water to drink there", he said, adding that many are the days when only around midnight they get "a drop of water" to quench their thirsts. The councillor responsible was unable to comment as he was on holiday, but the council said that he had no knowledge of the petition, and that as the promise was made so long ago by another ‘team’, the promise it is not the responsibility of the current council in this current mandate.

‘Businessmen’ Blame Government For 7 Year Old bad Debt’. In an episode referred to as "Brides of September", the government is blamed for a €10 thousand debt, or more specifically those responsible for tourism 7 years ago. The event, which only ran three times, involved the making of 7 wedding dresses by 5 guest designers, and the funding for the 7 dresses was a verbal agreement with the person responsible for tourism and culture at that time. One of the wedding dress designers says she spend €1,100 on materials out of her own pocket. The organisers of the event, the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Madeira, are now facing insolvency, and a decision is expected next week.

‘Nurses In Protest On The 18th – Madeira’s professionals will have a presence in the protest in Lisbon’. The protest next week, at the Ministry of health, is over changes to career paths.

Customs staff are also threatening to strike (in a national action), probably in the week prior to the national elections, over government proposals involving career regulations for staff.

‘Study For Parking Meters In Lugar de Baixo – The council wants more rotation in car parking in the area of bars and restaurants’. No decision has yet been taken, but the intentions already point in this direction. The parking, at least within the range of the restaurants in Lugar de Baixo, Ponta do Sol, is expected to be regulated through the placement of parking meters. The expected action would be taken during the next mandate of the council, with the primary objective of preventing the parking abuse that proliferates in this area, located near the end of the east tunnel, aiming to serve short term parking and facilitate more rotation of clients for nearby businesses. Currently many drivers park there for long periods. A council spokesman said he wants to hear from local business owners before making a decision.

Police are trying to track down a car and driver that ran down a 33 year old man on Sunday near Lugar de Baixo, and fled the scene. The car was a VW Golf, the colour is silver-grey, and it now lacks part of the front grille and the wing mirror on the passenger side. The victim is still in hospital with 4 fractures and other injuries.

UPDATES / POLITICS :

The last of today’s front page headlines : ‘Zaragata’ Takes Police To A Party Gathering’. Police were called to a meeting in Ponta do Sol, arranged to discuss the manning of voting tables in forthcoming elections. The meeting that started at 7 pm yesterday evening, was still going on at 10.30 pm, with two police officers waiting outside. The Diário said "Due to the lateness of the hour, we were unable to ascertain the reasons that motivated the likely ‘disagreement’ between the delegates, and the consequent call to the police". Hardly front page news then is it.

‘Equality Doesn’t Come At The Top Of The Lists – Teachers make up a third of the head-of-list for local elections’. The political parties have little trust in women to preside in the municipal authorities. The local elections scheduled for 11th October will have just 9 women, from around 60 candidates, at the top of the candidate lists submitted by seven parties. The law of parity is there with the aim of ensuring at least a third of candidates are women, by saying that there cannot be more than 2 consecutive same sex candidates on the lists. With 7 parties jostling for the presidency in Madeira’s 11 councils, just 9 women appear as the number one candidate. The PSD social democrats don’t have any, and have not had any in the top spot for the last 33 years. 

After a few tough days on the receiving end of criticism from all directions, president Jardim made an appeal yesterday for separatism from the central state, saying that if we bother you "you may see yourself free of us", because "we also don’t care". I care, and I am sure many tens of thousands more also care. If Uncle Bertie is implying we can survive as a small island without state support, then he is so so wrong.

(29th August). Today’s main news story : ‘Robberies In Madalena – The police admit that there is a new wave of break-ins on the Avenida da Madalena. Garages and cars are the targets’. The area itself is quite calm, but the break-ins just don’t stop. Even the noise of the car alarms don’t deter the criminals. The article gives quite a few stories from residents in the zone of Funchal, who have had their cars broken into, both on the street and in garages, but they are all much the same. According to a spokesman for the PSP (police), Commissioner Roberto Fernandes, "the PSP has been monitoring this phenomenon closely and has found a fluctuation in the crime of car robbery in the area of Madalena. He said the population needed to take more care, making sure they were not followed into garages for example, and also mentioned condominiums where access is not secured.

‘Gripe A : Six Thousand Masks Face masks For The 1st Cycle And Pre-School’. Madeira government preparing plan to ensure there is no disruption to school meals. Paper towels and hot air hand driers installed. All measures in response to the risk of the spread of H1N1 swine flu. The masks will only be used in the event of a suspected case, while the situation is being dealt with and the kids are in isolation. In fact, right now, all eyes are focused on a contingency plan to avoid disruptions in the supply of meals in schools. The Director of Planning and Educational Resources points out that this issue is very sensitive and, if not taken care of, can cause problems for families. "Imagine that two of the three kitchen staff of a school fall ill during the night. The school must have alternatives to continue to provide meals to students, in order not to compel families to find solutions on their behalf". Now there’s a scary thought … 6,000 infants, … even scarier is 6,000 hungry infants with masks.

The sports story of the day is an expansion on what was given yesterday : ‘The Distinguished And Dangerous In The Group Of Nacional – Club President Rui Alves expects to get through the group stage with victories in the Choupana’ (home games). Group L fixtures for our local football team in the Liga Europa are : Weder Bremen 17/9 (h) & 3/12 (a), Austria Vienna 1/10 (a) & 16/12 (h), and Athletic Bilbao 22/10 (a) & 5/11 (h).

‘Licensing Hours Annoy Businessmen In The Docks – The council of Porto Santo provides for the bars of the city and leaves Penedo do Sono deserted’. The article is accompanied by a photo outside the location in question, with not a person in sight. The bosses in the dock area say they are worried. Those that invested in bars in Penedo do Sono are upset with the câmara who have spoiled their Summer by "giving out licenses to any bar on the island that might want to stay open until 4 or 5 am in the morning", said Ruben Drumond, night club owner and spokesman for the discontented. He said he made a considerable investment in his venture on the strength of a ‘scenario of withdrawal from the city and residential zones, that did not come to pass’. A measure adopted, he adds, because it is a local election year.  "It appeared to us a sense of injustice and disrespect on the part of Mr. President, Roberto Silva, who conceived and laid down certain rules that now have no value in themselves, thereby showing a great contempt for those who believed in his ideas" he regrets. "The city council had set a strategy to remove the noise from the city centre and focus on the nightlife in Penedo do Sono" he recalls, explaining that this was intended to "feed the evolution of the island as a destination of quality", with a separation between those people seeking rest and those seeking nightlife. Ruben, who owned a bar in the town in 2005, was approached directly by the câmara president in November that year, and told that the opening hours were to be cut back, and anyone wishing to ‘make a noise’ late on would have to do it in Penedo do Sono, which was to be built for this purpose. A politician who doesn’t keep his word … whatever next! A businessman who bases a substantial investment on the word of a politician … whatever next!

‘Adverse Weather Conditions Cancel Entertainment In São Vicente – The international group Hermes House Band should have been playing, but the performance was cancelled’. The entertainment programme, including the open air disco, for the night in the annual festival in São Vicente was cancelled due to strong winds and rain. Tonight the top comedy act ‘Super Gordo’ also depends on weather conditions. And there’s me just down the road struggling to find a breath of cool air last night, and certainly not a sniff of rain.

UPDATE

‘Excavation makes rats to flee to the homes’. An excavation which is being undertaken in the area of Ribeiro Seco, which is encompassed in the work of connecting the Port of Funchal to Pilar, is causing the rats to flee, which were there in large numbers, to the houses in the vicinity, including the Caminho da Fé. The complaint was made by a resident of the area, directing criticism at the company who is doing the work, in particular for not having targeted the rats for extermination before the start of the ground-works. Something he stresses that has been suggested by residents at an earlier stage of the work.

Restriction on some lands preventing hunting have been lifted, in time for the new hunting season. As a result, in Paul da Serra there will be 400 more hectares available to hunters than there were last year.

‘Biofuel production to start in Porto Santo before the end of the year’. The production of biofuel from biomass, made through the intensive cultivation of micro algae will start to be implemented by the end of the year in Porto Santo, said a spokesman from EEM (Empresa Electricidade da Madeira). The new ‘substation’ at Calheta is costing €1.3 million, and is in response to growing demand on the island, and to make Porto Santo "truly green in terms of electricity". Porto Santo, was the home of the first wind farm in Portugal, established in 1998.

Several ‘bush’ fires were reported yesterday, including in Santa Cruz and Câmara de Lobos, and also two suspicious fires started in Campanário.

Funchal’s taxi drivers are to put together a petition against the decision to make the 4 ‘eco buses’ free of charge to users, on the basis this it creates unfair competition. Actually it says ‘taxi drivers of the region’, so maybe they are expecting others outside of Funchal to come on board. The decision was taken at a meeting last week, to which very few taxi drivers actually attended. The petition will be signed by the drivers, families and friends. The chances of getting public support will be pretty thin, like turkeys voting for Christmas, and what with the fierce inter rivalry between the 11 regions of Madeira on taxi matters, I doubt whether there will be much support from outside of Funchal either.

The ground staff on strike at major airports have returned to work, after promises from the airline TAP that jobs will be retained. Unions and management signed a protocol after a meeting lasting 4 hours, that ended the industrial action of the ‘handling’ company Groundforce.

The last of the front page offerings for today is from politics. The main photo today shows a close up photo of the face of Humberto Vasconcelos, the president (or soon to be ex) of São Vicente Câmara : ‘Humberto Felt That They Wouldn’t Allow Him To ‘Give More’ – Humberto Vasconcelos expressed his state of spirit on The Dia do Concelho (day of the region) of São Vicente about not being able allowed to continue the work in the North. In an interview to the Diário, he explains himself better. Who doesn’t feel …’. A restrained interview with HV who seems to be popular locally, but he got on the wrong side of President Jardim, who stopped him standing for another term. "That I have to respect" he said. "From my point of view there is no conflict, it was a strategy determined by the (PSD-M) party", he said. At his farewell speech in the ‘dia do concelho’ this week in São Vicente he received a standing ovation from the crowd, something the government representative in attendance didn’t get. The opposition parties will use this controversy to pressure the PSD-M in the forthcoming elections, and as the seat is less safe than the social democrats would like, they might find winning here a bit of a struggle. Another Uncle Bertie classic ‘own goal’ perhaps?