Madeira News Blog

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to Vic … "This owl was under the airport but why in the middle of the afternoon who knows. You can see where it has last fed from the blood on its feathers".

"In a few minutes we will leave our berth in the marina, when we have filled our diesel tanks we are off to Ilhas Selvagens, about 160 nm south. The wind is very weak, therefore it will probably take about two days to get there. Then we are staying at the islands for 48 hours, that’s as long as our permit is valid. The islands are a nature reserve and bird sanctuary that’s way you have to obtain a permit here in Funchal". CAPTAIN CANTARE B LOG

"Madeira is all about water. The heights are usually clothed in clouds, so that even if it doesn’t rain there is plenty of moisture to feed the streams and rivers that have carved out the deep gorges and valleys. This moist climate contributes to making it a Botanists dream …". Quite a good read from a visitor here. MADEIRA HIKER 

Many thanks to Elaine in Garajau for yesterday’s news translations :

Retailers threaten Chinese trade in Machico. More detail about this story. The retailers are concerned and in consternation about two large Chinese bazaars opening at the end of November. They will sell almost everything (clothing, school supplies, hardware, computer equipment etc.). The smaller store of about 500 square metres will be in the Edificio da Torre, where Maxmat is. The megastore of 3000 square metres will cover the entire first floor of ‘Machim Centrum’ in the centre of the city.  The latter building was designed as a shopping centre of excellence. Manuel Severino, a hardware shopkeeper said that he is not against the shop itself, just its size. "It will  be a stagnation of trade because the Chinese stores have prices much more competitive than ours. People know that it is best to buy the traditional products, but the decline of purchasing power makes them go to Chinese stores because it’s cheaper." The economy in Machico is already fragile and the traders want just traditional trade in the heart of the city. They think at least a dozen shops will be at risk and that the Chinese shops do not come to invest, just to make a profit. The President of ACIM said, "It will certainly be a funeral and a disaster for the city’s business, which consists mostly of small and medium enterprises, all of a  traditional nature." He does not believe these stores will be granted a licence and if so, they will proceed with an injunction. The mayor says he is sympathetic but if everything is legal, they cannot refuse a licence just because the store is Chinese. Licensing is the responsibility of the Regional Department of Commerce, Industry and Energy (DRCIE) but they state they have not received an application for either of the stores. The caption to the photo states that work to adapt the centre has already begun.

Poverty in the street. The shopkeepers in Rua do Carmo are upset about the homeless eating their dinners by their shop fronts and leaving food scraps and bottles. As today is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Social Security are are about to launch the Regional Plan for the Homeless 2009 – 2011 to bring together all the institutions to help the homeless. The volunteers presently distribute food in the Largo de Phelps but they want the homeless to be directed to the Association for the Protection of the Poor night shelter, and canteen in the Rua do Frigorifico. In 2007, the survey showed 80 homeless men with either alcohol or mental health problems. At present, the shelter has only 15 beds and there will be a new night shelter next year to double the number of beds.

Neighbours of Santagro can’t breathe. "If it wasn’t for the smell, this would be paradise," says Fátima Baptista, who lives near the tourist complex Inatel in Santo de Serra. She came for holidays to Madeira twice a year and has now emigrated from England to here. The smell is from a pig farm and is worsening, especially during the summer. The Inatel hotel also complains, saying they have lost hundreds of customers. There have been complaints sent to the City of Santa Cruz, the County Medical Officer and to the Regional Directorate of the Environment. The manager of Santagro says that Inatel knew of their existence before they built the complex. To modernize, in an attempt to reduce 95% of the smell, they have applied for EU funding. The complaints have been passed from department to department and the present law does not take odours into account. The Directorate of the Environment said that the company will have to adapt and they will ensure this happens.

Regional drinks at reduced rate. The European Parliament is expected to approve on Tuesday, the continued  application of a reduced rate of excise duty on rum, liqueurs and other spirits of Madeira and the Azores. This should be until the end of 2013 and is considered necessary for the survival of the local industry. There are eight producers of rum/liqueurs on Madeira. In the Azores, nine companies produce liqueurs and thirty-eight produce brandy. Virtually all products are sold regionally. There are 130 associated employees in Madeira and 90 in the Azores. In Madeira, cane sugar cultivation and processing and fruit farming provides employment for about 1000 family-run agricultural businesses.

Madeira in the scene in Lisbon. A newly-launched show, ‘Grab what is honest’ in Lisbon ends with an invitation to the audience to visit Madeira during the Flower Festival. This social and political satire ends with dancers in a colourful display of Madeiran flowers and the traditional instruments like the brinquinho. It was an idea of the producer after seeing tourist pictures of Madeira and is supported by Madeira Islands Tourism. It will run for six months.

Madeira maintains the lead in national tourism. In national tourism, Madeira had the highest average nights stay in August, although it dropped from 5.7 nights last year to 5.5 nights this year. The national average was 3.2 nights. In all regions, apart from Alentejo, which has a short average night stay (mainly weekends), all areas have decreased. Madeira’s occupancy fell from 77.3% last year to 68.4%. Average was 62.6%. The drop in overnight stays in Madeira means that the increase in the domestic market has not made up for the decrease in English and German tourists.

Funchal is the top cruise port in the nation. 211,143 passengers in the first seven months of this year. Lisbon is the second port with 194,634 passengers. In Portugal, the number increased by 5.4% over last year. The cruise industry handles 10 million Americans and 5 million Europeans. In 2020, the estimate is that there will be 10 million European passengers. Presently, 3% of Americans and 1.3 – 1.5% of  Europeans go on a cruise. Estimated that by the end of this year, 49% more Portuguese will go on a cruise than last year.

Centre for Arbitration in Consumer Complaints have intervened in more cases this year. The highest number of complaints have been about properties, followed by cars, appliances, laundries, clothing and footwear, then Timesharing. This organization was set up by the Madeiran Government and can only handle complaints related to purchases in the region and if the value does not exceed 30,000 Euros. It is voluntary arbitration between the customer and the business, in an attempt to prevent a court case.

22 farmers from Normandy visit the Centre for Sheep Farming. Farmers with sheep, cattle, wine and agriculture in Normandy, France, are interested in practices used here including the utilization of by-products of the agro-industry to feed sheep and the use of cane sugar by-products for bedding. They were surprised by the lack of brucellosis. The Centre (COM)  in the Santana municipality has a breeding herd of about 180 sheep of the breed Bergshaf. ——-Translation toolbar mis-translation ‘Centre visited by 22 sheep’.

Forum Madeira has 10 bicycles for clients. If you have purchased more than 10 Euros from Forum Madeira, you can apply at the Information Desk (Floor 0) to hire a  bike to cycle along the Estrada Monumental between the Forum and the roundabout ASSICOM Piornais. From 16 October.

Crewman of the National Geographic Explorer had to go to HCF. The ship had set sail for the Desertas yesterday when a 44 year old crewman had heart problems, and the ship had to return to Funchal, so he could attend the hospital. The ship has now gone to the Canaries. ——It does not say if they still had their 1 hour stay at the bay of the nature reserve.

Electricity will increase by 2.8% next January. It will increase 2.9% on the Continent and 2.7% in the Azores. For the average 40 euro monthly bill, this will increase by just over 1 Euro.

A quick peek at today’s headlines :

Nacional suffer but continue in the cup – The Madeirans were losing 1 – 0 but they made a comeback in the second half. That could have been embarrassing, and even worse if Varzim had scored their first half penalty. There are a couple of videos from the game on footytube.

Marítimo play their home cup fixture today at 4 pm against Santa Clara.

The main headline today in the Diário : Illegal immigration has accomplices in the region : There is assistance for the contracting of illegal foreign labour, people that place staff in restaurants and women in prostitution. Yesterday two women citizens from Latin America were detained, caught ‘red handed’. This year already 21 legal actions have already been opened. The regional director for border controls says the situation here is not as rife as in other parts of Portugal, but nether-the-less there are 10 cases here under investigation. The contacts and the contracts are initiated by restaurant owners and ‘pimps’ on Madeira. The majority of the cases relate to restaurant staff, with Brazilians coming and staying here illegally, on the back of an agreement between the two countries that allows entrance to Madeira for a period of three months without authorisation documents. Those responsible risk fines of between €2,000 and €15,000, but are not deterred. The Diário does make the point that none of the cases known about involve anyone been taken (kidnapped) or working against their will. Hard to believe that there is profit for anyone to be made in employing or supplying illegal immigrant labour, with such high unemployment here and our low wages. With the reluctance of local businesses to take on foreign labour as well, I can only imagine that the restaurants involved are not normally those serving traditional Madeiran cuisine.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–
If you can, please contribute something Madeira related. A funny story or 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. 

You can email blog@madeira4u.com with any large contributions or comments and photos / videos, or if you can contribute regularly, I can give you a special account that allows you to create your own blog postings.
—————————————————————————————————————————————–

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

(more…)

(29th September). Today’s main news headline ‘Traffic Signposting / Signalling Full Of Faults – The motorist is often misled by the existing road signage or the lack of it. There are even incongruities between the vertical and horizontal signs. One realises it because there are those who enter onto the via rápida in the wrong lane’. It is also the main photo of today, of a main road with a sliproad, and I had to study it carefully for about 20 seconds before I saw the relevance … and what breathtaking incompetence, I am just not sure yet who from. The full article HERE also contains 8 other photos of such situations, but I not sure I understood all of them. Anyway, the roads signs are littered with flaws and inconsistencies, with the lack of electrical signage the most serious. Even the long established via rápida between Ribeira Brava and Caniçal still has problems in its signage, that could result in dangerous situations. Lots of examples given, so lets hope that the authorities get on the case and put them right. Any reader have a story, or even better a warning, about such situations?

‘Turned Back To The Sea 35 Years After’. An absolutely beautiful picture of a turtle swimming underwater accompanies the headline (not the one shown here). Freedom after 35 years in captivity for a green turtle, from the Municipal Aquarium of Funchal. Tomorrow technicians from Zoomarine and the Portuguese Navy will return the turtle to the sea, complete with a satellite transmitter. It has spent 5 years in a rehabilitation environment for marine species in the Algarve, learning to find its own food, but no one knows how it will react back in the sea. The turtle was found injured in fishing nets in the 1970′s, and was taken in for treatment, which was successful. The tank where it lived for 30 years was inadequate in size, and in 2004 it was decided that it should be set free, but to do so it was necessary to spend rehabilitation time at the centre in the Algarve. The turtle still has around two thirds of it’s natural life cycle remaining, and indeed could still be a parent, until it reaches the age of around 50. The green turtle is the second largest species of  sea turtle, and on average an adult will weigh around 160 kg, with the potential to grow to around 300 kg.

‘Mitchell Moves Forward With Marítimo In Silence – The predicted exit of Carvalhal was confirmed. "Disaster" is how Berado describes the actual situation’. Mitchell van der Gaag has been put in charge of Marítimo for now, after Carlos Carvalhal parted company with the club yesterday. The coach of the Marítimo ‘B’ side team, who used to play for Marítimo, is Dutch, but has also played in Scotland for Motherwell, and for other clubs. A bit of name dropping I know, but I met him once in Ribeira Brava, and he sat and had a coffee with me and we talked football for about half an hour (while Mrs. Gaag was off shopping I think). A real nice guy, and I really hope he does well, ‘cos it’s not many professional footballers that take the time to sit and talk to a stranger. I happened to be wearing an obsolete Motherwell football shirt at the time, in case you are wondering. And of course you couldn’t fail to notice that we both have the same name.

The entertainment headline : ‘Brussels Welcomes Youngster From Porto Santo’. Danilo Mendonça is the first student of the ‘Conservatory – Escola das Artes da Madeira’ (CEPAM) to  enter higher education in a piano course in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Danilo is described as a diligent student, exemplary, very dedicated and hardworking. His teacher says he lives for the piano, and in three years his development is without comparison. He is already in Brussels, and will spend 3 years there to graduate, and then another two to become a master of his instrument. I think he is 18 years old, but it doesn’t actually say in the article. The future Cristiano Ronaldo of the ivories perhaps.

‘Death Overshadows Weekend’. In the regular weekend traffic report, the death of a 39 year old man [already reported here] in Funchal overshadowed the weekend that had 21 traffic accidents, 11 of which were in Funchal, with the one death and five people ‘slightly’ injured. Santa Cruz and Machico had 5 accidents each. 8 drink drivers were also detained, four of those were in Funchal.

‘Man chased thief and recovered a woman’s stolen handbag – The snatch occurred at the exit of a bus in Livramento’. The woman’s bag was snatched on Sunday night by a man aged between 20 and 30 years old, but the incident was spotted by a physical education teacher, who gave chase and recovered the stolen bag and returned it to the owner. It was at this point that the article said that the teacher actually gave chase in his car, which spoilt the whole story a bit, apart from the happy ending of course. Even PE teachers can be lazy these days it seems, as he actually turned the car around to give chase. What happened to those days when PE teachers would abandon their car in the middle of the road, drivers door left wide open, sprint after the thief, rugby-tackle him, and then hold him down whilst members of the public gathered around, clapping in appreciation? I miss those days.

‘English Tourists Still Enchanted With Madeira’. "Madeira has developed greatly over the past 30 years, but remains a popular destination, beautiful, pleasant and safe to visit." This statement was made by the British commander William Kent, during the inaugural and final visit of the cruse ship ‘Tahitian Princess’, which took place last Saturday at the port of Funchal. "The first time I arrived at this port was in March 1976, and I was amazed at the beauty of the island", he added. He also emphasized the quality of Madeiran cuisine: "Whenever I’m here I have lunch with some of the crew members. Today, we decided to have lunch in the ‘Montanha’. In addition to superb views of Funchal, the service is very good. I suggested the black scabbard fish, known as espada to the Madeirans. At the end a fine glass of Madeira wine" he explained. The next passage of the cruise ship here will be on the 29th of May next year, with the oddity that it will then be sporting a new name: ‘Ocean Princess’. I certainly hope he wasn’t ‘taking the wheel’ afterwards.

A report from "European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker" has revealed that mobile phone sales in Portugal have hit record lows. In the second quarter this year, sales fell 9% compared to the same quarter in 2008, but increased by 36% compared to the first quarter.

‘More than 2200 buildings ‘energy certified – This will be one of the topics discussed at the ‘FIC 2009′. In just a few months, there is strong take up’. The energy certification of residences and buildings is going at a fair pace now, with a very slow take up initially, with just 36 inspections until the end of January this year. Funchal has more that 1,000 residences certified, with over half of those in São Martinho, followed by Santo António, the two most populated areas there, and with the highest concentrations of new buildings. The ‘National System of Energy Certification and Air Quality in Buildings (SCE), was adapted on Madeira in January 2008. The scale of assessment ranges from A+ (best) to G (worst) and involve the services of a trained assessor, of which there are 45. The certificate is compulsory to obtain permits for construction and habitation for new properties, and for sales and rental of existing properties. MORE HERE (only in Portuguese of course).

(15th September). The last of today’s headlines : ‘Gratitude – Several personalities in the tourism sector pay tribute to Bernardo Trindade, in Lisbon’. The recognition from the tourist ‘trade’ is principally from hoteliers, who have made good use of the initiatives from Trindade, the secretary of state for tourism, and also a Madeiran. The tribute dinner, scheduled for tonight in Lisbon, carries some political baggage, involving businessmen from across the political spectrum, and some key players in tourism from Madeira, some of whom are regarded as ‘close’ to Trindade’s political opponent president Jardim. The dinner marks four years of good work and satisfaction, and the end of a 4 year political mandate. One of those interviewed said that Trindade was always "very open to innovation, to new ideas", focusing himself on the initiatives undertaken in the area of aviation [liberalisation of the airways], "which turned out to improve conditions for competition [in the sector], as well as take promotional measures that are very important for tourism nationally". In two years of doing this blog, Trindade has always come across to me as a respected, hardworking, and innovative individual in the media. It seems everyone thinks highly of him, except of course president Jardim and his PSD cronies. He will be re-elected on 27th of September, and assuming he doesn’t get reshuffled, either through the election results or by his boss, he will hopefully be able to continue making an enormous contribution to the economies of Portugal and Madeira. Complementary words from me, as far as politicians are concerned, are like hens teeth, but credit in this case is definitely deserved.

‘Hotel Sector Activity Fell 12.6% In The Month Of July – Madeira registered 76,400 less in nights occupied compared to the same month in 2008′. The number of rooms occupied fell to 529,200, mainly due to a decline in tourism from the UK and Germany, with decreases over the same period of 32.2 and 7.1% respectively from those two countries. The average number of nights stayed remained unaltered at 5.6. The likely loss of income to Madeira and businesses will be around €13.6 million, comparing the two Julys. Nationally, the fall in nights occupied fell 4.8%. It seems up and down with every month, and differing reports I know, but I just tell it as I see it.

‘Promotion in the Nordic market’. The Association of Promotion for Madeira is conducting various promotional activities in the Scandinavian market, an initiative aimed at travel agents and tour operators. Cátia Carvalho, executive director of the APM, said "that these actions are very important to Madeira, as we have been experiencing a decline in demand from tourists from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The Scandinavian market is very important to Madeira and this new investment is aimed at stimulating demand and recovering the market". There are positive signs however, due to the new flights operated by SATA, serving Copenhagen and Stockholm, coming to Madeira, and the future is still brighter, with the recent announcement from Cimber Sterling airline of another flight between Copenhagen and Madeira, starting next month. In the first 8 months of this year, the number of visitors from Sweden dropped (-48%), Denmark (-28.1%), Finland (-14%), whilst those coming from Norway increased 94%.