Madeira News Blog

Today’s Photo Thanks to Tobi … a sunset from his balcony

"Today we were exploring some of Madiera’s fertile and mountainous interior, passing by steep slopes of banana plantations, and roadsides of the colourful flowers that the island’s famous for. Madeira is renowned for being locked in an "eternal spring", with consistently warm weather that rarely deviates from 20 degrees centigrade, and almost-constantly blooming flowers". PRIVATE TRAVELOGUE

For those who like silly things, here is the video of the ‘planting’ of the underwater Christmas tree as mentioned the other day, by the Madeira Diving School.

A 200º panoramic view of Ponta de São Lourenço, made up of 8 shots stitched together and then some tone mapping. PHOTO

Six days after being placed in an induced coma after contracting an infection following surgery, Manuel Machado, Nacional da Madeira’s coach, is on the road to recovery as he was brought out of it earlier this week. Doctors at the Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital have said the highest risk period has passed and they are optimistic the manager will make a full recovery. Manuel Machado became ill after abdominal surgery in a clinic in Oporto around two weeks ago. After suffering terrible pains for four days, the Nacional da Madeira coach was put in an induced coma for just under a week. On Monday, doctors announced “The highest risk period is over. He has woken up and is in a good mood. Things are evolving in a positive manner and, if things continue as they are, hopefully we can turn off his assisted ventilation next week, keeping him only on medication to control some of the pain he is still feeling.” The cause of the infection is still not know, with the manager’s wife saying he was operated on a hernia, despite several sources claiming it was due to a liposuction. Thanks to PORTUGAL NEWS ONLINE for that story.

One for the diary : 8-11 April 2010 – Men’s golf, European PGA, Madeira Island Open.

Many thanks to Paul in Paul do Mar for the following articles :

The first two are from an article on the Ministry of Economy & Innovation Site: 26 Nov 2009

1.  ‘Paul do Mar’. Quote: "The ISA World Surf championships have been hosted on the islands which are better known to be held in areas such as Hawaii. Paul do Mar region of the island is respected throughout the surf community as it offers eight metre high waves and fantastic tubular tunnels."

2. Ponta do Pargo five-star Hotel. Michael Nascimento, the Director of Morgan Forbes is developing a five-star Hotel in the Ponto do Pargo region of the Island. Morgan Forbes, a low risk commissionable broker ship that specialises in asset backed investments, has already been given permission to build a high-end apart-hotel scheme, with off-plan units, available on a share certificate basis, offered for a deposit of as little as £5,750, with a low total investment of just £15,620. These prices will increase on the Monday the 30^th of November 09 with the official Launch of Phase 3, locking in now would be a shrewd move.

Morgan Forbes five-star project could offer the perfect mix, with a forecasted return on investment of 142.7%, taking advantage of the Islands buoyant tourism trade and stable property market. Official Government statistics reported that in 2008 the average occupancy for five-star hotel developments across the island was 91.1% and in some parts as high as 99%.

Following on from the success of the recently constructed Palheiro Golf resort on the island, planning consent has been award for the construction of a new Nick Faldo designed 27-hole golf resort in the Ponta do Pargo Construction of the golf course, which will be built to PGA standards, will commence in just two weeks time.

Dr. Paulo Sousa who is the minister of Madeira has indicated that there are no plans in the near future for any other hotel or apartment projects around the golf course other than the Morgan Forbes project making this a highly attractable investment.

Madeira is also supported by the extension of its airport to allow more flights and larger planes to land on a daily basis. Easy Jet land a minimum of three flights a day and other airlines are extending their routes to cater for the ever growing demand for the island.

Many thanks to Elaine once again for yesterday’s top news stories :

Mega Park now not open until Wednesday. Delays in signing the contract meant that the equipment could not begin to be assembled until yesterday, the day when it was advertised to open. It should now open on Wednesday December 16 and on that day, as other Wednesdays, the 14 entertainments will cost 1 euro each.

Public Prosecutor calls for 3 years in prison for Lobo. The Public Prosecutor asked for three years in prison for the former mayor of Ponta do Sol, António Lobo. He called for the acquittal of the four co-defendants, all accused of bribery. António Lobo was accused of serious fraud and bribery but the prosecutor decided the facts fit the crime of malfeasance (2 to 8 years in prison) due to violation of official duties. The defence called for the acquittal of the former mayor because he was tried and convicted of malfeasance in the previous proceedings. In the Constitution and law, no one can be tried and convicted twice for ‘factos contemporaneous’ (non bis in idem). Besides, no prevarication can be associated with António Lobo but with the ‘schoolboy government institution’ that approved the project. In terms of prevarication, 52 of the 271 urban development projects were approved by the Council of Ponta do Sol in 2001 (52 when the PDM was suspended). The prosecutor said the ‘smell of corruption’ came from the fact that the land for the controversial construction of  29 apartments was co-owned by a council valuer familiar to António Lobo. The links political, construction and football complement the ‘odour’. Minimum standards have not been met; the defendants had not entered any initial investment, there was no technical input to the draft amendments and the PDM (public discussion) was suspended at the time of project approval. The Public Prosecutor also asked for the Directorate of Finance to investigate the suspicion of tax evasion by the property promoters by ‘skilled’ accounting. The defence lawyer said that the property had been approved in the average time span so it could not be viewed as favouritism. The verdict will be known on January 8 2010.

GPS mapping of the seabed around the Selvagens. The structure of an extensive area (70 x 70 km) of the seabed around the Ilhas Selvagens is to be mapped via the GPS system. This area is the real link between the islands of  Madeira and Porto Santo. The contract between the Government and the Navy was signed aboard the Navy’s NRP Almirante Gago Coutinho, berthed on the north quay of the Port of Funchal. The most significant act of the protocol is the placing of a GPS antenna on Salvagem Grande, allowing the territory to be geo-referenced accurately. Using the Navy ship, eight GPS stations will be placed at sea, (5 at Selvagem Grande, 3 at Salvagem Pequena, Madeira and Porto Santo, respectively). The seabed elevations and submerged rocks can then be located, some known from old charts. There have been an accumulation of 888 days at sea for scientific research projects and an area of 1,700,000 square kilometres probed. The Gago Coutinho has a crew of 34 sailors and can accommodate 15 researchers at sea for up to 60 days.

Attempted murder – 10 years in prison. A young man accused of trying to stab his wife to death in Caniço. The Court of Santa Cruz sentenced a 25 year old man, J. M. Santos, to 10 years in prison for attempted homicide (a crime punishable by between 28 months and 16.5 years). On 13 March 2009, he attempted to kill his 22 year old wife by stabbing her, in front of their 5 year old son. They had lived in Caniço for five years. The cause was a bad relationship and the wife intended to divorce him. She suffered more than a dozen cuts and due to the amount of anger the man felt, he kept picking up different knives and it is unknown how many were used or how many times he stabbed her. His intention was, "If you’re not for me, are also not for anyone." The woman’s life was saved only by prompt intervention of a social worker and hospital doctors. The defendant was also ordered to pay the Health Service 10,460 Euros and the Social Security Centre 2,111 Euros for services rendered that night. The defence council may consider an appeal. On the night of the crime, the wife informed her husband that she was leaving with the son to live with her mother and intended to proceed with a divorce. They were in the kitchen at the time and he rejected the separation and refused to allow the wife to leave with the son. She then went to the computer to ask a friend for help when he stabbed her in the back, she began to faint and fell to the floor where he continued to stab her. A neighbour entered the house, faced with a ‘Dantesque scenario’ in the presence of the boy. The assailant was arrested the following morning and taken to Ribeira Brava police station. At the trial, the defendant declared repentance and despite no criminal record, the Court did not believe he was truly sorry but had a possessive personality. Justified by the high probability of guilt and that the crime was so treacherous, especially in the presence of the child, it required a prison sentence. In 2009, there were 26 deaths in Portugal resulting from disputes between men and women, and 42 attempted murders.

Division in PS gives €79 million to Madeira. The PS gave the authorization of a loan in order to postpone the ultimate test of the Regional Finance Law. The PS offered yesterday, contradictorily, the possibility of Madeira having a loan of 79 million Euros to pay debts to suppliers in exchange for the Law of Regional Finances going down to the Committee of Budget and Finance of the Assembly of the Republic without a general vote. With this, the PS managed to avoid the embarrassment of the approval of the Law of Madeira, which yesterday was challenged by the Minister of Finance, with the deciding vote by the socialist deputy, the Madeiran Luis Miguel França. There was a ‘tug-of-war’ between the leader of the socialist parliamentary group, Francisco Assis, and the Madeiran socialist deputy Luis Miguel Franca. Assis did not want to give the vote to a Madeiran and França did not want to abdicate a vote that would differ from the election manifesto of the PS-M. In view of this opposition, the leader of the socialist parliamentary group was forced to give a ‘gift’ to the PSD, to hide the fact that he could not control the dissent which would be difficult to explain to José Sócrates and the general public. The PSD-M Guilherme Silva made a victory speech although he could not have the original 129 million Euros loan the Regional Government needed to pay suppliers. He said this method was a redistribution of resources. The socialists risked this scenario. The proposed Madeiran revision to the Finance Law has 20 days to be scrutinized  by the members of the Budget and Finance Committee. One of the issues that Alberto João Jardim is not going to get the green light for is to increase the indebtedness of Madeira as he wanted. CDS-PP, PCP and BE emphasized the injustice of the law and criticized the expenditure of the Regional Government. They did not want to give a blank cheque to Jardim and the communist said the law was against the people of Madeira. The CDS-PP defended the law saying it was necessary to prevent even more imbalances in public finances. The Madeirans dominated this debate and it left them in a strong position. The Finance Minister Texeira dos Santos strongly criticized the revision of the law and noted that Madeira had been authorized to incur debts in 2008 amounting to 256.7 million Euros under the plan Pay on Time and €50 million in 2009. He accused the Regional Government of expenditure and being irresponsible in the management of public accounts. "There are clear signs of indiscipline and lack of control." The Madeiran deputy Hugo Velosa countered saying that the Government of Madeira has less expenditure as a proportion of gross domestic product than on the mainland. Teixeira dos Santos said that, "The Continent has to pay for the folly of the Government of Madeira."  The approved €79 million loan will only pay a few suppliers to the Regional Government. The leader of the regional CDS-PP estimates the debt already amounts to 200 million Euros. The figure of €79 million instead of €129 million was because the Regional Government had already taken out a €50 million loan, however this was used for projects co-financed by the EU. The authorization for borrowing €79 million will be discussed on Monday by the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, the eve of the discussion of the Budget for 2010.

Today’s news headlines from the front page of the Diário de Notícias :

Today’s main news headline : Region produces a thousand million tons of CO2 – Energy billing on Madeira already costs €500 million per annum. A value that will climb in 2013 if there is no reduction in current emissions. Also the main front page photo, with a very large and smokey industrial chimney in full action. Theoretically the word ‘billion’ in continental Portuguese means a million million, but for English speakers, a billion tons of carbon dioxide gas are created on Madeira (yearly?), the main culprits being transport, waste management, and electricity production. Their emission licences are going to cost more than €20 million. Madeira has 3 years in which to reduce it’s dependence on fossil fuels. For the sake of the environment and public accounts, as from 2013 the permits to emit CO2 will be paid in full by the companies that produce electricity, while the industrial units will have to pay a third of their value. Electricity production (59%) and the 130,000 vehicles that are active on the streets (35.4%) are by far the greatest polluters, with garbage treatment responsible for 5%. The average emission per inhabitant of the island is 4,337 kilograms. If Madeira is obliged to pay the carbon emission licences, they would add up to €25.8 million per annum. A long and interesting article on the cause and effects of CO2 emissions, and the bottom line is that domestic consumers will have to pay pollution taxes somewhere along the line. Personally, I find the figures staggering and unbelievable, and reckon that an extra zero at least has crept into the figures.

Funchal council requires €250,000 – Marítimo has to pay €250,000 to CMF to obtain the license for the works in Barreiros. The redevelopment of the stadium in Funchal is currently  stuck on account of this issue. The club has also reacted to a statement made by one Funchal counsellor (PND – New democrats) claiming that there are possible illegalities in the construction of the new stadium. Marítimo have denied the accusations, saying that all the development works meet current legislation and the requirements of the licences issued, and it has nothing to fear. However the Diário was able to confirm that the club does not in fact have in its possession the required construction license, because it is in dispute with Funchal council on the matter. The club refused to pay the amount asked, claiming that the sum of €600,000 was exorbitant, and that other sporting clubs were exempt from such charges. Last week at a council meeting the sum was reduced to €250,000, and that amount has not yet been paid, and so the redevelopment work is as such still unlicensed. The matter could be resolved tomorrow if Marítimo agree to the new lower charge. The PND counsellor claims that the club are also doing works that are not included on the licence(s) in question. Of course Marítimo hold the trump card in the situation … their number one fan ‘Uncle Bertie’, and no doubt with the current president of Funchal council being a key contender to Uncle Bertie’s throne in 2011 … well, anything is possible. Marítimo football club at one time may have been a sports club of the people, but these days it is first and foremost a business … a very fortunate business that has been given a prime land stadium that belonged to the people of Madeira, and €45 million of taxpayers money to develop it. Yet it complains about paying a relatively small fee for a redevelopment licence, and continues with the work regardless. Disgraceful attitude and behaviour!

Water more expensive – New tax law dictates the size of price increases in monthly bills. The ‘Law of taxes’ requires a revision of taxes applied on water supply, waste water, rubbish, and markets / fair permits. Until now the councils (câmaras) of Madeira haven’t yet increased prices charged in their areas, but the new law means they will have to update them in the short term. The reason there have been no increases so far is down to uncertainty surrounding the subject, as the law was adopted in 2006 but has faced repeated delays, and the lack of price increases was not to protect household economies. Water prices for one will rise in 2010, but even though the law is effective on 1st January, the effects are unlikely to be felt until mid-year. There will also be reductions for some, where they are found to paying over the correct rates.

Refuse collection in Funchal stops between 25th and 27th of December. Nice Xmas party for the rats then!

Government treats the PSP police badly – The Regional Command is the only one in the country without access to the funds from the fines ; Council helps the police in Ponta do Sol.

30% less – Not even the traditional Christmas dinners allow restaurants to recover in a year of crisis.

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 Thank you in anticipation.

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