Madeira News Blog

(20th September). Today’s main news headline : ‘Penal Reform Takes 87 Out Of Jail – The prison population on Madeira decreased by 23% since the new law came into effect, in 2007′. Before the reform law we had 385 prisoners, but today it is less than 300. As a result of the new Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure, effective from 15th September 2007, the number of inmates has been reduced significantly. In those days there were two prisons, but the one in Viveiros closed in May, leaving just the jail in Cancela. Much of the change has been in the remand system, with those awaiting criminal action more likely to be subject to reporting restrictions, or to wear an ‘electronic bracelet’ for tagging. Women prisoners in particular are very few, with the current number not even in double figures, mostly for drug trafficking. The objectives set for Portugal to reduce its prison population have been met. It was just a decade ago that Portugal was mentioned in international reports to have a shameful rate of pre-trial detention. I was quite concerned for a brief moment with that headline, I thought loads of criminals and drug dealers had suddenly hit the streets, which I suppose they have, but not all today in one go.

‘Donation Of Bodies To Science Doesn’t Do Well – They lack bodies for dissection. Because of that, they have resorted to using animal organs in the Anatomy classes’. Anatomy students at the University of Madeira (UMa) are having to use models and pig organs for their practical studies, through a shortage of human bodies ‘donated to science’. A law has been in place for 10 years to allow the use of donated bodies, but the Portuguese nationwide haven’t taken to the practice, leaving our future doctors with a reduced degree of experience and knowledge. What they have also is the right to use bodies that are not claimed by the families, but since the UMa course started in 2004, that has not happened, nor have there been any donations. One suggestion is that students be allowed to attend autopsy procedures, whether for legal or clinical reasons. "It would be good if people could understand the importance of donating a body to science," says Isabel Torres of UMa. "Having cadavers for dissection would be an asset to the course and a very positive experience for the future performance of doctors", she added. 

‘Madeira Spends More On Students – ‘Profs’ lead Madeira to spend more’. Each student is going to cost the regional budget €7,858 a year, compared to a national average of €4,772. Each student costs more than the national average, with an average 8.2 students per teacher, and a greater range of school activities. The European average ratio is 15 students per teacher. The average cost is even higher than the average of OECD countries when it comes to second cycle children. Education expenditure on Madeira represents 27.5% of the total budget, compared to 14.8% in Portugal, 21.8% in the Azores, and 12.9% in the other OECD countries. Madeira has a budget of €443 million to pay for education, on the face of it much more than the €386 million it theoretically needs, but there are many other non-educational expenses to be met, such as feeding the children and school transportation. Teachers salaries alone amount to €281 million, with the more experienced (15 years) earning €24,911, three times more than those just starting out.

Sport has the big front page photo today, and the the lions share of the space, with several headlines. It shows a rather impressive photo of an airborne rally car : ‘Assault’ To The Regional Of Rallies Postpones The Awarding Of The Title – Miguel Nunes won the C.D. Nacional Rally and has a one point lead over Alexandre Camacho’. The result in the Madeira Coral Rally Championship now takes the deciding of the final placings to the rally in Faial on 24th and 25th October.

‘João Rodrigues Wins The World Cup’. This is a Madeiran in a sailing competition, who won the silver medal yesterday in the ISAF World Cup, but over 7 races was the overall winner. Yesterday’s event took place at Weymouth, England, the venue for the 2012 Olympic Regattas.

‘Today Is The Derby. It is one of those "more relaxed" games, assures the president of Marítimo in an interview with the Diário’. He is either joking or mad. We will see in a few hours.

‘FC Porto Lose In Braga’ … I didn’t see that one coming! That leaves Braga clear at the top of the table after 5 straight wins after their 1 – 0 victory.

‘Francisco Lobato Wins First Stage Of The Transat 6,50 – The Portuguese sailor leads in the series craft, the French prototype of Bertrand Delesne was the first to arrive at Funchal’. Lobato finished the first leg of the ‘Transat 6.50′ race as first in its class, in ‘Roff TMN’, arriving in Funchal at 3.45 pm, almost 2 hours after the French boat ‘Entreprendre Durablement’. The other 47 boats are expected over the next few days.

Caniço is the featured ‘parish’ of the week in the Diário series, though I could swear it has already been done. ‘Much Construction And Few Green Spaces – A police station and fire station head the list of things lacking for those who live there’. When he left Caniço the landscape of the parish "was pure tababeira and fig", but after 52 years living in Venezuela Luis Soares returned to find a quite different Caniço, with more buildings, more streets, and better living conditions for the residents. The good climate, proximity to Funchal, and housing at an affordable price, caused many Madeirans to chose to move to this town near Santa Cruz. The population growth has brought "some disappointment" (it doubled in 4 years). The population count in the last census in 2001 was 11,586, but is now estimated at 25,000. The people complain of excessive construction and lack of green spaces. Thoughtless architecture and urban chaos are some of the opinions about the city of "concrete boxes".

Coincidently, this was in yesterday’s Jornal da Madeira : ‘City Park In Caniço – Câmara of Santa Cruz still has a plan for the the enlargement of the pier’. The council is going to build the park in Caniço, and also in the plan is a nursing home, an auditorium, upgrading of Largo da Achada, restoration of the old church in Camacha, a school in Caniço, a civic centre in Achada de Gaula, enlargement of the harbour area, and construction of a new nursery, a building of shared services in Santa Cruz, and in Santo da Serra plans for the agricultural market and civic centre. The list goes on … and on, but I don’t recall any mention of police and fire stations in Caniço.

The photo shows president Jardim and his sidekick, the president of Funchal Câmara, at the inauguration of the new stretch of cycle path at Estrada Monumental yesterday. Jardim livened up the event with a speech that the Diário refers to as "Down with fascism", and again Jardim claimed that Madeira was the victim of all and sundry, run by outsiders. He also has a go at the police for not doing what he thinks is their job "through fear", in dealing with a nearby political campaign by the PND, something he may come to regret me thinks.

There is an email scam going on, with many people being sent a fictitious debt purportedly coming from Portugal Telecom. If you receive something that looks like this, just delete it.

‘Bridge Of Ribeiro Seco Reopens Tomorrow’. The bridge at Engenho do Mel in Funchal will reopen early tomorrow morning, after demolition arising from the construction work on the new via expresso to Funchal Port.

UPDATES :

‘Fatal Accident In Caniço – man aged 34 died instantly’. The accident on the via rápida this morning killed one man and left a woman seriously injured.

Iberojet, part of the Carnival group, has confirmed its intention to make a total of 19 stops on Madeira next Summer with it’s cruise ship ‘Grand Voyager’. The cruise will include weekly port calls in Vigo, Portimão, Casablanca, Arrecife, Las Palmas and Funchal. Funchal will also be a port for passengers to start / finish their cruise (I think?). The first cruise stop here will be on 30th April, 2010. The ship, which is no newcomer here, was built in 2000 in the shipyard Blohm Voss, in Hamburg, Germany. Its tonnage is 24,391, measuring 180.7 meters long and 25.6 meters wide. It can accommodate 922 passengers, and is served by 360 crew members.

‘Jehovahs Witnesses Opt To Not Vote – There are around 1,200 on Madeira, but they believe in the Kingdom of God, and not of men’. "We’re not going to vote for reasons explained in the bible" said a spokesman.

The Diário has been publishing ‘quotes of the day’ from the politicians over the last few days, but nothing very notable so far. I will try a couple today:

"If you want medical assistance and a new hospital, vote for Coelho. If you want football and great stadiums then vote for Dr. João Alberto and Jaime Ramos". – José Manuel Coelho, PND.

"It’s a thrill to be here with you". – José Manuel Rodrigues, CDS, at a dinner with more than 300 women. He also said "I never saw so much beauty concentrated in so little space". Grovelling politicians, don’t you just hate them!

(19th September). This from yesterday’s Jornal da Madeira : "People forgive but don’t forget" – Alberto João Jardim speaks of "rich kids of fascist families". At an inauguration on Friday Jardim talked about the times of fascism, saying that many people here remember what it was like, and now that now they have to put up with the rich kids, the children of the fascists that robbed the people of Madeira, and now they go around spending it and acting like clowns. Who on earth writes this stuff for him? Surely the writer and orator cannot be the one and the same Uncle Bertie … and yet he’s still in Charge?

(13th September). ‘With Fish Market, Without Pier – Lack of services is the main shortcoming of Madalena do Mar. Residents of the Neighbourhood of Fishermen say they are forgotten, and ask for beach facilities to be provided and complain about the the lack of a pier´. The Diário’s featured parish this week. The tranquillity, coupled with the good weather, are the major attractions of Madalena do Mar. The village is very popular in summer for its beach, but loses movement in the Winter. Who lives there complains about the lack of services. Public transport, post office, ATM cashpoint, pharmacy, and a supermarket are some of the shortcomings identified by the population. Fishermen say they have a fish market, but complain that there is no pier, that had been promised, or beach support facilities.

‘Plagiarism On The Loose In The University Of Madeira – Copying text from the internet and presenting it as ones own is common practice’. It happens in all the courses. Teachers admit that the phenomenon has grown in recent years because of the internet, and welcome the decision of the UMa Dean to install anti-plagiarism software. That enthusiasm is not shared by the students representative, Luis Eduardo Nicolau, who says this is "a very delicate matter". The fight against plagiarism, as is happening in UMa, is just one of the functions of the Office of Student Aid, a new body that will mediate in the relationships between students and teachers. This Office will receive from now on all academic work, ensuring that deadlines are met. The work must be submitted in electronic format, so it can then be checked for authenticity, using the new anti-plagiarism software. If the work ‘passes’ the originality test then it goes to the teacher or lecturer who set the assignment for marking, but if it fails the test it’s another story.

The football headline is back today : ‘Four Games Without Winning – Nacional lost yesterday in Vila do Conde. The team attacked a lot, but couldn’t score. Today, after the sermon, the big game in Barreiros’. Nacional lost 2 – 0 at Rio Ave, leaving them with just two point out of a possible 12. Marítimo play Braga today. Yesterday’s game was also today’s main front page photo.

Hot off the press : Marítimo 1 Braga 2, leaving Braga top of the league with a 100% record. 

‘PSP called to restore order in Nogueira – A fight between neighbours, joined by dozens of people, yesterday forced the intervention of the police in the neighbourhood of Nogueira’. One neighbour complained to another about the noise from a party that went late into the night, but the complaint was not well received, and resulted in a slanging match. The lady complainant returned home, but the noisy neighbours followed and kicked her front door in, only to see her husband there armed with a baseball bat. At least one person was taken to hospital during the dispute, which probably woke up much of the neighbourhood. Some interesting readers comments with this article, including "It seems like one of those parts of Iraq, always in an uproar!"

On our roads last week, 49 accidents were reported, resulting in 20 injuries, 5 of which were serious. 28 drivers were detained for driving with excess alcohol. A case of a 19 year old man caught twice driving stolen cars, and without a driving licence, was mentioned on the blog a couple of weeks ago. He has since been caught twice more driving stolen cars. He went to court yesterday morning, and was released again, perplexing the 7 drink drivers forced to appear that same morning, and who were judged and convicted for their misdemeanours.

‘Aedes Aegypti Mosquito May Be Developing – The Institute of Health Administration returns to the land to see if the larvae have proliferated’. IASAÚDE is to undertake a new field study of the insect at the end of this month based on suspicions that the mosquito is again actively breeding. A spokesman for IASAÚDE said he is concerned that the high humidity levels have been helping provide good conditions for the mosquito.

Car Inspections went up in price yesterday as a result of an annual review. An extra 27 cêntimos for light vehicles (cars), and 41c. for heavier vehicles. Getting your car inspected will now cost €22.91 plus 14% VAT / IVA.

UPDATES (Politics) :

Today’s main news headline : ‘Let’s get the Job Done! – On the return of Jardim from his holiday, the Madeira government approved 43 resolutions in two hours’. The workload included 17 special contracts and eight land expropriations. It may not be a record, but it must be coming close. The governing council, led by president Jardim, sat on the 4th of this month and renamed Funchal Central Hospital and the Botanical Gardens, decided an award for a politician in Tabua, made a number of agreements with different sporting organisations, and approved a number of payments to banks. They even reviewed an updated report about how much tourists spend on Madeira. When the documents arrive for the consideration of the government, all the analysis work is already done. All that remains then is the political decision, which is done by resolution. The government refuses access to the minutes of meetings to journalists. No wonder we get so many white elephants on Madeira, if they are taking an average of less than 3 minutes to consider each resolution.

The big debate was on TV last night, between the two main party leaders for this month’s election for the assembly of the Republic. I sat through the whole 70 minutes, and I have to say that José Sócrates, leader of the socialist party, and Manuela Ferreira Leite, leader of the social democrats, were remarkably well composed and polite throughout. The debate started off with Madeira and president Jardim mentioned several times, on the issue of ‘stifling democracy’, Jardim’s false candidature for the Assembly of the Republic (he gets elected, but never attends), and also about the ‘offshore’ financial benefits of our island.  She is a decent very clever lady, but no match for golden boy Sócrates when it comes to stage presence, and he was so much better prepared, with a small stack of essential documents to hand, to prove his points. I have no real preference about who wins the elections this month, aside from continuity issues, but I wouldn’t be surprised as a result of last nights debate if the vote swings to the left a little, but there again how many sad people stay in on a Saturday night a Saturday night to watch a political debate.

‘Election Campaign Begins Officially Today And Finishes On The 25th’. The campaign for the Assembly of the Republic is now officially underway, even though political parties and candidates have been in pre-campaign several weeks already. Madeira has six places available, and at present they are shared equally between the PSD-M socialists and the PS socialists.