Hospital food, Air quality, SPAD fund raising dance, IVA / VAT, & other snippets

I AM STILL HAVING TECHNICAL PROBLEMS WITH THE BLOG, BUT THE FAULT IS INTERMITTENT, SO KEEP TRYING AND IT SHOULD COME UP (USUALLY WITH 2 OR 3 CLICKS ON THE YELLOW BUTTON ON THE WEBSITE FRONT PAGE) – MEANWHILE I AM STILL TRYING TO GET THE PROBLEM FIXED – APOLOGIES AGAIN. Der

TODAY’S PHOTO : Thanks to the Diário (hope you don’t mind) … Children performing at the charity dance event in Caniço on Saturday.

Main News : source : Diário de Notícias 8/6/2008

Only two front page stories yesterday, with 90% of the front page taken up with Portugal’s victory over Turkey on Saturday. The other story is about abandoned children, and the life that they have to leave in care until they are found adoptive families. The article doesn’t give any statistics, but implies that the numbers seem to be increasing.

Other News : 

Hospital food on Madeira is just not good enough nutritionally, and as a result many patients end up staying in hospital for longer than is needed, and are more vulnerable to virus infection. Only 15% of patients admitted are put on diets based on the recommendations of nutrionalists.

The quality of air that we breathe on Madeira is classified scientifically as ‘good’. It fails to reach the standard ‘very good’ mainly because of car traffic pollution, and because of it’s proximity to North Africa, where the polluting effect includes the migration of desert sands.

Did anyone go to see the children’s dance show at the school in Caniço on Saturday? It was a sell out, and early estimates are that they raised around €1,200 for SPAD (animal protection). Nice one kids!

The proposed reduction in the rate of IVA (VAT) for Madeira has gone through all the necessary channels, and will come into effect on 1st July. From that date the top rate of VAT will be 14%, the lowest rate within Europe. The change will reduce government revenues by around €5 million a year. Working that out per head of population on Madeira, that’s about €20 each per year … marginally better than now’t, but probably very helpful for businesses and the economy .

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MY PAL RASTY : A fantastic little street dog that lived here in Ribeira Brava for just a few months was killed in a car accident a few days ago. ‘Rasteiro’ was a small dog who was abandoned by his owner earlier this year, and shortly after was hit by a car and lost one eye. He was ‘stitched up’ by SPAD and shortly after came back here to live on the streets. He made friends with loads of local people, and was well looked after and fed. We had become big pals, and I really enjoyed our evening walks out to Tabua. Rasty had just finished learning that essential dog skill of chasing and retrieving sticks, when it all came to a sad end after somehow he ended up under a car in Lugar de Baixo. I shall miss the little fellow …

I know we have a few UK blog readers, so this is for mostly for them and for anyone else who can pass it on please. You may know that a lot of stray and homeless animals leave Madeira every year. Mostly it’s dogs going to Germany, and they are popular because they have such nice temperaments. The Brits who fall in love with an animal here are understandably put off by red tape and quarantines laws in taking animals home with them. If that is ever the case, please contact me, and I can put you in touch with someone who might be able to help ‘ease the process’. Thanks, Der.

Derek sent a message : I tried to post on you blog site but it was throwing up a tech problem. I only wanted to offer a solution to the utility payments, namely, one can pay all the utility bills by direct debit.  It takes a bit of effort initially but saves a lot of subsequent hassle. That’s easier for us when we are in the UK. I suppose everyone knows that you can submit the electric meter monthly readings through their website http://spo.eem.pt/

Thanks Derek, we pay everything by DD except water, which is still not possible. I didn’t know about the electricity meter reading though, so thanks.

The last week was probably the busiest ever for the blog, with 1,462 visits, although a very small percentage may have been the result of repeat visits due to the intermittent fault. Thank you so much!

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