69 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 21.5.2015

May 24, 2015 at 11:26 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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I We visited the Cecilia Zino Foundation; we also invited Dr. C. P. from the Central Hospital to join us for a discussion.

He has an interesting CV, he worked in Latin America and other European countries before coming back to Madeira. He is a General Surgeon in Mendonça since long time.

He is very much in favour of building a new hospital. For technical reasons, it is just not possible to upgrade the old building to the technical requirements of modern medicine. Sepsis is a great danger because of the impossibility to keep the place hygienic as it is, this has nothing to do with cleanliness.

Land which belonged to the hospital grounds has been used to construct a school and a Bairro Social long time ago so there is no space to build a proper annex.

In any case, there needs to be the political will to build a new hospital; much of the funding would come from the mainland. In this case, the 80 Mio invested so far in the old building would go to waste.

Where should the new hospital be?

There are the usual problems to acquire the necessary land in S. Rita, as land owners are greedy to get as much as possible out of their property.

We fantasized a bit: Praia Formosa is the only big piece of land left in FNC but the new hospital only needs to be near the Via Rapida. A few more minutes of transport in an Emir Ambulance doesn’t have an impact on the patients’ mortality rate. A place between FNC and Gaula, for example, would be good as well. The razed Savoy building left a platform, this would also be ideal for a new Hospital.

III U. gave out a third version of her text “Redistribution of Wealth”, to be discussed in a future meeting.

We shall have our next meeting on June 18.

 

 

 

 

Redistribution of wealth

Apr 29, 2015 at 5:17 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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An important issue: Warren Buffett is doing it with the Giving Pledge, John Caudwell is doing it, and now Paul Tudor Jones II is onboard as well: http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_tudor_jones_ii_why_we_need_to_rethink_capitalism

 

Quote from Edwin Land

Apr 6, 2015 at 11:36 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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Edwin Land, co-founder of Polaroid, who died recently:

“If you are able to state a problem, then the problem can be fixed.”

68 joint Madeira Consorcio Meeting 12.3.2015

Mar 15, 2015 at 12:20 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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Unfortunately, the surgeon couldn’t come, so we started with Ri.’s introduction to the system he used to find his purpose in life.

This is based on a technique by an American author (John F. Strelecky “The Big Five for Life”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Strelecky#The_Big_Five_for_Life-_Leadership.E2.80.99s_Greatest_Secret

This is a humanistic approach, about team building for executives (it should also be offered to teenagers) and the application for the work in groups. Most important is that a person knows what he/she most wants to accomplish (the Big Five) in life. Most people work not in the jobs or even fields they would really like to work in, Ri. found that the career in the military was not for him. A person’s occupation should be fun, not just a means to earn money. It should be about “Auto-Estimo”, not egoism.

If we try to work towards the goals we really embrace, we will have more satisfaction in the workplace. This also helps the company achieve its goals, with a lower staff turnover and subsequently, better profits.

Ri. is offering this teamwork program to specific high-value companies. He fuses this with his own approach. This technique requires a group to work together 2 x 1 week in two years.

Some companies work along the lines of Strelecky, such as Richard Bransons’s companies, Google, AirBnB and others, empowering their team to do what like best and reaping more creativity and profits.

We want to buy and read the book in turns and then talk about it further, perhaps to apply this process to us

Other, similar approaches:

Ricardo Semler: http://www.ted.com/talks/ricardo_semler_radical_wisdom_for_a_company_a_school_a_life Ricardo Semler also created schools based on his laissez-faire approach which works very well for this companies and the schools.

Tom Wujec: http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_got_a_wicked_problem_first_tell_me_how_you_make_toast#

 

D. talked about tax controls and the loss of privacy. It is much worse than Edward Snowdon revealed. Anonymity also means freedom. With more transparency, our right to invest our money how we want is being curtailed. D. now sees his job as to protect his clients from the Tax Man.

Apps like WhatsApp know our every move. The solution would be turn them off and deny them access to our lives: The Amish between themselves know where everybody lives; the state doesn’t have a clue.

In the old times in Portugal, people would be called by nicknames. In theses village societies, everybody also knew what was going on in everybody else’s life, and oppression was exercised by the priest. In this regard today’s life is not much different; the loss of privacy is nothing new.

In Portugal the problem is bad education. Good leadership skils are not taught, nor are good life skills. Waldorf is a good approach to create personalities with a humanistic approach. In Portugal the problem is attitude, attitude, attitude, and a missing civic sense. Outside of Portugal, the Portuguese are well liked workers; in their own country, they don’t care much about their society.

Another funny thing: in a “happiness poll”, it was found that the feeling of happiness decreases from North to South in Portugal. In the North, communities are still sounder and people thrive better in old-fashioned social networks.

On the other hand. isolation cannot solve all the problems. What we can do is show our happiness so that others ask us how we came to be in this state.

U. quickly referred to the Fracking article by the Economist. Fracking is prohibited in New York State but not across the border in Pennsylvania. It is most likely bad for the environment but the point here is that the people in New York State want to secede from their state and join Pennsylvania across the border to gain jobs and earn money with this technique. The future may be a world with less visible borders as economic interest compels citizens to choose another legal jurisdiction for their community.

 

 

 

Freedom

Mar 9, 2015 at 9:24 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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Translated from an article in Der Spiegel, March 2015, on the proliferation of mobile phones in the world:

The freedom of the individual to not be effective.

The Society has the right to refuse change.

67 Meeting minutes – Madeira Consorcio Meeting Feb 12, 2015

Mar 1, 2015 at 1:44 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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Moderator

We decided on who would be moderator, A. would be for the time being.  We discussed what the group wanted from the moderator:

  • E.: The moderator should be someone who has the basic interest of the group in mind, to be able to steer conversations/meeting like a boat.
  • Others: That everyone should get to speak, keep track of the conversations and intervene should someone speak too much or too little
  • Some basic rules were established:
    • Turn off mobile phones
    • Punctuality
    • The meetings would typically run from 6,30pm to 8.00pm

 

Structure of meetings

  • To send suggestions of the topics for the next meeting beforehand for consideration
  • Some meetings would be focused around listening and learning from other people (e.g. like at fire station)
  • Sometime near the beginning to discuss feedback form the previous meeting

 

Previous meeting at Fire station

U. gave a brief recap on the previous meeting, saying the fellow responded honestly and transparently to a wide range of questions; from E.´s experience at Monte to the politicised nature under which the service has been under (but improving e.g. 3 members under disciplinary orders for voicing their opinions).

Book “My Ishmael” and “The Story of B” by Daniel Quinn

U. and E. shared their insights from a book they both read; A gorilla learns to speak and essentially reflects back to the girl, with whom he is in conversation with, on the nature of society.  Amongst what is no doubt a complex issue a few points arose:

 

    • Humans forget their history/ancestry
    • Society is divided into taker and leaver societies.  Taker societies exploit the world and leaver societies (e.g. Armish) allow for regeneration and long term existence
    • Taker societies absorb leaver societies, something which many youngsters feel disillusioned about and find difficulty in rationalising, as well as being deeply disturbing.
    • The focus is on how we educate our children and how we interact in our relations.  The example of the gorilla asking the girl “what is your story?” is really a foundation for us bridging our differences and sharing what is pertinent amongst ourselves.
    • C. mentioned a book she had read about hunter/gatherers and how they lived within their limits.

 

Ri. – purpose

Ri. reflected back to the group the notion of talking a lot but not getting anywhere.  As an exercise he suggested questioning “What is my purpose?”  This could be a personal question for each of us to discuss (or not) as well as being perhaps a question for the wider purpose of the group.

  • Ri. will talk about his experience, on purpose, in the next meeting.
  • D. likes listening and learning from others and enjoys exploring ideas in the free discussion that these meetings have,
  • E. feels it is quite nice not to have to define everything.

Next meeting on Thursday, March 12.

  • Ri.´s talk
  • The surgeon as well.

Visit to the Municipal Fire Station in Funchal

Dec 19, 2014 at 3:27 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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The group went to visit the local Municipal Fire Station in Funchal to the North of Dolce Vita.

This was a very interesting visit. Chief Samuel, one of the shift leaders with many years of experience, showed us the station and the cars and gave us honest answers to a lot of prickly questions.

The highlights:

The team has 137 staff (it should have 140)

26 persons are always on call on 12 hour shifts.

The response time is very quick, especially if you do not call 112 (officially what you have to do) but directly to them (291 200930).

The city is divided into two parts:

West: Municipal Bombeiros,

East: Voluntary Bombeiros, but if there is a fire in the Zone Velha or around the Cathedral, both units always respond.

The staff have a gym, a canteen (most bring their own food) , a multi-purpose room with internet and sleeping quarters.

A regular fireman/woman earns around 600-700€ month, a Chief around 1100€ (they say, brut, less taxes…)

Nothing much may happen in a shift but they have to be alert. Tension is palpable in the building and the courtyard.

The equipment:

There is never enough money around to have the best equipment and maintenance but this is a complaint every Fire Station in the world voices. The FNC Volunteers have worse equipment, though.

A lot of equipment is bought from Germany. The base of the cars may be coming from Mercedes but the top is built by a Portuguese company, Jacinto. They are very good at custom building fire equipment and sell their fire engines all over Europe. (Land Rovers are not the favourite Fireman car, they are being replaced over time.)

There are smaller cars to check out a situation – the Fire Chief has always to be there first.

They have one car to free people trapped in cars – this is the worst job they have to do

Ladder cars:

We have the biggest ladder in Portugal (55m) this is the second biggest ladder in Europe. Think of hotels like Pestana Carlton…

There are regular Fire Trainings in the hotels for the firemen by the Fire Departments. These trainings serve also to check the pipes and hydrants. All hotels have to have an internal “first response” Fire Team.

Water tanks:

All cars have water tanks of various sizes, the biggest contains 32000 l water (all hydrant water is fresh water)

They also come with foam which is very effective but expensive. The Station has a tank of 1000 l foam.

The pipes are surprisingly slim; water pumps can be taken out by hand to be placed where they can be connected to external water supplies.

The Station also has a training tower to train for high-rise fires. The staff has lot of training sessions to keep them in shape and respond to new situations or regulation.

Ambulances:

They have ambulances just for emergencies; the Volunteers and other services (Red Cross) take care of non-urgent transports. In the time we were there, the ambulances moved out twice. – no fire alarms.

 

E., with his dire experience in Monte last year, spoke about the shortcomings during the situation (hydrants blocked, lagoon water not used, no help from the fire department) Chief Samuel acknowledged this.

Chief Samuel confirmed that there was an order to save the Monte Church – nowadays; such an order could not be imposed on the Firemen anymore.

On February 20, 2010, contrary to the rumours, only 42 persons died, and nobody drowned in the underground parking garages.

The Fire Department has its own water gauge in the mountains so that they know when a flood can be expected downtown.

In Dolce Vita, the order was to evacuate the parking, and people tried to take out their cars but the “guards” wouldn’t open the gates without payment so more cars were rendered unusable

We gave Chief Samuel our Fire Manual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Dinner

Dec 7, 2014 at 11:50 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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Next week, we shall have our annual Madeira Consorcio Christmas Dinner, prepared by one of the best Austrian cooks on the island. Be envious, people!

Let’s see what 2015 brings us… we have three new members and the group is invigorated by their input.

See you in 2015!

 

66 Meeting Madeira Consorcio 13.11.2014

Nov 16, 2014 at 12:04 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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66 Meeting Madeira Consorcio 13.11.2014

 

We had another inspiring meeting, and although we touch on some difficult thruths, I think we all came away with some good insights.

In regards to the Association for the promotion of Madeiran Culture and Nature, U. told the group about S.P., He is a retired owner of a shipping business . He created a socio-cultural foundation for Madeira in a renovated building  with an art gallery, housing his own permanent collection and offering the space to artists (this would be good for Ri`s photos and S`s paintings) The Uniao Budista da Madeira had a meditation workshop in there recently. Mr. P.give the space for free. He seems eager to fill the house with other social and cultural events. U. will set up a meeting with him, to introduce Ri, who could have an exposition of this wonderful photos – he showed us some –and maybe get his support for his planed book and movie. Mr. P. might also be interested to support such initiatives with funds.

The idea of the Association in itself is to promote such events which preserve the history and nature of the island. However, the group is not keen to undergo the process of creating an association – too bureaucratic – and keep it simple as an informal group.

U. said that the “Clube de Praticantes”, also a legal entity in Portuguese law, has a much easier set up but is only allowed for sports organizations. It would be filling a gap for small groups to establish an identity by opening this array to other non-sportive groups, something to be suggested to the Simplex initiative.

We talked about Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) to obtain funds for the film Ri. has in mind. Kickstarter is a platform to get funds from individuals for individual projects which don`t have to be repaid. Usually the applicants pledge to give their donors a small token of appreciation, e.g. a Pottery company may send them a coffee cup after the projects is up and running. It is important for this to have a good exposé on the website to explain the project with a few words and good photos and to get the donor community excited.

We spoke about the upcoming tax on plastic bags in the supermarkets. This may be to educate people to avoid using the bags, it may be to get money for green projects (probably not true). In U`s view, this might be an opportunity to boycott the state: by not buying the bags, this way the state would not obtain any extra income from it.

U. is looking for the point on which the Portuguese will really start a revolution; she sees much discontent and anger.

The (mostly illegally built) houses on several islands in front of Faro may turn into such a powder keg soon; there the poor people are supposed to have their illegal housing destroyed, and the well-off are going to keep theirs.

An.is of the opinion that the majority of people are content and that such a revolution will not come along, and that the population should not be compelled to think into this direction. The motivation isn’t there.

D. said that people who are annoyed with the situation in Portugal and the lack of social mobility, and can leave, leave the country. Only the poor and more or less ignorant stay behind, and they are easily manageable.

S. said that we live in a feudal society, like hundreds of years ago. E. knows of an important person in Valor Ambiente who successfully sabotages an OmegaEco (http://www.omegaeco.com/) Project for Funchal because he is afraid to lose his comfortable spot and salary.

We spoke of the EcoVillage idea. U. said that these villages have to have rules, An. is against it, he says such communities can work on a organic self-organized level. One example is Scoraig (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoraig and www.scoraig.com). An.visited the place and lived there for some weeks.

Such places are self-organized, technically they are anarchy but not a chaos (Wikipedia: “Anarchy refers to a society without a publicly enforced government”)

This is an interconnected and informal society where all members pitch in together, for instance to fund a boat ferry to the mainland, to pay the postman, the school teacher etc. All members are responsible for the whole community. A person’s good name is important, if a person doesn’t return a borrowed tool, the others will stop borrowing to him/her

Note from U: Daniel Quinn is the author of several philosophical books (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_%28novel%29). He describes the life of the “Leavers” who do not interfere and abuse nature, such as in Scoraig (and in my view, also the Amish), and the lifestyle of the “Takers” who dominate our so-called “civilization”. She strongly recommends to click on the Wikipedia and read the excerpt: She thinks this summons up what Scoraig and the Amish communities are about.

E. has Daniel Quinn`s book “My Ishmael” at the moment; it may be freely borrowed by others in the group!

E. introduced M.the Potter, and showed his replicas of the “Römertopf” which can be used to bake bread. M.needs a 15 m2 space to work (the kiln is somewhere else); An. will see if he can give him a space in the Quinta.

 

 

65 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 16.10.2014

Oct 17, 2014 at 5:19 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a comment
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A few of us had a very nice meeting last night. The weather was not favourable and we couldn`t visit V`s garden, so we went right into the discussion of just everything, including political parties and the current state of Portugal.

D said that there is a new party being created by Antonio Marinho Pinto, a man he says seems to be respectable and honest (ex-“Partido da Terra” member, ex boss of the Ordem dos Advogados). Here is a link to some info about the new party PDR: http://portocanal.sapo.pt/noticia/38771/

We also spoke about the TED talk about remittances which shows that foreign aid could be cut down if we allowed refugees to work in the country of choice. They are sending as much money as possible home to their families and support their community much more effectively. Here is the link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dilip_ratha_the_hidden_force_in_global_economics_sending_money_home

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who worked with Edward Snowdon, makes the case for privacy for individuals – to be protected – and openness of Government documents – to avoid shady dealings.:

http://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters

Remember the “Marriage in Madeira” discussion – EU foreigners can easily marry in Madeira and this would be a good product for the island`s tour operators? A bridegroom found the Piece U wrote and will now arrange his nuptials with the German consulate in Funchal, a small success!

 

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