146 Madeira Consorcio Excursion 25.10.2024
Oct 28, 2024 at 12:03 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentHello Team,
We visited the Viveiro in Matur. This tree/plant nursery is one of five the Government has on the island; of course, they are a bit remote (Casa Velha in Santo da Serra, Santa in Porto Moniz, Matur, Pico das Pedras in Santana). Porto Santo has one in Salôes. The website is
https://ifcn.madeira.gov.pt/ifcn/atendimento/viveiros-florestais.html
The Viveiros are collecting seeds of all local (endemic and invasive) trees. shrubs and flowers. Some seeds are stored from year to year; most are grown in the infant stage as plants for sale. The flowers are then used for projects and also sold to the public (from 8h -13h and from 13h – 16h).
The Botanical Garden keeps a permanent seed bank to protect the endemic inheritance.
D. Susana is in charge of the Viveiro in Matur. She keeps things under control, together with five gardeners (at this time, two are on sick leave and one is on maternity leave). The Viveiro occupies quite a big space. The disadvantage is the location in Matur; the airplanes fly over. The environmental pollution (we measured it) is quite high.
We heard a rumour, that some local gardening companies buy flowers and trees from the Viveiros at a low price and sell them at higher prices to the public
We used the opportunity and bought ourselves some nice plants!
145 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 20.7.2024
Jul 21, 2024 at 3:28 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: fractal, imbalance, Portugal, provedor de justica, scott galloway, simplex
We met in the Gallery and saw a frank, abrasive TED talk by Scott Galloway, criticizing the balance between old and young in the US:
The speaker says that the older generation are hurting their children in many ways because older people have chances to become well-off that the younger generation will not have.
U. was worried: He is a professor in a renowned US University, but they will not kick him out for the talk because he is not being racist or speaks up against Israel so this falls under Free Speech.
Galloway lists many areas in which the balance should be improved.
Education is one: Universities should try to give changes to the low-class youngsters and not favour the kids of well-to-do elders. Social Security is one of the systems in which older people receive benefits even if they do not need any money from it.
The group thinks that these inequalities will also come over to Europe, and there have been events that show how inequality starts revolts (the Yellow Vests uprisals in France).
In Portugal, the mentality of the populations is such that they tend not to complain too loudly. The Dictatorship they went through, is still in their minds. They complain about problems with the state to each other but not to the public entities.
The “Provedor de Justiça” should be helping the people with legitimate complaints, but they only defend the state administrations. Complaining to them yields a nicely written defence of the system in high-class Portuguese. The population is kept small and powerless this way.
Voting with 16 years would give young people more weight in the system, but J. said that with the Social Media craze, they are not well enough informed and not interested in important issues. Voting rights could also be weighted in favour of younger people based on their longer life expectancy. But again, this measure would not be accepted by the elites.
Banks are bothering the clients with more and more bureaucracy. The complexity will cause more chaos.
U. said that this is another point to see that our life is fractal, things tend to split up into more and more complicated patterns which nobody can control and reign in.
Portugal did go through with the SIMPLEX program from 2006 – 2011 (https://www.simplex.gov.pt/historia), they lowered bureaucracy by cutting around 300 regulations out of the Law. This benefitted everybody, admin and population.
J. asked: Who is responsible when a self-drive car causes an accident and kills somebody?
Politicians should definitely be pushed out of office by the age of 65, as happens to Notaries in Portugal.
A good question for the people to ask always from the politicians and from companies. “Does this help the community?” All decisions should be taken to favour the community and the environment. This is a nice idea but the well-to-do would block it.
The group was not able to fund a more positive ending to the discussion, the problems are too great.
144 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 22.6.2024
Jun 23, 2024 at 2:53 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: brick, Consorcio, heat battery, john o'donnell, Madeira, madeira consorcio, ted
We met in the Gallery as usual and saw an uplifting Talk on new ways to store electricity as heat: “Can a simple brick be the next great battery?”
The Speaker (https://www.ted.com/speakers/john_o_donnell) introduced his company’s idea to store electricity in form of bricks and as heat. This could help to de-carbonize the industry which is responsible for about a quarter of CO2 emissions.
The group was a bit sceptical about the bricks (not like in construction work, strangely shaped and in sealed containers). If and once oil producers and other big industries get the idea that they can make money with this new way of energy storage, and switch from fossil fuels, this would be very positive for the environment and humankind’s survival.
There is also an interesting Spiegel article this week (“The fight for clean energy”) by a German reporter that we are on a good way to lower CO2 emission a great deal (hydropower, geothermal energy, biomass, with wave and current power plants, with green hydrogen, with e- and recycled fuels). Many such initiatives are not being seen and reported on, but they exist.
We also talked about our non-existing ferry and the political cha-cha going on behind the curtains, and decided to go to dinner early.
143 Madeira Consorcio Excursion 11.05.2024
May 12, 2024 at 3:48 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: doctor, eye, Funchal, IOMT, Madeira, munoz, oftalmologico, trindade
We visited the Instituto Oftalmologico Muñoz Trindade IOMT (https://www.facebook.com/iomt.pt/) clinic in Funchal, situated at the back of the LaVie/Plaza.
Drs. Nuno Silva (from the Azores) and Fabio Trindade (Madeira) showed us the installations and the equipment they have. With altogether four doctors working there, they now pay off a (probably big) loan to a bank for the acquisition of the state-of-the-art equipment for diagnostics and treatments. Each doctor covers a speciality in their field. For problems based on other issues such as genetics, a specialized colleague visits from the continent on a regular basis.
They have a nice team (two of us are patients there) and patients are called up by name, not by numbers.
Diagnostic: The equipment enables them to take entire photos of the retina at a glance – just look into the machine and the photo is ready. Eye pressure measurements are just as simple, the machine gives of whiff of air onto the eye. – no stress for the patient.
Treatment: The doctors perform cataract operations in Clinica da Sé (apparently very well equipped) and in the Hospital Particular, and they can do laser treatments for various eye problems in their clinic. They treat glaucoma, and macular degeneration and can also help with dry-eye-symptom. A young patient from the UK with Diabetes 1 and the resulting eye problems, who was not treated adequately in the NHS; was helped by them so that the girl can now see a bit again.
Why do we get bad eyes? The simple answer, Dr. Fábio said, is age. Our eyes are not “designed” for longevity, they deteriorate. So, all of us may get problems with the vision. If an oncoming disease is diagnosed early, a good treatment can avoid bigger issues.
142 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 13.4..2024
Apr 14, 2024 at 11:36 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: domination, hector garzia, Madeira, war
We met in the Gallery with a small group and saw
by Hector Garcia (https://www.ted.com/speakers/hector_garcia)
The speaker, a psychologist, says that the urge to make war, is based on the male urge to have as much sex as possible to hand their genes on to the next generation. We humans underestimate the influence these basic, animalistic instincts have on our actions.
Wherever women are in power in a society, there are less aggressive actions happen against neighbours. U. said that Bangladesh has a female prime minister (Sheikh Hasina, and there is less upheaval, in the country.
But the group considered it to be more about domination of a rival group, not about sex, also to gain more resources (water, land, animals).
We talked about the German support for the Ukraine. Their Chancellor is careful not to escalate the tensions with Russia, by sending more powerful weapons to Ukraine. Indians and Nepalis are lured to Russia, and then sent to the front in the Ukraine as cannon fodder. Prison populations are hired to serve in the war, under the premise of a high salary and freedom after a certain time frame. Raping Ukrainian women, seems to be encouraged and a part of the pay.
Part of the Russian assets frozen in the EU will be given to Ukraine to help with the upkeep of the state, for weapons and salaries.
Russian Oligarchs, helped Putin come to power, now they are “suffering” because of his actions which caused sanctions imposed on them. (Maybe there is a god?)
Gaza: Some members are watching news on Al -Jazeera because they are reporting from the Gaza Strip; other news outlets do now report from this area at all.
Sweden has a lot of problems with the Arab population. The Muslims keep their girls under lock and key, and their sons who have a natural urge to have sex, the attack and rape other women,
We also considered the hardships survivors in the EU had to go through to survive during and after the war. Millions of German women were raped by the Russians. Children who could steal coal from coal trains, would help their families survive. No urge to have sex or dominate at the time, survival comes before procreation.
The speaker has a point, we are more animalistic that we would like to be.
Other stuff:
We shall visit to a modern ophthalmologist practice in Funchal, they will demonstrate and explain their sophisticated latest equipment for the diagnosis of eye problems. Day and time to in May to be set
141 Madeira Consorcio meeting 16.3.2024
Mar 17, 2024 at 11:59 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: climate change, Funchal, lyn stoler, Madeira, madeira consorcio, sustainability
We met in the Gallery and saw
Eco-anxiety to Climate Optimism | Lyn Stoler |
Other good talks:
We WILL Fix Climate Change! Animation
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The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it | Katharine Hayhoe
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3 Ways Your Money Can Fight Climate Change | Veronica Chau | TED
Lyn Stoler spoke about Eco-Anxiety and how to combat it. Some of the numbers she came up sounded unreal.
Maybe we should rather use the term “sustainability”. H & J already practise this in their Quinta B. (Wash-balls for the laundry, refilled soap etc for guest rooms, cleaning with self-made products based on lemon and vinegar,… H made a Blog entry about it (www.madeira-time.com in German).
The Anglican Holy Trinity Church has a gold certificate for sustainability from the home administration in the UK. They even have an “ecological” person to watch over things. The wafers are made of flour and water. Our suggestion: Add a bit of sugar, and more people will come to church…
Germany is seen to be able to reach 50% use of alternative energy sources by 2030. The underestimate their progression.
S. and her brother started a permaculture system on their land in Neves. As part of it, they want to install moisture nets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_collection) to collect moisture from the clouds /fog to water the plots. This is being already done in many South American countries in high areas with low water supplies. The water in Neves will contain more salt; they will see how it goes. Our suggestion: make a report about it, also for publication in www.madeira-weekly.com , and we will visit Neves with the group once the project is more advanced.
Lots of initiatives – reason for optimism!
The result of climate change on the island: More and more, the Pombo Trocaz and blackbirds are descending from the mountains to Funchal. Sea weed arriving on the beach in Porto Santo causes increased breeding of mosquitos which by now, can bring diseases (Madeira had four imported cases of Dengue recently.)
Bad news: Our wind turbine pylons are corroding with time; one already fell over. But they will be replaced, they bring money.
The water from the source in Porto Santo cannot be sold anymore, it now contains too much salt. The tap water in Funchal is drinkable, the water in Canico de Baixo tastes awful
Cl. said that we probably reached the 1.5% heating threshold in 2023. The ocean water seems to heat up faster than the air. The scientists do not know what this means. The AMOC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_meridional_overturning_circulation) may be breaking down soon, until 2030, or earlier. In this case, it would get very cold in the UK, but Madeira would not be affected that much.
Sustainability: houses with flat roofs should be painted white, to reflect the heat, or have solar panels or be greened. Rivers need bigger floodplains.
There are already initiatives which supply solar cookers to poor regions in the Third World. Hopefully, people there have something to cook.
South Africa is erecting a border fence to Mozambique; they are trying to stop the people from that country to come to SA as climate refuges.
Cl. said that they stopped using solar panels on their house in SA because they would be stolen. M.J. said that in his last Church in the UK, the lead from the roof was stolen once. In Funchal recently somebody stole copper from a place. How do the thieves sell it? They couldn’t get it through the airport, it is probably shipped to the mainland by boat to be sold there.
Cl. said that AI may come up with way to fight climate change that we do not envision yet.
Burial: The Farsi have Towers of Silance (https://iranparadise.com/zoroastrian-towers-of-silence/) where bodies are deposited. The bones which are picked clean by vultures are then buried later. UGH
Anyway: we should not talk of “climate change” but “sustainability”, and every citizen can do his small part.
140 Madeira Consorcio meeting 19.2.2024
Feb 18, 2024 at 12:04 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: Consorcio, democracy, Madeira, Portugal, tribe, war
We met in the Gallery and saw
Sarah, as she points out, is a lesbian Republican and works as political strategist.
The “tribe” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe) is an important human construction that provides security to its individual members Tribes can also divide a population, e.g. parties are then “us vs. them” which happens in the US at this time (and is coming over to the EU).
The Consocrio is also a tribe but one which does not attract new members ☹
In the beginning (2012) we invited Madeirans to join and they did, but never for long. We found that the Madeirans are not interested in discussions as we have them. We developed ideas to create projects and jobs (https://madeiraconsorcio.com/about/) but we couldn’t find Madeirans to take up the ideas and go through with the projects. Most of them seem to lack the vision.
A tribe can be exclusive (the Masons) but still support the population (Rotary Club). The Republican’ and Democrats’ tribes in the US divide the nation. Sara spoke a lot about Democracy in the video, and we came to the conclusion that the word doesn’t work anymore.
The danger is that with far-right politicians in charge (it may also happen soon in Thuringia, Germany) they can undo the democratic set-up from within and turn state institutions into their tools. Trump knows very well how to do that; he is the Great Divider.
J. said that the US is no democracy anymore (Anocracy)
He also said that the Ukraine war is not “our” (EU) war. He does not feel that the Ukrainians are fighting for “our” freedom. It should not be our war but the word” war” is also inadequate because it nowadays also results in cyberattacks, fake news and attempted corruption of free elections in other countries. We need another word for it.
U. said that nature, also human nature, is fractal ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal). We tend to split into more and more differences (Big cities have several pigeon raising associations; the same goes for rabbits) and in the end, no 2 snowflakes and no 2 humans are identical. This makes us search for differences and emphasize them, to find security in “our” tribe.
International rules say that country borders must be respected (Venezuela/Guyana, China/Taiwan), otherwise people like Trump and /Putin do what they will.
U. also said that we are not aware that the overpopulation is at the basis of conflicts, If we were only 2 billion people on Earth, we wouldn’t have these problems. (Laugher ensued: what can we do about that?)
The best for us as individuals is not to live forever. We couldn’t find a positive point to close the discussion but we’ll tackle the topic again!
139 Madeira Consorcio meeting 27.1.2024
Jan 29, 2024 at 5:18 pm | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentTags: Consorcio, debt, deficit, economy, household, Madeira, us
We met in the Gallery and saw an interesting video about the National Debt (refers to USA but goes also for Europe and other countries) by Stephanie Kelton, economist:
Also interesting:
(with stupid advertising, but ok…)
The economy was C.’s work area and he explained it also very well to us!
C.’s resume:
| A household debt is fundamentally different from a sovereign deficit. A household debt must be paid back over the agreed time period, and this is not the case with a deficit incurred when taken up by the Federal Reserve or the European Bank. We were illustrated through a graph how the red of the deficit can be seen when turned as the black income to all of us. The provision in all of this is that the deficit must be limited to one’s own resources and within set inflation limits. The actions by the Federal Reserve and European Bank during the pandemic showed how in effect this was already practised and used to keep the economies afloat and our countries and societies functioning. The pandemic was clearly an unforeseen disaster that called for unprecedented action and it is my belief that we are again close to another disaster unless we now take the same bold action as we did during the pandemic. I am referring here in particular to warnings that we no longer live in a post war period but in a pre war one. And thus to prevent the disaster of a war within the next 5 years or so we must act as we did during the pandemic. |
So every state deficit has a positive side. If the result of the spending is a thriving economy, the country can service the debt.
The overview of the debt-to-ratio of several countries:
https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/germany/government-debt–of-nominal-gdp#
Biden understands this, he is pushing money into the US economy with the Inflation Reduction Act. This is a problem for other countries because he is getting a step ahead in front of other economies.
Christmas Lunch 2023
Dec 18, 2023 at 9:39 am | Posted in Posts | Leave a commentThe Team met, as usual, in a nice restaurant in Funchal, for Lunch (some members couldn’t make it and one is the photographer).
We shall continue with our meetings in 2024!
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