It doesn’t even look like Funchal, does it?”, others with bright and old colors – “that’s from the emigrants” -, and others still new, with electric gates and high walls.
There are old, broken cars on terraces and ‘top cars, several thousand in number’ parked in garages, at the edge of the tight and steep roads, away from the winding paths, some with steps, giving access to hundreds and hundreds of houses.
There are places without “basic sanitation, sewage, decent access” and others that “don’t even have a tavern.”
There are houses rebuilt after “February 20” [a tragédia que, em 2010, causou 47 mortos, 4 desaparecidos, desalojados às centenas e milhões de prejuízos]After the ‘riverbanks’ have been ‘filled with rain and washed away everything’, they remain ‘illegal’. And there are even more that still need to be rebuilt after 13 years.
“They didn’t help me at all. I had to pay for almost everything. The government? I don’t count on it. Nobody gives anyone anything. The government wants to know everything about him, his friends and so on,” says the 63-year-old man who , leaning against the stone wall, showing me the houses, the paths that “took away the water and the mud”.
Robust hands, fingers painted with the ‘oils and grease’ of car engines, he points out one by one the houses of those who ‘left’, those who, like him, ‘had to do everything’, ‘that yellow house that disappeared’ and is now rebuilt, the “electricity wires hanging everywhere”, the alleys “full of weeds” and the river “full of trees”.
“But they’re not interested in that. If there is another disaster, they will come and clean it up,” he says, without pointing out every detail and in the same calm tone.
“You know,” and at this moment he looks at me seriously, “they only think of us in these times, during setbacks and during elections. The CDU just came by. A few days ago the PSD came to my house. I don’t even care. They sound like talking parrots, but when the moment of truth arrives, they run away.’
Edgar Silva, candidate for the CDU, says that these places – and other “worse” places such as Bairro da Nogueira, Malvinas and Santo Amaro – “are other islands within the island, it is poverty”. The risk of poverty or social exclusion in Madeira, the highest in the country, is 30.2% for a population of 250,000 inhabitants. And this number has sparked heated controversies between PSD/CDS and the opposition.
Miguel Albuquerque has devalued the 30.2% by stating that “the reality of the real economy is different from the risk of poverty”, that “the risk criteria are not effective poverty” and even finds a justification: “There is still a group of population , especially the elderly, who have not paid social security contributions, who have low pensions, which date back to the pre-autonomy era.”
Rui Barreto, leader of the CDS and regional Minister of Economy, in his lecture on poverty rejected the idea of ”pre-autonomy” when he said that “the economy is growing, we are producing more and creating more prosperity, but on the other hand the inequalities are also greater.”
“How does the President of the Government have the nerve to talk about prosperity, when we see that many people are experiencing difficulties in coping with the increase in the cost of living and interest on housing loans, without the Government taking measures to address this reality to soften?” asks the Socialist candidate Sérgio Gonçalves. In addition to the fact that the region has “the highest risk of poverty and social exclusion, even after social transfers”, the leader of the Madeira PS emphasizes the fact that “of the working population, one in five, even if working, is at risk of being poor.”
Nuno Morna, leader of IL-Madeira, adds another piece of information that simplifies the calculations: “Since more than 40% of Madeira residents do not pay IRS, because their income exempts them from it, it is not difficult to calculate that the vast majority of the population those who earn it have a minimum wage. And this is an indicator of poverty.” Conclusion: “Given our poverty line, 81,000 Madeira residents are at risk.”
Away from this debate, at an altitude of 750 meters, in the ‘highest areas’, the thin man, with a thin beard and lively eyes, who recently ‘helped a tourist who arrived here and could no longer get up in the car’ , summarizes the poverty problem in one sentence: “Here we are forgotten.”
– Forgot?, I ask.
“Funchal is development, tourism, the hotel zone,” he says, pointing “down there,” “but it’s not here.”
Pause for a few seconds. Smile. Take a deep breath. He adjusts the collar of his shirt and, looking at me, decides to also speak for “others like me,” emphasizing the “I” who lives near the Trapiche and Barreira trails. “We cannot understand why there is so little development in the high areas. They have millions and millions committed to quota 500 [uma circunvalação nas zonas altas] and now everything has stopped,” he says, pointing toward what should be and “isn’t.”
“And sanitary facilities, sewerage is not available everywhere, you know? It has been solved here, but not yet in those regions. Just having water and electricity is not enough,” he says, straightening the collar of his shirt.
“Down there”, the early morning, in the “old area”, and without tourists on the streets – those who do not go to the “undeveloped high areas” -, reveals another city. A thin, bare-chested man approaches. Ask me for cigarettes. I’ll give you a few. Boots with shoes are held together by strings. The pants, which are so thin, are held up by a button on the belt. I ask him what his name is. I don’t understand the name. I ask why he is there at that moment. I don’t understand the answer. I ask where he is going to sleep. He points and gestures towards the end of the street. Can I see where it is? Say yes.
As we walk, he talks to himself, stops, shouts, starts walking again, jumps, looks suspicious everywhere. I understand where it will be. A piece of land surrounded by thick, old walls that appears to be used as a parking lot. You won’t be alone. There are at least three other men. The darkness does not allow us to understand everything.
Numbers
Of the 250,744 inhabitants of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, 10,433 cannot read or write.
16.5% of the population has higher education.
Source: DN
