MAJOR FLIGHT DUSRUPTIONS

 The year is ending with disruptions for travelers to and from all of Portugal’s major airports.  A nationwide strike from Wednesday December 31 to Thursday January 1 is expected to affect flights to and from Lisbon, Faro Porto, Madeira and Porto Santo. Delays for domestic and international are expected for check-in services, baggage loading and unloading and aircraft turnaround times.   Ground handling workers are going on strike in protest over “uncertainty over job security” due to the Civil Aviation Authority tender for ground handling licences.   Not all flights are expected to be cancelled, but passengers are advised to keep well informed.    We will keep reporting here on any important strike developments.    By the way:  We’re back here again after the postponement to focus on my latest book, which is now being edited prior to publication. 

Can Faro get its stolen books back?

Renewed efforts are being made to recover the unique collection of books plundered from Faro by a British military force more than 400 years ago and kept ever since at the University of Oxford.

The Faro 1540 Association is at the heart of a request for the return of what it regards as an historical, cultural and symbolic treasure.

The association is devoted to the defence and promotion  of Faro’s environmental and cultural heritage.

The collection it wants returned is believed to consist of 91 volumes. It was stolen from the library of the Bishop of Faro in 1596 when a military force, led by Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex, came ashore from a passing fleet and set the city ablaze.

The atrocity took place during the Anglo-Spanish War while Portugal was annexed and under Spanish rule.The books were taken from the library of Fernando Martins Mascarenhas, a highly-acclaimed Portuguese scholar and theologian, who resigned as Bishop of Faro to take up the post of Inquisitor General of Portugal.

Back in England, Devereux presented the books to his friend Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of Oxford University’s Bodleian Library. Faro books have remained in the Bodleian since its inauguration in 1602.

At its general assembly in December 2013, the Faro 1540 Association unanimously approved a motion requesting the return of the books.

The University of Oxford has shown no intention of giving up the collection. But it is now clear that the books are in good condition, securely stored and are catalogued online.

This has been confirmed to us by Sarah Wheale, head of the Bodleian’s Rare Books Department of Special Collections. “Readers can order any of the books themselves via our online ordering system and take photographs for their own research purposes”, she says. “If anyone wants to come and see any of our books there’s a simple same day process to obtain a readers card”. 

(https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/using/getting-a-reader-card).

The president of the Faro 1540 Association, Paulo Oliveira Botelho, an archaeologist and historian, says that in order to promote dialogue about the return of the books, the association has been in contact not only with the University of Oxford, but also with the British Embassy in Lisbon, the Portuguese Secretary of State for Culture, the Regional Delegation of Culture, deputies representing the Algarve in the Portuguese parliament, the bishop of the Algarve and the president of the Faro Municipality.

The committee of Faro 1540 has decided that this year, in which the association celebrates its 10th anniversary, it will “re-raise the flag to undertake all possible efforts to recover this important cultural heritage and make this dream a reality”.

Botelho added: “We intend to appeal to the highest authorities of the British government, with the support of the important British community who reside in the Algarve and elsewhere in Portugal, in the name of the Treaty of Windsor, one of the oldest alliances in the world signed in May 1386, which has united us for 633 years.

“It’s time to heal the open wound in our relations and to take a further step in the strengthening of Luso-British relations.”

The renewed interest in the Faro book collection follows the recent request by the indigenous people of Chile’s Easter Island for the return of a unique Moai statue removed 150 years ago and now kept in the British Museum in London.

The sculpture was removed from the island by Richard Powell, captain of HMS Topaze, in 1868 and given to Queen Victoria, who donated it to the museum in 1869.

Closer to home and as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, Greece has reinvigorated its demand for the return of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon Marbles. Britain has long resisted campaigns for the return of what it calls the Elgin Marbles, along with treasures in the British Museum taken from other countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Nigeria  ─  often citing legislation that bans its museums from permanently disposing of any of their collections.

Earlier article on the Faro books:  http://algarvenewswatch.blogspot.com/search?q=Faro+book

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex 

A new shake-up in the Madeleine case?

The Operation Grange investigation by the Metropolitan Police into the disappearance of  Madeleine McCann is said to be “upbeat” and set to continue despite mounting costs, a top resignation and apparently still no breakthrough in sight.

The latest episode in this extraordinary case, with Scotland Yard detectives questioning ten people in Faro, does not seem to have resulted in any meaningful progress.

 The previous high point in the investigation featured British police searching across three sites next to Praia da Luz in the summer. Scorned by sceptics as a ‘whitewash’ and a ‘circus,’ the searches produced no new evidence and gave rise not only to exasperation among local citizens, but also speculation that the investigation was nearing its endgame.

The speculation heightened with news that the cost of the inquiry was approaching £10 million at a time of stringent budget cuts that could have disastrous consequences for police forces across the UK.   

The announcement that Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood was retiring from the Met as the head of Operation Grange further invigorated the notion that the case was going nowhere.

“After careful consideration and a full and rewarding career in the Met, the time is right for me to move on,” Redwood said.

A headline in the Mirror declared: “Madeleine McCann top cop quits: This does send a certain kind of message.”

The paper reported that with Redwood’s resignation, “the inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann suffered a blow.” It went on to quote a source close to the inquiry: “The investigation has gone on for three and a half years now. However a lead detective would not typically stand down if they can see a result in the pipeline.”

If this did indeed send “a certain kind of message,” it was somewhat confused by the simultaneous announcement that DCI Nicola Wall was to replace Redwood as leader of the Operation Grange team.

This left some observers wondering if the latest questioning in Faro was a last ditch effort that might soon lead to a formal wrapping up of the investigation.

Not so, apparently.

Anthony Summers, co-author with his wife Robbyn Swan of the book Looking for Madeleine, told the BBC Breakfast programme that, according to his sources, the Operation Grange team is “upbeat and believes the case is solvable.”

There is said to be no political pressure, no hidden agenda and no pressure or problem about expenditure.

The team still comprises about 30 officers and support staff, essentially the same number as earlier in the investigation. The expectation is that they will continue ploughing methodically though a vast amount of information.

So, the indications are that although the investigation is taking a very long time with apparently little success, this should not be interpreted as meaning that detectives are pessimistic about the case or about to give up.

It has been known by insiders for some months that Redwood was going to retire. But immediately after the announcement, the Mirror quoted a senior Labour MP as saying: “There are times when public duty must override personal circumstances, and this is one of them. If senior officers were aware of the DCI’s retirement plans, why was he put on to this case in the first place?”

Interesting question, but this is a side issue.

The main thrust is that Nicola Wall has now met the senior Portuguese officials she will be collaborating with after formally taking command of Operation Grange on 22 December.

When Inês Sequeira was appointed Portimão’s new public prosecutor in October she was quoted in the press as being “utterly determined” to crack the case.

She has the backing of Portugal’s first woman attorney general, Joana Marques Vidal, Portimão’s PJ chief, Ana Paula Rito, and the Oporto-based PJ detective in charge of the Portuguese investigation, Helena Monteiro.

Nicola Wall has served at the Met for 26 years, most recently as head of the Murder Investigation Team in West London. Hitherto she has not had much media coverage, but that’s about to change.

Vogue magazine last year reported that she prided herself on her investigative speed; that she was only partially joking when she attributed her low media profile to the fact “we solve cases so quickly nobody gets involved.”
       An omen perhaps?

DCI Nicola Wall arriving at the PJ headquarters in Faro.

Is expression ever a freedom too far?

While freedom of expression is said to be the cornerstone of democracy, of late it seems to be on shaky ground.

It remains on a steady footing here in Portugal compared to most countries and that is probably because of prevailing moral attitudes as much as the fact that it is enshrined in the Portuguese Constitution.

Throughout most of Portugal’s history, monarchs, the Catholic Church and political dictators have done their best to stop people from expressing anti-establishment opinions.

That changed dramatically after the 1974 revolution. Article 37 of the Constitution lays down that “everyone shall possess the right to freely express and publicise his thoughts in words, images or by any other means, as well as the right to inform others, inform himself and be informed without hindrance or discrimination. Exercise of the said rights shall not be hindered or limited by any type or form of censorship.”

Strong as that sounds, freedom of expression in Portugal is not absolute.

The 2014 Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders ranks Portugal at number 30 out of the 180 countries covered. That is three places ahead of the UK and 16 places ahead of the USA.

Finland tops the index for the fourth year running, closely followed again by the Netherlands and Norway. Down at the bottom, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea are countries where such freedoms simply do not exist.

Among the main obstacles to freedom of the press in Portugal as in other European countries are national security restrictions, curbs on information about criminal investigations and defamation suits involving demands for large amounts in damages.

In even the freest countries, defamation against a private individual is a crime, as is blasphemy and hate speech against religion or race.

The courts in Portugal are occasionally asked to step in to exercise control when freedom seems to have been pushed too far.

A few years ago, the Lisbon-based weekly Sol was fined €1.5 million for defying a court injunction by publishing details from phone conversations recorded in a police surveillance operation.  

Last year, Portugal’s attorney general opened an investigation into a well-known journalist and author who described President Aníbal Cavaco Silva as “a clown.” Insulting the honour of the head of state constitutes an offence under Article 328 of the country’s Penal Code and may attract a punishment of up to three years imprisonment.

This summer a 30-year-old Algarve artist appeared in court charged with demeaning a national symbol by hanging a Portuguese flag on a gallows in an abandoned field near Faro. It was an expression of personal protest as part of a university project. He avoided a possible five-year sentence when the court ruled he was exercising his freedom of expression. Even in Finland demeaning the national flag is a punishable crime.

Then there is the stalled McCanns vs Gonçalo Amaral civil action in which the British couple are seeking €1.2 in damages from publication of the former detective’s controversial book, Maddie: A Verdade da Mentira (The truth of the Lie). While Amaral is claiming his right to freedom of expression, the McCanns have argued that he has deeply harmed them personally and also hindered the search for their daughter.

The McCann couple said recently that press regulation in Britain was still not working. This came after they were awarded £55,000 in libel damages from the Sunday Times.

As if regulating print media was not complicated enough, online social networking has opened up a completely new frontier, bringing new privileges and pleasures - and also new concerns and challenges.

Unlike the legally accountable mainstream media, social media users operate largely at will. Lord Leveson in his report noted that some called the internet a ‘‘wild west,’’ but he preferred to use the term “ethical vacuum.”

Security services have been monitoring internet communications between terrorists, political extremist groups and criminal organisations. Paedophile rings have also become a focus of special attention. In the main, though, internet users have been largely beyond the remit of regulation.

Things may be changing. Increasingly, hateful ‘trolls’ operating in anonyminity from the comfort of their tablets or smartphones risk being tracked down, as indicated by the Metropolitan Police Service’s investigation of a catalogue of threats and vile insults aimed at the McCanns.

In a case thought to be unprecedented in Portugal, court of appeal judges in the northern city of Oporto have unanimously upheld the dismissal of an employee for comments on Facebook. The employee had claimed “right to privacy” and “freedom of expression” in response to allegations that his comments were offensive, but the judge in the court of first instance argued, “it is unacceptable that freedom of expression and communication does not have any type of outer limits.”

A court of appeal in Texas last month seemed to be manouevering in the outer limits when it ruled that Texans had the constitutional right to take photographs of strangers, even if that involved surreptitious “upskirt” pictures of women or close-up body shots of children in bathing suits for the purposes of sexual arousal or gratification.

The judges in Texas said this was an essential component of freedom of expression and to deny it was a “paternalistic” intrusion on a person’s civil rights.

Was this further securing a cornerstone of democracy, or conceding a freedom too far?

Let the battle of the books begin!

Authorities in Britain are being tight-lipped at the outset of what could become a prolonged historical wrangle involving the world’s two oldest allies.

A unique collection of books plundered during the darkest days of the centuries-old treaty between Portugal and Britain has been cosseted in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford for more than 400 years. The Portuguese now want the books back.

The British Foreign Office and the University of Oxford have received a formal request to return the collection, which was looted by Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex, when his troops sacked the city of Faro in 1596.

The Faro organisation that made the request early this month believes it has a reasonable case. A response from the British authorities is awaited.

The seizure took place while Portugal was under Spanish rule during the 16^th century Anglo-Spanish War. A combined British-Dutch fleet under the Lord High Admiral Charles Howard was returning to England after destroying Cádiz when a flotilla pulled into Faro.

Troops led by Essex found the city virtually deserted. He occupied the bishop’s palace for a couple of nights and then loaded up the book collection, comprising at least 91 volumes, before leaving the city ablaze.

Essex presented the collection to his friend Sir Thomas Bodley and it became part of the library Bodley founded in 1602. The Bodleian is still one of the most acclaimed libraries in the world. 

The ownership of the pillaged books is clear because nearly all are uniformly bound and have on their covers the armorial stamp of Ferdinand Mascarenhas, appointed the 5th Bishop of Faro two years before the raid. He died in 1628 as Grand Inquisitor of Portugal.

The request for the books’ return is contained in a motion passed unanimously at the general assembly of a 250-member organisation called Faro 1540, which is devoted to protecting and promoting the cultural heritage of the Algarve capital.

Copies of the motion have been sent to Buckingham Palace and the British Embassy in Lisbon, as well as Portugal’s secretary of state for culture and senior officials in the Algarve. A number of left and centre-right politicians have already vowed to pursue the matter with the secretary of state. Not surprisingly, Faro town hall also supports the initiative.

The president of Faro 1540, Bruno Lage, said yesterday he had heard nothing from the authorities in Britain. In reply to a range of questions about the books from Portugal Newswatch,  a Bodleian spokesperson said: “We are not making any comment at the moment.”

Hopefully, the arguments for and against a repatriation will soon be debated openly. Meanwhile, we are left with fascinating fragments of history and centuries of silence on the issue.

The original culprit in this saga was a derring-do warrior of “irresistible

charm.” Essex, a cohort of Sir Francis Drake, was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. But Her Majesty’s affection at times turned to loathing. She once referred to him as “an unruly beast.” The year after Essex donated the Faro books to Bodley he led a rebellion against the English government and was duly beheaded for treason.

Apparently the bishop never discovered what had become of his treasured books. A Bodleian source told me a few years ago that many of them still occupied the same place on the shelves assigned by Bodley’s first librarian, Dr Thomas James.

They are mostly 16th century treatises on theology, scholastic philosophy and canon law. Some had been published in Germany, France, Belgium and Italy just a few years prior to their theft.

Some historians think the dastardly Devereux may have done everyone a favour by his act of literary looting. Considering their age, the works are still mostly in good condition, according to my original source. Had the books remained in Faro, they almost certainly would have suffered from the ravages of time.

The Inquisition censors had already blotted out what they regarded as heretical sentences and pasted ‘offensive’ pages together. Dr James wrote that the books had been “tormented in a pitiful manner, that it would grieve a man’s heart to see them.”

The question now is will they ever be seen again in Faro? 

There are faint echoes here of the on-going controversy between Britain and Greece over the Elgin Marbles. Among other things, the Earl of Elgin is said to have been concerned about the safety and worsening deterioration of the marbles had he left them in Athens.

When considering whether the Faro books should be returned to their place of origin it must be wondered what state they would be in today had they not been filched in the first place.

On Portugal succeeding where Greece has so far failed, Bruno Lage says, “Our degree of confidence is realistic.” The Faro 1540 request is just the beginning of what he expects to be a lengthy process.

More bizarre twists in McCann saga

It turns out that Kate and Gerry McCann suppressed for five years ‘critical evidence’ that became the centrepiece of the recent BBC Crimewatch programme on the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.

Findings by ex-MI5 agents long kept under wraps by the McCanns included the two e-fit images described in the Crimwatch programme by Scotland Yard’s Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood as of “vital importance.”

The images are of a suspected kidnapper seen by an Irish family in Praia da Luz the night Madeleine went missing.

They were given to the McCanns by a handpicked team of investigators from Oakley International hired by the McCanns’ Find Madeleine fund in 2008.

Henri Exton, an MI5’s former undercover operations chief who led the team, told the Sunday Times he was “utterly stunned” when he watched the Crimewatch programme and saw the evidence he had passed to the McCanns presented as a new breakthrough.

He said the fund had silenced his team with a lawyer’s letter binding them to the confidentiality of a report they had compiled that contained controversial findings. Mr Exton said the legal threat had prevented them from handing over the report to Scotland Yard’s investigation until detectives had obtained written permission from the fund.

The Oakley International report, delivered in November 2008, gave little credibility to Jane Tanner’s 9.15pm sighting and focused instead on the 10pm sighting by the Irish Smith family. The investigators recommended that their e-fit images be released without delay.

For some reason the images were not published even in Kate McCann’s 2011 book Madeleine, though it devoted a whole section to eight “key sightings” and carried e-fits on all of them except the Smiths’.

In its Insight report, the Sunday Times quoted one of the Oakley International investigators as saying: “I was absolutely stunned when I watched the programme . . . It most certainly wasn’t a new timeline and it certainly isn’t a new revelation. It is absolute nonsense to suggest either of those things . . . And those e-fits you saw on Crimewatch are ours.”

The hushed-up report is said to have questioned parts of the McCanns’ evidence, contained sensitive information about Madeleine’s sleeping patterns and raised the highly sensitive possibility that she could have died in an accident after leaving the apartment herself from one of two unsecured doors.

The Sunday Times quoted a source close to the Find Madeleine fund as saying the report was considered “hypercritical of the people involved” and “would have been completely distracting” if it became public.

In fact, the Portuguese lead detective Gonçalo Amaral considered the Irish sighting to be very important back in May 2007 when the Smith family first reported it to the Policía Judiciária. Details of the sighting and ‘hypercritical information’ were in the public domain early in January 2008, three months before the Oakley team arrived on the scene.

Ebullience at the huge response to their Crimewatch programme turned to embarrassment in certain quarters when it was revealed yesterday that the BBC had cast a porn star in the ‘reconstruction’ of events the night Madeleine disappeared.

With such films as ‘Tight Rider,’ ‘Dr Screw’ and ‘From Dusk Till Porn’ on his CV, the actor Mark Sloan was engaged by the BBC to represent one of the McCanns’ holidaying friends with whom they dined each night, Dr Matt Oldfield.

 “How could the casting director not know of his background when they picked him? It’s all over Google. Did no one check? It is unbelievably stupid,” an agent, who did not wish to be named, told the Daily Star.

Meanwhile, although a new Portuguese police investigation only became official last week, a PJ team in Oporto in the north of Portugal has been reviewing the case for some time, and another PJ team in Faro in the Algarve has been assisting Scotland Yard with their inquiries. It is believed that the new Portuguese investigation will be conducted by group of PJ detectives working independently of Scotland Yard.

Things seem to be hotting up, though there is still no end to the mystery in sight.

*  The Sunday Times published the following apology to Kate and Gerry McCann and Madeleine's Fund on 28 December 2013.
“In articles dated October 23 ("Madeleine clues hidden for 5 years" and "Investigators had E-Fits five years ago", News) we referred to efits which were included in a report prepared by private investigators for the McCanns and the Fund in 2008. We accept that the articles may have been understood to suggest that the McCanns had withheld information from the authorities. This was not the case. We now understand and accept that the efits had been provided to the Portuguese and Leicestershire police by October 2009. We also understand that a copy of the final report including the efits was passed to the Metropolitan police in August 2011, shortly after it commenced its review. We apologise for the distress caused.” 

INSIDE ALGARVE

Watch out for wobbly Wednesday

The nationwide general strike planned for Wednesday in protest against the Government's austerity measures is expected to cause a fair amount of chaos across the country. Among other things, Faro airport is likely to be brought to a standstill.

The strike has been called by the country's leading trade unions and could bring out tens if not hundreds of thousands of disgruntled employees.

A Faro airport spokesperson told me she would be unable to comment until tomorrow. Others seem to have a pretty good idea of what we can expect: total paralysis.

The announced intention of air traffic controllers to join the strike has forced the cancellation of many if not all of Wednesday's flights in and out of Faro.

Ryanair have cancelled 14 flights between Faro and Gatwick, Stansted, Liverpool, Dublin, Cork, Glasgow Prestwick, Frankfurt Hahn and Oporto.

Easyjet say they anticipate “some significant disruption” on flights to and from Portugal. “While the circumstances are outside of our control and are affecting all airlines, we do apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused and reassure you that we are doing everything possible to minimise the disruption,” say Easyjet.

If you booked through easyJet.com you will be able to rebook your flight free of charge. Normally this online service only takes a few minutes, but at very busy times it can take up to three hours.

Lisbon and Oporto are sure to be be affected too. Portugal's national airline, TAP, have advised passengers with reservations on any of their flights on Wednesday to re-book. British Airways of couse are all too familiar with cancelled flights.

The strike is likely to be felt right across the whole spectrum of public services.

What are the ethics of all this disruption and what is it likely to achieve? Your comments are welcome.