Getting to grips with djembe, tro-tro and obronis in Ghana

The castle on Cape Coast is one of the most popular tourist areas in Ghana (Image: ©Sofía Verzbolovskis)

I was told before I arrived in Ghana that everyone wants to speak to the foreigner or the obroni (‘white person’) as they say in Twi, one of the main dialects of the forty spoken in Ghana. I had several on the spot marriage proposals; but that’s Ghana and its people for you
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by Sofia Verzbolovskis @ - Paris - 3 commentaires

interview Europarl TV: 'technology is more fast-paced than the institutions'

Europarl TV: 'technology is more fast-paced than the institutions'

In September 2008, the TV channel started streaming parliamentary sessions and news features on MEPs and their speeches on the European parliament’s webpage. The challenge is to give the institutions a human face - press service chief Jean-Yves Loog tells us how

by Jane Mery @ - Paris - 3 Comment - 1 vote

testimony UK to Poland via France: hitch-hiking Europe

UK to Poland via France: hitch-hiking Europe

You could stay in a hotel in Egypt for a week. Or you can spread the same amount of money over a month and a half for a trip of an alternative kind: hitchhiking Europe. Here’s one way to do it, which included 30 drivers, volunteer work and new friends

by Sara Szeremeta @ - London - 2 votes

Commited and female: end of a contradiction?

Commited and female: end of a contradiction?

100 years ago today, international woman's day was marked in Denmark. 8 March 2010 won’t iron out the incoherence of the general European feminine condition. Here, like elsewhere, women live out their freedoms on a daily basis, be it via the media in Cologne or their unique political engagement in Poland or France. Even the subtleties of a simple language honorific teach us to change our ideas on who we most jadedly slam as the ‘weaker sex’

Crisis: no Brussels burn

Crisis: no Brussels burn

The Belgian capital wriggles and writhes out of an era of financial crisis - Brussels is versatile and can adapt itself. You can spot this when you go second hand shopping or over to the aid of the homeless in the ´Les Petits Riens´ boutique, despite the obligatory belt tightening here and there. Where the economic dilemma doesn´t appear to have embroiled a younger, cosmopolitan elite, non-EU immigrants haven´t escaped as luckily. Special edition from five cafebabel reporters who travelled to Brussels for the 'EU crisis on the ground' editorial mission

focus Songbeat, Berlin: story of a German music start-up

Songbeat, Berlin: story of a German music start-up

Philip Eggersglüß and Marco Rydman are two Berliners who launched an online music business at the age of 25. We discuss court cases, 'limited company' statuses via the UK and Hong Kong and the benefits of working in the German capital

by Sergio Marx @ - Paris - 1 Comment - 7 votes

Gallery | Anti-smoking

Image : Teenage oral sex anti-smoking campaign shocks France

Teenage oral sex anti-smoking campaign shocks France

overview PIIGS unwelcome in the EU parlour: war of words rocks Eurozone

PIIGS unwelcome in the EU parlour: war of words rocks Eurozone

Despite Silvio Berlusconi’s dreams, the next member of the Eurozone is unlikely to be Israel; even Croatia or Turkey have taken a back seat. The current pan-EU squabble is over who should have been admitted to the eurozone in the first place

by naomi o'leary @ - Cambridge - 3 Comment - 4 votes

Feature How to make Polish potato pancakes

How to make Polish potato pancakes

It’s cheap and available, warm and nourishing, omnipresent in most traditional European cuisines – but the starchy crop only hit the continent from South America as late as the 16th century

by Aleksandra Strzelichowska @ - Warsaw - 5 Comment - 4 votes

opinion Monetary union and media stress: young Greeks and Germans debate

Monetary union and media stress: young Greeks and Germans debate

This month, Greece was announced to be suffering a eurozone deficit of 12% - the maximum is 3%. The German media has called them the 'deceivers of the euro-family'. The Greeks respond that they are hypocrites, holding them accountable for debts from 1945. Who wants whose diplomatic blood? We hear immediate reactions from the two sides

by Sonje Schwennsen @ , Giorgos Kokkolis @ - Athens, Berlin - 7 Comment - 14 votes

Brunch with…

Krystof Hadek is becoming known for his focus on international roles

Krystof Hadek: 'foreign characters played by English-speaking actors? Disappointing'

In the last month the 27-year-old Czech actor has picked up accolades at the Berlin film festival (one of the ten 'shooting stars' in Europe) and a Czech Lion for 'best actor'. We talk fame, acting genes and language in European cinema

by Sergio Marx @

culture event guide

The Funny Games director is widely expected to take home the best foreign film oscar 2010 (Image: ©The White Ribbon)

The Europeans nominated for the more 'random' Oscars 2010

There's a tendency to focus on which Europeans snag the best film or best actress prizes - but here's a trailer run down of the less famed contenders vying for other Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which takes place at the Kodak Theatre on 7 March

by cafebabel.com

Tower of babel

Illustration: ©Henning Studte/ http://www.studte-cartoon.de/

Mrs, miss or ms?

In the run-up to international women's day on 8 March, one of the debates rolling around the cafebabel circles cropped up - when on earth do English-speakers address a woman by Ms?

by Tim Mac an Airchinnigh @

EU week

On 5 March, sixty people watched Wilders' 2008 internet movie 'Fitna' in London's House of Lords; 200 protested (Image: ©jacco de boer/ Flickr)

Fathoming the power of right-wing populist Geert Wilders in Europe

If the freedom party leader is successful in the June parliamentary elections, Dutch politics will be destabilised and Europe will be forced to deal seriously with the man once nicknamed 'Mozart', write the Dutch, Swiss, Spanish and Slovakian press

by eurotopics @

Yum Niam

You can't eat that potato! (Image: ©Jordan Prestrot/ Flickr)

Italian, French and Bulgarian press vs genetically modified potato

On 3 March the European commission gave the green light for the 'Amflora', used for the production of industrial starch. This was the first time since 1998 that it has approved a GMO for cultivation. Some commentators say Brussels has bowed to the pressure of agriculture companies; others claim this paves the way for a better future

by eurotopics @

Best of

best of cafebabel

cafebabel.co.uk has been covering Europe's tracks for nine years now - a selection of your top articles as voted for weekly by editorial HQ

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The countdown is on: Apple is soon to unveil its newest beast, a multimedia tablet somewhere between the iphone and the mac which will encourage our technology addictions. How much time do you honestly spend scotched to your computer screens?