The film festival "La Quinzaine des réalisateurs" (Directors' Fortnight) took place from the 3rd to the 9th of July 2017 in Brussels. This independent festival, which is held at the same time as the popular Cannes festival, features short and long films. A selection of those films was shown in the Brussels' Flagey studio. Cafébabel was there.
Images of terror in concert arenas, markets and other popular public places haunt citizens of Europe after the dismal events of the recent weeks in Manchester and London. As popular artists such as Ariana Grande and The Black Eyed Peas belt out hymns of hope in response to these acts of terror, the media ceases to highlight the threat of radical extremism both in Europe and abroad.
Bertrand Piccard is a pioneer of the skies and is the first person to successfully travel around the world aboard a solar airplane. The 59-year-old Swiss pilot describes himself as a "savanturier" ("a wise adventurer") who dreams of flying fuel-free and wants to change our paradigm of consumption. What he didn't know was that his project actually started as soon as he landed.
Brussels seems to be the capital of European cinema, considering the many festivals that are held in the city. Among others, Cafébabel had the chance to attend the last edition of the Brussels Film Festival and we enjoyed the screenings while taking advantage of the nice weather!
Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, promised a turning point regarding migration this Wednesday before the summit of the European Council. However, nothing new under the sun during these two days of negotiations. Tusk, President of the EU Council, stated that "the situation remains critical" and the EU will continue its efforts to contain the flow of people migrating.
As they met at the European Council in Brussels on the 22nd and 23rd of June, EU heads of state and government agreed to open the possibility for binding legislation against hateful online content. The initiative was mainly pushed forward by France and the UK, which had already been working on an action plan when they met last week.
Alok Vaid-Menon (they/them) is a gender non-conforming writer, entertainer, and performance artist. Last Tuesday, they came to Le Space in Brussels to present "Femme in public", a poetic performance in which they share with the audience their experience as a femme of color. Cafébabel was there to meet them...
Ecosia is a web search engine where you can search for anything you want. Like any other search engine, it earns its profits from advertising. But Ecosia is unique because every month, it invests at least 80% of its profits into planting trees. And have the seeds planted been growing since they started in 2009? Absolutely.
In an increasingly digitalized world, democracy has to adapt to a new environment. In order to bridge the gap between citizens and governments, and to promote the citizens’ participation in the democratic process, EU Member States have started exploring e-democracy tools. Elisa Lironi, Digital Democracy Manager of ECAS, gave EU-logos her expert opinion on the question.
Florane did her "Erasmus exchange" in Pyatigorsk, in the Stavropol Krai, in the North Caucasus (Russia) between February and July of 2016. While on exchange, the young Belgian studied Russian Literature and Translation. She agreed to tell Cafébabel all about her exchange experience.
