cafebabel.com

World music in Vienna: Yezidi we can

Dzina Donauskaite — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:22:26 -0000

From a Yezidi party in central Vienna to the world music stage of artists resident in Vienna from Syrian and other origins, the patterns of the Austrian capital's oriental music world don't quite mirror society when it comes to integration. Can oriental rhythms foster social change?

Greece: There were 21 neo-nazis in parliament and the little one said, roll over

Georgios Kokkolis — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:15:00 -0000

The wonderful Greek word 'charmolypi' describes the exact sentiment of the majority after the 6 May elections: joy (hara) and sadness (lypi). There is relief, because the two major parties were punished, but also scepticism about the rise of extreme right and the course of the country

Silence of statues in Budapest's Memento Park, House of Terror

Vuksa Velickovic — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:06:23 -0000

Budapest’s Park, built shortly after the fall of communism, commemorates the visual iconography of four decades under communist rule in the Hungarian capital. In sharp contrast to its frozen lethargy, the House of Terror bursts with life. Could things have been different for Hungary today if it had a revolution back in 1989?

Poland's young funky priests recruiting at Euro 2012

Agata Jaskot — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:06:54 -0000

Empty tribunes of the PGE Arena (the recently built Gdańsk stadium), freshly laid grass and five set of robes proudly rustling it. After all Europe's high-profile sporting event is also a chance to score and join the team of God, according to the Gdansk seminary

Polish, Czech, Finnish and German media on Euro 2012 boycott

euro topics — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:22:24 -0000

On 30 April EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso announced that he will stay away from the Euro 2012 in Ukraine as long as constitutional principles are violated there. Many politicians of European countries have rejected the idea, finding a boycott ineffectual and the discussion surrounding it hypocritical

Devouring Sigrid Verbert, a Belgian food blogger in Italy

mary maistrello — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:45:00 -0000

It's not just scrumptious cuisine and pretty photos in a book. Its pages won't just dunk you into Italy, Belgium or Germany, but inside Europe good and proper. Just as gastronomic traditions mix and merge, 'il Cavoletto di Bruxelles' constructs tastier realities

Inner-city immigrant-city Athens: look Greek, look lively

Nabeelah Shabbir — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:39:48 -0000

A crisis can exacerbate a ‘them versus us’ feeling, especially with elections on the cards. Half a million undocumented immigrants* makes Greece one of the three European countries (alongside Spain and Italy) to be the first point of welcome for asylum seekers. Far right parties milk the 'foreigners-out' cow, whilst a general mood of mistrust reins

Rise of Turkish soap operas in Greece

Krisztian Gal — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:28:40 -0000

Has this positive phenomenon in Greek entertainment regarding multiculturalism increased due to the crisis? A wave of Turkish novellas seems to be bringing back more 'traditional values' that everyone can relate to via the small screen, regardless of the ancient antagonism between the two cultures

Once upon a mosque in Athens: illegal garages but not for raves

English language version of cafebabel.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:24:26 -0000

Around 700, 000 residents of Greece’s 11 million people are muslims. The figure is not exact since the government doesn’t make it easy for the community – essentially, the Greek capital is the only European one not to have a functioning mosque

London to Berlin via Amsterdam: hyper-local citizen journalism grows

l.hogan — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:05:30 -0000

‘Hyper-local blogging’ concerns new blogs or online magazines characterised by their dedication to a particular area or locality. They may be a hub for local restaurant reviews, digital archives for local history or grow into daily, regional online magazines. Editors, contributors and readers explain their popularity

The Experimental Tropic Blues Band: 'We started in the playground and haven't stopped since'

Hayley — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:56:46 -0000

With the support of the independent music collective 'JauneOrange', the TETBB trio has been an explosive part of the Walloon rock scene for over a decade. Between a barge in Paris, recording in New York and a joint, the 'best Belgian rock band of all time' explain the then and now

Ethnic violence in Skopje: Macedonian magic circle

Boris Kaeski — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:46:11 -0000

Attempts to raise inter-ethnic tensions escalated on 16 April when four twentysomething men and an older eyewitness were murdered near the capital, triggering riots. Since the victims are Slavic-speaking Macedonians, the speculation is that the murderers are from another ethnic group - but we don't need this boat to be rocked again

Russian film ‘Generation P’: pepsi with director Victor Ginzburg

Annie Rutherford — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:00:00 -0000

During the French festival Europe autour de l’Europe (‘Europe around Europe’), one of Russia’s most famous contemporary directors explains how he dedicated five years to the adaptation of the post-soviet generation novel by Victor Pelevin. It's a portrait of a progressive and urban generation of young Russians still a fair distance away from Generation Y

Britain's 'The Office' still successful as German remake 'Stromberg'

Kate Saunders-Puntis — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:00:00 -0000

A dismal open-plan office with neon-lights, paper stacks and telephones ringing non-stop is not the usual setting for a comedy series, and yet it has proved successful, as the British comedy 'The Office' can testify

Rain check

English language version of cafebabel.com — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:52:38 -0000

With the final round of the French presidential elections and the early yet long-awaited Greek and Serbian parliamentary counterparts cropping up all on 6 May 2012, there's a variation in the number of citizens who are tempted to 'pass' on voting after the month of showers...

British, Dutch, Czech and Swiss press on Breivik Norway trial

euro topics — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:24:16 -0000

Anders Behring Breivik, who is accused of mass murder, pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial in Oslo on 16 April, claiming he was acting in self-defence when he killed 77 people in July 2011. Although the Norwegian constitutional state is duty bound to grant Breivik a fair hearing it must prevent him from using the trial as a political stage to spread his ideas, commentators write

Digital native 'stars' of Serbia, Belgium, Germany and France to watch

Hades — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:00:00 -0000

Dude, where's my wi-fi code? They grew up with the internet and feel home at places where they can access the intenet directly. They are those nerds or hipsters who you imagine could spend almost twenty-four hours online. They are the talk show experts on all things web. Four famous European digital natives to watch

Polish youth, the ‘digital natives’ taking over in 2030

Agata Jaskot — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:53:11 -0000

Who are the 'net generation'? What has pushed this ‘generation Y’ onto the streets to fight for their rights, and how unexpectedly? Edwin Bendyk, a Warsaw-based futurist on the impact of high tech on our civilisation and journalist with the popular Polish weekly magazine Polityka explains. His book The Network Protests (Bunt Sieci) was released on 4 April

Meet the Danish playwright staging Anders Behring Breivik’s 'Manifesto 2083'

Katharina Kloss — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:04:38 -0000

The Norwegian terrorist’s racist and anti-islam manifesto will be staged in the Danish capital in October 2012, despite criticism from the right wing and families of his 77 victims. ‘You can be disgusted by your own fascination,’ admits theatre director Christian Lollike over a coffee in Copenhagen

Seville’s Moroccan community: planning to 'return'?

PeterG — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:30:00 -0000

As of 2006, Moroccans constituted Seville's largest immigrant community, with more than 3, 000 Moroccans living in the city. Given its Moorish history, Andalusia – and its capital, Seville – has a long association with the Maghreb - but maybe not a model one

Hanif Kureishi: ‘Sex is not dangerous enough; the real danger is falling in love’

Jaša Pipan — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:54:00 -0000

‘I like rich people and I like poor people and I like strange people. It’s the ordinary people that get on my nerves,’ sums up the English playwright and screenwriter at the Fabula literary festival in Slovenia this spring, who manages to ‘insult’ the audience within his first few seconds onstage

Christiania's rejection of Danish society - hippies (and Germans) all the way!

Jaša Pipan — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:08:05 -0000

In the free commune of Christiania in the heart of Copenhagen, some hundred hardliners live in a unique form of a self-managed community in Europe. But since the 1970s their reputation, based mainly on a free and open spirit, slowly started to wear out. Who are the heirs who live, work or go out in Christiania today? Rasmus, Nynne and other resisters explain

2Cellos: Slovenian-Croatian duo who were 'playing Bach in churches for grannies'

Jaša Pipan — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:55:13 -0000

Once upon a time Stjepan Hauser and Luka Šulić were rivals. It wasn't long before the EU-Balkan duo decided to unlock horns. Meet the happy, handsome cello players from Pula and Maribor, most famous for playing a stand-off, stunning version of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal, touring with Elton John and making it to the US

Europe's merry month of March

Lydia Bigos — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:29:15 -0000

Spring, which officially begins on 21 March, has a habit of keeping us waiting. Here, European expressions take us through March, April, May and June in the hunt for some sun. Idioms of the week

Czech, Italian, Belgian, Swiss media on separating 'islamism' and 'islam'

euro topics — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:46:19 -0000

After a siege that went on for more than 30 hours French special units stormed the flat of the presumed Toulouse killer on 22 March. The suspect, who died in the process, described himself as an islamist. However islam bears no blame for the deeds of a fanatic, EU commentators writes, stressing the similarities between islamism and the far right

Eating French food with Parisian pop band Destin

bodleiana — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:20:47 -0000

Wednesday, 8.30 pm. I’m out for dinner at Pipos restaurant in the fifth arrondissement of the French capital with my good friends Marky and Louis Georget - or should I say, Destin. This new Parisian group are not only proponents of great European music, but also partial to some great French food

Julien Rochedy, young face of French far-right

Nicola Baxter — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:00:00 -0000

'I love women - therefore I am anti-feminist,' says the native of Tournon-sur-Rhone in southern France, who was born in 1988. As the first round of elections in France loom on 22 April, the president of the national front's electoral support committee 'Youngsters With Marine' and communication officer of the far-right party's youth section speaks

Porn director Erika Lust: Girls aren’t accessories

bobe.barsi — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:32:16 -0000

Someone rings the bell. The girl hops out the shower, throws on a towel and hurries to open the door to the pizza guy. It could be the beginning of a traditional porn movie, but it is not. The protagonists of “The Good Girl” have personality and the explicit sex images are the outcome of a coherent storyline. That’s the reason why the author Erika Lust prefers to call her films new adult movies instead of porn. The word porn carries meanings that she seeks to rebel against by way of her works.

Rise of Greenlandic cinema in Denmark

Annie Rutherford — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:04:11 -0000

'You will only find Greenlandic cultural projects in public libraries in Denmark,' prophesises one Dane I meet. However awareness of the minority’s work is on the rise as I find in Copenhagen’s north atlantic centre's biannual film festival - for the first time, it focuses exclusively on Greenlandic film

Alina Orlova, free atom on Lithuanian indie music scene

Jaša Pipan — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:14:23 -0000

In the shadows of a nuclear station, an artistic proton was born in the outskirts of Vilnius. No, she's not a mutant; she's a 23-year-old musical 'ice bomb', as the French media has called her

Are you the 2%? 5 things you (don’t) know about consumption

annika stienen — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:42:09 -0000

15 March marks world consumer rights day, yet the statistics show that only 2% of EU consumers are fully aware of their consumer rights or of their impact as consumers

‘Hidden treasures of Europe’: comparing Balkans, Turkey to EU in one minute

Katharina Kloss — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:03:58 -0000

‘So similar, So different, So European.’ A dreamy promotional video released in February 2012 compares the EU, Turkey and Balkan in a touristic and utopian bubble. Is Belgrade really like Paris? Six young Balkan voices react

'Nichi’s Factories': from Italy to the world, politics without the party

Language Cat — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0000

The Fabbriche di Nichi phenomenon of 'manufacturing ideas' was first unearthed by politician Nichi Vendola and his left ecology freedom party. From the southern Italian region of Apulia the project is being exported abroad, as a new means of attracting young people to participate actively in political life without forcing them to join the party

Supermarket sweep Athens, or not keeping appearances during a crisis

Tara Katti — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:30:21 -0000

Her country was degraded, mocked, despised, then forgotten. What does it mean for 25-year-old student Katerina Tzekouand and Costa Andreotis, who works in a museum, to live with the crisis in Athens today?

Slovakia elections: Austrian, German, Hungarian, Czech and local media on Fico win

euro topics — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:19:50 -0000

Robert Fico's social democratic party Smer emerged from Slovakia's early elections with an absolute majority on 10 March, while the ruling conservatives lost two-thirds of their electoral base. Fico must put aside his arrogant, populist ways and tackle the rampant corruption in the country, say the European media

Iran, Europe, nuclear energy: one year after Fukushima

Alice Jones — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:52:57 -0000

Having rocked the whole of Europe, the Fukushima atomic disaster sparked widespread reassessments concerning the future of nuclear energy in Germany and France. Whilst a generally safer Europe finds itself divided over Iran and its acquisition of nuclear weapons, the murder of an Iranian scientist served to fuel an already explosive debate

Crisis cookbook: recipes for starving Greeks

hkeet — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:39:17 -0000

Historian Eleni Nikolaidou didn't mean Starvation Recipes to come out as a cookbook, but these times of crisis have turned a collection of historical recipes from the era of nazi German occupation in Greece into a bestseller

Women journalist quota in Germany: it's just charity

English language version of cafebabel.com — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:18:18 -0000

An initiative launched by 350 female journalists in Germany is promoting a quota of 30% of women in top media positions within five years. Aren't we forcing the question, girls?

Kony 2012 facebook campaign: no, he’s not running against Obama

l.hogan — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:16:50 -0000

You probably went to sleep on Monday night with only the vaguest notion, if any, of who Joseph Kony is or where Uganda can be found on a map. You might have then awoken the next morning to find a video entitled Kony 2012 clogging up your facebook homepage. The video has been viewed over a phenomenal 21 million times in less than a week

Young European women on whether 'generational revolution' is possible

Aleksandra Sygiel — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:28:05 -0000

The word ‘Europe’ hides a myth about a young and beautiful woman (what else), who has been kidnapped and raped by the hyper-macho god Zeus. Europa transforms into a divinely rich but jobless and childish ‘kept woman’. Maybe young Europa has already come back, and can’t wait to get her dream job and make her dreams come true...

International women's day on 8 March: focus on sex trafficking, woyoyi

Bibbi Abruzzini — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:03:39 -0000

Human trafficking is a rapidly growing and extremely profitable business. An estimated 120, 000 women and children are smuggled into western Europe each year. According to the UN Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, the most common form (79%) is sexual exploitation. We review some of the films, exhibitions and music casting light on the topic on international women's day

When the shit hits the fan

joshua craze — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:00:00 -0000

It's not just the last century - Europe has a long history of getting into problems. Thus, it is not surprising we have a rich tradition of expressions that warn us to get out 'before the shit hits the fan' as the English would say. The Hungarians have also understood that trouble is bad news

C2C, DJ collective from Nantes: 'It's a geek thing'

ZoeBBee — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:00:54 -0000

They love hip hop, they have won a world championship mixing title for each of the four, they rap, they skateboard, and their next album is due out in May 2012. Atom and Greem, the quietly influential members of the group from western France, take us into their world

Latvia failed referendum: 1 in 4 wanted Russian as second state language

Val Bourbon — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:58:07 -0000

Latvian remains the only official language in Latvia. It is not the final decision that matters but the number of people who turned up to vote against the discrimination of their native tongue. The referendum held on 18 February sent a political message to Europe about the discrimination the Russian community faces

Super 8 'The Detour': shared memory of northern Europe

Jaša Pipan — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:47:22 -0000

When Tallinn in Estonia and Turku in Finland were nominated to be 'European capitals of culture' in 2011, two young French directors and former architects captured the opportunity to make a unique story about a region extending beyond frontiers

Erasmus students do carnival and chirigotas in Cadiz - crisis, what crisis?

Tom Gale — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:06:21 -0000

Despite drastic austerity measures across Spain, the Cadiz Carnival between 16 and 26 February kept all its pomp. A young Frenchman at the heart of the festivities discovers whether the satirical event is a way of channelling the people’s fury or a real show of community in the face of the financial crisis crippling the country

Russian film 'Generation P' does McDonalds and Coca Cola in nineties Moscow

Annie Rutherford — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:09:10 -0000

Twenty years after the wall came tumbling down, Russia remains Churchill’s famous enigma wrapped inside a riddle for the majority of western Europeans: a Narnia of endless winter with no Aslan in sight. The new film of Victor Pelevin’s novel offers a whirlwind tour of post-soviet Russia

Human rights activist Igor Kolyapin on Chechnya and democracy in Russia

English language version of cafebabel.com — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:30:00 -0000

One in five Russians will be a torture victim at least once in their lifetimes. The Moscow-based 'committee against torture' brings these cases to court and is also one of the few NGOs to work in the southern republic of Chechnya. We meet the organisation’s chairman to discuss regional politics and why it's worth bothering to fight

Are half a million people homeless in Poland?

polyglotta — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:41:45 -0000

In Poland, as elsewhere, the data does not correspond to the logic of your average statistics; the minister of labour and social affairs states there are between 80 and 130, 000 homeless people, whilst Caritas Poland cites 30, 000 and other organisations number the destitute at 500, 000. We meet one community south of the Vistula river in Warsaw

A future post 'consumption', that deadly 21st century internet disease

Kelly Burt — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:00:00 -0000

As the 'anti-counterfeiting trade agreement' (Acta) is discussed in public in the European parliament for the first time on 29 February, one Italian journalist imagines what it might be like if we have to pay for every online service. The consumer's copyright-protected future would be free no more