cafebabel.com

Top three songs: Polish music legend Czesław Niemen

('Agata Jaskot',) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:15:00 -0000

His John Lennon-style glasses and long hair were mandatory for a beat generation artist. An uneven beard completed the rock and soul musician’s look on the streets of Poland. 17 January 2012 marks the eighth anniversary of the death of the much-loved singer-songwriter, 64

Ivana Simic Bodrozic and co: more women on Croatia literary scene

('sladana perkovic',) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:28:30 -0000

The Zagreb-based poet and writer's coming-of-age drama Hotel Zagorje is the theme of a literary event in Paris. Though her debut novel stays true to a tradition in contemporary Croatian fiction, the 29-year-old gets her audience in a flurry with the book's themes of war, women, the past and an inevitable future together

Bonfire night: Guy Fawkes, Europe's first 'indignant' citizen

('Lucy Russell',) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:04:15 -0000

The image of Guy Fawkes is everywhere at the moment, inspiring the worldwide anonymous and occupy movements. What would he have thought if he had known that over four hundred years after his death thousands of people in Europe and beyond would be wearing masks of his face while protesting against today’s all-encompassing global political system?

Europe reacts: what Gaddafi’s expiration means

('Nicola Accardo',) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:58:29 -0000

On 20 October the world saw a mediatised repeat of bloody images and videos of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein on their deathbeds: Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, 69, was killed in his hometown of Sirte. French, US and British forces were part of the Nato airstrikes in the Libyan civil war which began in February 2011. Read presidential and prime ministerial postcards from Poland, Malta, Italy, France and Germany after the news broke

Environment: the maggot in Steve Jobs’ apple

('ZoeBBee',) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:25:40 -0000

While tributes to its CEO Steve Jobs flood the web, don't forget Apple’s lack of green credentials

Twitter feed: reactions to Steve Jobs death

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:00:00 -0000

The CEO of Apple was without a doubt the biggest genius of the last decade. He passed away after suffering from pancreatic cancer at the age of 56 over the night of 6 October. Social networks such as facebook and twitter have overflooded with 2.0 tributes

Perspectives: Anders Behring Breivik, product of Europe’s extreme right

('Hannah Mosford',) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:00:00 -0000

The rise of the extreme nationalist English Defence League, pinpointed in recent reports, reflects a trend across Europe. The Norwegian terrorist claimed to defend xenophobic and conservative ideology. In doing so highlighted the diverging paths of the extreme right: going it alone or winning support by cosying up to the mainstream

Memorable exhibitions: inspecting meat at Carne 2010, Paris

('Daniel Milnes',) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:00:03 -0000

An art exhibition with the rather succinct title 'Meat', displaying dead and live off-cuts of both human and animal origin, may not be a terribly new concept in the times of Gunter von Hagen’s ‘Body Worlds’, gory films and Lady Gaga costumes. However, in order to give their meaty art show a certain je ne sais quois, the Parisian organisers of Carne 2010 rather unceremoniously moved the exhibition out of the museum and into the slaughterhouse. Flashback tour through northern Paris, caught somewhere between minced meat and video installations

Norway shooting survivor, 23, blogs ‘worst day of my life’

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:44:18 -0000

Khamshajiny Gunaratnam, member of the central board of the Norwegian labour party youth organisation, has allowed cafebabel.com to republish her blog post after the tragic events of 22 July. 76 were killed in a bombing in Oslo and shooting at a summer camp in Utoya by 32-year-old right-wing fundamentalist Anders Behring Breivik

Modern crisis: more Greeks turn to suicide

('Ursa',) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:00:00 -0000

Many Greeks are opposed to the austerity package which will introduce heavy spending cuts and reforms. As they see no way out of the economic difficulties, an increasing number of people are taking their own lives. The Athens health ministry recently reported a 40 percent rise in suicide rates

Osama Bin Laden killed in Pakistan: young Europeans react

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 02 May 2011 11:24:42 -0000

From corners of the Balkans and Europe to Americans and Pakistanis on the European continent, why the news of the US killing of the Saudi Arabian al-Qaida leader on 2 May, who took charge of the 9/11 attacks of 2001, hasn’t ruffled the most obvious feathers

Preparing to die in Slovenia’s first hospice institution

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:31:44 -0000

For the first time in its 15 years of existence, the Žargi association will offer all-round care to nine dying and terminally ill patients in Ljubljana, with construction financed by the City of Ljubljana’s housing fund. Petra Mlakar explores

Young Europeans remember 9/11

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:38:28 -0000

It’s eight years since the attacks which killed 2, 752 people, destroyed the World Trade Centres and damaged the Pentagon on 11 September 2001. The cafebabel.com editorial team share their memories from across the waters on the event which shaped America and the world today

Lech Kaczynski laid to rest next to kings

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:57:52 -0000

Images of mourning in Poland which circulated the international media revealed one quite unexpected crack. After Lech Kaczynski’s family chose Wawel Castle in Krakow to be the president's last resting place, many citizens were outraged. Can you imagine French president Nicolas Sarkozy being laid to rest next to Napoleon in the Invalides? Or Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi finding peace in Rome’s Pantheon?

President dead: what political future for Poland?

('Dave Keating',) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:16:51 -0000

An election for a new president will need to be held in sixty days, but it’s hard to see how Polish society can pull itself together so quickly since their top illuminaries were largely killed in a plane crash on 10 April. Extract from cafebabel.com's Belgium-based American blogger 'Gulf Stream Blues'

Music in February: The Rumour Said Fire, Corinne Bailey Rae and Jaga Jazzist

('Andrzej K\xc4\x99dzierawski',) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:00:14 -0000

A new British neo-soul album, an old favourite from Denmark's Simon and Garfunkel and five top tracks spanning London via Brooklyn and Oslo - a selection of Europe's music tips of the month

EU reactions: Russian human rights activist murdered

('euro topics',) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:37:47 -0000

On 15 July Natalya Estemirova, 50, was kidnapped and murdered by unknown assailants in the Chechen capital Grozny. The mother-of-one worked for the human rights organisation Memorial and was a close friend of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, also murdered in 2006. Pressbites from Poland, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and Spain

Michael Jackson dies aged 50: eastern EU grab their crotch in tribute

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:48:42 -0000

On 25 June, the king of pop died after a cardiac arrest in LA. He remains a firm musical reference for the 'eurogeneration’ growing up in the seventies and eighties. Ukrainian folk rock, Lithuania’s late MJ and Bulgaria’s Wacko Jacko wannabe – soundtrack tribute in videos

Italy: coma patient Eluana Englaro dies after Berlusconi row

('euro topics',) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:22:25 -0000

After more than 16 years in a persistent vegetative state, 38-year-old Eluana Englaro has died in the 'La Quiete' clinic in the northern Italian city of Udine after doctors removed her feeding tubes. The European press discusses the political intrigues surrounding her death

Obituary: alphabets, butterflies and Inger Christensen

('Lass\xc3\xab Jensen',) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:35:47 -0000

Why learn Welsh? They all speak English anyway. Why learn unpronounceable Flemish, impossible Finnish, self-assertive Catalan or miniscule Danish? But when the Danish experimental poet died on 2 January 2009 in Copenhagen, a loser language lost its most beautiful voice

Greece youth: violence in the name of education

('Elina Makri',) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:30:00 -0000

9 December. As the funeral takes place of a young boy, whose death led to days of continuous rioting in Greek cities three days earlier, a look at where the rebellion is coming from. Voice from Athens

18, 648 ‘legal’, industrial deaths in Europe

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:00:00 -0000

'Produce, consume, die’: the soundtrack for European industrial casualties is provided by eighties Italian punk group CCPP. For the third consecutive year, accidents and serious injuries are up by one quarter and a fifth respectively. Overview spanning Poland and Italy via the UK and India

Third day of violence in Athens after 15-year-old rioter dies

('euro topics',) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:45:57 -0000

Alexandros Grigoropoulos was allegedly hurling stones at a police car when officials shot him on 6 December. The incident has sparked riots, with protests held in Corfu and Germany. Ahead of a strike on 10 December, Greek, Italian, Swiss and German newspapers analyse the causes and the consequences for the government

Expresso: 'scandalous' use of asbestos-ridden EU parliament building

('Marios Matsakis',) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:47:09 -0000

The Cypriot environment and health MEP Marios Matsakis, a professional forensic pathologist, calls for transparency on the health risk to all MEPs in the ten-year old building

Roger Woolger: 'it's not psychosis'

('Elisa Marengo',) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:00:00 -0000

The British psychotherapist from Sussex, 63, brings together Jung theory and eastern philosophy in his 'deep memory process'. His theory on reincarnation: our past lives help us resolve our present neuroses

Euthanasia: Noel Martin wants to die

('Andrew Burgess',) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 06:38:00 -0000

The British citizen of Jamaican origin, has been a paraplegic ever since he was attacked by a band of neo-Nazis. In 2007, he made headline news in Germany and is still fighting to be able to decide the date of his death

Gunther von Hagens: ‘An anatomical exposition without publicity is like a theatre without a programme’

('Katha Kloss',) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0000

The 'plastinator' often hits European headlines with his 'Body Worlds' exhibition. Of course he will be having his own body plastinated, he says - interview

Borderline? Art on the scales

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0000

How far can art go? What taboos remain? Art often both fascinates and disgusts, in an attempt at containing cultural boundaries

Günther von Hagens: dead bodies 'Plastinator'

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0000

The German anatomist has created quite a furore with his ‘Body Worlds’ exhibition throughout Europe. Since November 2006, visitors to the Plastinarium workshop in Guben have observed how corpses are plasticised