cafebabel.com

France's 'war on criminality' aside, focus on Parisian Roma in 'social insertion villages'

('Hayley',) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:19:08 -0000

Four years after their creation in Europe, 'social integration villages' are being presented as a 'Roma paradise'. European associations for minority protection expose some of the difficulties facing the most discriminated community in the EU. Meanwhile, the French government has since planned to dissolve 300 Roma settlements, whilst the UK is seeing its biggest Romany gypsy site, Dale Farm in Essex, bulldozed

Belfast riots 2010: Orange Order, not girl guides

('Tim Mac an Airchinnigh',) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:01:16 -0000

More bad news from the North? On the evening news in the Irish Republic, a report on the Belfast riots in catholic districts came third after a local car crash and economics reports. In the shadow of the 1998 peace process, the riots are the product of raging frustration in a shattered community

WAMP: inside the monthly Hungarian design fair

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:15:00 -0000

Since 2006, the monthly design market has attracted hundreds of young local designers like 'Musu' who display their creations in front of an ever-growing crowd of visitors. But WAMP is not only a collective promotion of Hungarian design, it’s also a formidable economic catalyst, with its international design week too

Paris, Krakow: the crop of Europe's pretty urban green

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:29:13 -0000

The tallest building in the world, the 828 metre (2716 ft) high Burj Khalifa skyscraper, was unveiled in Dubai at the beginning of January. Nowadays the question is more of building outwards rather than upwards, with four buzzwords - happiness, ecology, smartness and economy - via two city models

European bloggers describe their Berlin walls

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:20:11 -0000

Monday is 9 November, the day when the Berlin wall was brought down. To reflect on this iconic modern historical event for the eurogeneration, citizen journalists from five cafebabel.com local teams - Sofia, Budapest, Turin, Strasbourg and Istanbul - simultaneously blogged one day about the walls they see in their cities

Visit to the EHU: Belarusian elite university exiled in Vilnius

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:00:19 -0000

The decision was taken: the European humanities university, created in Minsk, Belarus in 1992, packed up to join Vilnius (and democracy) in 2004. In this oasis of free education, Belarusian youth have been exiled further and further to the west

What the fridge is EU debate on the ground?

('Neil Saddington',) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:00:00 -0000

For a year from October 2008, the monthly initiative brings together one cafebabel.com editor with three reporters and one photojournalist from across the network to spend four days reporting in a European city

Quality, not quantity during fashion week in Europe

('Rosh Mahtani',) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:45:00 -0000

From the old classics of Paris, Milan and London to the new modes in Stockholm, Madrid or Berlin: the 2009 autumn-winter fashion shows are streaming through Europe, despite the economic crisis and the criticism erupting around it

Education: Bologna process, sales time in French universities

('rhiannon_nicolson',) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:05:41 -0000

France is infuriated. The resentment felt towards the Bologna process, aggravated by the repercussions of the economic crisis, has driven students to go on a general strike as a demonstration of their 'anti-privatisation' feelings. They fear that their future is going 'at reduced prices'. We test the water in Clermont Ferrand

HandiCAP: freedom-hunting French farmers, as European as Parisians

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:57:25 -0000

Young farmers in the region of Auvergne worry about their future, which is being over-organised by a too liberal Europe. They want to give vent to their anger at the upcoming European elections in June 2009

Talk of the city

('Annie Rutherford',) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:06:57 -0000

Madrid, Krakow, Rome? Europe discusses its genius loci

Photos: Brussels accommodates EU buildings

('David Tett',) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:35:47 -0000

Go out in April: Uppsala, nerds and witches

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Enjoy the year's first rays at Walpurgis night in Sweden, a vintage computer festival in Munich or the spring festival in Seville

Estelle Swaray: 'the singlest woman alive'

('Titus Aguigah',) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Why the British rapper, hip hop singer and producer, 28, swapped London, its boys and the UK music industry for Brooklyn's cabbies, leading to ‘an unexpected duet’ with American rapper Kanye West

Map: London heads Europe’s 27 'most expensive' cities

('Erin Woycik',) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:23:00 -0000

Of the world’s 50 cities with the highest costs of living, more than half, 27, are in Europe. London and Copenhagen head the list

Cuba: backstreet with an escape route

('Erin Woycik',) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

In the first of our ‘rock and backpack’ series, we discover Havana - the cultural centre of a Cuba in which everyone has the ability to produce something, but few express themselves

Blogging Kosovo, Erasmus and poetry

('Susannah Readett-Bayley',) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Existential crises in Berlin, self-critical French and new nation states - the best of our babelblogs this fortnight

Eco-housing renaissance: put less carbon in the air!

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

The ‘built’ environment in the UK, Germany and Sweden are good examples of how our lifestyles have to adapt in a changing world

Mister Cat graffiti: from Paris to Sarajevo

('Sarah Gray',) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

The Mister Cat phenomenon falls somewhere between anonymous marketing and ‘involuntary communication’. Spotted on rooftops from Geneva to New York, the feline seduced passers-by before moving on to museums

Eboy: Berlin's ‘godfathers of pixel’

('Kate Hollinshead',) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

London, Cologne, Venice, Tokyo: the German design pixel group pixelate city visions and hail themselves as a jazz band. They are guilty of simply improvising the definitive concept of ‘urbanity’

Tecktonik - arm-splaying, mullet hair dance craze

('Annika Thornton',) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0000

TCK. Three letters that stand for a phenomenon: tecktonik. Similar in style to electro, it has been a sensation amongst teenagers in France, Belgium and Holland over the last six months - and is also a registered trademark

PubliCity - from Barcelona to Dresden

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:00:00 -0000

'La dolce vita' of gays in Berlin

('Ed Saunders',) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:00:00 -0000

The German capital is a real paradise for gays and lesbians. Despite the high level of general tolerance, the reality is that discrimination in the workplace and violent attacks still continue

Polish losers?

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:20:00 -0000

The Poles have made up the second largest national minority in Berlin for years, but the eternal stereotype of Polish migrant workers has been disappearing of late. New blood is coming into the city - bringing students, artists and businessmen

A capital that can’t grow up

('Kate Martin',) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0000

Last May, the German daily newspaper Tagesspeigel warned that in Berlin one child in three lives off 'Hartz IV' (government aid). This is a new high for Germany and is more than twice the national average. Is it an avatar of reunification?

Sculptour through Europe

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Great enthusiasm or an impatient rolling of the eyes – these are the two extreme reactions that 21st century sculptures that feature in today’s metropoli provoke

European heritage battle

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:00:00 -0000

At the foot of the Acropolis, a new museum is undergoing construction – but something important is missing: the British Museum is not prepared to return pieces of the world-famous Parthenon frieze to Athens

CouchSurfing

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0000

A MySpace for backpackers, ‘The Hospitality Club’ allows its members to host and connect with each other and exchange free accommodation all over Europe

London, Berlin and Madrid: cine-pigs

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Between 8 and 14 June London hosts the third part of ‘Picture Europe’, the first film festival taking place simultaneously across different European cities

Factories of culture: forging new from old

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

All over Europe, former industrial buildings are being rebuilt as centres of culture. Residents cherish the special charm of these old factories

WIELS: artful brewing

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

On May 25, Brussels’ largest contemporary art centre will open its doors in what was once the Wielemans-Ceuppen Brewery, close to Midi Station

Rome wasn’t built in a day

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

How does the ‘Eternal City’ juggle the need to preserve its past with the equally important need to construct its future?

Invisible immigrants: reconciling the Italian people

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

In an over-politicised city falling under the influence of the Church, Rome’s 10% of immigrants keeps growing

Alternative lifestyles: 'I came to Amsterdam to live in a squat'

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:00:00 -0000

In the 1980s, a political movement of squatters changed the face of the Dutch capital. Today, young apolitical Eastern Europeans are joining the squatter movement