Cities
Silence of statues in Budapest's Memento Park, House of Terror
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?
cities, lenin, cold war, communism, second world war , hungary, reagan
Skopje’s ‘Albanian neighbourhood’ in Old Bazaar, Çarshia
There are essential traces of the history of Albanians and Macedonians, evidence of survival and revival after the Balkan or world wars. Skopje’s ‘Albanian neighbourhood’ is in a corner where the çarshia (bazaar) lies below the citadel, says Anisa Ymeri
cities, balkans, immigration, community, albania, shopping, macedonia
Orient Express Reporter 2010/11: citizen journalism’s ‘corridor no.10’ in Balkans and Turkey
For nine months, this citizen media has been sending an editor from its team of six in Paris along with volunteer teams of journalists to the likes of Bosnia, Macedonia and the EU’s 28th member state as of July 2013, Croatia. A project initially born of idealism in the winter – the aim being to present ‘our Balkan neighbours’ from an on-the-ground, positive viewpoint – the monthly city missions became a veritable bastion of shared and unshared realities throughout the year (travel in the Balkans, football fever), even when some well-meaning articles inevitably dipped into the usual shadows of already mediatised topics. Politics decides the status of a Balkan member state in relation to the EU, and politics is unavoidable in the daily lives of young people. In December 2010, Montenegro and Albania respectively garnered ‘EU candidate’ status and celebrated visa-free access to the EU’s Schengen zone. Their journalists and Arab-revolutionary wannabes dream whilst in Kosovo, a Spaniard (whose homeland has not recognised the ‘world’s second newest country’) has a one-on-one with the prime minister. As Irishwoman simply tries to understand Serbia, which is racing ahead in its EU prospects after 'handing over old war criminals', whereas from Turkey, whose negotiations to join the EU seem stalled, the scene is set by a passionate cult of football supporters in Istanbul. And that was the key to this year's editorial mission: passion. Read the best of cafebabel.com’s jaunt in the east and south-east (Image: (cc) Ezequiel Scagnetti for Orient Express Reporter Kosovo/ ezequiel-scagnetti.com/)
- Read the special edition Orient Express Reporter 2010/11: citizen journalism’s ‘corridor no.10’ in Balkans and Turkey
- Hunting Hashim Thaci in Prishtina
- Being a Beşiktaş football supporter in Istanbul
- Vox-pop: Being a young journalist in Montenegro
- Selling Serbia, a PR nightmare
- Try finding an Arab revolution in Albania
In the country of Slovenians the brown bear is king
2 million citizens and up to 450 brown bears co-habit the third most forested land in the EU. Slovenia’s Ursos arctos are some of its most protected residents under state and European policies, famous for being unpopularly exported to 'repopulate' the mountains of the French Pyrenees or the Italian Alps. One even made it into the WikiLeaks dispatches, so cafebabel.com had to go into the wild
cities, animals, green europe on the ground, ljubljana, slovenia, society
'Green' weddings – a Strasbourg myth?
It's meant to be the best day of your life, but this is hardly the case for the environment - just take into account the mountains of waste produced. However, the American trend of 'green weddings', where importance is placed on organic and ecological products from clothes through to food and hairdos, has now reached Europe. Strasbourg-based Caroline Lindenlaub, an ethical wedding dress designer, is a pioneer of the movement
cities, environmental protection, green europe on the ground, environment, green cities, fashion, france
Enrico Brizzi on the sense in walking in the 21st century
There are 1, 600 kilometres and 33 towns between Canterbury and Rome. The 72-day walk follows in the footsteps of Sigerico, the archbishop of Canterbury who was the first to set out the ancient pilgrim's path in 990 A.D. The extraordinary feat is related in the 'Via Francigena diaries' by Enrico Brizzi, who co-authored the book with Marcello Fini
Going bananas for Tirana
In 2010 a group of Albanian politicians organised a hunger strike in protest at the electoral problems of the year before. In January 2011 the police killed three protesters in front of parliament. This year marks the return of citizens riled at the irregularities at the foundation of local elections in June. In Tirana everything revolves around politics, but some are able to rise above the stench of disappointment. Between architects, artists, journalists and students, a new generation is trying to revive a young Balkan capital. Read the articles from our Bosnian-Serbian-Spanish-French team who report from Albania in the framework of our special edition, Orient Express Reporter (Image: (cc) davduf/ Flickr)
World environment day: European journalists 'green up' Europe’s cities
From Copenhagen to Kyoto we are repeating the same old trite, somewhere along the lines of ‘the last climate change conference was a failure’ or ‘the disastrous results of the united nations process shows the weakness of global climate policies…’ Back on the ground and in the tiny spaces of our own individual lives, we are recognising that the environment and sustainability are increasing parts of our daily routines. June saw European mothers calling up their expat children across the continent to warn them not to eat any salads or fruits and vegetables after the e-coli outbreak in (what was first rumoured to be) Spanish cucumbers. Citizens woke up to the prospect of nuclear strategies on their own turf after the Fukushima reactor accident in Japan, and governments (notably Germany) tightened up their own nuclear laws. In the framework of the ‘Green Europe on the ground’ editorial series between November 2010 and July 2011, pan-European teams of cafebabel.com reporters have been heading out to the cities of the continents to knock out their own understandings of green topics. We’ve danced ‘green’ in Berlin, illustrated ‘green comics’ in Brussels, planted ‘green products’ in Seville and designed ‘green’ in Budapest: read a pick of the articles for world environment day on 5 June (Image: (cc) NCM3/ Flickr/)
- Read the special edition World environment day: European journalists 'green up' Europe’s cities
- Frank Pe, Luc Schuiten: eco-dreams of Brussels' comic book art architecture
- The importance of being eco-ideological in Budapest
- Rome was not built in a day...nor for bikes
- Organic Seville: too many exports, not enough young workers or local mouths
- Green dancefloors Berlin: spread the eco-dance germ to Europe
Gallery
Seville’s photovoltaic energy, as invented by Archimedes
In March 2011 wind energy production surpassed that of nuclear energy production, marking a first in the history of renewable energy in Spain. Yet the underlying paradox is that wind has supplied 16% of the electricity produced in 2010 in the sunniest country in Europe - but the sun is responsible for a mere 2.7%...
cities, european union, solar energy, green europe on the ground, seville, unemployment, ecology
Is gay OK in catholic Croatia?
The Balkan cliché of a traditional patriarchal society of machos is stable. We have all heard what happens every time the Serbs decide to have a Gay pride parade. But we are in Croatia now – a country that does not even count itself Balkan anymore, and which adopted a same sex partnerships bill in 2003
cities, gay rights, wedding, balkans, lgbt, discrimination, human rights
Just being in Bosnia: a slice of Sarajevo
It's one of the most famous countries in the world, and still one of the most mysterious. cafebabel.com visits the notorious Balkan capital at a historical time: it has been fifteen years since the end of the three-and-a-half year war in the nineties, marked by the Paris-signed Dayton treaty which split the country into two constituent Serb and Croat-Bosniak parts. The European Union has just signalled that the ethnically diverse Bosnians are welcome to travel without visas. Bosnia is clearly chugging forward. So are its young people, whether they are headscarved film directors, internet cafe owners or forward-looking, majority female students who are creating the city's first arthouses or working in a hostel in the centre, reading up on Bosnia-European history and being paid in euros. It's hard to isolate the dynamism of Sarajevo's youth when its past created this present not so long ago. The mountains of the valley capital sit on our shoulders to bring you this special edition of Orient Express Reporter
Chelas: not such a dodgy neighbourhood of Lisbon
‘You were in Chelas? I’ve lived in Lisbon for eight years and I have never risked going there,’ says Melinda, a 23-year old student who moved to Portugal with her family from Cape Verde. Melinda isn’t the only one who knows of the bad reputation of this district
Small money, big things: four film and art initiatives in Kosovo
The economic climate ensures the making of only one film financed by centre for cinematography per year, whilst exhibition opportunities are spare. Young Kosovars are working where they believe they can help – in society, with ordinary people
cities, kosovo, balkans, pristina, the streets of europe, culture, war
Aged three, Prishtina dances, designs but doesn’t debate
Kosovo is one of the most optimistic countries in the world with 70% of the population under the age of thirty. Music, bars and art dot my four days in its capital, Prishtina, three years after the city claimed independence from Serbia
cities, kosovo, music, pristina, culture, art, orient express
Berlin citizen power: GreenLeaks, Stuttgart 21 and water privatisation
One of Europe's most politicised and strictly environmentally-ruled cities is home to a green-themed Wikileaks spin-off, run by an Australian documentary maker. The mood for disclosure is also celebrated in the annual film festival, which has incorporated the city's first successful referendum into its programme
Burn after Belgrade: trying to type over stereotype
After Sarajevo and Podgorica, the third stop of ‘Orient Express Reporter’ takes place in Belgrade, cafebabel.com’s maiden voyage to the Serb capital. History wears a heavy coat on the journalists’ investigations. From Belgrade’s museums, a German journalist learns more about a little known scientist national hero whilst a Canadian learns about the Kosovo myth as he ponders whether Serbia will become an official candidate for the European Union in late 2011. An Italian deliberately dives into the country’s stereotypes whilst an Irish asks if Serbia can beat its past to gain a brand. All the while a French photographer stops and starts in the city, capturing the serenity which has not been the easyjet party capital’s claim to fame. In this week’s cities column special edition, we learn that our quick pan-European stop in Serbia by no means defines a mostly misunderstood, future European city (Image: (cc) Andrej_Filev/ Flickr)
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