European indie film: 'Sundance' in Paris
It’s all eyes on the French capital’s Latin quarter between 12 and 14 March 2010; the fifth edition of ‘ECU’, run by an Australian and supported by G-Technology by Hitachi, showcases 72 works from 28 countries across various categories. Here’s our top five trailers Read article
Getting to grips with djembe, tro-tro and obronis in Ghana
I was told before I arrived in Ghana that everyone wants to speak to the foreigner or the obroni (‘white person’) as they say in Twi, one of the main dialects of the forty spoken in Ghana. I had several on the spot marriage proposals; but that’s Ghana and its people for you
Europarl TV: 'technology is more fast-paced than the institutions'
In September 2008, the TV channel started streaming parliamentary sessions and news features on MEPs and their speeches on the European parliament’s webpage. The challenge is to give the institutions a human face - press service chief Jean-Yves Loog tells us how
UK to Poland via France: hitch-hiking Europe
You could stay in a hotel in Egypt for a week. Or you can spread the same amount of money over a month and a half for a trip of an alternative kind: hitchhiking Europe. Here’s one way to do it, which included 30 drivers, volunteer work and new friends
Commited and female: end of a contradiction?
100 years ago today, international woman's day was marked in Denmark. 8 March 2010 won’t iron out the incoherence of the general European feminine condition. Here, like elsewhere, women live out their freedoms on a daily basis, be it via the media in Cologne or their unique political engagement in Poland or France. Even the subtleties of a simple language honorific teach us to change our ideas on who we most jadedly slam as the ‘weaker sex’
Krystof Hadek: 'foreign characters played by English-speaking actors? Disappointing'
In the last month the 27-year-old Czech actor has picked up accolades at the Berlin film festival (one of the ten 'shooting stars' in Europe) and a Czech Lion for 'best actor'. We talk fame, acting genes and language in European cinema
The Europeans nominated for the more 'random' Oscars 2010
There's a tendency to focus on which Europeans snag the best film or best actress prizes - but here's a trailer run down of the less famed contenders vying for other Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which takes place at the Kodak Theatre on 7 March
Crisis: no Brussels burn
The Belgian capital wriggles and writhes out of an era of financial crisis - Brussels is versatile and can adapt itself. You can spot this when you go second hand shopping or over to the aid of the homeless in the ´Les Petits Riens´ boutique, despite the obligatory belt tightening here and there. Where the economic dilemma doesn´t appear to have embroiled a younger, cosmopolitan elite, non-EU immigrants haven´t escaped as luckily. Special edition from five cafebabel reporters who travelled to Brussels for the 'EU crisis on the ground' editorial mission
Songbeat, Berlin: story of a German music start-up
Philip Eggersglüß and Marco Rydman are two Berliners who launched an online music business at the age of 25. We discuss court cases, 'limited company' statuses via the UK and Hong Kong and the benefits of working in the German capital
Gallery | Anti-smoking
Brunch with…
Agop J. Hacikyan: 'I don’t feel I am translating my culture into English'
The playful Armenian-Canadian author talks his latest novel - hailed as a 'love letter to Istanbul' - straddling continents and his opinions on Turkey in the EU
culture event guide
European indie film: 'Sundance' in Paris
It's all eyes on the French capital's Latin quarter between 12 and 14 March 2010; the fifth edition of 'ECU', run by an Australian and supported by G-Technology by Hitachi, showcases 72 works from 28 countries across various categories. Here's our top five trailers
Tower of babel
Mrs, miss or ms?
In the run-up to international women's day on 8 March, one of the debates rolling around the cafebabel circles cropped up - when on earth do English-speakers address a woman by Ms?
EU week
Fathoming the power of right-wing populist Geert Wilders in Europe
If the freedom party leader is successful in the June parliamentary elections, Dutch politics will be destabilised and Europe will be forced to deal seriously with the man once nicknamed 'Mozart', write the Dutch, Swiss, Spanish and Slovakian press
Yum Niam
Italian, French and Bulgarian press vs genetically modified potato
On 3 March the European commission gave the green light for the 'Amflora', used for the production of industrial starch. This was the first time since 1998 that it has approved a GMO for cultivation. Some commentators say Brussels has bowed to the pressure of agriculture companies; others claim this paves the way for a better future
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