Cafebabel.com

By Carlo Peano

In his speech of September 6th, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, explained the details of the Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT). Cafebabel Brussels wonders if the ECB and Mario Draghi really saved the Euro that day.
(photo: European Parliament)

As if getting hold of sources, sniffing out lies and earning a pittance didn’t make a journalist’s profession hard enough in Belarus already, imagine also having to give the KGB the slip or going from one court trial to the next in order to carry out your job. For the reporters living in a post-soviet dictatorship that’s all in a day’s work

France’s socialist president, François Hollande, had promised not to demolish the illegal Gypsy settlements in France. However, over the last two months, nearly 400 Roma have been forced to leave the country, despite having been European citizens since 2007

Not all rappers don a panoply of gold chains, or leave the ghettos they grew up in. The one-time Arsenal football player-cum-French rapper avoids the showbiz scene. Whilst promoting his latest album, he invests a lot of time into improving life in the suburban ghettos - he still lives in Aulnay-sous-Bois - and is devoted to his passion for football

Every Saturday at 5pm, the upper floor of the cult Parisian bookshop Shakespeare and Company becomes a meeting point for all of the city's wandering writers. There, framed by walls of bookcases stuffed with mute heaviness of literary history, forms a rather happy bunch of enthusiasts, the 'other writers' group'

The It Girl, actress and model has become a singer-composer for the release of her first opus 'Places', which has been reviled and applauded. Known as the 'arrogant daughter of' Jane Birkin and Jacques Doillon, the Franco-Brit keeps a pitiless arm away from critics. That didn’t stop a German fan and an Italian reactionary from giving their opinions

In 2002, Belarus introduced new legislation on religious affairs. Amidst the complex and byzantine instructions, one message was clear – state permission is required to practice religious ceremonies in non-religious buildings. For protestants, who historically have fewer traditional churches, this put them directly in the firing line of the government. Ten years on, how are the conditions of religious freedoms in Minsk under president Lukashenko, self-confessed ‘orthodox atheist’?

Since independence from the soviet union in 1991, remnants of Belarus' titular language stay mostly in the cultural sphere, with around 300, 000 speakers in the country. Young musicians, poets and writers, often from the left end of the spectrum, still try to speak Belarusian against the more popular Russian

By Anika Gatt Seretny

Turkey’s long and controversial negotiation process seems to have taken a new turn. The EU’s most patient bidder seems to be losing its’ interest in Membership.

Two generations have always separated us; today, 600km do too. As any grandmother would do, Wiesia came to visit me for a weekend to celebrate her 80th birthday, and visit her granddaughter and two trilingual baby great-granddaughters

If you believe in incarnations, you would swear that Freddie Mercury now resides in the body of Hamed Sinno, the charismatic and openly gay lead singer of the Lebanese indie band. The name of the seven-piece from Beirut translates literally from the Arabic to ‘An Overnight Project’

Reposted from DaivaRepeckaite.com, which is now my original blog, at least until the blogging platform at CafeBabel becomes user-friendlier and allows comments. You are welcome to comment on the other website.

It seems I will start describing my recent travels in Europe from the end. After I saw many towns and villages in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and a lot of the city itself, I went to visit Esch-sur-Alzette, the second largest town in Luxembourg. With a population of under 30,000, it could be expected to be just like anything else in the Grand Duchy – slow-paced and provincial. Yet I was surprised with what I saw. Even Wikipedia did not find much to say about it. And yet, I was surprised.

‘Black and blue’ is a new, UK-based writing collective which gained attention when their online manifesto went viral earlier this year. I met up with co-founder Dane Weatherman during the Edinburgh festival to talk about manifestos, why tweets are poetry and whether women are better than men

The four Scandinavian musicians are friendly enough but musically unstable, even after three albums. They are aware of their bizarreness, and agreed to answer questions taken from a famous questionnaire aimed at bringing a few things to light in all this artistic confusion

In 2002, Belarus introduced new legislation on religious affairs. Amidst the complex and byzantine instructions, one message was clear – state permission is required to practice religious ceremonies in non-religious buildings. For protestants, who historically have fewer traditional churches, this put them directly in the firing line of the government. Ten years on, how are the conditions of religious freedoms in Minsk under president Lukashenko, self-confessed ‘orthodox atheist’?