coffeefactory, the editors blog

Calling cafebabel.com citizen journalists: ‘MULTIKULTI on the Ground’ 2011-2012

Wednesday, November 9 2011 By Nabeelah | What's On

For the seventh year in a row cafebabel.com the European magazine continues to go ‘on the ground’ with its Europe-wide monthly reporting missions.

After the successes of EU Crisis on the ground (2009/ 2010) and Green Europe on the ground (2010/ 2011), we can confirm that for 2011/ 2012, we shall be sending a cafebabel.com editor and four citizen journalists and photographers out to a different European city every month from November 2011 in the framework of ‘MULTIKULTI on the ground'.

Multiwhatty what where now?

Image © Cedric Audinot for cafebabel.com

What a word - that stands for 'Multiculturalism on the ground', folks, as inspired by the German chancellor Angela Merkel’s famous saying this year, ‘MultiKulti is dead’.

The start

'cafebabel.com'' is a citizen media aiming to empower European citizens. Young journalists have the opportunity of experiencing a genuine journalistic experience reporting 'on the ground'. In 2011/ 12 we go 'multikulti', and not just to any city: we usually visit cities where we have welcoming, existed or freshly-created local teams of volunteers and journalists.

The spiel

Once upon a time (well, 2010) in Germany, a chairman on the German Bundesbank, Thilo Sarrazin, published a best-selling anti-Islam book called ‘Germany Abolishes Itself’ (Deutschland schafft sich ab). The next thing you knew, Angela Merkel came out with the statement that ‘multikulti has failed’. The German chancellor was joined by a growing number of political leaders such as English prime minister David Cameron, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in her musings.

If we believe our politicians, the recent debates over national identity and the rise of right extremist voices in many EU countries, then hi-ho, ‘multikulti’ has indeed come to a dead end in Europe. So what does your average person on the ground say? What issues are overlooked, or underlooked? Where’s the funk in the angle on this story?

Where cafebabel.com comes in

...is where our generation comes in – we represent a mobile and open-minded generation trying to break down imaginary walls between cultures. Wasn’t there something about ‘unity in diversity’ somewhere in this game? Scapegoating is no solution. Multiculturalism cannot be blamed for all the problems that Europe has to tackle nowadays; multiculturalism is a fact! Our citizen journalists will concentrate on this mission in articles and photo galleries to be published on cafebabel.com between 2011-2012. __ How?__

We are organising a series of ten feature editions and debates with a critical perspective on close-to-the people multiculturalism issues all over Europe. The project will be kicked off in the magnificent Rome between 23-27 November, home of one of cafebabel’s most vintage local teams, and where the first citizen journalist team is going to head. The second mission is slated for Vilnius between 8-11 December 2011.

__Who’s in? __ Our hosts with the most are:

cafebabel.com Rome (November 2011)

cafebabel.com Vilnius (December 2011)

cafebabel.com Paris (January 2012)

cafebabel.com Athens

cafebabel.com Vienna

cafebabel.com Strasbourg

cafebabel.com Seville

cafebabel.com Berlin

cafebabel.com Warsaw

Plus a huge welcome to one of our newest teams, cafebabel.com Copenhagen.

... watch this space for more cities joining us in 2012!

The principle is simple

FIVE reporters including one photographer and one Paris HQ editor from the cafebabel.com network are welcomed in a European city by one of these kind cafebabel.com local team. FOUR days is the challenge: arrange interviews, conduct investigations, reveal the ‘multikulti’ character of Europe's cities for later publication on cafebabel.com.

Eligibility

Applicants have to be under 35.

Only persons residing in a country eligible for the programme will get their travels reimbursed. It is not a matter of nationality but residence: participants can only come from and travel from a country that has chosen to participate in this European programme. Thus, the countries participating in the programme are: member states of the European Union + Croatia, Macedonia/ the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania. Participants to Multikulti on the Ground will have to live in and travel from those countries.

The debate

Meanwhile, the local teams will treat themselves with cafe shots over a debate on multiculturalism in Europe with guests from civil society and opinion leaders in their country. Follow the debate's programme on the cafebabel.com cityblogs

Publishing your article: back in Paris

Back home, our editors will edit and publish the articles (by now translated into all six official languages of the magazine) on cafebabel.com

Are you in?

Only serious candidates interested in writing and producing an original, fresh and well-researched article for cafebabel.com need apply with your ideas and thoughts.

Contact redaktion@cafebabel.com

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. The Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Job offer: Cafebabel.com recruits a Polish journalist/ web editor! (now closed)

Wednesday, October 5 2011 By Katha | What's On

Do you want to join cafebabel.com in Paris?

Cafebabel.com is looking for a journalist and web editor for the polish language version of the magazine.

This is a 9 months contract starting end of October 2011 as 'volontaire en service civique' in cafebabel.com headquarters in Paris.

In order to be eligible for this position, you must be under 26 years of age and native Polish speaker.

Interested in the position? Please check the full description in Polish or in French on coffeefactory!

Feel free to pass it around to your Polish friends!

Thanks, the cafebabel.com team

Readers' emails: hanging out at Cafe Babel in Cihangir, Istanbul

Tuesday, September 27 2011 By coffee_girl | What's On

'My favourite place in the whole of Istanbul is Cafe Babel. In the two weeks I have spent here, I have visited it every other night as it is truly the cosiest cafe in Cihangir, a neighbourhood in the European part of Istanbul, where I am staying (and indeed possibly in all of Istanbul). Perhaps this is because of its internationalism. The barman often stands on the street, inviting passersby like me to come in. He doesn’t do this in the way you often see in areas with lots of restaurants where everyone says hello and places the menu in your hands while you are walking on down the street. This guy is interested what are you doing in Istanbul. When I accepted his invitation to come into the cafe the first evening, he brought me food and drink according to what I told him about myself: caj, grapes, coffee, aubergines - all fits, trust me! But before tucking in, you need to move the cat that has curled up in your lap as though you are a regular here. The friend I am staying with told me that the owner, Hassan is her friend. Another friend also suggested we meet there as she frequents the place because Hassan's son studies in London where she lives too. When we arrive, another friend is sitting there as she is currently staying at Hassan's. What a space of gathering - local and cosmopolitan and right in the middle of this great city that connects the continents.'

Text and images by London-based Serbian photographer Nela Milic

cafebabel.pl: We bid a warm goodbye to Aleksandra and are recruiting a Polish editor for late October

Monday, September 26 2011 By Nabeelah | What's On

Sadly, it's that time of year again.

We're very sad here at HQ to lose our Polish editor for the past almost two years, Aleksandra Sygiel, who will indeed be leaving the continent for horizons new. She made history by walking into the office and demanding a job - hey, it works for some! - and also being the first ever Polish editor to be based for us here in Paris, as opposed to at a distance from Warsaw. The Polish edition of cafebabel.com was launched in 2005.

Aleks became famous at cafebabel.com for her pointed, solid writing on societal affairs and design in particular. Favourites include the Polish kebab argument (basically, it's the Polish gastronomical version of eating a kebab, but it's not a kebab, we got it).

AAA ZAP

Aleks also scribbled some memorable interviews with the likes of the mysterious Polish blogger Katarzyna, the bizarre Polish communist Monopoly game creator, the French provocative niqabitches and even with a Turkish man beaten for defending a couple kissing in public.

AAA ZAP2

Then of course there were her extremely enjoyable reports from cities as diverse as Vilnius, Budapest or Skopje. Basically, we're also sad to see a talented writer go. Heck, Aleks was even our very own survivor of the Iceland volcano attack on the European peoples. In the news, we could say that Aleksandra's historical tenure started with an event called 'Polish pussy days', passed the 31st anniversary of the Solidarnosc movement as well as the tragic death of the country's president, and ends now with the Polish presidency of the European union, which is running until December.

But we wish you lots of luck, Dorothy! Click on those red shoes! In the meanwhile, whoever feels they could fill Aleksandra's shoes - they would have to be a Polish native, of course - should check out the job offer, which can be found in Polish and French, and get in touch to make some new history with us.

If you know someone who might fancy a jaunt to the French capital to spread the Polski love, we'd appreciate if you could spread the word!

Exclusive: Orient Express video highlights from cb.com's summer university in Dubrovnik, Croatia

Friday, September 23 2011 By Nabeelah | What's On

The Babel Ackademy's sixth event counted on 33 participants from the following EU and Balkan countries: Austria, Belgium, Serbia, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Poland, Germany, Croatia, Denmark, Republic of Macedonia/ FYROM, Hungary, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. These included journalists, photographers, local active cafebabel.com teams from various cities in Europe as well as Paris HQ.

All images and video by Lucille Caballero. A huge thankyou for this dizzy summary!

Catch: a short photo report on the event!

ORIENT EXPRESS REPORTER brings former French editor of cafebabel.com EU award

Thursday, September 15 2011 By Nabeelah | What's On

cafebabel.com's past year's special edition of reports from the Balkans and Turkey rings in its first European award!

oerlogo

On 15 September the Youthmedia awards by the council of Europe, organised in conjunction with the European Youth Press, saw Emmanuel Haddad win the 'written press' category for 2011.

Pictured: Student journalists in Montenegro are producing a programme for young people at the headquarters of broadcaster Atlas TV | This week it is about young people and politics: good preparation for their professional life later

Read the award-winning article 'Life as a journalist in Montenegro: punchbags and missionaries itching to do their job'.

Read more articles from the year's special editions from the Balkans and Turkey

Emmanuel ran the French linguistic version of cafebabel.com between 2010 and 2011, and is now a freelance journalist based in Barcelona.

Cafebabel.com teams up with German TV channel ZDF on ‘Europa plus’

Tuesday, September 13 2011 By coffee_girl | What's On

Babelians! Send your videos and comments and take the chance to be on air every Thursday at 20:45 on German TV channel ZDF

Do you have things to say but nowhere to say it? Ever wished you could have your fifteen seconds of fame on the small screen? Watch this space – cafebabel.com is teaming up with German TV channel ZDF on their weekly programme ‘Europaplus’.

Europa plus, cafebabel in partnership with ZDF

What?

Every Thursday at 20.45 Europaplus will be covering a different theme – and we’re looking for your views to spice up the programme! Did 11 September ultimately change Europe – or was terrorism already a reality for Europeans? Should we be introducing a European police force? And how far does and should European solidarity go?

How?

Dying to get involved? (You should be!) Go to www.cafebabel.com/europaplus to add your comments and video comments on this week’s theme. Gentle warning to politics students: no need for essays here, a couple of sentences or a thirty second video will do just fine. We’re running in three languages at the moment – French, English and German, but we’re still looking forward to your thoughts and opinions from all over Europe!

The videos aren’t complicated at all: just film yourself with an iphone or webcam and upload it onto youtube. If you don’t have a youtube channel, just drop me a line on a.rutherford@cafebabel.com and I’ll let you know how to upload it on to cafebabel.com’s channel.

Watch cafebabel.com Athens member Georgios Kokkolis’ video and Italian editor Nicola Accardo’s comment on last week’s episode here. (Cafebabel.com crops up about ten minutes in – but we’re working on babelising more of the programme!)

cafebabel.com Athens member Georgios Kokkolis Our own Georgios Kokkolis on Europaplus last week - your turn next time?

Who?

And as a belated introduction – I’m Annie, I’ve moved from Edinburgh to Paris to work on EuropaPlus for the next six months. So I’ll be getting in contact each week to find out what you think about our latest theme. Looking forward to get know you guys!

Now what?

This week’s theme is European borders: The European border protection agency Frontex is being given more power and more money. Will this mean a lock-down for European borders? Do we want a European border protection troop? The programme goes live on Thursday, so send us your comments now!

Babel Ackademy 2011: mission accomplished!

By ovidiu tataru

cafebabel.com was in Dubrovnik, Croatia, for its sixth official summer university in its ten-year existence between 1-4 September 2011 for the closing event of the project Orient Express Reporter.

We’d like to pretend we sped to Dubrovnik from locations as vast as Paris, Copenhagen, Seville, Sarajevo and Athens amongst others via boat. But all 36 of us flew in, or took the bus or drove in if we were in ‘the region’.

We’d like to say a special thanks to Marko and Luka for everything they did in helping out the entire crew of babelians, their help was more than crucial in the well going of this event. Visit Marko and Luka at Hostel Marker!

Stepping out of the narrow streets and onto the main road, there was this space-age rather unusual looking thing at our evening meeting point.

Special thanks to Ms Avis Beneš from the Press and Information section of the EU Delegation to Croatia, Ms. Janja Sesnar coordinator of Kulturpunkt.hr and Mr. Luko Brailo, vice-preseident of the Croatian Journalists Association, our panelists.

We enriched ourselves through a smart and passionate debate about the democracy in Croatia and Balkans and the role that media has. The second day was intense debriefing and enjoying the results of Orient Express Reporter project.

Special thanks to all the participants and see you next time for the 7^th Babel Ackademy wherever Europe opens its doors.

Orient Express Reporter is a project co-funded by European Union!

cafebabel.com shacks up in Dubrovnik this September for its 6th summer university

Tuesday, August 30 2011 By Nabeelah | What's On

Sarajevo, Podgorica, Belgrade, Pristina, Zagreb, Istanbul, Tirana and Skopje.

oerlogo

Between 1 – 4 September, cafebabel.com’s sixth ‘Babel Ackademy’ (yes, it's spelt like that on purpose...) sees 35 journalists, photographers and ‘local city teams’ come together from all over Europe to bid goodbye to Orient Express Reporter, one of two editorial missions that cafebabel.com has been running in the Balkans and Turkey between 2010-2011. We’re heading back to Croatia with a select team of invited journalists, local team members, photographers and videomakers for this, as well as some special Balkan guests for a small debate.

Babel Ackademy

So what did we do during Orient Express Reporter?

International reports by an editor from HQ in Paris and four volunteer members of the cafebabel.com network were published live from the cities in a special edition each month, whilst on a local community level, a series of debates were held by local teams in eight cities parallel to these activities. They were as diverse and new to our European magazine as Skopje, Sarajevo, Podgorica and Tirana. It was also the chance to visit old friends such as Pristina and Istanbul again.

So what do we have to say?

Thankyou, hvala and faleminderet to everyone for taking an interest, for participating, for writing, for interviewing, for fixing interviews, for welcoming, for hosting, for taking pictures, making videos, giving out tips, setting up connections, for reading, eating and drinking with and being published with us. The various teams of European-Balkan journalists heading to a different city each month could not have made it without the local hands who made themselves available out of the passion of the project. Those ‘local’ teams of volunteers in particular who went as far as organising debates – we’ll out them as being Strasbourg (France), Athens, Vienna, Budapest and Sofia - these Orient Express Reporter debate touched some 500 participants together alone.

belgrade

We also celebrated the launch of two blogs from cafebabel.com Belgrade (pictured above) and cafebabel.com Sarajevo.

ovid

Above, our Romanian project manager, Ovidiu Tataru, for Orient Express Reporter and Green Europe on the Ground - both of the yearly editorial missions that cafebabel.com ran between 2010-2011 - as he looked at the first Babel Ackademy in 2010 kicking off the projects... © cafebabel.com's curator for 2011, Anne-Lore Mesnage

Never mind the photo expo

A cafebabel.com first thanks to the Orient Express reporter project was also the chance to preview six of the eight photographers who travelled with the teams on each city mission, and exhibit their work at an extraordinary exposition held in Paris in May 2011.

invite

We thank the French photographer and babelian Anne-Lore Mesnage for her job curating the exhibition for no fee, and project editor-in-chief Nabeelah Shabbir for the recruitment and editorial vision of the mission. It’s finally time to finish up in the Balkans – for 2011 at least, we hope – with some debrief over some Croatian raki, cevapi and juice in Dubrovnik this September.

See you there - and please, be our guest, and read the entire collection of our eight city special editions here, and read cafebabel.com's summer 'best of' selection here

Watch the video from the first Orient Express reporter project

Cafebabel.com recruits: German-speaking journalist and community manager for six-month internship from 1 September

Monday, July 25 2011 By Mélodie Labro | What's On

German-speaking journalist, you are fond of networks and pan-European topics. cafebabel.com needs you! From September 2011 to February 2012, join the cafebabel.com headquarters in Paris and become a community manager for a university-endorsed internship. The offer is available from 1 September.

cafebabel.com internship: 'community manager '

cafebabel.com was the first European online media. It is based upon a very dynamic network of volunteers across Europe and a central editorial team comprised of professional journalists in Paris. It is a participatory media entirely translated in six languages, including French, English, Spanish, Italian, Polish and German, with a community of more than 9, 000 'babelians' from 30 cities and 22 countries in Europe. Cafebabel.com is edited by the Strasbourg-based association Babel International.

Your profile

You are studying journalism or communication, you are perfectly fluent in German (native language or equivalent), you can speak French and English. You are also a 'digital native' and very familiar with social networks. You are fond of participatory media and have notions in video-editing. And, of course, you pay great attention to European affairs.

These skills and interests will be perfect to lead our new project in partnership with a famous German TV channel.

What is this project about? You will run the 'babelian e-community around pan-European topics.'

Endowed with public relations and communication talents, you will be involved in an associative project and work with a young, international and dynamic team.

Your role

To run and develop the cafebabel.com community (comprised of authors, translators, bloggers and local teams) who will take part in the project in collaboration with the German editor and the executive director of cafebabel.com

Your missions

You will coordinate volunteers coming from all over Europe in order to organise local debates and to animate online debate.

You will rely on the large European and participatory cafebabel network: 9, 000 members; local teams in 30 cities. You will also monitorr the political, cultural and social current affairs in Europe.

Your contract

6-month university supported training – your school or university must validate the training contract between you and cafebabel.com (September 2011 - February 2012). Salary: the legal minimum 417 euros + refunded transports tickets (with receipts).

Location: Paris, at cafebabel.com HQ (metro Strasbourg Saint-Denis)

Your application

Send your application (French CV + cover letter in German + recent experiences in 2.0 web domain) to Alexandre Heully, executive director: job@cafebabel.com and Katharina Kloss, the editorial coordinator and German editor of cafebabel.com : redaktion@cafebabel.com.

Invitations for interview will be announced in mid-August and the interviews will take place by the end of August.