The Dutch: not tolerant, only pragmatic

A bunch of stoned people (perhaps that is what’s blurring their minds and making them so liberal?), going everywhere on a bike (because it is cheaper?), eating cheese, raw fish (and an occasional potato) in case eating is really necessary (and boy, the food is bad over there).  All this accompanied by beautiful flowers (read: [...]

Haiku news from the European Parliament

This week, a group of journalists endeavoured to make a “news” experiment. They isolated themselves from the world’s traditional media (no radio, no television, no newspapers) and “produced” news having as unique sources of information “haiku” texts on Facebook and Twitter. To complicate things, they were not allowed to click on the links proposed in [...]

Featured Posts

Help! It’s a blank sheet moment…

It's a classic fantasy. You can start with a blank sheet, your options open, all choices yet unmade, no idea too crazy, no limits except the limits of your own creativity... I refer, naturally, to designing a website (what else?).

“People on the web only look for naked women”

 “Why don’t you help us a little bit with the press, instead of writing those nice stories that, yes…are ok but…nobody reads?” “Ah!!I thought you were only translating few articles…” “Alé, that in the end you only copy/paste the news from the press!” “We show the WebTV to the visitors…But, no, not Facebook….I didn’t know it exists”. “You know [...]

Asides

• Have you ever thought of being your own boss, of being an entrepreneur? Do you want to do what you believe in instead of following the orders of someone who pays you? If yes, you are different. The majority of people in Europe never had this kind of idea. The EC is encouraging enterprising film lovers to prove their creativity and skills by producing a short video that deals with the following questions: What is entrepreneurship all about? What could encourage people to become entrepreneurs? What could counteract old prejudices and offer new visions of entrepreneurship? An appealing  campaign I wanted to share with you. #
• I imagined it could exist but I under-suspected the scale of it. Read this article by the NY Times (of course) about a company who provides content to everyone on the net, creating literal "farm content" where free-lancers are under-paid to write about everything search engines are spotting as commonly sought or of interest for Internet users. Am I the only one shivering? #
• Fans of the European Parliament Facebook page have been extremely active lately. It's not always obvious to us why this happens on this or that subject, but of course we are delighted to see it when it does so. In particular, we have seen a very lively discussion on EU enlargement, which really seems to have got people going. The quality of the posts is striking. There were 196 comments at the time of writing. (Of course, you need to be a fan to see it all, so, if you're not, it's a good chance to join in...) #
• Is social media jeopardizing our careers? This is the question I ran upon when reading through an article today. And here is one piece of advice - job seekers ought to pay much more attention on where and what exactly they are posting on the online environment, since this can jeopardize their careers. According to a survey made in Germany, France and Britain, almost half of recruiters are checking out the candidates' activities on the internet and their online reputation. What does it imply? More data protection or more censorship in the online world as well? And what happens for the ones not very active there? #
• I don't know if there are many Italians reading this blog. But I would still like to point out to you two blogs dealing with EU affairs in Dante's language. Straneuropa is written by the Brussels correspondent of  "La Stampa", a widely-read newspaper. It depicts EU politics with a sense of sharp humour and constructive, pro-European criticism. Sometimes he relates funny, surprising anecdotes from Planet Brussels. Like the one on the Charleroi airport which asks journalists to thank the airport in their reports. Matizandrea focuses his analysis on EU communication policy and on institutions, with a 100% blue and yellow spirit. I was quite impressed by his detailed and well informed portraits of all the 26 candidate Commissioners . And then...don't say that Italian political commentators only talk about Berlusconi! #
• In 2010 three cities will be named European Capitals of Culture, but it's more than just a title. Inhabitants of the culture capitals see it as an opportunity to broadcast their talents around the world. EuroparlTV went to Essen to find out what makes one worthy of the title. Watch more... #
• As a mother you have the right to 14 weeks paid maternity leave in the EU. The figure for fathers is far lower. MEPs are looking to raise the bar for parents to boost Europe's flagging demographic, and to help tip the work-life balance in favour of families. Watch this video! #