Archive for May, 2009
20 years after communism: two films
It was fascinating to attend this week a conference of public sector communicators from across Europe, including a discussion of how to communicate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
What do mobile phone prices and electromagnetic fields have in common?
One day in April, one of my colleagues noticed a paradox on our website: within a couple of hours we had published one article on the reduced charges for mobile roaming calls and another on the risks that electromagnetic fields used by mobile telephony can pose to human health. I’m not going to question the [...]
One third of webcomm unit still floating
Each member of our team will be voting since there is always time to vote. Here at the EP headquarters we will on election night be as much waiting for the results to know how the “camembert“ will be divided as we will be waiting for the turn-out figures. As an incentive for candidates to continue campaigning: one third [...]
Self-fulfilling prophecy?
What’s the one thing people know about the European elections due to be held between 4 and 7 June? Yes, you got it: that there is likely to be a record level of abstention. Am I alone in thinking that if the public were sometimes actually told something ELSE about these elections they might actually sit up and take an interest?
What I really wanted to say.
What can’t be said in a meeting can be posted on a blog. That’s what blogging is all about, right? So, here comes what I couldn’t say in one of our big meeting.
Six degrees
Fortunately, the title of this post does not refer to the temperature now in Brussels, but to a theory, the “six degrees of separation”. I am sure most of you know what I am talking about: that every single person in the world is separated from, and connected to, everyone else by just six others.
The Times They Are a-Changin’
Writing in Prospect magazine this month Steven Johnson and Paul Starr debate the question of whether the changes brought to the media by the internet herald “a golden age of serious journalism” or whether it will bring down standards. As someone whose job is to write on the web, I naturally hope it will be [...]
P.S: I love you!
There is one phrase that comes to my mind when I think of the Open Days 2009: “We owe (it) to those who came, who passed by, who will come, who will pass by” (by Greek poet Kostis Palamas). And I have one thing to say to those who came (or not) and who passed by [...]
No equal representation? No sex!
The European Parliament currently has 31 % of the seats filled with female MEPs. This figure made Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström recently question the representativeness of this potentially most democratic European institution: “Women account for 52% of the EU population. They must have equal representation. How can we speak of representative democracy when half the [...]
MEPs come and go…
As a voter you hardly get the chance to cross-examine your potential choice. And you should be able to trust that the parties have already done this for you, made sure that she/he is up to it, right?
Our recipe for proving that the world is smaller than you think
In how many steps a (plastic) secret agent can reach its target? Well, if you are as playful as we like to be, Evita explains you here our latest project – thatwill start Saturday 9 May in Brussels.
Aaaaaarrrrgggghhh! What’s going on?
A girl hurtles screaming down a deserted corridor. We are told to “be prepared”. What on earth is going on? What indeed? Be prepared.
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