The day when…
Sometimes, just try it!
Sometimes we agonise about whether we should try something. What if we can’t cope with the traffic? What if the server crashes? What if the language cover is not enough? What about Linux users? What if… what if … someone doesn’t like it? Then, sometimes, unaccountably, we stop worrying and just try it.
Does Europe need another “Green Wave”?
Does Europe need another “Green Wave”? It was the 56th day of my traineeship (yes, I have just calculated that number) – the first one after Petra had left. After I had managed to break a shower in the morning I got the feeling it was going to be one of those days when everything [...]
The War of the Bubbles, or: 1999 Was a Bad Year
I never got her name but I will always think of her as 1999. 1999, the year I went to journalism school and the faculty told us students not to buy a computer, but to invest that money in a driver's license instead. The 15 computers the university had bought and kitted with this new [...]
School Trip to the New World of Work
Cynical old fonx, not without cause, smell a rat the instant you start talking about “open plan” offices. It’s a trick, they aver, to squeeze us into ever smaller spaces, take away our personal domains and generally reduce us to Dilbert-esque cubicle wage-slaves. So what will they make of the “New World of Work”?
My accidental career part deux, or: the WebComm Way
"We are what we pretend to be – so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." Thus the late great American author Kurt Vonnegut defines the moral of his seminal novel Mother Night. It's about an American presumed Nazi propagandist during World War II. Only the reader knows he is in fact [...]
The Buzek Phenomenon
As I watched the presidential election today, I couldn't help but feel a little sad. I knew this was coming, but it is hard to realise that Jerzy Buzek won't be the President of the European Parliament anymore. You may think this is silly, but even though I don't know Jerzy Buzek personally I grew [...]
Togo or not Togo…
This is a blog post I was supposed to write some time ago… But somehow I couldn't find the time to do it last week. Now I sit comfortably in my chair in lovely Strasbourg (yes, it's plenary once again), watching the Christmas market under the snow outside (or almost) and I can remember those [...]
The Christmas video
This video is worth weeks of expensive team-building courses sitting in front of flipcharts or building rafts to cross muddy ponds – not that our employer has ever offered us anything like that – and is huge fun into the bargain. It has become part of the collective self-image.
Today is D-Day
Having heard about life after the end of a traineeship (last post by Andreea), here’s the story of the other end of the process: Caroline’s first day.
When is a birthday cake not a birthday cake?
Do you rely on Facebook to remind you of your friends’ birthdays? What exactly do you think you are being reminded of?
The (Flemish) Art of Politics
Though this was in part about getting to know the quirks and (generally hidden) wonders of our host country a bit better and indulging in a little inter-parliamentary liaison, it was really about doing something together and having the opportunity to marvel at something genuinely interesting, even inspiring. For whatever you think of all the constitutional contortions and political chicanery, the Flemish Parliament is undoubtedly the coolest parliament any of us had ever visited
Farewell or time for new adventures
It’s 15h21 of Wednesday, the 29th June and the usher has come to take off my name from the office door. Parliament’s efficiency is sometimes surprising: my last day in the Parliament is only tomorrow. Anete whom I have been replacing during her baby time will be back on Friday. It’s officially an end of an [...]
Dictators are (also) on Facebook
Damascus is only a three hours flight away from Brussels, yet an infinite distance runs between Syria and our understanding of the recent events. I have been to Syria two years ago. Like in the other “Arab spring” countries, nothing could lead to imagine what would have happened today under the puzzled and incredulous eyes of us Europeans. Likewise, we are far from understanding the spam attack on the European Parliament’s Facebook page by pro-Syrian messages that started two weeks ago is still going on.
Euro..what?
A good looking couple from Azerbaijan won
And…if we did it in Strasbourg?
The political arguments about the dual location of the European Parliament rumble on, but meanwhile, one of our number seems to have made a discovery, fallen in love and found her personal solution.
Is shaking hands with a Prime Minister worth it?
14 May, 13:55, in front of the Permanent representation of France in Brussels. Tens of people were queuing on the street to enter the room where French Prime minister François Fillon was expected to give a speech to European civil servants.
L’isola felice
“Oh, you’re on isola felice?” A secret source says that in the past week at least three persons in the Parliament have referred with this term to our detached building of Montoyer street nr 75, and we, the WebComm, situated here are apparently a part of it. Isola felice. As a happy island, but [...]
The day I called 112
11 February is the European day of the 112, the emergency number that is working all over Europe. Because yes, accidents do not always happen to others and they also do not always happen in your home country… Let me tell you the experience I did with the 112, two or three years ago. Believe me, you should spread the word about this number!
The true twitter revolution
“the web can be killed, it has now been proven, yet the revolution seems to be continuing regardless…”
Two days in Strasbourg for the award of the Sakharov Prize
End of last year, three fans of the European Parliament on Facebook came to Strasbourg to attend the award of the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought. They were chosen by draw among almost 2.000 people who registered to an event on Facebook. Iurii, 22-years old, Ukrainian, and Elodie, 24, French, tell us about their 2-days experience in the European Parliament.
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