Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Erin Bryne on Wings: Gifts of Art, Life and Travel in France

 
Erin Byrne writes award-winning travel essays, poetry, fiction and screenplays.

She is coming to Shakespeare and Company on June 16 to present her newest book: Wings ­ Gifts of Art, Life, and Travel in France.

Hannah Seidl sat down with Erin to ask her about travelling, writing and travel writing,

France: How Far Will CGT Go To Block Reforms - Of Unions?

Open secret in France: no one joins the unions.

Paris Fringe! A talk with Reka Polonyi

Paris Fringe has barely started and it's already a huge success. Pitch perfect opening press night. Talent, enthusiasm and risk taking galore. How did the volunteer-run cultural festival come into being and what are its goals? Artistic Co-Director Reka Polonyi took time out of an insanely busy schedule to talk with Paris Writers News! 

 

(see also our interview with singer, writer Sarah Tullamore!)

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PWN: How was Paris Fringe created? Who are the organizers? Their goals?

Pivot Tables - Halaluya!

moved

Paris Fringe: interview with musical theatre writer and performer Sarah Tullamore

Sarah Tullamore's one-woman musical show premieres at the Paris Fringe May 24 and 29.  

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One globetrotting gal bares all about her life as she ponders whether to say goodbye to Paris in a brand new one-woman musical show “London – Paris – Roam !” that combines comedy, existential musings with the audience and original songs. Taking center stage is Sarah Tullamore, who’s lived all over the world…and now France. But is it time, she wonders out loud, for her to pack her bags again and say Au Revoir to Paris for something new?

Asylum in Europe: numbers from Eurostat

The European Union is struggling with the gravest crisis since its founding. Opinions differ not only about what to do but on the scope and nature of the challenge.  Where to get  information? PWN looks at data sources for analyzing - or at least trying to understand - the European refugee crisis. Number 1: EUROSTAT

What is EUROSTAT? It's the EU's official statistical office. It's mission? "to be the leading provider of high quality statistics on Europe."

Countries collect and verify the data before sending it to Eurostat which consolidates it using normalized methodology.

Eurostat publishes data on many subjects: demographics, economics, industry, trade and much more (see list here). Among its publications are detailed data on asylum applicants to EU countries. The data is presented and graphed. Some of it can be downloaded directly into Excel files. Anyone who wants to report on the refugee/asylum/migrant/immigration question can only improve the accuracy of their reporting by consulting the data of Eurostat.

With Eurostat data, a curious journalist (or citizen) can see not only the global stats, but specifically what is happening in each of the individual countries (spoiler alert: the structure of immigration/asylum in Italy is completely different from that in Germany).

 The Eurostat reports on Asylum requests are updated quarterly. This means it's possible to get up-to-date stats as the situation evolves. Compare this to oft-cited census information which is ten years old and pretty much useless in describing the current situation. (How many times have I read articles in the "best publications" that rely on data collected from long before this crisis began!)