Posts Tagged ‘radio france internationale’
Caught between ‘The Ringtone and the Drum’
Images of Africa in the western media are often characterised by famine and conflict. The discussion of poverty in African countries often overlooks the facts of everyday life. A new book The Ringtone and the Drumsets out to change this. Its author, an expert on development policy, presents the fast-changing politics and culture in three of the world’s poorest and least visited countries – Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso.
Interview: Mark Weston, author, The Ringtone and the Drum
Why did you decide to travel around three of the world’s poorest countries?
I’ve worked in international development for quite a long time now, trying to work out what’s gone wrong in the world’s poorest countries. What can be done to help improve the lives of people living there? But although I’d spent time in Africa before, and in Asia on short trips, I felt as that I hadn’t really got under the skin of what it’s like to live in poverty. I wanted to find out what the people who lived in the world’s poorest countries talk about. What do they do every day? How are they adjusting to the onrush of modernity and globalisation that’s transforming so much of the developing world?
Eritreans protest outside Paris embassy
A group of Eritean political refugees protested outside Eritrea’s Paris embassy on Friday in a demonstration against President Isaias Afewerki. There have been similar demonstrations at Eritrea embassies in other European capitals in recent days, including London and Rome. This comes following a recently reported army mutiny in the Eritrean capital Asmara, when some 200 Eritrean soldiers briefly occupied the country’s Information Ministry.
Read the rest of this entry »French solar cyclist finishes epic journey to Tokyo
Frenchman Florian Bailly arrived in Tokyo at the beginning of the week after a gruelling bicycle ride from France through 12 countries and across two continents. Travelling on a specially adapted solar bicycle, Bailly harnessed the sun’s rays as he completed the 10,000 kilometre journey in less than two-thirds of the time it would have taken on a conventional bike.
Competition in France’s conservative camp as reshuffle looms

François Fillon, October 2008, CC licence: europeanpeoplesparty
It was make or break time for French Prime Minister François Fillon on French television on Sunday night. Facing a government reshuffle by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in October, Fillon could be said to be positioning himself as a possible future presidential candidate. He has remained obedient to Sarkozy since his appointment in 2007, maintaining what he calls an “alliance”. But is now the time for him to go it alone?
Radio Feature: Focus on France
Video games, bonobo, lemon curd and lies
This week’s Sound Kitchen visits the MuseoGames exhibition at the Arts et Metiers museum in Paris to play video games and find out why it’s just been extended until December. Rachel Khoo, a food creative, and author of Pâtes à tartiner shows us how to make lemon curd. Our regular quiz taxes your ears with another mystery sound. And we have dance music from Bonobo, Alltrics and Fenech Soler.
Radio Magazine: The Sound Kitchen
Mbida to contest presidency after 13-year exile

Mbida, August 2009, CC licence: Democratecamerounais
After almost 13 years in voluntary exile, Louis Tobie Mbida, leader of the Cameroonian Party of Democrats (CPD), announced he will return to Yaoundé on 2 September and is planning to run in the presidential elections in 2011.
Radio Interview: Louis Tobie Mbida, Cameroonian Party of Democrats
Skunk Anansie and Cypress Hill at Rock en Seine
With a line-up to die for, Paris’ Rock en Seine festival this weekend gives French fans a last chance to party before the hordes return to the capital. Californian hip hop bad boys Cypress Hill told RFI about collaborating with Blink 182’s drummer, while British rockers Skunk Anansie talk about thievery, preaching to the converted and their new album Wonderlustre.
Radio Feature: Focus on France
French press review 11 August 2010
Many French newspapers led with football this morning, and the ongoing saga with the French national squad. As Le Parisien recounts, France play Norway in a friendly tonight – and it’s the first match since the fiasco of the World Cup.