A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

SA

 

People Directory

Vaso Ćuković

Najveći bokeljski dobrotvor svih vremena

Vaso Ćuković je rođen u Risnu, 09. jula 1858. g. od oca Lazara i majke Stane, u uglednoj trgovačkoj porodici, sa osmoro djece. Volio je školu, kao mlad pomagao ocu u trgovinu, i izučio zanat u Risnu, ali, nemirrnog duha, već sa 12 godina je otputovao kod tetka u Trst, koji je takođe bio trgovac U Trstu je završio višu trgovačku školu i odlično savladao grčki i italijanski jezik. Sa 16 godina se zaposlio u, tada poznatoj, grčkoj firmi "Hydias" kao činovnik. 1877. godine je, na nagovor jednog pomorskog kapetana iz Risna, kojeg je sreo u Trstu, otplovio za daleku Ameriku. Prvo u Njujork, pa San Francisko gdje je imao namjeru da se bavi trgovinom. U početku je to išlo veoma teško. Radeći svakojake poslove, učeći jezik , put ga je odveo u Nevadu, grad Reno, gdje mu je živio rođak, koji ga je pomogao sa 100 USD, što mu je bilo dovoljno, da započne samostalo, malu trgovinu. Ni tu nije uspio. U gradu Virginia Sity je radio kao prevodilac. U Virginiji, Neveda, je pokušao da radi sa rudnicima, bezuspješno, a radio je poslove čistača u jednoj bilijarnici, gdje se i upoznao sa kockarskim igrama.  Lutalačka težnja ga odvodi na kratko na Aljasku, a konačno, 1895. g. stiže je u Denver, Colorado. Tu kupuje zemlju, nastavlja trgovinu, otvara tada poznate kockarnice i za kratko vrijeme stiče veći kapital. Zahvaljujući svojim sposobnostima i inteligenciji Vaso Ćuković postaje u to vrijeme jedan od najuglednijih i najuticajnijih ličnosti grada Denvera.  Žrtvujući svoja materijalna sredstva učestvuje u izgradnji i uljepšavanju grada, pomaže razne humane akcije i učestvuje u javnom i političkom životu.

. Read more ...

Publishing

My Brother's Keeper

by Fr. Radovan Bigovic

Rare are the books of Orthodox Christian authors that deal with the subject of politics in a comprehensive way. It is taken for granted that politics has to do with the secularized (legal) protection of human rights (a reproduction of the philosophy of the Enlightenment), within the political system of so-called "representative democracy", which is limited mostly to social utility or to the conventional rules of human relations. Most Christians look at politics and democracy as unrelated with their experience of the Church herself, which abides both in history and in the Kingdom, the eschaton. Today, the commercialization of politics—its submission to the laws of publicity and the brainwashing of the masses—has literally abolished the "representative" parliamentary system. So, why bother with politics when every citizen of so-called developed societies has a direct everyday experience of the rapid decline and alienation of the fundamental aspects of modernity?

In the Orthodox milieu, Christos Yannaras has highlighted the conception of the social and political event that is borne by the Orthodox ecclesiastical tradition, which entails a personalistic (assumes an infinite value of the human person as opposed to Western utilitarian individualism) and relational approach. Fr Radovan Bigovic follows this approach. In this book, the reader will find a faithful engagement with the liturgical and patristic traditions, with contemporary thinkers, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, all in conversation with political science and philosophy. As an excellent Orthodox theologian and a proponent of dialogue, rooted in the catholic (holistic) being of the Orthodox Church and of his Serbian people, Fr Radovan offers a methodology that encompasses the above-mentioned concerns and quests.