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

Bitka za bolji imidž Srbije širom sveta

U Americi se nedeljno u proseku objavi pet negativnih vesti o Srbiji. Poslednja takva glasi da prosečni Amerikanac misli da je Srbija „lažna država u kojoj se povoljno letuje“.

U Švajcarskoj je već običaj da se u pravosuđu i medijima svaki kriminalac sa Balkana označava kao Srbin.

- Čak i u Rumuniji, sa kojom Srbija ima dobre odnose, imidž naše zemlje nije sjajan. Rumuni gaje simpatije prema Srbiji, ali njihovi novinari i dalje godišnje pišu jedva desetak lepih tekstova o našoj zemlji - kaže Rajko Kronja, pisac i novinar iz Rumunije.

Može li dijaspora da podigne ugled naše otadžbine u svetu? Srbi u svetu žive u devedeset država, gde imamo na stotine svojih nacionalnih i kulturnih organizacija i medija. Kako svedoče naši sagovornici, ugled iseljenih Srba poslednjih godina raste, a sa njima se pobošljava i imidž Srbije.

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- U Kanadi naša dijaspora ima zavidnu poziciju, koja joj je omogućila da promeni sliku o Srbima iz devedesetih godina. Recept za poboljšanje imidža je uspeh naših intelektualaca, stručnjaka, biznismena, umetnika i sportista u javnom životu ove zemlje. Mnogi od njih su prvaci i šampioni Kanade. Problem je samo što mi Srbi ovde nemamo nikakav lobi, koji bi sve to pretvorio i u pozitivnu političku priču o Srbiji - smatra Mirko Stokanović, glavni urednik nedeljnika „Novine“, koji na ćirilici izlazi već 20 godina u Torontu.

Slična situacija je i u Australiji, u kojoj pored 160 nacionalnih zajednica Srbi uživaju status samosvesnog naroda. Uspeli su da izbegnu totalnu asimilaciju, da izgrade pedesetak hramova SPC i škola, ali i da daju nekoliko prvaka i šampiona, koje je Australija odmah pretvorila u Australijance.

- Srbija je 20 godina u Australiji tretirana kao američki neprijatelj i međunarodni gubavac. Mi smo tada mirno demonstrirali, pisali pisma, držali govore onima koji su hteli da nas slušaju. Danas najveći uticaj na Australiju ima naš vladika Irinej, koji je čest gost u federalnom parlamentu i parlamentima australijskih država - kaže Milan Prokić iz Adelejda, sa Petrom Kozlinom jedan od organizatora Srpskog filmskog festivala, koji u velikom broju posećuju i Australijanci.

Miodrag Kreculj, jedan od srpskih lidera u Nemačkoj, tvrdi da se svetski ugled našeg naroda gradi u samoj Srbiji.

- Kako dijaspora da poboljša imidž otadžbine kada je jednog dana Novak Đoković kao šampion na svim naslovnim stranama u svetu, a već sutradan na udarnim mestu su vesti kako Srbi razbijaju glasačke kutije ili pale sopstvene stadione. Ima svetlih primera u dijaspori ljudi i organizacija koji vode bitku za dobar ugled Srbije, ali to je jako teška borba - smatra Kreculj.

I pored toga što Kancelarija za dijasporu i Srbe u regionu ulaže napore da poboljša status i uticaj Srba u rasejanju, naši sagovornici smatraju da u Beogradu ne postoji jedinstvena politička strategija srpskog nastupa u svetu. I da ne postoji sinhronizovano delovanje Kancelarije za dijasporu i Srbe u regionu, diplomatskih predstavništava, srpskih institucija i medija kod kuće i u rasejanju za bolji ugled Srbije.

- U Americi, koja je sistematski demonizovala Srbe u medijima, naš imidž može da propravi jedino država Srbija ako uloži par miliona dolara u kampanju lobiranja kod Amerikanaca - smatra Miroslav Božinović, politički analitičar i vlasnik portala „Serbijana“ iz Detroita.

I objašnjava kako je u SAD praksa da se sa po 200.000 dolara godišnje finansira desetak senatora i kongresmena koji imaju uticaj na politiku Bele kuće. Oni mogu, kaže Božinović, svake godine da pišu predloga rezolucije koje bi išle u prilog Srbiji. Pokazalo se, međutim, da Srbija nema dovoljno para za ovakvo institucionalno lobiranje u SAD.

MEDIJSKA KANCELARIJA

Aleksandar Žigić, bivši novinar Si-En-Ena, En-Bi-Sija, Si-Bi-Esa, a danas vlasnik Radio Avale iz Čikaga, predlaže državi Srbiji da u SAD otvori Srpsku medijsku kancelariju, čiji bi zadatak bio da proizvodi i ditribuira članke o Srbima za američke medije.

SRPSKI DANI U VAŠINGTONU

- Srpski institut iz Vašingtona planira da održi Srpske dane na Kapitol hilu, kada ćemo predati najvažnije knjige o srpskoj kulturi članovima Kongresa. Snimićemo film o Srbiji i video emisije, na engleskom, za internet o bitnim srpskim i balkanskim temama i prikazati ih u SAD i svetu - otkriva nam Danijela Sremac, direktor instituta.

M. Lopušina
NOVOSTI 9. 12. 2013.


SA

 

People Directory

Bishop Hrizostom (Stolić)

(1988–2012)

After the death of Bishop Grigorije the Western Diocese was administered by Irinej, Bishop of Niš, from October 1985 until May 1986, and by Sava, Bishop of Šumadija, from July 1986 until May 1988.

The Holy Bishops’ Assembly at the regular session in May 1988 elected Archimandrite Hrizostom Stolić as a Bishop of the Western Diocese.

Bishop Hrizostom was born in 1939 in Ruma where he graduated from elementary school and middle school (High School). After High School he went to the Dečani Monastery where he took monastic vows. He was ordained to hierodeacon and hieromonk by Rt. Rev. Pavle, Bishop of Ras-Prizren. Soon afterwards he went to America to be at the service to his Church and people. He studied at the Seminary in the Russian Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville. He then came to Chicago and helped the pastor at Holy Resurrection Church with his duties. He was appointed temporary pastor of St. George Church in East Chicago, Indiana in 1967. He remained there until 1969. For two years he established firm spiritual roots in the community. He felt a higher calling and responded to it. In 1969 he went to the Hilandar Monastery at Mount Athos in Greece, where he remained for nineteen years. There he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite by the Patriarch of Constantinople, His Holiness Demitrius the First. At one time he was elected a Dean of Mount Athos. He was a librarian in the Hilandar Monastery. Along with the spiritual growth he advanced his intellectual dimensions. He published the Lives of the Holy Fathers in two volumes and the Liturgy of St. Apostle James, which he translated into the Serbian language.

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Publishing

On Divine Philanthropy

From Plato to John Chrysostom

by Bishop Danilo Krstic

This book describes the use of the notion of divine philanthropy from its first appearance in Aeschylos and Plato to the highly polyvalent use of it by John Chrysostom. Each page is marked by meticulous scholarship and great insight, lucidity of thought and expression. Bishop Danilo’s principal methodology in examining Chrysostom is a philological analysis of his works in order to grasp all the semantic shades of the concept of philanthropia throughout his vast literary output. The author overviews the observable development of the concept of philanthropia in a research that encompasses nearly seven centuries of literary sources. Peculiar theological connotations are studied in the uses of divine philanthropia both in the classical development from Aeschylos via Plutarch down to Libanius, Themistius of Byzantium and the Emperor Julian, as well as in the biblical development, especially from Philo and the New Testament through Origen and the Cappadocians to Chrysostom.

With this book, the author invites us to re-read Chrysostom’s golden pages on the ineffable philanthropy of God. "There is a modern ring in Chrysostom’s attempt to prove that we are loved—no matter who and where we are—and even infinitely loved, since our Friend and Lover is the infinite Triune God."

The victory of Chrysostom’s use of philanthropia meant the affirmation of ecclesial culture even at the level of Graeco-Roman culture. May we witness the same reality today in the modern techno-scientific world in which we live.