British Croatian Society
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News

If you wish to keep in touch with what is happening and would like to join our email list, please email britishcroatiansociety@gmail.com

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Welcome Croatia

 

Preparations are under way for a major Croatian festival, Welcome Croatia, to take place in the UK from January to June, 2013.  The programme is expected to include:

 

- the launch of a photography competition Croatia through the eyes of a visitor in February 2012.   This will run over 12 months leading to an exhibition of the short-listed prize winners in February 2013.

 

Croatia, Sporting Powerhouse will be shown just before the Olympics with a top sports personality to open it and then tour around the UK during the festival.

 

- a map listing all the Croatian cultural objects in the UK and how to find them. 

 

- working with major museums there will be a programme to display significant Croatian pieces in museum collections during the festival with accompanying talks.

 

- a Croatian film festival.

 

- an academic seminar on the early history of Croatia.

 

- publishing a Croatian cookery book with associated food and wine events.  

 

- a project with school children in the two countries working together to explore their differences and similarities.   

 

- music events from classical to contemporary.

 

- a Croatian literary programme.

 

The festival committee, chaired by Sir John Ramsden, consists of the British-Croatian Society, the Croatian Students and Young Professionals Network, the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia, the Oxford Association of Croatian Graduates, the International Trust for Croatian Monuments, the Croatian National Tourist Office and the British Croatian Chamber of Commerce.

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Our Chair, Flora Turner, represented the British-Croatian Society at an event on February 1 to honour Dr Kathy Wilkes. Vivian Grisogono has sent this report.   You can also watch the event by going to the link given at the bottom of this page.

Dr Kathy Wilkes honoured in Dubrovnik

Dr Kathleen Vaughan Wilkes (1946-2003) was an Oxford philosopher, lecturer at St. Hilda's, who achieved a special kind of eminence. Her formidable intellect was matched with indomitable courage whenever she was faced with physical danger and adversity. Details of her adventurous life and academic career were celebrated in the St.Hilda's Chronicle following her death.

Having become a Fellow of St. Hilda's in 1972 at the age of 26, she volunteered six years later to visit Prague, then behind the Iron Curtain, to give philosophy seminars, which were considered a dissident activity. She returned to then-Czechoslovakia several times, even after she had been refused a visa, and was tireless in helping Czech academics and students right up to the fall of the Iron Curtain in the `Velvet Revolution' of 1989.

Kathy also spent time teaching in the then-Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, Brazil and China, but it was in former Yugoslavia that her courage and resources were put to the greatest test. She had become Chairman of the Executive Committee of Dubrovnik's Inter-University Centre in 1986, and spent time teaching there every year, as well as co-editing with William Newton-Smith an academic journal first entitled `Dubrovnik Papers' and later `International Studies in the Philosophy of Science'. Kathy was in Dubrovnik in 1991 when the Serb-led Yugoslav National Army suddenly attacked the city with ruthless, sickening aggression.

For the 1996 -1997 edition of the St. Hilda's chronicle, Kathy wrote a moving article about what life in Dubrovnik was like under siege from September 1991 to January 1992. Her personal account evoked the full horror of the relentless attacks from air, sea and land against one of the most beautiful historical holiday resorts in the world. No journalist's report ever matched her descriptions in bringing home the full extent of the tragedy. On October 3rd 1991, Kathy spoke with calm determination to the BBC World Service for their Topical Reports: `There's no water. There's no electricity. This is the only phone in Dubrovnik. There's fire all around. I think nobody including the Croatian President knows the extent of the damage here. The houses are on fire. About a quarter of Dubrovnik and the suburbs have been destroyed.' That was two months before the specially brutal aggression on December 6th 1991, the feast of St. Nicholas which marks the start of Catholic Christmas celebrations.

Kathy stayed in the city, helping the local people in every way possible, and sharing the misery and deprivations of the experience. She left only to collect aid to bring back to the city, travelling under very difficult circumstances. Besides being brilliant academically, she was very practical: she brought back medical supplies and even an ambulance while the siege was still on, and later on mine detectors when the area around Dubrovnik could be cleared. She seemed specially attuned to practical needs: in her article for the St. Hilda's Chronicle,  written after the end of the aggression, she highlighted the disaster of Vukovar, a city which was suffering much worse than Dubrovnik, but without the international sympathy focused on the latter. She also pointed out that refugees were still crammed into Dubrovnik's surviving hotels, and the outlying villages were totally devastated.

Kathy received several honours for her courage, tenacity, vision and help, including one of Croatia's highest awards (Red Danice hrvatske), but the one she prized most was the honorary citizenship of Dubrovnik, which was granted in 1993. After her death, Kathy's ashes were scattered in the sea under the Lovrijenac fortress. In 2011 the city officials decided to mark their continuing appreciation of her unique contribution with a commemorative plaque on an historic square near the fortress, renaming the square after her. The formal unveiling ceremony was held on February 1st 2012 during the celebrations for the feast of Saint Blaise, Dubrovnik's patron saint. It was attended by a select group of people, including children too young to have known the war, alongside some of Kathy's old friends such as Mr Pero Poljanic, Dubrovnik's Mayor at the time of the siege; Mrs Berta Dragicevic, long-serving secretary of the Inter-University Centre; and Mrs Tea Batinic, owner of the Artur art gallery, in whose house Kathy stayed during the war.  Four prominent people spoke movingly of her achievements from different standpoints: the present Mayor of Dubrovnik Mr Andro Vlahusic, the Town Council President Mrs Olga Muratti, Inter-University Centre Director Prof.dr.Krunoslav Pisk, and Mrs Flora Turner, Kathy's successor as Chairman of the British-Croatian Society.

Vivian Grisogono

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNMH_NOcroM&feature=related

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One of our members has sent the following information about the recent Klapa Motovun concert in London:

The Klapa Motovun concert at St Martin in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, January 17, 2012 was a resounding success, ending with a standing ovation. For those of you who couldn't attend, here are three clips. For those of you who did, a reminder of the wonderful music. Enjoy and feel free to pass on the links.
 
Una Jovanovic
   
ZVONA MOGA GRADA
St Martin in the Fields, London, January 17, 2012

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_ys9D2jpY
  
DOBRO JUTRO TUGO - London, 17.1.2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUADuteK82E

  
SVE JOS MIRISE NA NJU - London, 17.1.2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWWdTK9mKO0

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2011 British-Croatian Society annual dinner

The 2011 annual dinner of the British-Croatian Society featuring the City of Dubrovnik was held in the prestigious surroundings of the Oxford and Cambridge Club on Pall Mall, London on Saturday December 3.   The dinner, attended by over 100 people including the Deputy Mayor of Dubrovnik Mr Niko Salja and his wife, was supported by the City of Dubrovnik.   Dr Robin Harris, author of Dubrovnik: A History, gave a talk entitled The Historic Achievement of Dubrovnik (now printed in the second of the new series of booklets issued by the Society). 

A raffle at the dinner raised 640 GBP for this year's British-Croatian Society charity Napredak from Dubrovnik (www.hkdnapredak.com).  

The following is a translation from an article that appeared in the Dubrovacki Vjesnik newspaper on December 12, 2011: 

The twentieth anniversary of the ruthless destruction of Dubrovnik is still remembered in London. The British-Croatian Society, supported by the City of Dubrovnik Tourist Board and many members and donors, held their traditional annual dinner this year dedicated to the memory of the victims of the war.

The evening was organised in the classical ambience of the Oxford and Cambridge Club, preceded by an exhibition of documents from the history of Dubrovnik in the exhibition hall of our embassy.   This was a logical prelude to dinner, where the main speaker was historian Robin Harris, the well-known author of books about Dubrovnik's past and present. At the main table were Deputy Mayor of Dubrovnik Niko Salja, who came with his wife, and hosts Branko Sorkocevic Sorge and the President of the British-Croatian Society, Mrs Flora Turner. Miso Mihocevic was a special guest of honour.

The hall, which was filled to capacity, included Ivica Tomic, Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia in the UK, with his guests, Mr Andrew Kojakovic and his daughters, Lady Jadranka Beresford-Peirse and her family, the Frankopan family and many prominent Croats and their British friends.

Also at the dinner was the Maestro Oliver Gilmour, recently a resident of Dubrovnik. This provided the opportunity for the Deputy Mayor to announce a new addition to the overall cultural offer of the City - a project entitled the Dubrovnik Summer Opera which will begin in June with the staging of Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte on Lokrum.

A pleasant dinner at the elegant club finished with a raffle to raise funds for a charity supported by the British-Croatian Society.

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Please follow the below link for an article on fishing in Dalmatia from The Economist Intelligent Life website:

http://pitvepages.newscred.com/articles/4991e357eef422ab925da339c961d2ba/fishing-in-dalmatia?utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter




 

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