Croatian New Yorker Club Holds Long Island Picnic - Aug. 7

Contact Anton Angelich aangelich@aol.com

The Croatian New Yorker Club - A Community Alliance of Business People, will be holding their annual picnic on Sunday August 7th, 2005 at Centerport Beach, Centerport, Long Island New York. ENJOY A GREAT DAY AT THE BEACH WITH OTHER CROATIAN NEW YORKERS! Centerport Beach is located on the North Shore of Long Island about 45 miles east of New York City. The beach has a pavilion for the picnic's exclusive use, a BBQ pit, a bocce court, shaded grove, ah volleyball court, and a sandy beach on Long Island Sound. High tide is mid-afternoon on the day of the picnic - ideal for swimming!

Menu: Grilled meats, chicken, kielbasa, corn on the cob, salads, hot dogs, and hamburgers. SERVING TIME 3:00 PM. COME EARLY - ENJOY THE BEACH!
Please bring your own choice of beverages and desserts. Contributions of Croatian pastries would be greatly appreciated.

Cost: $12.00 Adults, $6.00 Older Children, Younger Children Free.
The pavilion will allow the party to go on rain or shine! We're hoping to have Croatian music, if you play bring your instruments!

PAYMENT OR RESERVATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY AUGUST 5TH.

For more information, to make reservations, or for directions, contact Anton Angelich by e-mail at aangelich@aol.com .

DOBRO DOSLI!
 

Izasla je iz tiska prva knjiga iz edicije BB – Biti Bolji

Postovani,

Konacno! U ponedjeljak 01.08.2005.g. izasla je iz tiska prva knjiga iz edicije BB – Biti Bolji po naslovom: 'Imam ideju za posao! Sto sada?' Bit ce mi drago ako budete prepoznali ovu knjigu kao nesto sto Vam moze pomoci u poslu i zivotu. Pokrenuti vlastiti posao san je mnogih, mladih, srednjih godina, starih, zena, branitelja, studenata, pripravnika...ne raditi za druge. Potrebna je samo hrabrost za prvi korak. Potrebna je ideja. Vas prvi korak ste napravili. Kupovinom ove knjige omogucili ste sebi i svojima da otkrijete sve o pokretanju vlastitog posla u Hrvatskoj.
Edicija BB – Biti Bolji (Be Better) je pokusaj da prikaze sve sto trebate znati o pokretanju vlastitog posla u Hrvatskoj na jednostavan, strucan ali razumljiv jezik i za one koji se prvi puta srecu s tom materijom, i za one koji vec rade i vode biznis, i za one koji uce o tome i uskoro krecu u te vode, i za one koji su sada u skoli i koji ce u te vode uplivati za nekoliko godina.
Knjiga je namijenjena ( a tako i cijela edicija) buducim i sadasnjim poduzetnicima (poduzeca, obrtnici, obiteljska poljoprivredna gospodarstva, slobodna zanimanja..). Za razvoj malog i srednjeg poduzetnistva vazno je poticati gradjane, ucenike, studente, nezaposlene , radnike da pokrecu vlastite poslove, tvrtke i obrte. Buduci poduzetnici su ti koji ce pokrenuti zivot, stvoriti tako cesto spominjaju konkurentnost. To je uzbudljiv, cesto puta mukotrpan, ali i rizican posao. Strah od rizika i neuspjeha treba izbaciti i krenuti, odvazno sa idejama koje mogu i moraju uspjeti, svi mi moramo teziti biti bolji, u poslu, ljubavi, zivotu, jer nas to pokrece i motivira.
BB - Biti Bolji (Be Better) je edicija knjiga u kojoj prikazujem put jednog poduzetnika od ideje za posao, pokretanja toga posla, planiranja i analize posla, razvoja i prepreka na koje ce svatko od nas naici u pokretanju posla. To su prakticni prirucnici za poduzetnike gdje kroz konkretne primjere prikazujem poduzetnicima sto ih ceka na tom putu i kako uspjeti ili moĹžda na vrijeme odustati.
Knjiga 'Imam ideju za posao! Sto sada?' ce Vam dati odgovore na mnogobrojna pitanja. Sve sto Vas muci moĹžete naci u jednoj knjizi.
Kako pokrenuti posao? Kome se obratiti? Gdje osigurati novce za pokretanje posla? Tko Vam moze pomoci? Kako do vrha? Kako stvoriti pocetni kapital za pokretanje posla? Sto biste morali znati prije nego se odlucite da pokrenete vlastiti posao?...
Upoznajte svoje prijatelje, poznanike, poslovne partnere, rodbinu,.... sa ovom knjigom. Mozete je naruÄ?iti kao fizicka ili pravna osoba (na racun).
Obratite nam se na telefon 00385 31/243 204 ili mobitel 00385 91/767 5 999 ili e-mail: cikla@net.hr
Narucite odmah ovu korisnu knjigu po povoljnoj cijeni od 80,00 kuna ili 10,50 USD + troskovi dostave postom. Naruciti mozete i na adresi: Sponte d.o.o., 31000 Osijek, G.Cevapovica 17.

Sljedeca knjiga iz nase edicije: 'Hocu biti poduzetnik – nije bauk, ali oprez'

Hvala Vam na ukazanom povjerenju i budite u zivotu bolji i sretni!

Budite Bolji – Be Better

Osijek, srpanj 2005.g

Klapa Sinj and FA Lindjo Present Their Mystic Voices to the World
Nenad Bach Produces Two Magical CD's of the A Cappella Sounds of Dalmatia

CD Covers of Klapa FA Lindjo and Klapa Sinj designed by Andrej Urem, photography by Ivo Pervan

By Josip Bogovic

For music enthusiasts and loversof Klapa singing--stirring vocal harmonies indigenous to the Croatia'sDalmatian region sung in a cappella style--two CD's of great technical andartistic quality produced by Nenad Bach are a must listen.

The unity of the voices and thetechnical quality on the recordings are unmatched.

The first CD called ‘Lipo Ime’(Beautiful Name) presents the voices of Klapa Sinj, a male group of 11seasoned, passionate, lyrical voices that resonate in absolute synchrony andharmony bringing forth the sounds of original and traditional songs.

The second CD is by Klapa FALindjo, an all woman group of nine singers at their magical, spellboundbest.

One of the reasons the CD soundsso great is because the songs were recorded using three of the best recordingtechniques available--Stereo Hi Frequency, Surround Sound and Regular CD recording.

Klapa Sinj recorded their songsat the Church of Miraculous Lady of Sinj. The entire recording took less than 3hours.

“It was all performed andrecorded in one spiritual breath,” said Bach.

Klapa FA Lindjo recorded their CDat St. Catherine’s in Novalja, on the island of Pag. Containing mostly ballads,the CD is meditative. The recording technique places the listener in the centerof the performance.

A musician in his own right witha number of original CD’s in his portfolio, he has also composed music forseveral films, including "Freedom from Despair."

Outside the realm his recordingand film work, Bach has created and maintains one of the most visited CroatianWeb sites in North America called CROWN at www.croatia.org

Asked why he decided to producethese high-quality Klapa CD’s, Bach answered, “There are primarily two reasonsfor doing this project. The first reason is that Klapa music is in our CroatianDNA. It has its unique signature."

"The music is meditativeand has its own mystique and charm. The vocal flavor is unlike any other in theworld," he said. "Why not expose it to the world."

"The internationalcommunity has been exposed to Flamenco music from Spain, the Cuban musicvarieties, Fado music from Portugal and the Bulgarian Woman’s RadioChoir," Bach said. "They all received international recognition andsupport, so why not expose our jewel to the world."

"I like to think that Istarted the beginning of what will become a series of 100 Klapa CD’s that willbe promoted internationally," he said. "I produced five others butthey are not on this technical level."

"This concept is well tiedtogether and includes a booklet in seven languages briefly explaining eachsong. The artwork of the cover and the booklet has mystic images," saidBach, concluding his first reason for producing the CD's.

"The second reason forproducing this CD is that I’m a rock musician who is working on an originalalbum called 'Everything is Forever.' This work will include Klapa Sinj,"he said. "I will be singing in English and they in their traditional Croatian language singing style."

"The work will be similarin form and spirit to Paul Simon’s 'Graceland' album. I expect this album (CD)to be out mid 2006," Bach said.

Bach said he hopes to use someof these variations in his upcoming work.

Asked how he is promoting theCD, Bach said, "The CD is available on my Web site, NenadBach.com. It willalso be available at Amazon.com in the weeks to come."

"There are several concertsplanned: In New York there will be a concert on Dec. 2 at the Society ofEthical Culture. There will be one at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.,on Dec 4 and one in the Chicago Cultural Center on Dec. 7 of this year,"he said. "Presently I’m negotiation deal for radio broadcasting and othervenues."

The cost of the CD is $17. If you like to order, log on www.nenadbach.com/shoppe/shoppe.html , Klapa Sinj and Lindjo are waiting to sing for you.

On the island of Tasmania live about 1200Croatians

Na otoku Tasmaniji - Australija zivi oko 1200 Hrvata. Prvi Hrvati dosli su na otok vec u proslom stoljecu. Najvise ih je dolazilo poslije drugog svjetskog rata mnogi iz politickih, a mnogi i iz ekonomskih razloga. Tijekom tog vremena ljudi su se snalazili na razlicite nacine u raznim poslovima i prilikama, a najveci problem je bio neznanje engleskog jezika.Vremenom sve se to polako savladavalo i nasi ljudi su postajali razni poduzetnici i radili najvise u gradevinarstvu. Na otoku Tasmaniji ima dva veca grada gdje zive Hrvati u vecini, a to su Launceston i Hobart koji je i glavni grad Tasmanije. Hrvati su tu napravili svoje hrvatske klubove, nogometne klubove i crkvu. Svake subote i nedjelje moze se cuti hrvatska rijec i glazba s radio postaje u Hobartu .

On the island of Tasmania which is in Australia, live about 1200 Croatians. The first Croatians came to Tasmania last century. Most of them came after the second world war, either for political or economical reasons. Over the years, Croatians have gone their own way establishing themselves in the building industry even though English was a problem. Launceston and Hobart are the two main cities on the island and Hobart is the capital. The Croatian community have also formed their own 'Croatian club' in Hobart. As well as community clubs there are soccer clubs, a church and radio programs which are broadcast from Hobart each Saturday and Sunday.

http://zvideo.customer.netspace.net.au/

zvideo@netspace.net.au

Elsie Yuratovich Led effort to save Croatian church

Obituary: Elsie Yuratovich
Friday, July 29, 2005
By Patricia Lowry, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In her retirement, Elsie Yuratovich was driven by a singular mission: preserve the Croatian church and culture in which she had grown up. She still lived in her childhood home on East Ohio Street in the North Side, the house in which her grandfather had run a grocery store across from the railroad tracks and just down the street from St. Nicholas Church.
When the Roman Catholic church was threatened with closure and demolition due to the planned Route 28 expansion, Ms. Yuratovich became its most ardent supporter, conducting public and private tours of the church, meeting with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation staffers and speaking at public hearings.
She raised many people's awareness of the significance of the church, including that of City Council members, who designated it a city historic structure in 2001. PennDOT decided to re-route the road around the building and its hillside grotto. The diocese closed the church anyway in December, citing ongoing costs and maintenance problems, but formed a committee to examine the possibility of turning the church into a Croatian shrine.
Ms. Yuratovich, who touched the hearts of many with her optimistic spirit and valiant efforts, died Wednesday at UPMC St. Margaret. She was 83.
She had bounced back from a brutal beating during a May 2002 break-in and robbery at her home, which she believed she survived only by pretending to be dead. As word of her broken jaw and other injuries spread, her hospital room filled with flowers from PennDOT staffers, Mayor Tom Murphy and other well-wishers.
Ms. Yuratovich, who sold jewelry in Horne's Downtown store for 35 years, was always stylishly dressed and coifed, even though it may have been a style from decades ago. Petite and trim, she probably hadn't changed a dress size in 60 years, and with her perfectly groomed hair, she sometimes looked like she'd stepped right out of the 1940s.
She would apologize profusely for keeping you on the phone and then talk for another 20 minutes, always thanking you for your time. Her conversation was rambling and circuitous, but inevitably came back to the point she'd begun to make five minutes before.
She had the most beautiful, ornate handwriting, the kind children aren't taught anymore and most adults don't have the time to perfect. In it, she wrote her memories of Mala Jaska -- Little Jaska (pronounced yuh-skuh) -- the name Croatian immigrants called their stretch of East Ohio Street.
In Mala Jaska's turn-of-the-20th-century heyday, when Croatians were streaming into Allegheny City and Pittsburgh to work in tanneries, steel mills, pickle plants and other factories, many of those who settled on East Ohio came from the town of Jastrebarsko, nicknamed Jaska, about 20 miles southwest of Zagreb. Ms. Yuratovich's father emigrated from nearby Karlovac when he was 13.
Although her mother died when she was 8 years old and she grew up in a neighborhood friendlier to industry than to children, Ms. Yuratovich never felt deprived.
"We always loved the railroad," she wrote. "When we were just toddlers, we were so delighted when our parents carried us to the window to watch the trains rumbling by. When we grew older, we would count every boxcar that went by, sometimes 100 or even more -- and some of us still do."
At St. Nicholas' grade school, she learned to read, write and sing in Croatian, which helped make her a fitting representative of the culture and its church -- the first Croatian church in America.
Two years ago, the nonprofit Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation, established when the church was threatened with demolition, made Ms. Yuratovich the building's unofficial public relations person.
"This was not done through the diocese because we had no authority to do it," said co-chairman Robert Sladack. "We had a business card made up with a picture of the church on it and her home phone number. It says 'Elsie Yuratovich, public relations -- guided tours.' She was ecstatic."
Throughout her struggle to keep the church open, she never lost faith in her religion or its clergy, and was elated when Bishop Donald Wuerl had his driver stop his car in the St. Patrick's Day parade so he could come out and greet her on the sidelines after she recovered from the beating.
She is survived by two sisters, Florence Ziccarelli of Michigan and Margaret Donlan of Cheswick; and a brother, George, of the North Side. Visitation is from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday at Sperling Funeral Home, 408 Cedar Ave., North Side. Bishop Wuerl and Croatian-born Father Gabriel Badurina will offer her funeral Mass at St. Paul Cathedral at 10 a.m. Monday.
After the Mass, the funeral procession will return to the North Side and stop for two minutes in front of St. Nicholas Church.
"We will all say a silent thank-you prayer," Donlan said, "and remember the contributions of Elsie Yuratovich."

Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05210/545453.stm
 

Croatia's Untold Story in Film

Freedom from Despair

This feature-length documentary by Brenda Brkusic tells about the war against Croatian civilians within the context of decades of Serbian-led totalitarian rule. In this film the blueprint to create an ethnically pure greater-Serbian state beyond Serbia's borders is exposed. The untold Croatian story unfolds through the autobiography of the main character Kruno Brkusic, eye witness testimony, and archival footage.

Scenes of the calm blue Adriatic Sea and Kruno's gentle melodies are contrasted with the insecurity of daily life in communist Yugoslavia which climaxed in full-scale Serbian aggression. These scenes of the Serbian bombardment of Croatia still have the power to shock us as we remember when the world looked-on as if gagged and bound.

On one level Freedom from Despair informs us about the Croatian struggle for human rights and independence. But for its Croatian audience the film has an emotional dimension. Through Kruno's story, from Hvar to the forced annual free labour of youth in Yugoslavia, to the streets of Washington DC, the struggle of Croatian people is revealed. We are transported into a totalitarian society where ideological brainwashing, psychological abuse, and surveillance by secret police (UDBA) against the Croatian population begins in the primary school classroom, and follows them to the far corners of the world. According to interviewees in the film, even children had been expelled from school as an ‘anti-state element' or ‘reactionary', illustrating the role of ideology in former Yugoslav society. You were taught one thing at school and another at home. The personality cult of Tito was entrenched in former Yugoslav society.

Croatian political refugees identify with the film's escape scene in the forest. The dialogue between young Kruno and his friends, about a better future in America, is contrasted to the American government's refusal to stop the Serbian bombardment. The film's pace slowly builds, through interviews about the Serbian-dominated communist party, and it increases in momentum with scenes of grief and bombardment. The climax of the film is reached when we learn that the protests and human rights of tens of thousands of Croats in the streets of Washington DC have been ignored by the media. The mood of despair and hope is captured in the bittersweet music of Nenad Bach, ‘Everything is Forever'.

Croatia's Untold Story

Bosnia, not Croatia, is the focus of most contemporary documentaries on the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. Often the inference is that the so-called third ‘Balkan' war was equally Croatia's fault, and that the alleged premature recognition of Croatia was also to blame. The one-sided Serbian aggression against Croatia must be left out of such documentaries in order to justify the allegation of equal guilt. Because the philosophy of equal guilt is central to post-Cold War conflict resolution strategies of containment, it has profoundly saturated the media today.

I will argue that Freedom from Despair, set in post WWII Yugoslavia, shows how decades of Serbian-led oppression have led to the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. I have learned to be objective in my arguments because revolution and communist political systems was my university major. If there had been any bias on the topic of Yugoslav/Balkan politics in my essays I would not have a degree today. At the time university lectures on Yugoslavia generally reflected the status quo, but freedom of speech was not discouraged in tutorials or in essays.

It's possible I was one of the first to write an essay on the causes of the break-up of Yugoslavia. ‘Yugoslavia and the Serbian Revolutionary Tradition' was the title of my ‘Balkans Special Readings' essay in April 1992. In that essay I argued that the political collapse of the rotating presidency and the transformation of the Yugoslav Peoples Army into a purely Serbian Army was part of a long term plan to create a greater-Serbian state.

According to the Serbian dissident Djilas, Croats had to die so that Yugoslavia could live. By 1948 we witnessed the totalitarian takeover of the Yugoslav political, and military infrastructure by the Serbian ‘staatsvolk' or ‘nation builders'.

Post WWII massacres discussed in Freedom from Despair included the murder of over 700 priests and Franciscans. Massacre sites were uncovered and eye witness accounts given. This immediate post-WWII period of communist Yugoslavia is known to Croats as the time of the Bleiburg Genocide, when hundreds of thousands of Croats were massacred. Ironically many Croatian communists or Croatian partisans had not escaped execution. One professor of communist political systems in Australia, J. Miller described the fanatical Yugoslav Central Committee before 1948 as “more Bolshevik than Bolsheviks” (La Trobe University, Lecture, 3 Aug 1989).

The argument that nationalism was controlled under Tito is flawed. Serbian nationalism actually expanded under Titoism at the expense of Croatian human rights, and it was Tito who created a ‘Moslem' nationality in the 1974 constitution. Serbian nationalism was part of every day life. For example in the film we learn that Serbian songs were openly sung in public places in Croatia, but singing traditional Croatian songs was not permitted.

The 1971 ‘Croatian Spring', virtually unheard of in contrast to other soviet crackdowns in Hungary or Czechoslovakia, is described in Freedom From Despair. Marko Dizdar's testimony, (a former Amnesty International political prisoner of conscience) described how the Serbian-led state “ignored the historical presence of Croatian people”. The fact that 32,000 Croatian party members were purged from their positions and found themselves on trial, in gulags, and assassinated as “enemies of the state” is central to why Yugoslavia broke-up violently.

Over the ensuing decades operations for a greater-Serbia were coordinated on other fronts besides politics: during the Cold War Yugoslavia also built Europe's third best-equipped army. As elsewhere in Croatia, in Dalmatia the Serbian usurpation of power, and genocide and an accompanying Croatian exodus due to economic exploitation occurred. In Freedom from Despair, we see an example of this exodus from the island of Hvar, Kruno's birthplace.

Thus, after WWII the demographics in some parts of Croatia had been deliberately altered, as in Zadar County. For example there was a post WWII Serbian influx into Knin, which had been included in Zadar's post-WWII enlarged boundaries. Knin was one of many army barracks in the region and because the Yugoslav Peoples Army leadership was dominated by Serbs their numbers and influence increased. Before WWII Knin had been in the Hrvatska Banovina region which had a majority of Croats.

The plan for a greater-Serbia had its head in Belgrade and its feet in Knin. But Knin had never been in Vojna Krajina in history. The invention of a so-called ‘Krajina' was never the same as the Vojna Krajina. Most Orthodox Morlachi (Vlachs) in the region had originally been integrated into Croatian society and politics, not Serbian. Zadar boundaries had never included Lika. In the case of Zadar County, post WWII western loans ended up as investment in outlying Serbian-controlled townships, enforced by Serbian communist party members and Serbian police. Between 1990 and 1992, thousands of Croats were massacred or forcibly removed from those Serbian-controlled townships. Still others outside of the self-declared Serbian Krajina had to flee because of continued shelling which came from inside the UN ‘pink zone' in Sector South. In Croatia UNPROFOR had failed in its mandate to disarm the well-armed Serbs, who had kept an advantage due to the UN Arms Embargo. Yet all we hear is the fabrication that the Croatian constitution did not respect the ‘minority' rights of Serbs in Croatia.

Human rights abuse so well documented in the film Freedom from Despair was being upstaged by the issue of ‘minority rights' as Serbian bombs struck Croatian civilian targets. The post Cold War lobby for a new definition of ‘minority rights' or ‘human security' in the OSCE in 1991 was unsuccessful, but by that time the commander of Yugoslav Peoples Army in Croatia, Mladic, had been transferred from Knin to Bosnia. When similar massacres later occurred in Bosnia it was called genocide, but in Croatia it has even been described as ethnic strife!

Freedom from Despair documents the experience of Kruno with the American media and government which led him to the conclusion that the pro-Serbian bias of the US State Department led to a ‘green light' for the Serbian aggression. In the accusation against Eagleburger and his financial connections with Milosevic, Brkusic is not alone, as it has also come from more than one journalist, including Robert Manne, or Roy Gutman, author of ‘Witness to Genocide'.

Richard Holbrooke in his book, ‘To End a War', discussed “the greatest collective security failure of the West since the 1930s”. But his claim is absurd, that President Clinton did nothing to stop the Serbian bombing because he had been brainwashed by Rebecca West's book, ‘Black Lamb & Grey Falcon'. You can fool some of the people some of the time but are we to seriously believe that one pro-Serbian author had the American intelligence community outfoxed?

Canada's General Mackenzie is the ‘fox' in Carol Off's book, ‘The Lion, The Fox, & The Eagle'. This book criticizes the role of UNPROFOR's first general. Page 200 describes a meeting between the Canadian Prime Minister, his “Sarajevo-born” (Serbian) wife Mila and General Mackenzie in 1992; and how the responsibility for all decisions had been Canada's during the first months of the horror that ensued. It is well known that for decades Canada's internationalist foreign and defence policies had become inseparable from United Nations policy, and that this had placed Canada in a prominent position to influence the outcome of events unfolding in the former Yugoslavia. Canadian peacekeeping involvement ranged from participating in Europe's OSCE debate, to acting as European Monitors, and to leading the first UNPROFOR operation.

Serbia didn't only have allies in the USA or in Canada, but also in Russia and Great Britain. For example, Russia's fanatical Zironovski stood on the bones of Croatian civilians in Vukovar and declared it to be Serbia, amongst a sea of Russian-UN Blue Helmets.

A former Australian Labour Party Prime Minister has recently delivered a speech about how Australian patriotism can be defined. In 2004, at the launch of the Serbian St. Sava's Orthodox College in Australia, Mr Gough Whitlam's speech began with the words, “No patriotic Australian can vilify the Serbs”. This speech, on a web page devoted to Whitlam, enlightens us with the reasons for the traditional and unquestioning support for Serbs. He extolled the virtues of the ever-close Serbian monarchical ties to the British and Greek monarchy, along with claims about the importance of the West's Serbian alliance during WWII.

The Siege on Croatia

The climax of Freedom from Despair, for me, comes with the shock that there was a media blackout of the peaceful Croatian demonstration in Washington DC. Fortunately some rare support could be found in the Australian media. ‘We Must Rescue Croatia' was the title of an article in an Australian newspaper by Robert Manne, a regular columnist and La Trobe University lecturer of communist history (Herald Sun, Melbourne).

On 13 December 1991, he wrote that the Yugoslav Army's one-sided military aggression (using Navy, Air Force and Army) against Croatia is the most savage since the end of WWII. The deaths of up to 10,000 people to date are all mostly innocent Croatian civilians, according to this article. Manne continued that over 100,000 homes and 200 Catholic churches have been reduced to rubble, and that in Croatia's case, only one side is perpetrating the military operations. According to Manne, the American State Department had given Belgrade a green light, that the Europeans' response has been futile and shameful, and he criticized the Australian peace movement's “vow of silence”.

Conclusions

This documentary exposes the human rights abuse of Croatian people under the former Yugoslavia. In addition, Freedom from Despair helps us to understand how Serbia's role was central to the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. I have also argued in the same theme as the film, that the traditional allies of Serbia and the United Nations were responsible for the spread of war to Bosnia. The ineffective international response to this one-sided aggression, and the dire consequences of re-defining terrorism as ethnic cleansing or ethnic tensions have led to the death of 250,000 innocent people. A further two million innocent civilians should not have been displaced to appease Serbian aggression (half a million Croats amongst them). The Croatian victims should not be on trial today for defending their homeland and their lives.

Jean Lunt Marinovic
www.croatianviewpoint.com
July 30, 2005
 

14. Europska Konferencija o Citanju

'Pismenost bez granica', u organizaciji Europskog odbora Međunarodne citateljske udruge i Hrvatskog citateljskog drustva, a u cijem ce programu sudjelovati strucnjaci i znanstvenici iz cijeloga svijeta, odrzat ce se u Zagrebu od 31. srpnja do 3. kolovoza 2005.
Predavanja ce odrzati: Richard Allington, Predsjednik Međunarodne citateljske udruge, SAD; Kay Raseroka, Predsjednica Međunarodnog saveza knjiznicnih drustava i institucija, Botsvana; Aleksandar Stipcevic, profesor u mirovini, Sveuciliste u Zagrebu; Renate Valtin, Sveuciliste Humboldt Berlin, Njemacka i Danko Plevnik, novinar 'Slobodne Dalmacije', Hrvatska.
Radni jezik Konferencije bit ce engleski.
Poseban program na hrvatskom jeziku bit ce posvecen problematici pocetnog citanja.
Vise informacija potrazite na www.hcd.hr/conference

http://www.ffdi.hr/studentski-zbor/znanost.php

Animal welfare experts and enthusiasts from over 40 countries

will be gathering on the beautiful Dalmatian coast of Croatia
 

Latest Pet Industry News Fri, 29 Jul 2005
Friday 29 July 2005 headlines >>
Croatia To Host 7th Annual ICAWC Event
Animal welfare experts and enthusiasts from over 40 countries will be gathering on the beautiful Dalmatian coast of Croatia for the seventh International Companion Animal Welfare Conference (ICAWC), 18th and 19th October 2005.

Organised by UK charity, Dogs Trust and North Shore Animal League International, an international organisation dedicated to saving animals' lives, the event is expected to attract around 300 delegates over two days.

ICAWC is established as the foremost companion animal welfare conference in the world. The international conference was founded with the aim of working towards a world where no healthy companion animal is destroyed for want of a caring home, with responsible owners.

World experts in fields essential to successful animal welfare will be speaking, and will cover areas including animal behaviour problems, legislation, fundraising, running animal shelters, and strategy.

Co-chairmen Clarissa Baldwin, Dogs Trust Chief Executive, and Roger Weeks, Director of North Shore Animal League International, explain:

"ICAWC is going from strength to strength. The conference was set up in 1996 to provide a world platform for organisations to share information and to equip us all with the knowledge we need to make the world a better place for our pets.

"It's only by listening to other people about what works, and what doesn't, that we can hope to improve the lives of pet animals around the world.

"There will be a wealth of experience amongst the delegates, as well as expert advice from the speakers, so the conference provides a great opportunity to talk to fellow animal welfare workers from around the world."

Booking details:

Conference registration fee: €35 per person

Delegates need to complete and return a registration form. This is available online at www.icawc.org.

Submitted by: Steve O'Malley - steve@ukpets.co.uk

http://www.ukpets.co.uk/ukp/index.php?rtn=temp66_249_67_185_at_2058&sf=1517926833&section=Home&sub=News&rws=&method=fetch&item=942&tb=introduction
 

Connor Vlakancic Candidate for US Senat

www.ConnorVlakancic.com

Greetings to Croatian-Americans,

Since my previous communications, I have gathered solid achievements in forwarding my deliverable to be
elected the first Croatian-American US Senator. And from California too, as this is very appropriate given the many similar characteristics between The Republic of Croatia and the Republic of California. There is now an introduction to my campaign at:www.connorvlakancic.com  .

The singular imperative is now to emphasize that my election is attainable, and that my election will be achieved with the resultant focused recognition for Croatian objectives. For those people who would think such an accomplishment, to unseat the current Senator Diane Feinstein is impossible, here is a progress report of many of my activities and achievements, with the implications, to validate the conclusion of my elect-ability.

The content is of such length so as to include the many Croatian-American events that I have attended, as I desire to confirm my appreciation for such considerable support as has been shown to me. However, perhaps you will just desire to only read those paragraphs that are most relevant to your own conclusion that I can and will achieve election as the first Croatian-American US Senator.

I am now a Trustee at the Committee for Economic Developmentwww.ced.org  . CED is the highly regarded non-partisan U.S. national policy think-tank (located in WDC). I was installed on 13 May in New York during the annual CED event. A part of my agenda is to forward an official relationship with an appropriate national policy think-tank in Croatia. I also have my own specific agenda to closely network together the 24 CED Trustees in California to establish a business purpose compatible media news distribution channel in support of my controversial California initiative-proposition for Licensed Alcoholic Beverages.

During this mid May visit to New York, I developed a close personal relationship with Nenad Bach who has earned considerable Croatian recognition. Nenad attended the CED event as a reporter to all Croatian media outlets. We are now collaborating to communicate my U.S. campaign directly to the Croatian community through his CROWN web site www.croatianworld.net  or www.croatia.org , and effectively express Croatian issues to the general media as my campaign activities are implemented.

Additionally during May, I visited at length with Consul General Marica Matkovic in Chicago and Consul General Petar Ljubicic in New York. Also Vedran Matosic from the Tourist Board of Split and Nena Komarica from the Croatian National Tourist Office. In each meeting establishing a personal level of rapport and support for news distribution of my candidacy throughout the Croatian American community. I also met with Jeanne Oliver of Lonely Planet who produced the Croatia Traveler Guide Book at her promotion event in New York where there was keen media attention for Croatia.

I subsequently flew to attend the Young America’s Foundation (YAF)www.freedomfest.com  youth leadership training event in Las Vegas, NE. I meet with Ron Robinson, President of YAF and the many youth leaders that continually refresh the President Ronald Reagan conservative legacy to all Americans. President Reagan and I were both born in conservative Northern Illinois, within fifty miles of each other (different year). I was invited to encourage Croatian-American youth to seek attendance to the West Coast Leadership Conference in Santa Barbara, CA in November 2005. (See 1994 details at:http://www.yaf.org/conferences/regional/conference.asp )

I also enjoyed the Las Vegas Croatian-American picnic. Zoran Sova described my introduction to the picnic revelers in a Croatian Chronicle newspaper story. I won a bottle of Maraska Slivovica in the raffle whereupon the only logical action was to open it and share it all around with much lively “Ziviliâ€?.

Returning to New York in late June, I visited the new office of The Croatian Chronicle newspaper and enjoyed a meeting with Visnja Miocic and Vanessa Lucin that resulted in a comprehensive profile in the June issue. While the story says: “hopes to become … Senatorâ€?, “hopeâ€? is not in my vocabulary. I am determined to achieve this result and I have now (on 11 July) captured the California infrastructure support to assure my position on California’s November 2006 General Election ballot.

Following my CC interview, I spent a week in WDC meeting with CED and other strategic organizations and with 15 congressional members and Chief of Staff on Capital Hill. While it was a challenge to explain to the entrenched career-politician mindset how a controversial, but thoroughly logical, California initiative-proposition will capture the independent minded rancor of California’s electorate to accomplish my election, I did in fact accomplish this objective. This fact was demonstrated by serious questions and many genuine requests for follow-up details.

Also, as a new National Federation of Croatian Americans Delegate, nominated by Ed Andrus, President, I had several personal conversations with Croatian Ambassador Jurica in Omaha, NE during this annual meeting of NFCA Delegates on 5 June 2005. Ambassador Jurica requested my attendance to the Croatian Independence celebration on 22 June at the embassy. This event was an outrageously excellent reception, with Chef Ivo Svircic in command of the repast such that you could believe you were at a party in Zagreb.

Ambassador Jurica and I solidified our relationship and specific goals in support for my election campaign that I subsequently discussed at length with Marijan Gubic, Deputy Chief of Mission. I previously had the pleasure of meeting Marijan in Varazdin on 5 October 2002 when he coordinated a conference with The Institute of World Politics that included the honorable Thomas Patrick Melady, (previous U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican).

I had also just previously attended the Croatian Independence celebration on 16 June in Los Angeles that was organized by Consul General Sanja Juraga. Sanja introduced me to the audience as the future first
Croatian-American US Senator. This being particularly valuable as this was an entirely California event. Then on the following Sunday was the annual St. Anthony Festival Picnic on Father’s Day, with delightful weather, in the Sierra Madre foothills. Now on Sunday 10 July, I attended the Dalmatian-American Club picnic in San Pedro. Responding in a loud cheer to my question: Anybody here live in California?, I explained the significance of my California initiative, they all “got itâ€?.

I should note that during most of these multiple Croatian community functions and picnics, that wherever
Ambassador Jurica could not attend himself, his most splendid second and his charming wife (the same person), Dunja Jurica, was in attendance and fully engaging with everyone. She is truly an Ambassador in her own right.

Now of utmost consequence, on 11 July, in meetings in Los Angeles, I established the definitive support required to achieve my critical campaign objective of being on the November 2006 General Election ballot as the new Independent candidate for US Senator from California to replace Senator Diane Feinstein. I have joined “Californians for Fair Redistrictingâ€? in united actions with Bill Mundell (Chief Mission Director) as he has dramatically accomplished qualifying the initiative-proposition (with 951,766 voter signatures) that provides a new redistricting process of California’s 53 U.S. Congressional, 40 State Senator and 80 State Assembly Districts by an impartial panel of retired judges. This legislation will terminate the entrenched career politician’s power to create gerrymandered districts that isolates themselves from electorate reprimand. I will immediately take an active role in promoting ongoing Northern California media attention to the developing political issues.

Bill and his team have the proven expertise, the financial lure and the effective infrastructure to gather the 156,000 (even times ten) voter signatures to qualify my position on the November 2006 ballot based on Californian’s popular acclaim of my controversial initiative-proposition which will therefore also be on the November 2006 ballot. Furthermore, I met with Douglas Johnson, Fellow, at The Rose Institute (Claremont McKenna College) that has also been driving California’s reapportionment effort for over twelve years. I am attending a graduate level political leadership program at the Rose Institute during this coming September. The president of Claremont McKenna College, Pamela Gann, is also an active Trustee of CED. Such positive implications abound with many of the CED Trustees located in California.

My controversial California initiative-proposition for Licensed Alcoholic Beverages will create a formal education program of all sociological, physiological and legal issues of alcoholic beverage consumption. Graduates of this training and certification will be awarded legal authorization to consume licensed beverages in California in public. A stellar value in this program will be their substantial youth mentor competencies to reduce to elimination “Power Hourâ€? alcohol consumption amongst the “just turned 21â€? population and new sources of tuition funding to students who have graduated with certification in recognition of their demonstrable risk reduction. Additionally,
this legislation will eliminate the current California statutes that presume it a crime for parents to share alcoholic beverages, often of ethnic character, with their children at home. (In San Pedro, they all “got itâ€?). Seewww.generation18-20.com  for a brief description of a proposed wine beverage college course syllabus.

The current campaign imperative is to further expand distribution of news of my candidacy. Your willingness to inform your substantial network of contacts will be significant in building recognition for the election of the first Croatian-American US Senator.

Lastly, but of a critical imperative, my business is importing and distributing Zigante Tartufi (truffle infused olive oil) from Istria, Croatia. I request your introduction of 5 STAR Truffle Affair product availability to the gourmet restaurants of Croatian owners/chefs (however they may be disguised in name) in support of a lively sales distribution that finances all objectives and activities. In the world of politics, such Croatian gourmet food and fine wines, are in themselves also a valuable election campaign tool to my becoming the first Croatian-American US Senator.

Thanking you in advance for your interest and support, Sincerely,

Connor Vlakancic
connorv@gmail.com
 

Croatian Waterpolo legend Dr. Zdravko Jezic passed away

Umro Dr Zdravko Jezic, vrhunski hrvatski vaterpolist svih vremena

On June 19, after a long battle with cancer, Dr. Zdravko Jezic passed away
at his home in Long Island, New York. He was one of the world's best water
polo players, participating in the 1952, 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games.
Friends and family called him "Pusko."

In Helsinki, at the age of 21, Pusko carried the Yugoslav flag at the
opening ceremony. He returned with the first of two silver medals and was
elected team captain. This was the beginning of a great tradition that
continued long after Pusko retired from sports - his team Mladost Zagreb has

won seven European championships, the most for any water polo club.

Pusko was the first man to play in 100 international matches. During the Los

Angeles Games in 1984, he was the first Yugoslav player to be inducted into
the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale. His legacy was
celebrated in 2002 with the President of Croatia, at a dinner celebrating 50
years of Olympic success - only the Hungarians have won more medals in waterpolo.

This week Long Island will host a FINA water polo tournament and Croatia's
team will play against four top nations. This is in preparation for the
World Championships in Montreal and there should be a moment of silence
honoring Pusko. I've decided to bring my mother and meet with the new
generation of players and coaches. I suggested the USA - Croatia match this
Friday.

In September the Jezic family will travel to Zagreb and celebrate the life
of a great man with his closest friends. We hope that Ratko and other water
polo legends will attend. As a Croatian-American fan, Pusko attended the
Olympics Games in 1972, 1984, 1988 and 1996. He loved the game of water polo
and his legacy was very real. This is a tremendous loss for my family and
we'll need your friendship during this difficult time.