Monday 6 August 2012

Britić in the Serbian press!!!

Yesterday, the British Serb online magazine Britić received some well-deserved attention from the Serbian media courtesy of Politika.rs on their article "Britić, a Briton with a surname ending in ić". The article relates the altruistic goals of the magazine's chief-editors Stan Smiljanić and Aleks Simić. Stan explains the concerns he and his colleague Aleks had regarding the state of the British Serb community, and how they began by handing out 20,000 printed copies of the magazine, which they posted to members of the Serb community around Britain (including me!). He also explains their website's predominant use of the English language, even though they originally planned it to be bilingual, and how Britić is at least attempting to bridge the cultural gap between two generations of Serbian emigrants, i.e. those who came to Britain after World War Two and the emigration which started arriving in the '90s.

Of course, I am one of Britić's many contributers, as you can see here. And without bragging, I've so far received a substantial number of responses to my articles in the form of comments, whether directly on those pages or via Facebook. Apart from that, I've even done my bit to help raise the site's ratings by taking part in an April Fool's joke (see here)! So, I am definitely glad to see our community's magazine and website receiving recognition from Serbia, which I think represents a huge success and a major milestone for Britić.

I've met the two chief editors of Britić in person, and I can tell you that they're both truly wonderful and a pleasure to be around; both are very enthusiastic in what they wish to achieve for their fellow Serbs here in Britain, and they're also very generous, hospitable, and they both have a great sense of humour. Hand on heart, Stan and Aleks are truly upstanding members of the British Serb community, and they both make me proud to say I'm a British Serb!