Aleksandra Hristov

In the middle of December of this year, one of the most prestigious magazines in Serbia “Republika” celebrated its 20th year in the “Center for cultural decontamination” in Belgrade. This would have been one of the usual magazine anniversaries, if it wasn’t a magazine that since its beginnings back in1987, in time of single mindedness, gathered intellectuals who had enough consciousness, and especially courage, to ask essential questions related to society, democracy, history, culture … For this orientation and persistence of “Republika” magazine, most of the credit is due to its editor in chief Nebojsa Popov, one of the greatest Serbian intellectuals, who has never given up on essential principles of democracy.

At the time when it was dangers and life threatening, in time of Slobodan Milosevic, by the way he wrote and edited “Republika”, he has shown that Serbia does have a chance to be society with European values. If we measure Serbian development by value of people gathered in “Republika” magazine (like Nebojsa), our country would definitely deserve to become part of Europe.

It was such an honor for me to be present at the celebration and personally congratulate Nebojsa Popov and people from “Republika” on it’s 20 years of persistent existence.

Its been a while since my last blog post, but today I just had to do it. For months I was absorbed in starting my new business “Hristov Consulting d.o.o.“. Today there was a wonderful brake from my usual daily routine. At the Faculty of Economics (Belgrade University) I have given a lecture on media relations to students of Public Relations class.

I was invited to speak on my experiences on media relations by Professor Galjina Ognjanov. It was such a pleasant experience. I had a feeling I am back again to my student days. The way these young students accepted me, and with their young energetic Professor Galina, I felt I am back at Harvard University. Looking into their bright eyes, it feels no different if you are in Belgrade, or at any other prestigious western University.

Remembering the state of higher education in year 2000 when I started working as chief of staff in the Education Ministry, it was delightful to see this huge positive change, brought in by young entrepreneurial professors and their staff at the Faculty of Economics, much needed change, that’s also happening at other Faculties in Belgrade. It felt so good to be there. Many thanks to professor Galina and her wonderful students, for this memorable experience.

Emagazin is one of the most widely read monthly magazines on new economy in Serbia.

This is the first paragraph of my article in Emagazin:

What is lobbying?

Reading the title of this article you probably asked yourself what is lobbying? Obviously, word of foreign origin, one you now hear almost every day. First what most of people in Serbia think when they hear this word is ”corruption”, and others think about it as networking and people you know and influence. This other group is (believe it or not) right about it, but in developed democracies lobbying is defined much wider. Lobbying is nowadays very important factor of efficient social and political system functioning (in democratic countries), and is absolutely necessary for appropriate positioning and presence of any country in international systems and institutions (like EU).

You can read the complete article in Serbian language here

There are many answers to this question. But the main reason is my wish to give some of my personal thoughts and reflections to (English speaking) cyber visitors around the world.

I also promise to present various subjects on daily life in Belgrade and Serbia.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I am enjoying writing it …