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CIL: Why did you set up www.velikabritanija.net?
A couple of reasons have actually converged when I decided this summer that it was the right time to set up this site. Some of them were personal reasons; two years ago I made a slight career change, from journalism and editing to public relations, so after a while I started missing writing a bit and having no exact medium where I could express some of my interests. Having covered mostly information technology and communications as a journalist and then continued working with the clients mostly from that very same sector (software industry, telecoms and such), I also wanted to write about something else I felt passionate about besides gadgets and technology. The web is crowded with technology blogs and I have felt that, despite my technology background, there is not much I could do in this space now.
On the other hand, I have always felt that there is a lack of resources about ‘all things British’ for the Croatian people, even though the experience has shown that they love to visit the UK, and especially London. Most of my friends and colleagues – and even their friends who I do not know but have been referred to me – have frequently come to me seeking advice about travelling to Britain, tips on what to see and where to go. I was always eager to help, but I felt that this is really a kind of advice that would be welcome online. Most of the people are initially interested in only visiting London, which is perfectly fine, but I also wanted to draw their attention to other parts of Britain.
But I did not want to build a site with typical content aimed at tourists – there is VisitBritain and plenty of other sites which do their job well. Some other ingredients were essential, like e.g. bits and pieces from the British history, which would prepare people for their visit, give them a historic background and help them when they come back to reflect upon what they have seen. Finally, I was absolutely certain that there are a lot of people who admire British culture (I do not like the term 'anglophile' for the simple fact that it excludes interest in other parts of Britain) but who, again, have nowhere to read or write about these things. British music, film, TV shows, and literature – they all have their fans in Croatia.
And this is exactly where I would like to see this site evolve in the future. It has now been 4 months since the site is online and the initial response from my readers is overwhelmingly positive. I am, for the time being, writing almost all of the articles myself, but several readers have already offered their help which could be really valuable because I am not able to cover all the subjects myself. The past four months have therefore been mostly about networking: most of the people who wrote comments on site or who have sent me mail are people I've never met before but who are, as it turns out, also passionate about Britain or related subjects. I am using Facebook and Twitter to keep people informed about updates to the site, but I will have to work more on promoting it in 2010. This is just a start, a bit influenced by my day job, but I am happy that I am able to regularly update the site and that there is enough interest to keep me going.
CIL: What are your links with Britain? Do you visit often?
Strangely enough, I do not have any personal links with Britain. I was fascinated with London when I visited as a child with my parents, and then I just kept on exploring London and other parts of the island later on during my business trips and personal visits. I kept on reading and collecting books on various subjects, including British history and culture; my wish list on Amazon is never empty and my visits to bookstores in the UK tend to be on the expensive side. A customs officer in Zagreb couldn't believe once that she was unable to find any cigarettes or alcohol in my luggage upon arrival – only books.
I still have a lot of material on the places I have visited left to feature on the site, but there are, of course, many more parts of the UK that I would love to see – and to write about them now that I have a place for that. Some of the regions I would love to explore in the near future are, for example, Devon and Cornwall, the Scottish Islands, Cumbria and the Lake District, the Northeast, Northern Wales. I tend to plan my holidays so that they include a visit to the UK whenever possible and of course whenever finances allow, but it goes without saying that I would love to be able to visit more often.
CIL: What are the most popular aspects of British culture in Croatia?
There is no doubt that most of the people listen to British music, laugh out loud watching British comedy shows, enjoy British film and TV shows, and read contemporary British authors. These are some of the most popular aspects across all generations. I doubt, for example, that you will find anyone who has watched BBC's comedy or crime series and has not enjoyed them. I have offered my readers a poll in which they were given to choose their favourite fictional detective, and now a poll about their favourite comedy show. Even though a funny little Belgian detective who solves cases in England was voted as the most loved in the end, both of these polls have shown that these aspects of the contemporary British culture are well recognised in Croatia.
But, at the same time I somehow feel that there is a strange paradox at work here. People absolutely love these aspects of the British culture but the general view of the UK is sometimes unfortunately influenced by daily politics. From time to time, you might see a story being run in the Croatian press about the UK (and a few other countries) supposedly slowing down Croatia's accession to the EU over the issues at the Hague Tribunal (there is one such story just today), or on how Germany and Austria were supportive of Croatia back in the nineties, when Britain was not.
I am not going to go into politics now, but this just shows how public perception is formed and it is hard for it not to be influenced by daily politics, especially in the older generation which has been historically looking up to Germany as a role model, for example, with a lot of people who have worked there during the communism years. In a recent poll on my site most of the people have said that a lot can still be done in British – Croatian relations and the average grade was only around 3 (out of 5, five being excellent relations). A lack of investment from the UK is possibly also a factor here, with Germany, Austria, the US and Sweden being the top investors in Croatia and British investments being very few and far between. I guess that younger people, who are clearly looking up to the UK (a lot of them have studied there!), would like to see more British involvement in Croatia as well.
This clearly shows that there is much more to be done on strengthening the UK - Croatia relations, and most importantly – letting public now about this. While it may seem that it has nothing to do with your question, it actually has a lot to do with culture – this is the base all other relations should be built upon. I would love to see the UK being more recognisable as Croatia's friend in the public and hope to see more activity in this space in the future.
While this might be exaggerating things a bit, this is also one of the reasons I have set up my site – I wanted to share my passion for Britain in such a way that people learn something new about the UK or British culture as well, even if they only came looking for typical tourist information.
CIL: How do Croats see the British?
It is hard to generalise here, but apart from what I have said about British culture and its reception in Croatia, and daily politics aside as well, I know that the British are very welcome and desired guests in Croatia. I've heard comments that they are well-behaved, polite and witty, for example. But there are of course preconceptions; I am not talking about the negative ones, but about funny, common preconceptions you have to fight all the time, the same kind you might have about Croats – until you get to know them.
Back when I launched my site in August and posted a note on Facebook informing people about it, one of my friends wrote back, replying that he also felt we needed a site to burst all those prejudiced opinion about the English and the British – you know, just football, beer and stuff, being distant, cold, and other worn-out comments like those. He even begged me not to have a sports section on site, just to avoid writing about football.
I had to combat some of these preconceptions when talking about Britain to my friends as well – I had to comment on British food, the weather (no, it's not always raining, and yes, there is more fog in Zagreb than in London) and the people. But the best way of changing that wrongly formed opinion is, of course, face to face when people meet, which I why I am very happy that there are more and more British tourists visiting Croatia each year. All my professional experience with the British so far has been very positive, and I have worked quite a lot with British companies in the past two years on PR projects in Croatia, for example with British Airways and Costa Coffee.
It is perhaps hard to explain reasons for this, but Croats have always been especially fond of Scots (and, incidentally, the Irish). I guess it might have something to do with Scotland being a smaller nation with a troubled past so it is easier to relate to it from where Croatia has been and where it is now, but this is truly great because, as a PR specialist, I know that you can play that card as well to strengthen relations between the UK and Croatia.
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