The Homeland is a Caring Mother - Arno Gujon, Director of the Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region

Wherever our people are in the world, it is important for them to know that their grandfather's house is waiting for them to visit it and bring it new life.

Love works wonders of all sorts, even for a foreigner to learn the Serbian language, which they say, is one of the most difficult. But day after day, hours and hours of dedication and the joy of learning, intertwined with a deep sense of justice, which is becoming a real rarity among people, made Arno Gujon start speaking and thinking in Serbian. At that moment, he stopped being a foreigner.

“The Serbian language is very difficult, but it is also very beautiful”. says Arno Gujon, Director of the Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, in an interview for our magazine. “I fell in love with it as soon as I started learning it, and with love, of course, everything is possible, even learning Serbian. However, I read a lot and above all I learned Serbian through books”.

What's been the hardest thing for you?

The hardest thing for me was to learn the cases which are grammatical categories that indicate the function of a noun, pronoun or adjective in a sentence. But I was persistent. The most important thing is dedication and regular learning. For the past five years, I have devoted half an hour every day to learning the Serbian language. For someone who was born here, it is enough to dedicate up to five minutes a day to studying, and in a few months, they will achieve excellent results when it comes to the culture of speech. No one is born with the ability to speak well; it needs to be learned.

What made you want to be so dedicated to the Serbian people?

I was fortunate enough to hear from my father true stories about Serbia and Serbs, and about what was happening in the Balkans. I was 13 years old at the time. While we were exposed to media propaganda against Serbs, my father was able to distinguish truth from lies, propaganda from true reporting. We realized that a great injustice had been done to Serbia and the Serbs, and we often talked about this topic in the family circle. When my history professor justified the bombing of RTS and the reasons for the NATO bombing of the then Yugoslavia in general, I came forward and said that by bombing our friendly people, we are not committing a humanitarian act and that killing journalists is a war crime. The teacher was so upset that he wanted to kick me out of class.

My father later told me that I had done the right thing and that you should always defend the truth, even when you are in the minority.

How did you start to concretely help Serbia and Serbs?

When the displacement of Serbs happened in Kosovo and Metohija happened in 2004, it affected me as much as the destruction of my church in Grenoble, so I decided to do something more. I started collecting humanitarian aid for the Serbs with my brother and sister. We came up with the idea of selling cakes on the way out of the church in Grenoble, on Sunday mornings. The cakes were prepared by my mother and sister. When we collected 60 euros, we could fill a gas tank, with 1500 euros we could rent a van. Then I founded the humanitarian organization "Solidarity for Kosovo".

What do you think is most needed by the Serbs in Kosovo?

In addition to security, the most important thing is economic security. Every year, my organization "Solidarity for Kosovo" helps self-sustaining projects. We distribute livestock and greenhouses, so that people can live from their work, not from aid. Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija are valuable and hardworking, they just need to be helped at the beginning, to start working. We have just completed a dairy cow farm in Gračanica and we are planning to expand the existing farms and build a juicery so that fruit from Kosovo and Metohija can find its way to the market.

In your opinion, what is the greatest injustice that has been done to Serbia?

A great injustice was done to the Serbs in the 1990s. The bombing, as an example of unprecedented aggression, where a sovereign country is attacked by almost the entire NATO alliance, in violation of the decision of the UN Security Council, and in its air strikes uses munitions prohibited by war conventions, such as depleted uranium. This is a crime. Injustice is still being done to Syria today. The bombing was only a prelude to an attempt to seize Kosovo and Metohija, the cradle of the Serbian people and their cultural legacy. But the Serbs are resilient and persistent and have always been on the right side of history, ready to make the greatest sacrifices.

Why do most of the first generation of Serbs born abroad do not know the Serbian language and know little about Serbian culture and tradition?

These first generations often speak Serbian only at home, with their parents, and if they are from mixed marriages, then not so much. When a child is exposed to the language of the country in which he lives everywhere, at school and in all extracurricular activities, even when he speaks Serbian with his parents, it is often not enough. A single mother told me that her child, although she always speaks to him in Serbian, understands everything but answers in English. That is why one of the priorities of the administration, which I manage, is the establishment of supplementary schools of the Serbian language, in which children learn not only Serbian and Cyrillic, but also Serbian culture, tradition and history, and have the opportunity to speak in their mother tongue with their peers.

Do you think that Serbs born in the diaspora, perhaps, are ashamed of their origins? Do you want to immerse yourself in the global culture?

In a little more than two years that I have been in the administration, I have visited the Serbian diaspora in European countries and the United States and I have seen just the opposite, that they are proud of their origins, although they are well adapted to the societies in which they live. I'm sure there are others you've mentioned, but I don't think it's a big deal.

I'm sure you're very familiar with Serbian history. What's a historical event that left a lasting impression on you?

It is difficult to single out just one event. The heroism of the Serbian knights in the Battle of Kosovo, who sacrificed themselves not only for Serbia but for the whole of Europe, then the Battle of Kolubara when the Serbs defeated the superior Austro-Hungarian Empire, then the breakthrough of the Thessaloniki Front in WWI when they heroically returned to their homeland, all the way to Košare and resistance to NATO aggression. The Serbs can be proud of its glorious history.

How do you work with the U.S. diaspora?

Since I have been leading the Management Board, I have been to America twice. Last year for Christmas in Chicago, and this year in Washington. At the diaspora conference organized by Ambassador Marko Đurić, I met the representatives of our diaspora. We have initiated the opening of supplementary Serbian language schools in the USA. In cooperation with the Ministry of Education of Serbia, we will open supplementary schools in Chicago, Milwaukee and Arizona. The Serbian diaspora in America is one of the oldest in the world, and so far, there has not been a single supplementary school in the system of our Ministry of Education.

When can Canadian Serbs expect you?

I haven't had the opportunity to stay in Canada yet, but I believe that I will come because I know that our diaspora there is large and well organized.

French wines are the best in the world, but what are Serbian wines like?

Serbian wines from Velika Hoča are excellent.

What would you say to young people from the Serbian diaspora about Serbia?

I would invite them to come to their homeland, to visit the houses of their parents and grandfathers. Wherever they are in the world, it is important that they know their roots. Serbia is their homeland and they are always welcome there. I'd like to see them decide to live in Vietnam one day.