The ‘Karic Brothers’ Award Laureates in 2011

His Holiness Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, SERBIAN PATRIARCH IRINEJ

Being the Serbian Patriarch means being the first father of the Serbian people, and there have only been 45 of them in the entire thousand-year history of the Serbian people. Essentially, the Patriarch is the meeting point of all the hope, all the love, but also all the suffering, sadness and pain of all the people of his race, wherever they live. Ever since Saint Sava, who was the first teacher and life guide, this has been the Patriarch’s function to this day. They may be hanged, exiled or imprisoned, as some of them have been, but they always remain bright stars in the sky by which all religious Serbs take their bearings on the sea of their lives. Today’s winner of the Award, His Holiness, Serbian Patriarch Irinej, also carries the all too heavy a burden of his people’s heritage, which he has to bear with his kindness. God will give him strength to do so.

Extract from the winner’s speech:

‘There aren’t enough words with which I could express gratitude for this prestigious award, which the Karic Foundation has given me, as the Serbian Patriarch. I try to choose words worthy of gratitude, but I do not find them, and I believe that a noble deed, a sublime deed, needs no human words, because the deed speaks for itself. I’m glad that in these times, such as they are, which we are going through, because we are part of these times as well, there is a family that follows the examples of Serbian donors, Serbian benefactors. And, thank God, there is a man who has taken the road, the glorious road of not enjoying his God-given wealth by himself, but of sharing it with those in need, and of placing himself at the service of a mission, a great mission, to aid science, culture, art, and everything of use to the people and which the people need for their existence, their future.
The Karic brothers have accomplished this with their foundation. I would like other wealthy Serbian people to look up to them and follow in the footsteps of the Karic Foundation’s deeds and mission.’

Academician YEVGENY MAKSIMOVICH PRIMAKOV

Mr. Primakov is a man of economics, politics, a thinker and an advocate of friendship.
Valuable are the studies and analyses signed by Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov dealing both with the economy and socio-political issues and cultural, social and philosophical insights of our time.
Primakov’s unique literary opus ranks him among the greatest expert of the modern world and one of the most prominent thinkers at the turn of the century.
In his rich career of a devoted and respected politician, Yevgeny Maksimovich served as the Speaker of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, member of the Presidential Soviet, member of the USSR Security Council, a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Member of Parliament, Head of the Soviet Central Intelligence, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

Extract from the winner’s speech:

‘I am extremely pleased to be part of a pleiad of great people, winners of the Karic Brothers Award. I think that the Karic family is very versatile in their activities. On the one hand, they have their business, and on the other, you see, they present significant awards. As my friend Zhores Alferov, winner of the Nobel Prize, says, the Karics have recognised only personal, but public interest as well. The Karic family so vividly demonstrates how tightly intertwined those interests are. My colleagues and I see it as particularly important that the Karic Foundation does everything in its power to enhance the amity and cooperation between Serbia and Russia. Thank you very much for that.
I am convinced that many generations will go by, and the amity between our two nations will remain rock-solid.’

CORRINE BROWN, Congresswoman from Washington

Corrine Brown has personally contributed to the establishment of new standards of democracy and so put her name in the history of world civilisation.
She was elected to Congress for the first time back in 1992. Wanting to do everything in her power, Corrine in 1999, when the Kosovo crisis was at its peak, arrived to Vienna with her eleven colleagues to try to find a peaceful solution, together with other international leaders. When the Hurricane Katrina struck the south of the United States, Corrine Brown brought together religious leaders, businesspeople, people of good will and was among the first to send humanitarian aid. She shared the fate of the hurricane victims in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, and spent days and nights with them. Her bold speaches in Congress, advocating the protection of human rights, those in peril, strengthening the principles of democracy, are the example how to protect the interests of the people they represent and persist uncompromisingly in an struggle for the rights of every human being regardless of colour, creed, nationality.

Extract from the winner’s speech:

‘Whatever I do in the United States, I always say that it is owing to the grace of God. How would I even be here if it weren’t for the grace of God, and how would I be in the company of laureates of this significant award – the patriarch, academicians, professors, artists, etc.?
Of course, I owe gratitude to Mrs Karic too. Milanka Karic is not only pretty. Her soul is pretty as is the soul of the entire Karic family; I therefore warmly salute you. What you must not forget is that the minute you are born, you get a birth certificate, and when you die – the death certificate, and what stands in between depends on you. In other words, it is upon you to make this world a better place for all of us. We have to work genuinely on it.’

Academician YURY SERGEYEVICH OSIPOV

If there were not for mathematical calculations by the academician Osipov, Sputnik would have never taken off for the universe, the space programme would not have been possible, nor would it have got developed to the extent that goes far beyond human imagination. Osipov is a man who has indebted each and everyone of us on planet Earth. He is a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, professor, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences; a unique person who in reality makes our wildest dreams come true.
Academician Osipov is the founder of a scientific school, he is a great organiser of scientific research, the author of pioneering works in many areas of mathematics and mechanics, the man whose study of the stability theory, the mathematical theory of governance for common systems and systems with after-effect and distribution parameters for the inverted value dynamics, differential games and the general theory of differential equations are part of the golden fund of science of humankind.

Extract from the winner’s speech:

‘I am deeply and truly touched by the honour bestowed upon me by the Karic Foundation by awarding me its reputable prize. I have very much wished to come to Belgrade, that I have not visited for a long time, and meet with you and my colleagues from the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. I hope that we shall soon find time to meet and have a good time as always. I thank you once again for this great honour.’

BRANISLAV VIDIĆ, Academician Professor

Branislav Vidic, professor and a doyen of anatomy, began his career as an assistant at the School of Medicine at Novi Sad University, and later continued his research and pedagogical work in Basel, Lausanne and St. Louis, teaching as a professor of anatomy at Georgetown University School of Medicine (SOM) in Washington, DC, and also at the University of Texas Lubbock, Texas, USA, as of 2008. Together with Professor Zdravko Vitosevic, he wrote “A Colour Atlas of Human Dissection”, which ever since it was released became an indispensable textbook of anatomy departments worldwide. Professor Vidic represents Serbian national interests in America as president the charity organisation We Care and as the president of the Washington County of the Serbian Unity Congress.

Extract from the winner’s speech:

‘It is an honour for me, as a citizen of this country, to salute Mrs Kari} for her selfless effort to improve national sanctities, culture, education and civility for the benefit of the entire nation and our homeland. I thank all the guests for coming this evening to share with us this precious moment. A moment, which I hope will remain in this space as an invisible bouquet of meadow flowers for the coming times.’

Professor dr. ZDRAVKO VITOŠEVIĆ

Zdravko Vitosevic, professor of anatomy and a specialist in ophthalmology, began his life and career in Pristina, and continued to live and work at the School of Medicine of the University of Kosovska Mitrovica. In addition to the position of deputy health minister of the Republic of Serbia in charge of Kosovo and Metohija, he was also Dean of the School of Medicine of the University of Pristina, and since 2006 he has been rector of the University of Priština, now headquartered in Kosovska Mitrovica. He received the April Award of the City of Belgrade for medicine in 2007. Since 2010 he is member of the TEMPUS programme of the European Commission in Brussels with three European universities. Together with the academician Professor Branislav Vidic he wrote “A Colour Atlas of Human Dissection”, which ever since it was released became an indispensable textbook of anatomy departments worldwide.

Extract from the winner’s speech:

‘It is an honour for me, as a citizen of this country, to salute Mrs Kari} for her selfless effort to improve national sanctities, culture, education and civility for the benefit of the entire nation and our homeland. I thank all the guests for coming this evening to share with us this precious moment. A moment, which I hope will remain in this space as an invisible bouquet of meadow flowers ‘I believe that it is needless to say how excited and happy I am this evening to be honoured to be in the company of laureates who tonight are receiving one of the most prestigious awards in this region – the Karic Brothers Award. We who are on the stage of the National Theatre in Belgrade this evening are aware of the fact that the accomplishments by which we were recognised and awarded could not have been achieved by us alone. I would therefore wish to take this moment and express my gratitude to those to whom I owe my presence here this evening.’

Professor dr. DRAGAN MILIĆ

Doctor Dragan Milic is a general, vascular and cardiac surgeon, surgical assistant at the School of Medicine in Nis and head of the newly formed Department of Vascular and Cardiac Surgery of the Clinical Centre in Nis. Under a decision of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia, an innovative method developed by Doctor Milic has been recognised in the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency and venous ulceration. His method has also been recognised and accepted in the United States of America.
Doctor Milic formed a multidisciplinary team in the Clinical Centre in Nis that contributes to the treatment of multiple sclerosis using the method of venous dilatation of stenotic vessels in the neck that carry blood from the brain. For his merits in the opening of Cardiac Surgical Centre in Nis, Doctor Milic received the 11 January Award, the highest award of the City of Nis.

Extract from the winner’s speech:

‘It is a truly exceptional honour to become the winner of the Karic Brothers Award, which is certainly the most significant Serbian award; I am touched and particularly honoured. I would like to thank my parents for teaching me how to be noble and decent, or at least strive for it. I would like to thank all of my teachers starting from primary school to university, as well as today’s one, who broadened my horizons and passed on their knowledge. I would like to thank my colleagues and associates without whom none of these achievements would have been possible. I would like to thank my friends that bring significance to our life, and finally, I would like to thank my family that brings true meaning to all this.’

VELIMIR BATA ŽIVOJINOVIĆ, actor

There are few actors in the world who have achieved an artistic continuity of 50 years in film-making industry that has existed for only one century so far. Even fewer are those actors who bore the weight of all the important events in the growing film as one of the most important media of our time.
In the development of Yugoslav and Serbian film Bata @ivojinovi} played a lead role.
With his appearance on the canvas, Bata immediately obtained the charisma of a national hero. In movies produced in the second half of the 20th century, he revived the archetypes of the Serbian people and elevated them to the symbol of universal values of justice, struggle, morality, humanity.
He starred in more than 300 films, 60 TV dramas and series. But, is there anything more rewarding than countless fan clubs in Russia and China, where Walter, as people call Bata after his famous role (in the movie “Walter Defends Sarajevo”), is a bigger star than any of the Hollywood actors?

Extract from the winner’s speech:

‘This event reminds me of the Oscar gala, it truly does. This is our Serbian Oscar. Everyone over there firstly thanks their family, so why shouldn’t I do the same here? I thank my entire family, and we are numerous, almost as numerous as the Kari}s. There is a seat missing here, and it should remain empty until the one who organised this event returns. He should return to his Serbian people and remain here for good, as my son should.’