聯合翻譯 引用自 China Post http://www.chinapost.com.tw/guidepost/topics/default.asp?id=4375&next=1&sub=1
Tennis star brings former Yugoslav nations together with flood aid campaign
Novak Djokovic has served many match-winning aces on the tennis court, but now he has fired a major one in the flood-hit Balkans. The world's No. 2 tennis player has achieved what no politician has managed since the bloody Balkan wars in the 1990s: to at least temporarily reunite former bitter wartime foes as they jointly struggle to recover from the region's worst flooding in more than a century.
Djokovic has sparked worldwide financial and media support for the victims of the massive river water surge that killed at least 80 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia. What has set the Serbian tennis star's flood aid campaign apart is that he didn't just seek international support for his home country. He also did it for Bosnia and Croatia, which were at war with Serbia. All three countries still harbor a deep mutual hatred and distrust, 20 years after the wars ended and the former Yugoslavia split up into seven different countries.
"My heart is breaking when I see that so many people were evacuated and endangered in Bosnia! More than 950,000!!! Hold on brothers ... help will come from the world," Djokovic wrote on Twitter as the flooding devastated the region. "I also see that the east of Croatia is hit by floods ... I sincerely hope that it will not hit you like Serbia and Bosnia. Keep safe."
The floods have triggered unprecedented regional solidarity in the Balkans, with the former Yugoslav countries sending rescue teams and humanitarian aid to each other. After beating top-ranked Rafael Nadal in the final of the Masters tournament in Rome on May 17, Djokovic donated all the prize money — about US$500,000 (approximately NT$15 million) — to the flood victims. His charitable foundation has since collected another US$600,000 (approximately NT$18 million).
The positive sentiments toward these gestures in Bosnia and Croatia have prompted some commentators to nickname him "Marshal Djokovic" after Marshal Josip Broz Tito, the post World War II Yugoslav communist leader who managed to keep Yugoslavia united by ruling with an iron fist. With his death in 1980, the country started unraveling along ethnic lines. "Djokovic has sketched the map of Yugoslavia, he greets both our and his people ... the slaughter has separated us, the drowning has reunited us," wrote prominent Croatian columnist and writer Vedrana Rudan on her Web page.
聯合翻譯 引用自 China Post http://www.chinapost.com.tw/guidepost/topics/default.asp?id=4375&next=1&sub=1
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