Building a country brand is harder than destroying it

I love Serbia. I would love to see it take its rightful place on the world stage.One way you can advance brand Serbia is by cleaning it up. To a visitors eye Serbia is strewn with garbage, stray dogs, and buildings that simply need a lick of paint.I am choosing my words very carefully (It's much worse than this) I have a photograph taken a few hundred yards from Ada on a tourist cycle path. It says it all about brand Serbia. It is not what the paying tourist wants to see.

Serbia's brand was totally destroyed by the kind of nationalism propogated by Milosevic, and every anti west poster on this site reinforces the message that the world reads into it - that nothing in Serbia has changed.

However, my regard for Serbia is good, it is just sad that there were so many, who in the name of Serbian nationalism, were prepared to tarnish its name by supporting - rather than condeming - murder.

Gino,

I do agree with you of the need to clean up Belgrade and whole Serbia but there's even more important issues to deal with when thinking of building a (more) positive country image for Serbia, as well expressed in the interview.

I think the utmost important words were said in the very end: [...]and get to know your own country!" This means nothing else than knowing the TRUTH, whether pleasant or unpleasant one.

Knowing and expressing the truth of history, of present time and of future plans builds credibility. These factors present the level of positive and creative will that exists in the country. The positive elements of past do give strength and help forward, that's clear. And nation should not allow the negative elements of past to subjugate and defeat it. But the way to avoid this from happening is not to fake the past but see it as it was. New generations should not be contaminated by the mistakes of older generations. But they will be contaminated and made weak if there's no truth about past actions.

And if presence is fair, correct and free of lies the path to future is half done. The image of Serbia will change for good in 5 to 10 years if so honestly wanted.

This is so far from truth. USA is not a popular brand, let alone the most popular. On the contrary, she is one of the most unpopular. Just ask American tourists, in most parts of the world they have to hide they are from USA. They usually say they are from Canada. I think top country brands are Australia, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and so on.

Biggest, first problem is that Serbs MUST realize to what depths they have sunk.

They much acknowledge how low they are, how incompetent, how behind.

This is hard to hear for a lot of people, but it's simply the truth.

You can't build a better tomorrow until you really understand where you are today.

As long as you have a habit of making excuses for yourself: "oh, it's like that everywhere. Oh, no one really cares about [standard thing that people come to expect everywhere]. oh, you just don't understand Serbia", then you will never get anywhere.

Serbia needs to swallow its pride before it even gets a clue of where it is now.

Building a brand???!

Cummon. You need to drag yourselves a few steps from your peculiar state of abject incompetence mixed with pride before you can even THINK of building a brand.

That you're even talking about this is simply evidence of your cluelessness.

Biggest, first problem is that Serbs MUST realize to what depths they have sunk.

They much acknowledge how low they are, how incompetent, how behind.

This is hard to hear for a lot of people, but it's simply the truth.

You can't build a better tomorrow until you really understand where you are today.

As long as you have a habit of making excuses for yourself: "oh, it's like that everywhere. Oh, no one really cares about [standard thing that people come to expect everywhere]. oh, you just don't understand Serbia", then you will never get anywhere.

Serbia needs to swallow its pride before it even gets a clue of where it is now.

Building a brand???!

Cummon. You need to drag yourselves a few steps from your peculiar state of abject incompetence mixed with pride before you can even THINK of building a brand.

That you're even talking about this is simply evidence of your cluelessness.

This is so far from truth. USA is not a popular brand, let alone the most popular. On the contrary, she is one of the most unpopular. Just ask American tourists, in most parts of the world they have to hide they are from USA. They usually say they are from Canada. I think top country brands are Australia, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and so on.

Serbia's brand was totally destroyed by the kind of nationalism propogated by Milosevic, and every anti west poster on this site reinforces the message that the world reads into it - that nothing in Serbia has changed.

However, my regard for Serbia is good, it is just sad that there were so many, who in the name of Serbian nationalism, were prepared to tarnish its name by supporting - rather than condeming - murder.

Gino,

I do agree with you of the need to clean up Belgrade and whole Serbia but there's even more important issues to deal with when thinking of building a (more) positive country image for Serbia, as well expressed in the interview.

I think the utmost important words were said in the very end: [...]and get to know your own country!" This means nothing else than knowing the TRUTH, whether pleasant or unpleasant one.

Knowing and expressing the truth of history, of present time and of future plans builds credibility. These factors present the level of positive and creative will that exists in the country. The positive elements of past do give strength and help forward, that's clear. And nation should not allow the negative elements of past to subjugate and defeat it. But the way to avoid this from happening is not to fake the past but see it as it was. New generations should not be contaminated by the mistakes of older generations. But they will be contaminated and made weak if there's no truth about past actions.

And if presence is fair, correct and free of lies the path to future is half done. The image of Serbia will change for good in 5 to 10 years if so honestly wanted.

I love Serbia. I would love to see it take its rightful place on the world stage.One way you can advance brand Serbia is by cleaning it up. To a visitors eye Serbia is strewn with garbage, stray dogs, and buildings that simply need a lick of paint.I am choosing my words very carefully (It's much worse than this) I have a photograph taken a few hundred yards from Ada on a tourist cycle path. It says it all about brand Serbia. It is not what the paying tourist wants to see.