Smrikva Bowl Tournament
Book Dedicated to Smrikve
Download Unione Europea e Democrazia Cosmopolita
Smrikve, September 2007
FEW WORDS ABOUT THE BOOK…
In 2005, 10 years after the Smrikva Bowl foundation, Smrikva Bowl was already a Global under 10 tennis tournament and during that year I completed the book: “European Union and Cosmopolitan Democracy, an idea for peace”.
This book is a product of almost 15 years of studies and analysis. It contains my personal experience, economic studies, political science studies, European Union’s integration studies, Ambrosetti’s experience and other cultural studies.
In the book I describe how the respect of some basic rules could contribute to avoid wars in the future. I decided to put the book on-line to make it available to all the people that are interested in the subject and is a special gift to the Smrikva Bowl players. The book is in line with the Smrikva Bowl idea of sharing cosmopolitan values and is dedicated to Smrikve, the place where Smrikva Bowl is held.
I use to say that culture, children, sports and music are already part of the Cosmopolitan World. I also tried to write the book to be comprehensive also to the people that have not completed higher education.
The book is not written for the children but children many times understand much better than the older the Cosmopolitan World. When they become older they will understand the book and I hope they will continue to be Smrikva Bowl Ambassadors.
The book is written in italian. The english version will be on line in the following years.
Download Unione Europea e Democrazia CosmopolitaMiodrag Bozovic
Smrikve, 2005
DESCRIPTION OF THE COVER…
The cover of the book is the picture that you can see above and was intentionally the same as the 10th Smrikva Bowl 2005 brochure. The description of the cover in the book is as follows:
“The Smrikve coat of arms is highlighted on a background of sky and clouds, illuminated by the sun, itself represented by the symbol of the Smrikva Bowl.
Smrikve is the place where Mate and Milka Bencic (Matteo and Emilia Benci) settled down with their family. It is located near the city of Pula. Smrikva is a Mediterranean plant, which in English is called juniper.
Founded in 1996, the Smrikva Bowl is an annual international children’s tennis tournament taking place in Smrikve. This tournament was born with the vision of promoting values which reach beyond all frontiers, towards cosmopolitan values. Children, sports and music are part of the Cosmopolitan World.
The symbol of the Smrikva Bowl was designed in 1996. It represents a tennis ball and a stylised tennis racket. In it some may see the letter “S”, for Smrikva, while others can make out the line we see when we rotate a tennis ball. The birth of this symbol is inspired by modern Spanish art and the city of Barcelona.
Carved in wood in 1999, the Smrikve coat of arms is a mosaic of symbols.
The green shield with a yellow cross is the city of Pula coat of arms. Pula is found in Istria, in Croatia. In its buildings and foundations we can still see the many civilisations that have lived there, during its over three thousand year history.
The second symbol we come across is the symbol of the Smrikva Bowl, already represented as the sun in the cover. The tennis ball in the coat of arms once again becomes the sun, which is the fountain of life. Above the sun we can see the wings of a seagull, which symbolically represent freedom. Looking closely at the coat of arms we can see these wings traced by a golden line above the sun.
The shape of the coat of arms has two meanings. The first is linked to the shape of Istria, at the tip of which is found the city of Pula and Smrikve. The second meaning is in the form of the heart. Love is the cosmopolitan value per excellence, as far as people and humanity are concerned. Various forces have driven human energy over time: ideology, religion, hate, but the purest has always been love.
An additional message is worth noting. The shadow in the coat of arms is not a realistic reflection, given the position of sun. On the contrary this shadow represents the passage of time; like the time dimension we find in a Picasso painting. The meaning of time in the cover also connotes the meaning of intergenerational responsibility. Every person is born without knowing anything about life on this earth and it is the responsibility of every generation to understand and to learn to preserve all that each of us is born with, so as to possibly improve upon it prior to departing.
Intergenerational responsibility alone will allow future generations to enjoy the beauty of life, the sunsets and the seasons of the earth.
The image of the clouds and the sky is born from a desire to illustrate the sky of Pula, which especially in spring and summer fills up with puffy clouds. The sky turns into a blue meadow full of lots of white sheep. The clouds also represent thoughts and emotions which come and go and which should not bind people, but should be left to flow as life flows. These clouds also remind me of the stories my father once told, of the great fun he had flying his airplane just above the clouds. From a plane the earth seems so small, as do so many human problems.”
Miodrag Bozovic
Smrikve, March-September 2008
GOLDEN WINGS AND THE SEAGULL IN THE SMRIKVE COAT OF ARMS…
As I wrote above, in the description of the cover of the book, in the Smrikve coat of arms, above the sun that is represented by the Smrikva Bowl simbol, you can see the wings of the seagull, which symbolically represent the freedom in our coat of arms. Looking closely at the coat of arms you can see these wings traced by a golden line above the sun.
I do like and really enjoy watching seagulls that very often fly above my home and the golden wings in the Smrikve coat of arms make me think of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco and the chorus:”Va’, pensiero, sull’ali dorate…”...”Fly, thoughts, on wings of gold…”.
For those who are not familiar with Verdi’s Nabucco and “Va Pensiero” I am pleased to invite you to listen Adelmo Fornaciari – Zucchero’s version of “Va Pensiero” that in a modern way invite good thoughts to fly on wings of gold…
Recently, Leo Pavela, a journalist from Rijeka, with the help of two friends: Sasa Valencic and Vesna Valencic, arranged and translated into English Zdenko Runjić’s song “Galeb i ja” – “My Seagull”. Historical singer of this song is one of the most important Croatian singers: Oliver Dragojević, but Leo Pavela decided to sing on his own this song and Medvid from Pula helped him to create this Video. Most of the images are taken from the air above Istria.
Leo Pavela’s idea is to candidate this song as the hymn of intercultural dialog between the people in Europe. The meaning of the words of this song are extraordinary in Croatian and it was a hardwork to translate it in English. Walt Disney is among the most successful translator of its cartoons’ songs into various languages and probably the voice of an important English singer would add beauty to this work.
Please visit www.smrikve.com to learn more about Smrikva Bowl, one of the most important under 10 tennis tournaments in the World, and Villa Smrikve and future Smrikve Village, for your accommodation in Stinjan (Pula) if you decide to spent your holiday in Istria, Croatia. In Villa Smrikve you can enjoy tennis, sea, good istrian food, Smrikve wine and olive oil, and events in Pula and Istria.
