EMI Distinguished Professor, Former Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Letter to Friends, Colleagues and People of China

Zlatko Lagumdzija

Letter to Friends, Colleagues and People of China

Zlatko Lagumdzija, Sarajevo 6.2.2020.

My dear friends, colleagues,

People of China,

People who are  suffering and struggling with corona virus that is  deadly menacing while lurking in the darkness.

First,  as a friend of China and Chinese people, I am paying deepest condolences for the lives lost under this epidemic. I want to share with you the most profound respect for all you do under such a terrible and almost  impossible circumstances.

Your  courage and patience, hard work and empathy, knowledge and wisdom is not only hope for saving your great Nation but for the rest of the world as well.  Today you are the first line of global defense of humanity under the grim shadow of the novel pandemic.

This is not fight for your future. We are not in battle for our individual or nation future.

Corona virus is tempting all of us today. Are we ready, willing and capable for having Shared Future or not having future  at all.

"By falling we learn to go safely“.

Corona virus do not care about our borders, our norms and rules, our economic or political disputes. We are confronted with deadly threat for all of us. This is not the first but it can be one of the last viruses threatening us if we do not act together.

Fight against viruses like this is our common threat but opportunity as well to collectively come together.

With Shared Leadership, Shared Values, Shared Security, Shared Responsibility, Shared Benefits and Shared Vision for Shared Future.

Even when the World is wide awake and aware I see hope in this serious situation. The unity of China and willingness to tackle this horrible virus at the same time, but also a huge desire to find a solution, the Cure, and save lives, gives me a hope and also a great respect for the people of China.

You are fighting not only against deadly unknown virus but against ignorance, selfishness, prejudices and even fake news that are sometimes spreading faster than pandemic.

In this battle you are set, once again, an example to the world with your excellent organizational and emergency response capabilities, and  even in situations when it looks that all hopes are gone.

"Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid of standing still“.

China is showing by example again that it is not only about you getting bigger but never standing still.  In good or bad.

Your 5000 years of accumulated Culture, selfless dedication and unity based on accumulated wisdom, and last four decades of historically unrecorded  enormous growth directed in eradicating poverty while building the knowledge centers of global  excellency, are giving me full confidence in you capacity for winning and this  battle.

I believe that one day, soon, your struggle with pandemic will be another building block of Shared Future for mankind. It will be logical consequence of Chinese accumulated thousands of years of culture and recent achievements in global poverty eradication, economic and technological heights.

I'm sure that China has a strength under the leadership of President Xi to prevail this epidemic and overcome  the challenges confronting all of us. Determination driven by force of shared future in dignity and prosperity for all, is the reason why I believe that better days are ahead.

I believe that you, and we, can make right choices for our shared future by getting out of selfishness and short term darkness to  the brighter days to come.

Together.

"After the rain, the sun comes up.“

For closing, I will salute you, with another great poet wise words.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men.

Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat.

And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures“

William Shakespeare