Serbia, hold on to Pupin's values, that is the only way forward
Mladen Selak Fund has celebrated a great Anniversary in 2019, 40 years of October Conferences, organized struggle for the affirmation of Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin and 45 years since the Assembly of the Social Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) proclaimed the Innovation Movement. As an acknowledgment of our efforts we have received prestigious recognitions from the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Moscow International Salon of Inventions and Independent Fiscal Institution from Brussel, as well as from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from Geneva. WIPO was the co-organizer of the October Conferences in1981 and 1982.
Who is Mihajlo Pupin, the reason for receiving such important awards?
First of all, world scientific giant who set the foundation of modern telecommunications with his patents in the sphere of electromagnetic waves, so that in 2014/2015 UNESCO proclaimed him the creator of wireless transmission of signals, radio waves, mobile telephony and internet. He was respected in all of the world, and the extent of his reputation in the USA might be best depicted by the fact that America gave the name of Abraham Lincoln to its World War Two Navy, composed of 19 ships, in which the first ship carried the name of Thomas Jefferson, most popular American President, and another one the name of Mihajlo Pupin. At the time when after 1945 everything belonging to Pupin in our country is being destroyed, members of the Managing Board of his Bank are being arrested, Pupin in America is placed side by side with Lincoln, Jefferson and other great men.
Second of all, there was no one who more than Pupin lobbied and helped Serbia in its most needing times, thus raising its reputation in the world. There is no greater mind among the Serbs than Pupin, whom we began to forget after World War One and satanize from 1945. Even the name of the great Serbian and Yugoslav patriot, whose entire work exceeds the scope of understanding, was forbidden to be mentioned.
The Innovation Movement put a stop to that satanization when it organized the first Conference in 1979, which showed that words alone are only an attempt, insufficient one, to describe everything Pupin did for its country. Rare are the persons in the world who experienced Pupin‘s fate – to be so little recognized by public in a country where he was born, as a mind of exceptional national value.
Have these Conferences changed anything in the span of 40 years? Have the dreams come true to academicians Rajko Tomović, Aleksandar Despić and Nikola Hajdin, Prof Dragutin Bošković, Dr Koča Jančić, Mladen Selak, first men who had the knowledge, as well as the courage, to point to the great injustice done to Pupin with the creation of the sole cult of Nikola Tesla?
The Conferences succeeded in bringing Pupin closer to his roots. The same is also achieved by today’s Pupin’s Medal awarded to one General and a University Professor, by the daily newspaper “Politika”, by the great book by Mr. Simonović and others – but we are still far from what Pupin really deserves. One should continue with a fight that Pupin receives everything Tesla has in Serbia – a museum, monument and bigger presence in the public, so that Pupin’s system of values would be brought closer, especially to the young people permanently poisoned by reality shows. In regard to the monument, in 2014 the Foundation completed a conceptual design with a model and acquired all the necessary documents for the Pupin’s Monument to be placed in front of the Faculty for Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, beside Tesla’s. The Belgrade City Assembly adopted a Decision for the construction to begin. To this very day, we do not now why the construction was suddenly abandoned. In the past six years we have still not received an answer to our insisting why the Decision of the City Assembly is not being implemented.
Great Serbian Benefactor
Mladen Selak
Mladen Selak (1921-2014) was the Serbian businessman and inventor who lived in the USA. He was born in Bosanska Bojna in 1921 which he left after the second grade of the elementary school. He moved to Novi Sad in 1930 where he finished his elementary and high school education. He did not succeed in finished the Trade Academy due to the beginning of World War II.
In his desire to help young and talented people in the field of scientific development, he established the “Mladen Selak” Foundation which supports young inventors. In his life, Mladen Selak paid special attention to the Serbian community in the USA and people in his homeland whom he helped in various ways. The article published in the daily newspaper “Politika” upon his death best shows how beloved he was in the Foundation by his associates.