I do not conceal that I am somewhat nervous at this first opportunity to speak with you. It is good and delicate at the same time. Good, for I am able to thank you for electing me by such a large majority. Your confidence and courage confer an obligation. Delicate, since I wish to thank all those who expressed their doubts in order to guide today's conversation.

The question mark was relevant. It highlighted the tectonics of our club. The breaks and fractures which I underestimated in saying "yes" to my candidacy a year ago. They cannot be overlooked any longer, if PEN is to carry out its mission.

It will depend on whether we succeed in forming an architecture from the tectonics, a structure that resists all conditions, combining firmness and mobility. For architecture is always arche in ancient Greek, ein Ursprung in German, interception in English. Actually, a daring leap. Indeed, Ursprung literally means original leap. It describes not only the locus, but also the direction and the target. It indicates the location of the jumper plus his aim. The firmer the origin, the bolder, the longer is the jump. They flow into one another.

What about our arche, our origin, our relation to locus and aim?

When in 1921, in London, Amy Dawson and John Galsworthy joined together to found - what else - a dinner club, their concern was informal dinning, free from the usual vanities of our craft. Above all, they established the first post-national literary society whose importance has not receded, even if we - the latent bearers of the idea - have been tardy from time to time.

I choose the adjective "post-national" to show that our present international construct is unthinkable without this attitude.

The graves of the First World War were still fresh, the lesson of killing en mass still sufficiently instructive. If someone had suggested this as merely the prologue of a more sinister drama, we would have laughed. The foundation of PEN did not arise from short-sighted euphoria. It was the correct view.

Amy Dawson and John Galsworthy were the first writers who publicly placed literature outside the landscape of European national politics. They extracted poetry from the miseries of nationalism. They diagnosed the danger of exporting these over-ripe European goods. Most importantly, they foresaw that literature serves humanity. In opposing the misuse of language, literature dares to name the not-yet-named. It practises and manifests freedom of thought.

The biography of Amy Dowson provides an example: the evolution of patriotism to a selfless, non-aligned body of world literature. To a true internationalism which fights for the non-violence of words, the maturity of thought.

To understand the word as a signal of communication - through an anti-ideological self-release - was new. This freedom was "re-defined" by the German poet Matthias Claudius: "Do not always say what you know, but always know what you say."

Freedom of expression frees us from bivalent simplifications. Freedom of the word and freedom of the speaker complement each other. Freedom of the word and the freedom of literature begin with the cessation of political control, which perpetuates its own ideology.

In the past, our slogan "No politics under any circumstances" was politics. It meant not engaging in small-minded polemics. Today, it still retains its resonance,as we nurture our post-national roots.

Empathy, irony and diversity are the characteristics we need for success. We must seek the opinion of others, express our own thoughts without arrogance, and finally, construct a serviceable unity as honestly as possible.

Given our national diversity, this is not wishful thinking, but the only method of getting down to work.

In this case, a common liguistic ground is the best solution. The pain of communication should be shared. And we, the eloquent storytellers and recorders, must become sympathetic listeners and readers.

This is not always so easy. The more prominent the language, the more pervasive the conviction of native speakers that the other side must listen. But in a post-national age, whose harbingers we were and whose messengers we will be, we exist only as seperate, yet distingtive, parts of the same coin.

Recently, I was very amused when I read the rules for participation in the famous 1921 dinner. Amy Dawson Scott formulated them as follows: "a book published, a play produced, an editorship, a novel…" and - last but not least- the marvellous sentence: "Each member shall pay his or her dinner bill".

The Amy-rule originated in the era of the printed word. There were still writers not troubled about dinner-bills. Now, it is much harder to get dinner-bills payed. The authors in prison receive even smaller portions. As for our use of other languages, such as Spanish, we have the taste, even the obligation to use them, but we still need to print the menu.

As I acquainted myself with our financial situation, I realized that our future imbibes not a moveable feast, but a time of reform and renewal. Though our situation is improving, the future requires that we act immediately and transparently. We must work together. Better communication amongst ourselves could bring about miracles. Even a gradual improvement in atmosphere can improve our image and motivate sponsors. Once financially stable, PEN will certainly contain more working languages to affect greater communication.

I can promise you a view of the PEN kitchen where we shall cook together using consensual recipes. I am looking forward to it. The signs are not bad for post-national activity, as the planet draws us together. PEN as an antidote, PEN stopping redemption rituals, this PEN I like.

PEN should be a place of inclusion, representing a philosophy of living. Wherever post-collectivistic, post-national ideas are needed, we will be in demand. But we must arrive in time.

In preparation, we must prepare, repair our working languages. That is the best way ahead. In our Euro-centric selfishness, we have overlooked such langauges as Chinese and Arabic. These languages belong to our non-missionary work.

In applying the rules of communication, let us look for dialogues, particularly with those who realize that freedom of expression creates more peace, sustains a network in which women and men are equally involved, possessing an equal right to formulate their life-goals.

Here we rejoin our "arche". Our alma mater Amy did not call herself "Sappho" for nothing. She felt that the era of imposed masculinity was ending, the era of sensitiveness to begin. Gender equilibrium, this vital question of dignity, informed our birth. Its emphasis gives us great strength in regions where the feminine remains defamed.

Our use of empathy, irony and diversity are bait for peaceful resistance. We should speak clearly and directly against the use of force, against the user of force. It is our duty to transform authors "abroad" into authors "at home", the authors "in jail" into free humans. This world practices freedom of repression, let us change this through direct expression.

As the persecution of writers has risen in recent years, the greater the reason to esteem and protect the core of our work - the Writers in Prison Committee, which offers a refuge for writers and literature. I thank Eugene Schoulgin, director of the W.I.P program, for his performance. As I myself have experienced persecution, I know how vital it is to have somone like Eugene outside. Temperament and composure is the mix for the next phase of PEN. Nothing was ever improved by answering bad with zero. Where something good happens, it comes about by extending the context. And context means cortex. Grey matter is involved, and this is not just a play on words.

This type of politics I rather enjoy. It provides for our presence on all continents. It is about a polis, a civitas homini - the home of mankind where literature does not follow dictions, but changes into the dictum of freedom.