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DIALOGUE AS A WAY OF COEXISTENCE OF ALL DIFFERENCES, WITH EQUALITY AND EQUITY AMONG ALL WHO ENGAGE IN THIS DIALOGUE
The 35th International PEN Conference
Bled, 16 May 2002
"Your deliberations on what remains of the 20th century and on writers' responsibility are therefore invaluable, as I believe that dialogue is possible and that we have an obligation to do everything in our power to create a better world, to create understanding among people, nations, states, cultures and civilisations. Dialogue as a way of coexistence of all differences, with equality and equity among all who engage in this dialogue", stressed President Kucan and added that "poets and writers do not lead countries, they can however do a lot in order for humanity to learn from the experiences of its past, in order to create a common ethic based on the fact that the world belongs to all of humanity, that no-one has the right of domination over others and that responsibility for this world is common to all of us. It is here that I see the challenge for all of us in the 21st century, it is here that I see our responsibility. It is also here that I see an opportunity, a challenge and a responsibility for writers, as well."
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I always look forward to our get-togethers in May. I see your traditional meetings in Bled as a highly resounding call for dialogue on the world of today and tomorrow, the world entrusted to our care by our ancestors in order for us to hand it down to the next generation as a world kinder to all people. Your deliberations on what remains of the 20th century and on writers' responsibility are therefore invaluable, as I believe that dialogue is possible and that we have an obligation to do everything in our power to create a better world, to create understanding among people, nations, states, cultures and civilisations. Dialogue as a way of coexistence of all differences, with equality and equity among all who engage in this dialogue. A lot is wrong with our world in this respect. How can we have dialogue when, for instance, Islam is being pronounced as a retarded culture, when whole nations are being pronounced as inferior and backward? How can all of us talk when even so-called civilised European countries exclude whole ethnic, spiritual and sexual groups? That is why writers' calls to overcome these odd ideas are so valuable.
For better and for worse, the legacy received by each of us in their own national and cultural environment, and in a globalised world, is a great one. After a century of immense technological development, a century of war and ethnic conflict, humanity has entered the age of global information technology. Along with the old ones, this age brings many new questions that still lack good and comprehensive answers. Perhaps that is why at the onset of a new era all of us should be asking ourselves what we intend to do in order for human dignity to become the right of all people, for the world to be a just one for all, for there to no longer be people, nations, and even continents deprived of a future, for state violence and any other violence to no longer be so deeply rooted in social injustice and ignorance, which can even give rise to radical political and alleged ethical orientations, for the stronger to no longer oppress the weak, for crisis areas as have enkindled in the Balkans, in Afghanistan or in the Middle East to no longer threaten our world. No crisis is local anymore – whatever happens in one part of the world sooner or later affects all of us. The suffering of people in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, or in the Middle East all foretell arduous times in other parts of the world.
The world has emerged from the twentieth century as a richer, economically globalised, politically interdependent world, a world interconnected for better and for worse. Nothing remains the same anymore, the same as it used to be in the past century. What is to come is something we do not know very precisely yet. Also our forms of democracy come from past times that are no more. We are still revolving in a circle of dilemmas concerning representative and direct democracy, thinking far too little of participative and subsidiary forms of democracy. Nation states still cling to the traditional notions of sovereignty, which is adapted to accountability within, less to a common responsibility for the world and for life on the planet.
A globalised world also requires global responsibility, also a responsibility towards one another. It may perhaps sound utopian, but we shall have to consider some sort of treaty between all the countries of this world, be they large or small, obligating them to a common governance of the world, a world that would be safe and socially equitable, a world giving everyone the right to a future. No society, let alone a global one, can exist without fundamental rules of behaviour stemming from common fundamental values. The world needs common ethics, values by which it will be bound, values respected by all, values that are in the interest of one and all. Otherwise this world will turn into a war of everyone against everyone.
Poets and writers do not lead countries, they can however do a lot in order for humanity to learn from the experiences of its past, in order to create a common ethic based on the fact that the world belongs to all of humanity, that no-one has the right of domination over others and that responsibility for this world is common to all of us. It is here that I see the challenge for all of us in the 21st century, it is here that I see our responsibility. It is also here that I see an opportunity, a challenge and a responsibility for writers, as well.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would be very glad if you shared at least part of these ideas with me. May I also wish this year's meeting here in Bled every success, for it to be a creative dialogue on the 21st century world and for statesmen, politicians and spiritual leaders to hear your calls for the coexistence of differences, for calm and wisdom in all our considerations in order for the 21st century to become an age of peace, security, development and of future for all, in order to create the sprouts of a new universal civilisation of peace, love and cooperation.
I wish you a most pleasant time in Bled and in Slovenia.
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