In the 80s, I’ve had a long talk with (German) Ambassador Klaus Zeller when he first came here. For so many years, I’ve been interested in how nations develop. So I had this conversation with him. I said, “Klaus, was it Garibaldi who founded Italy? Ataturk who founded Turkey and Bismarck, in your own country?” He said, “No, no, Franky, you are all wrong. The people who laid the foundation of modern Germany like Beethoven, Schiller. Never underestimate how important literature is in the shaping of history, memory and a national identity for a particular people. So please keep that in mind.” Now this is one thing that we must be able to do, to speak out our minds, to criticize when criticism is necessary because in literature, there is a great shortage and that shortage is the critical tradition. Unless we writers exercise our finest critical facilities, there will be a lot of fakery that will come out as real goods when they are not. There is an old Latin saying which means evil prospers when good men stay silent. Mediocrity flourishes when the critics are silent. Please keep that in mind. Francisco Sionil Jose National Artist for Literature Philippines #LiteratureIsTheFoundation #SenseOfNationalism #OneRelevantPostADay