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My thoughts on independence day
Safwath Abedin
 OUR freedom fighters gifted us an independent nation. They never let us lose our path. 1971 is like our lighthouse. It is always indicating our destination. 1971 made us individualistic and established the feeling of patriotism.
The young generation can never feel the way our ancestors felt in 1971. We watch movies, read books based on '71, try to understand what happened. Suddenly our mind fills with sorrow and pride, and then we shelve our feelings. In this most crucial time for our nation, we are facing various types of problems. There is more frustration everywhere than satisfaction. Thus we blame our ancestor for their wrong decision; sometimes our seduced mind scorns our country for having nothing in comparison to others. But have we ever thought about our duty for our motherland?
We live in a free land of our own, where we can express ourselves the way we want to, we can share our emotions, as we love to. We celebrate our triumphs and share our sorrows together. Now it is our responsibility to serve the nation. We have already wasted a lot of time. It is our turn to start a new war for economic freedom. If we do not willingly fight for our nation from now, our future generation will never forgive us. They will hate us as the same way we hate the war criminals.
American International University-Bangladesh.
Parenthesized 'Independence'
Zannatul Lamea
 ONCE again Bangladesh is on the verge of celebrating its glorious Independence Day. Resplendent celebrations of long 38 years of sovereignty are going to be observed with its magnificence and splendour in all parts of the country. Of course, we are a proud nation, achieving sovereignty at the cost of millions of lives and massive sacrifices. The sacrifices are of course something that makes us gallant with pride- but the question is, is this the independence the nation craved for? Again, is this independence worth those glorious sacrifices of precious lives of our respectful martyrs? Is this what the term 'Independence' supposed to mean?
By the term 'this' I of course am referring to the current time bracket. Thanks to our very chaotic restless political system for which I was able to witness enough incidents in quite an early stage of life which successfully lead me to a state of complete frustration about us being a progressive nation. I really am bewildered, what is an independent state supposed to be like? Does the characteristic features match with our existing condition?
To start with What sort of independent state doesn't settle the war criminals issue even after 38 years of the crime? Is there any instance of an independent state that witnessed brutal mass genocide among the country's internal national forces even after independence? How many times do you really see a sovereign nation undergoing recurring terrorist events like grenade attacks and bomb blasts every now and then? Which type of independent state encourages student politics that put a cease to student life itself and open paths towards the kind of politics where no one can keep their hands clean? And what kind of sovereign state adopts 'Corruption' as the national key characteristic?
I truly wish I could write a less pessimistic article on the Independence Day. After all we are a proud nation with a magnificent history of nine long months of eternal bloodshed contributing to the birth of the country. Being a citizen, I dream of a state that is truly sovereign, where the literal meaning of 'Independence' truly prevails. I don't want to see my beloved country's name topping the chart of most corrupt countries, I by heart want to see my country's name in the chart of pragmatic progressive nations. It is really distressing when other nation's point finger at our mother nation and labels her as negative. It is furthermore frustrating knowing in heart that it's not a false accusation after all.
Hope always springs eternal in human race. One can only hope that there will be a day when the term 'Independence' will no longer be parenthesized in the context of Bangladesh. At least, I really hope so.
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