In that sense, we have had half the celebration on March 26. We looked back at the past, television stations and newspapers reliving each day of March 1971 through footage, clippings and interviews. All of that was necessary to remind us of what we tend to forget. But necessary also for the future generations, who have no memory of the past and are subject to daily dollops of its contentious versions.

What about the other half -- the future? We need memory in order to make the past relevant for the future just like we need origins to start for destinations. But for thirty-five years we have been stammering. For thirty-five years we have been going in circles. We don't talk about the future. We don't know where we are heading.

Instead we remain trapped in the centrifugal forces of politics, repetitive cycles of conspiracy and confrontation, rancour and retribution. We have got the motions, but we are not moving, our mind so busy to sort out the past as if the future doesn't exist. Has anybody talked about the future yet? Has anybody talked about a dream?

It is possible to punch above the weight. A small country with a large population doesn't always have to feel hunkered down. Look at China, look at India, two of the largest populations in the world are now roaring. China has been growing at the rate of 10 per cent for several years. India is growing between 8 to 10 per cent depending on who is talking. Yes, these countries have big geographic areas, but if you look closely, poverty in those countries are equally bad. The majority of their people still live under an income of USD2 per day. Nearly 40 per cent of the world's poor live in India today.

These countries have been thriving not by dint of their natural resources alone, but because of how they have encouraged foreign investment while exploiting foreign markets. Yes, the global economy works like a paradox. The manufacturing employment in the United States has been falling for many decades, but the average American incomes have risen to be the highest in the world. As the American companies have outsourced goods and services, the American incomes have risen, not fallen.

Princeton University economist Alan Binder, who was the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve's board of governors from 1994 to 1996, finds a new world order evolving within that paradox. Not just manufacturing but a large number of service jobs will go out of the United States to cheaper countries in the coming years. His estimate is that the total number of these jobs off-shored could be anywhere between 42 and 56 millions.

In that new world order things are already happening. India is shinning. China is rising. What about Bangladesh? Are we at least blinking? We missed the boat in the past. But are we ready next time it is around? Not until we sort out the differences. Not until we change our image in the world. China is criticized for its human rights violations. Nearly a fifth of the Indian Parliament members have been accused of crimes, including embezzlement, rape and murder. The United States has been the world's leading prison-state per capita for the last 25 years, holding about a half million more prisoners than China; even though China is four times its population.

Yet Bangladesh has been branded as the most corrupt nation in the world. On March 26, we had illuminations, parades, music, song, dance and rhetoric. But did we talk about this perception? Did we talk about how to break out of this humiliating stereotype? We held candlelight vigil for the martyrs. We remembered the past. But why is past important if we don't look into the future? Have we been able to make that connection on the 35th anniversary of our independence?

No, surely not. Rather, the celebration looked like two different events, one for the government, and one for the opposition. A day like this should unite the nation. That is true respect for the martyrs. That is true appreciation for those who laid down their lives so that we could have freedom. On March 26, we looked like two nations, each spiteful of another. It was a boring business, somewhat morose and disturbing, shrouded in the pathetic despair of jubilation in a divided home.

Don't we ever wonder what is there to celebrate? How is it necessary to remember when it happened, if why it happened is forgotten? Perhaps there has been great deal of misunderstanding about freedom, and the anniversary is a mere celebration of that misunderstanding. Once again, it's all about power and wealth, hands changing but not the grip. Once again, the exploitation, the abuse, the oppression, feudal lords replaced by businessmen, monarchy replaced by dynastic ambitions, foreign domination replaced by homegrown exploitation.

Much of that happens in other countries as well: corruption, oppression, exploitation, lying and looting. A polity is like the human body that, from time to time, is attacked by diseases and infections. But we have done away with the immune system altogether. Did that worry us on March 26? Did it bother anybody that we all look alike in the glow of greed?

For 35 years we have used our freedom to get greedy, our minds focused on nothing but accumulation of wealth without realising how it has changed the way we look at things. Is freedom all about earning and spending? Yes, to a large extent it is. People must be given the freedom of choice and that has a lot to do with cash in the pocket. But, how much cash do we need? Not everybody in the world can have that kind of money. Not even in an increasingly affluent world which had 140 billionaires 20 years ago, 476 billionaires 3 years ago and 793 billionaires in 2006.

A nation can't thrive on wealth alone. It must promote welfare and wellbeing. Did we talk about these things on March 26? Did we talk about soaring prices and load shedding? Did we talk about growing drug addiction and moral erosion? Did we talk about outbreak of AIDS? Did we talk about the growing threat of Avian Flu, depleting layers of subsoil water, and risk of earthquake? There were floats and rallies to demonstrate success. There were outcries and contentions to embody failure. The freedom looked like fracas. Independence looked internecine.

China is rising. India is shining. Bangladesh isn't even blinking. Because wrapped in the fanfares of freedom, there is the ringing contradiction of muted slavery. While there is freedom of celebration, we are yet to wrestle for the celebration of freedom. When will it happen? That is what we should have asked on March 26. It should have resounded within the walls of every house, the clamour of every rally, and the sound of every drumbeat.

That call goes to everybody.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.