Grateful acknowledgement

Only when we can say thank you from the core of our heart can we savor the delight for which we say so. And the GOB did just that on 15 December this year, once again. It was the fourth such ceremony, awarding our foreign friends. It was an acknowledgement of their help and support to our war of liberation. And in honouring them we have honoured ourselves. We congratulate the government, and especially Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for this initiative.
As a famous French novelist had said, “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” And those foreign friends, to whom we have said 'Thank You' for their help in our fight against an occupation army and their cohorts in Bangladesh for nine months of 1971, had indeed made our life blossom. But for their help, a fledgling liberation war might have continued much longer than the nine months that it did.
More than 200 men and women have been honoured so far, and there is an interesting array of personalities of different callings. There are soldiers who helped train and fight side by side our valiant freedom fighters; there are singers and musicians who projected our plight to the world, there are politicians who moved the world's conscience, and international public servants who gave up their job in support of our causeThere is even a Pakistani who was dubbed a traitor for mobilizing public opinion in his country against the genocide in Bangladesh.
Although there are certain acts for which nothing that we do, as acknowledgment, can ever be enough, what the government of Sheikh Hasina is doing is the least that we can do as a way of demonstrating a grateful nation's thanks. This, as we had said earlier had been long overdue. However, for every one such person that we know as having contributed in our war, there are scores that we know not of, and will not even be able to be recognised. It is to them that we also say “Thank You.”