Tuesday, 12 October 2004  
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Mahanayake Thera's valuable advice

We hope the inspired call by the Ven. Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatte Maha Vihara Chapter to the TNA and the UNP to join in the deliberations of the National Advisory Council for Peace and Reconciliation would win a positive response.

In a development which augurs well for the future, a TNA delegation had called on the Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatte Maha Vihara Chapter, the Most Venerable Thibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala at his official Aramaya in Kandy yesterday.

From what could be gathered, it proved a most fruitful discussion, resulting, among other things, in an acceleration of the communication process between the two important parties. We call for more such discussions which help in advancing mutual understanding among the stakeholders of peace.

Peace may be a 1,000 kilometre or more journey but it begins with steps such as these. We call on all concerned parties to help in bringing down inter-communal and inter-religious communication barriers to peace and hail the Ven. Mahanayake Thera - TNA meeting as a high-water mark in the furthering of inter-communal understanding.

As we highlight today, the Mahanayake Thera has been most forthright in his observations to the TNA delegation. Apparently, a plethora of preconceptions as well as misconceptions are preventing sections of the opposition from participating in the National Advisory Council for Peace and Reconciliation.

No less a person than President Kumaratunga has outlined the true nature of this forum. For one, it wouldn't be taking the place of the Government in negotiations.

The negotiatory process will centre on the Government and the LTTE and the Government wouldn't be delegating its authority to any other body, when it comes to peace-making. The NACPR would, however, be a deliberative forum on peace and a consultative body.

In fact, the NACPR forum would stand to gain by the presence of the UNF and TNA in it. Their input would help greatly in the emergence of a national consensus on the peace process.

It is, therefore, very important that the UNF and the TNA respond to the Ven. Mahanayake Thera's call and participate fully in the NACPR deliberations.

The TNA delegations observations too at this meeting were most revelatory in that we are in a position to learn at first hand, the nature of Tamil aspirations. It is empowerment that the minorities call for, within a united, territorially intact Sri Lanka. Besides they do not want to get back to war.

However, there was clear acceptance on the part of the TNA that all communities had erred in the past, in the course of projecting their grievances. However, the TNA realises that the time has come for inter communal understanding and a forgetting of the past.

These positive developments need to be built on. We hope that more and more peace-makers would emerge on both sides of the ethnic divide. If the forces of extremism could be overcome and the dialogue process further accelerated, love and fraternity would soon be a reality in Sri Lanka.

Pirates ahoy !

Sri Lanka has become a haven for bootleggers of copyrighted works. Pirated CDs, VCDs and DVDs are everywhere, from pavement stalls to air-conditioned shopping malls. They can be picked up for less than Rs.200 each, a fraction of the price of an original.

The recent detection of a sophisticated Compact Disc processing plant by the Mirihana Police Special Operations Unit signifies the extent of this problem.

The manufacture and widespread availability of pirated song albums and movies is a blot on our intellectual property protection record. Sri Lanka is bound to honour international laws on intellectual property. Locally too, the laws have been beefed up to protect the rights of copyright owners. But the question is whether these laws are implemented properly.

The easy availability of pirated albums and movies means that the wheels of the law have moved rather slowly. True, there had been a number of high-profile detections of bootleg CDs, VHS tapes and DVDs, but far more needs to be done to drive the pirates away from the market.

Apart from the economic and copyright aspects, there is another dangerous trend: roadside stalls and shady video shops offer X-rated materials to all comers, including schoolchildren.

One cannot, of course, blame the cost-conscious consumer for wanting to take the cheap route. A high-quality original Sinhala CD costs Rs.500. An English one costs more than Rs.1000.

On the other hand, an MP3 format pirated CD with more than 100 songs can be picked up for just Rs.100. An original DVD generally costs more than Rs.2000. The pirated version costs just one-tenth of that.

The recording industry should therefore try to bring the prices of original albums/movies within reach of the average buyer. It is true that disc prices depend on a number of factors such as production costs, royalties and taxes, but they should be affordable to all in the end.

The recording companies should also make them widely available at more authorised outlets. For example, hardly any original Region 5 DVDs (the DVD region allocated to South Asia) are produced, leaving the field open to pirates.

Consumers cannot be blamed for opting to climb on board the pirates' vessels if originals are in short supply or worse, not available at all.

Perhaps the recording industry can subsidise their products sold in these parts of the world from the proceedings of sales in more affluent countries. Twenty dollars for a DVD may not be a big deal in the US, but it is, in Sri Lanka or any other developing country.

The Police rightly deserve plaudits for their quest to end the bootleg menace. The authorities and the recording industry too must cater to the consumers' demand for quality entertainment at reasonable prices.

www.ceylincoproperties.com

www.directree.lk

Kapruka

www.singersl.com

www.imarketspace.com

www.Pathmaconstruction.com

www.peaceinsrilanka.org

www.helpheroes.lk


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