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Arrest child exploitation

The disturbing disclosure that some 70,000 Lankan children are at risk of exploitation in a multiplicity of revolting forms, should jolt everyone concerned, including the State, into acting fast to stop this terrible blight.

After all, those at risk are future generations and emotionally and physically maimed persons could not be expected to take Sri Lanka into the future. This bleak possibility,nevertheless, would have to be faced if the country's children are exposed to multi-dimensional exploitation.

However, much heart could be taken from the fact that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had taken the initiative to name 2006, the Year of the Child in Sri Lanka, thereby clearly underscoring the State's role in making Sri Lanka a better place for our children.

This development intensifies the note of urgency in ILO findings, highlighted by us yesterday, that the Sri Lankan case as regards child exploitation, just could not be glossed over or ignored but swiftly acted on.

In fact the legislation is already in place in line with ILO Convention 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour and what is left to be done is to rigorously implement this and allied pieces of legislation to contain the evil of child exploitation.

As it is, the indications are that some worst forms of child exploitation are already rampant in this country. One such prospering evil is child soldiers of the North-East, in which the LTTE specializes.

Besides, we are not short of child trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation, the abuse of children in pornography and child-bonded labour, to name a few such flourishing child-centred evils.

The enormity of the problem prompted ILO officials into emphasizing the importance of another Sri Lankan child survey.

Thus is the lid blown off a cess pool of evil which most responsible sections seem to be turning a blind eye on.

Now that President Rajapaksa himself is focusing on the problem, we urge the State to lose no time in clamping down on child exploitation in its multifarious forms. May be, the problem has not received the attention it deserves so far merely because a "voiceless" and invisible section of our population is at the heart of it.

If so, this is a cause for deep shame and searing self-censure. After all, we are not short of persons and groups which proudly proclaim their profound care for children and the innocents. May be such concern is merely for "public consumption" and is no more than a vainglorious, empty boast to impress the world outside with their projected moral purity.

The truth, however, is that the rot of child abuse has been setting in. It is time to stamp it out vigorously.

The road to Berlin

Costa Rica and Germany may be thousands of miles away, but tonight they will meet in Munich. And the whole world will be watching them. It is only the beginning of a month-long fiesta that will enthral practically the entire planet. Welcome to World Cup Germany 2006.

Thirty two of the best soccer teams in the world will play a total of 64 matches in the World Cup, undoubtedly the most popular global sporting event. It is a spectacle that invades our living rooms once every four years, as we follow the progress of an eight-inch diameter ball in and out of goals.

When the final is played on July 9 in Berlin, a city that symbolises the power of unity, nearly half the world's population will be united in scrutinising every move, every kick of the players in the world's best two teams. And one of them will walk away with the most coveted trophy in world sport, the solid gold FIFA World Cup.

Brazil are favourites at the moment, though the uncertainties of the game mean that any other equally capable team could be holding the trophy. England, Argentina, Sweden, Mexico, Portugal, Italy, Croatia and France are among the teams worth watching on the road to Berlin.

Let us also cheer on the newcomers such as Angola and the Asian teams - Japan, Iran, Korea and Saudi Arabia. Australia, the leading force in world cricket, are playing in a World Cup after 32 long years. They too deserve our cheers as does the USA, which is fast becoming a power in world soccer.

All eyes will of course be on Germany, where the matches are being staged. Hamburg, Hannover, Cologne, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund and Kaiserslautern will be the host cities apart from Munich and Berlin. All the stadia are state-of-the-art architectural masterpieces, some brand new and others renovated.

Each city tells a story in the history of Germany, a fact which has not gone unnoticed by German tourism authorities. A win by Germany will be the icing on the cake. It is certainly not impossible - France did it in 1998.

Football, like any other sport, is all about star players and their fans. The world of football will be dull without the likes of Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. Each team has a star or two whose progress is followed keenly by supporters. Whole economies will practically grind to a halt as the stars shine brighter and brighter.

Let us also hope that the World Cup would be a 'clean' affair. The fewer the number of yellow and red cards, the better. Playing the game honestly matters even in this age of commercialisation of sport.

As the Boy Scouts say, Be Prepared. The sound of 'Gooaaaaaaal' will assail our ears for one whole month. We too will be caught up in the agony and the ecstasy of the Greatest Show on Earth. Let the games begin.

Local expertise for mega projects

The President is reported to have delved into the subject of feasibility studies on mega projects, carried out by foreign consultants resulting enormous costs, which could have been avoided or minimized if the local consultants had been engaged.

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The Last Frontier

It was set in what was clearly Tibet, in a monastery called Shangri La where the secret of eternal life had been discovered. The repository of the secret was a Catholic priest who had reached the monastery a couple of centuries previously. The hero (played in the film by I think James Mason) suddenly realizes that he is dealing with the famous Father Perrault of the distant past.

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The Indian who revived Catholicism in Sri Lanka

In the second half of the 17th century, two important developments took place in Ceylon as Sri Lanka was then called. In 1658, the Dutch replaced the Portuguese as the European military, political and economic power; and Calvinism or Protestantism, displaced Roman Catholicism as the religion of the Christians in the island.

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The actor and the activist

 'Fanaa' may have set new box office records across the country. Its first week collections have been as high as 95 per cent in some pockets. But it has exposed the dark underbelly of the Hindi film industry.

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