Don’t give publicity to silly incidents

Letters to the Editor

This is regarding the Enrique Iglesias concert held recently in Colombo.

It is not the first time that concerts of internationally reputed artistes were held in Colombo. There were several each year and they have been carried out smoothly but there seemed to have been some shortcomings with regard to the Iglesias concert resulting in many people blaming the organisers.

This is a very sensitive issue. We must not interfere with the rights of the young generation. Young boys and girls like to come and watch these types of events. The artiste is a internationally-reputed entertainer, who is popular among music lovers who are crazy about such shows. Naturally the younger generation will like to watch such events.

There had been one or two small incidents. We have to look at these problems in a more polite, kind and sympathetic way.

It is the duty of the parents to control the behaviour of their children. They have to advise them where necessary. Parents, teachers and religious leaders should play a role in advising the younger generation to behave properly during events like these. It is a very small section of them that misbehave. We have to correct them. Social organisations and religious leaders are there to do that.

But blaming the whole young generation for this type of incident is bad. This is not Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan. This is a free, democratic, multi religious and multi cultural society.

It is the duty of the parents to control the behaviour of their children. They have to advise them where necessary

Organising a musical show is not a criminal offence. This incident should have been managed in the proper way.

Lots of people were not aware about this show. Only the rich and upper middle class people knew about it. But because of the unnecessary publicity now given the whole world knows about this event and the incident.

Do not give publicity to silly things which tend to tarnish the good image of this beautiful island.

No one has committed a crime. Crimes happen daily all over the country but nobody talks much about them.

Do not treat the young people who organised and participated in this musical show as criminals. Some rich people spend their vacation in Singapore or Thailand. They spend millions of rupees for these things. Be more considerate, kind and sympathetic about our young generation.

It is nothing wrong for young boys and girls to enjoy themselves, be happy and shout once in a while without going overboard and exceeding civilised limits.

D.WEERATUNGA