Sri Lanka and the Eurovision Song Contest are on readers' minds

The following comments reflect the views of DW-WORLD.DE readers. Not all reader comments have been published. DW-WORLD.DE reserves the right to edit for length and appropriateness of content.

While the war may be over, peace is still far away

We all must be happy that the war in Sri Lanka is over. I am a Sinhalese with so many Tamil friends. I love my Tamil friends and the Tamil people and I will go to the extent of helping the Tamils who are displaced in the North and East. But if the Tamils are still going to fight for a separate state, that wouldn't make any sense. Furthermore the Tigers have been killing their own people and fellow citizens. What's the answer for killing the Indian prime minister and our foreign minister and other past Tamil party leaders? When the heavy fighting was going on recently and there was a two-day ceasefire, the Tigers should have released the civilians instead of keeping them under their control. To have child soldiers is the biggest crime I can think of. A study of history will also prove that Tamils have held key positions in parliament, the police, the central bank and other areas. So to conclude, I am confused as to why the Tamils are still trying to fight, instead of taking this as a positive step toward the future. -- Aloysius Karunaratne, Australia

I was thrilled by the news because now everyone in Sri Lanka can live in peace and harmony. When there are no guns or terrorism, peace will prevail. There will be disagreements at first, but lasting peace will prevail in my country very soon. We all are victims of this bloody war. The government had a vision to finish off the terrorism and now in same manner they should work out a healthy plan to bring peace and prosperity to our brothers and sisters in the North and East. -- Wasantha Dharmasena, United Arab Emirates

Eurovision rocked by series of controversies

I agree with this article which calls the Eurovision Song Contest "kitsch." Italians don't enter it for the same reason. Besides, it is questionable that it is a real song contest. It looks more like a show contest. -- Askin Ozcan, Turkey

Once more, it's obvious that the Eurovision Song Contest in its current form is doomed. Not only by its mega-sized show, costing a small fortune (I myself took part in organizing the "show" the year after Sandra Kim's success - at that time, the global cost was way above 10 million euros), but especially by the widespread contesting countries. For so many years now, "neighboring" contestants simply distribute points to each other, regardless of the songs presented: it's merely a political/geographical contest. In fact, the only winners are the television accountants of all the countries that didn't make it. What the European Broadcasting Union has to do is cut the show at least in half. Otherwise there will be more western European countries following Italy. -- Ron, Belgium

I thought the German entry was quite good. At least there were not loads of pyrotechnics like some of the other countries. Or maybe I was just watching the performers too closely. But I would have voted for it if I was not a tight-fisted Yorkshire man. I also liked Norway and Bosnia. -- Jim Mchale, Great Britain