Community Development in Culture and the Arts
The Department of Culture and the Arts is committed to providing services to communities throughout the State. This is to ensure that all states have access to quality arts activities, cultural experiences and information services. The arts are not the problem, they are the solution. And this is because the arts nurture one of the most important valuable natural resources any country has. It is the creativeness and innovation that has brought into existence the society in which we now live. It remains an undiscovered source of energy and many communities are working to unleash this untapped natural resource. Rural genius has been raised and nurtured in rural and small communities and the arts have been a vital part of this.
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) is increasingly linked to national security due to organized crime networks’ participation in lucrative counterfeiting and piracy schemes, says a top State Department official. It has been said by some agencies that the protection of intellectual property rights has identified that this as a serious and growing risk, and called for intellectual property crimes to be treated more seriously by governments around the globe. The pirating of trademarked or patented products offers high earnings at a relatively low risk. The potential for illicit profits, combined with weak legal and law enforcement regimes in many countries, creates “a situation that invites organized crime and other actors to step in. In this sense, we see cracking down on intellectual property theft as part of our response to the new set of national security challenges we face as a nation.
Freedom of expression is one of the most fundamental rights that individuals enjoy. It is fundamental to the existence of democracy and the respect of human dignity. It is also one of the most dangerous rights, because freedom…
