OUR nation has become a nation of noise. Noise from cars equipped with noise boxes and ‘stereo systems’ more expensive than the cars themselves. The noise comes from houses, rum shops, bars, and parties and even from our places of worship.
Pastors and priests and imams and pandits seem more in love with the microphone than they are with the Creator, although they invoke the names of the great ones with ease and with much fanfare and loudness.
Prayer is much like poetry and poetry is much like prayer. Both take quiet contemplation. Prayers, it is said, are sincere when done in our hearts, with the beat of pulses. The Heavens listen then. But such silence and quiet sincerity seems to frighten us. We must make noise, for noise appears to keep at bay our hysteria, our sense of emptiness and despair. Prayer is not performance, but is has become so. Real music is not vulgarity.
At the time of writing this editorial, vulgar noise fractures the night. Husbands cursing wives, wives doing the same in turn; parents cursing children and children cursing right back. Children as young as five or six. This is not about levels of education (whatever we may consider education to be). It is not about how much information we possess in our brains, nor is it about our ignorance of easy things that most people know. Ignorance is not about not knowing; ignorance is about refusing to learn. And arrogance is the rotten spawn of ignorance.
This is precisely why we have so many bullies in our midst, so many inflated egos based on nothing. Tiny people, when given the tiniest amount of power, will exercise that power with the cruelest force. This is also why the most vicious people are those that have been victimised. There is no greater abuser than someone who himself or herself has been abused. And the cycle of abuse continues and escalates. But we simply cannot seem to think logically, so the resort is to make as much noise as we possibly can. We relish the noise, and find any excuse to be loud.
The issue of noise nuisance in our society must be tackled seriously. No more can we allow indiscriminate neighbours who would put out their hired hill of speakers by the roadside and blast music from 09:00h until midnight. Every resident has a right to have undisturbed sleep during the night and no organisation, religious or otherwise, has a right to take that away. But to blare loud speakers, particularly at night, is a great nuisance to those living close to some religious institutions or night clubs.
Although the Music and Dancing Licences (Amendment) Act Chapter 23:03, Act #12 of 1982, which states at section 9 that: “A place, so kept or used, although so licensed as aforesaid, shall not be opened for any of the purposes aforesaid except on the days and between the hours stated on the licence it had been observed in the breach.” No doubt, the previous government had taken steps to curb noise nuisance, but the campaign lacked clear direction and while a few persons, mostly music carts operators were charged, the real culprits who pollute small communities with their noise have been allowed to escape sanction.
Unfortunately, noise pollution has become part of our everyday existence, not only in Guyana, but many other countries around the world. Described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) _as “unwanted or harmful outdoor sound created by human activities,” noise when it persists, damages the ear and triggers other health hazards. Health experts say that exposure to noise at 150 decibels for six hours can lead to deafness. WHO puts the tolerable level of noise at 40 decibels at night. The new Government to augment its 2AM curfew should simultaneously tackle the issue of noise nuisance. Policemen must now be deployed across the country to ensure citizens are not disturbed by noise pollution. The laws must also be enforced vigorously with stiffer penalties applied to offenders. If Guyana is to move forward the laws to protect citizens must be executed with transparency and the noise nuisance law must be executed without any prejudice.
