AS we approach the holiday season, the atmosphere of Christmas is quietly suffusing life. Offices and other public places have begun to decorate and the shops have been transformed in the last several days.

The supermarkets are fully stocked with every type of Christmas goods and shoppers are buoyed by the beautiful colours of the fairy lights and the shining tinsel decorations. Other stores have also begun to put on display ingenious toys and Christmas gifts and the pavement vendors are out in force, offering passersby ‘all their Christmas needs’. And the level of noise grows everywhere in a rising crescendo.

Loud music is one of the main elements of the noise which assails the public at this time. Every bar and many restaurants and smaller shops seem to compete with each other in making more noise and so do the minibuses. The minibuses’ loud music is probably the nuisance which affects most citizens. It seems that many commercial folks feel that the greater the volume of noise they generate, the greater the number of customers attracted. The Ministry of Public Security, under whose remit the control of noise in the society falls, have begun their campaign of noise control. They have visited commercial houses, mostly bars, and have them moderate their music. They have been trying to enforce the 2:00 a.m. curfew.

The business community has already begun to complain and though they have officially accepted the 2:00 a.m. curfew, many still complain against it. But there is far more resistance to moderating their noise during the day. The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), the country’s premier business organisation, has shot their first salvo. Mr Indar, President of the GCCI, was reported in the media as having said: ” Since the (police) campaign begun last Thursday, a few prominent businesses have been left with no choice but to cease operations until next day; the 2:00 a.m. curfew had an impact on businesses and some of them had to close down. If businesses are accustomed to open a certain number of hours to bring in revenue and that number becomes shortened, it will obviously impact the business in a negative way”.

In the same way that complaints are made about noise generated by businesses, numerous families in thickly populated neighbourhoods have been bitterly complaining of the loud music played by parties, barbecues and dances, many of which are not social but commercial ventures. The GCCI has said that businesses should obey the law and play their music less loudly after a certain hour and have said the business community are committed to controlling their noise levels and cooperating with the police.

The GCCI, as well as many private families, has complained that the police are in dereliction of their duty and selectively enforce the law. The GCCI President and Vice-President have emphatically called upon the police to act responsibly and GCCI President, Mr Indar, declared: “My complaint to the police was they were enforcing the law unevenly. Some persons are being targeted and have to close down while others were getting away with it”.

The Vice-President, Mr Timothy Tucker, was equally emphatic:
“The observation of some of our members is that it is not done across the board; they feel that there is a double standard, that their bars are being closed down while others are not being shut down just outside of Georgetown.” We would recommend that the police take these complaints seriously. With the overwhelming majority of the public, however, the greatest noise nuisance they have to suffer almost every day is the loud music played by the minibuses. In fact, to commuters, the minibuses are synonymous with noise and now as the holiday season approaches, they seem to compete with each other in loud music.

Noise above 80 decibels begin to be uncomfortable, and when it gets to 100 to 120 decibels, it could impair hearing. Many bus drivers and conductors have become partially deaf by subjecting themselves to persistent loud music. Commuters as a whole suffer much from the noise, and if anyone attempts to complain, the drivers and conductors usually and aggressively refuse to tone down the music. Passengers who travel regularly by minibus could, in time, have their hearing impaired.

Several years ago, Parliament enacted a law against any music on the minibuses and authorised the police to remove all noise-making equipment from them. When the law was passed, the police took action for a few months and the noise was eliminated and travelling by minibus became comfortable. The police must once again resuscitate their campaign which the public have been long calling upon them to do. The police would be able to eliminate the noise nuisance as they had done before, and once they have been successful, they should not again relax and allow its resurgence. If they do this they would be improving the quality of life of the public and win their respect and gratitude.