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NOISE NUISANCE

May 22, 2014 Editorial

When the police announced zero tolerance against noise nuisance many people breathed a sigh of relief and indeed, we appear to have grown inconsiderate of others. Many of us live in neighbourhoods where not much premium is placed on quiet. Sometimes one must wonder whether a premium was placed on peace.
In many communities, even in the city, people can hear the most vulgar abuses being hurled between neighbours. This could go on for a long time and until the police come and threaten to apply the full force of the law. Sometimes they do have to arrest the warring parties.
Then there are the music boxes. These have grown much more powerful over the years. Gone are the days when the music equipment made tolerable noises. Today the speakers are as huge as houses and the sound emanating from them, equally monstrous. The people in the vicinity must often tolerate the noise because whatever event it is has been staged in a public place like a park.
Those who live the closest must undergo sleepless hours, praying for an end to the session. The late President Cheddi Jagan had cause to bring a halt to an event at the National Park. At the time he lived in State House, some distance away. If he found the noise unbearable then one can imagine the plight of those who live even closer to the National Park.
In some residential areas the situation is equally bad. People invoke all the noise they could muster much to the discomfort of the neighbours. In law abiding countries where the houses are constructed even better than those we have here, care is taken with the decibels. The police are known to really exhibit zero tolerance.
It is as if we in this country insist that noise must be our constant companion. Young motorists would play the music so loud that one must wonder how they, the motorist, could stand the noise.  There was a time when minibuses blared much to the discomfort of some of the passengers. Fortunately, the police conducted a series of campaigns and today one would be hard pressed to find a minibus with these huge noisemakers.
It must be that the fact that they have to be constantly registered or licenced because the fines imposed by the courts were minuscule.
But this is not often the case in residential communities. People have been complaining about a sports bar that is a nuisance to the people in the vicinity. People call complaining about sick relatives having to tolerate the noise; they speak of their children being unable to study night after night; they speak of being afraid when night falls because of the noise; they speak of the noise nuisance making them ill.
With much fanfare the police spoke of zero tolerance against noise but this is more talk than anything. People now say that the sports bar is owned by a former policeman and those who investigate the report do nothing because the owners compensate them on the spot. Something must be wrong because the noise is perpetual and those who live in the vicinity keep complaining to no avail.
In tolerant communities, people would inform their neighbours of a bout of music that could be disturbing. Whether there is approval from the people is irrelevant. The invitation makes the neighbours feel a part of the episode.
It would be interesting to see the police doing the job they are paid to do. For one, the noise would only be tolerated at weekends and only for a certain period of time. Some people are contemplating going to court with private action against those who make the noise, and some have done. Sadly, the noise maker, despite the warnings from the court, would persist. The initiator of the legal action would hesitate to persist with the legal action because that is who we are, people who see ourselves as nuisances once we have to report an incident more than once.
Is there a solution to noise nuisance? There is and it rests with rigid enforcement of the law.

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