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Loud and Lewd

May 25, 2015 Editorial

It is time that the police traffic department moves to enforce the regulations pertaining to the playing of lewd and loud music on public transportation namely minibuses.  For far too long commuters who have no other option but to endure the jostle and other forms of inconvenience have been assailed by the most obscene lyrics when using this particular mode of public transportation.
The decision a few years ago to have owners and operators of minibuses remove slogans and names from their vehicles, was thought to be a step in the right direction, because the conventional wisdom at that time was that these lent themselves to lawlessness in many respects.
However, with hindsight that action seems not to have made any significant difference in the number of crashes involving minibuses where speeding was identified as the major causal factor.  Additionally, the intention to deprive primarily female students of the practice of waiting for hours after school for particular brand name buses again has not had the desired effect.
The explicitly sexual lyrics played in minibuses plying all routes have become the attraction so much so, that school age youths and even younger can be observed gyrating to the suggestions from the DJs who lend their voices to the recorded music.
It does not end there because adult passengers have watched in horrified amazement at the motions on girls wining down in the laps of grown men.  Of course the adults say nothing for fear of a hostile reaction.
One therefore is left to wonder if the efforts and energies of the authorities are focused in the right directions, or if these so far unsustainable interventions, are parts of a larger practice of knee-jerk reactions to appease the concerned Guyanese people.
The police by themselves cannot halt the level of road traffic lawlessness and therefore, the collaboration with other stakeholders is needed to determine and develop solutions to address the attendant psycho-social issues surrounding this social phenomenon.  Research has shown that loud hard core music played on public transportation has a direct bearing on the increase of sexual activities and violent behaviour on those forms of transport. It also impacts negatively on teenage behaviour.
In addition to the foregoing, the psycho-social response of juveniles to dancehall genre should be seen as a national and public health concern.  That factor should not be taken in isolation but located within the wider context of public policy debate in terms of teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission susceptibility and vulnerability.
This conclusion does not negate the reality, that there would be young people who are not unduly swayed by the actions of their contemporaries because of the strong influence of parents and role models in the various communities.  But care should be taken, as far as is practicable, to monitor the behaviour of children in so far as their traveling conduct can be observed, because of the likely negative spinoffs including healthy lifestyles and the contracting of communicable diseases.
Disc jockeys and media personalities can play an important role in molding the behaviour of the impressionable youngsters and there is no plausible reason why the positive contribution of these categories of workers should not be invited.
Schubert 2007 writing on the influence of emotion and familiarity and preference in music argues that music tends to evoke intense pleasure.  The gender question is one which also should not be ignored, since the issue of sexual violence may very well resonate with the school which points to the male as being more likely to be impacted by sexual messages in the lewd songs since these are usually delivered from a masculine perspective.
We need to actively address our responsibilities in the interest of our young people and as a nation.  To risk ignoring the link between exposure to sexual content via the media and the sexual behaviour of the school age youth is something that we do at our peril and that of a productive future for our children.

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