Loud music and liberal alcohol use is now common place

Apr 06, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – It has come as a total surprise to learn that in the mid-1970s the Maha Sabha successfully petitioned the then PNC government to put a freeze on rum shop licences. This claim needs to be fact-checked since no one to whom I have spoken can recall any such decision ever being made.

But we are told it happened. And we are further told that from 1992, there was the sharing out of rum shop licences.

The law concerning intoxicating liquor licences does not grant authority to the government or any of its agencies to approve such licences. The law is very clear that when it comes to such licences, the country is divided into magisterial districts and it is these magisterial districts which consider such applications.

It is hard to imagine, therefore, any government taking a decision to freeze the issuance of spirit shop licences and even more so considering that this is a judicial and not administrative function. If you walk the towns and villages of Guyana, you will come across many rum shops which were established during the period when it is alleged that the PNC regime halted the issuance of such licences. So how were rum shops granted permission to be established if there was a freeze in the issuance of licences?

The issue of rum shop licences came to the fore during the debate about noise levels and the consumption of alcohol during Hindu wedding ceremonies. There has been a robust exchange of views on this matter in the press.

Unfortunately, some spin has been injected into what should be a useful debate. It is being countered that the issue represents an attack on Hinduism; it is not.

A distinction needs to be made in the debate as to the difference between the religious ceremony and the reception. Religious wedding ceremonies are not usually characterised by either loud music or rum drinking.

But I have seen cases in which no sooner does the celebrant leave the premises, that huge music boxes begin to blare, signalling the start of the reception. I do not consider the reception as part of the religious ceremony.

I have also seen stalls set up outside of wedding houses in which alcohol is sold. I am told that the operators of these stands, actually pay the hosts for the rights to sell liquor since in Hindu weddings liquor is strictly prohibited.

I have never seen the sale of liquor take place during an actual religious ceremony. But once the religious rituals are concluded, the bars usually kick in. Not all Hindu wedding houses, however, have such bars established.

It has become much too common place for loud music to be played at wedding receptions regardless of the religious status of those being married. The playing of loud music seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

The decibels are so loud that it is impossible to carry on a conversation from even a distance. And the hosts usually go to great lengths to hire humongous music boxes: the bigger the boxes, the louder the music.

The loudness of the music smothers any attempt at conversation. The loudness is intended to want to make you get up and dance, not engage in chit-chat. If you want to communicate, you had better practice lip reading or sign language.

The problem of loud music at social events is not confined to Guyana. It is a worldwide problem. In India, a man recently complained that 63 of his chickens died of heart attacks as a result of a DJ playing excessively loud music.

Today music equipment is of such that even a small speaker can emit deafening sounds. And as Dave Martins wrote a few years ago, West Indies tend to like their music played with vigour.

The problem of the use of alcohol and the playing of loud music at Hindu wedding receptions are not new. One Hindu organisation had said that its pandits will not officiate at weddings at which bars were set up. And this was almost 10 years ago. So, the problem is not of recent origin.

Nor is the playing of loud music or alcohol use restricted to the wedding of persons who are Hindus. But this fact in itself should not be used as the basis of some denying that there is a problem and constructively deciding how to fix it.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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Loud music and liberal alcohol use is now common place

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