The boom boxes are back

Jul 04, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – I have come to the unsettling conclusion that silence has become an endangered species in Guyana. If someone were to discover a quiet neighbourhood today, it would probably qualify for protection under environmental legislation. Tourists should be taken there in small groups and warned not to make sudden noises for fear of frightening the last surviving moments of peace.

Noise pollution is no longer merely an irritation. It has evolved into a lifestyle, an unofficial national development strategy. If a place is quiet for more than five minutes, somebody apparently feels constitutionally obliged to arrive with speakers large enough to communicate with satellites.

The tragedy is that the victims are not the people making the noise. They are the shift worker trying to sleep before another twelve-hour day. They are the elderly couple whose evening conversations now require sign language. They are the parents pleading with children to finish homework while competing with lyrics that seem to have been written by people who lost an argument with punctuation. There is something profoundly unfair about a child failing a mathematics exercise because someone two streets away believes the entire neighbourhood deserves front-row seats at his private concert.

One of the curious developments in recent years is the proliferation of non-enclosed bars and drinking spots in residential communities. Apparently, zoning regulations have entered the witness protection programme. Somewhere along the line, someone decided that the ideal accompaniment to suburban living was a sound system capable of vibrating roofing screws loose. The astonishing part is not that these establishments exist. It is that they continue operating as though insomnia were a community-building exercise.

The government has acknowledged that the situation demands attention and has promised stronger legislation. That commitment deserves broad support. Officials have indicated that legislation with tougher penalties is being prepared to deal with excessive noise. Excellent. Stronger laws are certainly welcome.

But legislation alone is rather like buying a magnificent fire engine without recruiting firefighters.

The laws presently available are hardly ornamental. Existing legal powers already permit action against excessive noise. What has been missing is consistent enforcement. That is why the government should immediately establish a dedicated multi-agency task force to tackle noise nuisance, using the powers that already exist while awaiting tougher legislation.

This responsibility has been left primarily with the police and the Environmental Protection Agency. The overall results have simply not been sufficient. Complaints continue. Repeat offenders continue. Sleep deprivation continues. The only thing showing sustained growth is speaker wattage.

Meanwhile, fascinating new social customs are emerging.

Take, for example, the phenomenon of the supermarket parking-lot nightclub. Several Chinese-owned restaurants have unintentionally become entertainment districts. During and after business hours, vehicles equipped with trunk-sized sound systems gather outside. Music erupts at volumes usually reserved for military exercises. People linger, socialise, consume beers and other alcoholic beverages, and generally transform private commercial property into a public recreation ground—all without the permission of the proprietors who dare not complain.

Imagine opening a supermarket only to discover you’ve accidentally opened a free outdoor nightclub. In the past the same thing used to happen at certain petrol stations on Sunday afternoons.

Then there is our beloved Georgetown Seawall. The seawall ought to be the capital’s collective therapy session. It should be where people walk, relax, breathe fresh air, watch the Atlantic perform its timeless conversation with the shore, and occasionally remember that civilisation once regarded tranquillity with satisfaction.

Instead, today, sections increasingly resemble auditions for the loudest vehicle in the hemisphere competition. Since motorists can now drive directly onto the  beachfront behind the Marriott Hotel, some have understandably concluded that the sand doubles as a concert venue. Vehicles park facing the ocean, speakers face humanity, and the music is blasted.

The remarkable thing is that the Atlantic Ocean itself is one of nature’s great sounds. Waves have entertained audiences for millions of years without subwoofers, amplifiers or DJs shouting instructions every 30 seconds.

Surely not every public space must become an acoustic battlefield. Some places should simply be declared off-limits to amplified music. The Georgetown Seawall should top that list. People should be able to hear the waves instead of wondering whether the bass line has loosened nearby sea defences.

Ultimately, this debate is not about banning enjoyment. It is about recognising that one person’s entertainment should not become another person’s punishment.

Civilisation has always depended upon a simple social contract: we restrain ourselves just enough to allow everyone else to enjoy their own lives. The right to play music cannot include the right to commandeer another’s eardrums.

Until we rediscover that principle, silence will remain Guyana’s rarest natural resource—more elusive than buried treasure, more difficult to locate than a pothole-free road, and increasingly remembered with the affectionate nostalgia normally reserved for extinct species.

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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• boom boxes, loud music, noise pollution, Peeping Tom

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