Dear Mr Gary Voss, I am tempted to reply to your letter to the Editor with a term with which you as a Trinidadian are familiar: We like it so.
That would be both unkind and inaccurate because there are thousands of Barbadians and visitors who have been crying out for years about noise pollution – to no avail.
You asked: “What is the reason for all this noise? Barbados used to be a nice quiet island, where one could have a relaxing holiday – but not anymore.”
You mentioned air horns and sirens. They’re not all; we have to contend with kites flying all night and marauders on motorcycles disturbing the peace, to mention a few.
The problem is two-fold: first, the people we elect to run our affairs merely talk about noise pollution – and the environment generally – but they lack the will to deal effectively with the problem. They see a constituency among the noise-makers but fail to notice the larger constituency among the noise-sufferers.
Second, and more important, the average Barbadian of the past 50 years doesn’t give a damn about his or her fellow compatriot. We have become, for the most part, an inconsiderate people.
We protest, complain and grumble a little but soon settle down and adjust to things as they get worse. Take, for example, the diesel fumes we willingly admit into our lungs daily. I doubt if we’ll take the matter any more seriously now that the World Health Organization asserts that such exhausts do cause cancer.
You wrote: “Surely, there are laws regarding noise levels in public places which should be enforced.”
We have four statutes that touch on the problem: the Road Traffic Act 1981, the Road Traffic Regulations 1984, the Highways Act and the Public Order Act. All, in their separate ways, deal with the nuisance of noise, although not as tightly as they should.
Since 1979, consecutive Governments have been introducing and promising appropriate measures to fix the problem. They made another attempt in 2007 and that fell by the wayside. The current administration has been promising new legislation for the past four years. It is reinventing the wheel.
You folks in Trinidad are serious. Last year a chap from Arima was fined $1 500 for disturbing the peace with loud music. The case was brought by a nurse, who lived next door. She told the magistrate that she never had any peace as there was loud music day and night and if she wanted to watch television, she had to increase her volume – resulting in even more noise.
Recently, a Trinidadian friend sent me a Press clipping in which another noise-maker – a bar in Cunupia – had its licence revoked following several complaints. The report said: “The Environmental Police Unit initially visited the bar during peak activity and gave stern warnings to the bar owner and informed him of the Noise Pollution Control rules. Other site visits were conducted and the investigations revealed that there was a breach of the prescribed standards of the Noise Pollution Control Rules.”
That’s the kind of action we would like to see in Barbados.
To be fair, there have been a few instances here when the authorities have acted, but such occasions can be counted on the fingers of one hand – minus the thumb.
Just a few months ago our police arrested a man from Barbarees Hill, just outside Bridgetown, after warning him twice about the discomfort he was causing his neighbours. When they returned the third time they took away his stereo system. Unfortunately, when he went before the magistrate he got a slap on the wrist and was ordered not to do it again.
Maybe, it was because he pleaded both guilty and being hard of hearing!
This Barbadian society you seem to admire is becoming more and more crude, uncaring and unruly. The tragedy is that most people seem to like it so.
• Carl Moore was the first Editor of THE NATION and is a social commentator. Email carlmoore@caribsurf.com