OUR COUNTRY is overwhelmed with noise - despite a Noise Abatement Act which was passed with great fanfare and promise.
In Barbados, our sister Caribbean island, a group of citizens have vowed to take a stand against their noise menace. The Society for a Quieter Barbados (SQB) will be launched on December 11. The new group aims to lobby Government to enforce the laws and to educate the public on the dangers of noise pollution.
It is not likely that Barbados has descended to our level of noise pollution. From street dances, to churches, to endless house parties in high-density communities, to the commercial noise of garages and other illegal enterprises in residential areas, we are under siege from unrelenting noise.
The Noise Abatement Act, now five years old, states that "the level of noise in Jamaica both by day and by night has become truly appalling and it is affecting the health and welfare of the nation. The Act sought "to provide for some new method of controlling the situation, and for monetary and other penalties against those who persistently pollute the atmosphere and abuse the law-abiding public with intolerable noise."
Not much has been done in five years by way of enforcement of the Act. A little sporadic, half-hearted action here and there, but nothing substantial and sustained. Noise pollution is part of the general breakdown in law and order and represents a widespread disregard for the rights of others.
Hard crime, as is now very clearly understood, thrives in this sort of environment of laxness, disorder, and the abuse of rights among citizens. Crime has gone down in New York City and everywhere else that quality of life regulations have been rigorously policed in small matters like littering, urinating in public, and putting graffiti in public space.
Noise abuse is hardly a small matter. There are large implications for health and well-being and for peaceful co-existence. Barbados has taken a first step to tackle their problem through citizens' action. There has been little police support for the anti-noise law in Jamaica. Perhaps suffering citizens could take a leaf out of our neighbour's book.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
