Dear Editor,
This is an open letter to the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown, and the Commissioner of Police under whose authority permission (hopefully) had to be given for events that generate noise beyond bed time hours. On Saturday, the 8th April (Holy Saturday), there was an event at the Promenade Gardens situated as it is in the middle of the city. This garden is bounded on the western side by State House and on the East by the Anglican Christ Church, among other buildings. It is known in the area as the venue for weddings, children’s parties, parades and other like occasions.
I do not know what the event on the 8th April was nor do I care to know. It is enough to say that it started out about 5pm, innocently enough with Bob Marley’s songs. As the evening progressed however, so did the intensity of the generated noise. I hesitate to call what went on there, music.
The “boom box” players have a habit of upping the noise level by turning up the bass button on their amplifiers. This was obviously done. In between the excessive “boom boom” noise making there were boisterous male voices shouting out various sentences to the patrons. This went on for hours on end. Finally, at 1am on Easter morning, it stopped. In the past, an event such as this would have been relegated to the National Park. Instead, here it was in the center of the city with complete disregard for the neighbourhood. In Guyana today, we seem to have lost all sense of occasion, of time and place, all consideration and respect for others. Here it was, the night before Easter, a major Christian Festival and a Christian Church and priest just across the way, preparing for Easter morning services and having to withstand this travesty. The coarsening of Guyanese society continues apace and one component of this is noise nuisance.
The importation of Jamaican dancehall noise making has contributed in large measure to the distortion of music in Guyana. However, there are other contributors to noise nuisance. The latest dimension comes from the motor cyclists who deliberately take off the mufflers from their motor-cycles and speed around the city streets creating maximum noise at all hours of day and night. Whilst my main complaint in this letter is about noise nuisance, I join the ranks of Isabelle de caires, Bernard Ramsay and others in deploring the general state of the city, the accumulated filth, clogged drains etc.
Many years ago, I used to be a Magistrate. My first year was spent at Court 5 in Georgetown which was then designated the Municipal Court. The mayor should seek the re-establishment of this court. The problem is this society is not that there are not laws, rules and regulations. The real problem is the non-implementation of these. If we are at all serious about tourism, we should bypass this polluted city of Georgetown and create another town somewhere in our beautiful interior where peace and tranquility could prevail.
Sincerely,
Clarissa Riehl