Arguably the most disturbing element of our contemporary urban entertainment culture is the various dysfunctional ways in which it imposes itself on normal life, including the legitimate pursuits and normal entitlements of other sections of the society. The ‘after hours’ noise nuisance emanating from places of entertainment in residential communities comes close to the top of the list of overbearing ordeals which the victims now appear to have little choice but to endure. Indiscriminate car parking by nocturnal revellers blocks driveways, in some instances compelling the victims of these inconveniences to secure alternative parking since in the absurd hours of the morning the transgressors are immersed in the pursuit of entertaining themselves. And as one complainant put it in an exchange with this newspaper a few days ago, the police, rather than helping to alleviate these situations are, all too frequently, “part of the problem.”
The very fact that some enterprises that form part of the mainstream entertainment sector appear to have secured carte blanche to stage what, frequently, are unconscionably disruptive events that end up interfering with the right of citizens to enjoy the peace and quiet of their homes is an anomaly that is symptomatic of a much wider societal lawlessness that the authorities appear to have no desire to rein in. Here in the capital, it is a good deal worse. What, these days, passes for entertainment, amounts to no more than lawless, often ‘riotous’ affairs and with the authorities seemingly having openly demonstrated what appears to be a pointed indifference to this circumstance, the rest of the society remains quiet at its own peril. Contextually, the official promotion of Georgetown as a ‘Garden City’ is reduced to no more than a monotonous but meaningless cliché.
Here, it has to be said, that central government and the municipality, in their respective roles as lawmakers, have to ‘carry the can’ for these anomalies. They can reject this reality until the proverbial cows come home. They are, at this juncture, very much part of the problem. Here it has to be said that in circumstances where there appears to be no clearly defined rules and standards, the situation will only grow worse.
Contextually, questions arise as to whether, a permit ought to have been afforded the public entertainment sector’s Hits and Jams Entertainment, permission to stage its recent ‘White and Gold’ Toga Party’ at the Promenade Gardens, when, for quite a few perfectly good reasons, the company could have been asked to take its ‘show’ elsewhere.
Certainly, and while apologies have been tendered for the nuisance imposed on residents within earshot of the reportedly loud music that, for a while, at least, attended the event, the fact of the matter is that official permission to stage such an event at the Promenade Gardens was an error in judgement that lies close to the boundaries of absurdity. The advertised event pointed unerringly to the likelihood that the proceedings could be disruptive to the wider community. Hits and Jams should have been asked to take its White and Gold Toga Party to some alternative location where the likelihood of disruption of the peace and quiet of the ‘host’ neighbourhood was far less likely to have arisen, in the first place. There is no ‘rocket science’ here. By not putting the hapless residents of the affected community first, whomsoever ‘green-lighted the Toga affair erred (at least we assume that it was no more than a thoughtless error) ‘big time.’
The Promenade Gardens has always been regarded as a locale of (relative) sedateness and tranquility and given the fact that Hits and Jams has, over time, acquired a well-earned reputation for its ‘up tempo’ entertainment offerings, those two considerations ought, surely, to have provided sufficient reason to ask the promoters of the event to seek out a more ‘convivial’ venue for the staging of its ‘White and Gold’ event.
Here in Guyana, whenever unpalatable situations occur at high levels, the vigorous pursuit of what we loosely call ‘scapegoatism’ is usually the preferred way out. Whoever gave Hits and Jams the ‘green light’ to use the Promenade Gardens for its event, either ‘dozed off’ for a protracted period, or else, may simply have been the ‘messenger’ in the matter of the delivery of the approval for the event to take place at the requested venue.
Contextually, one is tempted to raise the issue as to whether the management of one of the country’s best-known public entertainment establishments might well not have decided to ‘go upstairs’ (wherever ‘upstairs’ might be, in such a situation) to have its request to use the Promenade Gardens location ‘cleared.’ After all, what the group was seeking was a level of latitude that was unlikely to be afforded the ‘average ‘Masquerade Band and would have been unlikely to secure the imprimatur of City Hall in circumstances where it would have been known that such a move was likely to attract a fair measure of political flack. But then this was ‘Hits and Jams’ and not your run-of-the-mill Masquerade Band.
There are those who would argue, of course, that what happened at the ‘White and Gold Toga Party’ two weekends ago, helps to illuminate the reality of the ‘times’ in which we live; times in which considerations of restraint and propriety have given way to ‘free rein,’ arbitrary lowering of the bar to make room for a more generous measure of indulgence in risky and unpalatable excesses.
Here it often seems that those who would have it that way frequently prevail upon the decision-making institutions, an unmistakable sign of weakness in the governance process. Setting aside the excesses of Hits and Jams’ ‘White and Gold’ event, which, one learnt, ended up with ‘apologies’ and a reducing of the decibel level of the music, there is room here for a comment on the broader ‘gone wild’ affliction that now infects the public entertainment sector. We have thrown the societal doors open to all sorts of excesses associated with public entertainment that appear, decidedly, to be possessed of immunity from lawful restraint.
One such excess, it would seem, is manifested in what, these days are the bizarre parking arrangements that obtain outside popular entertainment places in the city, which arrangements are frequently ‘overseen’ by on-duty police patrols. Whether the Police Force accepts it or otherwise, the now routine criticisms of the management of the madness of the urban weekend nocturnal traffic management is a problem that is embedded in their seemingly patent indifference to its law enforcement obligations.
To return to the recent Promenade Gardens brouhaha, however much we parade opinions to the contrary, preferential access privileges and seeming immunity from lawful reprimand or stronger sanction has become etched in our society of selective exemptions that are driven ‘from the top’. This, of course, raises pointed questions about the soundness of our governance systems. Nothing, not even our much vaunted ‘oil wealth’ can disguise a seemingly growing appetite for indulgences that are both degrading and dangerous and to which we appear to have taken like ducks to water. That has to end if there is to be any hope of real and meaningful change.