Dear Editor,
Attorney General Anil Nandlall was kind enough to breach the PPP Government’s silence and indifference on the national noise pollution epidemic. Commendations come quickly. Former President Bharrat Jagdeo spoke of some strange creature called ‘culture’ in the context of questions about the noise nuisance menace. It is heartening to learn that Dr. Jagdeo has gathered some culture in his rise to where he is today. He is welcome to keep that kind of culture and people to his noble personage. There’s no condemning of the honorable vice president of policy, neither for what he defends; nor when pretends at powerlessness. Nobody should go so low to show those lacking in the requisite standard and class the error of their ways. Often, it is best to let sleeping dogs lie. They usually end up being overridden by fleas and ticks and odors.
Now it is approaching two weeks since AG Nandlall spoke so firmly and encouragingly about the law and penalties for violations of defined noise level decibels. There was cause to say a good word publicly in the Village Voice for AG Nandlall doing his duty to Guyanese. I wish that there would be more occasions for me to do so. Whenever the vice president takes a page out of the AG’s leaflet (on anything) the same honours flow. To AG Nandlall, there is this reminder: Guyana is waiting. Reports are of hundreds of traffic tickets issued to lawbreaking drivers by the Guyana Police Force. How about a few tickets or summons for noise pollution (nuisance) abusers of the peace and the constitutional ambience guaranteed to Guyanese wherever they are? If anyone believes this is letting Guyana’s chief officer of the law off the hook, strangle the thought.
For the edification of AG Nandlall and others, a few tickets mean a couple hundred. Indeed, it is the sad state in which Guyanese live across the country that there are enough noise abusers to swamp the courts, with some millions collected. At the maximum fine identified by AG Nandlall, $750,000 times 200 equals $150 million. It is a windfall that could build a special jail to house repeat offenders sentenced to that one-year penalty. There comes a time when private sector coddling and considerations about business donations to political coffers must take a backseat to the wellbeing of Guyanese continuously battered by unrelenting volumes of noise. The police must be more than curious spectators, be shorn of any role as active colluders in the noise nuisance game.
All this is necessary immediately. The simple reason is that one lone voice in the once tranquil and rustic neighbourhood of Leonora does not convey the extent of this assault on the senses and sanity of Guyanese. Even Venezuelans have gotten deep into the noise pollution and celebration action. Another expectation is for new laws that address all these ‘jaan kalaar’ amd lagoo bagoo’ places of revelry that spring up everywhere in Guyana. Mr. AG: let’s face this fact: neither Dr. Jagdeo nor any of his highfaluting neighbours would ever tolerate a bar, or ruff house, in the arcadian grove that is Prado-Ville. Though some of them may be inclined to knocking back the sauce rather liberally, their preference would be on their terms, their time, and the standards of their turf. Mr. AG: what is good for Dr. Jagdeo, and his bigshot comrades is good for Guyanese, including the lowest peasant. What is there for bad friendship in saying something of such resonance?
Hence, I think that Guyana’s Attorney General Nandlall could leave an indelible mark on Guyana’s laws, if he were to draft urgently what addresses this dreadful noise nuisance lawlessness. As a man of the law, he can only agree. Get these damn rum shops, pubs, bottom-house taverns and yaad ear sores from the middle of villages and urban communities where Guyanese yearn for peace and quiet. Push them to the far edges of occupied villages. Cease with this nonsense of earsplitting bars and their over-indulging patrons mutating into an occupying army to the detriment of Guyanese obeying the law and looking to the government for help. One man spoke in Leonora and a missile shower rained into his yard. Now, two young men are dead not too far from that spot.
President Ali cannot be thrilled about the pockets of decay in his birthplace. A presidential cradle has a special aura, a halo of culture. The president should pass the proper orders to AG Nandlall to move, so Guyanese enjoy some results, wherever they may live. There is the culture of civilized people, and there are the mores of other kinds of culture, in which Vice President Jagdeo allowed himself a little verbal indulgence. It is time that Guyanese say a loud NO! to noise pollution. Mr. AG, please lead the way and set a new standard for bar owners and booze guzzlers (those powdering their noses with coca-based talcum). Why, VP Jagdeo may come in for an appreciation of high culture, adjust his thinking accordingly.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall