The noise menace

I was at this eating place, one of those places we call ‘chop bars’. I noticed that my message to the food seller across the counter was not getting through to her, even though I had raised my voice beyond normal levels. The person at the other end was also straining her ears but she could not hear me well. I was becoming desperate to the point of abandoning my mission when I saw the source of our problem. Resting in one corner of the bar was a loudspeaker punctuating the airwaves with a radio programme. It was one of those local frequency modulation (FM) radio stations where news is read as if somebody is running commentary, with all the embellishment one could think of. The volume was very high and communicating even at close range became a problem. One would expect that there would be serenity at a chop bar, so that as one consumes his/her food, he/she could also go over the day’s newspapers or ponder over what lies ahead for the day. It should even be possible for the patron to listen to the news or cool music while eating. But it becomes so irritating that the value of the news is lost, just as the sweetness of the music is drowned in the cacophony of noise. At another time, I joined a bus that would take me home. As soon as the driver took his seat, he pressed a knob and the vehicle started vibrating with noise. I say ‘noise’ because what was supposed to be music coming out of the speakers was so loud and ear-piercing that whatever entertainment was intended for the passengers became punishment. If you think you can run away from the noise in town by heading towards home for solace, think twice, for more noise awaits you in your neighbourhood. That noise will come from either a church next door or a drinking spot across the street. Some of these can operate till the wee hours of the following day and the deeper the night, the louder the noise. Life on the streets is not peaceful either. Vehicles of all shapes and sizes choke the atmosphere with the blaring of their horns. Sometimes one cannot tell whether it is a signal of distress or a driver just playing pranks, using the horn as an instrument. In some countries one could hardly hear the tooting of vehicle horns, since all the players know the rules of the game and play it fair. Here, you are likely to run over a pedestrian or into another vehicle if you ignore the use of your horn. Even, then, why on earth would an articulated truck driver toot his horn in a residential area at dawn when everybody is asleep? The strangest of all things is that there are laws against noise-making but their enforcement has become a problem, from the local authority to the national levels. As a result, individuals, groups and whole communities have been left to their fate to suffer in silence. Out of frustration, people have taken the law into their own hands, with devastating consequences. Should things remain this way? fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com