Residential areas under siege

THE EDITOR: The residents of Ellerslie Park, Federation Park, Flagstaff Hill and surrounding areas in St James are totally besieged and quite fed up now of the noise that seems to have become a feature of this so-called residential area.

The Police barracks, when it is not drilling its recruits, opens its shooting range at ungodly hours in the morning and as Carnival approaches, plays loud music around the same time, ostensibly to let their horses become used to Carnival day noises. As if that is not enough, there are regular events taking place at which the public address system is turned to its fullest volume. That would not be so bad if the users of the system had some basic inkling of how to enhance our perception of their intellect. And this from the police who are supposed to be the guardians of the peace. The occupants of the barracks are truly terrorising us. As if that is not enough, the PSA recreation ground is hosts to Brassorama and Customs Boys fetes as the Carnival season approaches. This year we were subjected to the former on Saturday 22 followed by Wednesday 26 by the latter. Which of the party-goers and residents in the area did real work on Thursday 27.

The only people who slept on either night were deaf or very drunk. It was the wildest and noisiest events ever from this source and one fears for further deterioration in times to come. Unnecessary noise has always been a feature of developing countries and in our quest to move from that state, it might help if the so-called authorities would pay some attention to this aspect of our many weaknesses. Why is it necessary to turn up the volume of the public address system?

Those of us who wish to hear the music and follow the activities would find ourselves on spot. We also wish to alert the promoters of these events that we truly do not wish to be entertained by them. In any case, we seem to have very different ideas about what constitutes entertainment. It might surprise them to learn that we consider their inane statements over the systems a revelation of questionable intelligence and in keeping with the old adage, “empty vessels make the most noise.” One is tempted to ask of what use is the EMA in noise abatement? Have they already become a toothless tiger? Are we going to wait until someone goes berserk, is no longer able to stand the torture and do something truly awful? Or are we going to continue to make polite noises like we did about firecrackers at Christmas time and again after the recent injuries to attendees at the recent Machel Montano’s fiasco? I call on those responsible to deal with these issues if only to justify their occupation of posts assigned to do so.

C E BERRIDGE
Port-of-Spain