IN THE Gleaner of Friday October 18, 2002, I read a letter from a W.J. Agnew of Galina, St. Mary regarding the noise from a nearby church, and I could totally empathise with this poor victim of disregard for the law in one of its most virulent forms.
On the night of Thursday, October 17 and Friday October 18 up until 5: a.m., I was subjected to another sleepless night courtesy of Devon House. The yelling, loud incessant drumming and music kept us awake all night. Calls to the police are no longer of any use whatsoever. There is no noise law in action in this island, nor is there any need seen for it. I have to consider that our people are in fact all half-deaf from all the years of continuous unabated noise from sound systems and car stereos and sessions, and so they do not hear the level of noise that people with normal hearing do. If this is indeed the case, then we are beating our heads against a stone wall.
In the shopping plazas uptown (Constant Spring Road) I know that I dread to go shopping on a Saturday morning or afternoon because of what I am going to have to suffer from the noise boxes outside the shops. It is a terrible form of victimisation and as long as it continues, those of us who might have been able to help this country will continue to leave.
Then of course it won't matter any more, and this island in the Caribbean called Jamaica, with all its incredible potential obliterated, will just boil down to one big continuous, 'illegal' session, interspersed by gunshots and blood and screaming anarchy.
