Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 12/Jan 02:37

What failure sounds like

DEBBIE JACOB DON’T THINK that those of us fighting the battle against fireworks are going to take a rest between Old Year’s Night and Independence Day. The fight goes on, as do the fireworks. A week after the new year began, my neighbourhood still had fireworks going off. These people don’t stop terrorising us. In case you haven’t noticed, fireworks are far more than nonsensical noise. They spark heated debates between those who want them and those who don’t, but they also measure many of the issues we need to work on in this country. Fireworks are now a symbol of inefficiency and inconsideracy that plague this nation. Let me list other important issues that indicate the problems and values we should be addressing. 1. Apathy – A lack of empathy is a huge problem in this country. I can tell you from my first-hand experiences running The Wishing for Wings Foundation that the people of this country are generous, supportive and giving, but that doesn’t necessarily equate with empathy. Actually, it can mask empathy. People give because something strikes a nerve in them, whereas empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. If you can’t understand how fireworks terrorise old and sick people or animals, then that’s a lack of empathy. This leads us to our second problem. 2. Self-centredness – Let’s use the Merriam-Webster definition for this: “concerned solely with one's own desires, needs, or interests.” Your feeling of entitlement when it comes to fireworks qualifies for being self-centred. How can you put any value on making noise? Who or what is that helping? What goal is it fulfilling? I can see making an argument for the aesthetic value of how fireworks look, whether they are sparklers or full-blown fireworks, but you can get that fix from silent fireworks. It’s the noise that makes the nuisance, and frankly, there’s no good argument to support making that noise. 3. Noise pollution – Since we’re into the Carnival season, let me slip loud music into this discussion about fireworks. I don’t think it’s a wild stretch of the imagination to see that they are just louder examples of the same issue: noise pollution. The first Carnival fete of the year spat out unbearable noise for miles away from my house. I am about two miles from the Savannah and the vibration from the bass made my windows rattle and my ears pound. And it wasn’t my imagination. Social media blew up with people complaining in areas around the Savannah. How do these fetes get away with noise so loud it must be damaging patrons’ hearing while it terrorises those of us who don’t want to go to fetes? This noise issue spills over to another major problem in this country: productivity. 4. Productivity – Think of the people who suffer from all that noise late in the night and have to work the following day. They go to bed later than usual and probably can’t sleep properly for the rest of the night. How productive do you think they can be at work the following day? Noise, then, isn’t just a personal issue. It’s a national problem. 5. Ineffective legislation – This new fireworks law rushed through by the government just demonstrates how useless, unenforceable legislation undermines this country, demoralises upstanding citizens and destroys trust in politicians. When any government introduces a law that has no teeth and is difficult or impossible to enforce, it gives people the impression that laws are made to be broken. Think of the fear-reaching implications of that. Worse yet is when the police don’t buy into these laws. Police arrested no one for violations of the fireworks legislation, and they are unwilling to address the problem of noise pollution. After the new year, when I called the Belmont police to complain about the loud noise from the year’s first fete, PC St Clair, who answered the phone, told me there is permission for the fete and so they can play music as loud as they want. He said he knew of no law guiding the level of noise. I just don’t understand why so many people in this country find useless noise important. Is it a warped sense of power or defiance? Can it be a feeling of entitlement or an indication of callousness? Maybe it symbolises a desperate need to be heard. The post What failure sounds like appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.