NOISE pollution has reached epidemic proportions in this country at present.

Every day, I continue to wonder: how is it, why is it, that somehow this issue, this topic, this scourge, remains unnoticed by our intellectual elites, our medical professionals, our regular media commentators, our most experienced media professionals, our finest legal minds, our Independent senators, our very silent and obscure activists (and I could go on ad nauseum)?

Noise pollution is not just an annoyance-it is a health hazard (our Health Minister doesn’t know this, of course). It is also a human rights dilemma (our Attorney General seems unaware of this). It is also an assault on the very dignity of the citizenry (our activists, wherever they are, don’t know this; so, too, our religious leaders). Yet there remains a deafening silence nationwide regarding this menace.

Is this a civilised country? Is this a real place? How could bars, tyre shops, mini-marts, car wash establishments, idiot car DJs, etc, seem to have an untrammelled right to disturb entire neighbourhoods, and nary a word from all these patriots?

This paucity of genuine, impassioned responsibility is as much a crisis today as our worsening crime situation.

Elections are due: will ‘good people’ continue to do nothing?

DF Redmond

Laventille