This morning, at 5.50 a.m., yarl restaurant's loud and deafening kitchen hood noise can be heard like thunder outside our window as usual. (Above you can see a video of yarl restaurant taken at 5.50 a.m. this morning. You can also view this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmPMckQIBMo&feature=youtu.be). In other countries, restaurants are not allowed to make noise before 7 a.m. and even after 7 a.m., they cannot emit noise which is above 60dBA. But in Malaysia, you can be tortured with noise as loud as thunder outside your window at 5 - 6 a.m. in the morning and you have no right to say or do anything about it! Even the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) says that there is no noise pollution when yarl restaurant's kitchen hood is making thunderous noise outside our bedroom windows everyday. Yarl restaurant is already making loud and thunderous noise all day long with its noisy kitchen hood but to make such loud and thunderous noise at such an early hour in the morning is a gross disregard for human rights. At this hour of the day when the entire neighbourhood is so quiet that you can even hear a pin drop and many people are still sleeping soundly, why does the DBKL allow yarl restaurant to make this kind of thunderous noise outside our bedroom windows and tell lies to cover up for yarl restaurant? I would really like to know how the DBKL defines noise pollution. If such loud and thunderous noise so early in the morning is not noise pollution, then what else can be noise pollution? What seems to be ridiculous here is when I made another report to DBKL, these DBKL officers only went to check on yarl restaurant on the day that the restaurant was closed. Did they do it on purpose? Here is the reply from DBKL:
3.Tarikh siasatan pada 10/2/2012@ 9.45pagi dan didapati restoran bertutup
dan berkunci.
4.Mucung cerobong asap menghala kebawah kedalam longkang awam dan
motornya didalam premis.(tiada beroperasi).
Tarikh Tindakan Diambil : 10-02-2014 13:38
Kenalpasti Punca :
1.Tiada kacauganggu bunyi bising.
2.Pemantauan akan diteruskan.
Tarikh : 10-02-2014 13:38
Tindakan Pencegahan Yang Diambil :
1.Amaran dan teguran kepada pengusaha restoran.
Nama Pegawai : Thilagenthiran A/L S.Somasundram
Jawatan : Penolong Pegawai Kesihatan Persekitaran
Tarikh : 10-02-2014 13:38
3. Diharap makluman ini dapat memberi penjelasan kepada pihak tuan/puan.
Sekian, terima kasih.
"BERKHIDMAT UNTUK NEGARA"
"BERSEDIA MENYUMBANG, BANDARAYA CEMERLANG"
Saya yang menurut perintah,
Jabatan Perancangan Korporat
b.p. Datuk Bandar Kuala Lumpur
Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur.
According to this email, they went to check on yarl restaurant on 10 February 2014 but it was closed and locked. The kitchen hood was facing downwards and going into the drain and the motor was inside the premises. They were not in operation either. Therefore their verdict is: No noise pollution. Anything fishy here? Why chose the day when yarl restaurant was closed to check on them? If the restaurant was closed on that day, why not try again another day? Yarl restaurant is operating 7 days a week. The video above clearly shows that the kitchen hood does not end in the drain and it is making thunderous noise at 5.50 a.m. in the morning. Beneath the kitchen hood, you can see cemented ground and not 'drain'. If the kitchen hood really ends in the drain then the air pollution wouldn't be so serious. Each time we put our clothes out to dry, they are soaked in curry. Even a stupid child who watches the video above knows that this is an obvious case of serious noise pollution! How come the DBKL officers cannot see that?
When my colleagues told me that they normally sleep until 9 a.m. if they start work at 2 p.m., I could feel my heart aching. I couldn't help envying them. I don't envy people who are richer than me. I don't envy people who are more successful than me. I don't envy people who are handsomer than me. But why envy people who could have enough sleep and sleep whenever they want? This is because I can't do the same. No matter what time I sleep the night before, I have to wake up when yarl restaurant starts making loud and deafening noise with its kitchen hood early in the morning. For a long time I have not been having enough sleep. For a long time I do not know what having enough sleep means. I only know that when yarl restaurant's selfish and irresponsible boss turns on his loud and deafening kitchen hood in the wee hours of the morning, I have to leave my bedroom immediately. I go to work sleepy and tired every day of my life. And my health is deteriorating because of yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise.
Do you know how much pain I have to endure as a noise pollution victim? Forcing my sleepy eyes to remain open and concentrate on what I was doing was really an uphill task. Sleepiness due to lack of sleep makes me unable to think properly and there are times when I don't know what I am doing. I become very forgetful and cannot even identify faces. There have been times when I was nearly knocked down by a car because I forgot to look left and right before I crossed the road. I feel dizzy at work with my head swinging due to lack of sleep. This is worse than physical torture in the fires of hell. I normally sleep 8-9 hours a day but now I have to do with 7 hours or even less. Does anyone have the right to stop someone from getting enough sleep? In Malaysia, anyone can have such a right. You can just rent a shop lot in any place, turn on your kitchen hood which is as loud as a diesel truck / thunder outside somebody's window at 5 - 6 a.m.in the morning to chase everyone out of their bedrooms and no one can stop you. Is this what is meant by "Malaysia Boleh" i.e. you can do anything in Malaysia? Where are our basic right as citizens of Malaysia?
Having to live up to yarl restaurant's noise pollution expectations is also an uphill task. I can no longer do many of the things that I used to so such as going out with friends after work, watching my favourite programs at night, calling friends at night, or even doing shopping after work. There is only one thing in mind, i.e. I must rush home as soon as I can after work to sleep and get up early because yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise will chase me out of my bedroom at around 6 in the morning or perhaps even earlier than that. As I look back, I really yearn for the freedom that I have lost and will never have as long as yarl restaurant's kitchen hood is making loud and deafening noise outside my window.
Everyone takes freedom for granted but for the victims of yarl restaurant's noise pollution program, freedom is only an illusion. If yarl restaurant says, "Don't attend your company's annual dinner or watch football at night because you must wake up early next morning as my kitchen hood noise is going to chase you out of your bedroom at 5 - 6 a.m.", we have no choice but to obey. If yarl restaurant says, "You cannot visit your sick relative after work as you must rush home to sleep because you must wake up early as I'm going to chase you out of your bedroom with my kitchen hood noise in the wee hours of the morning", In this era, even children wouldn't listen if you ask them not to watch football at night. But what about me, as an adult, who have to live up to yarl restaurant's noise pollution expectations? Do you know how stressful it is to be a noise pollution victim? It is worse than cancer. Even refugees are given the right to an adequate standard of living but as citizens of Malaysia, we have no such right! Even refugees have the right to have enough sleep but as a citizen of Malaysia, we have been denied such rights since yarl restaurant started operation in January 2013.
According to the United Nations on Human Rights, the right to an adequate standard of living requires, at a minimum, that everyone shall enjoy the necessary subsistence rights: adequate food and nutrition, clothing, housing and the necessary conditions of care when required. The essential point is that everyone shall be able, without shame and without unreasonable obstacles, to be a full participant in ordinary, everyday interaction with other people. Thus, people should be able to enjoy their basic needs in conditions of dignity. No one should have to live in conditions whereby the only way to satisfy their needs is by degrading themselves or depriving themselves of their basic freedoms, such as through begging, prostitution or forced labour.
As a citizen of Malaysia, I have to live in shame and with unreasonable obstacles in the form of yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise. I cannot be a full participant in ordinary, everyday interaction with other people. I can no longer go out with friends after work, visit sick relatives or attend wedding dinners at night as I have to rush home to sleep because yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise will chase me out of my bedroom at 5 - 6 a.m. in the morning. I cannot enjoy my basic needs in conditions of dignity. In actual fact, I have no dignity now. I am only a slave to yarl restaurant's noise pollution program. For months I have been fighting for the right not be waken up by yarl restaurant's loud and deafening kitchen hood noise in the wee hours of the morning but this right is still being denied to me. I am living in conditions whereby yarl restaurant' is depriving me of my basic freedoms, such as chasing me out of my bedroom with its kitchen hood noise early in the morning at 5- 6 a.m., depriving me of sleep, preventing me from going out with friends, attending dinners, doing shopping, and watching football at night. These are the things that many people take for granted but do you know that I am fighting desperately and in vain just to have these basic freedoms restored to me?
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