Yarl restaurant is the most painful experience in our lives

Yarl restaurant's workers busy preparing food in their open air kitchen on Sunday, 6 April 2014.

A photo of yarl restaurant's open air kitchen taken on Sunday, 6 April 2014.

 

This morning, at 5.55 a.m., yarl restaurant's loud and deafening kitchen hood noise can be heard like thunder outside our window as usual. 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 a diesel truck outside your window at 5 - 6 a.m. in the morning and you have no right to say or do anything about it!

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.

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. Sleep deprivation can even cause accidents. 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 shoplot in any place, turn on your kitchen hood which is as loud as a diesel truck 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?

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 get up early because yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise will chase me out of my bedroom at around 6 in the morning or 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. 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 a citizen of Malaysia, I have no such right!

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 or attend wedding dinners as I have to rush home to sleep because yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise will chase me out of my bedroom at 6 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. 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?