Locals are vocal about loudspeakers

While loudspeakers help disseminate information, many people are disturbed by the blaring noise

The Hanoian’s headache

It is 11:28 in the morning and Vu Trai, a 78-year-old man residing in Hanoi’s Khuong Dinh ward in Thanh Xuan district, rushes to close all the doors, turning off his television and nervously listening to see if any sound could still break into his house.

“It’s so close,” he said, looking at the clock which is now pointing to 11:30 am, the time of the public loudspeakers’ mid-morning address.

Three times per day, two loudspeakers hang over the electric pole in front of his house emit loud sounds.

“The excessive sound annoys my family every day,” Trai said.

The worst time for the intrusion is on the weekends, when his grandson visits and is sometimes startled to tears by the sound.

“It reminds me of the war, when we had to hide in the cellar to avoid bombings,” Trai said.

For years, locals have been vocal about the use of public loudspeakers because of their intrusiveness.

Hanoi authorities began to listen to their citizens’ complaints and have decided to work on these issues. In a meeting on January 9 to discuss the key tasks for the Hanoi Department of Information and Communications (DIC) for the year, Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung requested municipal districts to conduct reports on the use of public loudspeakers.

Chung urged the comprehensive report to include the citizens’ concerns and be submitted within the first quarter of 2017. If such systems are found to be unnecessary, the city will remove all the speakers.

“They used to be very useful in the past, but nowadays, everybody communicates using the internet. What is its use today?” Chung asked.

These old-style loudspeakers came into use in Hanoi during the 1960s and ‘70s, when North Vietnam was at war with the US-backed South Vietnam. During this time, speakers were the fastest way to deliver news from the front lines and to warn people to take shelter from American bombings overhead.

“But they are obviously outdated in the inner city, where broadband, wireless internet connections, cable and satellite TV, and hundreds of newspapers and magazines are so popular,” said the 28-year-old Hanoian Nguyen Phuong Anh.

Presently, the broadcasts blast for 15 to 30 minutes each, announcing topics like times to pick up pension payment, when to bring children to public vaccination agencies, vitamin regimens, sanitation information, and avian flu prevention.

With the exception of a few elderly people, most respondents told VIR that such information can be transmitted more quickly and precisely by other means.

Praising Chung’s initiative, Tran Minh Hoa, a 35-year-old resident of Hanoi, told VIR, “If it was not because of those scratchy, nasal sounds, we would not have to move to a new house. We already bear enough street noise pollution as it is. I wish this move would have come a few years earlier.”

For a long time, travel agencies have advised tourists about the disruptive effects of loudspeakers while choosing a hotel. Foreigners have said that the communal announcements are “not an easy part of the morning”.

Today, young locals use “loa phuong”, the Vietnamese term for “public loudspeakers” as slang to refer to a loud, annoying person who talks too much.

A recent survey conducted by the local newswire VnExpress, shows that among the 13,000 respondents questioned, 50 per cent are for the removal of the loudspeakers system, while 40 per cent say that the PA systems should only be used in rural areas. A mere 10 per cent think the speakers are an effective tool to deliver information.

Some say these loudspeakers are better off in a museum as a part of Vietnamese history rather than a communication system for present-day society.

“Many still cling to the speakers as a way to reminisce about the past as the world has evolved into what it is today. But there’s no way they would think this if there were two speakers hanging as close to their homes as they are to mine,” the 78-year-old Trai said.

Countryside proponents

The main supporters of the use of the public loudspeakers mainly live in agricultural villages outside the city centre.

Residing in the suburban North Tu Liem district, which is only 8 kilometres from central Hanoi, Nguyen Thanh Tu, 36, said the loudspeakers play an important role in his community’s daily life.

“They wake us up in the morning at 6 am to do exercise. Then during the day, they reminds the neighbours to keep our area clean or entertain the elderly with patriotic music,” said Tu.

Meanwhile, many municipal authorities expressed their views for the use of these public announcement systems.

“It is the fastest channel to disseminate information in our area,” said Nguyen Tien Dung, deputy head of Published Press under the Ha Tinh Department of Information and Communication.

Likewise, in the northern province of Quang Ninh, loudspeakers have proven to be effective as a way to communicate official initiatives with ethnic minorities whose villages are situated in isolated areas on hillsides, according to Quang Ninh DIC’s director Vu Cong Luc.

Luc has actually proposed further investment to upgrade the current loudspeaker system, across 40 communes within his province.

Residents of central provinces, including Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Thua Thien-Hue, and Quang Nam, have advocated the loudspeaker’s use in their communities, commenting that the announcements have helped get the word out during natural disasters such as flooding or forest fires.

The results of using public loudspeakers will likely vary from region to region, stemming from their different roles in each location.