Saturday, May 10, 2008

Catastrophic Cadaques part 3

Over the last two postings we have learned how catastrophic the situation is in Cadaques, Spain concerning the building and construction and concerning the traffic.

However, the most dramatic demonstration of incompetence and ignorance is the use of motorbikes and mopeds in Cadaques.
It is a favourite way of moving around in the village and as soon as a person reaches the age of 16, a moped is acquired.
When the tourist season starts several businesses rent out mopeds increasing the amount of them.



The thing with these mopeds is that they are very noisy.
The streets of Cadaques are narrow while the buildings are often 4 floors high and this channel like shape amplifies the sound seriously when a moped drives in that street.



The cruel fact is though that many people with a moped have been fiddling with the muffler.
They like it if the moped sounds like a Grand Prix racing car.




Most of the mopeds in Cadaques have a very strong and irritating noise.
Peacefully being in the village, even at home on the terrace sitting in the sunshine or sleeping in the bedroom at night, all the time these sharp and violent noises are heard of mopeds moving around in the village.
It is a hard and sharp noise that disturbs, wakes up, irritates, and sounds very aggressive.
The first house owned was in a narrow street where mopeds were passing day and night and when eating in the dining room, which was at street level, the conversation had to be halted when a moped passed by.
One could simply not hear the voices of the other persons in the dining room anymore.
Sleeping in that house was out of the question due to the mopeds loudly passing by.



As with many catastrophic things in Cadaques, nobody is doing anything about this situation.

The local adolescents own the loudest and most irritating mopeds.
Their parents have the restaurants, bars and shops and little time for the children.
So the first day the child is 16, he or she gets a moped.
As there is nothing going on for the kids in the village, there is not even a movie theatre, the young people like to race from one side of the village to the other side of the village.
This at the highest speed possible with manipulated mufflers for the loudest noise and the more irritated the people become, the more they love it.
And the local policeman stands there, sees it and does nothing.

Because these young people are also involved in drugs, obviously racing on mopeds on the narrow and winding roads of the village is not without danger.
Some deaths have already occurred.
Last December on the last day of the year a young man killed himself for recklessly driving his moped.
Two years ago a Belgium tourist was hit by a fast driving moped driver and killed.

Being in the village these awful noises of the mopeds are heard constantly.
And a sane person will ask why the local authorities are not doing something about it.
They could for example get an instrument to measure the decibels a moped produces and ban all vehicles that exceed a certain limit.
They could ban the racing of mopeds by the young people.
They cold close a major part of the village for mopeds.
They could allow only electrical mopeds that are silent.
They could start a campaign suggesting people not to use the moped but to walk.
It is a small village and most is at walking distance.
But the people are lazy and even for short distances they use their mopeds.

The loud sounds of the mopeds dominate the village totally.
It makes one think how far madness can go.
The only way to deal with it is to not think of it.
To lower the level of awareness to such a point that the sounds are not heard anymore.
This means making oneself on purpose more unaware of the situation in which one lives.
This is a dangerous procedure because the lower awareness will not only cover the noise of the mopeds but will include many other things that otherwise would have been in the consciousness.
Hence, living here and not wanting to hear the noise of the mopeds makes one live life less deep.
A more superficial life of less value.







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