Firework frenzy

Welcoming the New Year on the Gregorian calendar is not a local festival in this part of the world. But it is gaining popularity among the young generations in urban centres, only more so in the capital city. Now the way the arrival of the New Year is celebrated is simply giving non-converted city dwellers a nightmarish time starting hours before midnight of 31st December up to the first half of the day one of the New Year. It is not just random explosions and dazzling displays of firecrackers and fireworks but unashamed exposition of collective insanity. In Western cultures where the fireworks mark the beginning of the New year right after the zero hour, those are a brief affair barely lasting for a few minutes from 5.0 minutes 30 seconds in Auckland to 12 minutes in New York to 15 minutes in London. Also importantly, the programmes are arranged at designated places such as at seven venues in New York.
Clearly, the naive imitation of the Western culture now has been taken to its excesses where the aberration is exposing mental bankruptcy at the cost of discipline and the bare minimum common sense. It is more like insane carnivals of the bull running in Spain's Pamplona with the difference that those who fall victim to distraught bulls let loose amid the crowd willingly take part in the crazy race and also the event takes place at daytime. But in case of releasing flying lanterns and letting go off firecrackers and fireworks, not only is the privacy of neighbours seriously compromised but also the suffering of babies, the aged and the ailing mindlessly overlooked. Apart from the human kind, furry and feathery lives ---pet or wild--- are put under threat. It may be sports to the revellers but death to those innocent lives.
No wonder, as many as 971 public calls for hep was made to the National Emergency Service 999, which is almost three times the number of such complaints, 365 in total, citizens lodged last year. These calls were made between 10 pm of December 31 and 12 am of the New Year's Day. Not all the complaints were, however, against firecrackers and fireworks. High decibel acoustic from mikes, songs and music including those of election campaign also pushed people beyond all limits of tolerance. Three incidents of fire were reported and 40 spent-up flying lanterns had to be removed from electric cables of the metro rail. If there is any positive sign, it is the growing awareness among citizens, as demonstrated by the increasing number of calls, against uncontrolled and unregulated revelry.
Already Dhaka City has earned the infamy of the champion of the world's noisiest and most polluted city. According to a UN Environment Programme report, 2022, Dhaka topped the list of 61 major noisy cities in the world with its average noise frequency at 119 decibels. Then the Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS), of the Stamford University, Bangladesh finds that the average air quality in Dhaka in 2023 was the worst in eight years at the score of 171 and on Tuesday at 9 pm it was 281, the highest and therefore worst in the world. A score between 201 and 300 in the Air Quality Index (AQI) is most unhealthy and fireworks on the night, actually low-explosive pyrotechnic, contributed to it. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) issued a 14-point directive only to be ignored by the revellers. Now the police have to ensure compliance of such instructions. Use of silent fireworks for five to 10 minutes, as introduced in Italian town Collecchio, can be a way out.