Jordanians wake to an irritating tune blared from gas trucks

EVERY DAY many groggy Jordanians are woken by the sound of Beethoven blasted down the street. Trucks selling gas cylinders drive around playing a tinny electronic version of “Für Elise” in the early hours of the morning, alerting customers in the style of an ice-cream van. Residents in need of gas flag down the van when they hear the sound. Some consider the gas-truck music a part of Jordanian life’s rich soundtrack. Others think it is noise pollution.Until the late 1990s gas-truck drivers alerted their customers by loudly honking or clanging keys against the cylinders. After complaints about the noise, the government and the fuel syndicate agreed to replace the honking with “a relaxing kind of music”, says Hussein Allaboun, head of the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission.