Gas price in Jamaica has passed the $100.00 mark. In US currency that is $1.176 per liter or about $4.71 per gallon. A lot of mullah for people who were suffering under a recession that shouldn't have hit our shores...so said one misguided politician, who thank God has since redeemed himself with his efforts in controlling the country's finances. But back to the gas...
I purchase by value rather than quantity. Where it takes is as far as I go and if I can purchase more I do. This week my sister and I decided to car pool. After all, we work and live in the same neighborhoods, or very near. The only difference is she works until late and I have to escape the office at 6 p.m. before the dogs are let out. But, in light of the cost of fuel, I'll sit in the car and read a book until she's ready. It's the new way of the world.
But seriously, when is this going to end? When are we going to get a transportation system that we're comfortable with in Jamaica, or at least one that I can be sure will arrive when it should. But then again, what do I know? I haven't taken the bus in ages, despite it running right past my gate. One look into that crowded abyss in the mornings convinced me that if I ever try that adventure, I will do it on Sunday morning, when the bus is practically empty. The crowds at the bus stop is also a turn-off as I think of the hours spent standing in the sun, peering far up in the never-ending metallica, hoping that yellow dot way back in the distance is your bus and knowing very well that peopling living further up the line have already rammed it tight. No wonder many still drive.
Last week, a friend told me that part of the reason governments are unable to properly convince their citizens to ride the public transport or car pool, is that people have become accustomed to the personal space and security a car provides. It's that three feet this and that way that keeps me protected from the other being without the need for unnecessary conversation or even politeness that has us struggling to afford pricey cars and ridiculous gas prices. He may very well be on to something.
They say this new rise in oil prices is due to the trouble in the Middle East. I don't know whether to thank the Tunisians for waking up the world and showing them the true deal behind the deals that have modern countries and so called leaders of the developed world, befriending these dictators and declaring them changed beings or to smack them over the head and ask, what the hell were you thinking? Well, one recent rant in the hallowed UN Council by the 'mad dog of the East' showed that up for the bag of hog wash it is. The plain and nasty truth is that not one of those countries would pay any of them the time of day if they weren't sitting on a sea of black gold, or if they weren't mad tyrants, threatening to kill us all. The latter, I do believe is closely tied to the first. What on earth is going on on earth? Where were we all when secret deals were being made with Ghadafi? How did we ever believe that this man or any of them really wanted to change and that the change would be sustainable? Why would they think that they can rule their people for ever, passing on leadership to their next of kin like it was a little plot of land in the desert. Did they not expect their people to be fed-up of being fed-up? I'm waiting to see how long it's going to take one of the G8 to go in guns blazing to save the people (wink, wink).
It's amazing when you think about the whole thing. If we have peace in the Middle East, then the rest of the world sighs and happily sucks up as much oil as they can produce; if they're angry, then we're in deep excrement. If there is a recession, then oil prices drop because, naturally, many will not be able to afford their existing cars much less drive new ones or consume anything that uses the precious liquid. When the world is in the black, then oil prices soar because we're happily consuming. So what's the solution? Be poor and lament the inability to afford a vehicle but rejoice at the low oil prices? Or be rich and don't care about the cost of oil because you can afford it and damned the gaps created beneath the earth because we're sucking it dry? Either way, something's not right and it seems like we'll ponder this til eternity.
By the way, what happens underground when the oil's taken out - is it a black empty mass of nothing? Now that's one for the naturalists.
P.S. The photo above was taken from the web and is courtesy PennsylvaniaForChange.Blogspot.com
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