As the price of crude oil touches 135 USD per barrel it is increasingly becoming clear that very soon our lifestyles will suffer serious change. Gone is the time when disparity was only a cliched term for use in “third world” nations. These days it is the bane of every country in the world.
Increasing reliance on petrol as the only major fuel group and our failure as a race to find an alternative fuel means that very soon things will be out of our hands. I say this because each one of our civilized societies depends on this fuel not just for our personal transport but for travel as well as the transport of all consumer and industrial goods.
With each increase in petrol prices the prices of all products go up as well leading to a widening of the already present gap between the haves and have not’s of society. As this gap increases so does crime as the “have nots” are forced into committing acts no decent person would do, out of desperation.
This is why we get to hear news of mothers strangling their new born’s or of people committing suicide just because they get frustrated with their lives not being able to make ends meet. The east blames these things on degeneration of moral values in the west, the west blames the east’s leaders on being totally corrupt and inept to handle anything. The real culprit though is neither the east or the west, it is this gap.
I was unfortunate enough to read about aid workers raping and abusing women and children in countries which they are working in today. Who is to blame? the Aid workers or the authorities which give them the power to distribute food on their discretion in hungry nations. It is now high time for the worlds governments to get together and do the needful which is:
a) Abolish all barriers to trade, quotas, import duties etc making all movement of goods free in the world, leading to a decrease in costs of each product.
b) Subsidize exports of excess stocks of food groups, wheat being burned while children go hungry in the world is not a pretty picture.
c) Form a body of governments not tilted towards superpowers, the U.N has ceased to function as a credible organization because of this tilt, in order to make things happen immediately.
d) Pressurize the oil states by this world body to increase production or reduce prices, there is absolutely no economic data which justifies this increase in price of crude oil. It has more than tripled in the last year and it is impossible for the worlds demand for oil to suddenly triple so why has this happened?
e) Stop fighting, wars lead to serious movement of people, immigration, as well as an almost famine like situation for the areas in which they are fought and result in nothing.
We need to come together as a race now or i am afraid our children will inherit only poverty and famine from us.