Heard the news about the petrol price hike today. It is official. Tomorrow, 5th Of June 2008, we would be paying 78 sen more per litre of petrol. Like any other car owner in the country, I rushed to the nearest petrol station to fill up the tank. My last 1.92. I'm glad that I did this early because at around 6pm today, traffic at petrol stations were really congested.
the scene at Mobil station taman tun...
My next full tank will cost me about RM47 more. Multiply that by 5, that's RM234 more a month. Times that by 12 months, that's like RM2,808 a year. The cash rebate that I will be given later is RM625 a year. My question is, what about the ripple effects? Wouldn't it result in increase in other prices of goods and services too??
So how to do? Definitely have to change lifestyle. Cycling to work suddenly doesn't sound so ridiculous does it? Personally, I say let the petrol price increase. Let it sky rocket. It is the only way that we can wean ourselves from this addiction. The addiction to oil. Dr Jude said that despite the fact that we are in the 21st century, we are still dependent on stone age technology. He's referring to how our ancient ancestors discovered fire through striking stones and generate spark. Today we use spark plug to ignite gasoline in our engines. We have tremendous advancement in engine development but we still use stone age combustion technology, hence our addiction to fossil fuel.
I simply don't understand why there is little effort in developing and commercialising alternative and sustainable source of energy. Is it too costly? That's what I always heard. It could be costly, but our dependence on fossil fuel has cost us even dearly. You have to take into account carbon emission/global warming effects, political and social economic imbalances and the worst is the cost of human life from the so called war collateral damages. It is far more costly than the cost of developing and supplying alternative energy sources.
I don't deny the role of oil in developing the world economy. In fact, the World War II was won by the Allies simply because they have better control on oil supply to power their war machines. That's why the German's submarine U-Boat targeted merchant ships carrying supplies. The alliance depended on the Americans for oil and it was the major factor why they won the world war. Just to highlight the value of oil in the past.
Today however, it's a different story. We depended far too long on fossil fuel. It's hard to understand why there is no proper transition plan from using oil to other alternatives. I guess people always go where the money is isn't it? Where there is demand, there will be supply. And when there's lack of supply to meet demand, price will go up. Bring in the speculators into the equation, you get havoc. Speculators make money out of people's misery. I say we stop the demand.
With the prevailing condition, people will start to do things differently. They will start to accept things which is beyond their norms or culture. I would really want to push for this Telecommuting concept. It's a concept to encourage people to work from home. With broadband, we only need to go out to work only when it is necessary. Other than that, we can have internal meetings or discussions via web conference. Files and documents can be shared through secured network from the comfort of our home. Lesser travelling means reduction in business operations costs as well as improving our environment through the reduction of carbon footprint. Workers can spend more time at home and be closer to their family too.
working from home...saves money, time and improve productivity
Looking at our current situation today, Telecommuting is an important and timely value proposition that Broadband can give. I believe that the government should take the leadership. Act as an example and the others will follow. If the government succeeded in implementing this concept, they can also trade carbon savings in the Carbon Credit Exchange under the Kyoto Protocol. My bos Dr Jude believes in this strongly and I agree with him.
give telecommuting the green light....
Let the price increase. It's a bitter pill to swallow but who says curing addiction would be easy? Malaysians addiction is worst because it is being subsidised by our generous government. So the pill is not only bitter, but could be acidic to some. We have been subsidised for too long. We have to adapt. This is a stick approach and I'm taking it positively. I'm sacrificing for my son and my grandson's future. I'm doing my part. Come to think of it, now is the chance for Proton to come out with 'Green' cars. As a company that flies the national flag, they can work with the government to make this 'green' car project a reality. Be the first country in the world that has an active engagement between the public and private sector to commercialise fossil fuel independent cars. Perhaps using palm oil. It's not so hard isn't it? What's stopping them? Puzzling....
2 comments:
Yes, we're told that it's expensive to develop alternative energy sources like solar, despite us having it in abundance. I came across an article about solar energy project in Klang Valley (I think) but it was quite expensive for ppl like me to participate in.
About telecommuting, it might work for us but until our broadband is TRULY broadband quality and have a downtime rate of less than 5%, agak susah jugak rasanya.
It is expensive because efforts are undertaken by companies who has little capital to do this. Greenfield investments are usually huge. I don't know whether ExxonMobil has any bearing in developing alternative energy sources. If they do, it's not happening fast enough. Purposely being 'delayed?? I think they have to start re-branding themselves and be known more an energy company rather than an oil company.
On Telecommuting, i agree service quality is a precondition. Telcos have got to spend more to fiberized their network. So the gov't is co-investing with TM on the infra. Supply is one thing but demand has got to be created too. If not, the network will be underutilised.
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