Crude prices

Crude oil price is at a near record price of close to US$140.00 per barrel. This is causing hardship to a lot of people all over the world. Blame it on speculators, tight supply and demand situations or OPEC cartel manipulations. What to do now.

The only way to bring oil price down is to reduce usage - conserve energy. This must be a world-wide concerted effort. Governments must make effort to cut down on the consumption of oil. Legislation can be introduced to limit usage of motor vehicles, eg. no car Sundays. Limit airline flights. Cut production of non essential goods. Go on 4 day work weeks and etc. The situation is bad and it calls for drastic measures.

The other way to reduce dependence on fossil fuel is to develop alternative or renewable energy. Bio-fuel is good provided it does not take over land meant for the cultivation of food. Go big scale on solar, wind and wave energy. Better still, go nuclear. New nuclear power plants that are safe and non-polluting should be built to supply the energy needs of big cities.

Everybody has to cooperate to fight the rising price of oil.

Where is the logic?

The salary of the Prime Minister of Singapore is 5 times that of the President of USA. It is 44% more than the combined salaries of the head of state of USA, UK, France and Germany. More glaringly, it is 25 times that of the President of Russia.

The GDP of Singapore is only about 1% of that of USA. Population wise, it is about 2% of that of USA. In terms of land area, Singapore could not be more than 1% of USA (never bother to check).

So, how do you figure out the proportions?