Global economic conditions have once again worsened, putting pressure on the limited finances of nations, like Sri Lanka, as well as other nations, households and businesses around the world.
by Victor Cherubim
“When fuel prices go up, the price of everything goes up,” is a well-known adage. But, when we are told there are oil tankers on the way to our shores, hopefully to resolve our endless queues, we tend to wonder, whether someone is pulling a fast one on us. Are we to blame for this predicament, or were we trapped, by our ignorance of manipulation?
How many of us can remember the days of President Mossadeq and the nationalisation of Iran oil in 1953? How he played the “Oil Card” to manipulate demand for oil.
Global economic conditions have once again worsened, putting pressure on the limited finances of nations, like Sri Lanka, as well as other nations, households and businesses around the world.
People have been forced to navigate through volatility and disruption, with COVID-19 and now, with the cost of living?
Ways to cope with the Cost of living?
Soaring fuel prices with the average price of a litre of petrol reaching a new high of £191.5p and diesel at £199p on 3 July 2022, motorists in UK are complaining of the sickening chronic manipulation of petrol pump prices, with authorities turning a blind eye, against profiteering?
People are on the back foot trying to cope with these increases. One way out of this tipping point, resorted by some motorists, call them protestors, is by saving fuel by driving slowly on motorways across the country.
The law allows slow driving, provided people do not drop their speed below 30 mph, but imaginably not on the fast lane?
However, the new Public Order Bill will make it a criminal offence to glue motorists to a dangerous motorway, which will need the Police force spending hours, trying to safely remove motorists off busy motorways.
Another way, people are coping with petrol rises, is that they are having to give up driving to work, or work from home. In the case of the former, when they keep running out of fuel they then cycle during the last few days of the month, before getting paid.
This is causing additional journey time, it may add an average of one hour or more for journeys to work – something which was previously unacceptable or off limits.
The cost benefit analysis, is that the cycling is making workers and students get fitter. The additional journey time is costed or the so called “opportunity cost” or the increased fuel cost, making for savings. But, not everyone can ride a bike to work. Besides, to contemplate the winter, is awesome. But who worries, when it is like Sri Lanka sunshine, 24 degrees C. for this week in London
However, among the questions to contemplate is, why is our fuel prices rising, when oil prices have fallen in the past days or weeks?
In Britain there are six big oil refineries, whilst we in Sri Lanka, are contemplating closing our one oil refinery? Of course, refining capacity in UK and Europe, has decreased, is in some sense or in essence, the short answer. The big four supermarkets in UK which dominate fuel sales are standing firm on prices, stating that the oil refineries have not passed on the fall in prices of crude oil. There seems to be some collusion on fuel pricing, requiring deeper investigation.
The UK Government, or rather “Dishy Rishi,” our Chancellor may be contemplating to reduce VAT, or introduce a further cut in fuel duty, when the time is right?
What will happen, if Russia cuts its oil production by as much as 5 million barrels a day without causing excessive damage to its economy?
Let me introduce my readers, to our capacity to experience the past, what happened in Mossadeq’s Iran and simulate the future?
This is what Artificial Intelligence (AI) does now, all the time, to control our buying capability, our propensity to consume, thus to manipulate our buying intentions. Of course, it is largely dependent mainly on our “visual imagery ability” of our minds. But, “what if” our brain is damaged by forces outside our control?
“According to the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis, recent studies have shown that imagining or simulating future events relies on many of the same cognitive and neural processes, as remembering past events” Schacter and Addis 2007.
Memory connects individuals to the past. But AI realises, memory is also important for connecting the present with the future.
Could this be the rationale for President Xi’s China wanting to evaluate individuals for party membership? This is a very lengthy discussion which is not contemplated on this piece.
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