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Saturday, September 10, 2005
Mississipi Public Radio
Click - To ListenRadio WWL - New Orleans
Click - To ListenColin Murray presents a documentary, which marks World AIDS Day. In Britain, eighteen people are diagnosed with HIV every day and one in three of those are between 15 and 30 years old. To coincide with World AIDS Day, Colin looks at the lack of HIV awareness in the UK and hears the personal stories of young people living with HIV. - BBC Radio
Download & Listen - mp3
The Spectre of fuel protests raises its ugly head again.For those who are un - familiar with the fuel protests in the United Kingdom,. In 2000 after unsuccessful attempts by hauliers to get the tax on fuel reduced by the chancellor of the United Kingdom truckers & farmers directly affected by rapidly rising fuel prices blockaded refineries, to be joined by striking petrol & diesel tanker drivers.
The result, nationwide chaos, as fuel supplies dwindled anxious citizens queued for petrol & diesel whether they needed it or not, causing already rapidly dwindling stocks to be exhausted. Panic in the shops ensued as equally anxious shoppers panic bought in shops emptying shop
shelves of essentials.
Why you might ask am I talking of a protest that happened nearly five years ago, well it's happening again. I remember vividly, the image of a rather overweight middle aged woman rushing out of my local shop with a whole shopping trolley loaded with bread alone.
I thought at the time & think now in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that the veneer of civilization is very thin. It takes very little for that fragile thing we call civilization to break down as the basic services which we all take for granted in the western world become scarce or disappear.
The observation of people under stress in crisis in these situations gives proof if any were needed, ample evidence of how apocalyptic our society would become in the absence of these
basic items needed for survival, food, water, & oil. The chancellor Gordon Brown warned today that 'economic growth in Europe could be hit by surging oil prices, at a meeting of European Union (EU) finance chiefs'
Householders face a triple blitz of rising petrol, gas and electricity prices as oil costs are forced higher by Hurricane Katrina Gas and electricity bills rose by 15.4 per per cent in the year to
July 2005, far faster than the overall 2.3 per cent August inflation rate on the consumer price index. Petrol has risen by 14.5 per cent over the same period. The average price a year ago was
81.75p per litre; now it is 95.57p per litre and some filling stations are charging £1 a litre. The average household bill for petrol has risen by £182 a year. The average rise for gas and electricity is £116 per household, bringing the total fuel rise to nearly £300.
Whilst the overall effect might not be obvious when we walk out of our front doors or wander down the street. A simmering discontentment, lies just below the surface as people bend under
the burden of higher & higher fuel prices. Of course the people most directly affected by these price rises in fuel are the poor. Those that have very small amounts of disposable income myself included.
Benefit rates are not going up to compensate for fuel price rises so yet again in this country, as we approach winter we face the prospect of poor people & elderly people living on state pensions being unable to heat their homes properly or being able to afford to drive their cars.
After seeing how quickly society fell to pieces in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in the US, I am concerned what might happen here if we have any kind of prolonged energy shortage as a result of refinery blockades. Whilst I am relatively young and can fend for myself to a certain extent many cannot.
Those who are elderly, the disabled & young are bound to bear the brunt of any crisis caused by these high fuel prices. I can only hope that the government & the prime minister listen to the growing chorus of discontent about higher & higher fuel prices & act now to reduce duty on fuel of all kinds.
As for that middle aged lady & her shopping trolley full of bread well
did she eat it all before it went off ? I don't suppose we will ever know.
Charlie
hewitt.mobi Posted at 2:23 pm |
3 comments
H!
Hi Michele,
By
Ah! Thanks back at ya for the return visit to my blog.
3 Comments:
I'm just cruising through using the Next blog button on Blogger.
I have to say, except for the symbols for money, your views could have been written by a US citizen. The concerns of high fuel costs and it's effect on peoples with limited incomes is a concern everywhere. Never realized how similar our countries are, even in that.
How humbling. How worrisome.
How hope the little ol' lady had an extra freezer to store all that bread. That's the only way I know to make it last for a rainy day. That's how I do it.
Anyway, Hope you don't mind the me passing through.
Have a nice day.
Thank's for your kind comments, We have a lot in common your country & ours, lots of shared history. I follow with concern what's happening in the US. I hope in time everything is OK again.... :)
Charlie
hewitt.mobi, at
10:55 pm
Thanks too for the well wishes for the people experiencing the current turmoil. I have a friend not too far away from Katrina's havoc. She said that her city has taken in close to 20,000 evacuees and that their children are being enrolled in the local schools there. I guess many people are choosing not to go back even when it will be OK for them to do so. They are making new lives for themselves in their relocated communities. That's one of the things so interesing about humans...our ability to adapt. It's a survival tool that comes in handy at times like these.
It will take time..as all things do.. for things to better. They will. I mean,if Florida can survive 4 hurricanes in one season...New Orleans and surrounding areas will heal as well.
Thank you so much for thinking of us.
TTFN!
All this will not be finished in the first hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. - John F. Kennedy
