the story goes like this...

in a remote town, there was a trader who sold only one product - eggs. all the town's people went to him for their supply of eggs. they would normally buy for their weekly needs as this was convenient for them.

the trader, realizing that he had a monopoly on the eggs trade, decided to increase the price of eggs slightly. the town folks did not mind as the difference was not much. they still kept buying their weekly needs.

the trader seeing that his profits were growing, decided to stock up more eggs and increased the price even higher. now the people paused and looked at the trader's action carefully. they realized that their silence over the first price increase had prompted the trader to further hike up the price.

being simple people, they decided to take a simple action to teach the trader a lesson. they did not boycott the trader as they needed eggs. so what they did was instead of buying their weekly supply, they decided to buy on a daily need basis.

this resulted in the trader having to carry a higher stock of eggs. if he did not sell them off on time the eggs would go bad. as his stock of eggs piled up, he had only one option to clear his stock before all the eggs went bad. he had to lower the price.

the trader learned his lesson and reverted to the original price.

now why can't you and i fill up our fuel tanks for what we need on a daily basis? yes this will be inconvenient but think what this will do - the petrol stations will be sitting on high stock. they will be sending out their replenishment orders much slower that they presently do. the refineries will be holding too much stock - probably not enough storage tanks. there will be a glut of petrol. the price has to come down.

the profiteers, futures traders who are the prime culprits for the price escalation will be punished just like the egg trader.

the egg story is something that i read in an e mail some time back. the simple logic of this story stuck in my mind. just ponder what if the world over, people just filled up according to their daily needs instead of filling up the tank, what would be the effect on oil prices?

cheers.

replace air for petrol?

one would think that a serious issue such as fuel price hike would have taken the best brains in the government to look at all angles before announcing their decision. it takes time, careful planning and inputs from various quarters before the decission is implemented.

usually this is not the case in our country. decisions are made more like shooting from the hips. what follows is knee jerk reactions.

having thought that the annual rebates that would be given out to motocyclists and smaller capacity cars would win over the public, the reactions from the rakyat has jolted the powers be. brace yourselves for more goodies to be announced on a daily basis.

what caught my attention was the plans announced by the government as published in saturday's star. the number one plan is cost cutting by government departments and agencies. i do hope that real commitment is shown here.

will the PM now sell off the jets that serve him and other top guns? surely these cost a bomb to fly and maintain? how about the fleet of luxury cars that are leased by the government at high cost?

anyway, those who wish to save on high fuel cost, may want to check out a car that runs on air - yes on air. follow the link here. this would be great for city driving. will the government consider tax exemption for these vehicles to be imported into malaysia? anyway, readers please pay attention to safety issues from commentators.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4217016.html

thank you Bro. Suresh for the heads up.

cheers.

Day One

to the world of blogsphere - greetings from a first timer.



i have been reading a few well established blogs consistently. my gratitude and thanks

to these bloggers for their inspirational writings that has also prompted me to start my

own.



do i have a detailed plan on what i am going to post? none whatsoever but i have

an inkling that my writings may veer towards political thoughts and observations.

i may also touch on religion a little.



the first day of my blogging coincides with higher petrol prices for malaysians. it

was waiting to happen but the impact is really telling. was the hike in price very

high to cover for last year?



my concern is the way the government is making decisions - i believe the DPM did

say that there will be no price hike till september this year. if you are not sure or

not privy to sensitive information, then do not issue any statement. doing otherwise

just erodes the already battered image and credibility.

i have been anticipating the hike for some time now. i was also looking forward to
some encouragement from the government on the use of NGV as alternative and cheaper
source of fuels for vehicles. unfortunately, this aspect was not given any consideration
other that keeping the current prices. there is only a 25% reduction in the road tax - not
much to encourage conversion.

how about removing taxes or import duties for NGV conversion kits and gas cylinders which
are all being imported right now. more NGV dispensing outlets would also help. i understand
that it costs a considerable amount of money to install NGV dispensing mechanism.

but look at the benefit - cleaner air and the people are not too burdened as NGV price is
still lower and so will the vehicle maintenance cost.

will our 'caring' government look into this very seriously?

ekayjay