Master Rider Blog

Someone is going to get hurt!

June 6th, 2008 NW Teong

In fact, most of us are going to get hurt if the inflation rate is carry on at the current rate of 4-5% per annum in most countries in Asia. We blame it on commodities which include both food and non-food commodities, but the real culprits are truly ourselves, the human beings.

I for one, am really surprise that no concerted effort have been made by the governments of influential economies to address the following global issues: food shortage which could cause severe famine, environmental issues due to massive de-forestation, and other abuses as well as general hardship for all mankind due to severe price hike in crude which translates to higher transportation cost. If there are actions already being taken, they are simply too little. If we do not take these issues seriously, we would face very dire consequences in the not too distant future. The key question here is that do the governments of the influential economies have the wisdom to realize these (potential) calamities and have the resolute to address these ultimate urgent issues? Do they have the wisdom to decide wealth (i.e. economy as well as political interests) over morality as well as humanity issues? More importantly address these issues with top most urgency?

We will surely see more natural calamities such as earth quakes, cyclone, tsunamis, floods and other erratic weather going forward. We all know that our only planet mother Earth, just like human beings’ body, need to strike a balance. While we need to eat right, rest and exercise well to stay healthy, the Earth needs to maintain its internal and external balance too. Unfortunately, we human beings have relentlessly abused the Earth in pursue of wealth. This is akin to investors’ psychology: the greed and fear! At the moment, we seem to be more interested in pursuing the wealth with total ignorance of the risks that associated with it. We build more roads, more houses, more cars, more planes etc to cater for our insatiable needs. I am afraid and truly worried that when we realized our silly mistakes, it might be too late to address all the related issues. If we are not at risk now, our future generations surely are. I feel rather helpless when I see people debate over food versus fuel. To me the answer is obvious! Without fuel, we can still survive but without food we will surely die, full stop!

There is huge amount of wealth being transferred due to high crude oil prices. While the rich ones continue to enjoy their luxury lifestyle, the poor ones are made even poorer. The rich ones can afford to cruise in personal jet plane, eat at the most expensive restaurant, the poor ones can only survive one day at a time. Let’s face it, we all accept the fact that life is never fair. However, I feel that we should have the basic morality to help our fellow earthlings who might be struggling to survive elsewhere. The very least we could do is to become a responsible earthling where we are mindful of fellow human beings (both current and future generations) and take good care of the only earth that we live in. If by giving up driving (or at least drive less) you can save some lives some where, then why not?

For a start, I feel that we should all (governments, private sectors and individuals) make a serious effort to save energy and be environmental friendly. I wonder, why can’t we have special lane for bicycles in major cities in the world? I think it is high time to encourage cycling as an alternative to driving. Governments can surely help by having a bicycle friendly transport system in place, such as special lane for bicycles on every road, sufficient parking facilities for bicycles and so on. Perhaps, governments can even consider giving out bonus or incentives (just like carbon credit) for cyclists who have traveled certain kilometers within a certain specified period of time. We may also allocate some R&D funds to develop “cycling cars”, i.e. cars that are light enough to be powered by human legs. Such cars should have rechargeable batteries that could be re-charged by our legs, These batteries can then be used to power the car for certain distance when our legs are taking a break. Obviously, there are many efforts going on to look for alternative energy sources. While the obvious choice is the solar energy, personally I feel that a combination of a mechanical (e.g. bicycle, better still a weather friendly bicycle!) and a human system will be a perfect combination. This can also help to solve the obese problem in many major cities!

Of course, we still need a good public transport system. However, we truly need multiple approaches to ease this problem.

Human beings use to have sharp common sense and great instincts; however these instincts are being blunted by our greed and fear, just like the way they have blunted our ability to make wise investment decisions!

Take actions now before some one is going to get hurt, really very hurt!

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Entry Filed under: Commodities, Environment, Macro, Singapore