09 September 2005
EDITORIAL: Spartan amenities now; off with extravagance
HURRICANE Katrina’s damage to the United States may be viewed with detached feelings by some Filipinos who perhaps sit before their television sets or Internet monitors silently thanking The One Above for sparing them such kind of destruction. The fact though is that natural calamity in the distant part of the world impacts on us as well.
With their oil rigs in or around Mexico severely affected by Katrina, which would take long to put back into operation, the United States would be increasing its oil requirements and demands, further pulling up the already prohibitive cost of the commodity in the world market. And, in a tug-of-war between the giants and pygmies like the Philippines, you can quickly tell who’ll win.
Consequnetly, that would leave the Philippine energy situation even bleaker than ever, with local oil price going stratospheric in the next several weeks and months.
It is the world market that dictates the price of oil, and to top our woes further, the country’s oil deregulation law still keeps the government from controlling local oil prices. Our only hope, it appears now, is the development of alternative sources of energy like geothermal, hydro, wind and even solar to lessen our dependency on oil importation.
Yet, even this, we must admit, would be taking quite a long time yet – if it ever gets off the ground in the next few months, given the unstable political environment.
The next best and practical solution to the looming (some say it’s very well here now and worsening) energy crisis therefore is conservation – of what little energy supply we still have. Not that we still need to be dragged and pulled to be convinced of its urgency; for sooner than later, we may really need to bring out the old clay ovens and rusty gas lamps and trot out the reliable caromata or kalesa (horse-drawn rigs) in order to get by in our daily lives.
It isn’t all that bad, if you get used to it, really. Our grandparents and parents pretty much raised us on those Spartan amenities. Life is a cycle, or didn’t you know?
With their oil rigs in or around Mexico severely affected by Katrina, which would take long to put back into operation, the United States would be increasing its oil requirements and demands, further pulling up the already prohibitive cost of the commodity in the world market. And, in a tug-of-war between the giants and pygmies like the Philippines, you can quickly tell who’ll win.
Consequnetly, that would leave the Philippine energy situation even bleaker than ever, with local oil price going stratospheric in the next several weeks and months.
It is the world market that dictates the price of oil, and to top our woes further, the country’s oil deregulation law still keeps the government from controlling local oil prices. Our only hope, it appears now, is the development of alternative sources of energy like geothermal, hydro, wind and even solar to lessen our dependency on oil importation.
Yet, even this, we must admit, would be taking quite a long time yet – if it ever gets off the ground in the next few months, given the unstable political environment.
The next best and practical solution to the looming (some say it’s very well here now and worsening) energy crisis therefore is conservation – of what little energy supply we still have. Not that we still need to be dragged and pulled to be convinced of its urgency; for sooner than later, we may really need to bring out the old clay ovens and rusty gas lamps and trot out the reliable caromata or kalesa (horse-drawn rigs) in order to get by in our daily lives.
It isn’t all that bad, if you get used to it, really. Our grandparents and parents pretty much raised us on those Spartan amenities. Life is a cycle, or didn’t you know?
