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Gasoline prices: A scam to end all scams |
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Written by Al Hollingsworth
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Sunday, 20 April 2008 |
“Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. … It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.”
- Lee Iacocca
There was a great joke on Friday’s edition of Information Morning. A guy drives into a service station and said, “Give me five dollars worth of gas.” The attendant farted and gave him a receipt.
It summed up the current gouging at the gas pumps to a tee.
For years I’ve harbored this deep-seated scorn for members of the regional media who , once a year, prostitute themselves by taking part in the sponsored Atlantic Journalism Awards. I don’t know, or really care, who foots the bill these days, but for many years it was Imperial Oil. It may still be today, for all I know. I’ve never darkened the door.
In the days when I was part of the media horde, I avoided the 4th Estate’s annual ego trip with a passion.
Think about it. You are asked to submit what you think is an award winning effort. A column. A documentary. A story. A commentary. A cartoon. A…oh, you get the picture…. Sorry, I might have been born with a big head, but the contents inside were somewhat diminished. Especially the ego.
The egotism aside, what really galled me was the fact that the event was sponsored by an oil company, that, even in those early days, were gouging the people. Yet these media types who, for 364 days, pounded away at the oil barons, would on the 365th day sit with these moguls, eating their food and drinking their booze. How hypocritical is that.
To paraphrase Johnny Paycheck, they should have been saying, “Take this award and shove it.” Ah, but as my old friend, the late Harry Flemming, was given to say; “There’s no whore like an old whore.” Oh how it pains me to say “the late.”
The memories of my personal boycott came rushing back this week when the price of gasoline hit $1.30 a liter. The hedge fund boys and girls are the REAL rulers of this world. Any doubts? Look what their speculation is doing to the price of commodities, grain in particular.
We are in crisis and sadly, no one is doing anything about it. We need leadership. The masses are vulnerable and no one is standing up for us. This is not a comment about Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, it is about the system in general.
Governments are more concerned about their personal survival and couldn’t give a rodent’s rear about our personal well-being.
We are being told that petrol prices could hit the $1.50 a liter level before the tourist season hits, and according to those in the tourism industry, that would spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. Well, enough about the tourists, what about us natives? If we can’t afford to feed ourselves and drive our cars …. somebody, somewhere has to stand up and speak for us. If this doesn’t happen, I’m not sure where this is all going to end.
(Al Hollingsworth is a retired journalist and broadcaster who has never accepted a morsel of food or a drop of booze from an oil company)
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