Once again Thailand struggles with high energy costs. A court ordered an injunction against buses raising fares, however bus operators when faced with losing money or making no money, the lesser of two evils prevailed and 10,000 buses now sit parked in the greater Bangkok area.
Even when faced with the threat of losing their licences to operate buses, the bus companies chose to strike. Although the court had the public’s best interest in mind trying to cap energy costs is like trying to hold back diarrhea.
Truckers have also parked about 4000 trucks simply because they can’t afford to operate them any more with the meager profit margins typical in Thailand.
While all this is going on Thailand’s ruling party seems more concerned with amending the constitution to keep from getting thrown out of office for irregularities, and not finding solutions for the peoples problems. However general public opinion is the ruling party lacks the brains to know what to do as they are a puppet government to Thaksin Shinawatra the former Prime minister removed by a coup in 2006. Thaksin has been banned from government office for 5 years, and also faces several criminal charges. This is seen as why amending the constitution has priority to the Thaksin regime to let everyone off the hook.
So what of the Thai people in all of this. Simply they are caught in the middle of this like everyone else on the planet. Past corporate decisions based on making profit and not doing the right thing has placed the world where we are today. The loving and kind natured Thai people are now faced with the same reality as the rest of us of sharp increases in the cost of living because of soaring food and energy costs. Up until now past Thai governments have been able to offset the cost and shield the people. They have even been marginally successful in stopping the rising costs by simply hiring less or not qualified people who will work for a lower wage. I don’t need to explain the disastrous outcome of that action.
When you step back and look at the big picture, the world is changing quickly as the earth runs out of oil, and the Thai government will finally have to give in to rising costs. So as people struggle with the high cost of living society will begin to spasm. Crime will increase simply so people can put food on the table and get to work.
In the USA gas thefts are becoming a very common occurrence. Not that they can be blamed but as powerful as the USA is, sufficient infrastructure for public transportation on much bigger scales is just not there. Americans are just too independent with their cars to have allowed such development.
So in typical Thai style the Thai government lowered the price of fuel for the buses only putting of for another 6 months what they will sooner or later have to give in to. Meaning when it does finally hit it will be big.
When you stop and think about it, every branch and every twig on the tree we call modern society, must be fed from the roots in the ground. Now that the nourishing oil is reaching it’s end, some branches will no doubt wither and perhaps die.
