What Heng-Cheong Leong of Myapplemenu doesn't understand.

Heng-Cheong Leong has attacked my posting below, "An Unkept Singaporean Promise" on his myapplemenu site. His attack is ill-informed and based on the presumption that I did not see an article with the figures in it that I saw. How, I wonder, does Heng-Cheong know what another person saw or did not see? I find his implicit telepathy a wonder indeed. Perhaps he should join the intelligence services (but perhaps other qualifications would be needed too, which he evidently lacks.)

Anyway, he quibbles that his own research turned up a press release saying that Comfort Delgro would drop the fuel surcharge if diesel fell to its level in December 2007 – that of 1.19 singapore dollars to the litre. He maintains that this is different to what I was saying. It is not, in essence. I will explain.

I recall an article saying that the surcharge would be dropped if crude oil reached 109 dollars or less. Now these are not, as Heng-Cheong believes, rather rudely, that different. You see diesel is made from crude oil and the price of one affects the other. Crude oil was priced at 97 US dollars at its spike in December 2007 – please see link below for confirmation. (Note this is pretty close to the 109 figure I saw, as the threshold for price reduction. It would result in a very similar price for diesel.)

http://www.oag.com/oag/website/com/en/Home/Travel+Magazine/Executive+Travel/Travelers+Briefing/A+crude+awakening+Oil+prices+hit+new+high+071107

Now, after this on December 17th 2007, the market price for Diesel was 1.19 singapore dollars per litre.

So, the question is, what SHOULD the diesel price be now? (This is a question that Heng-Cheong doesn't ask: he just accepts the quoted price). Well, it is a simple computation to make: it is going to be roughly the ratio of the present price of oil (72 USD this morning) divided by the price in December 2007, when it spiked, 97 USD) multiplied by 1.19 singapore dollars per litre. Doing this, we get an EXPECTED price of diesel of 88 cents per litre. However, the price presently still hovers around double that at 1.60 dollars. Thus, we are being DOUBLY ripped off. The price of diesel should be half what it is at the pumps – and the surcharge should have dropped since the underlying fundamental price of diesel should be below the 1.19 Sing Dollar per litre cut off mark.

So, it can be seen that my argument stands. Diesel should be cheap again – and the surcharge should have been dropped. Heng-Cheong Leong has been offensive for nothing. He really should take his own advice – and google some more – and think a little, too. Then all would become clearer.

I hope this has painted a fuller picture of the fuel situation here, in Singapore, for everyone.

Thanks.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

An unkept Singaporean promise.

I read in the Straits Times a while back, when oil prices were high and Comfort Delgro had just introduced a fuel surcharge on taxis, that "We will drop the surcharge if the price of fuel falls below $109."

Well, well, well: isn't it marvellous the way such promises are conveniently forgotten when it comes time for them to be kept? Today, the price of oil has fallen to $73 a barrel - but the fuel surcharge on Singaporean taxis remains. So, too, do the absurdly high taxi fares, remain untouched.

Does anyone remember the justification for the taxi fare rises? It was that fuel was so expensive that drivers were losing out - so there had to be a rise in charges to allow drivers to make a better living against the backdrop of such high fuel prices. Well, fuel is now as cheap as it was fourteen months ago - and seems to be dropping. So, why haven't taxi fares begun to drop, too?

I have been in Singapore since 1999 and the general impression left on me, by large corporate concerns, is one of greed. Their basic nature, here, appears to be greed, greed, greed. Prices are very quick to rise - but very slow to fall (if EVER) despite the original stated cause of the rise having gone away. The true cause is the greed of those who run the concerns.

Now, a promise was publicly made that the surcharge would vanish if fuel charges fell. They have fallen. It is time to keep the promise. It is also time to drop taxi rates back to something like what they were before the price rises. Singaporean taxi users have, I feel, suffered enough, since the price rises. The world is in recession: is it really necessary to punish the commuter in this way?

Many people who use taxis do so because they have no other choice: they are disabled, frail or encumbered with many children. In other words, taxi users are often the most vulnerable or burdened members of society. By making - and keeping - taxi fares high, those segments of the population that we should most be seeking to protect, are put in greatest difficulty.

Remove the surcharge. Lower the taxi fares - and start doing business HONESTLY, is my appeal to the taxi firms in Singapore. Your excuse for the fare rises has gone away, now...so lower them again. No more unkept promises.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)