By Joel B. Belinan
When the whole global village is seeing the dwindling of Covid-19 infection and is looking forward to the end of this pandemic, the Russian-Ukraine War erupts putting the whole World in disarray. To many, that war in a distant land seems not to be our immediate concern with the election fever in the country now nearing its peak. But to informed pundits, this war might bring a New World Order. As we speak, the prices of petroleum products have been sky-rocketing the world over.
Almost everyone is updated on what’s happening in Ukraine, hence, I would rather look at how these attracted the attention of the whole world like how the now fading Covid-19 pandemic almost stopped the earth from moving through its orbit two years ago. It is a fact that when the price of oil increases, everything we need to go ahead with our daily lives follows. The war started just more than 10 days ago and pump prices of gas have been leap-frogging, reaching the highest in 14 years, even higher than during the World Financial Crisis in 2008.
We don’t even have to mention the current gasoline and diesel fuel prices as these kept on increasing almost daily. Also LPG. At first, I couldn’t believe it when my nephew said they just bought from the local store an 11 kg LPG tank at P1,100. Also, as expected, the jeepney organizations filed a petition for a P3 increase on the current P9 minimum fare while taxi operators also filed a P10 increase from the current P35 “flag down” meter reading.
We expect that once the LTFRB will grant increases in jeepney and taxi fares which is very likely given the continuing increases in fuel prices, the prices of everything will follow like dominoes. In short, when we are supposed to start reclaiming our lives from what remains after two years of struggle with Covid-19, we will just be shifting into another kind, dealing with the effects of the war in our lives. And we are not even looking at the possible escalation of the war into a magnitude we never imagined to happen in our lifetime, World War 3.
Since we are in the current election season the developments from the current Russian-Ukraine war and the post-pandemic recovery would be what will greet the winners come May 9. During the first Gulf War in 1991, western airlines were flying with almost empty seats as air travelers were afraid to fly with airlines of the west that were bombing Iraq then. One time, I was in a British Airways plane from New Delhi to Singapore and I was transferred to first-class because there were only around 15 total passengers. At another time, I was in a Boeing 747 KLM, a Dutch airline, with only 70 passengers when it could accommodate more than 600 people.
Going back to the impact of the war in our midst, the world is so integrated now that it is next to impossible to avoid getting affected by any conflict. Thus, any society cannot ignore the small problem of a small country no matter how distant it is.
As members of this one Human Society we are duty-bound to ensure that as we march ahead, no one shall be left behind. To quote Shrii Shrii Ananda Murtijii, “From the sun to the small ants that crawl on earth, all belong to one Universal Family. Let us bring peace and happiness to the universe with one Indivisible Ideology. Humanity will march ahead”.**
