I took the liberty to compile the Malaysian Petrol price (RM/Litre) against the world crude oil price (USD/Barrel) and US Gas Price (RM/Litre).  In the last few months, the world crude oil has been dropping at a high rate.  the same goes to the US gasoline prices (converted from USD/Gallon to KM/Liter).  Our own petrol price reduction rate on the other hand has been much slower as you can see the slope was less than the crude oil and US gasoline price.  To be fair, when the world sees an increase in oil price, the Malaysian petrol price has been itching up slowly, to the benefit of the Malaysian people. 

Since the government could not afford to subsidize us, it is only natural for the petrol price to go up.  But since the crude oil price now goes down, shouldn’t we enjoy similar petrol price reduction as the government now subsidize less, or even no more subsidizing?

Anyway, one thing to note is that today’s crude oil price is at when it was in Sept 2007(USD70.94/barrel).  Then, the US gasoline price was RM2.67/litre.  We were at RM1.92/litre.  Today, the Crude Oil is at USD68.22, the US gasoline price is at RM3.12/litre, and our petrol price is at RM2.30/litre. Is our petrol price where it should be without subsidy? The truth is, we dont know how much is our subsidy.  In September 2007, we were paying RM0.75 less than the average Joe in America.  Today, we are paying RM0.82 less.  Well, these calculations aren’t that accurate anyway.  But one thing to note is that, in 2007, we were subsidized and paying 75 cent less, today, we are subsidized less or no subsidy at all, and paying 82 cent less.  I am tempted to conclude that the subsidy was all a hot air talk, but then again, these calculations that I made were widely averaged and assumed, so such conclusion has a large margin of error. 

I am interested to see how the Malaysian petrol price will be when the crude oil price drops further, watch this space….

Sources:

• Malaysia Petrol Price History
• Exchange Rate History
• US Gasoline Price History
• Crude Oil Price History

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The A6 Monologue sketch book has been sitting on the dining table nicely wrap in its original packaging for a few days.  The small sketch book was calling to me and finally today, I decided it was time to rip it’s plastic appart and deflower it.  My first sketch was using my fountain pen drawing the waves of sea in a hot sunny day.  The cream paper was a little rough, and it did not settle well my the foutain pen ink.  You will notice a little smear.  So, for this sketch book, its either pencil or ball pent for me, atleast till I do water or poster color, that is if I ever do that.  The A6 sits well with the palm and easy to carry.  The soft leather skin has a nice feel to it too.  The band was at the right tension and was not too tight.  The only draw back for the band was that it was hard to pick the band, when I use my nails, I dig into the leather, maybe it was inexperience in using this kind of book.  Overall I like the built, and can’t wait to deflower the other monologue that I bought over the weekend.  Now, what should I draw next?

We have a sickness, where the body protects the few at the expense of the many.  When world petrol price goes up, the government says life’s like that, adjust the life style.  And when the petrol price goes down, the government says, wait, changing of petrol price will impact the economy.  Isn’t it the same when the petrol price goes up.  This leaves the people suffering with high cost of living.  When the petrol prices reduces a little, the cost of goods did not follow suit.  The government cannot force the retailers to reduce price.  The only thing they can do is get the big hypermarket to reduce the prices of essential goods.  And even with this, restaurateurs explains why the food price will not go down

Today, the government says, we should not reduce further than RM1.92/liter, because the person selling the petrol will make a huge loss.  I dont see the same complaint when the petrol goes up.  Worst, what has going cheaper got to do with the loss over the pump station.  If the government want to stagger the price reduction to like 15cent/liter is fine.  But what has it got to do with a minimum? The staggering of price reduction will help to cushion the pump operators loss, no doubt, and if it is executed well, everyone can be happy.  Now, a minimum, just does not make sense.  The price reduction staggering is already making the people / rakyat suffer.  When the price goes up, it goes up with a bank, ~40%, but when it goes down, it staggers.  Already this is unfair to the people, and it seams like the government are trying to protect the few (pump operators) over the many (the people). Isn’t this sick?

Rotten rotten rotten!

I was fortunate enough to have a team building over at Rasa Sayang Shangri-la hotel in Penang last friday, and to end the wonderful evening we were treated with a sumptuous Seafood Buffet dinner at the Spice Garden. I have heard quite a lot about the seafood buffet, especially the price.nbsp; A lot of my friends and colleagues have tried them. The buffet was around RM155 per person. Only the weekend they have the seafood buffet with all you can eat baby lobster and a hefty price tag. In a nutshell, the buffet was excellent and the lobster was the item that I enjoyed the most. We were there as early as 6.30pm, the time the Spice Garden Cafe open. Within 15-20 minutes, the cold baby lobster was all finish, and was promptly replaced with giant prawns. Seams like no refill on this item. The ‘hot’ baby lobster which are being fried by the restaurant chef are being served free flow. However, there are usually a queue on this item. I find the cold baby lobster taste richer than those cooked with spices, and so I was not that much of a fan of the spice fried baby lobsters. The lamb satay was nice, and so was the Japanese food selection.nbsp; Sashimi was of course a hot item. I did not pay much attention to the Chinese section, very few actually took the offered noodles. The only items worth mentioning were the shark fin soup and soft shell crab. For dessert, the Cheese Cake was great, again, was not refilled when it was finish. I got a tip from one of my colleague when I question her why she went for cheese cake a few minutes after we started. Indeed, when finish, it was replaced with some other cakes, not that interesting. There was crepe, and a good selection of chocolate fondue. In Summary, recommended under company expense, if you were to pay your own, better go to the Feringgi Grill, for better food and ambiance.

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May Lin wanted to get me a Moleskine as I have been talking about this thing for sometime. To stop her from spend so much money on something that I dont fully use, I employ a strategy called, ‘spend less to save more’. So, to stop her spending RM80 on Moleskine, I got her to buy a RM28 Monologue. Similar to Moleskine, but manufactured by a Singaporean company called Grandluxe. There were two type of monologue, one notebook ala moleskine, and another is a sketch book. I wanted blank pages, so that I can do sketches and also put down my travel memobillias together. But their ala moleskine version only comes with horizontal lines and so I got the sketch pad in addition. I want to experiment with fountain pen ink drawing. Its over ambitious for someone who almost fail art test during the lower secondary examination. Now I have the same problem as , how do I start…