"The Star: World fuel price fury"

I seem to be caught in this stop motion picture I call my life.

I noticed, driving past the gas station yesterday, the looming billboard displaying the current price of petrol. Our lives have become leaded with prices of our unleaded and diesel. The wealthy complain about filling the tanks of their off road four-by-fours, while the poor are despondent over heating their stoves with the increased price of paraffin by 0.94c. Although oil price fluctuations may subside in the future, the global shortage of diesel will prove problematic in the long run. South African farmers and truck companies are feeling the heat while the South African population as a whole is struggling to pay the price of getting anywhere at all. And jet fuel? You can say that again. Forget that travelling by air was a better option– the increase in jet fuel price to a record $90.30 per barrel is likely to cause airline tickets to go up. According to economists ‘it’s not looking good.’ Maybe it’s just fuel sensationalism. We tend to feature too much bad report in our evening news bulletins. The news-anchor seems to often be the bearer of bad news.
As I noticed in my very own small town, petrol prices are indeed at the never-before-seen hike of nearly R10 a litre. It has been estimated that the rate could increase further within the next year to R14 per litre, not to mention diesel to R16 per litre. I suppose I should forget the road trip then, huh.
Apparently we “need to do everything we can to make the rand strong against the dollar.” We cannot control political instability in the Middle East, Nigeria and Latin America, which is the main reason for the heightening fuel price, but we can control the strengthening of our own currency. However, we pay the prices of high inflation (ever wondered why, on your routine trip to the supermarket, basic groceries such as bread and milk seem to be priced as luxurious commodities?) and high interest rates (better watch your credit card’s every move from now on).

bad fuel day
The mood or feeling one experiences after having just filled his or her vehicle with $4.00+ per gallon gasoline. (Usually consists of a sense of great economic despair, impending doom, anger, frustration, depression and/or a combination of all the above)