The world is faced with a rising oil price. so much for America's invading Iraq for "cheap oil". In the USA it is shaping up as an election issue as petrol prices rise over $2 per American gallon. An American gallon is 3.8 litres. So we are talking about "gas" at US$0.52 a litre.

Let's ignore that in HK petrol costs US$1.50 or so a litre. Instead next time you're in a supermarket look at the price of bottled water. To bottle water you plonk a factory on top of a spring and squirt the stuff into plastic containers, or maybe you filter some tap water and call it "fresh". My research shows that a bottle of ParknShop 1.5 Litre water is about US$1. That's 66 cents a litre.

That's right. Petrol, which is dug out of the ground or sea with massive machinery, shipped, refined and transported, costs less in the USA than plain old bottled water. While I accept it is an American's God-given right to consume copious amounts of petrol in their gas-guzzling cars to their hearts' content, until such time as "gas" costs at least the same as plain old water they will get no sympathy from me.