Scooterland

The issue of rising fuel prices is producing some interesting monologues from the government and the press, as some bizarre decisions.

Yesterday the government decided to allow the importation and registration of small scooters, as indicated in the following item from the Jordan Times today "The Council of Ministers decided to permit the import of scooters and exempt them from custom fees, as they are characterised by their low gas consumption of 35km per litre".

Of course, as is usually the case with such hurried decisions, the implications were clearly not fleshed out. Instead of the government taking the lead on investing in high quality public transportation that will allow for car-free life styles, it comes up with this!

Our public transportation system (bus lines) is old and overstretched, and does not cover enough of the country for long enough hours. In essence, living without a car in most of Jordan is simply not practical, and thus owning private transportation is not a luxury. Thus, in order to solve this, the government will let us buy scooters.

I don't know about anybody else, but I barely feel safe driving around Amman in a well fortified car, with airbags no less. I certainly will not allow myself or anybody I care about drive a scooter, no matter what the economics. Of course, if you are young, poor and male, the government thinks that you can live with lower safety standards for yourself. So what is new with that? I will change my mind when I see Adnan Badran puttering around on a scooter.

Fahed Fanek in Al Rai today thinks that we overuse petroleum products because the ratio between oil consumption and per capita income is 10 times the ratio in the United States, never mind that the per capita income there is 10 time that of Jordan. Dr. Fanek does not tell us where or how we are wasting oil, but he thinks that we should raise prices to the point that we stop moving around and heating ourselves in the winter, because we can't afford it. What a novel idea. I have a better one. We should make more money. If not, we can always use the subsidized animal feed that the government is selling to the animal farmers. I think that riding around on donkeys will be cheaper and safer than scooters. We can also cuddle next to them in the winter for warmth, which we can't do with a scooter.