Ford and the US

I had heard a while ago, one very, if I can call it, outrageous, statement by the President of the great United States, Mr, Bush, that the third world countries must try to control their consumption of oil, gas (petrol) and so on and so forth. At that time I was quite taken aback that he should be making such a statement, now I thought it was time to write about it.

We recently went on a road trip to Los Angeles from the Silicon Valley, probably about 1500 miles round trip. We rented a car from Avis, and we got a Ford Taurus. I was totally fearing getting a Ford as they just guzzle gas, oh my god! So this one used to go bust in like 300 miles for a full tank. If anyone has ever noticed, most cars in the US that Americans drive are American cars, so much for patriotism. So much so also that cops use Fords too. ALL of them, I haven't seen one exception to this rule so far in my 4 years driving career in the US. Its almost like a symbol of how much gas the US gulps down every passing day.

Consider also that 98%, I would dare say, of the vehicles in the US are auto gear and not manual. There goes your mileage plummeting down, boom!!!! I have seen even HUUUUUUGE trucks and heavy load container vehicles run on auto gear. How insensitive can you get about how much oil goes into driving these monsters around your highways Mr. Bush?? Also, consider that the US has either the roads or the planes. In how many non-busy cities or non-university towns can you find good public transportation?? In India I know for a fact that at least 70% of the people travel in trains and buses and other pool vehicles like the autos. We swear at them, we curse them, we wish we had a car and a vehicle of our own, even so we use mainly two-wheelers. And ALL our cars are manually geared which means we drink less petrol per person per day. Plus we don't take road trips across the country, nor does cross country in India mean 3000 miles:) And I know for a fact that if the US had a train system even one quarter as good as the one in India (which we so callously call "third world"), I would have gladly taken a train to go from revered Silicon Valley to even more revered Los Angeles.

So effectively if I were to say that for approximately three times your population we consume 1/3 of what you consume in gas, I won't be too skewed. And then here is what the US says to the world: The third world countries must try to control their consumption of gas and fossil fuels...
......so much for the good joke and your great sense of humo"u"r (oops world affairs)..