IT WAS the behaviour of the international oil marketing companies which, many years ago, brought about the formation of the Jamaica Gasoline Retailers Association (JGRA).

I have never owned a gas station, but a friend who did came to see me in those days to ask my advice about what could be done in the protection of the owners of gasoline stations. The international oil marketing companies, then as now, were behaving very shabbily.

Shell, Texaco and Esso were competing intensely with each other. They were setting up gas stations here, there and everywhere with sometimes three competing stations on one street. This was, understandably, having a damaging effect upon the local owners.

On top of that, they were preventing the local owners from selling anything in their stations except their branded oils or other articles. I went to see Bob Lightbourne, who was then the Minister of Trade, and eventually persuaded him to put a limit upon the concentration of gas stations, a limit which I believe still exists.

As to the limitation to the kind of goods that the local stations could sell, I had a number of blazing rows with the marketing companies, the chief offender of them being Texaco, whose arrogant American manager in those days brought out, I regret to say, the worst of my hot-tempered characteristics.

Unspoken rule

In all the various businesses which I have experienced, there has always been an unspoken rule that responsible manufacturers and wholesalers should never set up in competition with their own retailers.

It seems, however, that this rule has never been observed by the oil marketing companies. Right now, they are back at their bad old habit of setting up gasoline retail outlets. In order to retain control of their retailers, they are reluctant to give them long-term leases or contracts, often limiting the terms of these leases or contracts to one year.

Bit by bit, they are apparently striving to put local retailers out of business, so as to replace them either by their own stations or by such retailers that they can push around. By operating as retailers, the marketing companies can push out competition in a particular area by under-selling. To put it briefly, the marketing companies have once again become thorns in the flesh of independent local gasoline retailers.

I suppose that, because many years ago the JGRA was my baby, I still get angry when its members are being hurt, though it has been many years since I've been taking any part in their affairs.

I see that the JGRA are asking the Government once again for some sort of protection against the predatory marketing companies and I hope that they will get it.

I am too old now to enter personally into the battle but, at least, I can still dip my pen in vitriol in the protection of the association to which I gave birth so many long years ago.

THE PAIR OF OPPOSITES

After reading a piece written by Delroy Chuck, I got to thinking, not very originally, about riches and poverty. It occurred to me that the rich owe a debt of gratitude to the poor for, if it were not for the poor, the rich wouldn't know they were rich.

Half the fun of being rich is knowing that there are countless people who are poorer.

Another thought struck me. It is possible to visualize a society built almost entirely on materialist values, and in which virtue was a function of production. In any case, riches would constitute the highest virtue and poverty would not only be a sin, but a serious crime; extreme poverty incurring the penalty of capital punishment.

But it was not only Mr. Chuck's column that provoked me to assorted bizarre ideas. There was a delightful column on Friday, October 29 by John Rapley, which reminded me of an idea for a novel which I had many years ago.

Briefly, my idea was based on the proposition that all living things have a mechanism, which is necessary for their survival. If we regard the planet we live on and all the creatures and plants on that planet as having individually and collectively strong immune mechanisms, then we would be forced to regard human beings, from the point of view of our planet, as disease organisms.

My idea was that, as the number of human beings rapidly increased, they would become like bacteria and viruses and that the planet and all the vegetation upon it would be bound sooner or later to produce anti-bodies to reduce the infection.

Part of the plot of my imagined novel would involve a small group of scientists assigned the task of finding out how these anti-bodies were produced and how they would go about their business. Would plants start emitting a kind of gas which drove people to madness and violence? Would the planet create new diseases unknown to medical science?

Gaia Hypothesis

I felt that the possibilities could make a very exciting novel indeed! But alas, when I tried to write it, I found I didn't have the talent to do justice to the subject and so gave it up.

But I have always hoped that some writer with the necessary talent would one day be able to use the idea to make a really world-shattering novel.

Mr. Rapley will recognize in my idea much of what is known as the Gaia Hypothesis. In any case, the universe is such that it abhors imbalance and as soon as the balance of anything is threatened a sharp correction takes place. It may be that the dinosaurs disappeared because they upset the balance of the planet, and it may also be that the human race will disappear for the same reason. It would be very tedious if the evolutionary process had to start all over again trying to convert pure energy into pure intelligence. It will probably have to begin again with cockroaches. Cockroaches are smart enough already, but I cannot imagine any creature more unattractive than a highly intellectual cockroach. It would make even the intellectuals of the University of the West Indies seem endearing.

Well, that's quite enough of my silly speculations for this week. Next week I shall return to more entertaining things such as provoking pompous people. Imagine trying to provoke a pompous cockroach!