Bad mileage
published: Tuesday | February 11, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
FOR YEARS we have been travelling and not getting very far. Could it be that we have been going around in circles, or just getting bad mileage? I believe that we are all now convinced that we have been getting bad mileage because every day you can hear the experts talking about it and what has to be done to correct it.
If indeed you are getting bad mileage, correcting the timing, cleaning the spark plugs and changing the filters will definitely help, but if the fuel tank is leaking, that is a serious matter. Every day we hear about the micro and the macro, and the fiscal and the monetary, which is all well and good, but what about the leak? Surely the solution can not be to pour more fuel, from whatever source, into the tank, which is what we have been doing over the years. If we can contain the leak, less fuel will take us much farther along, while we get the route and efficiency right. But nobody is going there. Is it because the leaking fuel is so dangerous and has the potential to burst into flames and even explode?
When things begin to look too bad we go into retreat not to plan strategy to deal with the problem, but to plan what to tell the passengers, who don't know whether they are coming or going. One thing we do know is that this is one sure way to get to hell.
