I wonder what happens to those people whose blood is blue instead of red like the rest of us mortals.  The British royals just can't seem to behave properly and the Queen of England is getting a gray hair too many enduring the scandals surrounding the royal family.

This time Princess Eugenie of York is in the spotlight for irresponsible behavior. It was reported last Saturday, that she had been reprimanded by her exclusive school Marlborough College west of London, after being caught running around naked on college grounds under the midnight moonlight.

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After being in prison for 26 years, Nelson Mandela has become a respected world leader on human rights and social issues.

Following his release from prison on February 11, 1990, his switch to a policy of reconciliation and negotiation helped lead the transition to multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, he has been widely praised, even by former opponents. Mandela has received more than 100 awards over four decades, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Mandela has frequently credited Mahatma Gandhi for being a major source of inspiration in his life, both for the philosophy of non-violence and for facing adversity with dignity.

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Ever since the gallon of gasoline started its flight to outer space, I've become paranoid about crude oil and its by-products. Every morning after washing my teeth and taking a shower, I dash over to my computer to find out the latest price of a barrel of crude oil. If I see a future increase, I know I will soon be bitten in my pocket. Ouch!
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Yesterday I penned a post about broken links in Photobucket. At that time I had no idea what was going on; therefore, I requested an explanation at their forum.

I was surprised nobody from Photobucket came up front explaining to its users, the technical difficulties they were experiencing. There was only one solitary post on their forum.

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In 1972 I was working as a financial accountant in Refinería Panama, S.A., a Texaco-owned refinery in Panama, Central America. I remember registering invoices showing prices of Arabian, Ecuadorian and Venezuelan crude oil of $2.50 a barrel FOB port of origin. Yeah, $2.50 for a barrel of crude. Unbelievable!

Then came the Yom Kippur Arab-Israeli War in 1973-1974 and the prices leaped to $7.50 a barrel. That created a global financial panic in those days. After that, the price of oil has escalated over the years influenced mainly by Middle Eastern turmoils as clearly indicated on the chart.

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Yesterday was not a good day for those suffering from pocket pain and high blood pressure. Crude oil notched its largest price jump ever, leaping nearly $11 to more than $138 a barrel, on news of a weakening dollar and continued jitters over the reliability of world supplies.

U.S. crude settled up $10.75 at $138.54 a barrel before touching an all-time high of $139.12 in its biggest gain in dollar terms on record, adding to a rise of $5.49 on Thursday. London Brent crude settled $10.15 higher at $137.69, off the record $138.12 hit earlier.

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In Panama City, everybody is alarmed by a horrible accident that happened in the middle of the city in an area known as Calidonia. At approximately 2:00 p.m. (-5 GMT) a government helicopter crashed into a three-story building in the capital.

Countries around the world were hit hard by soaring food prices at the same time that gasoline prices were reaching the stratosphere. These two economic factors caused violent social unrest in poor communities, like in Haiti where the Prime Minister was toppled. Panama was no exception. The components of the basic food basket were all affected by this international price hike. My wife couldn’t believe her eyes when the price of rice went up to 70 cents a pound at the supermarket.

If something was not done soon to dampen this dangerous trend, a social explosion would hit Panama streets. The Panama government decided to subsidize food prices to calm the storm. They had already begun by selling Compita Rice at 30 cents a pound plus other basic food items such as cooking oil, flour, coffee, sugar, spaghetti and sardines. The lines to buy these products at open food fairs in popular neighborhoods were enormous. People were hungry and their pockets were almost empty.

Many Panamanians are working overtime at their kitchen table trying to make ends meet. You can stretch your budget so much, after that it will burst like an over-stretched rubber band. That’s when the social situation gets nasty, like in Haiti when the Prime Minister was toppled after wide spread violent urban riots.

The cost of gasoline is going straight to the roof, and there are no signs it will stop its steep upward course in the short term. I just read in the papers, that crude oil had reached the unprecedented price of $135.00 per barrel. London Brent crude soared to an all-time high of $135.14 and benchmark New York light sweet crude hit an all-time peak of 135.09 dollars earlier today. I’m sure many homes in Panama are seriously thinking of switching to smaller three-cylinder automobiles or even to Chinese or Korean scooters.

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