Marc told me about a diesel spill in the harbor when he was in Venezuela. As I recall, there was about six inches of diesel floating on top of the water, but nobody could be bothered to scoop it up because the price of diesel was so low. I am sure I have some part of this story wrong, it sounds unbelievable, but if the price of diesel is only six cents a gallon, why bother? I mean, who bothers to pick up pennies any more?
Seems a fishing boat captain was supplementing his income by buying fuel at the subsidized price and then ferrying it offshore where he would sell it other boats for fifty-cent-a-gallon premium. Customs agents showed up to bust him and his solution was to dump the cargo overboard to get rid of the evidence.
Of course there is the whole fire hazard aspect, but maybe that's why prayer is still so popular in Latin America.
Note that the ratio of the price in Cairo to the price in Caracas is 18 to 1, while the ratio of the price in Istanbul to the price in Cairo is nine to one.
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