“If this continues, it will definitely kill us,” the BBC quoted minibus driver Carlos Bragal from the Philippines as saying. The country is under a state of emergency due to the availability of energy resources. “State subsidies for fuel are not enough, they will spend on a two-day drive. What then? The situation is worse than during the pandemic,” he recalled the period of the covid infection from 2020 to 2023.
His income decreased by roughly half due to high fuel prices. Drivers like him have never experienced anything so terrible. Fishermen and farmers also feel the situation. Some growers had to stop planting. In an effort to save energy, the authorities ordered work from home at least one day a week.
Thailand is also introducing the measure. Officials asked the public to dress less and use less or no air conditioning. The local news anchor Sirima Songklin and her colleagues took off their jackets during the broadcast. They sent a message to viewers: “Save energy by dressing appropriately in the heat during the fuel crisis.”
Or like Sri Lanka. They talk about the paradox where the country did not have money to buy fuel in the past, but currently it has money, but there is no fuel that it could buy. In an effort to save it, the island state ordered a four-day work week.
In Myanmar, due to the lack of fuel, they fear the emergence of a new black market for fuel. However, Indian households and businesses are also facing problems. India was hit very hard by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. About 60 percent of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is imported into the country, and roughly 90 percent of shipments passed through this strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
The state of Gujarat in western India had to close the ceramic industry in the region for almost a month due to the crisis. “I will have to starve if I stay here without a job,” Sachin Parashar, one of the 400,000 people affected by the closure, told the BBC. And in Mumbai, for example, in the first weeks of March, up to a fifth of all hotels and restaurants were completely or partially closed.
