When I was in prep school, my dad used to be a member of a carpool that would take us kids to school. Some days my dad would take us, some days Mr Stewart would take us and on other days Pastor Hayles or Mr Mundy would take us. I never realised it then, but our parents saved a lot on gas that way.

There was also the benefit of me hanging out with Althea Stewart, a hottie who was older and taller than I was. The downside was Dahlia Hayles throwing up all over me on more occasions than I would like to remember, but being able to gaze longingly at Althea made it all worthwhile. Well, sort of.

It was very worthwhile for our parents because they were saving a lot on their weekly gas bills because instead of all of them making a 30-mile trip five days a week, more often than not they were only called upon to make that run once a week.

In the face of the skyrocketing price of oil - at last check US$104 a barrel - and a US$2 billion oil bill, Minister of Mining and Energy Mike Henry is trying to push the idea of car-pooling to us as one way of cutting back on our usage of gasolene.

Personally, I think it's a great idea but I just don't think many of us are going to go for it.

If this were 30 years ago, I don't think it would be much of a problem getting Jamaicans to buy into this idea because we were a different Jamaica then. Back then we were a community-oriented people, these days I am not so sure. Today, we are more about what's in it for me; who cares that we spend $5,000 or more a week filling our tanks?

On the streets each day, you see more SUV's than one would expect, but try asking your neighbour to drop your kid off at school since theirs attends the same school and you are more likely to get a litany of excuses why that won't be possible. You will hear how many stops they have to make and that they are getting home late; but when you get to the school you will see them already there or driving out as you drive in. And when you get home, you find out that 'late' for them is pretty early for you.

In many ways we have come to put a lot of emphasis on what we drive and in many instances for all the wrong reasons. People are driving vehicles that are more expensive than the homes they live in. People are living in rented homes and driving cars that cost about the same as what it would take to buy a home, or paying as much for their car payments as they do for rent. I even know of someone who was driving a multimillion-dollar car and did not even have somewhere to live, so he slept on the backseat each night. The other thing about these vehicles is that most are giving the owners between 15 and 18 miles per gallon, if that much. None of it makes sense, but this is what we do.

We have come to worship cars, and as such carpooling is not something that will appeal to many of us for it means that we will have lots of people invading 'our space' and it doesn't look as cool driving around a vehicle loaded with passengers as it does when just you alone are chilling behind the wheel.

I am sure there are those people who would be more than willing to carpool, but not nearly enough. I just don't see us as a carpooling kind of people. Not anymore. It's sad but I believe that this is who we have become. The bottom line is that we really don't care as much for the bigger picture as we should because we have come to care more about ourselves than we do about our country.

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