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Politics & fuel subsidy

To understand why fuel prices in the United States have soared over the last year, it helps to talk to the captain of a battered wooden freighter in Indonesia. He pays just $2.30 a gallon for diesel, the same price Indonesian motorists pay for regular gasoline. His vessel burns diesel by the barrel, so when the government prepared for a limited price increase this spring, he took to the streets to protest. "If the government increases the price of fuel any more, my business will collapse totally,' said the boat captain, Sinar, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

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