The importance of Manufacturing

Once again it is CES time in Las Vegas. It is also the moment, and this has taken me so long I feel so stupid, why the manufacturing sector is vital to us.

Those who argue moving massively to services explained that as agriculture went, so manufacturing. Let others do it. We are already short of people and land.

As I read this article on the CES by the WSJ I wondered to myself an obvious question I never bothered to ponder the obvious answer. Who makes these gadgets? Why are they important. Deeper thought reveals that manufacturing is fundamentally different from agriculture. You really want to make some things or you cannot secure your means of creating wealth. This is not true with agriculture and food.

No longer merely a truism, I am now totally convinced in the importance of this sector for our economy.

Of course as is often the case with this government, they explained the case for manufacturing pretty poorly. Rarely do they ring a bell with me any most of my friends. In politics you are toast if you cannot convince people.

Not only a massacre at French Magazine Office

This is it. Could be the final straw breaking the camel's back. Many French people are going to say enough is enough. A symbol and an establishment of what it means to be French and European had been grievously attacked leaving so many dead including the chief editor.

The French are going to say we cannot live with the Muslims. We are just too unlike each other

At the same time European leaders are weak and suited to sailing in calm weather. This bad blood is going to get worse. As if Europe doesn't already have enough problems on so many other fronts.

Le Pen now has a huge edge. That party is anti foreigner.

If this do not reverse, the Americans are eventually going to get involved in a big way because America's global position is going to be fatally compromised if Europe goes under. Too much troubles everywhere is making it hard for them to pivot to Asia even as Japan can only become a weaker partner over time.

China can rise without too much care.

How should Singapore position itself?

Update: Jan 9 10:10am

I am sadly quite on the mark about my fear for the French.

And a warning for Singapore in the same NYT article. The French are homesick at home, We could also have Singaporeans are homesick in Singapore because we transform and give our island away to those who could afford it. 

Lawyer Subhas Anandan has passed away

Lawyers are a very hard to like lot but not Subhas Anandan. He was a hero for the small guy.

Unfortunately he was careless about taking care of himself in his youth. All the effort put into the later years could not reverse the damage already done. Sigh!

They don't make lawyers like him anymore do they? 67 is way too soon.

RIP Mr. Subha Anandan. Among lawyers you understand best that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

You have left behind heart prints whilst many lawyers leave behind fungible money if at all.

What a Muslim!

If only more Afghan Muslims were like Malik Abdul Hakim.

I cannot do a good job at retelling this story here and I shouldn't. Let NYT Azam Ahmed tells me again when I want to hear it again.

Unlike our brutal social history, in the modern age lovers of God transcends religious labels. Sometimes it makes you feel that God himself has given up on religion. Their simple acts, courage, forgivness and words go straight to your heart. Their lives are larger than the religion they purportedly live by. And such men and women are similar regardless of their creed. They also welcome each other and enjoy each other company.

What is happening to the world even as the rich and powerful Christian Evangelicals go about slandering everyone's faith? To them their narrow minded ideas is the only way to salvation, but they missed the point that salvation begins here and continues into the hereafter. That is why I know they are way off the mark. As off as the religious teachers in Jesus' days.

The age of grace from the Lord's sacrifice is more far more generous that we could expect or imagine. It is given out to all and cannot be bottled up by any dogma or theology. You also cannot ask to be paid for it.

Update: Jan 9, 10:15am

Good that our ST reprinted this from the NYT.

Fernvale Columbarium: Business capturing government?

Related: Fernvale Columbarium: Shallow people opposed this

Again pure serendipity. Just what I needed or this post would be too difficult and time consuming to write.

I think it is time to recognize that Singapore has over time become a money pot and very attractive to foreign business. I am probably very late to say this and we have all been distracted from suggesting growing corruption in government. The larger issue might be something else. Our version of how businesses try to weave themselves into government and capture it unaware to further their own interest. As an outside observer, the property sector try the hardest and most shamelessly. Good for us they lost their champion Mah Bow Tan.

Our increasingly less incorruptible government may be suffering more from stupidity than greed. Just like lobby groups capture the American law makers, we may be getting our equivalent. Therefore we must study the various cases carefully and learn from them. The latest could very well be how an ASX company successfully navigated itself into no more our columbarium services but businesses.

Years from now, not only is health care expensive, death rites and burial will also be inflating much faster than GDP and wage growth. I think this Fernvale columbarium just gave us the opportunity to see the moment of its birth.

A clueless government letting big business come in to screw us, typically under the guise of upgrading. True upgrading is when you can afford it. If it is a service that is needed by all, then something is wrong when it inflates faster than wage or GDP growth. Haven't they learn from the troubles at the public transport front.

This government is increasingly only book smart but not street smart. What is the use of book smarts?

Facebook: NPS is just brilliant

I watched out for this every day on Facebook before we arrived at Yosemite. Now that we are back, I continue to look for their daily updates. To me this is just a brilliant way to connect with the park. The National Parks Service is not a private enterprise but a US government department that retains its good old fashioned values and focus, holding true to the reasons of its founding. On the other hand Singapore statutory boards must be very careful how they stray from their missions. I wonder how often a government department is still fighting to be around long after its objectives have been achieved.

New iPhone 6 case

Bought wifey a Moshi iPhone case ($60) last night. Superbly made and I hope she enjoys it.

It is hard to find the perfect case and I think it doesn't exist yet for her. Unlike her I don't believe this would be her last phone case. She had so many for her iPhone 5.

When a phone case is also a fashion accessory, it is silly to think one is enough especially when it is so easy to insert and remove the phone from the Moshi.

Her trusty old iPod Touch bought at Del Monte in California on Black Friday three years ago had never had any other cases but to me that is because the case was quite nice but most important it is impossibly hard to open the case. This Moshi is an easy snap on and off.

Keep an eye out for bling bling cases.