Noah's Ark and other Ramblings

Who would have thought - a Noah's Ark replication here in Hong Kong. Of course, due to the environmental friendliness of concrete, it was chosen over wood as the replication medium. HA! Only in Hong Kong would I hear that, and I bet no other Noah's Ark has a motel inside it! Amazing.

Maine
Maine so big and bright yet
a free country
animals and
food so great
waters in ones mouth
trees of green lakes of Blue
a free place a free world
A MAGICAL PLACE!
By REBEKAH

David Graeme Robertson, Nov. 3, 1944 - Apr. 7, 1999

Life history has proven that 3-4 generations after you pass away, no one remembers you even existed. Well, generation 1 does. I miss you, Dad. I want to improve on the mistakes you made, and strive to emulate the character strengths you showed, the seeker of your Creator that you were. Oh, that your namesake becomes 3/4 of the person you were.

Wow. Travelling a lot lately. Singapore last week, Ningbo, Shenzhen and Dongguan this week, Shanghai next week, Ningbo the week after that. A bit heavy, I must say. Good period of time, though. Decision time - do we hire those people that will allow us to dive into manufacturing over here, or no? My boss is here, and we are really coming to grips with it all. Checking out factory space tomorrow. Clarity of vision is what we need here, to be continued. It has been a great week with him thus far, to be sure. Some serious potential exists over here.

Had a good friend from China come down to Hong Kong a few weeks ago, and had a great time. He worked me over pretty well in Chinese Chess, a new game to me. Unlike international chess, there is a lot of blocking, skipping over pieces, and feinting in this game that reflects the culture it comes from, if you ask me. Good game, though - it makes you look at a competitive board game a bit differently.

Some interesting shots taken over the past few weeks. The new Airbus A380 is on the prowl, apparently, with Singapore Airlines getting the first planes. Man, is the tube big. It looks like it should be longer.


How in the world do you turn this fan off?
I thought I had seen some messy, hard to debug wiring in my time, and then I saw this in an apartment building in Hong Kong. This is a bad scene.


Now this is the way to dispense concrete to wheel barrows. Clever contraption.

What a nice goober. I bet he fills those shoes and much more.

I got Googled! Chris and I were in Singapore on work, and headed west on the Ayer Rajah Expressway in the Queenstown area, and a Google maps person was taking video for the 3D Google Earth project (name?). If anyone sees me in a taxi driving along the expressway, let me know!


That is all for now. Too tired to discuss anything deep!

September, 2008
Well, the 2 middle children have started school successfully, and are starting to really like it. Rachel is working through home schooling, and we are settling into a regular routine. We all came back in mid August to HK, and then 2 weeks later I had to go back to the states for some work with customers that also came stateside. When here, I have traveled every week into China, and I hope to be able to stay around for this next week. Lots to do to prep for the next 2 months: interviews of potential employees, struggle with a supplier that is not performing as desired, help manage 2 big projects coming over here, talk further with a couple of partner possibilities, pursue additional sales work with current customers, get ready for the boss to come over last week in October, exhibit at a show in Shanghai first week in November, come back to states in mid November, and collapse at the end of it. :)

Some interesting pics in the past month or so. We should have the Olympics every month over here. I have never seen the air so clear over here. I saw stars for the first time in HK in the past year. In Shanghai the week of the paralympics (just after the regular olympics), the clarity was awesome. These pics are from and around the motel room I was in close to ground zero of Shanghai. The video was a foreign troupe that came part of an international music festival in Shanghai that week. Any ideas where these guys are from? They did a fantastic job.






After Shanghai, I took a bus to Ningbo across the bay on the new bridge (still no big trucks allowed - still in test mode!). They followed the same model as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and private investors made it happen, and tolls are the revenue. Best bridge I have been on in China, and in a lot of US states, I must add. The clarity may not look like much to you, but look back at earlier pics; it is stunning. Sadly, it is going back to pre olympic status, but it was nice while it lasted. That must show up on the GDP results for the year; who knows how many industries were shut down last month. In any case, I couldn't stop taking pictures, even if it was through a bus window. Notice the hovercraft and vineyards. Nice time to be in China - funny, it seemed everyone was more upbeat during this time. I know I enjoyed it more than many previous trips! I must wonder aloud if the reprieve from pollution will spur some changes here. There are some reports that some factories will not start back up in the Beijing area, but time will tell. The tug of the dollar is pretty strong everywhere in the world, and especially here.











Questions for the week:
1. Is capitalism good, or bad? Think before jumping to an answer!
2. In addition, what happens to capitalism when there is no moral backbone? Give tangible differences between the two structures.
3. Is capitalism without the moral backbone any better than a socialist or communist society?

Best lemonade in Hong Kong (Mong Kok). It is particularly good when the weather tops 34 degrees C, 75% humidity. In good Asian tradition, the entire lemonade, peel and all, is ground up into a fine juice, added with sweetener, and poured over crushed ice. FANTASTIC! Corner of Bute and Fa Yuen Streets in Mong Kok, for you google map freaks (or look at www.centamap.com, for a local version geared just for Hong Kong).

Summer to fall, 2008

Wow. It has been a long time since my last update. Lots happened between June and now! Some highlights:

Back in Maine for 5 weeks (I worked, family had great time off):
Blueberry Mountain, in New England. Great hike with my oldest two, Rachel and Bekah, and a great group from our church in Maine. At the end, was a VERY cold pool that was about 10 feet deep, but crystal clear. Quite refreshing. Here are a few videos of that pool. Got Mike R. on the slide, but missed Bekah doing it. Thanks, Mike, for organizing it. We all had a great day.











Summer project in Maine: One of the things most painfully missed here in HK is the ability to work with my hands. I can't say I miss mowing the lawn too much, and the allergy attacks that go with it (Don does a mean lawn now, in spite of being a moss man previously!), but building/renovating/fixing things is in my blood, whether in relationships, business structure, or around the house.
The kids have been wanting a tree house for a couple of years, but we all know how that goes. Well, no more delay this year. We had a great time putting it up, Don, Richard, Jayson, and myself, using the old standby materials: rough cut lumber, and roofing from Steve's old garage. Price was right, and it is here to stay. For you engineer critics, the 3 tree mounting system has its cleverness. Each joist is fixed on one end, and allowed to float at the other, allowing the trees to sway independently. As well, the area on the tree it is fixed to will not go up; it grows from the top up, not bottom up. Gotta love having a tree expert in the crew.
Coming years will be more things the kids can look forward to: additions like a rope ramp to another tree to get down, enclosure to be able to sleep out there bug free, etc. It was a great memory for the kids to look back on this summer.

Government owned 'Entity'

I visited a government owned 'entity', for lack of a better word, last week. Entity is the only word I can come up with for a company of well over 50,000 (see the layout above), that houses all its people on site, has stores, hospitals, schools up through MBA programs, no need to ever leave the site. While I am sure working conditions vary widely over the multitude of these industries that exist in China, this location was nice to see. Clearly, planned economies have their efficiency issues, as did this one. However, there was clearly a value placed on the human being here. Work conditions were primitive with regard to buildings and infrastructure, layout, etc., but reasonably well lit inside. Tools were extremely old and locally designed and fabricated, but quite well maintained. Product designs of the assembly components I was reviewing were generations old, but the manual operations used to put them together currently were as efficient as I could imagine.

The product I was reviewing had been assembled in this manner for THIRTY years. If you read Alan Greenspan's book, he discusses at length the differences between planned economies and open markets. One of the big differences is 'creative destruction', where competition in open markets forces reinvestment and increases in efficiencies that just don't happen in planned economies. What an example I was seeing before my eyes. The only reason I had an opportunity to see this was the same reason this company is actually considering changing their process: the markets here are opening up, and even these leviathans of government owned companies are being exposed now to competition.

Is this a good thing? I suppose the increase in efficiency and reduction of waste is good. On the other hand, the absence (in planned economies) of stress and worry over obsolescence or job insecurity can be a great thing. I could see the beginnings of stress in their eyes, and the awareness that they have no idea how to approach this free market thing, though I am sure it won't take long. The requests made of Lanco were largely to patch problems with their process upstream and product design, primarily. Perhaps they can't fix the machining problems upstream, and don't know how to upgrade the part design, but how do you allow them to save face and still be honest with them? They were clearly proud of their operation, as well they should be. Outsourcing is such a foreign concept to them; they had no idea how to greet potential suppliers, how to write spec sheets for what they are looking for, etc. Amazing.

Also amazing to see:
1. Russian influence in the architecture of some of the older buildings. Don't know the whole story there, but I know they were close during the time of this plant build.
2. Come to find out, back 30-50 years ago, this plant was moved (with all its people) from Shanghai as a way to reduce infrastructure problems if a city was destroyed. It was really surprising to my Shanghainese colleagues when we saw some old Shanghai folk (and their offspring!) in the plant, and they found out the story. We were approx 1,000 miles away from Shanghai, and finding a LOT of locals was not expected!
3. The workers work 8-12, go home for 2 hours to have lunch with their families (school gets out then, as well, and remember spouses are all working here), then return from 2-6 to work. I think this changed when the government mandated 8 hr days vs. 12 hrs, but I still asked if I could have a job there. Another perk of a planned economy. :)
4. Look out, world, when lunch comes. The mass of bicycles and motor scooters is not given justice by this picture. People are as eager to get to get to lunch everywhere in the world, it would seem.

Miscellaneous Collections

Evidence I have been on too many evening conference calls, while here in Hong Kong.
Ever heard of American Standard?Great moments with Bekah on the roof top of Fa Yuen wet market, where there are local restaurants, and great milk tea!
Now this is a fire hydrant, Hong Kong style!

Kowloon Victoria Park with Rachel, May 08. Nice ending to a dentist appointment!
This afternoon David and I rented bikes and rode from Sha Tin to Tai Po. Guess I should have read the map first, to see how far I was signing up David to (how big can it get? This is HK!). David is sleeping soundly tonight. He crashed twice, and got run over by a young lady on a bike coming around a corner and NOT driving in control. He had a good time in spite of it and the rain that came at the end. What a great sport. We got to see some of the Dragon Boat Races; apparently this is a pretty big deal here. Lots of teams on the river, and the cadence setter uses a drum in the front of the boat. Kind of cool, but a bit far for my camera phone.


How is this for a fish tank in a restaurant? See the person behind the tank, for reference. I felt like I was in the Boston Aquarium. They love their fish here.
All right, you engineers. What is wrong with this picture? Highly unHong Kong like, and worthy of a picture.
For those of you saying, huh?, think green means GO.

Out the window of my motel in Taiyuan. Consequence of open market economies pushing industries like coal and steel producing to developing countries. Is that fog you note? Why yes, it just happens to be man made.
Think you could carry this into the passenger cabin on a US plane, after 2001? No problem here! This is in line to get on a plane. For the sake of my own harassment, I won't implicate the airline online.