Today is Rosh Hashana. Haga celebrated the Jewish New Years in the morning by waxing the floor. She does want everyone to know this. Akiva was a little tired and complaining at dinner time (he attended his Wei Qi / Go / surround-chess class and Tek Kuang Do martial arts class at school so was tired out). But after we dipped the bread in honey (for a sweet new year), he said “Daddy I want to have Rosh Hashana again and again so I can always dip my bread in honey”. BTW, Kenaz and Akiva can both chant the Kiddush over wine prayer now.

To all friends and family, may your next year be full of health and sweetness.

One night I went to see my previous manager Nobu and co-worker Yoshiko in Tokyo. They took me a fancy Japanese restaurant in high-rise building over Tokyo bay. Nobu was president at JSR Micro Sunnyvale when I was there. Now he is President of entire JSR. I have such a privilege to know him. Yoshiko hasn’t changed anything over ten years. She is the same beautiful and very sharp. Again I am very happy keep in touch with them.

Anyway, I am going to talk about the restaurant. The restaurant was at 47th floors and had great view at night. They had kind of ordinary Japanese food on the menu, but they displayed the detail of materials on it, like appetizer “fresh corn from Yoshida farm in Hokkaido raised in rich black soil. The corn contains 8% sugar”. I tried the corn. Sure it was sweet but raw!! I never ate raw corns before. I thought pig eats those. When I went back home I asked my mom if eating raw corns Japanese new trend, she said it is very few and good opportunity to have raw corns means the chef had confident on their food. Then we had fresh tofu from Kyoto made with 100% organic soybeans grown locally and used natural underground water. Tofu was very good but just big pile of cold tofu put on a plate like Jell-O. I have heard Jesse’s sarcastic voice “Yam, just tastes like tofu”. Then we had great fresh sashimi plate. At this point I started wondering if there is a chef in the kitchen. Nobu mentioned it is high calories but their port katsuretsu is wonderful. It was really delicious and had a flavor. Then we had white rice cooked in special ceramic bowl and cooked by natural wood coal slowly. I thought the rice was rather hard. I had some toppings to go with rice but it was so little because I was supposed to enjoy the flavor of rice… When I told my friend who is working for a Chinese travel company, she said all Chinese travelers complain the rice in Japan is hard.

I still like Japanese food. It is simple and very healthy. However I like good Chinese food with fresh vegetable, good oil and salt.

[Jesse] Haga says she does not have time to write stuff now, so I’m uploading her emails here[/]

August 2
Jesse, we got safely at my parents house.There was a little accident at airport. Akiva and Kenaz went to a mens and only Kenaz came back. Kenaz told me Akiva is pooing. I waited for a while. Some guy came out and asked me if my son is in the bathroom. The little boy is cryin and saying poo is on his pants. We almost missed the bus to go to Yokodai.

Anyway, Akiva is having a great time with Shi-chan. Kenaz is little bit left alone because of older kis games.

It is hot here. There are many bugs.

I will talk to you later.
love,
haga

August 3
Kenaz still has fever but he is ok. Akiva loves hanging around with Naho and her friends. he goes out with them by himself and catch bugs. Yokohama is much cooler yet still hot though.

we miss you too.

love haga

August 5

Hi Jesse,

Here is hot but not hot as Suzhou. Yesterday I went to see Nobu, Yoshiko,　and Eric. I had a good time to talk with them and eat sushi at small sushi bar.

Kenaz has no longer fever. He misses you. He said I want Daddy the other night.

Akiva gets up 6:30 and goes out to hant bugs with Nahochan everyday.

Kenaz and Akiva are doing great here.

Love you. miss you.

I will try to skype around your time 7:30

later
haga

August 6

Hi Jesse,

Started last night Akiva got fever 38.5C. He seems fine now. He wants to go out to catch bugs with Nahochan. but Nahochan has fever too. They need to rest a little bit.

Kenaz sometime doesnt want to hang around with bigger kids. then he hangs around with Jiji (grandpa).

We went to see great grand ma yesterday. She looked very healty. She was able to walk by herself without kane. Akiva and Kenaz went to crazy in the senior nursry house around and grabed each other for fight.

Great grandma didnt mind at all yet she told them she had 8 brothers and when they behaive badly, parents put them in ther rice warehouse where a lot mouse and big snakes. The snakes were there to eat the mouse. Anyway, she said among her brothers bad ones made success. It was really relife for me.

love,
haga

August 8

Hi Jesse,

How are you?

Yesterday we went to indoor swiming pool. There was a big slid. Kenaz loved it. He went up and down by himself and he was very happy. Akiva was a little bit inspired by Shichan and tried to swim with breth. He also practiced kicking. At night we went to yokodai summer festival( kidda like SSIS family day).

Today we will go to a mountain.

I hope you have a good weekend!

love,
haga

August 10
Hi Jesse

tomorrow we are going to a summer camp with hiromi family. today akiva needs to take care of his japanese passport. hiromi family is taking care of kenaz. kenaz seems very happy to be a baby.

i love a small nature in yokodai. we went to the mountain yesterday. kenazu walked for three hours.

any way you cannot reach us for three days.

i hope you are having a good bachalar time.

love
haga

August 15

Hi Jesse,

Last night Takeshi and Hiromi organaized BBQ. Some neighbor kids around Akiva age joined. Akiva and Kenaz had a blast.

Today we are going to see Ikachan, Tsubo and their kids in Yokohama.

Sunday morning TV has kids shows such as Kamen Rider and Power rangers which Akiva and Kenaz are looking forward and are watching now.

love you,
haga

I don't do Facebook...I do Legos.

Anna, please tell Peter Facebook is blocked in China. Anyone…please tell Cooper (and to pass it to Gail) that I don’t “Friend” people in China.

Everyone, if you you write to me, or try to “Friend” me on Facebook, you are a tool. No really, I just don’t know why you do this. You all should know that Facebook is blocked where I live. Its been in the newspapers, on the internet, on forum board… everywhere… yet everyone keep writing notes on my Facebook Wall… (and why is it called a “wall”). Just FYI I am proud NOT to use Facebook.

Ha!

And by the way, I’m not writing this post because I feel guilty about not being your “Facebook” friends. In my mind, all my friends are with me always. That may be why sometimes I get annoyed for no apparent reason.

Waiting for our table at Dim Sum restaurant

The kids are going to Summer school until yesterday.

Two things are very important for everyone to know.

1. Haga won 1000 RMB yesterday at the indoor video arcade. She had her picture taken while holding a fake check. However we didn’t get that picture. She wants everyone to know this.

2. Haga and the kids are going to Japan tomorrow and returning on August 27th. While she is gone, I intend to lose 5 Kg, do at least 75 push-ups a day, and start doing the Billy Banks exercise program.

Can someone in the US… friends and / or relatives let the above people know that I will not be Facebook friends with them, but its nothing personal?

Over time, I have learned to channel my frequently occuring negative emotions from my "issues" into areas that can give me strength in my professional and personal life. But, I'm still a fairly unstable person. I have a big ego and I have big mood swings. Also, I can be extremely insecure and I am constantly worried that something bad is going to happen to my children.

Cat Appocolypse!

Although I have “issues”, I feel that I should never take “medicine” for my problems, in part because doing so would reinforce the concept that I am a pre-programed biological robot living in a highly mechanical universe. Some of my friends say “of course you are a robot! We all are! Your often depressed because you don’t want to face reality, but you can still see what’s in front of you!”. Anyway, I prefer to have the illusion that I have free will, and hence, control over my destiny.

Wow. Enough mushy stuff about emotions. What does this have to do with China business anyway? Not much. Well, if the world ends, it ends for me in China too. I feel it would be best for me to see clearly how the world will end, and then see, within that overall disaster, where can I take control over my destiny.

The world will end in the following ways:

• Global warming is going to mess-up our world, and China is going to excellerate this
• We are all on the verge of the Trade War to End all Trade Wars.
• The drive to ever increasing efficiency is going to make human’s irrelevant.
• My existence in China (based on my ability to work and provide services as an expatriate) is threatened by the above.

OK. First of all is Global Warming. Because of the increasing demands of Chinese consumers, Greenhouse gases created in China (and…uh…everywhere else) will doom all chances of stopping global warming. Funny thing is, the more hot it gets, the more people will use air-conditioners (I know I am!) and so the more CO2 created. Because we humans are basically very stupid beings, and the inherent problem of the commons / “prisoner’s dilemma” nature of Global Warming, there is no chance of our governments cooperating to stop the disaster. At worst, the permafrost in the artic circle will melt, causing an exponential increase in CO2. The increased heat will cause the tropics to heat up, but at a certain point it won’t be able to heat up, so Ocean currents will stop, and then wind will stop, and then bad Oxygen eating microbes proliferate, and then we are all screwed. Geoengineering may be able to save us, but in the meantime, I am considering taking control of my destiny by buying land in cool Canada.

So, I have to overcome my character defects to make enough money to buy land in Canada. Not the most difficult of challenges really. However, I make my money by helping companies in China. That seems to be becoming more difficult.

As the GM of GE Jeffry Immelt said, “They won’t let us win!”. More on this here, and here. My favorite quote: “[China] is increasingly putting pressure on developing nations with large natural resources. Resource-rich nations don’t want to be ‘colonized’ by China”. Hmm. But said developing nations are OK about being colonized by the West? My goodness. Mr. Immelt is a schmuck. Of course, this has re-ignited that China-closed-to-Western business theme which I talked about before.

I tend to dismiss this “China closed for business theme. And so does my fellow alumni and “China business blogger” Rich Brubacker, at All Roads Lead to China. Rich points out these stories are often “emotionally charged”, and nowadays are backed by “data” which is really meant to show a particular biased view for political purposes, but only represents a small part of “reality on the ground”. His article really breaks down the main trends, which include: maturing, more competitive China market; effects of the economic downturn; and greed. But the point which really struck me was, “The anecdotes are driving the story.” In other words, the sky is falling for a few companies and industries, and they purposefully trying to make it seem that the sky is falling down on everyone.

I feel better to hear that the sky is not falling down on everyone. Except…maybe it really is. If we back up to the 30,000ft view of the world, we see Global Warming. We also see what may be the end of Capitalism as we know it. Robert Reich wrote (and here linking to Salon article because his blog seems to be blocked) in “The Vanishing American Consumer and the Coming Trade War”:

President Obama has vowed to double U.S. exports within the next five years. That’s because exports are critical for rebooting the American economy. …
….It’s not just that one out of four Americans is unemployed or underemployed (working part-time, overqualified, or at a lower wage than before). More significantly, the Great Recession burst the housing bubble that had let American consumers turn their homes into ATMs. Now the cash machines are closed.

So the administration figures foreign consumers will have to fill the gap.

Problem is, most other economies also relied on American consumers. Remember the trade gap? Americans used to be the world’s biggest and most reliable customers – sucking in high-tech gadgets assembled in China, car parts from Japan, shirts and shoes from Southeast Asia, and precision instruments from Germany….

…As of now China and India are still relying on net exports to fuel their growth. Even if you think their middle classes will eventually become so big and rich they can buy everything these nations will be able to produce, that doesn’t mean they’ll also buy what the rest of the world produces….Meanwhile, the productive capacities of China and India will continue to grow: More workers, more factories, more high-tech equipment, more offices. The buying power of their middle classes will have to expand rapidly just to catch up with what these nations will be able to produce.
…
When the world’s productive capacities exceed the buying power of the world’s consumers, every government wants to increase exports and discourage imports. That spells trade war.

Great. Trade war. My plan to escape Global Warming by moving to Canada is getting more difficult. It gets worse. Thanks to John Stranderfer at the Huffington Post, in his post “Where the Jobs Went“, he put the issue of the trade war into a higher perspective:

Those jobs [which US economy lost ]are no longer needed as almost every sector of our economy has figured out how to provide more and more products while relying on less and less people. Not only do we have the ability to make many times more of everything than we can possibly buy, but each item has more features and costs less than the previous year.

This trend is being amplified by newer companies like Amazon and NetFlix that are able to generate the same amount of revenue as Barnes & Noble and Blockbuster while only requiring a fraction of the number of employees.

These are structural changes that government programs cannot reverse. No amount of tax credits, investment incentives, or retraining programs is going allow companies to be able to remain competitive while employing the same number of people they did in the past. For better or worse, the world has changed and the traditional link has been broken between economic growth and employment growth.

The above reminded me of the Kurt Vonnegut book “Player Piano“[1. "Player Piaono", Kurt Vonnegut, 1952 ISBN-13: 978-0385333788]. In his book, the upper classes of society manages the robots, while the obsolete lower classes lives off welfare. That is until Skynet takes over (which is not in the book, but one can extrapolate).

Basically, Capitalism is coming to the point where its going to start eating itself. At least, as far as the United States is concerned. There is too much production capacity. People are becoming less relevant an input into the production capacity. And producing will generate waste, hastening Global Warming.

On the plus side, I will look at the glass as, maybe not half full, but nonetheless has some drops of water in it. While China scrambles to find export markets for its over-capacity, and Westerners scramble to find more efficiency in their China operations, there will be plenty of opportunities for me. Maybe. I also feel I’m not too old to go and learn robotics.

So, to end this post I will quote lyrics: “Its the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine”

An out door swimming pool in our apartment complex was opened in July. Yet it’s been raining all day and week (we got several very scary thunder), we have been able to swim only once. Kids are in summer school. I am out of job for good.

Update from Jesse:

We went to the Suzhou Ferris Wheel,

The ferris wheel moves very slowly. Half-hour for the round trip. Still, it was OK. Kids enjoyed it and I (Jesse) didn’t get too afraid of hights. Looks like this on the outside:

At the park, we also have a Merry-Go-Round.

Also, lately on the weekends we go to the really big pool right in our apartment complex (we also take a neighbor/friend with us). Kenaz is getting to be a good swimmer too.

I have posted many times before about the Google-leaving-China issue. Today, the topic has come up again.

To reiterate, I state that Google's decision to stop Self-censoring was not the most moral of its options. It would have been better for the cause of Freedom and for the Chinese people if Google remained in China while continuing with the censorship practices. This is because , even with self-censorship, Google was able to provide un-biased search rankings that are not influenced by politics or commercial sponsorship. By leaving China, Google has left the Chinese people to use just Baidu. Now that Google is on the other side of The Wall, Google search results machine censored, but more importantly, we in China can expect to see Google's services become progressively - but subtly - more difficult to access.

[to see the difference between Google and Baidu, you can look at this site...if it still exists. It is either down or is blocked in China : http://baigoogledu.com.cn/]

With today’s news about putting a fake search box on Google.cn, the “company that does no evil” is just pissing off the CCP more while giving China’s government ammunition against Google. I wish Google would stop with the rediculous .com.hk charrade. Instead of saying that they are in China by virtue of having an HK domain name (and thus emphasizing the one country / two systems, which is a legacy of colonialism), it would be so much better to redirect to Google.com. In this way, they would still lose the China market. But at least they could emphasize the trans-international nature of the Internet and Google’s place in an open system. Google does not belong to a .hk or .cn or .anything. Google is on the internet, which is should be border-less.