911 Remembered
Time And Place
How quickly time flies. Ten years have gone by. It depends who and where you are and how you have been affected. Just as in life, there have been great pains and anguish but life is like golf, you play as it lies. Life as in golf, you just wanted a decent game, enjoy the company of friends and appreciate nature. You don't want to fight with your clubs or with anyone. In short, you want to get on with life which has its own difficulties, problems, twists and turns. I remember by capturing time and place.
How quickly time flies. Ten years have gone by. It depends who and where you are and how you have been affected. Just as in life, there have been great pains and anguish but life is like golf, you play as it lies. Life as in golf, you just wanted a decent game, enjoy the company of friends and appreciate nature. You don't want to fight with your clubs or with anyone. In short, you want to get on with life which has its own difficulties, problems, twists and turns. I remember by capturing time and place.
September 9, 2001, I was on the way to Tokyo on a business trip for a meeting. The weather was warm at about 31 degrees Celsius but in the land of the Rising Yen er I mean Rising Sun, sunrise is around a quarter past five in the mornings and sunset at ten to six in the evenings proving the wise-saying of early to bed, early to rise at least true in theory but not in practice. There was so much to do in such a short time. When the meeting was over, we adjourned for some food and drinks but I had to rush off to Nagoya soon after by train. I can't remember exactly how long it took me, may be one and a half to two hours and throughout the journey the enthusiastic Japanese manager was still talking to me about work from Tokyo to Nagoya. I tried to keep interested but a long day plus travel has taken its toll and I drifted in and out mostly hearing only noises.
I was grateful when we hit Nagoya. I was led immediately to a bar to meet the man who made this trip possible - the late Mr. E. Murakami. It was he who said that since I will be in Tokyo I have to meet him the Nagoya boss and then I have to visit a VVIP customer - Toyota. It is a great privilege to be recognised and accorded this protocol. I was glad to meet him again as we have previously worked together for some years when he was in Singapore. His assignment ran smack in the middle of the 1997 currency crisis but together we got our project going against tremendous odds making it a success for many years to come. Tired and tipsy from the whisky, I finally got back to the hotel. It was a good hotel, a choice made carefully by the man who ordered me to come. Much bigger than those in Tokyo where one can almost pee from your bed straight into the urinal and if you were not careful bang yourself all over in the shower cubicle. I wonder how Caucasians could get in and if they succeeded, how they got out?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htAFmcYBLtQ&feature=related
Before I called it a night, I turned on the television and to my horrors I saw a building billowing in smoke and thought that a hotel in Japan was on fire. Then several seconds later, I saw a plane smashing into the other building. To my greater horrors, the news was in Japanese and I fumbled to find out how to switch it to English. I succeeded after awhile. Only then did I know that it was co-ordinated terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and couple more places. A terrible calamity never before experienced. I left the TV on the whole night and hardly slept as disturbing images crept in continuously.
The Morning After
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_HQgtFEU_Y
A Japanese colleague came to bring me to Toyota's Motomachi factory. We both looked like zombies. It took awhile to travel but I was amazed about Nagoya as it looked a bit more like Singapore as they have wider roads and pavements than Tokyo and a lot less crowded. What was more amazing was that almost every car on the road is a Toyota. It is Toyota City. They even have their university there and workers live there too. What an amazing place! We had a quick bite before proceeding for the tour inside while trying to forget those images from the previous night's news. I have read materials on Toyota and their way of doing things and I was going to learn first hand. Firstly, in Japan there is only one model of Lexus at the time the LS400. What we saw here like the GS300 and the ES300 were actually called Toyota Aristo and Toyota Windom respectively but Asians like luxury marques to show they have arrived, what to do? Unfortunately, the ladies taking the tours were all speaking in Japanese.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1hUw4fC3VE&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J01zAMddmYg&feature=related
Toyota Way
They have a Toyota Production System (TPS) which is the Toyota way, a philosophy that completely eliminates waste. You can read about it on your own. The Motomachi plant builds cars like Crown, Prius, Ipsum and RAV4, etc. and employs nearly 6,000 workers producing at least some 300,000 cars a year. It was an eye opener to witness future technology such as how a driver can see around a bend and be warned of oncoming traffic on the other side, how they rolled out steel rolls to build your cars, the robotic arms that spray paint on cars and most impressively how on earth they could use automation with human intelligence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfIsDCsRKXg
When problems were found they have automatic stops and operators just pull a cord to change things. The human factor was very important. You can see where a problem station is from the display board and they can know if they were behind schedule. Faults and defects cannot pass down and had to be fixed at each stage. Other manufacturers may run maximum batch sizes but at Toyota JIT it means the factory can adjust to meet customer orders and requirements. This way they do not run production that becomes excess stocks. Most amazingly, Toyota can manufacture up to 8 different models of different cars in this plant on a given production line. Operators were busy assembling each car as if they were the same. How do you do that? A fantastic company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GfGMhfcSBU&feature=related
Back To Life
Of course I went to meet the logistics people and when all is done while waiting to go home I check on the tragedy of 911 again to get updates. Obviously, security everywhere became very tight. Upon checking out from the hotel, I proceeded to the airport. Everything looked sombre and security was very serious at the airport given what has happened in the USA. While passing through the metal detector, it buzzed and two fellow rushed over to me to do a physical check. Why on earth do they think I'm a terrorist? They screened and searched me from head to toe and found something in the pocket of my jacket. What was it? Oh deary me, it was the hotel room key ( they don't use a card). The hotel staffs may have been affected by the human tragedy that they forgot to ask me for it and I was the same. Stoned. It was the first time something like that has happened to me.
When I got home, I felt relieved that nothing has happened to my beloved Singapore but security at the airport was very tight. Air travel or air and sea transport of people and goods will never be the same again and all that at huge costs. I continued reading all reports and watching all news on the event. Billowing smoke, planes crashing into buildings, collapse of the twin towers and my heart broke when I saw people standing at the windows probably trapped. I could imagine their anguish as they stood there knowing help is unlikely to come in time, they probably can't breathe inside and be choked to death or get killed by the raging fire and the alternative was to jump to their death. I imagine you and me standing there faced with these stark no win choices. I imagine that we saw our lives flashed pass us. In that last few moments, we can't even speak to our family, loved ones and friends. You can't even say your last goodbyes. This was a calamity of epic proportion. I prayed that this must never happen again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EFvGuIXIJc&NR=1 (Don't watch this if you are too young or do not have the stomach for it).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGe4bDn85vk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mz0_x7313I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKOGH-YjW0c&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9jUEp_l7cE&NR=1
Repercussion
The repercussion was war. What kind of war is this? Even our daily life was compromised. People viewing each other with suspicion. So much inconvenience when you travel. Work became so much more difficult as everything was being screened. It escalated into war and terror's splinter cell bombing everywhere. No place on earth is safe and sane anymore. I do not know about you or whatever faith you are from but I do believe that if there were a God this God must be a good God, a merciful God who is just and righteous and most of all a God of love not hatred. There is just too much hatred in this world. People are divided into East and West. Rich and poor, the plunderer and the plundered. Even in the same country, there are tribal or ethnic divisions. We see skin colours, we see status, we see religion which are all stumbling blocks to friendship. We are all prejudiced and biased against someone or something. When will we learn that we are all in the same boat.
I fully treasure Singapore's way of integration where we have racial, cultural and religious tolerance and harmony. This is very important and it is a very thin line. What happened to our immigration that made some of us unhappy is not something unique to us so is this racial and religious harmony that we have. By all means, share your religion so that we can all have better understanding but do not hate, hurt or kill. God forbid it. Beware of cults or those who use others, religious or otherwise to achieve their own ends and hijack our religions. In essence any religion can be hijacked. I believe all of us watching those events unfold till now feel affected in some ways. Survivors will be haunted by nightmares. Families that lost loved ones will never forget. So what can we do and where do we go from here? Fiscal downturns, earthquakes and tsunamis are everywhere. When will the world be together as one? Search me. Some friends rang me up or wrote to me whenever things like that happened and asked for my opinion if the world was going to end? You can quote the Bible, or give views through other religious explanation and read Nostradamus but what is most important is what you do. So what are you doing? Such a thing should never happen again.
Time And Space
Life is really about time and space. There were reports about people who got delayed and was late for work, stop by a pharmacy to buy some plasters, got stuck in traffic, etc. and due to these reasons they were saved from the carnage. Next time if you got stuck in traffic, do not complain. It is the same as doing business or making a windfall - being at the right time and the right place except that this is absolute. Every September the world mourns. Wake Me Up When September Ends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVO8sUrs-Pw (Green Day)
There will always be some people in this world who do not like to see others happy. What they do not have or cannot get, they will seek to destroy. We have to remove hatred from our hearts. Then live and let live. We saw the Berlin Wall fell, the Cold War ended, China opened up and 911. Give Peace A Chance. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhyiqGIJQus (John Lennon)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_km0u64OLng (Imagine - John Lennon)
I was grateful when we hit Nagoya. I was led immediately to a bar to meet the man who made this trip possible - the late Mr. E. Murakami. It was he who said that since I will be in Tokyo I have to meet him the Nagoya boss and then I have to visit a VVIP customer - Toyota. It is a great privilege to be recognised and accorded this protocol. I was glad to meet him again as we have previously worked together for some years when he was in Singapore. His assignment ran smack in the middle of the 1997 currency crisis but together we got our project going against tremendous odds making it a success for many years to come. Tired and tipsy from the whisky, I finally got back to the hotel. It was a good hotel, a choice made carefully by the man who ordered me to come. Much bigger than those in Tokyo where one can almost pee from your bed straight into the urinal and if you were not careful bang yourself all over in the shower cubicle. I wonder how Caucasians could get in and if they succeeded, how they got out?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htAFmcYBLtQ&feature=related
Before I called it a night, I turned on the television and to my horrors I saw a building billowing in smoke and thought that a hotel in Japan was on fire. Then several seconds later, I saw a plane smashing into the other building. To my greater horrors, the news was in Japanese and I fumbled to find out how to switch it to English. I succeeded after awhile. Only then did I know that it was co-ordinated terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and couple more places. A terrible calamity never before experienced. I left the TV on the whole night and hardly slept as disturbing images crept in continuously.
The Morning After
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_HQgtFEU_Y
A Japanese colleague came to bring me to Toyota's Motomachi factory. We both looked like zombies. It took awhile to travel but I was amazed about Nagoya as it looked a bit more like Singapore as they have wider roads and pavements than Tokyo and a lot less crowded. What was more amazing was that almost every car on the road is a Toyota. It is Toyota City. They even have their university there and workers live there too. What an amazing place! We had a quick bite before proceeding for the tour inside while trying to forget those images from the previous night's news. I have read materials on Toyota and their way of doing things and I was going to learn first hand. Firstly, in Japan there is only one model of Lexus at the time the LS400. What we saw here like the GS300 and the ES300 were actually called Toyota Aristo and Toyota Windom respectively but Asians like luxury marques to show they have arrived, what to do? Unfortunately, the ladies taking the tours were all speaking in Japanese.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1hUw4fC3VE&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J01zAMddmYg&feature=related
Toyota Way
They have a Toyota Production System (TPS) which is the Toyota way, a philosophy that completely eliminates waste. You can read about it on your own. The Motomachi plant builds cars like Crown, Prius, Ipsum and RAV4, etc. and employs nearly 6,000 workers producing at least some 300,000 cars a year. It was an eye opener to witness future technology such as how a driver can see around a bend and be warned of oncoming traffic on the other side, how they rolled out steel rolls to build your cars, the robotic arms that spray paint on cars and most impressively how on earth they could use automation with human intelligence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfIsDCsRKXg
When problems were found they have automatic stops and operators just pull a cord to change things. The human factor was very important. You can see where a problem station is from the display board and they can know if they were behind schedule. Faults and defects cannot pass down and had to be fixed at each stage. Other manufacturers may run maximum batch sizes but at Toyota JIT it means the factory can adjust to meet customer orders and requirements. This way they do not run production that becomes excess stocks. Most amazingly, Toyota can manufacture up to 8 different models of different cars in this plant on a given production line. Operators were busy assembling each car as if they were the same. How do you do that? A fantastic company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GfGMhfcSBU&feature=related
Back To Life
Of course I went to meet the logistics people and when all is done while waiting to go home I check on the tragedy of 911 again to get updates. Obviously, security everywhere became very tight. Upon checking out from the hotel, I proceeded to the airport. Everything looked sombre and security was very serious at the airport given what has happened in the USA. While passing through the metal detector, it buzzed and two fellow rushed over to me to do a physical check. Why on earth do they think I'm a terrorist? They screened and searched me from head to toe and found something in the pocket of my jacket. What was it? Oh deary me, it was the hotel room key ( they don't use a card). The hotel staffs may have been affected by the human tragedy that they forgot to ask me for it and I was the same. Stoned. It was the first time something like that has happened to me.
When I got home, I felt relieved that nothing has happened to my beloved Singapore but security at the airport was very tight. Air travel or air and sea transport of people and goods will never be the same again and all that at huge costs. I continued reading all reports and watching all news on the event. Billowing smoke, planes crashing into buildings, collapse of the twin towers and my heart broke when I saw people standing at the windows probably trapped. I could imagine their anguish as they stood there knowing help is unlikely to come in time, they probably can't breathe inside and be choked to death or get killed by the raging fire and the alternative was to jump to their death. I imagine you and me standing there faced with these stark no win choices. I imagine that we saw our lives flashed pass us. In that last few moments, we can't even speak to our family, loved ones and friends. You can't even say your last goodbyes. This was a calamity of epic proportion. I prayed that this must never happen again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EFvGuIXIJc&NR=1 (Don't watch this if you are too young or do not have the stomach for it).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGe4bDn85vk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mz0_x7313I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKOGH-YjW0c&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9jUEp_l7cE&NR=1
Repercussion
The repercussion was war. What kind of war is this? Even our daily life was compromised. People viewing each other with suspicion. So much inconvenience when you travel. Work became so much more difficult as everything was being screened. It escalated into war and terror's splinter cell bombing everywhere. No place on earth is safe and sane anymore. I do not know about you or whatever faith you are from but I do believe that if there were a God this God must be a good God, a merciful God who is just and righteous and most of all a God of love not hatred. There is just too much hatred in this world. People are divided into East and West. Rich and poor, the plunderer and the plundered. Even in the same country, there are tribal or ethnic divisions. We see skin colours, we see status, we see religion which are all stumbling blocks to friendship. We are all prejudiced and biased against someone or something. When will we learn that we are all in the same boat.
I fully treasure Singapore's way of integration where we have racial, cultural and religious tolerance and harmony. This is very important and it is a very thin line. What happened to our immigration that made some of us unhappy is not something unique to us so is this racial and religious harmony that we have. By all means, share your religion so that we can all have better understanding but do not hate, hurt or kill. God forbid it. Beware of cults or those who use others, religious or otherwise to achieve their own ends and hijack our religions. In essence any religion can be hijacked. I believe all of us watching those events unfold till now feel affected in some ways. Survivors will be haunted by nightmares. Families that lost loved ones will never forget. So what can we do and where do we go from here? Fiscal downturns, earthquakes and tsunamis are everywhere. When will the world be together as one? Search me. Some friends rang me up or wrote to me whenever things like that happened and asked for my opinion if the world was going to end? You can quote the Bible, or give views through other religious explanation and read Nostradamus but what is most important is what you do. So what are you doing? Such a thing should never happen again.
Time And Space
Life is really about time and space. There were reports about people who got delayed and was late for work, stop by a pharmacy to buy some plasters, got stuck in traffic, etc. and due to these reasons they were saved from the carnage. Next time if you got stuck in traffic, do not complain. It is the same as doing business or making a windfall - being at the right time and the right place except that this is absolute. Every September the world mourns. Wake Me Up When September Ends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVO8sUrs-Pw (Green Day)
There will always be some people in this world who do not like to see others happy. What they do not have or cannot get, they will seek to destroy. We have to remove hatred from our hearts. Then live and let live. We saw the Berlin Wall fell, the Cold War ended, China opened up and 911. Give Peace A Chance. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhyiqGIJQus (John Lennon)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_km0u64OLng (Imagine - John Lennon)
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