Just glitches?

Systemic or sustainable?

Thai shopping district burned down.

Wall Street typo error.

Greek tragedy.

Chinese Western-style kindergarten rampage .

And the rise of dollar shopping in the US (who cares if seafood price go up due to oil spill. We are buying smaller packs of chewing gum here).

Latest consumer report even attributed small increase to consumer’s skipping mortgage payment (while awaiting foreclosure).

A new form of home-related credit.

My first lesson in Sales was to qualify a prospect: need to buy, power to buy, right time to buy and money to buy.

The last one seems to dictate everything, while the first one, debatable (depends on where they are on the Maslow scale. Another pair of unneeded jeans might

satisfy belonging need, not clothing need). Apparently, between government stimulated dollars and this new form of credit of last resort, the economy crawls ahead.

Are these events and non-events temporary glitches? How intensively are the fixes (the way Toyota piecemeal-recalls its various product line)?

Many times, I caught a glimpse of the truth as presented by Hollywood.

(e.g. the financial melt down was predicted in a film starring Michael Douglas back in the early 80’s).

Fiction now has more truth than realities which conversely have become more “fictional”.

During the Asian financial crisis, Japan got hit hard. So did Thailand and other Asian Tigers.

This time around, we haven’t heard much from Japan, whose recovery seems to take a toll on that aging country.

I must give it to them. At least, they are future-oriented (translating Drucker, Toffler etc.. into Japanese to pick up on best practices)

by focusing on automation, robotics technology and all things electronics.

(remember to feed your virtual pet).

If anything, those who tried hard always got hit hard. It’s the price of development.

Those who are behind only have bitterness and resentment. It’s hard to be a cheerful loser in a race to global dominance.

In tech, we call uncertainties, Beta versions. With Beta version, we expect glitches. Again, in

shop talk term, the system needs “tweaking”. Can you hear me now?