It’s hair-raising and spine-chilling that our Trade and Industry Minister thinks that cotton comes from sheep

The Trade and Industry Minister was trying to make the point that Singapore cannot survive without international trade.
But he only succeeded in making us scratch our heads and wonder whether he knows that he is exposing himself to ridicule and mockery.
Chan Chun Sing was making the illustration that surgical masks could not be wholly produced in Singapore because there are parts that  have to be procured elsewhere, such as cotton. Giving a sardonic snigger, he drove home the message that we “don’t have too many sheep in Singapore to produce cotton.”
Now, cotton obviously comes from cotton plants, native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, found largely in India, Egypt, Africa and the Americas.
Wool, on the other hand, is a natural fibre that comes from sheep.
If our Trade and Industry Minister doesn’t know the difference between cotton and wool, we have to be very afraid.
While we can see the humour in it, this is not a time for laughter. It ought to give us the creeps and scare the crap out of us.