Tibet, Taiwan and China... 1, 2, or 3 Countries?

Despite the problems in Tibet, for the first time since Taiwan and China split, the two sides talked.... for 20 minutes. What brought the two sides together? Money! At an economic conference Taiwan's incoming Vice President said, "Both sides should face up to reality, usher in the future, set aside disputes and pursue a win-win situation." China's Hu said Beijing wanted to "think deep about cross-Straits economic exchanges and cooperation under the new circumstances." Will this lead to an end of the six decades of hostilities? Colin Powell, who was attending the Boao conference, said the meeting was "very good news for the region...The two sides have begun down a new path ... I think we are at the beginning of a new phase in relations between the parties in Asia." What next, will China play nice with Tibet? Based on the recent problems coming out of the region and the lack of economic benefit, I think not.

In International News...

Food prices are going up... here in the United States, no one seem to notice... but in Haiti it's getting rough! Riots over food are becoming more and more common. There are currently 1,000 UN troops in Haiti to deal with the riots. If the money that is spent on these troops was instead spent on food, we could let them eat cake! The government is being blamed for a failure to create jobs and control escalating food prices, and Haiti's Senate ousted Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis over the handling of the crisis. The word from the man on the street? "Most of the time we get up and have nothing to eat. We just pray for the sun to go down so we can go to sleep." I can relate to this... it's hard to sleep when the sun is out.

Your Government at Work

An artillery fragment crashed through the roof of a house in New Jersey and lead to the death of a house cat. The house was just over a mile from where the munitions were being detonated, but "Scientific estimates had indicated that fragments from the explosion would travel no further than 400 meters." Looks to me that someone needs to hire some new scientists!