The Cross Strait Times

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!

Here’s light-hearted cultural exchange idea:

One of the assumptions of Taiwanese cuisine is the Taiwan has best Chinese food and the highest-concentration of it anywhere in the world. In recent years, however, bloggers and reviewers have complained that the current generation of Chinese food just isn’t as good.

“Chinese cuisine has traveled to Taiwan for years. And just like the rivers that eventually flow into the sea, it’s all the same in the end.” - Eat Drink Man Woman

In light of these complaints, perhaps the government could create a grant system where chefs could apply to go to the place of their ethnic cuisine’s origin on the Mainland to get back in touch with the roots and reasons for why their food is prepared the way it is. Of course, the people who get these grants have to prove their intention of opening restaurants so they’re not just scamming the government into a free food-tasting trip.

In light of the recent attacks in the Middle East, B@Taiwan makes and interesting comparison between Gaza and Taiwan and proposes a worthwhile solution: develop Gaza’s economy to end violence.

Gaza has a geographical advantage as it’s at the crossroads of Asia, Europe, and Africa, with easy access to the Suez Canal, and could easily export to all these places if the infrastructure and economy were built.

Could a developed Gaza be at peace with Israel? Well, let’s look at PRC and ROC for a rough analogy:

Despite the fact that the Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese governments don’t see eye-to-eye, and that Beijing reiterates anti-secession rhetoric every now and then, economic development and interdependence has prevented outright war across the strait. Both sides have invested too much in each others’ economies, and the middle class too used to the resultant stable and affluent living, that war has become almost (but not quite) unthinkable. Strangely enough, the modern version of mutually assured destruction is mutually assured prosperity.

Can the same economic development end — or at least, dramatically reduce — conflict between Israel and Palestine? I can’t presume to know the answer to this, as I cannot speak for cultures different from mine. But I do know that money, and lots of it, can cover and heal a surprising number of wounds, no matter how extreme the differences are. Developing Gaza would be a worthwhile experiment in peace.