Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum’s 21 members (representing about half the world’s economy), including the U.S., China and Japan are trying to make a difference in the world.
To do so they have a few demands, er, aspirations, requests, that sort of thing and a couple of deals.
1. They demanded that North Korea give up on trying to produce nuclear weapons. The DPRK responded with “Who? Us?”
2. The Doha Round of world trade talks was resurrected. It died in July when U.S and Europe couldn’t come to terms on agricultural subsidies.
3. The group pledged to fight terrorism, weapons of mass destruction (whether there are any there or not) and other security threats (Go! Bush!)
4. Japan, China, and South Korea representatives pledged to take each other out to dinner at the upcoming East Asian Summit next month.
5. Members agreed to consider a U.S. backed proposal for a regionwide free-trade zone and report back next year when they meet down under in Sydney.
6. Host Vietnam signed several multi-million dollar contracts. Something starting with a ‘B’ would have been more desirable.
7. The U.S. and Russia signed a pact that will allow Russia future entry in the WTO.
Of course, at this stage, it’s all just talk.
But, if they don’t talk about it, whatever, it’s not likely to happen.
What do you think?
