Taiwan V.P. looks to populate Belize

On her whirlwind visit to Belize last year, Taiwanese Vice President Annette Lu was the picture of political professionalism and master of diplomatic deliberation. But this week she’s in trouble back home after suggesting that the densely populated island, beset by numerous natural disasters, might be better off shipping a bunch of its citizens off to Belize. Lu is quoted in the “Straits Times” of Singapore as making the remarks on Friday in the wake of typhoon Toraji. After saying that the storm made many parts of Taiwan uninhabitable, she identified sparsely populated Belize as a good place for people to move. She is quoted as saying that “if we can send fifty thousand people over, these new immigrants will be eligible to vote for the country’s president.” The Taiwanese Opposition was not amused, saying that the V.P. should have offered constructive ideas to deal with the recent disasters, and suggested that she should be the first to move overseas. Obviously, Lu has not been informed that Belize is out of the passport business and besides…doesn’t she remember that she got out of Belize just before the arrival of Hurricane Keith?