letters
Letters to the Editor
Pro-ADB positions were condescending
In his April 15 Focus article on the Asian Development Bank meeting, Walter Dods strikes a tone both ridiculous and condescending.
He states that "we are working to make sure that critics and protesters have an opportunity to be heard here in May." If he is speaking as a symbol of America, we may forgive his arrogance. If he is speaking as a symbol of the state of Hawai'i, then perhaps we can forgive him of a lesser arrogance. If he is speaking as the symbol of Hawai'i business, then we may be permitted a blank look of disbelief.
It has been members of local groups critical of ADB activities and the ACLU that have done all the work to guarantee that protesters and critics have a forum to be heard publicly. That there will be a march and a rally at all is solely the result of their work to make it so, despite opposition by almost every authority involved.
Dods also claims that the "critics' arguments are understandable" in that very little of globalization and the promise of wealth have touched the "under class," and calls for those protesters and critics to be educated as to how globalization can help that under class. Many of those organizing against the ADB are quite aware of the fact that globalization has not helped the under class.
They are also quite aware that no amount of education changes the fact of the effects that globalization has had, is having and, if it continues as it is, will have on that "under class" — most of which are either disastrous or degrading. His implication that those critical of the ADB are either immature or ignorant concerning global economics is simply too much to take.
William Stafford
Student activities should not be canceled
Although the teachers strike is now over after three weeks, its implications are still being felt by many students around the state.
All school activities that interrupt class time are now canceled, which include school assemblies, field trips and other activities that had been planed months in advance. Is this fair to the students?
I understand the need to make up the lost 14 days of instruction, but I feel that certain activities should still occur. If the school year did not have to be extended unless the strike continued until May 3, then activities should still occur.
The teachers and the state both got what they wanted. Shouldn't the students get something?
Jarrett T. Yara
Pearl City High School senior
Private schools can provide good lessons
It was great to learn that a Hawai'i teacher won Nasdaq's National Economics Teacher of the Year award. In light of the recent teachers' strike, it would be interesting to know:
• Is Dick Rankin certified to teach in Hawai'i's public schools? I bet not, notwithstanding his university-level teaching experience, graduate degree, leadership and motivational capabilities, along with his distinguished military background.
• Does Rankin earn anything near what his public-school counterparts do? I bet not; after all, my guess is that he doesn't belong to a union.
• Can Rankin transfer willy-nilly to Punahou and bump a more junior teacher there? No, Punahou and Iolani administrators have genuine control over their respective schools — unlike their public-school counterparts.
• Will Rankin's seniors have benefited from his entire course and still graduate on time this year?
• Can Rankin or his colleagues be terminated if they are crummy teachers?
My guess is that the answers to these questions would reveal why Hawai'i's public schools cost taxpayers over $6,000 a student and so often return so little on this involuntary "investment."
Anyhow, congrats to Rankin and Iolani School — and those parents who can afford to pay the $6,000 in taxes for another kid's schooling and fund their own kid's private education. Indeed, that's one reason Hawai'i's public-school teachers really need a raise — since close to half of them send their kids to private schools as well.
How bad must it get?
Mike Rethman
Kane'ohe
Nike commentary out of touch with reality
The April 23 commentary "Labor costs 11 cents, sweatshirt is $22.99" used faulty economics, out-of-context quotes and inaccurate statements about Nike's actions and attitudes regarding workers and working conditions in factories where Nike products are made.
Both Lenore Skenazy and her often-misguided activist quotemeister, Charles Kernaghan, know that Nike does not condone sweatshops or poor working conditions.
In fact, we continue to pour enormous resources into independent monitoring, research-indexed wage increases and direct factory improvements to ensure that our work environments are safe and competitive. No, everything hasn't been perfect on the factory floor; however, we have been transparent with the public about both our successes and challenges in reform.
We take comfort in knowing that the perspectives expressed by Skenazy and Kernaghan are in the minority and are inconsistent with what the 500,000 workers who make Nike products tell us ö that they need and appreciate the employment opportunities Nike provides in their developing global communities.
In addition, more and more academics and human rights activists are also becoming aware that Nike's age standards are among the highest in the industry.
Nike continues to believe that human rights and good business can co-exist.
Vada O. Manager
Director, global issues management, Nike
Inside prison, you'll find Tata the Smiler
Here at O'ahu Community Correctional Center, a 79-year-old inmate affectionately called Tata far surpasses music in his ability to calm the savage beast.
No one here can resist Tata as he inches along mumbling incoherently. He is about 5 feet 3 inches tall, and his face geographically expresses many years of life and travel.
As the guards shout "Open module," the inmates of module 3 race from their cells as they compete for the privilege of escorting Tata to the TV room.
Flanked on each side, hand in hand, he is slowly escorted to the chair of his choice. With the ever-present grin from ear to ear, Tata mumbles on.
Tata is yet another example of the misplaced seniors who are housed here at OCCC, yet I do not believe he could receive more attention anywhere else.
Thieves, robbers and murderers are all docile at Tata's approach. Everyone smiles as he slowly traverses the module mumbling along happily. He reminds me of the movie classic "E.T."
One day soon, I pray to see Tata raise his finger as he smiles and says "Tata go home."
Michael Spiker
Inmate, OCCC
Don't cite Las Vegas as reason for gambling
Every now and then a letter is published advocating the legalization of gambling in our state. These letters argue that if it can work in Las Vegas, it can work here.
It's not that simple. Las Vegas' success lies in its proximity to Los Angeles and other California metropolises. On a visit to Las Vegas, you'll realize that on any good day the California cars outnumber local Nevada cars. Why? It's only a 350-mile, four-hour drive from Los Angeles — we're talking $40 in gas split four ways. At that, they'll say, "Heck, we'll just go for the weekend."
There's also an advantage being in the Pacific time zone, but I won't go there.
Reginald J. de Guzman
'Ewa Beach
Government should have saved bowl games
It is a shame that the Aloha and O'ahu Bowl games have left us. The ticket prices were kind of high and there was little effort to involve the community (no parade, no beauty pageant, few contest or autograph sessions).
And yet the lost economic benefit to the city and the lost PR from the television coverage are going to hurt our economy.
Honolulu has now lost three major bowls, including the Hula Bowl. If it weren't for Mufi Hannemann saving the Pro Bowl, Honolulu would be bowl-less.
We seem to have a lot of money to build canoe huts and buy land protected by zoning like Waimea Falls. Perhaps we could have invested a couple hundred thousand to promote and keep the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu. It would have been nice to at least have seen a token effort by our government leaders to save the bowl games.
Cy Watase
Face-lift for Kaimuki fine, with reservations
According to an April 23 story, the attention of the city is now focused on Kaimuki. On the whole, it sounds good to this Manoa resident who frequents the Kaimuki shopping areas. However, I have two serious issues to put forward:
• Do not even think about undergrounding some of the the utility wires while leaving the power lines overhead. Very bad planning. Check with HECO, which now has a program to pay for a third of the cost of undergounding. If you can't put everything undergound, don't even start digging ditches.
• Do not even think about narrowing the parking stalls in order to put in another lousy 20. Take a look at what kind of vehicles people are driving nowadays. Jurassic Park indeed. This isn't the '70s, when everybody was driving microcars. I'll take my 1986 Taurus somewhere else, thank you, rather than be squeezed between a four-door pickup truck and a SUV in a space only big enough for a VW bug.
Jim Harwood
WESPAC influenced by longline interests
Regarding Judith Gurthertz' April 24 Focus lament for the longliners of Hawai'i: The WESPAC organization, by the very data that is used in pleas to resume swordfishing, is heavily influenced by the longline commercial interests.
Little is done by WESPAC for the small-boat fishery, recreational and commercial, which has existed here long before the longliners arrived en mass.
I would applaud the move from surface swordfishing to deep-set tuna fishing because this would reduce the evil longliners' take of blue and striped marlin — a policy effort WESPAC has staunchly avoided over the years.
This past Saturday at the Honolulu fish auction, I watched as a 400-plus-pound blue marlin was not bid on, perhaps only to be unceremoniously thrown into a dumpster or relegated to fish cake. That big female could still have been swimming and procreating for recreational fishermen to tag and release.
William King
Democrats are trying to raid fund
Gerald Peters' opinion commentary on April 22 ("We can't let hurricane relief fall prey to politics") is anything but unbiased or nonpartisan. It is unabashed lobbying for a political handout by a special interest.
Peters is president of Hurricane Protection Systems, and he wants legislators to take money out of the Hurricane Relief Fund to subsidize the hurricane-mitigation devices his firm builds.
Under the guise of taking politics out of the public debate on what to do with the money in the fund, Peters in fact leveled a deeply partisan political attack on those legislators who dared to raise objections to flaws in legislation that would enrich him.
Peters would have us believe that the Democrats are statesmanlike, fiscally prudent leaders trying to preserve the hurricane fund. In reality, the Democrats are the ones trying to divert money from the fund for totally unrelated purposes.
The fund was originally intended to provide hurricane insurance — nothing else. Yet when voting on SB 838 and HB 1156, every single Democrat in the Legislature voted to siphon off most of the interest from the fund.
To justify this raiding of the fund, a tiny part of the siphoned money would go for Peters' wind-mitigation devices, but the lion's share would revert to the general fund or be used for purposes unrelated to hurricane relief.
Almost all the Republicans voted against these bills, not necessarily because they oppose subsidies for wind-mitigation devices, but certainly because they oppose all the other unrelated diversions.
These bills aren't the only Democratic attempts to raid the fund. The governor tried to siphon off the interest for scholarships. Again, a worthy cause, but why not finance these through the appropriate channel, the general fund? And our Democratic leadership raided dozens of special funds this year to finance union pay raises instead of financing them through the general fund.
Who really believes the Democrats won't try every single session to raid the interest and even the principal in the hurricane fund for unrelated purposes?
Sen. Bob Hogue
R-24th District (Kane'ohe, Kailua)
