Letters to the Editor
City Bank takeover would boomerang
In following the events of this takeover attempt, I can only wonder — who will benefit from this?
Not the community, that's for sure.
I am a City Bank customer for many years and have been treated very well by my "local" bank.
Should this takeover succeed by Central Pacific Bank, would I continue doing business with a banking institution with a "hostile" personality?
No way. Hello Walter and FHB.
In the end, no one wins.
S. Langer
Contempt for others leads to road rage
I was shocked to read on the Internet (as reported by KITV, May 7) about a brutal attack by one driver on another at the Makiki 7-Eleven, fueled by road rage, so prevalent on our nation's roads.
This widespread and sometimes lethal anger will not be reduced effectively until drivers understand what Eli Siegel, historian, poet and founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism, was first to see — that the deepest hope in each of us is to respect people and objects, and this makes us proud; but we also have another hope, to have contempt, "the addition to self through the lessening of something else."
It is contempt that gives one driver pleasure in cutting off another, tailgating, making an obscene gesture, running a red light that can result in another person's dying. We have to criticize contempt in ourselves before road rage will diminish and make our highways safer.
John Stern
New York
Peacock solution debated for months
I am a resident of Makaha Valley Towers and was shocked at Barbara Del Piano's May 11 letter. She condemned our board of directors for wanting to exterminate the peacocks that reside here.
First of all, the board of directors and others do not want to exterminate the peacocks, but to reduce their numbers.
The board, after exhaustive research, found that nobody in our state wanted them. This led to our asking a number of our state government bodies what we could do to reduce this flock of birds. None had an answer except the Hawaiian Humane Society: By law, the birds could be eliminated at a cost by authorized business. This action was debated at length for many months.
With further investigation, the same conclusion was reached, that there was no other way to reduce the flock. A board meeting took place two months ago, and the board approved a contract to have the peacocks reduced by the only avenue that it could find. Another board meeting was held last month at which some objections were stated, and our conscientious board agreed to delay this action before proceeding with the contract, so that it could review this problem again.
Ms. Del Piano suggested in her letter that the government should buy the Makaha Valley Towers and tear it down and turn the property into a peacock sanctuary. I found no humor in that response to this serious problem.
I have a better solution: I will pay half the cost if Ms. Del Piano will pay the other half, and ship to her a dozen peacocks that she and her neighbors could tend to.
Charles G. White
Makaha
Terrorism cannot be used as bargaining chip
The May 12 editorial "No real reconciliation with Kashmir unsolved" correctly points out that the real key to peace in South Asia is the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. But it does not identify the recent developments.
The Indian government atoned for its past mistakes in Kashmir by conducting democratic elections last year that most neutral observers deemed free and fair. Kashmiris came out to vote despite a brutal terror campaign by Pakistan-supported Islamists who killed hundreds of innocents. Yet, Pakistan's dictator, Gen. Musharraf, has failed to crack down on the Kashmir-related terrorist groups despite a promise to do so.
Banned terrorist groups have reappeared under different names. Their arrested leaders have been released with no cases against them. Some have even found their way into Parliament. What is more appalling is that these terrorist groups have open ties with al-Qaida.
The U.S. must advise Pakistan that terrorism cannot be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations. Violence cannot solve disputes, Kashmir included.
Kaushik Kapisthalam
Atlanta
Midway's ecosystem must be protected
Your assertion (May 11 editorial) that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should immediately allow the newly appointed Midway Atoll operations contractor to resume tourist operations reflects the unfortunate view that the Pacific's diminishing number of relatively intact ecosystems are salable items, to be exploited for financial profit.
Having lived on various Pacific atolls for the past decade, I can attest that these unique ecosystems are not well-suited to support the presence of even the best-intentioned human beings. Remote, fragile ecosystems and capitalist profit-seeking, even under the guise of the trendy new eco-tourism, are all too often mutually destructive entities, the result of their combination being irreversible environmental disruption and unsustainable financial loss.
If, in fact, Midway's previous operations contractor was unable to turn a profit and forced to shut down because of restrictions imposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, then that agency should be commended for its efforts to protect Midway's environmental integrity.
Further, the new contractor's experience in operating military facilities in Alaska doesn't necessarily indicate the will or ability to ensure that Midway's fragile environment isn't degraded by the increased human presence that the resumption of tourism would bring.
Let's hope that Fish and Wildlife does what's best for Midway and subjects the atoll's new facilities manager to the same rigorous environmental restrictions that caused the last one to go away.
Bill Rathburn
Kannat Garden, Saipan
There should be more recycling-bin locations
My name is Moani Hara, and I attend Assets School. I am 13 years old, and I am doing a science project about recycling in Hawai'i. I think that most people in Hawai'i don't recycle as much as they should. There should be more recycling-bin locations for glass, paper, cans and cardboard.
I feel that it is everyone's job to recycle, but few do. What do you think of recycling?
People have thrown 28 billion glass bottles away. One bottle, one piece of paper, one can or one piece of cardboard could have saved energy, and that same glass bottle could have been made into a 100-watt lightbulb that could last for four hours.
Moani Hara
Motorcycle officer came to the rescue
I, too, would like to add my "thank you" and a "job well done" to the Honolulu Police Department.
Last week I was driving on the H-1 when my car overheated and I pulled over. Motorcycle patrolman Martinez stopped to offer assistance and much more. Officer Martinez was supportive, friendly and most helpful. In spite of it being a very warm day, he gave me the last of his water. The water cooled off my car and I was able to drive my car away.
Thank you, Officer Martinez!
Robert "Mike" Murphy
Concentrated form of pot may be better
Cliff Slater's May 12 column, "Mixing law and economics," made some interesting points.
His example of an unintended consequence of "Green Harvest" being an increase in "ice" use on the Big Island has been noted by many observers, including the U.S. Department of Justice in a 1993 research brief. Prohibition does indeed encourage trafficking of more concentrated forms of illicit substances (whether it's whiskey versus beer or crack cocaine rather than coca leaves).
But Mr. Slater accepts the government's propaganda when he asserts that "marijuana is vastly more potent today than it was 20 years ago." The federal Potency Monitoring Project (at the University of Mississippi) reports that in 1985, the average THC content of marijuana ranged from 2.8 percent to 7.1 percent (for commercial-grade and high-grade sinsemilla, respectively). In 2001, the range was just slightly higher, at 4.7 percent to 9 percent.
More potent marijuana is not necessarily more dangerous. There is no possibility of fatal overdose from smoking marijuana regardless of its THC content. In fact, since the main physiological risk from marijuana is damage to the lungs from smoking, high-potency pot may be slightly less harmful because people (including medical users) can achieve the desired effects while inhaling less burning plant material.
Even if it is somewhat stronger than in the past, marijuana is still bulky and smelly and thus less attractive to dealers than concentrated, more harmful drugs like ice.
Pamela Lichty
Vice president, Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i
Sunset on the Beach a fantastic program
In my 13 years in Honolulu, I've found Sunset on the Beach to be one of the best programs the city has ever produced.
I am a Big Brother to a young boy, and we both enjoy going to Waikiki on weekends for a movie. What a beautiful venue. The City Council should continue to fund this fantastic program.
George Privon
Kaimuki
Taking opposite position
Joseph Rozmiarek (drama critic) might be pleased to know I depend on his reviews of local drama. If he says a play or musical is lousy (which is the majority of the time), I'm sure to attend because I know it will be quite good.
Works every time.
Ruby Nobles
Too much of good thing
What next? David Shapiro and his ilk propose humor as a feel-good remedy. We all know humor leads to more and better sex — then where would we all be?
Robert Pyburn
San Francisco
Shutting down office a blunder
I grew up on a farm, and as a farm kid I learned about "seed corn." Seed corn was a small portion of the corn from a harvest set aside for the next spring planting. Without that seed, there was no planting, and no future harvest. If, because of bad planning, you were forced to eat that seed corn during the winter, it was seen by your neighbors as failure.
We are seeing the same thing happen now in the Honolulu City Council. Gary Okino has come out in favor of shutting down the Office of Economic Development, including the Honolulu Film Office. The Ho-nolulu Film Office, with a staff of one, has brought millions of dollars in film production work into Hawai'i. That's really very little "seed" to a great deal of "harvest." And, as long as we keep that "seed," there will be more "harvests." And it need hardly be added that films made in Hawai'i help to stimulate the tourism industry as well.
Okino thinks we should not bother to keep that "seed" any more.
Contrary to Okino's assumptions, there is no duplication between the Office of Economic Development and the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, as DBEDT Director Ted Liu has recently made clear. Both departments serve useful functions to stimulate the economy. Both departments are needed.
The economic reality is that OED's budget is a microscopic fraction of the total budget, and shutting it down would have a negligible effect on the overall deficit. Lost tax revenues from opportunities that are no longer brought in by OED and the Honolulu Film Office would quickly overcome the immediate financial gain and the result would be even greater fiscal difficulty for the city in the long run.
Maybe Okino is looking at the OED as a political opportunity to show that he is tough at cutting costs. OED is symbolic; its real value is as a symbol to be used as a political banner. Maybe Okino chose OED because he assumed the fewest voters would be upset.
But while Okino's choices may be politically sound as we head into an election year, they are very bad from a business point of view. Maybe that is because, according to his own Web site, he has never actually run a business. He's never had to wonder if there will be customers today, or if he can meet payroll next week, or the thousand other worries and concerns real business people live with on a daily basis here in Hawai'i. Okino hasn't been there and he doesn't speak the language.
And maybe that's why he thinks it is a great idea to get rid of the OED and the Honolulu Film Office today, because he just cannot see how it could possibly affect the future.
Michael Rivero
Producer, Home Baked Music
