Letters to the Editor

The time has come to stop gas price bilking

I would like to respond to Tom Malone's Island Voices column of April 27. Once again we are being told by the oil industry that the sky will fall if Hawai'i caps its profits. Well, I don't buy it.

In his argument, Mr. Malone uses "could" six times along with "possibly," "might" and "potential negative consequences." He goes on to state that "no one knows for sure what will happen to the price of gas at the pump." This is hardly a convincing argument.

One thing we do know for sure is the oil companies have been bilking the people of Hawai'i for years by taking outrageous profits, and the time has come for it to stop. It has been testified that Chevron made 22 percent of its nationwide profit in Hawai'i while selling us only 3 percent of the gas.

Our legislators have taken a courageous stand over the big oil companies by passing a law protecting us from this profiteering. Finally we have some bold pro-consumer action; let's not miss the moment. Call your representatives today and voice your support.

Commentary honoring Dole misstated the facts

In his April 22 commentary "Honoring Dole on his 160th birthday," Kenneth Conklin has gone beyond his usual comic attempts to twist history to support the unlawful United States control over Hawai'i.

Like Lorrin Thurston (grandfather of Thurston Twigg-Smith), Sanford B. Dole (whom Conklin honors) cared only about what he could gain for himself by abusing the power of the U.S. military to gain physical, although unlawful, control of Hawai'i. Conklin wrote that Dole led the provisional government and that "U.S. President Grover Cleveland 'ordered' him to undo the revolution and reinstate the queen." Dole abused the power of the U.S. military and then refused to obey his president after doing so.

Dole also lied to his president by claiming that Hawai'i desired annexation. The large majority of the citizens of the Kingdom of Hawai'i opposed annexation by signing petitions opposing annexation.

Like Twigg-Smith, who cites bogus material such as the Morgan Report to legitimize his grandfather's role in the unlawful overthrow of Hawai'i's government, Conklin practices "selective research" to support his position.

Although many Americans were involved in the lies and deception to cover up the unlawful acts against Hawai'i, there is a bit of truth that has been recorded in the Blount Report, a report ordered by President Grover Cleveland shortly after the unlawful overthrow, which Cleveland termed "an act of war." A very significant fact is that Blount came to Hawai'i on a fact-finding mission, which served as the basis of his report, while Morgan never visited Hawai'i until years after writing his bogus report. Apparently the Morgan Report is based on what the McKinley administration wanted reflected in the report rather than facts.

Finally, someone picked up on scent of oil trail

Mahalo for a well-written but concise column on "Bush setbacks in Iraq ..." Advertiser editorial writer David Polhemus was very much to the point and was as objective as possible, and obviously he wrote this with a great deal of thought, conviction and passion.

I understand the press of the United States is not as hard on their politicians as those in Great Britain. We need more of Polhemus' writings and thinking between now and the upcoming election.

When I got to the point in the column highlighted "Oil as a motive for war?" I immediately thought "bingo." Someone is finally addressing this subject. Of course, there was only space to write briefly on any given thought. I am quite certain that 100 percent of all of the oil in Iraq is controlled by the United States. That seems to me to be a given. But where is it going? In Watergate, "Deep Throat" always said to "follow the money." I say "follow the oil." What company is taking out the oil? Does the United States get all of the proceeds?

Black gold is driving the world economy. Whoever controls the oil controls the world economy.

I suggest that the main reason France and Russia balked in refusing to support President Bush going to war in Iraq is their investments in Iraq oil. That is not news. It only reinforces what I am getting at — follow the oil.

Get your head out of the sand, Polhemus

Regarding the April 25 Focus column "Bush setbacks in Iraq indicative of deeper problems at home":

"This presidency is not only stridently reckless in its actions at home and abroad and overtly, pathologically dishonest, but there's something vicious and even demented in its zeal to undo the America of Jefferson and Wilson, of Lincoln and Roosevelt."

Oh, baby — check the vitriolic foaming on David Polhemus' mouth! Is Polhemus a derivation of polemic? Sure sounds like it to me — and it's a good thing he put his name on the article rather than trying to pass it off as an editorial from The Advertiser.

Polhemus used no fewer than eight "ifs" in his tirade, plus one of the two most abused words in the English language: "never" (he did, however, avoid "always").

He admittedly throws in a wild hunch, along with 12 — count 'em, 12 — paragraphs of glittering generalities not supported by any facts, data, statistics or concrete proof of their existence.

Most Americans with "ideological stripes" are awake. You need to stop imitating the ostrich.

Time to lighten up, David.

'Nozaki Village' kabuki drama is wonderful

Yes! Lei Sadakari as Osome, the feminine lead, delivered a compelling first-night performance in the kabuki play "Nozaki Village," now playing at UH-Manoa.

It's probably a lifetime experience for a Honoluluan because the kabuki is rarely presented here. She has mastered a mesmerizing exclusive kabuki wobble to smite her lover and probably many a male in the audience as well. Her scintillating skill rendered her simply irresistible. Kabuki makeup and kimono transformed her into a magical, living porcelain doll.

Kabuki is like opera in which wild imagination enhances enjoyment, and it was a thoroughly exhilarating and enchanting evening, with a splendid supporting cast. A colorful costume spectacle of events in a feudal society unfolded a simple plot and was replete with chicanery, love, rivalry, duty, filial piety, comedy, tragedy, clappers, costumed musicians, song and dance, including a simultaneous finale on two hanamichi (ramps), one a waterway and the other a road and a revolving kabuki stage, all enveloping part of the audience.

Osome's rival, Omitsu, portrayed by Xing Fan, presented a thought-provoking poignant character.

Lucky we live Honolulu!

'Provocative message' should have substance

Steve Baker's April 27 letter, apparently about liberals and gas prices, perhaps Iraq — it's hard to say what Mr. Baker is going on about — is a fine example of what discussion groups online call a "troll" posting.

According to the most popular definition in the Urban Dictionary (www.urbandictionary .com), a troll is "One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument."

Mr. Baker rhetorically asks, "Shouldn't all of the liberal groups in Hawai'i be in favor of higher prices for gasoline?" and then goes on to supply reasons that liberals ostensibly would submit — high prices make us more like Europe, we're in Iraq for the oil — then wonders (as any good liberal would), shouldn't we invade our two closest neighbor nations since we get "17 percent of our oil" from them.

Mr. Baker, I am a liberal. I am not a peace creep, limousine liberal, student yahoo or hate monger as you would characterize me and those of my political stance. The people who fight for freedom and democracy in most countries of the world would be considered "liberal" in their outlooks. I continue to fight for freedom and democracy within my own country and in my own way. You need to respect that. If you plan to challenge my political outlook, do more than post silly letters. Give me strong, clear reasoning and I'm liberal enough to consider your viewpoint. In fact, I'm human enough.

Regarding higher gas prices, it's ridiculous to think that prices would fall because we've invaded Iraq. Prices are not going to fall much more in our lifetimes. We're finding only one barrel of oil for every three we use. Only a few countries have massive reserves, and Iraq is one of them. Whether we went there for the oil or not, we certainly now have more control of it than before Saddam's fall.

I would not encourage this Republican administration, or the next, Democratic one, to invade either Canada or Mexico for oil. We should, however, go after them for their weapons of mass destruction: ice hockey and tequila.

Convention secrecy is critical

Recently, there's been a lot of discussion about the bill the Legislature passed that would allow the Hawai'i Convention Center to not disclose the names of those clients who wanted to book the Hawai'i Convention Center and who requested confidentiality, until after the event had occurred. On this matter, I'd like to make the following points.

First, in order for the Hawai'i Convention Center to be competitive in today's convention marketplace, we must have the ability to be responsive to the needs of our users. Sometimes this means keeping the names of their organizations private, at their request (e.g., the customer's right to privacy). This practice is conducted by at least a dozen other convention centers in the United States, including our major competitors.

Second, concerns that the Hawai'i Convention Center would be rented out by objectionable groups are unfounded for several reasons:

• SMG, which manages the Hawai'i Convention Center, has the right to decline a convention booking for moral, health or safety reasons. SMG can also decline a booking if it feels that the convention is not in the best interest of the community or in the best business interest of the state.
• Additionally, SMG can and does conduct thorough background checks for new conventions that do not have a history of building use. (On top of that, the Hawai'i Tourism Authority, which has oversight of SMG and the center, also has the responsibility and right to object to any booking it feels is not appropriate for the center.)
• Furthermore, the bill (SB 2395, S.D. 2, H.D. 1) passed by the Legislature this week that allows the Convention Center to keep the names of users confidential until 10 days after the event has an additional check and balance in place. That is, if lawmakers, who have access to the user list, feel that a convention is not good for Hawai'i, they can protest its booking.

Finally, it's important to point out that the majority of the center's clients do not request that their names be kept confidential. As an example, last year, of the 40 out-of-state conventions held at the center, only three made this request.

However, together, those three events brought 11,800 delegates to the state, booked a total of 50,000 room nights, generated over $66 million in visitor spending and contributed $5.5 million in tax revenues for the state. Those three conventions represented less than 10 percent of the total number of conventions at the center but accounted for almost 20 percent of the total tax revenues generated for the state by all conventions held at the center.

The issue here is not one of secrecy but of improving the Hawai'i Convention Center's competitiveness. If the state wants to attract viable convention business, it must be able to offer users the assurance that their organization and event will be kept confidential.

Currently, SMG is in discussions with three Fortune 500 companies that are requesting confidentiality for their conventions in Hawai'i next year. The estimates for these three bookings if confirmed are 10,400 attendees, $73 million in direct visitor spending and $6 million in tax revenues.

We view this corporate market for Hawai'i as having very strong growth potential and yielding the highest spending business attendees. As such, losing bookings like these would be devastating for the state and the future of the Convention Center.