ENTERTAINMENT

A WARM FAREWELL TO ADVERTISER'S HARADA

I want to bid a warm and tearful farewell to Wayne Harada, who will be retiring from The Honolulu Advertiser at the end of December.

He has been such an important conduit to Hawai'i and the rest of the planet for all of us who ply our trade in the entertainment world.

He has helped so many young performers get started and secure careers, and aided veteran performers in maintaining theirs. I qualify in both categories.

He IS the sparkplug of the economic engine that is Waikiki.

I will miss him and his column more than words can say, both as a professional but most of all ... as a friend.

BUDGET CRISIS

TIME FOR DOE TO LOOK FOR CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

Due to the budget crisis that the state is facing, Hawai'i's public education system must deal with a substantial budget shortfall. In a typical display of inside-the-box thinking, the Department of Education is considering closing small schools to reduce expenditures.

Perhaps the DOE is not aware that smaller schools deliver better quality education than larger schools when all other factors are constant. Instead of thinking about closing small schools, the DOE should be trying to find ways to create more.

One wonders what options the DOE has considered in dealing with the budget shortfall. One idea that is not too far outside the box is to convert all public schools to charter schools. Charter schools are educating students at least as well as regular schools — and in many cases better. And charters are doing so for less money.

Charter schools are being funded at a rate of thousands of dollars less per student than regular schools. If all regular schools were converted to charter schools and funded at the same rate per student as charter schools, there would be a surplus in the education budget. That surplus could then be used to improve the quality of instruction.

There must be other outside-the-box options. Lessons can be learned from other school systems, such as New York and New Orleans, where crises have prompted reforms of their public school systems.

The DOE should think of the budget shortfall as an opportunity to reform public education in Hawai'i.

FORECLOSURES

CONGRESS CAN EASILY EASE PLIGHT OF RENTERS

The plight of the renters being evicted in the sub-prime and nonqualified mortgage foreclosures process has been highlighted in the news media.

It is an immediate and easy call for Congress to alter the foreclosure procedure to ease this situation. It would only be necessary to require that leases be honored through the foreclosure process. It could even require (under certain carefully defined circumstances) the resale of a foreclosure property to honor an existing lease, as usually now occurs in the non-foreclosure sale of property.

It is important to note that foreclosure properties with rentals almost always are investment properties and do not involve the loss of home for the owners. The owners do not meet the current standard of hardship.

Federal aid relief should not be considered in these circumstances. To do so would put the public at risk for real estate losses similar to those experienced by investors in the stock market. Investment property foreclosures should be allowed (by Congress) to follow the normal process without interruption except for some possible relief for the tenants as per above.

In order to determine and more fully evaluate the social and economic impact of these investment foreclosures we (and the government) should know how many and what percentage they are of the total meltdown foreclosures. It would help us to know the extent of real distress the present foreclosures represents.

CHRISTMAS

MONEY SPENT ON LIGHTS COULD BE BETTER USED

My husband and I had several errands to run in Kapolei recently.

One errand included going to the DMV. We could not help but notice 10 firemen, four trucks and two police officers involved in putting up Christmas lights.

I am not a grinch, but find that use of manpower and the cost of running Christmas lights on a less-than-visible street in our city a waste of taxpayer money.

How about putting that same effort into helping the less fortunate this holiday.

SHARKS

NOTE TO HUMANS: THE OCEAN IS OUR TERRITORY

This is what the sharks say: Yesterday we spotted humans swimming in our hale. We hope they understand that the ocean is where we live 24 hours a day.

Humans have killed thousands of species. They cut our fins to sell, then throw us back. Humans falsely feed us food (chum) to draw us close so that they can make money off tourists. They even try to get as close to us as possible by swimming in metal cages.

Humans must understand that they will see us, at times close to shore, looking for food. When we travel in numbers, we tend to get closer to humans. When traveling alone, we tend to stay away from humans, except when we come to the shoreline to feed during sunrise or sunset.

We have a good memory and go back to the same areas where we were fed. We're attracted to smells, especially blood. We're also sensitive to sound, and make a connection between the noise from a boat's motor and food. Some of us become territorial because we are acquainted with an area.

When the water's dirty and wave action restricts our view, we are known to make mistakes. Sometimes we chomp at things we mistake for food, other times we are known to bite anything when hungry.