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Coming very soon from UH Press: “The Value of Hawaii: Knowing the Past, Shaping the Future,” edited by by Craig Howes and Jon Osorio.
This collection of articles grew out of a UH Manoa teach-in on the state’s budget crisis held last October on the stairs of Hawaii Hall. Revised versions of some of the speeches given that day are combined with essays by other authors into a (hopefully) useful collection for those trying to understand the crises we face and the way towards possible solutions.
From the UH Press catalog:
How did we get here? Three-and-a-half-day school weeks. Prisoners farmed out to the mainland. Tent camps for the migratory homeless. A blinkered dependence on tourism and the military for virtually all economic activity. The steady degradation of already degraded land. Contempt for anyone employed in education, health, and social service. An almost theological belief in the evil of taxes.
At a time when new leaders will be elected, and new solutions need to be found, the contributors to The Value of Hawai‘i outline the causes of our current state and offer points of departure for a Hawai‘i-wide debate on our future. The brief essays address a wide range of topics—education, the environment, Hawaiian issues, media, tourism, political culture, law, labor, economic planning, government, transportation, poverty—but the contributors share a belief that taking stock of where we are right now, what we need to change, and what we need to remember is a challenge that all of us must meet.
I’m told that the books should be available by the end of this month. The first public event is scheduled for Sunday, August 22nd, at Native Books from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., so put that on your calendar. Native Books is located on the Ewa end of Ward Warehouse (under the Old Spaghetti Factory).
Disclosure: Meda and I both have essays in the volume.
Contributors: Carlos Andrade, Chad Blair, Kat Brady, Susan M. Chandler, Meda Chesney-Lind, Lowell Chun-Hoon, Tom Coffman, Sara L. Collins, Marilyn Cristofori, Henry Curtis, Kathy E. Ferguson, Chip Fletcher, Dana Naone Hall, Susan Hippensteele, Craig Howes, Karl Kim, Sumner La Croix, Ian Lind, Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie, Mari Matsuda, Davianna McGregor, Neal Milner, Deane Neubauer, Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo’ole Osorio, Charles Reppun, John P. Rosa, D. Kapua‘ala Sproat, Ramsay Remigius Mahealani Taum, Patricia Tummons, Phyllis Turnbull, Trisha Kehaulani Watson.
Can hardly wait! Address please!
Looks promising. I think there is a real need for progressives to come up with practical solutions to the problems facing the people of Hawaii and not simply postpone any such “practical” solutions until “after the revolution,” or “after independence.”
I am visiting America as I write this and it allows me to look at American politics from a slightly different angle. I have visited depressed small towns with widespread unemployment which makes the decision of young people to join the military much more understandable to me than when I am home in Hawaii.
How can we offer a believable path to a better future? How can we persuade people that by working together, we can create a better Hawaii for all of us, as opposed to each of us seeking our own individual “solution” through a separate peace.
Are “progressive activists” condemned to living on the fringes of society, grumbling and dreaming while Hawaii is overrun and transformed, integrated more and more into the global economy as a special, tropical “gated community” for the world’s wealthiest elite–one of several “homes” they own in areas relatively protected from the earth-raping policies to which capitalism is subjecting the rest of the world (and the world’s people)?
Just getting the Democrats to understand and re-embrace Keynesian economics is difficult. For all the craziness of the “Teabagger” movement, their corporate financiers are managing to put the Democrats on the defensive about ANY thing which might be termed “socialism.” There is method to their madness.
This governor’s race COULD be a referendum on alternative visions for Hawaii’s future. A few years ago, Ira Rohter wrote a wonderful book with a blueprint for a Green Hawaii. I have my fingers crossed that THIS book might inform what the politicians are saying, but also inform Hawaii residents by affecting what we can SEE as possible.
From what I’ve observed, if Democrats in Hawaii acted like Democrats should, we’d be in better shape.
You really think that, Charles? I actually think the Ds have acted a heck of a lot like Ds – and thats why (at the risk of sounding very R’ish) – the unions are in complete control. To me, a huge piece of our State’s story starts there and unless ‘labor’ is where it will be taken up, I dont really see that this huge issue is going to be addressed in this book. It almost never is, now is it?
You’re literally a joke if you think unions have much power anywhere in the US, including Hawaii.
i am so ready for feline friday…
Excuse me, Hmmm, I dont think you needed to call me a joke. That certainly was uncalled for. So, please, by all means, go ahead and explain yourself. Because from my years of experience in our State’s government, Ive personally seen the power of our unions, especially the public unions, at the Legislature and at the executive branch.
hipoli, “complete” control is an absolutist statement when, in reality, control is relative.
If, indeed, unions were in complete control, particularly public sector unions, the legislature would have passed a GET increase last session, civil service reform that happened in 2000-01 would not have happened, etc.
Do unions exert influence at the legislature? Without a doubt. But then again, do the churches, business interests, human services advocates, etc., exert influence as well. Without a doubt.
And @ hmmm, very few people in here, hipoli for one, are not jokes.
It’s a source of amazement to me that you can go one page below the daily headlines and find decent and respectful dialogue in blogs such as these.
My pal Hipoli,
Et tu?
You scolded several of us for a couple of days because we think Mufi’s “leadership style” should be a significant consideration in the Gubernatorial race. You chided us that “issues” are more important than “personality.”
I admit to feeling sheepish and was hoping you would take us into a broader discussion of the critical issues facing Hawaii. Heck, my initial comment to this post was undoubtedly influenced by your appeal we talk about the Big Issues. The opportunity is here.
So wadda you come up with as the Number One issue? “The unions are in complete control”??? Auwe.
Even if we focus on the Lege and executive, that ain’t true, as the examples Charles points to show. But when I think of the problems I face in my life and the challenges I see facing Hawaii’s people, I just don’t see “too much union power” as a reality.
Most of the building trades are certainly trapped into supporting almost any major construction project, regardless of it’s longterm impact. But if they were “in complete control” they would be content building affordable housing for Hawaii’s working people and schools for our kids. But the market and the REAL masters, the corporations (especially the banks and investors) don’t offer that choice.
Look at the battle forming up between Local 5 hotel workers versus the owners, with Goldman Sachs in the background. Who do you think has more “control” there? If the hotel workers win a decent contract, it will be because enough community members support them. And why shouldn’t they have higher wages, better benefits? Tourism is the core industry here and unlike Manu other industries, the hotels cannot as easily run away to other locations with their jobs. In those industries where the industry cannot flee, we SHOULD support higher wages, so some of the money can remain here to circulate. You remember the commercial from years ago:
“This is the story of a ten dollar bill….”
I WANT Local 5 to have MORE “control” than their opponents like Goldman Sachs.
I wonder if this book will be similar in tone and approach as Mast’s “Autobiography of Protest in Hawaii” published in 1996. Meda was in that one as well.
Quick answer: No.
This book focuses on policy suggestions.
how many other states have the right for public employees to collectively bargain written into the state Constitution?
http://hawaii.gov/lrb/con/conart13.html
Seems to me that if the unions were in “complete control”, we would never have had furlough Fridays.