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April 10, 2004 - Saturday
The news of the day is grim. Fighting spreads in Iraq, unconventional tactics such as kidnapping of foreigners is making headlines, casualties on all sides rapidly increase. I've been sitting here in the dark browsing the day's news reporting and it is uniformly grim. From the mainstream New York Times to the less filtered Independent Media Center, with stops at The Guardian, The Independent, the Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere, good news is hard to find. The blundering of our Texas president and his conservative henchman with their fairy tale visions of an Americanized Middle East have created a desperate no-win situation. Will we now have the courage to give up our super power pride and choose a course that minimizes the immediate human suffering on all sides?
It is difficult not to despair for our country and the world, but this message from a Quaker correspondent in Baghdad via the American Friends Service Committee reminds that there is much to be done by regular people to build a better future.
Amidst all of this, I have to say Happy Birthday to my sister, Bonnie, who is here visiting from her home in Groveland, California.
| And for a bit of temporary relief from the world, here's a small addition to my Kaaawa Gallery, a selection of early morning photographs taken during the month of March 2004. Just click on the preview to see the full set. |
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April 9, 2004 - Friday
UH faculty approved their new contract by a wide margin despite the vocal opposition from a small group that monopolilzed email channels since the settlement was announced.
Speaking of UH, I asked Rep. Mark Takai, chair of the House Higher Education Committee and a lead author of the July 2003 "Dangerous Equations" essay that publicly criticized UH President Evan Dobelle's performance, whether he had followed up on those concerns.
Takai replied that he recently submitted a complaint to the State Ethics Commission over the way money is channeled to Dobelle through the UH Foundation without full public disclosure and accounting.
The UH Foundation has resisted disclosing its records of hundreds of thousands of dollars turned over for Dobelle's use, claiming it is a private nonprofit organization without ties to the university and, therefore, exempt from the state law requiring public access to government records.
On the other hand, according to Takai's complaint, the university says Dobelle does not have to disclose those payments as "gifts" as required by the ethics law because they are from the UH Foundation, "established to raise funds for the University of Hawaii".
"The University can't have it both ways," Takai wrote.
Takai cites a hypothetical example in which he and Dobelle fly to Washington, D.C. to meet with potential donors with their expenses paid by the UH Foundation. Takai says that he would have to report those payments as "gifts" because they come from a non-state entity.
"Why, then, would there be any difference in the disclosure of that same trip for the President?"
My own view is that the UH Foundation is silly to claim it is an independent entity in any meaningful way since it owes its entire existence to its relationship with UH and acts on behalf of UH in everything it does. From its name to its authority to raise and expend funds on the university's behalf, it is acting for the university. It's claims to the contrary are a bad joke. That said, though, its going to be interesting to see whether the Ethics Commission can cut through the contradictory claims made by UH and the Foundation.
| I thought that you cat fans would enjoy seeing Ms. Annie all grown up, pudged out, whatever you choose to call it. She's turned into quite a beautiful cat, hasn't she? Of course, as usual, click on her photo for a larger version. |
Ms. Annie
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I just checked the web site of the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Not a word that I can find about today's anniversary of the 1947 Woodward tornado. So it goes.
April 8, 2004 - Thursday
| Tomorrow is the anniversary of the huge storm that swept up from Texas and unleashed tornadoes across northwest Oklahoma on the evening of April 9, 1947.
It's part of our lives because Meda was an infant in Woodward, Okla., when a massive tornado, reportedly 1.5 miles across, hit and destroyed her family's house and the surrounding 100 blocks. I recently found some memorabilia, including a letter in which her mother describes the storm as well as a batch of photos of the wreckage of their home.
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The Woodward tornado still ranks as the deadliest in Oklahoma history and among the most devastating to ever hit the U.S.
April 7, 2004 - Wednesday
Readers weighed in yesterday in a big way. First, this brief comment from a reader calling himself "concerned kanaka" and referring back to Monday's entry:
I dig your site, but be cool when it comes to this propaganda shit because this means nothing.
"...said Tao, whose full-time job is with AGI Capital Group, a San Francisco estate investment, asset management and development company."
Ian, the story is that Tao can afford to spend his own money, so why is he going to the state for funds? Local boy, come back to teach us something, but we gotta pay for it?
And from Joe in Japan:
Catching up on your site, I came upon the following:
> Whoa, cowboy. That's twisted around totally back-assward.
The term "back-assward" seemed strange to me, as I'd always thought that the proper word was "ass-backward". Since I'm not likely to find either entry in my Webster's Dictionary, I harnessed the power of the web from this site: http://www.spellweb.com/ The result was 578 votes for "back-assward" and 1,500 votes for "ass-backward".
As a result of my research, I must request a correction to your ass-backward assertion at your earliest convenience.
Then Juli from St. Paul raised the level of discussion several notches with this query:
I am a regular reader and occasional correspondent, and I am concerned about something you wrote in your journal. (I was out of town for a week and just sat down and read the whole thing, so it is a few days old.)
On March 28th you wrote:
Associated Press writer Matt Sedensky's story on the soaring cost of Hawaii real estate was picked up by newspapers across the country and as far away as the U.K. What's the message we're sending? Come to Hawaii and invest in real estate and push another local family out of the housing market? I don't know.
Now, the reason this concerns me is that I have had a long term plan to buy a place in Hawaii. As you may recall, I live in St. Paul, MN, but I fell in love with Hawaii. I visit, I dance hula, I know a little Hawaiian, I give to domestic violence shelters in Hawaii, I plan to retire there. I consider myself, perhaps wrongly, to be a part of the community, albeit a small and distant one.
I have accumulated some money, and I am starting the process of buying someplace. I had thought that I would look for a townhouse and arrange for it to be rented out when I'm not there. This had seemed to me to be a reasonable way of defraying the inevitable expenses of long-distance home ownership.
However, I am aware of systemic injustice. (I work in community organizing, so I see a lot of it.) I am remiss in not having thought about my plans in those terms. If I buy such a rental property, am I pricing local families out of the market? I really don't want to do that. (We have a horrible affordable housing crisis in the Twin Cities. I don't want to be part of the problem.)
Are there groups that you know of doing good work in affordable housing? Maybe I could put my money into someplace affordable for someone, and live there after I retire rather than on and off in the meantime.
I'm sorry if this is somewhat disjointed, but I worry about these things. I don't mean to burden you with my ethical concerns, but you seem to be well informed and I'm hoping you can point me in the right direction.
Of course, I was commenting on the systemic impact of this housing market and the media's tendency to report housing from the perspective of the real estate industry rather than as a matter of personal survival. Escalating prices are good for business but bad for the daily lives of the majority of the people. So what is a person of good will like Juli to do under the circumstances? Suggestions are welcome.
April 6, 2004 - Tuesday
I stand corrected. Again. It seems that Spam story has been around nearly forever. Well, not quite that long, but now it seems that business writer Erika Engle broke that story back in August 2003, a couple of months before Betty's version. And the AP version is still being picked up by mainland newspapers as late as this week. It says something about the appeal of Spam, but I think I need a translator to figure out what it is.
Here's another transition. A recent "career day" for UH journalism students featured former Star-Bulletin news editor Steve Petranik, the most recent defector to the Advertiser, pitching the virtues of the Gannett newsroom. Ouch.
Media watchers might be interested in this upcoming event just announced by the Media Council:
The Honolulu Community-Media Council, East West Center, Society of Professional Journalists, League of Women Voters Hawaii, Hawaii Elections Project and the Hawaii Pro-Democracy Initiative are pleased to present "Lunch with Cecil Heftel" on Tuesday, April 20, 2004, at a special meeting of the HC-MC at The Pacific Club. Heftel, former owner of KGMB (back when its news programming held a 71% market share) and a candidate for governor will speak on the topic "How Money Bought American Broadcasting." All are welcome.
Registration at The Pacific Club, 1451 Queen Emma Street, begins at 11:30AM. Lunch begins at noon. Mr. Heftel will speak at 12:15PM. Parking is free. Ticket price for the event is $20 for HC-MC members and $23 for non-HC-MC members, tax and tip included. Reservations are required by Friday, April 16 to Holly Green, either by phone at 255-5354 or email hcmc@hawaii.rr.com.
Heftel, of course, flirted with making a deal back when the assets of the old Star-Bulletin were on the auction block.
April 5, 2004 - Monday
Hawaii is certainly not alone in dealing with education budget woes. The Los Angeles Times has a sobering assessment of severe and ongoing budget cuts that have left California's public university system struggling to maintain vestiges of its former quality, once the envy of the world.
Another local Associated Press story is getting play on the mainland. This time it's a B.J. Reyes report on the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce of Northern California.
The Star-Bulletin's Burl Burlingame added even more history to the Spam/Tulip story mentioned here yesterday: He notes that the original story by Betty Shimabukuro on this luncheon meat battle appeared in the Star-Bulletin back on October 1, 2003.
I ran across a satellite image of Oahu which includes our little community of Kaaawa. It's actually a composite of photos pieced together to show most of Oahu. At the top of the image, just under the "3" in "2003", is a small bay. That's Kahana Bay, which is just down the road from here. Kaaawa is located along the coast to the right (East) of Kahana, spread out about an inch or so on the scale of this image. Keep following the coast for a bit and you get to the large Hawaiian fish pond at Kualoa. Of course, you can also check out urban Honolulu and most of the rest of the island. It's quite a photo.
| The sun tried to get through the thick clouds early yesterday without much success, although it turned sunny and bright later in the day. That's part of Kaneohe in the distance beneath the stormy sky. |
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April 4, 2004 - Sunday - 04/04/04
AP writer Jaymes Song's story on the Danish challenge to Hawaii's favorite Spam is turning out to have as long a shelf life as those canned meat products.
The story appears today in the Los Angeles Times. The San Jose Mercury News and the Kansas City Star ran it back on March 21. And it appeared in a slew of other newspapers across the country and internationally March 6-8. The story was in the Star-Bulletin on March 7. All this info captured by a Google news search.
A Washington Post analysis has turned up numerous sources, including former government officials and investigators, who support the basic spun out by former counterterrorism boss Richard Clarke. Interesting reading.
I was busy scanning negatives much of last week, and now just have to catch up with myself and get the results ready to share. Coming soon: Duke Kahanamoku's 1968 beachboy funeral, the 1974 Waimea trial of the Kaniho protest defendants (including myself), and the Woodward, Oklahoma tornado of April 1947, which Meda survived as an infant. I'll be posting these as soon as they're ready.
Sunrise this morning in Kaaawa is at 6:21 a.m. We won't quite make it down to the beach before the sun actually rises. That will be the case now for another half a year, more or less. And I should welcome the rest of the country back to standard time, where Hawaii has remained all along.
Whoa, cowboy. That's twisted around totally back-assward. They've been with us on standard and now are heading off into daylight savings. Can I blame the Fog of Morn? Pre-caffeine unconsciousness? Sleep deprivation? It just proves that I've never had to move the clock back in preparation for summer.
| A new month, and a new round of morning dogs. Just click on Ms. Pua (or on the "Mornin' Dogs" button over on the right) to drop in on the latest. I'm not sure if our cats are aware of this secret affair with the canine side of the world. If they do suspect, they don't let on. |
Ms. Pua |
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