|
June 28, 2003 - Saturday
| I was sitting yesterday morning with the Advertiser and a cup of coffee when I turned a page and there was the unexpected obituary of Linda Delaney. I had been blissfully unaware of her recent illness, and her passing caught me by surprise, as such things usually do.
I've known Linda for 35 years, since the 1968 controversy at the University of Hawaii over the case of Oliver Lee and the resulting sit-in at Bachman Hall and the student strike that followed. Linda was student body president at the time and a central character as that drama unfolded.
|
Linda Delaney
1947-2003
|
It wasn't that we were ever close friends, but it's a small town, we're the same age, and I was continually impressed by her ongoing social commitment and ability to keep plugging away despite the often treacherous currents of Hawaiian politics.
Coincidentally, I was just in the process of scanning my negatives from that tumultuous time, including this photo of Linda during the occupation of Bachman, renamed "Liberation Hall" at the time.
Last year, after our mutual friend Ann Keppel died, Linda shared her recollection of a 25-year old conversation during which they had planned Ann's ideal funeral. It said a lot about them both.
June 27, 2003 - Friday
Peace advocates will gather at Hilo's downtown post office from 3:30-5 p.m. this afternoon, the 93rd week of the Hilo Peace Vigil. Today they'll be passing out copies of John Pilger's recent column, "Bush's Vietnam," a haunting assessment of U.S. policy.
A reader forwarded this comment:
George W. is confusing the world again, calling for democratization of African nations while calling for a democratically elected president (Liberia's Charles Taylor) to step down. Here's a link to the story.
"President Taylor needs to step down," Bush said to applause from the crowd, "so that his country can be spared further bloodshed."
It was an extraordinary demand by the American government for a democratically elected leader of another country to step down. Taylor was elected in 1996 in a free and open presidential election.
The call for Taylor's resignation was also remarkable because Bush spent part of his speech expressing his hope that such democracy would take root in Africa. "Introducing democracy is hard in any society," he said.
We're still wondering what happened in Kaaawa late Monday afternoon. There was a very excited message waiting for us when we got home which described an apparent police raid several blocks from here. There was a series of pops that sounded like gunshots followed by a very loud explosion that brought our neighbors out of their house to see what had happened. A fire engine responded after the explosion, probably Engine 21 from the Kaaawa station just down the hill. Lots of shouting could be heard from the scene of the raid, which was a house back up against the mountains. If this had happened in a "weed and seed" area, it would have been "news". But it happened in Kaaawa, and we haven't seen any official acknowledgement that it occured, although we've been asking everyone we see on our morning walk.
| For those who wonder how the last rescued kitten, Mr. Toby, is doing--well, he's doing quite well, thank you, although he insists on continuing to grow up.
He loves me to pick him up and cradle him in my arms, a throwback to the period when this was the bottle feeding routine. Now he runs to greet me and throws himself at my feet, then rolls over and waits to be scooped up off the ground. Sometimes he's just too excited and wants to fight and play in my arms, but usually he just blisses out for a couple of minutes before moving on.
Yesteday morning he celebrated our return from the walk by heading up the tree alongside our front deck. Just click on the picture for a closer look.
|
 Mr. Toby,
October's kitten
|
June 26, 2003 - Thursday
The Labor Department is accepting public comment for a few more days on the Bush Administration's proposed changes to overtime rules that will effectively eliminate the right to overtime pay for millions of Americans. According to an alert from the National Writers Union:
Overtime pay makes up about one-fourth of the average weekly earnings of workers who receive it. That is an average pay cut of $161 a week and can add up to thousands of dollars a year. Can you imagine the government cutting the pay of a firefighter by thousands of dollars per year? How much would you lose? These overtime pay cuts are like a giant new tax on working families by a president who, at the same time, works hard to give tax breaks to millionaires.
With a failing economy, millions out of work and staggering health care and prescription drug costs, this is a burden America's workers should NOT have to bear. The overtime rules protect workers from bosses who would impose unbearably long hours if they didn't have to pay extra for overtime work. Many workers would have less predictable work schedules because of the increased demand for overtime work.
We all need to speak out on this issue. The AFL-CIO and all of America's unions are asking our members--and all working families--to join the fight to protect overtime pay. Please take one minute right now to ask your friends, family and co-workers to do their part to protect overtime by clicking on the link below.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/ot4dol/
We already stopped two congressional attacks to destroy the 40-hour workweek. You already may have taken action on that issue, but we need you to act today on this request.
They've made submitting a comment quite easy. Check it out.
This interesting tidbit was circulated to members of the Honolulu Community-Media Council:
It has become an issue that vendors pay for the travel of FCC commissioners. Well, here in Hawaii, it is not unknown, either.
I don't know if this is commonplace, but hidden inside the RFS (Request for Services) for Telephone Relay Services is this apparently insignificant (but notably open-ended and vague) paragraph:
FINAL RFS
April 4, 2003
Docket No. 03-0058
Page 19 of 26
4.12.3 Travel. The service provider shall pay for travel of 2 Commission technical or management staff for the yearly meeting of National Association of State Relay Administrators.
It certainly makes me wonder how common such hidden arrangements are in state contracts. Perhaps others will be curious as well.
Self-portrait, 1970
|
I'm still in the midst of this photo project, searching through old negatives for the gems, transferring them into archival sleeves and storage boxes, and scanning a few for online sharing. It's tedious but interesting.
I came across this photo yesterday, taken while I was a UH grad student and working as photographer for the East-West Center.
|
| And I've posted a series of photographs from one of the first, if not the first, protest against Army control of Makua valley. It took place early in 1976, sponsored by the Hawaiian Coalition of Native Claims. Just click on this photo to reach the full series, or hit the "Old Kine Pics" button to the right. |
|
June 25, 2003 - Wednesday
I have to admit that I'm not a huge sports fan. But even I'm wondering what's going on when the high-flying St. Louis High School football program ends up with 25-year old Darnell Arceneaux as head coach despite the fact that he lacks any coaching experience. Several experienced coaches had applied, and at least one had received an offer, but turned it down and was awaiting a counter offer. So how did they end up with this coaching neophyte? Is is simply a matter of money? Facing budget meltdown, is this all the school could afford? And I have to wonder whether there are any other incidents in his past besides the arrest in Waikiki in July 2000.
Here's a long but interesting exchange concerning recent changes in the Star-Bulletin's online edition between a Los Angeles reader and S-B webmaster Ken Andrade:
From: Victor R.
Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2003 00:07:28 -0700 (PDT)
To: publisher@starbulletin.com
Cc: editor@starbulletin.com
Subject: star bulletin website woes
For a mainlander who used to live in Hawaii and, sadly, can't lay his hands on a real copy of the Star Bulletin, your website used to be a joy.
The terrific reproduction of the top of your front page each day gave the site the look and feel of a real newspaper. From a distance we could glance at how the big stories of the day were being played -- and the significance that your editors gave them. Now that's gone.
The "Island Images" feature seemed to showcase some of the photographs that ran each day in your paper. They captured the warmth and flavor of Honolulu and its residents. And photos, maps and graphics were generously included with the stories on the site. Now that seems to be gone, too.
For such a long time your website was so far ahead of other newspapers' sites. Now it seems to be just another copy of what we see everywhere else.
Too bad.
So is there a way to resurrect the front-page snapshot? And the photos?
Victor R.
Los Angeles
Webmaster <webmaster@starbulletin.com> wrote:
Thanks for your interest and concern. There are a couple of misconceptions that I need to clear up.
First, the newspaper image you recall wasn't actually an exact reproduction of the print front page. For years it had been a composite image, reconfigured to eliminate nation/world stories that aren't carried in the Web edition. The significance ascribed to individual stories by editors is still reflected in the order of the headlines on the home page of the Web site, as it was before.
Second, we have not begun omitting any local content, graphic or otherwise, from the Web edition. The 'Island Images' feature runs whenever there are standalone photos available, which depends on photographers' time and opportunity. The number of photos, maps and other graphics that we post with stories depends entirely on how many are produced by our photo and graphics departments.
The decision to redesign the home page came from the highest levels of the company, and the choices involved were not easy. The newspaper image was indeed distinctive among newspaper Web sites, but it also limited our ability to showcase the work of our photographers on the home page. After some debate, we decided -- rather wistfully -- to let it go. We hoped that the design we chose is sufficiently distinct from other papers' sites, but we also realize that not everyone will agree on such matters.
I appreciate you taking the time to send us your concerns, and hope that our new look will grow on you. And even if it doesn't, please understand that the core content of Starbulletin.com -- stories as well as graphics -- is as complete as ever.
Thank you,
Ken Andrade
Webmaster
June 24, 2003 - Tuesday
I contributed a couple of vignettes and several old photos to the Historic Waikiki project--one describes the 1968 Kalia Road sit-in, and the other the 1971 march through Waikiki by Hawaiians opposing the appointment of Matsuo Takabuki to the Bishop Estate. In each case, don't forget to click on the photo to see additional photographs of the event. These were among the boxes of my old negatives that I've been slowly wading through.
The old spell checker came up with lots of suggested corrections for the word "Waikiki": Wichita, wicked, waked, whacked, wicket, walked, walkout. Wichita?
A former Hawaii resident offered up this explanation for mangled weekend news broadcasts:
My theory is that the quality of the entire newscast declines on the weekends because stations often use college interns and other low-paid help for the SAT and SUN broadcasts. That's why you get odd story selections, lots of queueing mistakes (wrong tape for the story) and the factual errors you mentioned.
Sounds reasonable....can anybody else shed some light on the situation?
I sent an email off months ago addressed to an old address I had for former Star-Bulletin artist Vint Blackburn. A belated reply arrived in my mailbox yesterday.
I'm back in Santa Fe, New Mexico (my origins) building a house and teaching middle school science (as well as a high school science/philosophy class).
Vint says he expects to be in Hawaii in August and is looking forward to stopping by the S-B newsroom.
| It's been a painful year since Ms. Lizzie disappeared. Perhaps our most difficult feline loss because it allowed no closure. We still miss her, and find carefully examining other black and white cats in the neighborhood, just in case. We still don't know what happened to her, whether she simply found a new home or met a worse fate. There's a heavy layer of guilt associated with her disappearance that has kept me from creating an appropriate memorial page like I've done for our other cats that have passed on, like Cybelle, Buster, Kua, and Hiwa. Perhaps after a year I'm almost ready to handle the experience. But we'll see. |
Ms. Lizzie |
June 23, 2003 - Monday
Do our news anchors just read their scripts on camera without thinking? That's what one reader speculates after seeing several factual misstatements broadcast over the weekend.
Sunday night the KHON anchor said that 19 American troops have died since Bush declared the war ended on May 1.
The correct number is 54! He wasn't even close.
Also over the weekend, in a KITV report about Prince William's 21st birthday, the anchor introduced a video of the prince celebrating with a drink by saying he was enjoying the fact that he was now of legal drinking age.
What? The legal drinking age in Great Britain is 18, as it is through much of Europe. Some countries in Europe allow 16-year-olds to drink. But no European country requires a person to be 21.
With Google search capability as quick and easy as it is these days, how can anyone in the news business have an excuse for mistakes like these?
Interesting that Pacific Business News scooped the daily media with their story a week ago on a critical report on UH Pres Evan Dobelle's approach to the community colleges as reviewed by a visiting accreditation team. Buried in the teams report were some unusually scathing comments, such as their observation that while Dobelle complains about the lack of respect suffered by community colleges, Dobelle himself was the only person interviewed by the team reflecting a lack of appreciation for the college's special educational role. The visiting team also hit the UH planning process, potential increased administrative costs brought about by Dobelle's system reorganization, and several other issues.
Former S-B webmaster Blaine Fergerstrom noted that a Star-Bulletin story made it onto MacSurfer.com yesterday:
"Be a seafaring vagabond on a trip to anywhere" Honolulu Star-Bulletin ["By the time I pack my iBook, surge protector (that the line says I must take), adapters, blank CDs, camera, battery charger, first-aid kit (there's no doctor on board), books, tablets, note cards, pens, six weeks worth of toiletries, medicines and cosmetics, necessities such as scissors, needle and thread, after-dinner candy and my trusty Associated Press Stylebook, there will be little room for clothes."]
Have I mentioned my search for the mystery odor last weekend? I complained for a couple of days about an offensive scent somewhere near our front door. Meda said she didn't smell anything. By the third morning I no longer mistrusted my senses, and then Meda confessed that, well, she couldn't actually smell much of anything because of a mild cold. Thus emboldened, I started uprooting everything stored or stacked anywhere near that front door. Found nothing, so I know how those WMD searchers feel. Meda moved in ten feet away to retrieve various cat toys from the living room floor and return them to the basket where they rest between bouts of feline play. The scream came a few seconds later. Among the catnip mice and other toys was the late mouse that had been causing the odors. One of the cats had obviously played with it and then carefully set it down for the pleasure of all. I carefully picked it up and dispatched it to the great outdoors. Aren't cats great?
June 22, 2003 - Sunday
| The summer solstice arrived yesterday first with the threat of rain, and then a heavy downpour that caught us several blocks from home. Our umbrellas were no match for the rain, and we took shelter for several minutes in a friend's carport before continuing on, arriving home more than a bit wet. |
moments before the storm
|
I noticed that at 5 a.m., the Starbulletin.com is still displaying Saturday's edition.
It was very distressing to see former state rep Jim Shon making a public pitch for a rollback in the state's sunshine law this week. Shon's essay appeared in the Star-Bulletin on the 19th and in the Advertiser the following day. Shon follows the same path as others who have sought to expand private decision making. First, construct the strictest possible interpretation of state law with an extreme position that makes the law sound wholly unreasonable. Then fail to mention the long litany of past transgressions and attempts to evade the law that led to the law's development, since the law has grown incrementally in an attempt to thwart progressive attempts at circumventing its intent. The fact that the argument is being made this time by a former progressive legislator is disappointing in the extreme.
Previous week • Other
Search this site,
courtesy of the folks at
|
 Online Store
More choices
|
