As the principals of The Descendants prepare to stroll down Oscar’s red carpet, and the 119th anniversary of Queen Liliuokalani’s overthrow is observed, a major and masterful new book about Hawaii hits the shelves. Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s First Imperial Adventure, is big, scholarly and highly readable.
With the Internet and 24-hour news networks, we have more exposure to more information than in any other time in history. Yet when it comes to environmental issues like global warming and marine plastic pollution, people still seem lost in a cluttered sea of conflicting opinions, scientific reports and urban myths.
What’s it take to win the Honolulu Weekly Fiction Contest? Nothing short of an intriguing, beautifully crafted story with a local edge.
We as a species have always grown old and died, so why is such a time-tested scenario becoming so difficult for our society to address? Today’s average caregiver, according to Colette Browne from the Center on Aging at the University of Hawaii, is a 57 year-old woman who is struggling to provide care to an elder while still working and raising her own children.
For decades Bill Maher has pushed the boundaries of political satire with TV shows like “Politically Incorrect” and his current “Real Time” on HBO. Maher is also a bestselling author, his newest book, The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody but Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.
The Weekly interviewed District 1 city councilman Tom Berg back in July [see “Rail Done Right,” July 6], well before the police were called to a Waipahu Neighborhood Board meeting when he refused to stand down, and an allegedly drunken argument took place with APEC security details. At the time, it was hard not to agree with a lot of what he had to say about the rail project’s misgivings.
Politics / As Sen. Daniel Inouye struggles to keep the Akaka Bill afloat by slipping it into a spending measure drafted by his Appropriations Committee, the state is embarking on a parallel process for Native Hawaiian recognition through Act 195.
Q & A / As co-sponsor of Act 55, which established the Public Land Development Corp. (PLDC), state Sen.
Economics / President Barack Obama brought the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference to its eagerly anticipated–at least for Honolulu residents–close on Sunday, Nov. 13 at Ko Olina.
Q&A / Sitting on a bench outside Kahala Whole Foods, I blurt out a confession to Claire Sullivan: “I usually only eat food like Oreo Cakesters.” Sullivan, the coordinator of purchasing and public affairs for Hawaii’s Whole Foods stores, lets out an easygoing laugh. A graduate of Punahou, the London School of Economics and with a master’s degree in nature, society and environmental policy from Oxford University, she has played an instrumental role in connecting with the 250 local vendors whose products can be found in the Kahala and Kahului Whole Foods.
An international conference takes place Wednesday, Nov. 9, and is designed to bring attention to Pacific Island peoples’ struggle against APEC and globalization.
Food & Agriculture / According to a study done by the Rocky Mountain Institute, beef consumers in the islands eat upwards of 250,000 whole beef cows annually. Hawaii Department of Agriculture reports that all but 11,000 cows come from somewhere else.
“Land that the [Hawaii] Supreme Court said cannot be sold will be up for these long-term leases and sweetheart deals. That seems really immoral to me.” –Marti Townsend The state is creating a new entity to spur private development of public lands through a process that, according to critics, will open the door to sweetheart deals, leaving citizens with little oversight.
Environment / “…pursue energy independence.”–Gov. Neil Abercrombie Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO), Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), and Maui Electric Company (MECO)–all owned by Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.–have come up with a proposal to produce biofuel.
Environment / Invasive species pose the single biggest threat to Hawaii’s general health, economy and natural environment, according to the National Wildlife Research Center. And the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) is our front line of defense against them.
Food and Farming / At the turn of the millennium, while working for the US Census, Kukui Maunakea-Forth saw the poverty of her Nanakuli-Waianae community translated into statistics as her husband, Gary Maunakea-Forth, sent 15-year-olds to McDonald’s for their first jobs through his work at City & County Workforce Development. “Superfluous of how bad the food is, to send someone there when they’re young is like a bullet in the head,” Gary recalls.
Science / To Hawaiians, the top of Mauna Kea is the pinnacle of prayer, where Papa and Wakea meet. The world’s tallest mountain, at 13,769 feet, is also the only tropical alpine desert in the world.
Outside / When people think of being outdoors in Hawaii, they typically picture being at the beach. In the world of rock climbing, Hawaii has never really been well known; moreover, most of our sharp, volcanic rock is assumed by most mainland climbers to be less-than-climbable.
Green / Saunders Hall at the University of Hawaii at Manoa has been home to multiple environmental projects, including a solar energy test bed. It’s hard to believe that until five years ago the building was doing more harm than good.
Health / In the state of Hawaii, it’s illegal for anyone other than a licensed professional, working in a professional studio, to work as a tattoo artist. There are potential health risks involved, and tattooing is an especially easy way to transmit communicable diseases–like hepatitis, HIV, HPV and tuberculosis–when proper health guidelines aren’t followed.
Development / With new developments happening all over the place–and a couple of controversial ones looming menacingly on the horizon–Oahu residents have to ask themselves: What is the limit to growth on Oahu? According to the 2010 census, 953,207 people currently reside in Honolulu County–up 8.8 percent from the year 2000.
Development / It seems a shame that verdant squares of fenced-off, overgrown plots remain untouched, languishing in terra-purgatory. Who owns that huge lot on Dillingham Boulevard and Colburn Street, the plot on King Street and Poha Lane or Kapiolani Boulevard and Hauoli Street?
Community / On May 17, 2011, Gov. Neil Abercrombie released his 90-Day Plan on Homelessness in Hawaii: A (surprisingly short) manifesto consisting of nine objectives “designed to provide visible, measurable and significant relief that will benefit persons who are chronically homeless.” The 90-day mark is fast approaching, as is APEC 2011.
Community / Prostitution has been a part of life in Downtown Honolulu for many years. Hookamakama was the Hawaiian term referring to sailors seeking amorous ladies during their ship stops in the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Community / Customers these days are paying more for groceries. We all know that.
There’s a swell on the horizon. Listen closely and you’ll hear it…AUDIO INVASION 2012.
It’s been a while, but a man donning dresses and surgical gowns, spouting rap-rock assaults over a bed of crunchy guitars, has drifted back into the sunbeam of MTV like a forgotten fleck of light. With the spastic delivery of a fallen patient from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Matt Shultz, lead singer of Cage The Elephant, is channeling the preeminent poster-child of grunge–Kurt Cobain.
Boys, beaches, bags of weed. In 2010, Best Coast blazed onto the music scene with a sealed Zip-lock of 7” singles that led the indie pop duo to roll out a fatty debut record called Crazy For You.
So what do you do if you’re a band who made it big in the L.A. hardcore-punk scene with several critically acclaimed self-titled albums under your belt?
Last Thursday, Foster the People sent news through their publicist that they won’t be performing at Audio Invasion 2012 due to “unforeseen circumstances.” (They’ll return to Hawaii on March 18.) Rumors are their two Grammy noms for Best Alternative Album and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance led to their cancellation. What a let down.
On Jan. 26, members of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit (HART) Finance Committee mostly sat in silence while listening to an earful from Wynnie Joy-Hee of Mililani, who said that she had taken the bus all the way into town at 7am to address the issue of how her tax money is being spent.
HART intends to hire an executive director as early as March 1, 2012. The semi-autonomous agency is currently headed by interim executive director Toru Hamayasu, who is also a candidate for the permanent position The ED’s salary has been estimated to be within the range of $150,000 to $350,000, and HART has allotted $300,000 for the position thus far, Vice Chair Ivan Lui Kwan told the City Council Committee on Transportation on Jan.
Poor communication between the union and the teachers themselves, on top of a general sense of mistrust, were blamed for the overwhelming rejection of the Hawaii State Teacher’s Association (HSTA) contract last week–an unprecedented two-thirds voted against the union-backed contract. The president of the teachers’ union, Will Okabe, quickly took the blame, stating in a Jan.
The “war on terror” has taken a bite out of beach access on Kauai, where the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) has kept five miles of westside shoreline off-limits since Sept. 11, 2001.
A bill that would require bags of roasted coffee sold in Hawaii to list the place where each type of coffee it contains was grown, and its percentage by weight in descending order, was introduced to the state legislature by Sen. Josh Green.
In September of 2011, the Weekly ran a piece highlighting one of Hawaii’s most dangerous invasive threats: the dreaded brown tree snake. Following up on Gov.
HART Board: The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit will meet and take public testimony before convening an executive session. For more info, contact the project hotline at 566-2299 or e-mail [email: info].
[Jan. 18: “Cheap Advice”] Robert Kiyosaki did not talk, or attend.
[Dec. 21: “Underground Railroad”] The anti-rail pundits are right of course.
I propose that President Obama devote the remainder of his presidency to doing something useful, which would be to seek out all the crooks on Wall Street and Washington who have contributed to the sorry state of the economy in this country. Obviously he has not lived up to the expectations of a president and continues to perform as if Saul Alinksy was a member of his cabinet and the United Nations was his political platform.
[Dec. 21: “Underground Railroad”] Traffic follows commercial development.
[Dec. 21: “Underground Railroad”] To all those opposed to the “rail.” You are the very people who will be in gridlock on the freeway, not able to move.
I was delighted to read the new USDA guidelines requiring schools to serve meals with twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, less sodium and fat and no meat for breakfast. The guidelines were mandated by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act signed by President Obama in December of 2010 and will go into effect within the next school year.
[Jan. 25: “Kyo-Ya-Ya”] Making an exception on zoning sets a dangerous precedence that will undoubtedly be followed by other properties.
The protests last year of Turtle Bay’s expansion plans highlight the challenge facing us in Hawaii. We need to find a way to balance the need for new, upgraded hotel and timeshare offerings that visitors are increasingly seeking with the desire by nearly all residents to protect the remaining undeveloped areas of the island.
[Jan. 25: “Gridlock”] If the plan is to create a second city in West Oahu, I would consider that to be an urban center.
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