Homespun Honolulu

My Phone Came In!

I recently wrote about finding a really cool Sprint store at Mililani Town Center?  My new cell phone came in earlier than expected.  I figured out a way to get there earlier than planned.  I made it and, although my Sprint friend, Matt, wasn’t there, the staff in the store were a big help and fixed me up just fine!

They hung in and stayed with me until the memory was all mapped over to the new phone and I was comfortable enough with its use to be on my way.  I swear, this is the best Sprint Store ever!  Yeah, yeah, they try to sell you stuff, but they do such a very good job of it!  Their follow-up and follow through was excellent!

I don’t know if anyone remembers but I told you guys that things were going to happen that make me a little bit hissy.  I even mentioned it when I started talking about just wanting to get a haircut at Supercuts.  So, here I was, back at the same shopping center, and here I was heading home, and here is where I am about to get hissy again, or worse!

I did mention that I always get lost in Mililani, didn’t I?  The technology on my new little phone was a bit more advanced than the older one so switching the service over took a little bit longer than planned.  By the time I left the store it was late, dark, and raining.  Needless to say, visibility was minimal.

“Go back the way you came,” I told myself,” and you’ll get right back on the freeway.”  No problem.  Right?  Wrong!

I’m disoriented, I can’t even see my self-created landmarks, and I should have turned but I didn’t!  Or, I did turn and I shouldn’t have.  (Even now, I still really don’t know.)  I’m lost!  I can’t see the street signs through the darkness and rain, so that’s not helping.

“Okay, just keep going downhill and you’ll eventually get back to something familiar.  Then you’ll know where you are.”

Just as I made that decision I ran into something that jolted me out of my seat and scared me to death.  It also totaled my tire!

“Who the hell puts a curb in the middle of the street?!?” 

There were a few other “choice” words thrown into that sentence but I will spare you that part.  The photo above shows how narrow and winy the path to get around it is I understand why they did it.  I know it was to slow drivers down.  Mililani High School is on one side and a recreation center is on the other so I get it!  But, there is a better way to slow drivers down without putting them in harm’s way or destroying their vehicles.  “You dumb, *&$*%#!”

Uh, let’s see — lights?  Warning signs?  Lights on the median strip?  Anything would have been better than what was there — which was NOTHING!  Yeah, I think I had good cause to be hissy at that point.

There were little plastic poles on both ends of this nightmare but they were both knocked over.  Gee, ya think maybe a few other people had this problem too???  Check out all of the tire marks seen on these photos of this middle-of-the-street “curb!”  A police officer stopped to be sure I was okay.  Shaken, angry, and a little banged around, but I was fine.  “The main thing is that you’re okay,” he said.  Uh huh, he knew!

Kipapa gulch has such a bad rap because of all the accidents, ghost stories, and urban legends that have shocked people over the years but, I swear, Kipapa Drive is worse!  That’s where this story took place — where Kipapa Drive meets Ikaloa Street.  This thing is such an anomaly it’s even visible on Google maps!  I really think the D.O.T. (Department of Transportation) needs a letter, or maybe even a reprimand!  Shall we at least talk about maintenance?  If those stupid, useless poles were supposed to be the markers should they not have fixed them or figured out they needed a better solution?  They’re just lucky that the damage to me personally was nothing more than a shock to my nerves and a bump or two! But I am digressing.

To continue the story, I’m now alone, in the dark, it’s raining, I don’t know where I am, and there’s a gaping hole in my tire.  Then, to make matters worse, I suddenly have a strange young man telling me he will help me fix my tire if I will give him a ride back to Kalihi.  Hmmm… he wants to get to Kalihi, what is he doing here?  What is he doing walking around Mililani with just a back pack and without any transportation of his own?  Even if I wanted to accept his offer, which I didn’t, my car had no jack and no tire iron.  I guess I never had a reason to look for either one so I never noticed that they were missing.

Man did I miss my little Datsun at that moment.  Datsun was a model of car; it became the brand young people know today as Nissan.  Trust me, I’ve had to explain this to some people younger than I!  Anyway, the tire would have been changed, by me, and I would have been back on the road in less than half an hour.

I do the usual — call my husband and tell him I’m stuck.  Husband finally finds me, he is furious, the strange guy is still hanging around and that makes him even more furious.  The tow truck driver who finally shows up is a lazy young guy who just wanted to tow us somewhere rather than help us change the tire.  He had neither a clue nor any desire to help us.  Loser!

Fortunately, we are in Mililani.  Mililani has a WalMart!  They had both a jack and a tire iron.  We got what we needed and got the darn tire changed.  It was no easy task either!  The lug nuts were frozen and not budging.  Even full body weight was not moving them.  Then, finally!  The nuts came lose, we changed the tire and got to the nearest gas station with an air hose before the spare ended up too damaged to get us home. I could go off here about having to PAY for air, but I won’t.  But I’m thinking it!  (That is another thing that makes me hissy!)

Whew!  OMG!  It was actually 2 a.m. before we were safely home and I pulled the blanket up over my head.  After all of that, didn’t I have a reason to be upset?  Even a little bit upset?

I know technology can be challenging on occasion but all of that for a cell phone?  You have got to wonder if the technology is worth all of that drama!

Aw, poor little phone.  The phone is happy now.  My friend, Coco, and her mother just got back from Serbia and they gave me a pretty little hand-woven pouch — especially for my phone!

(Coco is our choir director and she’s actually tired of seeing me pull my phone out of my bra at the most inopportune times.)

What a spoiled little phone!  It has its own blanket!  A hand-made blanket!

What about the car?  What happened to the tire? That will be part four of this long story.  One thing just leads to another!

Drama to be continued…

The bull dogs have been one of the most maligned and media-abused breeds on the planet.  The fear mongering that has gone one is just horrendous!  I’ve seen other breeds go through this kind of thing and my internal attitude problem says, “Oh yeah?  That bad?  Show me!”  The UHIB ABKC Club (Ultimate Hawaiian Island Bullys American Bully Kennel Club) did just that.

There’s a full copy of the event flyer here.  This site with the flyer has a great video.  Follow that link — I was fascinated watching the video.  I couldn’t help but think about how people would react to the dog pull.  “They’re going to say it’s cruel, I just know it.”  So, I made an extra effort to watch the animals in the video.  Um, they were enjoying it.  It’s a Bully Pulley!  Yeah, okay, only a woman would call it that!

My favorite part of the “rules” for this event said something about there being no aggression — dogs or people.  They were more worried about the people.  No surprise there!

What got me to this event initially was a Facebook message from Henry Agbayani, owner of the Purebreed Clothing Co.  I always try to figure out a way to go to events where Purebreed will be hanging its banner.  I usually fail miserably, but not this time!

This is Henry and Christine Agbayani.  They were under the larger tent so it was kind of dark.  A click on the photo will take you to their website where you can see the fun t-shirts!  I scooped one up at this event!

The other thing that drew me to the Stadium on a hot Sunday afternoon was the concern about protecting a breed of dog that is so dearly loved by so many.  There is so much negative publicity surrounding the pit bull.  What they don’t say is that the information is based on a few unfortunate incidents that happened with dogs belonging to stupid owners.

If you’re one of those abusive dog owners, then you know who you are.  If you feel insulted, tough.  Bite me!  Any dog will bite if you teach it to.  Think about it, didn’t the Dobermans and the Rottweilers have to go through this too?  Why are we so anxious to ban animals, especially by breed, for the mistakes made by a few thoughtless, or ruthless, humans?

Much like messages gotten from vendors like the Purebreed Clothing Co., I have to say, “Don’t blame the breed!”

This Bully Show just gave me another chance to prove a point.  Follow this pictorial story and see if you don’t agree that these bullies are, in reality, a very docile, and adorable, breed of dog.

Good animals come from being raised by good people.  The above organization is a case in point.  K9 Kokua is all about health, safety, and the protection of the animals.  They even have an adoption thing going for dogs currently in foster care because, sadly, they’ve ended up being homeless with their owners.  I kept finding my way back to this booth (three or four times at least) for a variety of reasons.  A click on the photo will take you to visit their site.  Maybe you can rescue a dog from being homeless!

A lot of dog owners were in attendance at this event and there was a lot going on.  There were even some cars on display.  But, the focus was on the dogs! Mine certainly was.

I was surprised at the number of vendors and “bully” people that were there.  It was news to me, good news, that the Bully Fancy, if you can call it that, is this well-represented.  In fact, there are probably more people who didn’t even make it to the event.  This was a heartening experience for me — to see this much care and concern for such a media-battered breed was amazing!

How is this for dedication?  They have their own t-shirts even!  Nice looking design too!

Love the pink shirt!

You’ve got to love some of the names of these kennels!

As stupid as this was on my part, I had to ask, “um, you guys didn’t, um, you didn’t come here all the way from Vegas did you?!?”  They laughed and said no and that they have a sister organization in Las Vegas.   I had to ask.

Lightenings Edge is a cool name!

This was pretty good too!  Check out the King Kong silhouette in the background of the banner!

Kia’i moku would be to guard over something. Kia’i Moku Kennels are the Guardians of the Islands.  I like that.  I’m not sure if you can make out the Hawaiian helmet in the silhouette of the banner but it works nicely.  If you had to find a good thing about people’s fear of these dogs, it would have to be that it makes these cuties more effective guard dogs!  It DOES NOT make them killers!

Just to help make my point, in the above picture you will find a dad, a mom, the kids, and the family dog.  Please take note of the dog and the baby stroller.  Gasp!  Pffff!  Repeat after me, “family dog!”  Please also take note of the spray bottle in the little girl’s hand.  It was very warm — uncomfortably so.

Those bottles were a very welcome sight.  The owners were very attentive and kept their animals well watered and joyfully spritzed!  At some point I was envious and wished I had a bottle too!

This little stubby character had cooling down to a doggy science — sprawling out on cool cement is a great way to cool any chubby belly!

He wasn’t moving for his little friend either.  The little girl was more afraid of my camera than the dog was!

I didn’t know dogs could flirt!  If that look doesn’t melt your heart, you need to keep going.

This puppy had to be the cutest thing!  Of course I had to catch the moment when this adorable guy piddled in his cage and was quickly whisked away for clean-up.  The picture doesn’t do him justice.  Look at those big feet.  This is probably the only time anyone would think of big feet as being something cute.  Huge feet and short legs make for a very cute dog!

I must confess. I just know that I insulted the owner of the dog pictured in the photo above.  I didn’t mean to!  I couldn’t help it.  The dog’s name is Nightmare.  I just wanted to squeeze his big, chubby face and hearing his name just made me laugh.  I’m sorry!  I couldn’t help it!

Since I insulted him, let’s talk about him.  Look at the chest on this guy!  He was the picture of health, calmly behaved, and being very obedient and cooperative with his owner.  I just wanted to hug him because he looked so huggable.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t.  Out of respect for the owners, I make it a practice not to touch animals at shows.  I don’t want to risk the transfer of illness from one animal to another.  But, trust me, my hands were itching to reach down and touch or stroke some of the beautiful, shining coats that walked by!

There was so much going on all over the place but this little lady was just kicking back and people-watching, like I was dog-watching.  She could have taken out several ankles if she wanted to — mine included.  It wasn’t going to happen.  She was just chillin’ with no presence of malice in her pretty little canine brain!

Judging went on here as well.  This was a chance to see different sizes of the breed.  Shorty bulls, or pocket bulls, were fun to watch!

There was also a guest speaker there from Colorado who spoke of legislative changes that freaked me out, as any pet owner would have been!  Some of the horrible legislation that is currently being approved on the mainland is enough to rattle all of our cages!  You can see an example of some of it here.

I missed the gentleman’s name and his full story but they have promised that it will be shown in its entirety on the OC16 channel, but I don’t know exactly when.  I will keep an eye out for it and post the information as soon as I see it!  I’ll try to include a more detailed synopsis of it as well.  It is worth watching.

Part of the reason I made the extra effort to attend was to sign a petition to protect the dogs from being outlawed, banned, or whatever it was that they were trying to do to them.  As it turned out, the materials I had been reading must have been dated.  That piece of legislation was squashed before it made it to committee because of the public outcry.   Even the Hawaiian Humane Society took a stand against it!

I learned these things from Rose Woods whom I contacted after the show to see if I could get things straight.  Rose has apparently been quite a spokeswoman for the bull dogs!  She continues to be an advocate for the bullies while striving to “create education and awareness in the community.”

Rose had quite a bit of knowledge to share and I was impressed with her passion for this cause.  I like the way she spoke and I want to share some of her words of wisdom.  She said, “The issue is not the dogs, it’s the owners.”  Then she went on to talk about the legislature and how the “policy makers have to create policies that address the issues, not that fit the budget.”  Well said!

Rose also shared a desire to reach out to the bad owners and bring them into the fold of proper animal management and community awareness.  No matter what kind of pet you have, you have a right to protect them.  Along with that right, however, is the obligation to do so responsibly!

A couple of brochures from K9 Kokua and my Atomic Dogg bracelet came home with me.  I taped the “bracelet” into my notebook.

Of course I couldn’t leave without a Purebreed shirt!  Relax; the shirts are decorated with fun, tongue-in-cheek expressions. The back of this “deadly force” shirt says “protecting the aina.”  Must be those toxic trash bags after being filled with the trash we find on the side of the street!  I must admit that does tick me off!  But that’s a topic for another post.

Again, a big mahalo to Purebreed for taking me to places that always seem to get me on a soap box, but always for a good reason!

The parcel of land once known to all of us as Hawaii Raceway Park is scheduled to go on the auction block on Tuesday, February 2, 2010.  Once upon a time, (in years before 2006) hearts raced to the sounds of revving motors .  There will be no more of that kind of excitement near Campbell Industrial.

Some time ago I mentioned that it was a hard thing to lose Hawaii Raceway Park and that it affected a lot of people.  As dangerous as car racing is, Hawaii Raceway Park kept a lot of our youth in a legal racing environment, it kept them busy, and it kept them off the streets!  It was a passion they could share with others and it even provided potential career training for the automotive devotees.

I know that, at one time, there were people who blamed the closure of the Park for some of the motor vehicle accidents plaguing our streets.  We had a rash of racing on Honolulu’s roadways as young racing enthusiasts seemed to like using the public roadways and the H-1 freeway as outlets for their racing abandon.

Kapolei Raceway LLC had all of the intentions of restoring the park to its former glory, maybe better, but was apparently not able to manage the financial needs of this endeavor.  Despite all of the lobbying that fans did for its support.

Foreclosure is an ugly word for all but particularly for Honolulu’s racing community right now. This story seals it!  Sigh.  So many memories, so many stories.  The location has slid backwards in recent years with the loss of this and the feed lot.   I just know our beef tasted better back then.

Is Anybody Listening?

Meanwhile, Lt. Governor, Duke Aiona wants to talk about a Hawaii Sports commission.  Let’s see, race car driving is a sport.  Ya think?  Let me tell you where to be with Aunty Linda’s wallet on Tuesday!  Are you listening?!?

We should get that baby up and running again just in time to join in with Disney’s newest project, Aulani and… yeah baby!   Yo, Hawaii Tourism Authority, are you listening?   Keep the streets safer, bring the racing enthusiasts down here from the mainland for events, and put the burning rubber where it belongs — earning money instead of burning taxpayer dollars!

“Is anybody listening?  Let us know!”

Excuse me, Mr. Mayor?  I thought we were cleaning up Honolulu’s Chinatown.  How much are we expected to pussyfoot around crap like this?  I’m sorry guys but this has got to stop!  I work only five or so blocks away from these areas and I live only about a mile away.  I walk these streets and I run passed those areas.  My friends, family and loved ones do too. 

We all, at one time or another, shop in the vicinity of this drama — during the day time.  Something happens around here when the sun goes down.  The rule of thumb that I generally follow is to not travel west of Nuuanu after sunset.  There’s already blood on the street between Fort and Smith Streets because of the raunchy clientele over there; you don’t even have to get to Nuuanu. This is ridiculous.  Sometimes you even have to get mauka of Vineyard Blvd before it’s safe.    

Since other cities have no problem giving one-way tickets to homeless people (yes, we all know about it), why don’t we do the same for the non-resident homeless and the drug pushers?  Send them back!  

Send the drug lords skanks in a separate boat, a leaking one.  Vicious?  Perhaps.  But, Chief Correa of the Honolulu Police Department is right, they have no business here!  They have no right to shed blood on our streets and we have no desire to lose any of our officers to their shenanigans either!  

This is our home and they’re tarnishing all the beauty and camaraderie that we have tried so hard to create and propagate.  I’m not making this up.  The Honolulu Advertiser stated that both the residents and the merchants are concerned that the increase in crime will “undo years of revitalization efforts.”

It’s cool when our own local newspapers and media take these things to task but it’s a little troubling when blogs and media outlets elsewhere pick this stuff up.  I am pleased that The Snitch (I like that name) was kind enough to actually accept the ownership of this particular gang element.  Thanks, Joe.

Even the kama’aina homeless are afraid.  They don’t admit to their fear but when they talk among themselves you can hear it in their voices. Hello, Mr. Mayor?  We’re supposed to be focused on making our home green, not blood red. 

With tears in my eyes I ask you why.  Why is it that I, my friends, and my neighbors have to be afraid to take the dog for a walk or to go buy a damn soda?  Tell me!

Sometimes, patience is a virtue.  Sometimes falling behind in your blogging can be a blessing.  Check this out, back in January I started to write this post and then, for some reason, I thought better of it, saved it, and held off publishing it.

This is how I started:

“You have GOT to be kidding me!  What kind of a court master would recommend such a thing?  No, I’m not the only one who is reacting this way.   You’ve got to love the Honolulu Advertiser for letting people leave comments and share their opinion!

“For those who don’t know what all of the hollering is about, you might want to check out Samuel King and Randall Roth’s book, Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, And Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust.  See, the corruption that all of us remember so vividly resurfaces whenever something as preposterous as this makes the headlines.  This horrible story made headlines across the Nation about ten or eleven years ago. 

“Let’s put it this way, Bernice Pauahi would have thrown up her hands in horror if she had witnessed these now-historical events.  Of course, she also would have thrown up her hands in horror when they removed the Bishop name from the name of the school.  So great a love should not have been dealt such a horrible blow.  Perhaps we’ll talk about that at a later date.”

As luck would have it, my blogger muse held off pursuing this story, right at that moment.  Part of what held me back was a secret hope that the trustees would do something exactly like what they’ve done!

After the courts approved their raise, the trustees opted to take a 10% cut instead.  I’m serious — they cut their own pay!

In short, the answer to the question in the title of this post is, “No, there are no hairline cracks.  The Trust was mended some time ago and the trust of the people was restored.”

What did they say about it?

“The trustees are committed to the keiki our trust exists to serve, and to the careful management of resources that will allow Kamehameha Schools to educate native Hawaiians in perpetuity.”

A historical resource like this one needs to be protected and it sounds like the trustees are taking their fiscal and fiduciary responsibilities seriously.  Mahalo and kudos to the Kamehameha Schools trustees. 

Kamehameha Schools is a fine institution that produces some very fine graduates.  The students learn the subjects that all the schools teach, of course, but they also learn the history and culture of Hawai’i to a greater degree than most.  The trustees protect and preserve the trust and its ability to educate while the students leave with the benefit and ability to protect and preserve the culture.

I have other stories that I’ve held back on and I’ll share my initial, knee-jerk reaction with you guys and then tell you why I’m glad that I held back.  Yeah, this one could have been two blog posts but I have no desire to cut people down — until I find out that I’m justified in doing so.  I did not say that I would stop being a b*tch if I’m pretty darn sure that I’m right. 

Why am I writing this?  I have no idea.  Well, I had all of these pictures to start a blog post or two and I just have to talk about things that annoy me.  I have to admit, this all took some thinking on my part because the series and sequence of events all blended together at some point.  Let’s go back a few weeks and take it from the start.  Back on December 26th, Oahu’s power lines were hit by lightening.  They say lightening doesn’t strike twice but Hawaiian Electric Company took it in the electrical wires five (5), yes five times that day.

HECO Finds the Cause

I’m glad that Hawaiian Electric Company was able to pinpoint just how this calamity happened.  I will agree that nobody likes a company that sends them bills in the mail.  But, oddly enough, I’ve felt the need to jump in and back HECO up on this.  Mother Nature does what Mother Nature wants and I’m afraid HECO was outflanked this time.  Most people were out of power for something over 12 hours — it was 20+ hours for us.  I have no problem being without power for a while but I really hate throwing away all of that food.  Ugh!  In spite of it all, HECO still offered to provide financial restitution to those who apply for it.

Mother Nature the Terrorist

We’ve been through a sufficient amount of natural disasters recently that have left some areas a little shell-shocked.  there have been heavy rains causing some very damaging flooding, we’ve had high winds taking the roofs off houses, and there have been combination storms that have kept us in the dark for several hours.  Now that these events are over and we’re sufficiently on edge, what happens when the weather service warns of a windy storm on its way?  State officials and the Department of Education decide to close all public schools.  “They what?!?” They never did that when I was in school!  We always braved the wind, rain, waves, mud, etc.  It did not take long for the private and charter schools to follow suit.  Fine, whatever.

Wait, it gets better.  All State and City & County offices are closed!  “You have GOT to be kidding me!”  Let’s see, Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so the general consensus was that they all wanted a four-day weekend.  Fine, whatever. What happened on that Friday?  Nothing.  No hurricane.  Maybe a drizzle, maybe not.  Traffic was a lot lighter.

A Trashy Day Off

Absolutely amazing.  Road work?  It’s a holiday; what are they talking about?  Who put that sign there?  I’m nosy, I need to know.  I don’t see any road work, they must have forgotten to pick the sign up during the week — maybe they left in there on Friday when they were suddenly closed for the day.

Surprise!  They were indeed on the road side, on a holiday, picking up somebody’s opala (trash) that was dumped unceremoniously on the side of the road.

This stuff fries me!  It’s bad enough when people dump garbage and abandon vehicles in obscure locations, but when they dump it on the side of the road in a residential area, especially a rural relief area (that’s what I call them) that exists so very close to the city but is still so very peaceful and simple, it absolutely makes my blood boil!  Dump it in your own damn yard, you slobs!  Grrrr!

When I saw what was going on and successfully checked my temper, I realized that I needed to talk about this.  It took me all of about thirty seconds to turn my car around and head back to take these photos.  Doing so rattled the City & County workers.  Does that make me the terrorist?  :)  I think I’ve mentioned before that people are afraid of cameras.  But, when they heard my snarky reaction to the whole thing, they happily joined my rant and understood the intent.

This is what was left after they filled their trucks the first time.  They reassured me they would be back for the rest but this gives you some idea of just what a big pile it was.  A comment was also made that citizens like us hire people to do a job, pay to have the trash hauled away, and this is where it ends up.  It’s hauled away alright but I’m sure the homeowner did not have this kind of disposal in mind!

You know, if you’re doing a job that requires this kind of heavy hauling and disposal and you do not want to pay the fees at the dump, I suggest that you find some other line of work.  Those fees are part of the cost of doing business.  They are a legitimate, tax-deductible, business expense.  But then again, maybe you don’t pay your taxes either?  There was something else that troubled me — there seemed to be more than one line of business here.  There was a lot of flooring debris making up this pile but there were also several cans of paint.  Those paint cans do look old.  Alright, I suppose a homeowner could have done this themselves.  Auwe!

The City & County workers were the ones who pointed out that I “should see what’s over the wall.”  The river is right below this and we wonder why there are so many signs about dumping and cautions about contaminated water?

For the record, later that same day I saw a State employee leaving the Capitol and I said, “Don’t tell me you guys are working?”

“Yep, only half-day though. Since we had Friday off we came in to work half-day.”

Aha!  So they guilted themselves into working on the Monday holiday to make up for what didn’t happen on Friday.  Okay, you guys are forgiven.

There may have been a storm but this is where it really went.  The only real evidence of any storm that I saw was the kicking shore breaks on the west side of Oahu, a nice 30+ miles away from where the City & County was taking away all of that trash.  The water looked so inviting but the warning signs and little orange flags kept everyone out of the water.  Just watching the water and smelling the salt air is enough to make us forget the problems and focus on the beauty that is our home. Why did I write this?  I don’t remember.

Normally I would just ignore a story like this but I decided to read it.  I’m still angry about the so-called “hunter” who killed someone’s pet not too long ago.  This time is different.  An officer, charged with keeping the peace and protecting the environment for the State of Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, overstepped his bounds. I need to side with the hunters and their families on this one. 

I used italics and quotes around the word hunters at the beginning of this post because the idiot who killed someone’s pet was anything but!  He was stupid, obnoxious, on private property, and a slew of other things I could say.  I grew up around people who hunted regularly and  something like that was unheard of! 

I never liked the sport because I tend to hate anything that involves the killing of animals.  But, we really need to look at the big picture.  The goal is to catch the animal, not to torture it.  The animal is not discarded, it is used to feed those who are lucky enough to benefit from such a catch.   I speak from experience when I tell you that wild boar blows away the fatty pork you buy in the grocery store! It makes the best laulau. 

Okay, all of that aside, we need to remember that the wild pigs on Oahu are not indigenous to our islands, they are destructive to our rain forests, and they probably have a huge hand in all those leptospirosis warning signs we see posted near many of our rivers.  In short, the hunters (the real ones) are doing us a favor.   

I will say that, yes, on one reported occassion, there were youngsters who broke the rules and were trespassing.  Those rules are there to protect our property and safety.  Agreed.  But, I’m sorry, you don’t pull a gun on a bunch of minors because they were being stupid.  What was he thinking?!?  I am also of like opinion with those sharing the details that a loose canon like that should not be carrying a gun, nevermind any other kind of weapon.   

Let’s see, I do believe that the Honolulu Police Department would classify that as assault and terroristic threatening.  Even HPD would not hire an abusive person like that.  In the real world, we all know that you don’t uphold the law by behaving like a criminal yourself! 

If the DLNR officer in question is that caustic and confrontational, he should join the Army and go to Afghanistan.  This is not a war zone, it’s a community — a crowded one where tempers do flare, but it is a community nonetheless.  

Sending out a special aloha to Ollie Lunasco, the current President of the Oahu Pig Hunters Association, and to the community on the North Shore that I don’t write nearly enough about.  I have to admire you guys for standing up for what’s right and for following up and not just letting it slide — that’s a Neighborhood Watch at its best!   

I shouldn’t have to think like this but, I’m sorry, I have trust issues.  I don’t trust how the rail issue went down.  I have lost faith in the City government, the judiciary and the power of the people’s voice.

We need to work together and not have someone thrust things down our throats without any of us having a say.  I’m not one for sensationalism but I do tend to get excited when I think something is amiss or when I think my rights and the rights of my fellow citizens have been slighted.

Stop Rail Now may have run into a brick wall while trying to get the rail question on the November ballot but, in spite of the resistance, there will indeed be a question about this issue on the ballot.  KHON2 reports that the question will read, “Shall the powers, duties and functions of the city through the director of Transportation Services include the establishment of a steel wheel on steel rail transit system?”  The wording, the City’s wording, does not say much but it will show the overall view of Honolulu’s citizens as a whole.  If the vote is strongly against it, I can’t see how they can continue to pursue it.  However, this question does not stop them from putting rubber wheels in motion.

For the record, when I called the City Clerk’s office, they said there was no question on the ballot.  Seriously, that’s what I was told.  Like I said, my faith in our city’s governance has been severely shaken.  The question better not be tampered with when the ballot goes to print!  Trust me, I’m going to check!  The whole situation has my dander up and this incredible ignorance is just unbearable.  You know, “we’re not sure,” would have been a better answer.  It would have still been stupid but at least not as blatantly ignorant and borderline argumentative.

Kanu Hawaii has provided some interesting thoughts and ways to think things through.  I’m not saying I agree with it all, I’m just saying we should all think clearly on this matter and then vote!  Personally, I guess I have to come clean on my opinion, I’m still leaning towards the ‘HOT’ lanes like that pictured above.  There were be little to no damage to our skyline and would actually go somewhere useful, rather than nowhere like the rail is being set up to do.  Mahalo to HonoluluTraffic.com for that attractive rendering.

This issue has made it as far as New York!  Maybe we’re setting up a model of resistance for other states to follow.  They ask our opinions about other stupid things, why don’t they ask us about something we actually care about and that actually matters?  The whole idea needs to be ridden right outta town!  I’m originally from the Leeward side, Makaha to be exact, and I commuted to UH Manoa for over four years so, yes, I do know what that drive is like and I do have a vested interest both in the preservation of the beauty of my home and the liquidity of my City’s finances!

Remember when they covered the news with all of those stories about the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo? Remember we bombed the heck out of what was once Yugoslavia because of those claims?

Pure fiction! They lied to us! There was no such ethnic cleansing. It was all propaganda and false media reporting. How can we now look away and ignore this? Has our entire country become so parochial that we’re comfortably oblivious to the atrocities that are done with (and sometimes without) our citizen’s oblivious stamp of approval?

I know the newsies are laughing at me. Yeah, I know, you news experts are chuckling and wondering why I’m so surprised. You’re thinking, “They always lie to us, didn’t you know that?” Yeah, okay, I know. But this, for me anyway, is way beyond anything I have experienced in the way of deception by my own government.

If our government officials had said to us that we needed to protect our interest in the oil, we would have understood that. The problem is, they know we would have NOT understood, or tolerated, our country backing drug-trafficking terrorists! That’s what they were doing.

Are you mad yet? Believe me, it took me a while to cool down enough so that this post wouldn’t sound like raving lunacy. So, why am I writing about this? What does this have to do with me? What does this have to do with Honolulu? Read on…

The United States is not without its share of Serbian Americans. Serbian Orthodox churches all over the United States held big demonstrations about our (the United States of America’s) condoning of the Kosovar Albanians claiming Kosovo as their own — declaring independence in a land that is not and never was theirs.

My friends and members of my Church family are deeply hurt by this — hurt from personal, historic, religious and ethnic standpoints. Comparatively speaking, the declaration of disgust expressed in Honolulu was very small, but just as sincere and heartfelt nonetheless.

They gathered a concerned few together and met in front of the Federal Building just outside of downtown Honolulu. What America has done, without the knowledge of its citizenry, is to create a stage for this mess to play out where the outcry is too soft to be heard. Nobody is talking about it. The media is disinterested because there is no mob and there is no violence in the street. The feeble cry of, “but Kosovo is Serbia!” falls on deaf ears.

Yes, people were more than willing to talk it through — more than willing to explain their position and why it hurts them. I was able to get the full impact of those explanations. But, where do I go for a disinterested party?

At this point of discovery I am angry. I needed more information to make a case for seeing the Serbian side of this Kosovo conflict. I needed more to disagree so vehemently with my own government — the government that is supposed to be doing good throughout the World.

Increasingly frustrated and still in denial that my country could be so deceitfully secretive, and leave us with no access to news from the other side, I kept searching. You see, it’s not that we don’t care, it’s that we just don’t know and we don’t fully understand the degree of our involvement.

Other countries think our calm is because we’re wimps. That is not the case. We are seeking knowledge and trying to ascertain the truth. I don’t want to hear governmental rhetoric that is laced with “creative” truths, aka lies, that are designed to sway public opinion. Give me the facts and let me make my own decisions on the movements of the people we voted into office!

Do we have culture clashes going on here? Definitely. Hawaii, of all places, should be used to it! Well, for the bulk of the population, the Slavic nations haven’t made a large enough impact on Hawaii to keep us all paying attention to what’s going on with their cultures and their homelands. We keep track of China, Japan and the Philippines, but, for the most part, the European Union seems to be kind of off our radar.

The media (I refer here to mainland media — our local stations are exempt on this topic) is obviously hell-bent on lying to us. Either that or they’re being strong-armed or paid huge sums to rewrite the facts. So, we need news sources that come directly from the people — people who are in the middle of it all and know the truth. Fox News is already on my list of places not to listen to because they shoot their mouths off before verifying their information — anything for headlines and to be first with breaking news — even if it’s false!

I really don’t want to add CNN to that ugly place of distrust. Sigh. This is a classic reason why we need something like the blogosphere if we expect to get the truth. We’ll get particles of truth, but at least they’ll be just that — the truth! When I say blogosphere I mean real people, not spin-off blogs from the news channels — those are just the same thing we already get from the media with some added editorial comment. They’re not bad, they’re just not reliable when the honesty of their station(s) is being questioned.

The blogosphere I’m talking about is the actual people living in the neighborhoods they’re talking about. The real people that understand the culture and current events and are living and sharing their lives with the world through their blogs.

While our local media and blogs are quiet about the topic of Kosovo, the blogosphere as a whole is not without its opinion and voice on this matter. Nothing Against Serbia tells us about how Zurich has heard the pleas of its Serbian population.

So, Now What?

Where do you think the United States stands with Serbia now? Our applauding this illegal drama has made Russia mad at us too. Have we made enemies out of our friends?

The damage has been done, so what will Washington do now to keep the peace? Anything? Hmmm… I wonder what Barack Obama would do to fix the situation? I don’t know. Perhaps he will open the lines of communication and help mend the rift and discuss options with all involved. What would Hillary Clinton do? NOTHING! Her husband was president when it started! What will McCain do? Nothing — he and his party want to continue it all in their “business as usual” manner.

What can we do? Not much. As citizens we can acknowledge the injustice done to our brethren so far across the globe, we can send venom-filled letters to our representatives in Congress, or we can pray for them as seen here.

Why does our Russian Orthodox Priest see this as important? Aside from the fact that Serbia gave refuge to the Russian Orthodox so many, many years ago, when so many were threatened by the communists, Father Anatole justifies his prayerful support in this way:

First of all, ANY immoral act, whether committed by an individual or by a government, must be condemned in no uncertain words. Let me just cite a few undisputed facts connected with the Kosovo debacle:

1. Kosovo is not only a territory which formed the heartland of Medieval Serbia, but by long standing tradition it is the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate. In addition, there are (or were) many historically important churches and monasteries in Kosovo.

2. When NATO, led by the United States, was threatening to bomb Serbia and Kosovo, the Kosovar Terrorists (a.k.a. ‘freedom fighters’ in the United States) were demanding full independence from Yugoslavia. At that time Clinton’s girdle saleswoman, Madeline Albright, told the Kosovar Albanians that ‘unless you only ask for autonomy, NATO cannot bomb the Serbs.’ Well, since the Albanians wanted Serbs to be bombed they changed their demand to ‘autonomy’.

3. NATO was originally formed to defend Western Europe from aggression from the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries. Yugoslavia, at the time of the bombing was not allied with the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact had disappeared. Thus, the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO was not an act mandated to it – it was interference in the internal affairs of a country that had not attacked anyone.

4. During Miloshevich’s crackdown against the Albanian separatists in Kosovo it was the Serbian Orthodox Church that did its best to shelter and defend innocent Albanian civilians. And what thanks did it get after the Serbs were driven out of Kosovo? Churches, monasteries were burned and desecrated, and the NATO peacekeepers did little to stop the Kosovars from doing their ‘ethnic cleansing’.

5. There is so little law and order in Kosovo now that after NATO eventually pulls out, the remainder of the Serbs in Kosovo can only expect genocidal attacks against them. (And the Kosovars can be sure that they will be in no way punished by NATO and the United States for that.)

6. Finally, the Israelis, if not the United States government, have spotted the precedent, a very unfavorable precedent for them, in the Kosovo situation. If NATO can bomb a sovereign state because that state refuses to grant independence to one of its territories where a particular ethnic group is in the majority and even engages in terrorist acts against it, what is preventing the Palestinians from declaring independence in Gaza and the West Bank? After all, logically, NATO should be protecting them against Israel by bombing the Israelis. One may also add to this, the Kurdish separatists in Eastern Turkey, the Basque separatists in Spain, etc., etc.

Does he know what he’s talking about? You bet. A now retired linguistics professor from the University of Hawaii, Father Anatole has had his own ethnic reasons to follow the news of the Slavic regions all these years. He is Russian and he was born in Yugoslavia where his mother, like many other Russian people fleeing the Russian communist regime, was given sanctuary.

Peaceful by nature, with a strong and passionate Christian Faith, prayers over the icon of the Serbian saint, Saint Lazar, offer some peace to the distressed Serbs who continue to watch their ethnic homeland and the holy places of its national Church being desecrated. This is all the more hurtful when the land they now call home applauds these visual and mental horrors.

Why is America Being So Disagreeable?

Caution: The following is my paranoid opinion section based only on my own thoughts and observations.

Could all of this be the reason for the rise in the cost of gas? The new pipeline to transport the ever-coveted oil from one country to the next is an ongoing project. That pipeline runs right through Kosovo! Hello?!?

Okay, maybe that’s being just a little too paranoid but, $9 billion of oil revenue has suddenly vanished? (I was listening to Dianne Feinstein on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and had to go get the transcript just to confirm what I thought I heard.) Was that to fund the sending of more soldiers to “help” the citizens of Iraq or are we going there to distract the American public from the travesty in Kosovo? What ever they’re doing, it’s working.

Let’s think about it:

Tibetan Monks being persecuted by China, we say nothing. There’s no oil involved.

Darfur abuses are running rampant and we verbally condemn them, but nothing more. There’s no oil involved.

Yet phony genocide is retaliated with war with a country over it’s own property. That would be like Mexico taking over California or Cuba taking of Florida and calling it their own, with the help of the army from yet another country. What were we thinking? It’s all about the oil.

Okay, that’s the end of my paranoid opinion section.

I was almost ready to wrap this up and then I ran into this article about Russia, China, and India looking to revisit this very issue with Kosovo. The article opens with:

“The US administration rejected with derision Thursday’s joint call by Russia, China and India to resume talks on the future status of Kosovo.”

With “derision?” Who the hell do we think we are?!? I swear we have no diplomacy or shred of decency left! We have GOT to change what’s going on in the White House.

Still hungry for more? There are articles galore but here is just a bit more reading if you care to absorb more information about this fiasco. I just can’t stand this oil-based hypocrisy.

We’ve all been distracted by what’s going on in the political arena at the national level and the ability of candidates to ignite a country behind them and their campaigns. Honolulu has its own political drama going on over here. This is not as glamorous by any stretch of the imagination yet, suddenly, it’s another one that is winning the support of the people.

These are the real people! They’re taking this seriously and the media, at least for now, is taking it seriously too. I saw KGMB, KHNL, and K-5. The others may have been there too but I’m not sure. I love the sign, “If You Build it, They Won’t Come.” We’ve been saying that from the start but only in conversations among friends and co-workers.

You have to wonder why we weren’t consulted. How can someone, even if he is the Mayor, have this kind of unilateral control over our land, our skyline and our money?!? Because we let him. Dennis Callan (above left), a photographer for the Hawaii Geographic Society, and Dr. Michael Uechi (above right), a physician, are looking to change all of that. The purpose of this “grassroots” movement is to get 40,000 signatures in the next 90 days so that we can get this question on the November ballot — as it should have been from the start! What will it say?

“Honolulu mass transit shall not include trains or rail transit.”

We should have been asked, we should have been the ones to make this decision and we’re going to try to take this decision making back! The Stop Rail Now! campaign was just ignited yesterday at Honolulu Hale. Of course I just had to be there because my feathers have been ruffled for a long time and I needed to flock with the birds of the same feather! In addition, there are so many ideas out there and there have been studies going on to work through the traffic problem without ruining our home.

Quite obviously, this whole transit thing has become a very volatile topic of discussion. I knew I had a lot of angst about it but I thought everyone had just thrown up their hands and walked away from the whole thing. Uh, no they haven’t! Someone did say that a couple of the Mayor’s secretaries were out there taking notes. As I walked by I snidely remarked, “Oh, let me give them a pen!” Attitude? You bet — it’s all about “By the People, For the People!” Darn! I forgot my t-shirt! Still in doubt? Check out this video!

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