Homespun Honolulu

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!

Technorati Tags: Mass Transit, Stop Rail Now!, Honolulu Hale

I will apologize up front. I am angry and I’m not going to be very nice, or civil even.

This picture came from www.theage.com.au (via Yahoo!) and I hope they won’t yell at me for borrowing it. This little guy looks as angry as me and it seemed appropriate!

I have just about had it with the criminal element! This incident was the last straw for me when I heard about it. The incident in question apparently happened at the end of December but it wasn’t until recently that the media focused on it and I was able to hear about it first hand. That’s not necessarily a good thing. It’s a sickening story but there’s an article in the Honolulu Star Bulletin that gives the series of events more clearly and with the most detail.

Warning: If you’re sensitive to animal cruelty and/or have a weak stomach, don’t read it!

Although this is technically old news, I am even angrier now! These men confessed and now they go to court and plead not guilty?!? What?!? I’d like to throw their attorney in there with them! I wasn’t going to even talk about this because it was so nauseating. But, since I’m angry and still have one more angry story that I will talk about in a couple of days, I figured I might as well face it and get this one off my chest.

This crime is not only a legal issue, it is a social issue as well! Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, says it best in his blog article, Betrayal of Trust. I received an email from the Online Communications Department of the Humane Society’s mainland office that informed me about Mr. Pacelle’s article. Thank you, Meghan, for reaching out!

I wouldn’t waste tax payer money on these disgusting freaks. They did it. We know the did it. They confessed that they did it. What’s left? Lock them up and nail them to the full extent of the law! Sick bastards! We’ve got a new law that was long overdue so we should put it to work! I was not able to talk to anyone at our Humane Society office but I read in another article that they are doing some investigating into it as well.

So, I get to fuss and fume about it. Yesterday, the Honolulu Advertiser reported that a man reported “being robbed at knife point on Nuuanu.” This supposedly occurred at 1:30 AM. Thinking it was somewhere down near Chinatown (which wouldn’t be that uncommon at that hour), I ignored the story. However, I have it on good authority and from a reliable source, that this is where the caller was sitting in his car when the supposed incident happened…

According to the man reporting the incident to police, some hoodlum actually tried to cut him with a serrated knife that had a five-inch blade. What?!? So, he takes the guy’s DVD player and rides away on a bike (bicycle) according to the short article. He supposedly had a dark complexion and was wearing jeans and a gray shirt. Well, that’s not very helpful.

These pictures were taken around 6:00 PM or so last night — just before sunset. The parking lot, as you can see, is already deserted except for two, maybe three cars. What was the alleged victim doing there at 1:30 AM, on a Monday morning?!? As far as I’m concerned, I see them both as something to worry about — if the story is genuine!

I can’t even begin to explain how angry this makes me… on several levels. First of all, this is a quiet area and it is a church’s property, which neighbors another church’s property! Second and most important, just off to the left of this picture is the Soto Academy, i.e. an elementary school! Just off to the right, is Cathedral School! In addition, this parking lot is only about 200 yards or so away from Kawananakoa Middle School. On a personal level, I frequent this area, and sometimes after dark! Albeit, not at 1:30 in the frickin’ morning! Idiots! How dare these people!

This turf belongs to me and my neighbors! This is our home! Creeps! Don’t you be bringing your crime element crap, dangerous-weapon waving and loitering menaces around here! Hit the road, Jack(s)! I’ve been ripped off three+ times and I’m sick of it! Make your headlines elsewhere!

In this case, we’re taking from Jones to pay Frazier! Apparently, while the University has agreed to buy out Herman Frazier’s contract for $312,510, the University is also nailing June Jones for $400,000 for leaving before his contract was up. Some even used the word “defected.” That’s a pretty strong word. Whatever, I have no problem with either end of this monetary circus. Just do it and get it over with.

So, the Jones money will go to pay for the Frazier contract. After that is taken care of, the University will still have a few dollars left over from the whole fiasco! They can use that to pay for… um… soap for the athletes? A new roof for the leaking library? Other repairs/restorations that have been put on hold for who knows how long? How many millions of dollars will be coming from the Sugar Bowl?  Whoa da shame dis kine!

I don’t know what the priorities will be, or what the University plans to do first, but whatever it is, just fix it! I’m not trying to be flippant — I’m an alumni and it’s getting embarrassing. How could things have been left in such a state of disrepair for so long?  This is not the school that my parents were so proud of and it’s not the same place I went to school.  It was old, yes, but it wasn’t dilapidated!   As the University celebrates its centennial, as much as I hate to say it, it’s a pretty tarnished celebration.

Let’s see, and the State of Hawaii has done what exactly, to help with these much-needed repairs? Nothing? Oh, that’s right, Lingle’s not an alumnus is she? Tsk, tsk, tsk, oh well. Okay, now I’m being flippant, but justifiably so.

I’m glad this has all come to light because, now that we’re aware of it, we can continue to harp on things until they’re taken care of. The public schools are bad enough, but this is truly embarrassing for a college-level, educational facility! I’m certainly not going to tag this article as “sports” because it’s anything but.

The University of Hawaii Warriors have an undefeated season!

When I was in high school, I went to every football game. I was lucky — that was a time when Waianae High School was THE team to beat in the OIA (Oahu Interscholastic Association). I know I’m dating myself a little with this, but that’s okay. It was fun and some of us took it very seriously. I remember one Homecoming game when Waianae played Pearl City. Pearl City almost won. I never screamed so loud in all my life. We won. I’m sure my volume must have helped carry that extra point over that goal post!

I went straight to the University of Hawaii after graduation to continue my education, but sports weren’t part of the agenda anymore. For me, with the exception of having my ear set to news about Jason Elam, I’ve lost touch with the sports at my old educational institutions… UNTIL NOW!

This year, all of the media hype and the need to keep up with reader interest got me watching again. It felt like old times… sort of. I could watch “my” team on TV, and get excited for them and mad at the refs (and ESPN sportscasters)… you know, all the good stuff! I even found myself holding my breath while watching recorded games for the second time. This Warrior team has done something for me that no other team has ever done… they’ve actually made re-runs something good to watch!

Guess what?!? Somehow… my husband got his hands on a pair of tickets! On the 50-yard line! For the game with the Senior Walk! OMG! Okay, on the wrong side of the field, but who cares?!? I was there! I saw them up close and personal. I got to scream my head off again, just like I used to! They’re so awesome, they didn’t need any help from my vocals! They got some, but, as it turned out, they didn’t need it!

… SCREECH!

The Warriors, however, did not get as much from my vocals as I wanted them to. Our seats were great, but they were too great. We were too close and the Washington players and the ESPN film truck made us have to stand up to see. That would have been fine except for the pregnant woman behind us who asked us to sit down because she was pregnant and couldn’t stand up.

We couldn’t see and we couldn’t see the replay screen either because everyone else was standing up… because they couldn’t see! We finally gave up and left. We went home.

All was not lost, they came from being behind by three touchdowns to taking us down to the last seconds of the game. With only 44 seconds left in the game I was still screaming at the TV, “No, no, no!” I ended up screaming in my living room. It would have been slightly better at Vineyard Zippy’s where at least someone would have gotten the benefit of my screaming… but, we stayed at home.

Overpriced tickets, taxi fare, because the parking was full three hours before kick off, and we watched the game from home. Auwe! (Hawaiian for “Oh my!” or “Oh dear!” or “Alas!”) Auwe to Aloha Stadium for not making arrangements for people in those seats, and auwe to ESPN for not figuring out a better way to get their footage without hampering the ability of spectators to enjoy the game that they paid so dearly to see. The only thing in their favor was that they were not on the side of the home team. There was a little girl behind me who was heart broken and screaming even more than I was.

Of course all of this whining turns this post (one that I was so looking forward to writing) into a “Honolulu Rant” and it has been tagged as such.

Okay, aside from the idiotic stadium gaffes and a double auwe for ESPN whose time was too precious to keep filming long enough for us to see the Senior Walk, the game was exciting, tense and one heck of a game! I now get to lean on our local media darlings to please, please have the Senior Walk on tape so we will be able to see it! KGMB’s news room says they will show clips of it on the June Jones show tomorrow (Sunday) and on their news at 5 and 10:00 tomorrow evening.

I was so looking forward to that part of tonight’s festivities but it was not to be for us, not this time. But, that’s okay… my alma mater won! They should be receiving an invitation to a BCS bowl game. The announcement about the BCS bowl game will be made tomorrow at 3:00 at the Stan Sheriff Center at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

As I’m typing this I can hear people who also must have been watching the game at home… they are setting off fireworks! Honolulu is one very happy place right now! We’re all so proud of these young men and the University so needed a generous addition to their income stream!

After All That, Sharing This Next Tidbit is Even More Gratifying!

Another thing I’ve grown to love is the personality of the Leahey and Leahey show! Jim and Kanoa Leahey are, together or apart, a lot of fun and I think they make a cute father and son team. Jim Leahey was on my wave length the other night with his “poem” at the end of their show on PBS last Wednesday and he called it a bachi poem (bachi is a Japanese word and is used kind of as a slang in this context to mean something similar to “what goes around, comes around”). He read his “Bachi Poem” where he said snickered,

It’s eleven down and one to go
Then it’s just lining up for the big show
The school receiving millions in spendable dough
While National attention continues to grow
Brennan is magic with every long throw
BCS pundits are dining on crow
Receivers remain cat quick, never slow
The defense has grown stalwart as we all know
So bring on the Huskies and any sled they tow
Let the rains come and the winds blow
Let the game have its usual ebb and flow
Chances are good, in the end, Hawaii is 12 and O.

Ha! Now I can laugh even harder! Congratulations to you, UH Warriors, and a huge mahalo to all of you for a very exciting and terrifying game! We have to thank the Washington Huskies as well for being a formidable opponent — it was they who made it terrifying!

The biggest mahalo is for our Warrior team, Coach June Jones included, for their shining example of teamwork and fraternal cohesion! I’m still touched and amazed at the degree of limelight sharing that goes on over there. I don’t know if I’m more proud of their winning record or their comradeship manner of accomplishing their wonderful season that is, “in the end, 12 and O!”

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Checking back on this one! It’s 3:20 on Sunday afternoon and the announcement has just been made. The Warriors are going, baby! They are going to a BCS bowl game! Woo hoo! The University of Hawaii Warriors are going to New Orleans to play the Georgia Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2008. What a great way to start the New Year!

You guys have got to be kidding me?!? How long do we let this asininity continue? At what point do we put the brakes on and stop this nonsense?

So, now we’re going to demand a study on an already-existing process that transports life-sustaining water from one end of Molokai to the other? Did I miss the State-wide, governmental brain tumor? Or, is it a virus that has moved from the Department of Transportation over to the Attorney General’s office?!?

Molokai Ranch transports water (drinking water) to the West end of the island, i.e. from one end of Molokai to the other. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, referring to this as Superferry Fallout, reported today that a contract with Molokai Ranch will not be renewed, and that over one million gallons of water a day should not be transported to the opposite side of the island until an environmental study is completed.

“The ranch is the main provider of drinking water to western Molokai.”

What?  I repeat, “You’ve got to be frickin’ kidding me?!?” Enough is enough! Just get the EIS(’s) started and let the businesses continue (Superferry included) until the studies are complete. If the studies show problems, then stop the corresponding vessels from running.

Everyone knew before any of this started that we have endangered species in our waterways. The study should have been the first thing to be set in motion before making promises to an incoming line of business! Now Molokai Ranch is to be impacted too? Molokai Ranch has been doing what they’re doing for years. Suddenly they will be made to stop because the Courts have made a decision about an unrelated topic?

The State let all of this go this far; now the State needs to support the businesses that have either spent a huge amount of money based on faulty information (that the State provided), or rendered essential services to residents for a long time. These are businesses that have either had the rug pulled out from under them, or are about to.

It would also be nice to get island residents away from being at each other’s throats! Stop it! Just do it! Nobody else asks before they make decisions for the rest of us.

If I was a business coming to Hawaii to set up shop, you can bet I would come with attorney in tow. Count on it!  Any new business should get it in writing that it won’t be told to shut down after sinking time and money into setting up shop! Come on Governor, draw the line and make it stop!

I had so hoped for a better update to this story I wrote a while back but, so far, not so good. I even sent the link to their head office. Apparently they don’t think it’s important enough.

I was on my way in to get some medication and look what we have here.  Now, if he was there to pick up a patient I would have been cool and that, while still irritating, would have at least been understandable, but, he was kicking back and reading the frickin’ newspaper!

I couldn’t even make it to the door before my blood started boiling. I whipped around, grabbed my camera and had a rage fest of picture taking. Now everyone can see just how ugly this situation is!

Gratified after getting my photo evidence of this continuing atrocity, I went in to get the medicine and continued to bitch to the people behind the counter. It’s not their fault and it’s not their doing, but they are the sounding board. The nice young man behind the counter said, “oh, those stalls are reserved for them.”

“I know they are,” I responded, “THAT is the problem!”

By the time I got back outside, the cars of other Kaiser clients were still trying to untangle themselves in the tiny space (no, my car is not there) and the taxi was gone. Guilt! Of course, peeking at me from over his newspaper while I was taking his picture couldn’t have been very comfortable. He was reading the classified section… maybe he was looking for another job. Good idea!

What’s the update? No change. As I was leaving another car was beeping at me because he was trying to turn in to join this picture — a good-size SUV too! I bet he parked in the stalls marked for the taxis. I hope so. I left, still breathing hard and trying not to let it turn into road rage.

Hawaii’s Governor, Linda Lingle, is not on my you-know-what list of people that have said or done something to make me angry. In fact, in her case, it’s just the opposite. I have agreed with most of what she has done or said. I think she’s a pretty darn good governor.

Now, last night I was watching the rerun of yesterday’s episode of Oprah. I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but Oprah has taken over the job description of E.F. Hutton, i.e. when she talks, people listen. That’s why so many spam emails mention her as they think it adds weight to their message.

Anyway, Oprah’s show was all about the young women who have babies and abandon them immediately after birth. Apparently there is a law on the books in 47 of our 50 states called the Safe Haven law. This law says that a child can be dropped off, within the first 72 hours after its birth, at any of the locations designated in the law and the person leaving the child can turn around and walk away — no questions asked. I didn’t know about this and apparently there aren’t many people who do. But, Oprah had it on her show so now everybody knows!

Wait a minute… who are the three states without that law? Nebraska, Alaska and, oh dammit, Hawaii. The worst part of this is that one of Lingle’s “advisors” told Ron Mizutani of KHON Channel 2 News that the Department of Human Services reports that there are no incidents in the state of Hawaii according to their records — of children being left on door steps and dumpsters and bathrooms. So that means it doesn’t happen? That means we don’t need this law? That means we don’t need to try to protect the children of confused and/or disturbed parents?

What an idiotic thing to say! The Department of Human Services has nothing to report because the babies that are being abandoned around here are found dead or dead and buried in shallow graves. No record? Check with the media, they have records that they are more than willing to share with the rest of the residents! Hello?!? Talk about frustrating!

Yes, many of the babies born here are taken care of by the relatives of the biological mother, but NOT ALL! To lose even one baby because a terrified young woman sees no alternative is enough of a reason, in my opinion, to sign that Bill into Law! There are so many people who would love to adopt a child like this. I know, you’re going to say — that nobody will adopt a child if it’s a drug baby. That may or may not be true, but a child like that is taken away from the birth mother by CPS (Child Protective Services) anyway so what’s the difference?

So, what’s my problem? Why am I writing a Honolulu Rant? Because Governor Lingle has vetoed this law once before and the feeling I’m getting from what I’ve read is that she will do so again. I don’t get it. It’s not just protecting the newly born babies, it’s protecting the young girls that are having them who are babies themselves. Sorry, I see this decision as a no-brainer. Just sign the frickin’ thing!

Or I at least hate needing it! Money should have been a four-letter word! I know we all need it but all it seems to do is get us into trouble! It gets individuals in trouble, it gets politicians in trouble, and it gets businesses in trouble.

We all go through periods in our lives or the life of our business when things just get messed up. Stuff like this can happen. It happens either because the decisions made were not always the best ones, because you’ve lost your job, because you’ve lost your spouse, or just because you’ve temporarily lost your mind.

When it’s time to return to some kind of normalcy with your personal or business finances, consolidation loans are a miracle come true. For some. The problem is that some of these loans do more harm than good.

A borrower may want to borrow money that in reality they cannot safely pay back and risk-taking lenders, like New Century Financial, irresponsibly lend money to people who will never be able to pay them back.

The buzz is out there about problems with sub-prime lenders. I have heard it on the Internet, I have heard it from bloggers whose opinions I respect, and I have seen it in hard-copy publications like Financial Week. It shook me. It does that when drama impacts your own backyard!

Home123, a subsidiary (or something like that) of New Century Financial, has a Honolulu office. They do what any other lender does. They review your request, they review your financial situation, and then they review their ability to assist you with your needs.

New Century’s problem is with those offices that don’t see the big picture. They don’t assess the borrowers ability to pay, they don’t pay attention to the company’s regulations, and their only focus is their commission.

I’m not as caustic about it as my blogger friend, Sauer Kraut, but the extent of the damage and the impact it has already had is far-reaching! It even has the investment managers biting their nails over mortgage-backed securities and it’s giving them second thoughts about investing client monies in these things!

New Century called me the other day to remind me about my payment — not because I was late, but because it was almost due and because they’re, quite obviously, afraid. I was going to say nervous, but I think fear is a more appropriate definition at this point. I let the caller know that he scared me because I thought I forgot or something.

He said they have had a problem with payments being late. “Not yours,” he said quickly so as not to offend, “but many are.” I told him that I doubted there were that many late payments from Honolulu because the Honolulu office of Home123 “knows how to dot their I’s and cross their T’s!” He agreed.

I have it on good authority that the Honolulu office of Home123 has always been careful not to get the borrower or themselves into trouble. From my own experience I have to agree. Yes, I got myself into debt trouble, and they bailed me out!

New Century Financial is terrified (or should be), the Honolulu office of Home123 is going to come through this unscathed (I hope), and I still hate muny! That’s right, M-U-N-Y. It IS a four-letter word!

Since we’re on a rock and safely away from the heart of this mess, the Honolulu office still has its doors open. They may not be able to lend money at the moment, but they’re still there! I’ll update this as I hear more.

Home123
841 Bishop Street, Suite 2001
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
808-531-5500