Hawaii lawmakers are working on a bill to curb domestic violence. That’s a good thing, right? Not so fast. How do we define domestic violence?
My mother and fathers spanked me. Sometimes it was deserved, sometimes not so much. Would mom and dad be criminals in Hawaii?
House Bill 3379 covers domestic violence, and creates a new crime (if that’s really possible; we have so many). This one is called third degree family abuse, a petty misdemeanor. Spanking your child could get you arrested.
Could your mother or father be arrested? The proposed bill states, “‘Physical abuse’ means striking, shoving, or kicking a person in an offensive manner, or subjecting a person to offensive physical contact with the intent to harass, annoy, or alarm.”
I don’t recall my parents ever kicking me, but there were more than a few instances of offensive physical contact with intent to harass and annoy. Apparently I managed to overcome those childhood tragedies and become a somewhat normal citizen despite the scars of abuse from my fair share of lickings.
If the bill passes and becomes law, I wonder if a statue of limitations will apply? Otherwise, my parents could get arrested at the airport the next time the fly to Hawaii.
I find it difficult to believe that no one saw this coming. Molokai Ranch will close their doors. Over 120 people on Molokai will lose their jobs. Hundreds more will suffer from the economic fallout as fewer tourists will visit the once but no longer ‘friendly isle.’
What happened? Residents of Molokai refused to allow Molokai Ranch’s owners the opportunity to develop property elsewhere on the island to offset financial losses. Faced with mounting red ink from Molokai Ranch, and with no ability to turn a profit from previous investments on the island, the developer decided to shut the doors.
What goes around, comes around.
As much as friendly isle locals may love their laid back lifestyle, mostly unchanged for decades, what they haven’t figured out is how to peacefully coexist with dictates of progress. In one form or another, change is inevitable. Even now the change of economic hardship will affect hundreds and hundreds of Molokai residents. Some will leave the island. Many more will feel the economic change in a very personal way.
As Hawaii’s population ages, our desire to relive bits and pieces of days gone by seems to increase. Welcome back, Primo beer.
Starting today, Honolulu retailers will get their first bottled taste of one of Hawaii’s best known, and sometimes loved, local beers. The draft Primo has been available at some local restaurants since December.
Primo Brewing & Malting Company is rolling out the new bottled version of Primo to a handful of specialty beer and wine shops. The original Primo beer was brewed first in 1898 by Honolulu Brewing & Malting Company. These days the brand is owned by Pabst Brewing Company and bottled in California.
No matter how you look at it, bottled Primo is imported beer. Just like Heineken. The real question is, ‘Does today’s Primo beer taste like yesterday’s Primo beer?’
I’ve tried the draft Primo and I can tell you what it tastes like. It tastes like Pabst. I suspect the bottled Primo will taste like Pabst. Pabst is the chickenized rattlesnake meat of beers. Rattlesnake meat tastes like chicken. Nostalgia beer tastes like Pabst.
Making way for much needed construction jobs is the death of the Varsity Theaters on University Avenue, due to disappear from the neighborhood this week.
With few exceptions, old theater buildings just don’t last. It has nothing to do with construction. Many old theater buildings could last for over 100 years. Their death has more to do with math in the form of revenue per square foot.
A movie theater doesn’t have much going for it except plenty of square feet and even more cubic feet. It’s a lot of space for very little money, and fewer paying customers. As a sign of the times, most theaters in Honolulu have congregated together in movie complexes, like a herd of elephants waiting for the final attack.
I saw movies at the Varsity Theater. My kids saw movies at the Varsity Theater. I even had a couple of UH classes at the Varsity Theater. You know you’re getting older when places you once frequented end their days in a pile of concrete rubble and they call it progress.
Of course, Klum Gym fell to a similar fate, and I considered that to be progress. And, I haven’t forgotten, either.
Honolulu’s most populous bird is the ubiquitous crane. From Waikiki to Pearl City, the skyline is dotted with crane after crane. If the building boom is easing on Oahu, you can’t tell from the sky birds.
Another crane will go up on Kalakaua Avenue across from the Hawaii Convention Center and amid the glassy shadow of the Century Center. Cranes mean buildings and this one will be a 16 story residential condominium which borders on affordable.
Affordable? At $750 a square foot? These condos will come in the standard studio, one and two bedroom styles, from about 400 to just over 700 square feet. The starting price? $292,000.
That’s considered affordable at about $750 per square foot. I’m serious. That’s considered affordable.
Such affordability comes with a pool, a spa, a restaurant, and a fitness center. I’ll admit that the location is more than convenient with bus routes all over the place, and within walking distance of Ala Moana Center, the beach, and KFC. What more could a person want for $750 a square foot?
This morning I walked out the door of our condo and saw an old man using the lawn water faucet near the front of the building. He was an old man with long hair, sandals, a dark shirt and pants so soiled they seemed to shine in the sun. His skin was very dark, similar to that of men and women who toiled for years in the pineapple fields.
From ‘the look‘ I assumed he was homeless. They have a rather distinct look.
My first inclination was to yell out and tell him to leave before I called the cops. Instead, I watched for a moment. He stood by the water faucet, not bothering to look around to see who might be watching him. He washed his hands in the water, then reached to a back pocket and pulled out a cloth, about hand towel size and held it under the running water.
He wiped his face and hands with the wet towel, leaned over and took a drink of water from the faucet, then he turned around, very slowly, still not looking back in my direction, and he walked away.
He found a cool spot and some momentary refreshment on a hot, dry day. I knew he’d be back.
A language that should be common to most of mankind, and it’s not English or music, is common sense. There’s a move afoot to teach Pidgin in Hawaii’s schools because, after all, Pidgin is a true language, not merely a dialect.
Such subtleties were lost on Joe Vento, owner of Geno’s Steaks in Philadelphia. He put up a sign which said, ‘This is America. WHEN ORDERING PLEASE SPEAK ENGLISH.’ Apparently Joe was concerned that local residents were lapsing into their native tongues when ordering his famous Philly cheesesteaks and he couldn’t understand what they were saying.
Fair enough. It’s common sense, right?
Not so fast, Will Rogers. Philadelphia’s Commission on Human Relations found Joe’s sign to be a violation of anti-discrimination laws, though he says he did not refuse service to anyone who spoke anything except English. He just wanted them to speak English because that’s what he understands. English. Later, the Commission charged him with posting an ‘offensive’ sign. Common sense prevailed after the U.S. Senate voted to approve a, here it comes, ‘common-sense amendment to a bill which would bar federal employment regulators from suing a business that requires employees to speak English.
Whew. That was close.
Pidgin, like ebonics, and many others, is a delightfully engaging, rhythmic, entertaining, and suitable language, or dialect (I doubt if it matters which) and it has a place in our local society. Those who predominantly speak pidgin or ebonics or any other language just outside of mainstream English add much to our rich and diverse culture and are to be both commended and respected for their contributions.
Let a little common sense prevail on both sides of the linguistic fences.
If you want a good job, mobility in society, and respect from others, it pays to learn and use appropriate English, just as it pays to learn math and science. When our children hit the public school system the first thing they brought home was Pidgin. Our rule was simple. No Pidgin at home. Not ‘no Pidgin. Only ‘no Pidgin at home.’ It was not a rule meant to disrespect Pidgin speakers, but a rule meant to broaden our children’s horizons, their knowledge and their abilities. They learned to speak English and Pidgin and they know when to use both.
It won’t kill anyone if the school systems teach Pidgin. Hopefully, they’ll also teach when to use Pidgin and when not to.
To the outcry of at least one Hawaii resident, and perhaps more, the State House of Representatives recently killed a bill designed to protect pregnant women from attacks and assaults. The bill stemmed from a Big Island murder where an estranged husband attacked his wife and killed her unborn baby. The baby was not his.
The reasons given for killing the bill… somehow that just doesn’t sound acceptable, given the subject matter. The reasons given for terminating the bill… no, that won’t work, either. The reasons given for the bill’s demise… I’m not making progress, am I?
The reasons given seemed a bit looney considering the obvious. It’s already illegal to assault with intent to harm. Whether the intended victim is a mother, a father, or merely an offspring, or offspring from a notoriously stubborn beast of burden, or carrying a child, doesn’t make the assault any more illegal.
If life in jail for attempted murder isn’t sufficient deterrent for attacking a woman with an unborn child, what is? More punishment? Such crimes are usually crimes of passion for which typical deterrent laws don’t provide much, uh, well, deterrent.
Other connotations notwithstanding, Honolulu residents will balk at a steel wheel on steel rail fixed rail mass transit system. Why? Noise. Honolulu’s city council will look at the proposals with an eye toward politics, not costs, so expect additional consideration for rubber a rubber tire on concrete system.
Why steel? Lower costs and supposedly more mature technology. The subway system in Sapporo, Japan uses rubber tires and has been in use for over 30 years, so it’s not exactly ancient technology. It sure is quiet.
Lower costs? Perhaps, but does it matter since the costs will go well beyond what Honolulu can afford to pay? Just a few years ago the estimate was for a fixed rail system to cost the city about $2-billion. Now it’s $3.6-billion, and that’s in 2006 dollars. What will the price tag be in the next couple of years when the city begins paying up?
Honolulu has a massive traffic problem. To solve it, through the years we’ve developed solutions– an intricate bus system, staggered work hours, bike paths, boats, express lanes, high gasoline prices, high taxes, employer paid bus passes, none of which have helped to curb an enormous appetite for purchasing cars and trucks for personal transportation.
Will a West Oahu to Ala Moana Center fixed rail system curb such an appetite?
What does it cost to send your kids to private school vs. public school? In Hawaii, the difference can be substantial. No, it is substantial. Is there a corresponding difference in the education a private school student receives vs. a public school student?
Assuming day-to-day food and clothing costs for students are about the same, tuition at Punahou School will be almost $17,000 per student for 2008-2009. That’s about $1,400 a month, which means a parent must earn an additional $24,000 or so each year just to pay for the child’s tuition.
By the way, $17,000 does not cover all the costs. Parents must ante up for other optional fees and a few other mandatory fees not included in the tuition. Matson calls that a surcharge. Punahou calls it a privilege.
A good education at Punahou is so expensive that the tuition and mandatory fees still do not cover the school’s entire cost to educate a student. Punahou School says the deficit is covered by the school’s endowment, which appears to be money collected by the school from graduates and donors and parents of graduates as some kind of surcharge on a surcharge.
All that money exchanging hands brings up a couple of questions.
The first is, what is it about Punahou School’s education process and methodology that makes it cost so much more to educate a student than it does in public schools? After all, Hawaii’s DOE manages to educate (I’m stretching this to make a point) students in public schools using about 10-percent of what it costs to educate a student a Punahou School.
The second is, are Punahou’s students 10 times better, smarter, more well educated than public school students? On average, do they earn 10 times as much money?
