LEARNING

HOW ABOUT ASKING STUDENTS WHAT'S UP?

There are reports in our newspapers all the time about studies and data that show that Hawai'i students are performing below the national average, or Hawai'i is "leaking" students, and on and on. It seems to me all these studies are just piled on top of the next and nothing meaningful happens to remedy any of it.

I believe our Legislature, the Board of Education, the Department of Education and the school supervisors are all completely disconnected and ineffectual. They will never institute real change because it would threaten their power structures.

Instead, they do school walkthroughs where they ask kids to define what "standards" they are working on, and if the children can't analyze that question for them, the teacher and school are given a bad grade.

How about asking students what they are learning? Has that ever occurred to any of these bureaucrats? Isn't it the adult's job to analyze what standards the kids are working on, and the child's to learn to read and write and think about the world?

CRIME

JUST SPEND THE SURPLUS ON LOCKING THEM UP

I can't figure out why the governor wants to take some of the surplus to fix up the state park restrooms. Almost nobody goes to the beach on the west end because these places have been overrun by the homeless.

I gave up shore fishing because the druggie problem got so bad at my favorite papio hole that I didn't feel safe. All the while, we are getting tax-raped, and every year our standard of living keeps going down.

I guess anything is better than what the Democrats want because the Democrats, like Senate Ways and Means Chairman Brian Tanaguchi, want to keep all the money for themselves. This radical wants to amend the state Constitution to prevent us from getting a refund.

A better use of this money would be to build some new prisons. Maybe that way we won't have people with literally 50 to 100 or more prior convictions running around on the streets terrorizing innocent people.

Ever see that show about the bounty hunter in Hawai'i? What a disgrace: Hawai'i's failures paraded in front of the entire nation. It makes me feel good that at least this guy is making our streets safer, but the feeling only lasts until I face the reality that these criminals will be back on the street the next day.

UH PRESIDENT

MCCLAIN APPOINTMENT MAKES GOOD SENSE

As a mother of two UH students, a UH alumnus and president of Parents and Friends of UHM/PTA, I am in favor of the appointment of David McClain as president.

In my encounters with him over the past two years, I found he has listened to parents' concerns and has taken action toward improving the college undergraduate experience.

He really understands the local community and has the capacity to give us continued improvements.

CAR BREAK-IN

THIEVES, PLEASE GIVE BACK DIGITAL PICTURES

After 25 years of marriage, my wife and I returned to O'ahu (where we were married) and had a wonderful second honeymoon. For two weeks, we fully enjoyed the people of Hawai'i. We played golf, went snorkeling, sailing, hiking, biking, etc. It was wonderful.

But our trip ended on a sour note.

Three hours before our plane left, our rental car was broken into. We were parked next to the Macy's entrance at the Ala Moana Center. The thieves broke into the trunk of our car and stole my briefcase and my wife's carry-on bag. My briefcase contained two memory disks for our digital camera containing 260 pictures. We felt as if our trip was stolen from us.

We don't care about the prescription eyeglasses that were stolen, or the $2,081.24 that was charged on my debit card at Shirokiya's, or the fuel charges made at the Chevron gas stations. We would just like to have the pictures of our second honeymoon.

I am hopeful the people who took these items would somehow find a way to get those digital memory cards to us. Please find a way to return our pictures.

KAMEHAMEHA

'IMUA TV' INTRUDES ON 'SCRUBS' EPISODES

When it comes to excluding all but those with Hawaiian roots to be accepted into Kamehameha Schools, I totally get it. Neither the school nor the foundation's money was ever intended to benefit non-Hawaiians, and that end should be eternally respected. This is not race-based but merely the will of someone to give something back to her heritage, and no one has any right to compromise that.

My gripe, however, is "Imua TV." It's one thing to exclude non-Hawaiians from joining their club, but to force their agenda down our throats is cruel and unusual punishment, especially when doing so cuts out half of our "Scrubs" episodes.

In essence, they are stealing our right to watch the shows that we want to watch. What does Kamehameha Schools have against "Scrubs," anyway? I ask this because it cannot be just coincidence that "Imua TV" is broadcast whenever there is a "Scrubs" episode. This is an injustice.

I implore Kamehameha Schools to please let us have our "Scrubs." Besides, it must be costing a fortune to buy prime-time air space, money that would be better put to use for which it was originally intended. I do not believe that pushing an agenda onto non-Hawaiians was ever part of the deal.

TERRORISM

India nuclear deal no gamble for U.S.

I was thoroughly disenchanted to read the editorial titled "India nuclear deal is a risky gamble for U.S." because it's totally inaccurate.

First, India as a nation was never considered a "bad guy" in the West; disinterested, maybe. For you to even mention India in the same breath as North Korea, a nation with a leader compelling his socialist ideologues upon its poor denizens, and Iran, a nation whose head of state wants to "erase Israel from the map of the world," is silly.

India developed nuclear technology as a deterrent against China and Pakistan, countries that had invaded India in the past without provocation.

Proliferation of nuclear technology was never India's motive and will never be because Indians understand what terrible consequences they may face if WMDs were to land in the hands of terrorists. After all, people have died in India at the hands of Islamic terrorists, and we are still counting

Last, giving a legitimate status to India's civilian nuclear technology will prove to be beneficial to the U.S. After all, what's risky about nuclear enrichment to have a sustainable economic growth when both parties stand to gain?

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

BILL TO SET UP CONSTRUCTION AUTHORITY IS A TERRIBLE IDEA

We have an affordable housing crisis. The 2006 Legislature has the opportunity to step up to the plate and solve the crisis, or simply do business as usual.

Any bill that has the potential to impede construction of affordable housing — no matter how well intentioned — must not pass.

Honolulu has been ranked third in the world of least-affordable cities, 49th in the country for homeownership and third in the nation for most expensive rentals.

Lawmakers know these dreary facts but are diluting legislative efforts at fixing the problem by introducing bills that would likely increase housing costs, cause delays and increase overregulation.

Two that fall under this category are House Bills 3073 and 3074, which would create a Hawai'i Construction Authority (HCA) to manage and oversee the construction industry. In other words, this legislation would create another layer of bureaucracy to further slow down the process of building affordable housing in our Islands.

According to HB3073's purpose clause, the proposed Hawai'i Construction Authority would develop a long-range strategic plan for construction in Hawai'i, but the authority would also gain control over certain regulatory functions. Unfortunately, this would create overlap.

For example, the HCA would regulate occupational safety and health, but the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations already handles this responsibility. Additionally, the Contractor's License Board already oversees licensing issues, the Board of Electricians manages plumbers and electricians, and the Department of Labor handles pay of employees. HB3073 would give HCA equal control over these functions, creating overlap and confusion.

If a worker's-comp issue were to arise, to whom would a worker turn? The Department of Labor, as workers do now, or the newly established HCA?

Creating redundancy and overlap does nothing but bureaucratize the construction industry and impede construction activity. Put this bill under the microscope, and it's clear it should not pass. The HCA would just result in one more obstacle in reaching our affordable-housing goals.

ENERGY FROM OCEAN

PUT OTEC BACK ON FRONT BURNER

Every newspaper, every politician and many citizens have been very vocal about the current and future energy problems in Hawai'i. Nowhere in the discourse for renewable energy has there been any mention of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC).

In the 1970s and into the 1980s, there was considerable research into this extremely clean renewable-energy source. OTEC, in its simplest form, uses the temperature difference of the cold deep-ocean water and the warm surface water to drive a working fluid through a turbine generator system similar to conventional generators. The main energy source is the sun, which heats the ocean surface. The coolant is the relatively endless supply of cold ocean water pumped up from the depths of the ocean. There is no fossil fuel involved, no carbon dioxide pollution, no noxious fouling effluents.

The only possible negative effect on the environment is the release of the clean ocean water back into the ocean. This is nutrient-rich water at a different temperature than the surface water. Whether this has a positive or negative effect is still subject to discussion and experiment.

The easily accessible cold water off the Kona Coast of the Big Island led to the establishment of the Natural Energy Lab of Hawai'i Authority (NELHA). The Natural Energy Lab was built at Keahole to evaluate the efficiencies of different systems and the associated system problems of materials and biofouling and effluent pollution. In its early years, NELHA actively pursued these research problems. It sank deep-water pipes and evaluated systems and materials.

Somewhere along the way, they were detoured by new bio- and agri-industries, which found many good uses of this nutrient-laden cold water they were pumping to the surface. While we must be happy that these uses of the cold-water pipes have spurred new industries on the Big Island, we must lament the halt of work, for many years, of the original OTEC projects, which would be of use today.

According to NELHA, last year some meager funding was put back into OTEC. We have lost many years of research into methods that should be proving useful for us today in this new and endless fuel and environmental crisis.

We should implore our governor and legislators to push the NELHA administration in the much-needed direction of OTEC.

OTEC does not have to be a visual blight, nor a polluter. Should Hawai'i go ahead with OTEC, and it should, we should make sure it is developed as a non-polluting non-invasive power source.

Let us get our governor on board. If we combine OTEC with hydrogen generation, we should be able to get our president's ear and some significant federal funding. We have a couple of decades of neglect to catch up on.