Changing Hawaii

By Diane Yukihiro Chang

Friday, November 15, 1996

Diane Chang is on vacation.
Her column returns Nov. 22nd.

The truth behind
the idyllic island image

EVERYBODY was looking at me. They were anticipating an answer. The roomful of women leaders, many of them chief executive officers and decision-makers in Asia and the U.S., politely awaited my response. But therein lay the dilemma: Should I tell the truth and risk disappointing them, or try to finesse a way out of this predicament?

On Monday, news anchor Dalton Tanonaka, former network reporter Linda Taira and I participated in a panel discussion at Kamehameha Schools. In the audience were members of Leadership International, a worldwide organization for woman achievers, which had selected Oahu as the site for its 1996 convention. Our moderator was the big, burly and brainy Kamehameha bigwig and former UH vice president, Rockne Freitas.

We had just finished debating the cerebral-sounding topic, "The Role of the Media in Shaping the World's View of Asia Pacific," and Freitas had opened it up for questions. The first one elicited some serious anxiety: "Diane, how do you think Hawaii is perceived by the mainland and other countries in Asia and the Pacific?"

Boy, oh boy, oh boy. In a split second, the enthusiastic response of a government rep or visitor industry booster ran through my head.

"Oh, Hawaii is so fortunate to enjoy a wonderful reputation as an idyllic and affordable tourist destination," I could gush. "But we are also rightfully recognized as a strategic military location. And we are making great strides in becoming the true crossroads of the Pacific in both foreign relations and commerce. For