Large foreign companies
don't understand Hawaii

I am concerned about what the Economic Revitalization Task Force findings may mean for small businesses. They are continuing to be swallowed by big conglomerates.

What benefits new, big businesses does not necessarily benefit the small. Small businesses best hold our cultural lifestyle, such as the mom-and-pop stores and small, local restaurants and contractors sensitive to Hawaii.

Case in point: A woman I knew daily wore flowers in her hair to work. For her, it was like breathing. But when she decided to work at the front desk of a large, foreign-managed Waikiki hotel, they wouldn't allow it.

How sad to see the unique touches of Hawaii change due to influence of businesses that don't know our ways.

Maria E. Tseu

Read the full text of the task force
recommendations in our Specials section.

Hard to feel compassion
for disease carriers

Cathy Goeggel's Oct. 11 letter about the rat problem certainly sheds new light on, as she puts it, human stupidity. She says rats have lived with humans for years, as if they were domesticated like cats or dogs. You can't argue with her that garbage attracts rodents, but that doesn't mean we have to live with them.

Animal-rights activists have notoriously skewed priorities. When Tyke went on a rampage, killing one, injuring two and traumatizing hundreds, the city received many calls about his "inhumane" treatment and offers of money for a memorial. Not one person called to see about helping the family of the trainer.

Evidently, Goeggel would rather live with rats, and all of the diseases they carry, than have their numbers reduced. I certainly have more compassion for the victims of bubonic plague, leptospirosis and other illnesses than I do for the rats that carry them.

Goeggel's assertion that our beach parks are "littered" with diapers, condoms and cigarette butts is outrageous. Oahu's parks, which can always use work, are for the most part very clean, and the trash is emptied regularly.

The real problem is that rats thrive in the tropics. To act surprised that we have rats -- or outraged that they occasionally need to be thinned out -- is almost as naive as the recent "discovery" by so many that the Bishop Estate trustees do, indeed, earn a lot of money. Tell me something new.

Nick Houtman

Cayetano has reputation
for being independent

Critics of Gov. Ben Cayetano should note that his administration seems to be rocking the boat by attempting reforms. He knows that turning loose Attorney General Bronster on Bishop Estate will generate a controversy, causing factions within the Hawaii Democratic Party to fight among themselves.

Cayetano has always seemed to be very independent. When he was in the Legislature, Cayetano was a dissident and reformer. It was Cayetano who led the charge on the pesticide which ended up in our community's milk supply .

Even though the case embarrassed the presiding Ariyoshi administration, it also reflected badly on the preceding Burns administration.

When Cayetano was chairman of the oversight legislative committee investigating the heptachlor scandal, he fiercely attacked the status quo.

Over the years, Cayetano seemed to be more interested in getting things done than being a wheeler-dealer.

Mike G.H. Chun

Food is being diverted
to troops in North Korea

Your Oct. 14 story on hunger in North Korea questioned whether the claimed starvation in North Korea was a sham. Even if the claim was valid, only the countless "reactionaries" on and off concentration camps might have been the victims. Even distributed food could be taken away for diversion. Any proof of diversion?

Several meat cans with a label reading "Food for relief, in the name of Jesus" and identifying the donor were found in the North Korean submarine that intruded into South Korea last year on a deadly mission.

The donor, a Mennonite group in Virginia, confirmed the donation. Then a high U.S. official commented that, unlike American torpedoes, American food in the submarine could be no big deal.

American or not, torpedoes are launched by food-eating men. Long live foolproof food sense!

Cekay Korean Min
Kapolei

Chun is clearly qualified
to run Kamehameha

In the continuing saga of the Bishop Estate trustees, one issue has not been sufficiently amplified and discussed: a trustee attempting to perform the role of a staff member in the day-to-day operation of Kamehameha Schools.

This behavior is clearly dysfunctional and can only lead to campus chaos and declining morale. A basic management rule is being seriously violated.

If the trustees were dealing with a totally incompetent staff member, their temptation to interfere might be understood. This is not the situation.

Michael Chun understands the role of a school president and has the human relations skills necessary to supervise and encourage a large staff of teachers.

One Saturday morning I observed a group of Kamehameha students who had volunteered to prepare a meal for the homeless at the Institute of Human Services. Working with them was Mike Chun.

Actions like these illustrate why he is admired and loved by students.

Robert R. Dye

Bishop Estate Archive

Elephants aren't only
endangered species

Your Oct. 22 article about Neil Abercrombie's support of $5 million to save the Asian elephant caught my eye. Obviously, our U.S. representative is not supporting the party that this magnificent animal symbolizes.

However, the endangered species he should be supporting is the Hawaiian business person, whose dwindling numbers are largely the result of a loss of economic habitat and positive business environment in the state he was elected to represent.

Perhaps in the next election, voters should send Abercrombie on a sabbatical safari.

Cy Barker

Don't tinker with taxes;
cut the size of government

If you lower personal and corporate income taxes, people and businesses will have more to spend. However, if you raise the general excise tax, it will raise the cost of goods and services across the board.

The net effect is people will not spend more because things will be even more expensive, and our local economy will continue to dive.

Elected officials remain blind to the solution. Our bloated state government has to be cut and money must be returned to their rightful owners, so we can spend and invest in our economy.

The prosperity resulting in other states that have shrunk their cost of government only proves this.

Gene Dumaran

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Bishop Estate Archive

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