Editorials
Tuesday, May 19, 1998

Reclaiming Aala Park
is long overdue

IN the old days Aala Park was the focal point of a lively community on the fringe of Chinatown. That changed with the emergence of the drug culture and the homeless, who turned the park into a loitering place by day and a campground by night.

For a few years several hundred vagrants were sleeping in the park every night in tents with official toleration, until former Mayor Frank Fasi had them ejected. To this day, however, the homeless are the park's chief users, although in smaller numbers.

The result is that the community is denied use of the park, the only one in the area. This is an outrage. But it's going to change, at last. There are plans to again make the facility a community asset by turning the passive park into an active one. The existing stage and pavilion, now a haven for the vagrants, would be demolished. Softball and soccer fields have been proposed -- with lights for night games. That should discourage the illegal campers.

The city Parks and Recreation Department is currently seeking suggestions from the community as to what should be included in the changes. The Kalihi-Palama and Downtown neighborhood boards are involved in the planning, as well as the Chinatown Merchants Association and other groups.

Whatever improvements are made, they should have the aim of attracting neighborhood people to the park and taking it back from the vagrants. This is a program that should have been undertaken years ago. It deserves the city's full support.

Computer competition

THE attempt by Microsoft, the titan of computer software, to mesh technology so it could monopolize the Internet left the Justice Department no choice but to intervene. Bill Gates already has gained domination over the software industry by developing the Microsoft operating system used in nearly all IBM-compatible computers. His attempt to extend his control over the vast communications network of the future by anti-competitive means should not be tolerated.

Microsoft's dominance comes from the fact that its Windows operating system -- a computer's nervous system -- is installed in an estimated 90 percent of personal computers. Microsoft contracts allow computer manufacturers that use Windows in their products to include software from other companies, provided the software didn't compete with Microsoft products.

Gates extended that policy to his marketing of software designed to browse the Internet. Netscape Communications Corp. had developed the most popular Internet browsing software. By requiring computer makers to install Microsoft's Internet browser in their products, Gates could block Netscape. In addition, the Microsoft browser could be tailored to direct Internet users in ways beneficial to Microsoft.

Recognizing that strategy, the Justice Department forced Microsoft into a 1995 consent decree forbidding any tie-in between Windows 95 and a separate software product. Microsoft's response was to integrate the Internet browser into its Windows operating system in a way that the two would be inseparable and dependent on each other. The effort was aimed at gliding Microsoft through a loophole in the consent decree that the prohibition "not be construed to prohibit Microsoft from developing integrated software products."

The Justice Department and 20 states, not including Hawaii, are on target in accusing Microsoft of anti-competitive and exclusionary practices. Gates should be be required to assign the computer wizards who made Windows and Microsoft's Internet browser inseparable to separate them and make them compete fairly with other systems.

Disagreement on India

YOU can try to put a positive gloss on it, but the real news out of the Group of Eight summit in Birmingham, England, is that President Clinton's efforts to win approval of a coordinated program of economic sanctions to punish India for its nuclear tests failed. Supporting the United States were Canada and Japan. The Europeans -- Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Britain -- were opposed.

The eight ended the annual summit with a plea to Pakistan not to respond in kind to India's five nuclear explosions. Clinton called the tests "a nutty way to go," but nutty or not the Group of Eight couldn't agree what to do about them beyond an appeal to Pakistan without the threat of sanctions.

Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott arrived in Birmingham from Pakistan empty-handed, unable to obtain a pledge from its leaders that they would not match India's tests. The eight's failure to form a united front of sanctions against India sent the message that Pakistan wouldn't be punished either -- except perhaps by the United States and Japan.

The United States' attempt to lead the world community on this issue was rebuffed -- a disturbing sign that could indicate more defeats to come.

Kona historic site

THE donation of a 16-acre Kona parcel said to have been the home of Kamehameha I's great-great-grandmother is an important advance for the cause of historic preservation. First Hawaiian Credit Corp., a subsidiary of First Hawaiian Bank, is giving the property to the state after acquiring it through foreclosure. The Department of Land and Natural Resources hopes to develop the site and the adjacent Keolonahihi State Historical Park into a larger park facility.

Known as the Keakealaniwahine complex, the property is about three miles south of Kailua and contains at least 29 sites with heiaus, platforms, stone walls, archeological deposits and the home of Chiefess Keakealaniwahine, the highest-ranking alii of her generation.

Last year First Hawaiian Bank donated its branch building in downtown Hilo to the Tsunami Museum -- another generous gift to the Big Island and the state.

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Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor