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Pushing out homeless
is useless and cruel

THE ISSUE The city is conducting a series of biweekly sweeps to rid parks of homeless people.

THERE'S a single humane note in the city's aggressive plan to purge parks of people who have nowhere else to live: Officials notified aid and relief organizations of their intentions.

Other than that, the plan to chase away people who do not have the wherewithal to acquire a permanent roof over their heads is cruel, ineffective and unworthy of a community that claims the aloha spirit.

Driving individuals and families from parks and other public property merely makes helping them more difficult and further promotes the notion that they are society's outcasts.

Mayor Hannemann, whose blue-collar roots should make him more sympathetic to the less fortunate, should review parks director Lester Chang's objectives in conducting a series of biweekly, night-time sweeps through parks from McCully to Hawaii Kai.

Chang reiterated the usual reasons for the sweeps -- complaints from residents and keeping parks clean. He and residents surely know that these cleansings are only temporary.

Margot Schrire, chairwoman of Partners in Care, told the Star-Bulletin's Mary Vorsino that continual uprooting disrupts aid programs for people, saying "just when you get them hooked into the various resources, you have to find them and start things going again."

The mayor, who has organized "blue-ribbon" panels to review city operations and assets, may find room for another to tackle the lack of facilities and services for the homeless, who, too, are citizens. About 25 percent of them have jobs, send their children to school and pay taxes that keep the city running.

One panel, comprised of real estate and development leaders, is now looking at how to best use more than 700 parcels of city-owned land. Perhaps a few of them could be used as temporary shelters.

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Make new rules
for biopharming

THE ISSUE Scientists involved in biotechnology say it could play an important role in diversifying Hawaii's economy.

HAWAII is emerging as a leader in the area of genetically engineered crops used to produce pharmaceutical and industrial chemicals. The industry may play an important role in diversifying the state's economy, but increased environmental safeguards are needed.

In a commendable breakthrough, Hawaii Biotech Inc. recently developed a vaccine that has the potential of protecting native Hawaiian birds from the lethal West Nile virus. The Aiea-based company will begin testing the vaccine on domestic white geese and, if effective, on the Hawaiian nene.

Proponents of the melding of agriculture and technology -- called biopharming -- say it can be used to combat infectious and chronic diseases such as herpes and influenza, growth hormones, blood clotting agents and even contraceptives. Skeptics warn that growth in open fields could contaminate nearby food crops and threaten endangered plants and animals.

"One mistake by a biotech company and we'll be eating other people's prescription drugs in our corn flakes," Friends of the Earth official Larry Bohlen has been quoted as saying.

By order of federal Judge David Ezra, the U.S. Department of Agriculture in February provided environmental groups represented by the Earthjustice law firm precise locations of open-air field tests of biopharmaceutical crops in Hawaii. Ezra has yet to decide whether to order public access to the information, as called for by Earthjustice. Attorneys in the case have been ordered to keep the information confidential.

Hawaii has more test sites for modified crops than anywhere else in the world so proper oversight may be more urgent than elsewhere. Margery Bronster, an attorney for Hawaii's biotech industry, says public disclosure of test plots could lead to vandalism, as has happened on the mainland.

New rules are needed that would allow the new industry to flourish and still assure protection against contamination of people and other species.

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