It can try but Japan cannot justify whaling
In his
July 10 letter, "Humane whaling aids Japanese research," Makoto Hinei, senior consul of the consulate general of Japan, attempts to defend his country's slaughter of more than 500 whales this past year. Japan, along with Norway and Iceland, is an outlaw nation that routinely flouts world opinion on killing whales and dolphins.
At the most recent meeting of the the International Whaling Commission, the Japanese led the way for opening up even more whale kills.
I just returned from Tokyo, where whale and dolphin meat are readily available. The only science involved here is agricultural.
Furthermore, Hinei would have us believe that Japan's sudden financial generosity with Caribbean countries has to do with beneficence and not vote-buying on the whaling commission. What a coincidence that Japan suddenly befriends countries that can vote for whale killing.
Wayne Johnson
Honolulu
Here's an idea: Try drinking water
I don't know what world Jennifer Nomura is living in (
Letters, July 11), but we surely do not need soda machines in our schools. If she is suffering from dehydration, why doesn't she just go to a drinking fountain? Up until the point that the companies manufacturing these machines decided to make more profits, we got along perfectly well without them for years. When I attended college several years ago, I saw kids buying pop at 7:30 in the morning, and I don't think they were suffering from dehydration.
Alan Cummings
Port Angeles, Wash.
Former Hawaii resident
Waikiki parking is tight but temporary
The city appreciates the understanding and patience of Waikiki residents, businesses and others, and sincerely apologizes for the temporary loss of parking spaces along Ala Wai Boulevard due to the Beachwalk Wastewater Emergency Bypass Project. People are making other arrangements because there is no immediate solution to make alternate parking available "to the long suffering auto owners in Waikiki" as requested by David Hamilton (
Letters, July 6).
The city had to act quickly to repair the 42-inch concrete force main under Kaiolu Street that ruptured on March 24. The emergency bypass that is now being temporarily placed in the Ala Wai Canal is the key first step on our way to replacing the 42-year-old force main and Beachwalk Waste Water Pump Station.
Please bear with us, as these projects are essential to the protection of the health and safety of the residents, workers and visitors to Waikiki, as well as to the island and state economy.
Eldon Franklin
Department of Design and Construction
City and County of Honolulu
Many senior citizens do not have photo IDs
The new requirement of a photo ID to obtain Medicaid benefits is one more layer of unnecessary bureaucracy between social services and the people who are legally entitled to them. Many elderly and poor people don't drive because they can't afford a car, and they also can't afford a state photo ID.
And here's another pet peeve: Why do U.S. citizens have to keep proving their citizenship repeatedly to the same government agencies for social services that are provided to noncitizens? The citizenship documents should be scanned once and saved in computer files to avoid this irritating nonsense.
William Moake
Honolulu
Questions about rail just will not go away
Letter writer Jason Yuen (
Star-Bulletin, July 9) asks why rail opponents keep asking the same questions when opposing rail.
Could the answer be that no one has provided realistic answers to those questions? If our elected leaders did stop to consider those questions, they would see that rail is going to be a tremendous waste of money and solve nothing.
Bill Nelson
Haleiwa
Traffic laws apply to police, too
The police officer who ran the red light at King and Kapiolani Thursday night at 11 p.m. hurrying back to the station should remember that he or she is a role model for kids learning to drive. Let's make that a good role model, OK?
James Ballinger
Kailua