Editorials
Saturday, September 4, 1999
Hawaiian sovereignty
educational campaignTHE Office of Hawaiian Affairs will provide more than $243,000 for a campaign to educate Hawaiians on issues related to sovereignty. This seems like an appropriate use of OHA funds even though some Hawaiian activists contend that any program funded by the state -- as this is indirectly -- is tainted and should be shunned.The issue: The Office of Hawaiian Affairs will fund an educational campaign on Hawaiian sovereignty.
A recent OHA opinion survey showed sovereignty ranked tenth in importance among Hawaiians polled -- hardly an enthusiastic endorsement. Only 11 percent of Hawaiian respondents ranked sovereignty as their most pressing issue. The highest ranking issues were land rights, Hawaiian unity and education.
This may indicate skepticism that anything will materialize from the sovereignty movement. That is understandable in view of the lack of consensus thus far on what form sovereignty should take.
Nevertheless, Hawaiians may someday be asked to vote in a referendum on sovereignty. It's important that they become knowledgeable on the subject. In addition, as OHA Chairwoman Rowena Akana noted, non-Hawaiians want to know how sovereignty would affect them.
A puwalu, or native gathering, is tentatively scheduled for next spring, planned by the OHA advisory group Paepae Hanohano.
The volunteer group has been meeting to gather information, discuss issues and select alternatives for sovereignty. The educational campaign would be conducted in conjunction with the conference.
The meeting was originally planned for October but OHA postponed it because of the pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court of the decision in the Rice vs. Cayetano case, involving a challenge to OHA elections on grounds of racial discrimination. A reversal by the high court of the lower court decision favoring OHA could be devastating.
It's important that the educational material on sovereignty issues be presented in an impartial manner if it is to achieve credibility. There is considerable distrust among the rival Hawaiian organizations that must be overcome if unity is to be achieved.
Although to some critics OHA bears a stigma because it operates under state law, the agency could well become the basis of a sovereign Hawaiian entity. It is governed by an elected board, funded through a share of state revenue from ceded lands and serves to advance the welfare of Hawaiians.
It would be self-defeating if the educational campaign were to be biased in favor of a larger role for OHA. As a practical matter, however, OHA has a strong case to play a leading role in the sovereignty movement.
January '97 OHA Ceded Lands Ruling
Medical information on
the ’Net is unreliableINTERNET proponents have long warned that the World Wide Web contains much misinformation because of its universal access -- anyone can create a Web site. It is up to the consumer to assess the site's credibility, ordinarily by its sponsorship.
However, a team of researchers has found that a great deal of medical information emanating from reputable institutions is erroneous, in some cases life-threatening if heeded. Their study reveals a need for efforts to extend accepted health-care information standards to the Internet.
University of Michigan researchers reported this month in the journal Cancer that the Internet is rife with errors. For example, their analysis of 371 Web sites with references to Ewing sarcoma, an uncommon bone cancer that afflicts children and young adults, revealed that about a third lacked any indication that the information had been confirmed by the time-honored process of peer review. Six percent of the Web pages lacking peer review were "clearly erroneous," while others were seriously outdated or misleading.
An Internet user could have been led by one Web site to believe that Ewing sarcoma has a 95 percent mortality rate. In fact, it is among the most curable of cancers, with a survival rate of 70 to 75 percent. The site containing the misinformation is operated by the Encyclopedia Britannica, which corrected the error after it was pointed out.
Last year, pediatric specialists from Ohio State University examined 60 Web sites established by major medical institutions, medical schools and hospitals. Eighty percent gave inaccurate information about treating childhood diarrhea.
Internet users should be accustomed to wacky information but they don't expect it on Web sites operated by highly respected medical organizations. The health-care field needs to assure that medical institutions subject information to peer review before transmitting it on the Internet.
Consumers need confidence that they can locate reliable information on the Internet by exercising reasonable caution in selecting sites. Failure of the medical profession to take appropriate action would invite government intervention.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert 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
