Does ADB insure against failure?

ADBwatch and other organizations that oppose the Asian Development Bank's policies require their members to make a pledge of nonviolent opposition. Yet some insist that these organizations need insurance in case protests get out of hand and cause injuries and property damage.

As the ADB pledges economic development, one wonders if it has insurance in case its projects get out of hand and cause poverty, displacement and environmental damage.

Mike Morton
Mililani

Hilton does not need a seventh tower

Hilton's greed will destroy the homey feeling of the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Hilton's announcement of a new seventh 350-foot tower to be built on a remaining odd-shaped 1.9-acre sliver of land must be stopped or scaled down. Local residents were sorry to see the Hawaiiana Tahitian Lanai landmark destroyed and do not wish to see a huge building wedged into this property.

Waikiki does not need this monster-sized tower. This tower kills the last remaining view of the ocean for hundreds of nearby taxpaying residents. Why can't Hilton give something back to the community and live up to its national advertising that says there is open space on its village property. We are just recovering from the noise of the new Kalia Tower that was placed on another remaining parcel.

A five-foot strip of tropical plants will not make up for the fact that this strip of land is too small for a tower 350 feet tall.

Seiko Araki

[Quotables] "It was a great trip here. And I don't know about this adaption they talk about. I'm already adapted." Dennis Tito, California millionaire and the world's first space tourist, upon arriving at the international space station yesterday. "I think we should let history pass. I believe, let it rest." Duc Nguyen, Hawaii resident who emigrated from South Vietnam in 1975, about the revelation of former Nebraska Sen. Robert Kerrey that he led a team of Navy SEALs who mistakenly killed innocent civilians during a firefight in a Vietnamese village in 1969.

Bush tax-cut plan rewards the rich

Now that everyone's done their taxes, kiplinger.com has an easy program on the Web to calculate your tax savings under the Bush plan. For a couple grossing about $110,000 year, the first year tax savings average about $650, with about $2,500 a year savings in the final 10th year. Check it out (http://www.kiplinger.com/php/bushtax/index.html). You may be satisfied with the bone you're being thrown.

Our president is doing exactly as he promised during his campaign, namely to give his richest donors the tax break they paid him for. He told us so to our faces and to Al Gore in the debates, and now it is very close to becoming law. Why don't we question our own Congressman Neil Abercrombie on why he continues to support this estate tax repeal?

Bush's plan to repeal the estate tax would provide as much in tax reductions to the 4,500 largest estates as the entire tax plan would provide to 142 million people (according to a Feb. 26 analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C., non-partisan policy institute).

The 4,500 largest estates and the 142 million people with the lowest incomes would each receive about $28 billion under the plan in 2010, when estate tax repeal would be in full effect. That works out to a cool average $6.22 million for each of the 4,500 largest estates in tax savings in the final 10th year and less than $200 for each of the 142 million people with lowest incomes.

Bryan Hefner
Kailua

Food for thought on Waipahu roosters

As Richard O. Guerin points out (Letters, April 27), many of the roosters in Waipahu are there to service the chickens so the bird-owners can share eggs with their neighbors. I bet many people thought the roosters were for fighting! Silly them! But hey, if you had a cow, you could then share milk with your neighbors. And if you had some pigs...you clearly see where this is heading.

So to bring lasting peace between the keen of sleeping and hearing, and the chicken-loving, egg sharing residents of Waipahu, I humbly suggest sharing some Huli-Huli chicken with them. This should quiet things down.

Pete Chisteckoff
Mililani

You don't need rooster to have fresh eggs

Contrary to Richard O. Guerin's letter of April 27, you don't need a rooster for egg production. Once a hen has made nice with a rooster, she'll continue to lay non-fertilized eggs -- usually one a day.

These hens are called pullets. If someone wants "their own" fresh eggs, let them go to a farm and purchase a pullet(s) and keep the roosters on the farms where they belong.

The goodwill that Mr. Guerin says people enjoy "sharing eggs," is nothing compared to the bad will these roosters create in my Wahiawa neighborhood. Some of those who own roosters are the same folks who use them for cockfighting, sell "ice" to those who live in our neighborhood and others who come here to buy it, and don't hold any tax-paying (legal) jobs.

Neighborhoods are waking up already worn out to face another workday or school day. But what do those bums care?

When we complain to the Hawaiian Humane Society about roosters, they offer us traps to catch free-roaming chicken broods.

Yeah, like I'm going to start bagging illegal chickens that belong to armed drug dealers.

The only rooster I want to see in my neighborhood, is the one I'm about to eat.

Madison Clark
Wahiawa

Why is it OK for U.S. to sell weapons?

If it was wrong for the Soviets to provide Cuba with weapons in 1962, why is it alright for the United States to supply Taiwan with weapons now?

Mervyn Chang

Mansho's good deeds outweigh mistakes

City Councilwoman Rene Mansho should run for mayor of Honolulu.

Regardless of what naysayers in her district think about her, she has done an outstanding job for the state of Hawaii, especially for the promotion of tourism. Her time and energy throughout her public career have been spent, not for personal gain, but for the good of the economy, the state and its people.

Her integrity and dedication for the community overrides all of the few omissions made during her term as City Councilwoman.

Toshio Chinen
Pearl City

Despite her record, Mansho must go

To the people who idolize Councilwoman Rene Mansho: She may have accomplished many projects in Wahiawa, major and minor.

But has she performed all these years of elected service without knowing what is right from left?

No matter what the cost is, Mansho must be recalled by the registered voters of the district.

Toshihiro Nakagawa
Mililani

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