Holiday shopping a
patriotic missionThe issue: Consumer spending can keep
the economy from tanking deeperShopaholics can succumb guilt free to their addiction this holiday season. After all, they and other Americans are only doing what is patriotic, what their president has asked them to do, which is to open their wallets and spend. Despite fewer greenbacks in their pockets, people appear to be confident enough to buy and, if consumer spending drives the economy, consider the economy at least in first gear on the road to recovery.
Reports from across the country and in Hawaii showed people crowding malls and stores on the day after Thanksgiving, one of the biggest shopping days of the season. Foot traffic at Ala Moana Center, for example, was up 10 to 15 percent this year over last. Although some people plan to lay out less this year, savvy merchants are featuring deep discounts and sales to motivate them.
Smart shoppers would do well to be alert to where and what they buy. Retailers are asking that people make their purchases at local stores -- instead of through catalogues or via the Internet -- to keep workers here employed and to boost state revenues.
Further, shoppers can keep dollars circulating in the islands by buying Hawaii-made products and merchandise from locally owned stores. Choosing a gift of a milo-wood bowl turned by a Hawaii artisan instead of a teak carving from Indonesia supports a neighbor. At the supermarket, picking up Kunia or Maui onions for a food basket instead of bulbs imported from Peru or Mexico will help island farmers and wholesale companies. In the florist shop, selecting Big Island-carnations instead of a bouquet from Colombia not only makes sense economically, but assures pesticide levels are safe for fragrant sniffing.
Macy's, which is likely to have accounted for much of the attraction at Ala Moana when it staged its grand opening the day after Thanksgiving, recognizes this. The department store giant that has taken over Liberty House operations made it a point to stock Hawaii-made gifts and local fashions, such as clothing by Ann Namba, as its predecessor did.
The economic repercussions of September 11 will likely stretch through next year, if not longer, and no amount of consumer spending will negate the effects of the decrease in the number of tourists coming to the islands. Still, spending our dollars prudently to make the most impact on the local economy can affect how broadly the fiscal pain spreads.
Travel industry has
urgent security needsThe issue: Airports will undergo a
one-year transition in federalizing
baggage screening.FLYING did not automatically become safer when President Bush signed the aviation-security measure into law a week ago. The law calls for a one-year transition in turning over baggage-screening duties from private companies to a federal agency. The travel industry can't wait that long. Airlines need to take responsibility now for improving the baggage-checking process, which has undergone severe criticism since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
The newly-created Transportation Security Administration has the task of hiring 28,000 people, including 600 in Hawaii, to scan baggage and passengers at airports. The agency has a mid-December deadline to decide upon an examination for prospective screeners with assets such as concentration, stamina and the ability to quickly spot obscure weapons in clutter.
Federal baggage screeners will earn salaries up to $30,000 with full federal health and pension benefits and, in Hawaii, a 25 percent cost-of-living allowance. Screeners presently working for private companies make barely more than the minimum wage. But higher wages and benefits alone will not improve the system.
In the late 1980s, airport-security tests showed that screeners missed one in five obvious images of bombs or guns through X-ray machines. Their performance has grown worse, although officials decline to say how much. In recent trials, fake hand grenades taped to wheelchairs got past screeners at Honolulu Airport seven of nine times, according to a former security-company employee.
Armed National Guard soldiers have been monitoring airport checkpoints since early October, but the actual scanning remains in the hands of poorly paid employees of low-bid companies hired by airline consortiums. Twenty percent of the screeners are believed to account for 80 percent of the mistakes.
One test being developed for scanners has them pick objects out of an X-ray image. Another test nearing completion monitors workers on the job by slipping fake weapons into the X-ray images of bags. Screeners are expected to react in seven seconds. One speed drill designed to identify the worst scanners involves drawing lines between letters and numbers scattered over a page.
The tests are being developed for the new hires but should be applied also to current employees of the airport security companies that remain temporarily in charge. In their final year on the job, companies should follow the practice of other industries, such as automobile manufacturing, in testing employees who are required to perform critical, while monotonous, inspection duties.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comRichard Halloran, editorial page director, 529-4790; rhalloran@starbulletin.com
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