Talk Story
‘Price of Paradise’
on radio offers
even more insightsI AM REMINDED every time I have a conversation with my friend Dennis or wake up to the dulcet tones of Bob Edwards that great radio voices -- those distinctive, rumbling baritones -- are born, not made.
In the old days, a pack-a-day cigarette habit and tonsils bathed in good scotch could add Cronkite-like timbre and resonance, if not wisdom, but not today.
Listeners to the Star-Bulletin's "Price of Paradise" radio talk show, which I host, have to take me as I come. Mine is a newspaper voice if you ever heard one. If my Sunday evening adventures in broadcasting have been worthwhile, it's more in the area of substance than style.
We relaunched "Price of Paradise" in the Sunday newspaper last July and later added the radio show, broadcasting Sundays at 8 p.m. on KKEA, 1420-AM, the home of University of Hawaii sports. In our first three shows we looked at state tax policy, the status of women in Hawaii and the admission of non-Hawaiians to Kamehameha Schools.
On-air guests include the authors of the "Price of Paradise" essays in that morning's paper -- people with lots of information and opinions to share, not all of which show up in print.
BECAUSE the radio show gives listeners and me a chance to ask questions, additional insights surface. For example:
>> Once a state tax credit is passed, like the $75 million write-off proposed for the Ko Olina resort, how it is administered is beyond public scrutiny. Tax returns are confidential.
>> Using tax credits to spur new industries can have unintended consequences. For example, half the $35 million credit meant to spur high tech went to the makers of "Blue Crush," a film about girl surfers.
>> The $30 to $40 million a year Andy Anderson hoped to raise for public education with his "pineapple lottery" would have been a mere drop in the bucket, considering the Department of Education's $1.47 billion annual budget.
>> Far from being a tempest in a sand trap, the beef over admitting female members to Augusta National Golf Club was worthwhile. It sensitized women and men alike to the gender barriers that persist despite the well-publicized advances women have made, such as both major parties in Hawaii nominating female candidates for governor.
>> Feminists today are graying. Activists working on women's issues say they find themselves surrounded more and more by others in their 40s and 50s. They say there's still work to do to improve women's social and economic standing, but younger women seem content to enjoy the product of their elders' efforts rather than get involved.
>> Although the Kamehameha Schools benefit from a private trust, they have been entwined so long in local politics that people often consider them a public institution and apply the wrong set of rules. Attitudes toward the schools range from devotion, reverence and pride to resentment grounded in misunderstanding and ignorance.
>> Rapid growth -- like expanding Kamehameha Schools to include Maui and Big Island campuses, early childhood education programs, partnering with public schools and effectively spending 4 percent of the $6 billion trust each year on education -- is fraught with problems. These range from mailing scholarship checks on time to recruiting a new student body. Finding 400 eligible tenth-graders on Maui is a particular challenge.
>> The schools' admission of a non-Hawaiian student touched off a storm of protest from the Hawaiian community last July. Kamehameha advisory board member Roy Benham, asked when his group found out about it, said: "After the fact." CEO Hamilton McCubbin shrugged and nodded. Setting up an advisory committee doesn't help unless you ask for advice.
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The Price of Paradise appears each week in the Sunday Insight section. The mission of POP is to contribute lively and informed dialog about public issues, particularly those having to do with our pocketbooks. Reader responses appear later in the week. If you have thoughts to share about today's POP articles, please send them, with your name and daytime phone number, to pop@starbulletin.com, or write to Price of Paradise, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana, Honolulu, HI 96813.
John Flanagan
Contributing Editor
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.
