{"id":6896,"date":"2020-03-28T04:09:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T04:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/?p=6896"},"modified":"2020-04-02T21:53:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T21:53:43","slug":"pulling-back-the-curtain-on-incompetence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/28\/pulling-back-the-curtain-on-incompetence\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii: pulling back the curtain on incompetence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLike the nation, Hawaii did not have an actionable plan in place to deal with a pandemic crisis\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow else is Hawaii unprepared?\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\n
\n\t

The world has paused . . . <\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The world has paused, and the business-as-usual has taken a time out in the Aloha State. The tourists are gone and we are privileged to experience a Hawaii that has been stripped of the trappings of greed. No polluting tourist buses on the roads, or clawing tourists clogging up our beautiful islands. Take a moment, take a deep breath, the air is fresh, clean . . . and that sound you are hearing? That's the sound of the trade winds blowing across our island. The voice of greedy private self interest has been temporarily silenced . . . and now we can, for the moment, experience the real joy that is our island State. We have despoiled our home, and now we know it. Our leaders are experiencing this too. Will they lead us back into hell when this is over?<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic has near-instantly remapped the playing field. Our leaders will now have to come out from behind the curtain and abandon \"business-as-usual\"; they'll need to stop pandering to the whims of the rich and refocus their efforts to achieve a more balanced outcome for our entire community.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lack of preparedness is a risky game of musical chairs<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The pandemic has exposed our governments for the game that they\u2019d been playing at the expense of the public they were supposed to be serving.\u00a0\u00a0 The nation \u2013 and the State of Hawaii \u2013 have demonstrated that they were never prepared for a serious crisis, let alone a global pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

What this means is that the politicians that you voted for in the last election lied to you.\u00a0 They convinced you that they would administer the affairs of the public in an actionably responsible way.\u00a0 \u201cThe health, safety and well being of my community is my first priority . . .\u00a0 .\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Remember that one?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Healthcare providers \u2013 doctors, nurses, and support staff \u2013 are frightened.\u00a0 There is a critical shortage of PPE (personal protection equipment). \u00a0There never was an actionable emergency plan, with supporting infrastructure, in place that could be seamlessly applied in the event of a pandemic, a military assault (including bio-attacks), or a serious natural disaster; there is little in the way of a real, actionable, plan for the catastrophe that global warming will bring upon us.\u00a0 And, are we really ready for catastrophic weather events in Hawaii?\u00a0 How about catastrophic geological events like near-location tsunamis?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The curtain pulled back<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Like the wizard in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d, when the curtain is pulled back, our leaders are the frightened little diminutive man, frantically cranking the wheels and valve handles of the machine that spins the illusion that continues to fascinate the audience.\u00a0 And then one day, the skies darken and the air becomes stifling, and people are getting sick and dying . . . and nothing in that spin machine can save them.\u00a0 Nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, you know what?\u00a0 After the smoke clears and the bodies are safely out of sight, people will vote for these very same politicians again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t we be taking responsibility for our own stupidity?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pandemic camouflage:\u00a0 using the pandemic as a cover to further other, less public-friendly agendas<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Wealthy interests and some of Hawaii\u2019s (and our nation\u2019s) politicians are cloaking themselves in concern over the Covid crisis while, in the background, they are using the occasion to further their own pet agendas.<\/span><\/p>\n

The DLNR has been looking for an excuse to abandon the public harbor system, for years.\u00a0 Now they've found one.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Suzanne Case's DLNR decided to withdraw all personnel from public harbor offices around the State.\u00a0\u00a0 Tenants in the harbor system were caught unawares and left to wonder about how harbors would survive at all.\u00a0 Bathrooms were initially locked down, despite the fact that tenants still used the harbor.\u00a0 No one has seen a DLNR enforcement officer . . . in fact, no one has seen a harbormaster.\u00a0 The garbage pick up schedule in the harbors has been curtailed leaving mounds of trash heaped high in dumpsters, and there has been zero interaction with the boating public via the harbor offices, impacting revenue collection, slip allocation and mooring enforcement, among the multitude of daily transactions that are no longer performed. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nonessential?<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The DLNR example is just one of many. The most recent example to come to light was exposed via a letter by one of our residents, to the Governor of Hawaii and the Mayor of Honolulu asking that same adhere to the intent and spirit of their pandemic proclamations and stop putting construction workers at risk by asking them to work on nonessential hotel restoration and beautification projects.\u00a0 Apparently, the governor and the mayor have chosen to redefine the word nonessential<\/em><\/strong> so that it is applicable to working class residents but not wealthy private financial self interests that endlessly pander to Hawaii\u2019s leaders for prima donna status.<\/span><\/p>\n

What constitutes \"nonessential<\/b><\/i>\" and who is benefiting from that designation?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of course we want to keep as many people working as possible, especially now; the unemployment lines are out the door and around the block here.\u00a0 But the question being asked is whose project is being blessed and why, and which ones get the ax. \u00a0\u00a0 Interesting side note:\u00a0 one of the main ways in which the disease is transmitted is via contaminated surfaces.\u00a0 Shiny, hard surfaces, often found on tools and materials used for construction, are very real potential disease spreaders.\u00a0 The guys on construction sites work all morning touching materials and tools that may have been handled by a half dozen other people . . . and then go have lunch -- maybe a sandwich that they grab with both hands, for example.\u00a0 So there is not a lessened risk to construction workers, which brings us back around to the question of \"nonessential\" . . . who, exactly, is allowed to \"live\" and who \"dies.\"<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No more business-as-usual<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We have near-instantly entered an era where business-as-usual is no longer a valid performance standard.\u00a0\u00a0 The governor and the mayor have to think things through now, carefully . . . wholesale shutdowns and indiscriminately deciding which businesses should cease and which should thrive -- who lives and who dies -- is nothing more than the same old dumbed-down knee-jerk responses that we're used to in Hawaii.\u00a0 We'd like to see our leadership think solutions through, and not only for this crisis, but for the potential catastrophic crises that are inevitable in the foreseeable future. The damage from the pandemic will be much more than from the disease itself.\u00a0 \u00a0Social distancing must be tempered with intelligent schemes that will foster a realistic recovery and maintain healthy social balance. The game is up and the wizard has been discovered.\u00a0 It's time for the grassroots to rise up and to take responsibility for their future.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world has paused . . . The world has paused, and the business-as-usual has taken a time out in the Aloha […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irresponsible-hawaii-lawmaking","category-irresponsible-honolulu-city-government"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hawaiioceannews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Wizard-with-TEXT--e1585367151205.png?fit=850%2C806&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6896"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6934,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6896\/revisions\/6934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}