All That Has To Change

"The hope may be for educational excellence, but the reality will be about fighting to survive."

-- Richard Borreca, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, September 23, 2009


Excellence begins with survival. That's how they get focused on turning a bad situation into a good one -- and not, "How are we going to spend our time and money at Disney World?" That's NOT what education is about, but has been what the DOE has offered in any discussion on "excellence."

Surely it must be obvious to the people of Hawaii that if a turnaround does not BEGIN with the schools -- of demonstrating the ability to make a bad situation good, it won't be happening anywhere else, and why should we pour more money down the drain in that way to rid ourselves of the wealth created by those who are providing for survival at the most basic level.

I know the image cultivated by the media and politicians has been of an unlimited Pina collada society watching sunsets and whales in the background, while ignoring and denying the fact that the homeless and dispossessed are growing more numerous all over the Islands -- because they don't have the basic skills of survival.

at such times, you have to get back to the basics, and really CHANGE Hawaii, and not just commission another study to talk about it -- at Disney World, or even Waikaloa.

You look at the societies that are really eartness at improving their society -- like an Iraq, India, China. They're not focused on creating more high-paying jobs for themselves as "administrators." They're cleaning their own toilets, mopping their own floors, growing their own food -- as working models for success in a difficult world, and not as in Hawaii, providing for the bureaucratic lifestyle we've become accustomed to.

That has to all end if Hawaii is to have a viable future, and not become the next Nauru Republic of the Pacific.

Places without a lot of resources (sand, sea, sun doesn't count), have to become even more resourceful than places rich in them. That's how Japan for many years was able to drive the world -- and Europe also rebuild itself from total devastation.

But Hawaii's always known only the good life and so its people are utterly unprepared to create their own wealth not handed to them because their so-called leaders told them all they had to do in life was to put out their begging bowls.

All that has to change.