Where is the Next Generation of Leaders?

The only hope for Hawaii now, is to elect the next (new) generation of leaders like Tulsi Gabbard, Charles Djou, to lead the state into the 21st century -- instead of the present leaders, like Mazie, Mufi, Colleen leading them back into the old plantation era -- of their being the lunas for life. And so a whole generation will have to wait their turn for them to die or get senile in office so everybody else can move up. Meanwhile, Hawaii falls further back into the Dark Ages where the homeless and lawless urinate, defecate and take over the community property and assets, while the present l"leaders" are powerless to do anything about it, because they've long forgotten how to do anything -- but keep their seats warm.

And the people of Hawaii are convinced to do what they've always done before -- do what the leaders tell them to do, as though that was their own idea and will. In that way, Hawaii is like every 3rd world country -- where their "democratic" leaders get 95% of the vote, and the people complain year after year that their lives are getting worse, thinking there is nothing they can do about it because they "have to" do what they've always done before -- because that is what their teachers teach them to do. And so the money goes to the leaders and the government workers (unions) to keep themselves in power and get all the benefits formerly intended for the keiki, kupuna, handicapped and the whole community.

Meanwhile, the government workers are double- and triple-dipping because they administer these government welfare programs to include themselves in addition to their lifetime sinecures by setting the qualifying levels for welfare at 250% of the federal standards. And so there is no money "left over" for government's original purpose and functions -- because the teachers think their job is their own career advancement, pensions and benefits, and not to teach the classes, or even hold classes, fix roads and sewers, etc..

That's why the homeless and lawless now (the people) are living, urinating and defecating on the sidewalks, parks, beaches, ocean, and right outside the police station -- because there is no respect for the government anymore. And so the people of Hawaii need this revolution (in thinking) to overthrow the present oligarchy (government for the benefit of a few) and really introduce a modern system of government that does something for the people (everyone) -- and not just maintain the present status quo of benefiting themselves and their "ohana. "

Aren't the people tired of being used and abused for the ambitions of those who think it is their birthright to be their leaders? That can change, and the people have a right to -- even if their "leaders" tell them they cannot do that.

You Can't Solve One Problem As Though It's Unrelated To Every Other Problem

That's why no problem in Hawaii can be solved anymore. One can't solve any problem without affecting every other problem -- and it is the stubborn insistence that only one problem can be solved, that makes it impossible to solve any and all the problems -- because you just can't solve only one. Which means one has to pass a law just to solve that one problem -- and only that one problem, rather than all the problems similar to it.

That would be government by law, and not just arbitrary government -- needing one specialist to solve only one problem, and then another specialist to solve only his one problem -- so that many more government jobs can be created in that way.

So when one hears that the homeless are defecating on the surfboards and other property right outside the Waikiki police station and there's nothing anybody can do about it -- because the bathrooms must be locked or they will be vandalized (right outside the police station), it becomes obvious that those bathrooms must be supervised 24/7, and what better way to do it but to build an adjoining living area for a homeless person to take care of that bathroom in exchange for that shelter -- instead of just storing the cleaning supplies, and leaving the place abandoned and unsupervised the rest of the time.

We obviously need caretakers for all the public bathrooms to protect our investment -- while providing the homeless, shelter and a job. What else do they have to do? and where else would they go -- except the surfboard racks, beach concessions and the ocean?

But the unions for the government workers would not approve of that because that would eliminate their jobs -- to clean up the problems, while the problems have far outstripped their capacity to keep up, because efficiencies are not allowed; that would eliminate more jobs.

The problem has to be the solution -- and not one group causing all the problems and another, cleaning up their problems. The problem has to become the solution - and not endlessly creating more problems because it will create more (high-paying) jobs instead of the many minimal ones that would eliminate these problems. But if government is convinced that the only way they can create more jobs is to create more problems, when the money runs out, they have a problem-creating machine with no funding available to keep up.

One group of people exists just to create problems for everybody else -- and they can never be their own solution. Eventually, the dependents outstrip the codependents, so that society must fail. That is the problem of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and government pensions and sinecures. All the money goes to those who are no longer productive, and no money is available to do any work -- because all the money is paid to those who don't work, don't produce, but just demand increasingly more. That is an unsustainable society -- that have been doomed from time immemorial.

Eventually such societies pass away -- and are replaced by new societies of people who are productive rather than just destroyers of any value and usefulness. And the people who should know better, are powerless to do anything about it but watch that disintegration with increasing dismay. But that is the society they have created, and sit on the top of, and hope it will continue for as long as they live before it collapses -- as they know it must.

You don't have to build elaborate houses for the homeless to live in to care for the public restrooms; the most basic accommodations will do -- until they find better, or they can't do the jobs well enough to justify their tenancy. There has to be a will to solve problems instead of just creating problems -- as the only thing the citizens are capable of anymore.

Making a Difference

It's not the form (media) that is important; it is the content.

Unfortunately too much of the proliferation of new technology exchanges has no or little content -- besides the upgraded version of telephone tag, and so just becomes a drain on one's attention.

The opportunity of communications is to create and share a new idea and feeling -- and not simply be another node for repeating the old and trite to one's own circle, in case they haven't heard it yet. That is simply the Old Media of mass propaganda.

But to communicate an original idea and feeling, requires immense energy, focus and is the manifestation of intelligence -- that is the organizing imperative of anyone's life. So if one can maintain that proficiency all one's life, there is no decline -- but one's personal challenge to do so, and meaning, purpose and fulfillment in life.

The whole secret of writing is to write to the one -- as though that was all that mattered, and not to all, as though they didn't matter, didn't know better, didn't care, and couldn't tell the difference.

One can be vapid in haiku -- as well as incomprehensible in the more familiar lengthy (and unread) academic treatises and style of writing, which made necessary modern journalism and the legions of middle men to explain what the proclaimed geniuses actually said. But the great accomplishment of any communications, is to make the complicated, simple, and directly understandable -- as the expression and communion of one's own familiarity and understanding.

All of art is the same way -- the expression of the original and creative, and not a form, no matter how novel it may seem in the sea of sameness and conformity, simply doing things as they've always been done before -- as though that was enough to make it art, tradition and culture. Society and culture, is what individuals do -- that matter and makes a difference. That is the only thing that has ever made a difference -- and mattered.

You Can't Put the Genie Back in the Bottle Again

Back in the old days, newspapers would ostensibly compete on the claim of which was the freest (independent) news source -- but in the new era, the quest now is to see which among them can exert the most control -- and get them (readers) back aboard, thinking only what they (editor-publishers) think is important, if not the actual limits of thought -- just like in the good old days before every forum became a two-way street -- if not an information superhighway.

That meant that no one person or organization actually controlled that flow, but every play could be a "jump ball" and anybody could play -- some being the best in the world at what they did -- even if nobody else knew what they did. That puts the ball firmly in the court of those who do -- while leaving the "middleman" of the media way behind. That used to be the job of the media -- to be the middleman, in the exchange of information from the specialists, to the vast citizenry awaiting directives on what to think -- which is that dependency-codependency that arose in the 20th century as people migrated from stable rural communities into the accelerated paces of big city life and environs.

The pillar of stability and reliability thus became the big city newspaper, and then the broadcast networks. They assured us, they would be all one would ever need to know -- and was everything worth knowing. Those were simpler times before the flood of information released at the end of the 20th century, when it seemed to those traditional gatekeepers of information and political/social correctness, all hell broke loose.

But now that the situation has stabilized somewhat, it's time to reassert their authority -- in the new landscape, if they can first find out, what that is. And so we saw the Honolulu Star-Advertiser this week move towards an online subscription requirement for full participation and access to what they believe is their premium brand, as is their right to do. It's just that in the not-so-distant past, these newspapers all but (mis)represented themselves as quasi-governmental institutions -- as they proclaimed themselves the unofficial fourth branch of government, or merely, the lofty, irreproachable fourth estate.

It's a great niche -- if one can get it, and they were not bashful at claiming it, or even better, owning it. So it was quite amusing to see them try to reclaim that former high ground they thought they used to own -- as lifetime entitlements. But many others caught on -- if that is all one has to do -- act like one owns the turf.

Thus their first tentative steps in that direction to reclaim their place in the pantheon of immortals, was quite obvious, if not impudent. Comments now were to be relegated to a much lower status than their much more highly vaunted articles and editorials, and new and improved industrial strength editing, censoring and suppression. That was very deliberate and unmistakable. Everything but their own writing and suasion, was just to be tossed in a large basket called "everything else," with no time stamp and independence apart from its subservience and subordination to their primary articles of singular importance. They were even to appear in much smaller print, and shouldn't be taken seriously -- when people had come to look forward to those forums and interchanges, as the evolving newer, better news(paper) of the future.

Once one opens Pandora's Box, or lets the genie out of the bottle, it is very difficult if not impossible, to put it back in, and restores the world to the perfect state it was in previously. Everything has already changed -- irrevocably. But one knew, Hawaii would be the place, where somebody would try.