All posts by Leslie Lang

Brudda Skibs

November 27, 2009 Leslie Lang

Do you remember when we wrote about Brudda Skibs awhile back? Here’s an article from Big Island Weekly about what he’s up to lately.

Saturday, Nov. 21 marked another monumental year for the Honoli’i Paka as they celebrated with their annual surfing classic and keiki fun day.

This is their sixth year in the running and the park hasn’t looked better. Projects are ongoing throughout the year for the parks beautification, but this day was a special day to embrace what has been done and to give back to the community yet again. It was a day of fun, food, prizes, Hawaiian games and lots and lots of surfing.

Best of all, it was free and for the whole family. It was a community effort to make this happen.

“What is so special about this event is that people came together and never gave up,” said as Uncle Skibbs, organizer of the Honoli’i Paka. “We cleaned the park and now we have families and kids here enjoying it regularly.”(read more)

Richard says, “This is what true aloha is all about. He shows us that we are one island; one people. It’s not money that makes us rich.

“I’m proud to say that he and I are cousins on the Kamahele side.”

Eating Locally, Food Security, Schools

Punahou Students Get Involved in Food Security

November 16, 2009 Leslie Lang 1 Comment

Richard just got an email from an 8th grader at Punahou School on O‘ahu. He told me, “Isn’t this wonderful? Intelligent questions. She is asking what their class can do. The kids are trying to save us!”

Her email started like this:

Dear Richard Ha,

My name is L.T. [name removed]. I’m a 14 year old. I’m a 8th grade Punahou School student. Wanda Adams from the Honolulu Advertiser, recommended you to me to answer some questions on a project my class is doing. The project is called project citizen, we choose a problem in our community, research the problem, and then as a class act on the problem. The problem my class chose is that many local farms are struggling because Hawaii is too dependent on imports from the mainland and around the world. Wanda Adams told me that you know a lot about this topic. I have some questions for you about this it if you won’t mind answering….

Richard responded with this:

Aloha L.:

Thanks for your note. As a farmer, I am very encouraged that our young people are aware of the fact that many farmers are struggling, and that you are willing to do something to help. Thank you!

And here is the question and answer part:

Do you have any new information on this problem?

Yes, supermarket produce sales are declining. People have less discretionary income. And they are frequently choosing the cheapest produce they can find. And lots of the time it comes from foreign countries.

How serious is this problem in our community?

Very.

How widespread is the problem in our state or nation?

It is very widespread.

Why is this a problem that should be handled by government?

I don’t know that this is a problem for government to solve.

Should anyone else take responsibilty for solving the problem? Why?

I think it is consumers who can solve the problem. Retailers are very sensitive to their customers wants and needs.

Which of the following do you think is true?

There is no law or policy for dealing with the problem. True
The law for dealing with the problem is not adequate.
The law for dealing with the problem is adequate, but it is not adequate.

What levels of government or government agencies, if any, are responsible for dealing with the problem? What are they doing about the problem?

What are the disagreements about this policy or ways of dealing with it exist in our community?

If consumers would express their support for locally grown food and back it up with action, the retailers would stock more locally grown produce.

Who are the major individuals, groups, or organizations expressing opinions on the problem?

The Hawaii Farm Bureau, Slow Food Hawaii, local chefs, Kanu Hawaii, and there are others. I think that retailers would react positively if they knew that people cared about this subject.

Why are they interested in the problem?

They all realize that food security starts with farmers. And if farmers make money, farmers will farm.

What positions are they taking?

They are all supporting locally grown food. Retailers, however, respond to the wishes of their customers.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of their position?

There are advantages such as keeping money circulating in our economy, protecting ourselves in case of shipping interruptions—it really has to do with survival. We are vulnerable out here in the middle of the ocean. So we should encourage food production from Hawaii. It is wise of us to prepare for the worse and hope for the best.

How can we get information on their positions?

Let me know if you and your friends are interested and I will give you contact information.

How are they trying to influence government to adopt their positions on the problem?

If enough people express their opinions, the politicians and the government will respond.

If my class develops a policy to deal with this problem, how might we influence our government to adopt our policy?

If you can organize a ground swell of support, and are willing to put some time into the effort, you can change Hawaii.

Speaking for farmers: We thank you for asking. We’ve been trying to call attention to this problem. But farmers need to spend their time farming. I think that you might get more results than we can. Beyond this, we are very encouraged that you have this on your radar. And, as representatives of your generation, we are very hopeful for the future of Hawaii.

Mahalo, Richard

Alan Wong, Television

PBS Program

October 30, 2009 Leslie Lang 1 Comment

If you click here, and then on “Episodes,” and then “Episode 9,” you’ll find the Chefs Afield segment called “Sustainable Hawaii.”

It’s the program we wrote about awhile back. The one where they didn’t try very hard with their Hawaiian pronunciations, and PBS Hawai‘i refused to air it unless they fixed the audio.

They did.

Have a look at the trailer. It features Honolulu Chef Alan Wong, and Richard and the farm are on it too.

Hawaiian Role Models, Television

Hawaiian Language Story Ends Happily Ever After

October 7, 2009 Leslie Lang 1 Comment

Whew! There’s a good finish to the story we told you about the other day — the one in which Leslie Wilcox, President and CEO of PBS Hawai‘i, took a stand and told the producers of a national program that PBS Hawai‘i wouldn’t air their documentary, filmed on the Big Island, unless they redid the narration to correct the pronunciation of Hawaiian words.

It’s a program that Richard appears in, yet he agreed with her position 100 percent.

The problem with the Hawaiian language as originally narrated wasn’t a “malihini’s earnest stumbling,” Leslie wrote, but a “cavalier approximation.” And yet the show’s producers dismissed her concern.

Richard told me, “I posted on Leslie’s blog that I didn’t mean to put pressure but that I know that even President Obama, who grew up here, would cringe.

“It makes me chuckle to think what that must have been like,” he says, “when the light finally went on. ‘Phone for you. I don’t know what he wants; he says he’s the President of the United States.'”

As support for PBS Hawai‘i’s position swelled, the program’s producer capitulated a bit and offered to let PBS Hawai‘i re-narrate the program that would air here — but not to the rest of the country.

Leslie didn’t let it go.

And now, a happy ending. The program’s producers have agreed to redo the documentary’s narration.

Keola Donaghy of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo volunteered to record an audio sample of the correct pronunciations, and then coached the mainland narrator by phone until he had it down. He also listened as the narrator committed the words to tape.

Leslie Wilcox writes:

“Good job by the voice man, a respected on-air talent who was open to learning and who learned quickly. Keola says the man ended up pronouncing the words better than some Hawaii natives.”

Read her full blog post about this here.

Leslie Wilcox and PBS Hawai‘i, we salute you!

Hawaiian Role Models, Television

PBS Hawaii Takes A Stand, And We Agree

October 5, 2009 Leslie Lang 1 Comment

We are watching with interest something that is unfolding over at PBS Hawai‘i.

Leslie Wilcox, President and CEO of PBS, first wrote about it in her blog post titled Plowing Thru Hawaiian Words Without a Clue:

Our management team at PBS Hawaii made an easy call today. We decided to tell the producers of a national series that we won’t air a particular episode unless they re-do their narration, to pronounce key Hawaiian words correctly.

… For example, Hualalai is pronounced (twice) as Hula Lolly.

This is a show that came to Hawaii and didn’t do its cultural homework. As a result, the show suffers a loss of credibility.

…We’re not perfect, either. But we believe it’s important to make one’s best effort—to learn phonetic basics rather than plow through Hawaiian words without a clue.

Local stations are the heart of the PBS system, and so is education. Let’s hope this show decides to go back to the audio booth, to backtrack and re-track, and give all of the TV markets in which it airs the authenticity and quality that viewers deserve.

She writes that she thinks it’s otherwise a fine program, and hopes to be able to air it.

Even before I realized that this was a program Richard was interviewed by and appears on – we wrote about it here at the blog – I was really interested in this situation. I agree that it’s a sign of respect for a culture when you try to pronounce its language correctly; and a sign of disrespect when you don’t make any effort at all.

The following day, Leslie Wilcox acknowledged all the hundreds of hits and positive comments her initial blog post received in a post she titled Sticking Up for the Hawaiian Language:

Wow, do we feel the love! The love and respect for the HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE that so many of you have…

Thank you for voicing your support of PBS Hawaii’s decision to insist on authenticity – in the narration of an episode in national TV series. In the show, shot on location on Hawaii Island and prepared for U.S. broadcast next month, the narrator badly mispronounces well-known Hawaiian words, like Mauna Kea (“Mona Kay”). Keaukaha, the name of the pono-embracing public school on Hawaiian Homestead land in Hilo, is unrecognizable.

My blog entry on this subject last evening received hundreds and hundreds of hits overnight, and kept racking up hits all day. It was Facebooked and Twittered.

Then I read on and realized I knew what program she was talking about.

I’m struck by the reverence for the Hawaiian language and culture—especially as I notice a post on my blog by Hamakua Springs Country Farm owner Richard Ha. He has every reason to push for this TV program to run, no matter what, because he’s a featured interviewee on the show and the exposure would undoubtedly help his business in tough times.

Instead Richard writes after watching an advance copy of the show: “I cringed when I saw it.” He thanks us for “doing the right thing.” Inspiring, huh?

And then I was stunned when I read her next post, titled What if the Narrator Got THEIR Home’s Name Wrong?, which talked about the initial response she got from the program’s production company.

…A representative of the TV production company is in effect dismissing PBS Hawaii’s concerns as a matter of nuance. Here’s a direct quote from an email: “Subtleties and variations in pronunciation are bound to happen with such an old and regionalized language. We understand there are varying opinions and outlooks such as yours…”

This is nonsense.

…Keola Donaghy of UH Hilo says he will provide audio of the correct pronunciation of the place-names or make an expert available to talk with the show’s narrator at no cost.

Too late, too expensive, the production company is saying.

Question: If the narrator identified the producers’ own home base, Annandale, Virginia, by a name unrecognizable to the region’s residents, would it feel compelled to correct the mistake?

Such an interesting position for a production company, which airs its programs on PBS stations across the nation, to take. Defensive. Dismissive. I’m surprised, frankly, at the cavalier attitude.

If I make an error in my work, I am chagrined and count the minutes until I can get back to the computer to correct it. What is the difference here?

Do the producers of this program really view the local regions they go into, and in this case that region’s culture and language, with such contempt?

Richard told me, “Imagine if President Obama, who grew up in Hawai‘i, saw that program. I’m sure he’d cringe.”

In a comment to her most recent post, Leslie Wilcox writes that the wind may be a changin’.

There’s an indication that the production company’s attitude may be changing. I’ll put in a call Monday morning and find out more.

We’ll keep you posted.

Film, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Richard in Documentary Film at Palace Theater Sat. & Sun.

September 4, 2009 Leslie Lang 1 Comment

When I called photojournalist Catherine Bauknight to talk about her new documentary Hawaii A Voice for Sovereignty, she was sitting in her Pasadena home where she could see the flames of
California’s Station Fire burn the closest ridge of the mountains a
mere couple miles away.

She tells a very different story of the land in her Hawai‘i-based documentary, which plays at Hilo’s Palace Theater tomorrow (Saturday, September 5, 2009) at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Richard was interviewed for and appears in the movie. He told me he was going to go look for his plastic nose and bushy eyebrows so he could go see the movie this weekend but stay anonymous. I’d love to see that.

From Catherine Bauknight’s website:

Hawaii A Voice for Sovereignty, is a documentary about the native Hawaiian’s journey to sustain their culture, spirituality, and connection to the land. This modern epic documentary, filmed over four years, contains rare interviews with Native Hawaiians in their homes, at sacred sites, in mountains and the rain forests. Along with the voices of these “people of the land”, Professor Haunani-Kay Trask, Senator J. Kalani English, Grammy nominee Willie K and other Hawaiian leaders, take us into rarely seen ancient lifestyles where spirituality, culture, and care for the land form a sacred bond between humankind and the natural
world. They reveal their quest to secure their Hawaiian rights as the host culture, and their economic, social, and ecological future. By bridging their ancient knowledge with modern technologies such as wind, solar, and wave renewable energy and agricultural land systems they move towards their goal of sustainability.

Here’s the film’s trailer.

Catherine is a seasoned photojournalist whose work has appeared in Time, Newsweek and People magazines, as well as in the New York Times, USA Today and Rolling Stone. She was one of five international journalists who covered the Tiananmen Square massacre.

She says Hawai‘i was someplace she came to relax, but after awhile she started looking around. “I started trying to figure out why the Hawaiians weren’t visible in their own environment,” she says, “and that led to this four-year documentary.”

She says she started asking questions and went from person to person getting recommendations on people to speak with who were knowledgeable about the Hawaiian culture. “They all told me, You cannot discuss the culture without discussing the relationship between the land and the people and the spiritualism and the sovereignty we are seeking.”

She also kept hearing about the need for Hawaiians to have their land and live sustainable lives, and then she heard about Richard.

“I asked Woody Vaspra, who is part of the Sundance ceremonies, if he knew of anyone who was living off the land and making a living off it and also including the Hawaiian people,” she says. “He suggested Richard, and when I spoke to Richard I realized he was exactly what I was looking for – that he is going back to the land and working on becoming sustainable, and also working toward using renewable resources. It was perfect.”

(“I have no idea how we fit into the story line,” says Richard. “I just gave my standard explanation of what we do at the farm.”)

Catherine calls the film an “oral history of Native Hawaiians.”

“These are the kupunas, the scholars, people who are grassroots,” she says. “It’s a combination of Hawaiians from all walks of life, and one of the most interesting things is that their message is the same. No matter what their background, from the most grassroots to the most highly educated. The message about the Hawaiian future, the land and spirituality is the same.

“And it’s the story of the Hawaiian people all the way back to the takeover,” she says, “in their own voice – but not presented with anger, it’s presented as facts. And it leads up to the renaissance of the Hawaiian people with hope and unity.”

She says they’ve sent information to the schools here and she especially hopes people will bring kids to see this story. “I’ve been told that children as young as 7 years old have sat down and watched this film from beginning to end, and it’s 84 minutes.”

It sounds like, in addition to the oral histories by native Hawaiians, there’s a lot to catch a child’s attention. “There’s hula,” she says, “and an ancient, very spiritual style of drumming and nose flute by Willie K. He doesn’t really do that publicly, but he did it in the rainforest especially for this film. He also does this amazing live rendition of ‘Spirits in the Wind.’”

Other musicians appear in the documentary, such as Lono from Molokai, George Kahomoku, Cyril Pahinui, Richard Ho‘opi‘i and
Makana. Catherine says the film’s soundtrack will be available on CD in a couple weeks. Watch for information about that in about a week at her website.

On Wednesday the film became eligible to be nominated for an Academy Award, and so it will open at the Coliseum Cinemas in Manhattan on September 15th, and the Laemmle Theater in Hollywood on September 23rd.

And then the film will travel and screen across the Pacific islands, following the route early Polynesians took on their voyage to become Hawaiians until it gets back to New Zealand.

Now Catherine says she is looking for business sponsors, who will have their logo on the film “from now until eternity.” She says there is just a little more than a week left to sign up sponsors, and interested parties can contact her here.

Palace Theater Tickets are $7 general, $6 for seniors and students, and $5 for Friends of the Palace. Call 934-7010 for more information.

Health, Losing Weight

The Five Pound Challenge

July 24, 2009 Leslie Lang 3 Comments

If you’ve been reading along recently, you know we’ve been discussing the TMT quite a bit.

Now for something completely different.

So Richard mentioned to me the other day that he was thinking about starting to work out again.

Richard and I are polar opposites on this subject. He likes to lift weights, knows what his resting heart rate is, and has used phrases here on the blog like “power lifting,” “cardiovascular workout,” “reps” and “crunches.”

I have never, ever used any of those phrases. I am not an exercise junkie by any stretch of the imagination.

I have been thin, I think, mostly because I was lucky in my genes. Now I guess I’m getting older, though, because suddenly my body would like to be about five pounds heavier than it has been. I would like to lose those pounds before they settle in for the long haul.

So when Richard mentioned in passing he wanted to lose some weight and might start working out again, I blurted out, “Let’s see who can lose five pounds first! I CHALLENGE YOU. We can write about it on the blog!”

He immediately accepted my challenge. And then I instantly regretted my impulsiveness, because I’m lazy about stuff like this and now I will have to do it.

And now, of course, I will absolutely have to lose these five pounds, because we are going to keep track of our progress here on the blog and I don’t want to be publicly humiliated. And possibly I might even need to lose my five pounds first, because I am competitive. Oh my.

We will do our official weigh-ins on Monday. Stay tuned.

And you can accept the challenge along with us if you’d like, by letting us know in comments (or just privately inside your head). If you want to accept the challenge publicly, by letting us know here in comments at the end of this post, then you can post your updates in comments when we do, and we will all cheer each other on.

See you Monday.

Education, Hawaiian Role Models, Mauna Kea

Akamai Observatory Internship Program

July 17, 2009 Leslie Lang 1 Comment

Richard recently spoke to 16 students in the Hawai‘i Island Akamai Observatory Internship program.

It’s an eight-week, paid summer internship funded mostly by the Center for Adaptive Optics (out of the University of California at Santa Cruz), though this year the Thirty Meter Telescope also contributed financially to the program by covering a budget shortfall.

Sarah Anderson is the program’s on-island coordinator and she explains the program’s three goals.

“One is to open pathways into astronomy, engineering and technology careers for local students. The second goal is the development of a work force for astronomy and technology, and the third is to continue to develop collaboration among the observatories themselves.”

The program starts with a weeklong preparatory course, and then there’s a seven-week internship at one of the Mauna Kea observatories. “They work on a single project under a mentor or mentor team for the seven weeks,” says Anderson. “And at the end of the seven weeks, they do an oral presentation at our symposium.”

Sarah says that during the first week’s “short course,” the goal is to prepare the students for their internship. “We do a bunch of science activities,” she says. “Hands-on, inquiry-based activities that are designed to help the students think on their own and develop their critical thinking, and their ability to start and get through projects.

“In addition, we try to get them thinking about their place in society as scientists, engineers and technicians,” she says.

“We asked Richard to come in to talk about business, sustainability and astronomy. They were very interested.”

photo by Sarah Anderson

Most of the interns either attend college at the University of Hawai‘i or one of Hawai‘i’s community colleges; four are local kids attending college on the mainland. Three are Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students.

Richard says it made him think of Paul Coleman, the first native Hawaiian astrophysicist, who now worked for the Institute for Astronomy. “He was really lucky,” says Richard. “When he was following his dream to study astronomy, there were no opportunities here and no programs available like this Akamai program. He had to leave Hawai‘i and he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to get back home. It was only because of a really unusual set of circumstances that he was able to find his way back to work in Hawai‘i in astronomy.

“I remembered Paul telling his story to the OHA board, and here were these students going through a program that did not exist for Paul when he was starting out. I looked at those kids teaming up with mentors and it just kind of took my breath away.”

Community, Education, Schools

Caring For Our Community: Keaukaha Elementary School

July 6, 2009 Leslie Lang

Patrick Kahawaiola‘a, President of the Keaukaha Community Association, is spearheading a petition drive to get Governor Linda Lingle to release $8 million that’s already been appropriated for badly needed renovations to Keaukaha Elementary School.

A year ago, when Dwight Takamine was campaigning for the Senate, Richard Ha took him to see Kumu Lehua Veincent, Keaukaha Elementary School’s principal, and Dwight also met the teachers there and toured the cafeteria. He became aware of serious problems with the school’s facilities and helped get money appropriated for a renovation.

Eight million dollars was appropriated by the Legislature last year in new construction funds for the school, but the money has not been made available.

“The newspaper article is saying that the DOE needs to come up with a request,” says Kahawaiola‘a, “and that the governor needs to hear from the DOE that it’s important.”

It’s the first they’ve heard of this, he says. “We had DOE people sitting in on our meeting, and we have kept the Board of Education member Watanabe in the loop and he didn’t say anything about this. If that’s the issue, it’s another target we need to go to.”

The renovation is regarding the Keaukaha Elementary School cafeteria, which was built in 1954, some of it with building materials given to the school by the military. According to the fire code, the cafeteria can accommodate 102 people.

“We’ve got two schools using the cafeteria,” he says. “Keaukaha has 315 students, and Ka ‘Umeke Ka‘eo, the Hawaiian immersion school [also housed on the school’s grounds] has close to 200.”

So with around 500 students using that inadequate facility, lunch has to be served in three shifts, and some students have to have their “lunch” as early as 10:30 a.m.

The elementary school’s cafeteria also serves as a community center, he explains. “The boundaries of the school, the gym and the park mark the center, the piko, of educational/recreational/health, and safety. It’s a safe place for our children if there are other places that are not. Any one of our kids could go down and be in what we consider a safe environment.”

And the Keaukaha Community Association meets in that cafeteria every third Wednesday evening. When special issues come up that impact the native Hawaiian community – such as ceded lands, gathering rights, noise abatement from the airport, sewer problems, recent Mauna Kea issues – the cafeteria overflows.

The plan is to renovate the cafeteria as a 6000-square-foot “cafetorium” that doubles as a community center and meets all the community’s needs.

“It’s not a frivolous request and I would ask for anybody’s support for this,” he says. “We worked really hard with the legislators to get this money appropriated, a grass roots kind of thing with the kids and the parents, and we have the support of the churches, too. And it was appropriated.”

The Keaukaha folks are not working on this alone –- there are people in the business and labor areas who are hard at work doing what they can to support their efforts. They “know people who know people,” and are right now asking people at the highest levels of the DOE for guidance.

Anyone who’d like to lend his or her support by signing a petition can call Patrick on his cell at 937-8217.

Alan Wong

Alan Wong at the White House

June 24, 2009 Leslie Lang

Our friend Chef Alan Wong is cooking for President Obama on Thursday night. It’s a White House lu‘au on the South Lawn for the President, his family and congressional delegates from all 50 states with their families.