Tuesday, October 20, 2009

“Burial council won't sign rail pact - Honolulu Advertiser” plus 4 more

“Burial council won't sign rail pact - Honolulu Advertiser” plus 4 more

Burial council won't sign rail pact - Honolulu Advertiser

Posted: 20 Oct 2009 07:55 PM PDT

A government panel charged with protecting Native Hawaiian burials is opposing plans to run Honolulu's $5.5 billion rail line through Kakaako via Halekauwila Street.

The Oahu Island Burial Council has decided not to join other parties — including the National Parks Service and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation — in signing an agreement on mitigating the rail project's impacts on historical, cultural and archaeological resources. The organizations are scheduled to sign the agreement tomorrow.

The burial council decision is largely symbolic and isn't expected to stop or delay the 20-mile elevated commuter train project, scheduled to break ground in December. But it does indicate the concern Native Hawaiians and others have that the rail project's current route will encounter problems with old burial sites.

"When it comes to the issue that we're concerned with, you picked one of the worst possible alignments," burial council member Kehau Abad told transit officials during a meeting last week.

Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann wrote to the burial council on Oct. 13 urging the group to concur with the agreement. The city worked with the council for months to address concerns about the project's potential impact on traditional Hawaiian burials, which are generally unmarked graves.

However, the administration was unwilling to alter the route from going through an area that sits on a band of sandy deposits that's expected to contain high concentrations of burials, according to the council. That route was chosen by the Honolulu City Council in early 2007 based on a study of various transit alternatives conducted a year earlier.

Some federal officials also have opposed a Halekauwila Street route, which passes the Prince Kuhio Federal Building, because of security concerns.

Burial council members said they should have been consulted and an archaeological inventory survey should have been conducted before selection of a route through Kakaako. The current route will almost certainly encounter buried human remains, which could delay the project and drive up costs, Abad said during last Wednesday's meeting.

"What we're concerned about is the public is going to turn around and point to us as the cause of those increases in costs (and) as the cause of delays," she said. "Beyond just us, they're going to turn to the whole Hawaiian community and say it's those Hawaiians who are increasing the costs of this project for everyone. It is the Hawaiians who are holding up progress .

"We're going to get blamed for something that we knew well in advance would have been coming, but nobody asked us," Abad said.

mauka route urged

The burial council is appointed by the governor and works to protect Hawaiian burial sites. The council maintains that a more mauka route for the rail line, along King or Beretania streets, would avoid subsurface sandy deposits likely to contain burials.

City officials said they considered but discounted alternatives because other routes wouldn't generate enough ridership or would have greater impacts on adjoining properties.

The issue of how to deal with the discovery of iwi, or burial remains, arose at the Kakaako Walmart and Ward Villages projects and likely could recur if the city proceeds with plans to build a 20-mile rapid transit system linking East Kapolei to Ala Moana.

According to the city's 2006 study, there is a high potential of encountering Native Hawaiian burials and other archaeological artifacts once construction enters urban Honolulu. Other portions of the route along Farrington and Kamehameha highways and the airport have a medium potential of encountering such sites.

In an effort to alleviate council concerns, the city agreed to conduct an archaeological inventory survey in the Kakaako area about two years earlier than planned, said Lawrence Spurgeon, supervising environmental engineer for New York-based project manager Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Such a survey is currently being conducted at the ewa side of the route, which will be built first, and includes tests at about 80 sites. So far no burials have been found.

survey set next year

The current plan is to conduct an archaeological survey for the Middle Street to Ala Moana Center segment next year, Spurgeon told the burial council last week. That will be before a final design is completed for that portion of the route, he said.

"If we have any substantial finds that will really require a redesign or anything of that type, we'll have a fair amount of time to look at what those options are," he said.

The city would consider moving train guideway footings and altering utility relocation plans to avoid iwi. However, it's unlikely that the discovery of human remains in Kakaako will cause the city to alter the route, Spurgeon said.

"From our point of view it's going to be a fairly high threshold to the point where the proposed alternative is essentially abandoned in favor of coming up with another alternative," he said. "The city would go through every design option first to be able to avoid those resources.

"Changing the entire project alignment in some area is a last resort."

The city also maintains that an elevated train will have less impact on human burials than an at-grade train.

"To the extent there are specific locations where you are likely to run into iwi, hopefully you can in fact engineer around it to avoid the situation" with an elevated train, said City Council Chairman Todd Apo.

inadvertent discoveries

According to a study commissioned by Kamehameha Schools and released earlier this year, at-grade and elevated train alternatives affect burials in different ways.

"Although at-grade construction results in a continuous disturbance to the ground beneath, throughout the length of the guideway, fortunately disruption can be limited to the first few feet of ground," according to the report by IBI Group in Irvine, Calif. "The aerial guideway design option will avoid constant disturbance along the transit alignment, limiting the disruption to the column foundation areas only."

The city said it is committed to working with the burial council even though the group won't sign the agreement.

"We need to ensure that any of those disturbances are eliminated or at a minium minimized," Apo said.

Despite those reassurances , several burial council members said it would be better for the city to avoid an area that's likely to encounter burials. Recent inadvertent discoveries of human remains in Kakaako include:

• About 42 sets of remains were found at the Keeaumoku Walmart site after construction began in late 2002.

• Separately, about 60 sets of remains were discovered at the site of General Growth's Ward Villages development, mauka of Ward Centre.

• Workers dug up 69 human remains at Kawaiahao Church during construction of a multipurpose center.

In each case building plans were delayed and human burials were removed.

"The council is absolutely right that you should expect to find burials on Halekauwila Street," said Thomas Dye, president for T.S. Dye & Colleagues Archaeologists. "There are burials all over Kakaako. If you go further mauka, you get off the sand, which is a good thing if you're trying to miss burials."

'something's got to give'

If the transit project encounters additional burials, there will be considerable pressure to move human remains rather than alter the train's route, burial council member Abad said.

"There's a critical difference between avoidance and mitigation," Abad said. "It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the solution that's going to allow for us to have our kupuna handled in a way that maintains the integrity of their sacred burial spots and for this project to go forward — all in that same corridor.

"Something's got to give. What we all know is ... that which gives is our concerns, our values (and) what we hold dear. That's what everybody asks us to give," Abad said.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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Harry Potter-inspired Quidditch game gains popularity on campus - State News

Posted: 20 Oct 2009 08:31 PM PDT

By Ursula Zerilli (Last updated: 32 minutes ago)

Members of MSU's new Quidditch league don't use jet packs and they won't fly through fields, but they are contributing to a skyrocketing interest in Quidditch — a game inspired by the fictional world of J.K Rowling's "Harry Potter" book series — that has emerged on a local, national and international level.

Quidditch, as described in Harry Potter, is a popular airborne competition among broomstick-riding wizards, requiring ball-like objects such as the spellbound golden snitch, the quaffle and bludgers. The object of the game is to score the most points and, ultimately, catch the golden snitch.

Psychology and math junior Ryan Duffy formed MSU's Quidditch league this semester, fueled by his 12-year love for the books, which began in third grade.

"I was worried that no one was going to be interested and it was going to look really dorky," Duffy said.

Despite Duffy's concern, fear of dorkiness did not stop the 100 people who attended the league's first meeting. The 55 students who remain involved with the league pay $7 dues and attend meetings and practices.

The league is registered with the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association, allowing MSU teams to compete against 250 colleges in the U.S. and abroad. All teams abide by the IQA Guide & Rulebook, which has translated the storybook game into a muggle, or nonmagical human, sport.

IQA Commissioner Alex Benepe said Quidditch has taken off since he and friend Xander Manshel created the muggle version of Quidditch in 2005 at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt.

The number of teams involved in the Quidditch World Cup at Middlebury College has doubled since last year, Benepe said.

"It's really fun and it's rewarding to have 20 teams of colleges from all over the world come play," Benepe said.

MSU's Quidditch league has six teams, four of which have chosen their own Harry Potter-inspired names: the Mischief Managers, the Team Nighthawks, the Fizzing Whizbees and the Ministry of Magic. Duffy said the teams will play against one another for the first year to practice technique, and then begin traveling next year. The Fizzing Whizbees will play the Ministry of Magic on Nov. 7 at the field behind the rock on Farm Lane.

"I don't really want to play regular sports," said anthropology sophomore Bailey Reidinger, a captain for the Ministry of Magic who has been playing and taught Quidditch for several years through the Girl Scouts camp where she works.

MSU's Quidditch league — the first official Harry Potter club on campus — is providing an outlet for Harry Potter fans at MSU.

"I think as people get older, they start to feel a little more embarrassed because they are so obsessed with Harry Potter, so no one wanted to start a Harry Potter club," league member and psychology sophomore Sara Tischler said.

Writing, rhetoric and American culture professor Gary Hoppenstand said Quidditch leagues show how Harry Potter books have impacted young adults.

"It's these kind of characters that have achieved immortality," Hoppenstand said. "If we're here 100 years from now, so will Harry Potter."

Reidinger said the book has had a sweeping impact on her life. Aside from meeting friends at home, she found Harry Potter created a universal connection when she purchased the sixth novel with a group of foreign friends in Sweden.

"You think you can never play it in real life because you can't fly," Reidinger said. "Someone went and created muggle Quidditch and it's just this really great way to connect to Harry Potter."

Sociology professor Toby Ten Eyck said he wasn't surprised about the emergence of muggle Quidditch, but it represents a lack of creativity.

"It is just them taking something that someone has given them," Ten Eyck said. "They haven't made it fantastic, they just made it fit."

Ten Eyck said students imitating the fictional game demonstrates how a pop culture craze can distance people from their free will.

"Their leisurely activities are being chosen for them," he said.

But Arthur A. Levine, who published the Harry Potter series, said in falling in love with the series, many kids discover they love reading, too.

"Start with Harry Potter and go from there," Levine said. "There are other books that you will be able to find that will inspire you, as well."

J.K. Rowling's ideas have left the realm of fiction and entered multiple platforms, influencing more than just readers. The series has received attention from varying schools of thought, including politics and scientific history.

Activist organization The Harry Potter Alliance has used the books' themes to support issues such as same-sex marriage and environmentalism.

Lyman Briggs assistant professor Mark Waddell has incorporated the series in some of his lectures and researched for the United States National Library of Medicine's exhibit, "Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine."

"This is what great books do: They inspire you to be better people, to care more about someone else because you read about a character," Levine said. "… That is what the Harry Potter books have done."

Originally Published: 59 minutes ago

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MSC Industrial Promotes Erik Gershwind As Exec.Vice President And COO ... - RTT News

Posted: 20 Oct 2009 07:41 PM PDT

(RTTNews) -  Tuesday,MSC Industrial Direct Co.Inc.(MSM: News ) announced the promotion of Erik Gershwind to the position of executive vice president and chief operating officer, responsible for its sales and operations functions . Gershwind will continue to report to David Sandler, president and chief executive officer of the company.


Gershwind was earlier serving as senior vice president, product management and marketing and corporate strategic planning. In a statement, MSC said that Gershwind joined the company in 1996 as manager of the company's acquisition integration initiative, and in 1999 established MSC's internet business serving as director of E-Commerce.

Gershwind graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania and magna cum laude with a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He also serves on the board of directors for the Gershwind and Jacobson charitable foundations and on the board of overseers for the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

Sandler said,"For the last four years Erik has led our Strategic Team, which is responsible for formulating the Company's strategic plan and steering its direction. Erik has a proven track record of success and most importantly, has demonstrated that he is a cultural leader of our Company. I look forward to continuing to work closely together as we execute our strategy for the business going forward."

MSC closed its regular trading on Tuesday at $45.32,down $0.74 on the NYSE

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

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Steinem speaks to packed house at Culture Center - Charleston Gazette

Posted: 20 Oct 2009 08:17 PM PDT

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Feature: - Joy Online

Posted: 20 Oct 2009 07:34 PM PDT

In 2004, after the terrible Tsunami which devastated the coastline of some parts of south-east Asia, resulting in the death of more than 230,000 people, three prominent Americans sat in one aircraft and visited the area to show sympathy and offer support to the victims.

These three personalities were George W. Bush Snr and Bill Clinton, both former US Presidents, and George W. Bush Jnr, the then President of the US.

Former Presidents Bush Snr and Clinton belonged to the Republican and the Democratic parties respectively, but when it came to US interest, party affiliation or interest became secondary.

In the same way, when, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck and wreaked havoc on parts of the southern coast of the US, including New Orleans, Americans were unanimous in condemning the Bush administration for not reacting with urgency to the disaster.

There were some racial and political undertones, though, because New Orleans has a huge Black population and it was generally observed that if the federal government was a bit slow in its response to the tragedy, then the racial issue could have been a factor.

Since the 1967 Arab/Israeli War, there has not been any major shift in US foreign policy in that region. Even after the October 1973 war when oil-producing Arab countries resorted to oil as a weapon to fight their cause, the position did not change much and it was rather poor countries in Africa which absorbed the shocks of that policy.

Every US administration comes to office with the pledge to solve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict but leaves without even condemning Israeli attacks on Palestinian settlements.

That is why it is commonly said that Americans have permanent interests and not permanent friends. It is only when it affects them directly that Americans react to press home their feelings to the political leadership.

That was why when Americans were lured into a useless war in Iraq which earned them a bad image abroad and economic hardships at home, their reaction was the rejection of the Republican Party, which George Bush Snr and Jnr represented, paving the way for the first Black-American to occupy the Oval Office in the White House.

That is the American story.

The most important thing is that the Americans know their national interest or their interests as citizens and these two can never be subjugated or compromised in anyway for the interest of a few people in the name of party interest.

After all the parties are there to serve the national interest, so what is party interest if the interest of the vast majority of the people is being ignored?

Since the return to multi-party constitutional rule in 1993, we in Ghana have been developing a culture which is gradually eroding in large measure, the benefits of multi-party democracy.

We are now very quick to go to the defence of political parties when we should be pursuing a national agenda for development.

Tune in to any radio or television discussion and the subject matter will be either on a party justifying an action by its officials or condemning another by a different party.

It is always they against US. We never try to build consensus on national issues which will propel this country forward.

Some well-meaning and respected citizens have condemned this approach to important national issues but it seems our political parties, goaded on by a media which are fast losing focus, are not tired of launching verbal assaults on one another.

We do not rationalise issues again and even purely criminal cases had to be politicised one way or the other.

For instance, a former public office holder is called upon to render account for his stewardship and then a group surfaces from nowhere, chanting intimidation and persecution.

A public office holder exhibits incompetence and arbitrariness in his tenure but the moment a fresh person is put there, he/she jumps to his political party that is too eager to sing the all-too-well-known song of victimisation.

Try criticising a national policy and bringing out what may be a better alternative, then there will be cries of sabotage. The national interest is lost in the process.

Let us all agree that selling on the pavements has become a social menace in Accra and other big towns. Let the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) set in motion measures to restore order on the streets and, suddenly, the subject becomes heavily politicised to the extent that no solution can be found for the problem.

Our capital city is gradually becoming a giant slum, but any attempt to bring some semblance of sanity will see the people marshalling forces against the government in order to score cheap political points, to the detriment of the societal good.

Try removing unauthorised structures on water courses and strategic installations and those who have been complaining all along become human rights activists overnight to condemn the operation. In the end, all our governments come and go without solving most of our problems because of politics.

One of the latest to draw attention to this rather negative phenomenon is Dr Francis Appiah, the Executive Secretary of the National African Peer Review Mechanism Governing Council (NAPRM-GC), who observed that the politicisation of national issues was affecting the country's development.

Dr Appiah, who was speaking at a validation workshop on the Asante Akim North Municipal APRM Monitoring and Evaluation Report at Konongo last week, called for a stop to the practice whereby people supported national policies based on which political party was in government.

"It is a drawback to the nation's quest for accelerated development," he said. The media, especially the electronic ones, have not helped in engendering this type of healthy debate on national affairs. Panellists are invited to make contributions on serious national issues not based on their competence and their grasp of the subject matter but based on their political affiliation.

Naturally, these people come on radio or television to spew out insults and add to an already tense atmosphere without serving the national interest.

Why should newspaper reviews on radio and television be by representatives of political parties and not opinion leaders very conversant with the issues under discussion?

After 52 years as an independent nation, Ghana is confronted with serious challenges that should be the focus of our national debates and the way forward.

The majority of our children are still taking their lessons in mud houses with thatch roofs. The less fortunate ones squat under trees. We are having more illiterates in our population today than immediately before and after independence.

More than 52 years into nationhood, we still find it prudent to invite foreigners to collect water bills for us. This cannot be defended by any party fanatic unless he/she does not value our sovereignty and national pride.

It is not out of place for a country that is always beating its chest proclaiming itself as the first Black nation south of the Sahara to gain political independence to go to another sovereign country for support to build a presidential palace.

This is not politics. This is national pride, security and sovereignty at stake. We are engulfed in filth everywhere. Our schools are overcrowded, with limited facilities which make mockery some of the courses pursued by the students. Traffic lights which constitute a basic necessity in our cities do not function most of the time.

We are importing everything, including junk, from all over the globe and food from even Sahelian countries. Our roads are not the best, while our health facilities are overstretched, with inadequate human and material resources.

We are more or less a colony which goes through the motion of electing our leaders seasonally. That is the freedom we enjoy.

We can change things if we begin to see every government as our government that must be supported, advised and criticised to deliver and whose officers must at the same time be held accountable to us.

When we drive on our pothole-filled roads, there is no special lane for those who supported the government's party and another, a more-terrible one, for opposition people. When school re-opens every parent determined to get a good school for his/her child must hit the road searching and pleading.

If the medical facilities are not functioning properly, there is no hope of survival whether you belong to a winning party or a losing one. In exceptional cases, a few people in government may be sent outside for treatment at our expense.

But the rest of us will either survive or die here. If the taps don't flow there is no way a party chairman will have a private pipeline. If the electricity system collapses, it affects everyone. The list goes on.

In short, our survival is tied to the fortunes of this country, that is why we should not allow a few people to whom we have ceded our authority so that they will pursue our interests to exploit us and plunder our resources and when called upon to account for them, come back to us screaming that they are being persecuted or witch-hunted

Former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, is standing trial on corruption charges. In fact, he was forced out of office because of allegations of corruption and bribery.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to cough out cash he illegally used to water his garden. So are other members of the British Parliament.

The immediate past Taiwanese President, Chen Shu-bian, was in September sentenced to life imprisonment for money laundering, bribery and embezzlement of government funds.

These are not witch-hunting. Public officers must hold office in trust and do what is expected of them. That is the only way countries will not be short-changed and kept in perpetual poverty and under-development.

If ministers are questioned for their stewardship, one could not fathom why some people calling themselves party supporters should jump to the side of such ministers. Yes, due process must be followed, not just making wild allegations.

In the same way, a public officer who is doing well must be given all the necessary encouragement to deliver in the interest of the people.

A policy or programme which has everything good about it should be supported by all to bring about the positive change we are all clamouring for.

Multi-party democracy is good. It guarantees our individual rights and the freedoms and freedom to choose. It is better than even the best of benevolent dictatorships.

It keeps governments on their toes, since the possibility of change is always apparent. That is the power we wield as an electorate and which must be well exercised for the national or common good. It will be dangerous and counter-productive to allow multi-partyism to polarise us into them and us and into the winners and losers. It will not help in our national development drive.

That is why the suggestion by Mr David A. Kanga, a Deputy Commissioner of the Electoral Commission, that in order to reduce the tension and acrimony associated with the current system of 'winner-takes-all' the system should give way to a blend of the winner-takes-all and proportional representation should be taken seriously.

Credit: Kofi Akordor /Daily Graphic

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