We’re not all riding in the same canoe

One wonders about the governor’s canoe and who is in it.

Hawaiian Electric Co. for several years in a row has posted millions of dollars in profits — and when HECO wants a rate increase, it’s usually approved.

Obviously the state Public Utilities Commission is on HECO’s luxury liner.

Now the Honolulu Board of Water Supply wants to sock it to households — even after it preached conservation but gives special pricing to golf courses that use millions of gallons of water a day and could easily pass on costs to their consumers.

It appears as though there is one boat for pensioners on a fixed income and another for the city and monopolies.

CEO pay seems wrong, somehow

We have people out of work and homeless. We have a liberal governor cutting back services for the most vulnerable and cutting teachers’ pay to the point many will leave the profession at their earliest opportunity. At the same time we have heads of corporations paid $6 million a year (“Stock awards lift isle CEO’s pay,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 14). Something is wrong with this picture.

Contract Postal Unit in Kapolei still open

In 2007, I opened a Contract Postal Unit in Kailua. I saw CPUs as the future of the U.S. Postal Service because they pay no overhead, no salary and no medical benefits to owners.

The first major problem I incurred was the reluctance of the Kailua post office or USPS to help us get the word out about the new Kailua CPU. The list of “No’s” I heard is too long to document here. However, a USPS executive told me it was because if we succeeded, employees at the Kailua post office feared a loss of job security. Well, how is their job secure if they end up closing your post office branch?

There already is a CPU in Kapolei. I would encourage Kapolei residents to support their local CPU before they become fed up and close, as we did, leaving them with no post office and no CPU.

Not enough focus put on humanities

Robert Buss’ commentary had the right headline (“Social studies classes should be maintained,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 7).

However, as a history professor for 25 years in Honolulu, I find the state of history, social studies and humanities knowledge among entering students to be poor and getting worse. In a world of Fox News, Twitter and the fact that many students get their news from Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, there is a need to do more than sponsor “History Day.” Textbooks have been getting better, with interactive Web-based resources, but the quality of knowledge of students is declining.

The Hawaii Council for the Humanities is to be commended for trying to focus attention on the teaching of history. But there has never been serious analysis of what the council actually does and what outcomes represent progress. Until and unless the governor, school board and educators all focus on the sad state of humanities in current curricula, we will be left with weak recommendations such as Buss’.

Performance bond is little consolation

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board wants to go ahead and have Ansaldo design and build the rail cars even though it has historical performance problems and current financial issues (“Rail firm’s pilikia could cost city, Council chairman says,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 1).

HART’s Toru Hamayasu says there is no problem with proceeding with Ansaldo because the city will have performance and payment bonds that will help ensure the city is protected.

From my own years of experience in claims, let me point out that bonds may keep the city from losing money if Ansaldo doesn’t complete the rail cars, but they won’t do anything to offset the years of delay while an alternate contractor has to be selected and then gear up and complete the contract.

If the city has to make a performance bond claim, it will be a nightmare.

Foreign aid is small part of U.S. budget

John P. Gallagher suggests that the U.S. government should “worry about our own country instead of some foreign country before the American taxpayer is run into the ground” (“It’s time to worry about home front,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Aug. 18).

Sorry to burst his bubble, but according to multiple reliable sources such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Congress, the U.S. spends just slightly more than 1 percent of its total budget on foreign aid. Yes, the dollar amounts are big: $49.1 billion in 2008 and $44.9 billion in 2009. But that comes to a paltry 1.64 percent and 1.28 percent of the total U.S. budget for those years. In fact, the U.S. has one of the lowest rates of foreign aid in the developed world when measured against gross domestic product.

Spend the billions of dollars at home

Applause for John P. Gallagher’s letter.

Yes, there is some foreign aid that is justified — but not the billions the government spends to “buy our good favor” with other countries. We need the aid here at home.