The whole world will be watching

With so many youngsters in Hawaii playing organized soccer for so many years, there likely will be many people in the islands watching the once-every-four-years World Cup that starts Thursday in Brazil.

(The first game is Brazil v. Croatia.)

They won’t be alone. Billions of people throughout the world will be glued to their TV sets during the weeks of the World Cup to watch "the beautiful game," otherwise known — except in America — as football.

As in past World Cup championships, the United States is among the starting teams, and with luck will proceed to the final on July 13. But for now it’s in a very difficult group that includes powerhouses Germany, Portugal and Ghana.

Its first game is Monday, June 16, against Ghana, and statistically it would be best for the U.S. to win that game, since only 9 percent of teams that have lost their first game since 1998 have advanced to the next round.

In Congress, not enough women

With women holding three of the four seats in Hawaii’s Congressional delegation, our state is doing plenty to bring gender equity to America’s halls of power.

Perhaps the islands can teach other states a thing or two about fostering a political environment that encourages women to run for office. It’s a lesson the rest of the country needs, if a new study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research is accurate.

The nonpartisan group estimates that if the current election rate holds, it will take another 107 years before women fill half the seats in Congress.