Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

Anyone consuming baked products sold by the Hawaii Kai Costco store mid to late June was at a small risk of contracting Hepatitis A because an employee tested positive for the disease—yet the Hawaii Department of Health chose not to issue a public notice. As a result, many consumers of the potentially infected products were not notified.

Costco is capable of notifying anyone who bought the products and did so, but it cannot warn those who consume the products at church or business meetings, for example.

Costco baked products are a quality choice for many organizations that bring them to meetings for attendees to consume. Costco breads end up in sandwiches. Some retailers even buy at Costco and re-sell the products.

Costco baked products appear at parties, weddings, in office break rooms and at meetings. Restaurants and food trucks may use them.

None of those who consumed potentially infected products who were not the original purchasers were warned because the DOH declined to issue a public notice.

Media erroneously reported that:

If you don’t receive a phone call or letter, you are not affected.

[KHON, Hepatitis A confirmed in bakery worker at Hawaii Kai Costco, 7/28/2016]

Yes, the risk is low, but no, that doesn’t excuse DOH given the widespread use of these products by other than the original purchasers.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/29/2016 11:18:00 AM   0 comments - add your comment links to this post

by Larry Geller

Let me disclose at the top of this article that I’m writing about something that I helped to instigate. I’m past president and a current board member of Kokua Council. What I’d like to emphasize here is that Kokua Council’s legal action was undertaken with great reluctance. I’ll explain a bit below.

And who is speaking here? Me. I cannot undo being a board member, but I am also a concerned citizen who happens to have a blog.

First I’d like to refer you to media coverage of yesterday’s press conference. Both Civil Beat’s Nathan Eagle and the Star-Bulletin’s Sophi Cocke have covered the issue quite well. The Civil Beat article, Advocates For Elderly Sue State Over Inspections Of Care Homes  (Civil Beat,7/25/16) is not paywalled so you can easily check it out. If you are a subscriber to the newspaper, please see Group sues over care home inspections (Star-Advertiser,7/26/16).

Also please spend just a few minutes listening to Beth-Ann Kozlovich’s interview of me on The Conversation (Hawaii Public Radio, 7/26/16) this morning.

A copy of the complaint is on the Kokua Council website here.

Reluctant but determined

Now, the lawsuit was filed because Kokua Council believes that the Hawaii Department of Health is breaking the law by not posting inspection reports of long term care facilities—as required by Act 213 (2013). And even for those reports that have actually been posted, many are so heavily redacted that the information the public is entitled to view according to Act 213 has been replaced with black boxes. DOH had 18 months lead time before they had to start posting, but were absent at the starting gate.

Beth-Ann said:

You would think that posting care home inspections online would have been easy.

Yeah. Someone emailed me that high school kids could do it. In fact, the Legislature apportioned $148,000 for two positions and support equipment but the DOH did not hire those people.

And the redactions! Part of the lawsuit demands that the redactions must be removed. See the pictures in the Civil Beat article for examples. What is typically redacted are the “findings”: exactly the information that is needed and that the law was intended to provide.

Suppose you ordered a cheeseburger, paid for it and took it back to your seat to eat, only on unwrapping it you find that the meat patty had been redacted out of your sandwich…  that’s basically what has happened to many of the posted reports.

Of course, I’m talking about a serious matter, which is why the lawsuit was filed.

A family needing to place a loved one in a care home needs to have the information as soon as possible to make a placement decision. Waiting 10 days or more to get reports from DOH, which is what the law is supposed to eliminate, doesn’t work for most—the decision must be made on very short notice. A hospital may be pushing the family because it needs the bed for someone else. By the time reports are manually delivered, the patient may have been placed, or the bed is no longer available at the facility.

I said also that it was filed reluctantly. We tried a public records request in 2015 which did not succeed. On December 14, 2015, when only three reports on Adult Residential Care Homes had been posted out of a total of almost 500 homes, our attorney wrote a public records request bristling with citations and carefully describing what we were looking for. It was equally futile. DOH broke the sunshine law by not replying within the required time period.

The legislative Kupuna Caucus wrote a joint letter to Governor Ige in October, 2015.

In short, nothing worked. So yesterday an action was filed.

It’s not just a senior issue, by the way. Anyone might be involved in (say) a traffic accident and need to recover in some kind of facility. Or a caregiver might quit, leaving a family looking for a placement. Or someone may need to be in a home due to disability.

Having access to inspection reports is necessary to make a placement decision, and also to hold the long term care homes to basic licensing standards. Nursing home reports have long been posted due to federal requirements, and it works.

But there are other aspects of protection not involved with this lawsuit. For example, the need for unannounced inspections on the part of DOH. They can begin those today, it’s at their discretion. Unannounced inspections save lives and are the best way to identify violations.

A final concern is the evisceration of the Long Term Care Ombudsman office under DOH. There is now only one person in that office—the Ombudsman Specialist position has been eliminated. The one person is responsible for handling complaints for 1,702 facilities and 12,340 residents statewide. He would have to make about 28 or so visits a day just to meet the requirements.

The office should have at least six ombudsman, and should have been moved out of DOH according to federal rules that became effective July 1, 2016. Hawaii had plenty of warning about the coming rule change. Why does the office have to be moved elsewhere? Because DOH has a conflict of interest in that it licenses the same facilities it then inspects.

So that’s how the lawsuit came about. Will it be the end of the story? Not until DOH protects seniors and other long term care residents as the law requires.

Advocates are concerned and determined to see that this happens.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/26/2016 05:58:00 PM   0 comments - add your comment links to this post

“
The election campaign started long before the nominations were over and the foretaste is bad.  One thing is the candidates fighting; another, the burning issues for the USA and the world. They may both be right when certifying that the other is unfit for the presidency.
”

The US Nominations

25 July 2016

Nº 439 | Johan Galtung, 25 Jul 2016 - TRANSCEND Media Service

The US mountain, so rich in human talent, labored and produced the two dwarfs for the huge job. A radical Republican strongman[i]and a conventional Democrat, disliked by 62% and 67%–bad for electing the president of a country that still puts some stamp on the world.

Trump challenged, successfully, the Republican machine.  The Democratic machine got a Hillary who challenged absolutely nothing. In both parties, in the name of unity, a veil was drawn over these basic US conflicts today, not between the parties, but within.  Cruz did not give in, Sanders did–maybe bribed by some verbal rephrasing.

So there they are.  Trump has his base in the vast WASP, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant middle class middle-aged who used to rule the country[ii], promising to make America–meaning WASP–great again.  Hillary has her base in that other Democratic Party, the Southern Democrats, in older people and the groups traditionally voting Democrat–Blacks, Hispanics, cultural minorities, women and much of labor– greatly aided by that wasp, Trump, stinging all of them.

Younger people may abstain. So may many, even most, in the choice between a less war-and-market Republican and a market-and-war Democrat willing, on sale for more wars. Add the careers of these big Egos: one a businessman wrecking others, the other wrecking state secrets.  “Stop him by all means” and “Lock her up” become mantras heard often.  The high dislikes are well rooted. BUT, there is a difference: there is also much enthusiasm for Trump; none, it seems, for Hillary.

The election campaign started long before the nominations were over and the foretaste is bad.  One thing is the candidates fighting; another, the burning issues for the USA and the world. They may both be right when certifying that the other is unfit for the presidency.

But that is still personal, ad hominem, cutting huge political cakes along personal lines.  How about the issues facing the USA?

Take the issue-complex “speculation-massive inequality-misery”. 1% vs 99%. Traditionally, causes for the Democrats. Sanders got at it; but his proposals were unclear or missing.  Here some policy staples that the Democrats missed: separating investment and savings banking; holding Capital responsible for failures, not drawing upon State = tax-payers’ money; attacking inequality by illegalizing companies with the CEO:worker salary ratios way above, say, 10; lifting the bottom of US society with credits for the basic needs focused cooperatives.

How could Democrats justify such policies? Through Human Rights:

Universal Declaration 10-12 1948   Economic-Social-Cultural 16-12 1966

12: right to home and family       6: right to work to gain a living

13: freedom of movement            7a: with a decent family salary

17: right to own property          7d: rest, leisure with remuneration

18: freedom of thought, conscience 11: food, clothing, housing

19: freedom of opinion, expression 12: physical and mental health

20: freedom of peaceful assembly   13 education understanding tolerance

21: right to take part in government, directly, indirectly  16a: right to take part in cultural life

What a marvelous collection of rights and freedoms! Democrats should not forever be accepting the US non-ratification of ESC human rights.

Trump, eager to make his middle class great, may actually do some ESC at the expense of UD to protect them from “trade” with loss of jobs from above and the threat of revolution, with violence from below that has already started, along racial lines, initiated by the White police.

Take the issue-complex “foreign policy-war”.  “An isolationist Trump could save American lives”[iii] (and many more non-American lives).  But doing so to save money is not good enough; take the issues head on. “Clinton and Trump jostle for a position over North Korea”[iv] is more to the point: Trump is open to negotiate directly with Kim Jung-un, Hillary sticks to conventional isolation-sanctions-multilateralism. Trump might become the first US president to take North Korea on the word: “peace treaty-normalization-a nuclear-free Korean peninsula”. Hillary’s line leads nowhere. What is missing is an open debate on the two untouchables: US foreign policy and the US right and duty to war.

The “less-than-Third World” infrastructure” has been mentioned.  However, how about the suicide and homicide rates?  Not only the easy gun access aspect, what it says about demoralized US society?  How about the shortening of lives due to deteriorating living conditions?  How about the climate and the environment, specifics, not generalities? How about the whole American dream or dreams becoming exactly that, a dream only, dreamt in the past?  Trump has a new dream for his chosen people, greatness, Hillary’s dream is status quo since nothing has gone wrong.

And to that we may add: how about US democracy? Does it exist?

“Clinton did not run a clean campaign, she cheated. Caucus after caucus, primary after primary, the Clinton team robbed Sanders of votes that were rightfully his.  Here is how.  Parties run caucuses.  States run primaries. The DNC controlled by Clinton allies like Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz[v]. Democratic governors are behind Clinton: State election officials report to them.  These officials decide where to send voting booths, which votes get counted, which do not.  You thought this was a democracy?  Ha.”[vi]

The details make the “Ha” an understatement.  And that in a country so bent on lecturing to others on their lack of democracy. Forget it. Even so, Sanders won 22 states; had basic rules been respected, he would have made a majority of states even if Clinton had delegate majority.

“The world is watching US elections,” CNN says with nationalistic pride. In disbelief and dismay, waiting for guidance beyond mutual name-calling. They may be dwarfs relative to a giant job.  But nobody is born a president; they are made by the campaigns and on the job.  So far, the impression is that Trump learns more than Clinton, testing out new ideas well before he can put them into practice. Because he has more to learn, having no experience? Yes, he has a lot to learn.  But her “experience”, in killing? In not solving conflicts? Maybe she has a lot to unlearn.  Any evidence she does that?  None whatsoever.

This gives an edge favoring Trump.  We know what to expect from Hillary; not from Trump. On the two huge issue-complexes mentioned above, Hillary spells status quo, Trump not.  Trump is gambling on his own–proven to be very high–persuasion capacity.  Not quite hopeless.

NOTES:

[i]. J. R. Hibbing and E.Theiss-Morse, in an article in Washington Post, make the point that “A Surprising amount of Americans dislike how messy democracy is. They like Trump.”, english@other-news.info, 17 May 2016. In their study 60 percent believed that “government would work better if it were run like a business”.

[ii]. Bryce Covert, “America was great, again”, INYT 17 May 2016: “Donald Trump’s campaign promise is appealing because it promises–to make the country great again for the people who had it pretty great in the first place”.

[iii]. Dough Bandow, Japan Times, 31-05-2016.

[iv]. INYT, 20 May 2016.

[v]. Now dismissed because of an e-mail scandal.

[vi]. Ted Rall, “Clinton beating Sanders by hook and by crook”, Japan Times, 05 July 2016.

________________________________________

Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is founder of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment and rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU. He has published 164 books on peace and related issues, of which 41 have been translated into 35 languages, for a total of 135 book translations, including ‘50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives,’ published by the TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.

This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/25/2016 06:57:00 AM   0 comments - add your comment links to this post

Kokua Council is holding a lunchtime meeting on Monday, June 25 that may interest anyone concerned with housing or homelessness in Hawaii. For one thing, the speakers understand affordable housing, and as you know from reading Disappeared News, many of our leaders and our print media do not.

The announcement is below. There’s plenty of parking. Harris Church is very near the H-1 exits and close to downtown. Stop by. There’s even an optional pizza lunch. Or bring your own brown bag. Ask questions. Get answers.

PLEASE JOIN US FOR LUNCH

Monday, June 25, 2016: “Understanding Affordable Housing”

Miyama Main Hall, Harris United Methodist Church
11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Nuuanu Ave. and S. Vineyard Blvd.−Ample parking−driveway off Nuuanu Ave

Agenda:

11:30 Luncheon (optional): Various Pizzas, Salad, and Dessert—$5.00 Donation

11:55 Welcome, Introductions and Remarks

12:00 Program: Diane Terada and Rona Fukumoto: “Understanding Affordable Housing”

Diane Terada is Division Administrator of the Community & Senior Services (CSS) Division of Catholic Charities Hawaii (CCH). Rona Fukumoto is Division Administrator of the Housing and Referral Programs (HARP) of CCH.  They will describe the housing needs of seniors and the challenges seniors face in finding affordable rental housing, homeless issues, and the work of CCH’s Development Corporation which is currently building senior affordable housing in Mililani.

1:00 Adjourn

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/21/2016 07:00:00 PM   0 comments - add your comment links to this post

by Larry Geller

You may recall the news coverage: first there was a shortage of ballots in the 2012 general election, then voters were provided with incorrect ballots. Many left without the opportunity to vote in at least 24 precincts.

Attorney Lance Collins filed suit on behalf of the Green Party of Hawaii and seven individual plaintiffs seeking to prevent another election from being held until the state Office of Elections properly developed rules in accordance with the Hawaii Administrative Procedures Act. The lawsuit stated that 57 voters were denied their right to vote as a result of the shortage of ballots

The state held that the number of ballots printed was a matter of “internal management” and did not require rules under the HAPA.

The Supreme Court disagreed, overruling the district court and the Intermediate Court of Appeals, holding that “internal management” is a very limited exception that cannot be used when the regulations “affect private rights or public procedures.”

The outcome of this case may affect other situations where a state agency relies on an “internal management” argument and ignores that their procedures affect private or public rights. A small snip from the opinion illustrates this:

Even assuming that the procedure only concerned internal management of the agency, the method used by the Office of Elections would have a direct impact on the right to vote, including the private right of voters to have their votes counted.

In his oral argument, Collins explained that the purpose of the HAPA is to reign in an agency’s unbridled discretion. This is a lesson that he has tried to teach the Office of Elections before, as in the case Babson v. Cronin which related to the use of electronic voting machines in an insecure fashion and in the absence of rules regulating their use.

There were hints of how the court might rule in their questions during the oral arguments in May:

What does it take to affect people? We had people whose votes weren't counted. And according to you, that doesn't affect people's right to vote.—Justice Richard Pollack

and

This is the constitutional, fundamental right to vote that is being denied. This is not the right to paper clips.
…
Does the record reflect how much money the state saved by denying these people the right to vote?— Justice Sabrina McKenna

Attorney Lance Collins said this morning:

This clarification strongly supports the purpose and intent of the Hawai'i Administrative Procedure Act – which is to provide openness and transparency in government.

As a result of this court decision (and thanks to the Green Party, the other plaintiffs and public interest attorney Lance Collins), it is likely that there will be enough ballots this election season that each voter’s rights will be protected.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/19/2016 02:58:00 PM   0 comments - add your comment links to this post

by Larry Geller

According to the Wendy’s website, Honolulu Wendy’s was affected by a data breach 12/2/2015 - 6/8/2016. Did you charge a meal within that time frame? Read on.

Here’s the story: Wendy's revises data breach figures; over 1K locations compromised by POS malware

Here’s their web information (it might have said, “we’ve been hacked”, but instead it says): Updates Related to Investigation of Unusual Payment Card Activity at Wendy’s

A bill introduced in the 2016 Hawaii legislature intended to hold companies responsible for their neglect leading to data breaches never even got a hearing. The only recourse often is a lawsuit, which is difficult and expensive to do. Also, class action suits often leave little compensation for the class plaintiffs.

From the above story:

Wendy's is already the subject of multiple class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of affected cardholders and the financial institutions that issued payment cards to them. Cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs had reported earlier this year that financial losses to credit unions from the Wendy's breach is on pace to surpass damages incurred from the high-profile Target and Home Depot breach incidents.

Wendy's is offering one year of complimentary fraud consultation and identity restoration services to all potentially impacted customers, the company stated.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/09/2016 11:42:00 AM   0 comments - add your comment links to this post

It’s supposed to be bad journalism to run a press release. Heck with that, I don’t have time to fake a story. Here is an important press release from Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii that just arrived in the Disappeared News inbox.

The Governor’s signing of this bill puts Hawaii first in access to birth control. Read about it below, and don’t miss the info on an app for your smartphone.

Governor Ige Signs Groundbreaking Birth Control Access Bill Into Law

Planned Parenthood Praises Ige and Legislative Leaders for Championing 12 Months of Birth Control

HONOLULU – Today, Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii (PPVNH) celebrated Governor David Ige’s signing of Senate Bill 2319, a groundbreaking bill that will dramatically expand access to birth control in Hawaii. SB 2319 makes Hawaii just the first state in the country to require all public and private insurance providers to cover 12 months of birth control at a time, meaning that women will only have to pick up their prescription once a year.

“We are proud to support this commonsense solution to reduce barriers to birth control in Hawaii. At a time when politicians nationwide are chipping away at reproductive health care access, Hawaii is bucking the trend and setting a confident example of what states can do to actually improve access. Everyone deserves affordable and accessible birth control that works for us, regardless of income or type of insurance,” said Laurie Field, Hawaii Legislative Director for PPVNH. “We thank Governor Ige and the sponsors of SB 2319 for taking a stand on reproductive health and rights in Hawaii.”

Consistent access to birth control gives women the ability to control when and if they have children, giving them more career and education opportunities, healthier pregnancies, and making them less likely to depend on government programs. Today, most women have to refill their birth control every month, which is a burden for many and leads to inconsistent use, and accounts for 43 percent of all unintended pregnancies. Women without reliable access to transportation or living in rural areas have more barriers to dependable access to birth control, leaving them at a greater risk for unintended pregnancies. By requiring that women get 12 months of birth control at a time, Hawaii will take a substantial step towards reducing barriers to birth control access and decreasing unintended pregnancies.

“To be truly accessible, birth control must be affordable. The passage of this bill makes that possible. Women should be able to access affordable birth control without unnecessary hurdles such as extra charges or unnecessary time restraints. Many women, especially low-income women, women in rural communities and women of color face barriers that make it challenging to get the prescriptions they need. We are proud to be the first state in the country to offer 12 months of birth control and expand women's access,” said Senator Rosalyn Baker, Senator Laura Thielen and Representative Della Au Belatti of the Women's Legislative Caucus.

This is the second time in the past month that birth control access was improved in Hawaii. In May, Planned Parenthood launched an innovative app allowing women anywhere in the state to securely speak to a provider and receive prescriptions to hormonal contraceptives that are then discretely shipped to their home address. Together, SB 2319 and the Planned Parenthood Care app have given Hawaii women significantly greater access to birth control in 2016, putting our state on the forefront of reproductive health nationwide.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/05/2016 03:13:00 PM   0 comments - add your comment links to this post

Russia and China Right Now–?

4 July 2016

Nº 436 | Johan Galtung, 4 Jul 2016 - TRANSCEND Media Service

The background is the two major communist parties in the world.    Russia Communist Party-Bolshevik made the November 1917 revolution; from 1922 the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPSU(b). CPC, the Communist Party of China, now celebrating its 95th anniversary, made the 1 October 1949 revolution. World-shaking events; in the world’s biggest state in area and in the world’s biggest state in population.

The revolutions cut into the modernity contradictions in the State-Capital-People triangle by conquering State-military and police.  Two lasting achievements of CPSU(b): State Planning of the economy–maybe five years at the time, pjatiletka–now found in most countries; and lifting some bottom up to meet basic needs, surprisingly quickly. But CPSU(b) exercised gross structural violence in the countryside. And CPC, imitating CPSU(b), made the same mistake to start with.

Then they became different.  Russia got stuck with the Party on top of the State, for some people, but not by the people.  CPC, like CPSU, did not-and still does not-permit FAFE, fair and free elections at the national level.  But China gave People a voice in the 70,000 People’s Communes, helping them lift themselves up when in misery.

China did not see State and Capital as either-or; like Bolshevik Russia opting for State through expropriation, and neo-liberal USA for Capital through privatization, manipulating and spying on the People.  China opened for the neither-nor local level, for the compromise of some welfare state, and for the both-and of their capi-communism.

This intellectual-political flexibility, rooted in daoist holism and an unending force-counter-force dialectic, not in Western faith in a final state, Endzustand, opened for two very different “communisms”.

How are they doing these days, those two communist parties?

The Russian party is out for the time being; in came capitalism.  But over and above that discourse looms the history of a huge Russian Orthodox empire attacked by Vikings, Mongols-Tatars, Turks, Napoleon and Hitler, Catholic Christianity, and Cold Wars with extremist US evangelism, now over Ukraine too.  Yeltsin–hated by Gorbachev (INYT, 3 Jun 2016)–gave the West what they wanted.  Popular Putin tries to build autonomous Russia without Western-capitalist imperialism, probably successful in the longer run. However, in Russia the long run is very long.

Not so in China.  Zhou Enlai formulated the goal as a “modern socialist state by 2000”, meaning growth and distribution, and CPC did centuries of Western history in decades, passing traditional Russia. Goal: a “moderately prosperous society” (Xi’s New Year speech 2016); killing the corruption that could “lead to the collapse of the Party and the country” (Xi Jinping, The Government of China, Beijing, 2015)

The two Bigs are encircled by a common enemy, anti-communist USA.  Working on togetherness, Soviet Union collapsed. China went ahead with Russia and the border republics–Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan–the Shanghai 5 from 1996, celebrating its 20th anniversary.  In addition, expanded to SCO-Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in 2001, with Uzbekistan. Pakistan and India just joined rapidly expanding, with dialogue partners and observers, much beyond NATO.

They also have their own projects. For Russia: EU, Eurasian Union, and the global BRICS. For China: a global-Asian economy, AIIB, Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. Both benefit from BREXIT weakening the USA for losing its “direct link to the Continent” (INYT, 30 Jun 2016), by EU losing England, UK losing Scotland-Ulster. China’s South China Sea imperialism, mainly against US aircraft carriers, is winning without firing a shot.

Putin “could have overrun Georgia–annexed Eastern Ukraine, if not the entire country–made no move against the Baltic states” (Doug Bandow, Japan Times, 4 Jun 2016). Russia more political, also in Syria; China more economic, with “Made in China” on the vast Silk Road infrastructure (Yuwu-Madrid!); both more subtle, making more friends. And USA-West desperate, less subtle, bombing, making more enemies.

The West hopes for a split between the two. Any basis for that?  Chinese see Russians as lazy drunkards-Russians see Chinese as hordes; Russian prostitutes in China, and Chinese farmers in Far East confirm.   Something more territorial, like the “stans”? Since 2009 with China as major investor? (Jack Farchy, Financial Times, 25 Oct 2015). Both-and, China developing, with Russian security?  However, the Silk Road is much older than the Russian Empire.  So is the Silk Lane.

          How about warfare in general in the Russia-China-West triangle?

Russia conquered more than 2 million km2 from the Ching dynasty–the southeast of Russia Far East with Khabarovsk and Vladivostok–the Nerchinsk 1689 and Peking 1860 treaties. There were border skirmishes in 1652-1689 and in 1969. They more or less settled that when building the Shanghai 5 and SCO. Joint ownership?  China never attacked Russia.

West attacked Russia across the Catholic-Orthodox faultline in Europe from 395 to 1054: Napoleon, the Crimean war, WWI, WWII-Hitler; and Cold Wars I and II. When Russians ask “whence the threat comes?”, the answer is clear, “the West”.  Russia counter-attacked, but withdrew.

West attacked China in the First and Second Opium Wars; with the Anglo-French attack in 1860 looting and burning the Old Summer Palace. China never attacked the West.  Russia was West but is now a friend.

EU-USA also have to change their policy. The US Center for Citizen Initiatives had this July a citizen diplomacy delegation to Russia, could have been China. Reflections by David Hartsough (http://ccisf.org/):

• Stop US and NATO military exercises on the Russian border
• We need to put ourselves in the Russians’ shoes, know their angle
• Most Russians support Putin, and want a multi-polar peaceful world
• Stop the sanctions against Russia, they are counter-productive
• The Crimea people had the same right to secede as the Kosovo people
• The USA and NATO broke the 1991 promise not to move eastward
• Leave to the people of Ukraine-Georgia to decide their own future.

_____________________________________

Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is founder of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment and rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU. He has published 164 books on peace and related issues, of which 41 have been translated into 35 languages, for a total of 135 book translations, including ‘50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives,’ published by the TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 4 July 2016.

This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/04/2016 11:56:00 AM   0 comments - add your comment links to this post

by Larry Geller

Cannon on the steps of the occupied Iolani Palace


On July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawaii was declared, with Sanford B. Dole as president. The illegal overthrow of the independent nation of Hawaii was complete.

Yes, although your daily paper may want you to forget this, it is history that should not be ignored. There’s even a federal law confirming the truth of the history they refuse to print.

From the Apology Resolution, United States Public Law 103-150:

Whereas, in a message to Congress on December 18, 1893, President Grover Cleveland reported fully and accurately on the illegal acts of the conspirators, described such acts as an "act of war, committed with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States and without authority of Congress", and acknowledged that by such acts the government of a peaceful and friendly people was overthrown... President Cleveland further concluded that a "substantial wrong has thus been done which a due regard for our national character as well as the rights of the injured people requires we should endeavor to repair" and called for the restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy.

Whereas, the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States, either through their monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum.

A treaty of annexation was never passed by Congress, and President Grover Cleveland withdrew the treaty. Then on this day in history…

On July 4, 1894, the archipelago's new leaders responded to this rebuff by proclaiming a Republic of Hawaii, with Sanford Dole as president. Under its constitution, most legislators would be appointed rather than elected, and only men with savings and property would be eligible for public office. This all but excluded native Hawaiians from the government of their land… [From Overthrow, a book by Stephen Kinzer]

What was the motivation? Need you ask? Why is the US in Iraq?From the Washington Post review of Overthrow:

As Stephen Kinzer tells the story in Overthrow, America's century of regime changing began not in Iraq but Hawaii. Hawaii? Indeed. Kinzer explains that Hawaii's white haole minority -- in cahoots with the U.S. Navy, the White House and Washington's local representative -- conspired to remove Queen Liliuokalani from her throne in 1893 as a step toward annexing the islands. The haole plantation owners believed that by removing the queen (who planned to expand the rights of Hawaii's native majority) and making Hawaii part of the United States, they could get in on a lucrative but protected mainland sugar market. Ever wonder why free trade has such a bad name?

The road leading up to the declaration of the Republic of Hawaii was rocky, and can’t be summed up in a short blog article. Did you know, for example, that a US Senate investigation revealed that a bribe had been offered to Queen Liliuokalani to turn against her people and support the Republic? This snip is from a New York Times article on the Senate investigation, dated 1/29/1894:

The declaration of the Republic was not a single, static event. There was considerable debate in Congress on resolutions condemning the overthrow and proposed annexation. For example, this snip from the 1/25/1894 New York Times will give you an idea of the complexity that we lose in simplifying Hawaii’s history:

Each article is much longer than the snips above. It would be worthwhile to skim the New York Times for a complete account of the Congressional debate. No doubt this has already been done. If not, the articles are available on-line for the harvesting..

If you’re not familiar with Hawaiian history, beware of websites that work hard to re-write it. The true picture of the overthrow is not pretty, nor can the acts of the US government be justified or whitewashed. Google cautiously.

Let your children know that there is more to July 4 than barbeques and fireworks. It is a holiday that tears people apart here in Hawaii. See how you can work this history into your celebrations and festivities, so that it will never disappear.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 7/03/2016 07:00:00 AM   2 comments - add your comment links to this post