Across decades, Aloha

Boston in July 2016: greeting the Hawaiian diplomatic voyaging canoe Hōkūle'a on its global multi-year mission of mālama honua (caring for our island Earth). I begin talking to an older Hawaiian lady. She's lived in Massachusetts for decades, but grew up around Punalu'u, O'ahu. "Perhaps you knew my Uncle George Hiilani Mills" (my grandmother's younger brother).
She gently reaches out to touch my arm -
"Of course I knew Dr. Mills - he was our family doctor for many, many years. Such beautiful eyes! ..."
...Aloha shared, far away....

Know Too Much?

I often feel angry at the craziness I see in the world. That emotion can often be transformed into a motivator to work for positive change.

But sometimes I feel dismay on another level. This can come when seeing repeated errors, and patterns of hugely costly ignorance around me. Or it can be more simple, such as when understanding "back office" procedures takes away beauty and magic.

I've worked teaching Service Excellence, and enjoy studying commercial kitchens and hospitality in restaurants, hotels, inns, etc. But as a visitor it can sometimes all look flat when the environment is contrived & artificial, or executed poorly.

I also work in Place Marketing. I've much experience with Japan & Korea, but also have lived and worked around Europe, with continuing interactions in Australia, the USA, Hawaii, India & elsewhere. Placemaking is a fascinating process. I know of thousands of local success stories and have visited many hundreds of iconic projects in over 80 countries around the world.

In teaching MBA programmes, we urge our students to Redesign Your Life. Ultimately, this knowledge translates also to my personal life: choosing where and how to live. Why Live Where? I live in central Stockholm, Sweden, in a neighborhood with excellent walkability. We've not owned a car since 1995. Our home is comfortable and made with good materials. The community is prosperous, anti-militarist, with excellent social services.

We live next to Odenplan. Ten years ago it was a reasonably beautiful city square with big trees, a water feature, and small shops. Then the regional government tore it up for underground construction lasting some five years. Now it is rebuilt as cold, slippery and windswept, not a friendly place at all. That's sad, because many friends and acquaintances live nearby (including another very top placemaking expert). Of course we can deliberately meet together in commercial shops, but so much better to organically cross paths in the local piazza and have an informal chat. Perhaps one day Odenplan will get better... it's still under adjustment.

In sum, both fun & frustration. Continuing challenges demand renewed energies. Pressure Makes Diamonds.

Sneaky Citizen

Oddities and inconsistencies often arise from reading wide & various news reports. Here's one from late Friday afternoon:

Citizen Watch Co. (シチズン時計) accepted the resignation of the President of their subsidiary, Citizen Electronics Co. (シチズン電子社長を解任した), for falsifying product data. It seems both the origin and longevity of key LEDs, switches & sensors were misrepresented for many years so as not to "lose contracts mainly with North American clients."

The report was vague, and no other English-language news (as of now, Saturday morning) is reporting yet about the scandal.

Looking at Japanese-language reports, it becomes clearer: Citizen lied about place-or-origin, claiming domestic Japanese origin for parts made in China.

Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reports this was at least a seven-year fraud, involving 166 types of products, and 1.3 billion mislabeled parts (約13億3300万個).

This may mean additional import duties & penalties are due to "North American" authorities, and surely they should pay compensation to defrauded consumers.  Further, we wonder how many other manufacturers deceive us everyday?

BAD Corporate Citizen

Ekecheiria - Olympic Truce

Hooray. No politics for me 9-25 February! 
 💕
I'm very happy to honor ἐκεχειρία, the Spirit of truce, armistice & cessation of hostilities - a 3000-year tradition.

Olympic Truce Please

The Olympics entourage of US politico Mike Pence includes the father of Otto Warmbier, the 21-yr old American who received harsh imprisonment for attempting to steal a North Korean political banner.

Pence is being savaged by his South Korean hosts for divisiveness:
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/831287.html

Does Pence understand the 3000-year old tradition of the Olympic Truce?

The South Korean hosts worked many years to stage a clean & uplifting Olympic Games. The arrogant USA doesn't care.

The USA team at the last Summer Olympics in Rio made several false accusations and caused bad feeling in the host community (four swimmers including Ryan Lochte). Such behavior is horrible & ugly.

The USA is quick to condemn other nations while America offers protection to the global worst scum cheat Lance Armstrong. Five years ago he admitted to long-term doping, and thus theft & fraud. But he's kept hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth, and has yet to serve even one day in jail.

Anyhow, for now, let's celebrate the Olympics!

American Snowflake

Part of the USA has now been taught to taunt many others with the label "Snowflake"

Anyone using that term is an Asshole & coward.

• Who are you afraid to confront?
• Why pretend
• Why be passive-aggressive ?

As a Liberal person, I'll also not mince words:
The American Health Care System is horribly bad.
If you are not very wealthy, they will cruelly extract your money.
Expect to die knowing you're being cheated.

Escape Now - You share responsibility for Your future misery.
Go to a foreign land which has national health insurance.

https://splinternews.com/how-people-die-in-america-1822743566

Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag

When Republican Speaker of the House Ryan deleted a highly-criticized tweet, he was able to also kill many well-crafted criticisms.

Ryan's proud to be butt-boy to America's owners.

Ryan's proud we're satisfied to get $1.50 a week.

Setsubun

Late dusk, our landlord showed up at our farmhouse, 32-years ago today in Japan, with a big basket of roast beans. He asked if we'd completed 豆まき (we'd simply tossed a couple of beans at each other). He opened all the doors and windows, and threw big handfuls of beans in every corner as we all bellowed 「鬼は外！福は内！」Very memorable - we were still finding dried beans throughout the year.

National Service

Politicos willing to sacrifice key institutions are dangerous.

Bush/Cheney deliberately tarnished military honors for valor (to diminish rival Kerry). They also oversaw deliberate intelligence leaks (as retribution) that compromised clandestine operations abroad.

Trump/Pence now attack the FBI.

Politicization is our enemy.

Cheating Scum?

Lance Armstrong is at the heart of the most profitable cheating scandal in modern sports. After years of crushing rivals in competition, via media, and in court, he admitted to long-term doping. It seems a fraud of hundreds of millions of dollars. But he's "white" American - five years after his confession, he remains rich, and not been to jail. 

The world marvels at American justice...

Führerprinzip

Jump up, clap for a long time
(purposeful design)   Führerprinzip

So many national figures support Our Leader.
Trust.  Believe.
They Care For All of Us

 

Servile No More!

The US Federal Government & State of Hawai'i have Constitutional obligations to Native Hawaiians to administer our inheritance.

The Public Land Trust includes much of the 1.8 million acres of land taken from Hawaiians, generating major revenues supposed to be for Native Hawaiian beneficiaries. This inheritance has been deliberately neglected & subverted, but business-as-usual is now unsustainable!

Being polite and offering Aloha have proved unsuccessful.

Here's discussion of this issue, and what we're doing to make it right:
https://www.oha.org/plt

Reasserting sovereignty will not be easy

Hawaiian pule (prayers): Nā 'Aumākua & E Hō Mai
http://thoughtsmart.com/pule

Bravo!

Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball franchise at long last is dumping its ridiculous Chief Wahoo logo (link). RESPECT or clash

A Wee Bit of Scotland

Enjoyed a fine Burns Supper at our friend's Östermalm home
w/ poetry, music & all the trimmings.
Lord Be Thanket !

http://thoughtsmart.com/SelkirkGrace.mp3

Dislike Forcefeeding?

I don't like being herded, or forced into disagreeable procedures.

Most people may be more accepting, or insensitive...

In many cases, half the battle is to properly define the problem. Help is often near if you know the correct terminology.

An example:

Using my Electrolux EMS2020 microwave oven to warm or heat items, I'll typically do something else while it operates. When its procedure ends, it stops moving, and a bell softly chirps. Wonderful.

However, if I do not attend to it immediately and the door is unopened, after some seconds a reminder bell chirps.

I hate that reminder.

Unfortunately, I bought my microwave when living in Korea, and the interface is all Hangul. There may be an override to the reminder bell, but I've not found it yet (and because a bypass may exist, I'm perhaps more irritated).

Do you use Windows 10 ?

Microsoft is typically OK in allowing adjustments - and while not always making settings simple or intuitive, they've now had long experience with user angst. Some will remember their talking paperclip, Microsoft's 'Clippy' ...

I've recently been troubled by the Windows lockscreen time. Go away for a minute, and the Windows login screen appears. I don't mind typing my password once or twice a day, but not more often.

I tried unsuccessfully to find an adjustment in Windows settings.

So I searched for adjust time Windows login screen in my favorite search engine, only to find the procedure is hugely & unnecessarily complex. Why? It's rude forcing the world to live with a mandatory & inflexible timeout after one-minute. To what purpose?

1) sometimes, Microsoft, you suck
2) your own Microsoft help page put me in the Registry searching for a setting that did not exist - weird ("ScreenSaveTimeOut string value item). It claimed default timeout is 15 minutes (900 seconds) when in fact it is one minute... 
3) if you are bothered by this Microsoft imposition, here's how to change the timeout:
https://www.howtogeek.com/267893/how-to-change-the-windows-10-lock-screen-timeout/
two-step, complex procedure -- but successful.

Redesign Your Life !

Scottish rain

Two-Headed Dog : Orthrus USA

American Public Servants ?

NO

Creatures of the Swamp

UKCHUCK

Brexit promises, often bollocks, had pie-in-the-sky funds for the NHS.

The better betrayal tag:  ukchuck

Hawai'i's Traitor List

Who took up arms against the Kingdom of Hawai'i and her native people?

The newly-formed Republic of Hawaii Army included 458 officers & soldiers.

We also know who was active in the so-called "Citizen's Guard" because the coup plotters made certain to publish each of the 740 names - to share the burden of guilt. Some of these paramilitary mercenaries were only briefly in Hawaii, but they carried a rifle and kept the locals from gettin' uppity.

Thus 1198 poisonous snakes not to be forgotten.

http://thoughtsmart.com/hawaii/atrocity-america.pdf

Sandcastle Suffering

Sandcastle Day School sounds wholesome, but Principal Turpin is now accused of chaining & torturing the kids. Both he and his wife face charges of child endangerment.

Today the California Department of Education continues to advertise the school (link). But Sandcastle's two administrators are held in jail pending their posting a combined bail of $26 million.

The State of California has almost no functional oversight of such schools (according to CNN - link), but eleven other US states are worse - with no reporting requirements at all.

Child-focused schooling in America greatly suffered from Reagan-era deregulation, through US Sec. of Education neocon Bill Bennett, to multi-billionaire Betsy Prince DeVos (older sister of Blackwater USA's Erik Prince).

America's communities are disintegrating.
No money for skoolin - its all gon 4 guns.
We suffer from Galactic Empire!

Sandcastle Day School Principal David Turpin

Public Use / Official Use ?

Chinese characters are widely used in Japan. But after divergent usage over many hundreds of years (often over a thousand years), meanings became slightly different.

I've become intrigued by the characters 公用

In China, it seems this consistently means "public use"

In Japan however, it's often "Official Use Only - Stay Away!"

Very different, almost opposite meanings...

Of course, Japan's paradise for officialdom, with many cumbersome administrative processes, and an army of paper-pushing bureaucrats (each convinced their own non-productive work is essential).
 

I'm still getting to grips with this difference; further reports as I discover more.

Pissing on Stockholm

Stockholm needs more public toilets.

How to best say this, or illustrate the problem?

It seems substantive change will only come from embarrassing our community leadership.

-- sell adult diapers as cruise ships dock at the quay
-- find older folk who've suffered
-- ask those w/ medical issues for their horror stories
-- distribute each tourist a "piss cup" ... etc ...

Stockholm needs more public toilets.

It's basic humanity.

Uninvited

US-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, 17 Jan 1893, led to 125 years of careless vacationers, cultural genocide & military occupation. Restore Native Hawaiian illegally-diminished inheritance. Peace, Land, & Aloha.

THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Please don't insult the host

'Āina is a very important word for Hawaiian culture. Hawaiian lands are permeated with the hope, sweat, bones and Aloha of native people. 

Hawai'i is infused with great energies; respect local kuleana, please walk carefully.

Dole drums

Sanford Ballard Dole, 48 years old and a member of the Queen's Privy Council, was "President" after the illegal US-backed coup (16-17 Jan, 1893) aggressively overthrew Hawai'i's government.

Dole is now symbolic of treachery for theft of Hawaiian inheritance.

Fak Dup Nation

The USA has become horrendous.

The "boiled frog phenomenon" helps Americans overlook or ignore cruelty & heartlessness. These failures are clear to any objective visitor.

The US prison system's heavily populated by people with mental health issues. Others w/ psychological problems roam the streets, homeless. They belong to a class of people widely known as Fakm.

Sure, foolish Yankee constructed cruel communities requiring almost everyone to suffer and work hard. But for people where minimum level's impossible, our system only says Fakm.

Yes Virginia, it's a Dangerous World

Rereading a history of newspaper self-censorship in service to American Empire (link)  

"Freedom of the press" in America is mirage, PR & bullshit.

Is it reasonable The New York Times still is patting itself on the back after publishing the Pentagon Papers 47 years ago? Thanks, but a long time's passed - (generations back, to the days of Brezhnev, and when gas in America cost 40¢ a gallon) - what have you done for us lately?   Far too little - this century's NYT bosses spinelessly serve America's ruling elite...

A key quote comes from Bill Keller of his stint as Executive Editor of The New York Times:

"Three years after 9/11, we, as a country, were still under the influence of that trauma, and we, as a newspaper, were not immune. It was not a kind of patriotic rapture. It was an acute sense that the world was a dangerous place."

Yes, the world was (and is) a Dangerous Place.
Our secret government is very dangerous.

Keep the citizenry ignorant, and you steal away our oversight capability from us.

Treating the public as ENEMY extended the corruption of Bush & Obama governments. We continue enriching the officials as individuals, and rewarding their corporate & military support systems.

Disregard and contempt for the public by media giants is unsurprising. Expect the Ochs-Sulzberger family and The New York Times to feed you sugar-coated bullshit... and the Murdochs & Fox / News Corp are even worse. Corporate media has steadily eliminated experiments with public interest oversight: The Washington Post ombudsman was eliminated in 2013, The New York Times public editor was axed mid-2017.

Neither has corporate media done enough to secure unimpeded public access to worldwide news & information, now threatened by recent FCC surrender of "net neutrality" ... Media & big ISP (internet service providers such as Verizon, Comcast, Spectrum or AT&T) work to build their mega-corporations. Allowing internet repackaging by the ISP carries our nation of sheep substantially closer to the slaughterhouse.

Media Make Weather

Commercial media, the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and the National Weather Service have whipped-up a frenzy over the past 48-hours predicting bombogenesis and "bomb cyclone" weather for New England...

Stay Safe !

Now this morning CNN 'teased' on New England's overnight bomb cyclone weather, eventually serving up the number four news slot at 22 past the hour -- repeatedly promising the extreme weather report was coming, but first showing viewers a Trump exposé, and then reports on North Korea and then Pakistan ... First they tie our knickers in knots, then they play us like fish on a line

image from GoodMorningSkillsaw

Murky Empires

Hawaiians are studying how "powerful" nations deal with very distant colonies.

96% here voted to remain in the European Union, but...

(27 Dec 2017, Gibraltar border)