Rep. Mizuno, Chair of the House Committee on Human Services held an Informational Briefing on January 26, 2012 to discuss HB 1710 and HB 1711.
HB 1710 requires applicants and recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash benefits to submit to drug testing when reasonable cause exists indicating illegal drug use. Establishes ineligibility to receive benefits for one year for testing positive or refusing to submit to drug testing
HB 1711 requires drug testing for temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) applicants. Provides that applicants who test positive for a controlled substance may receive TANF funds upon the successful completion of a 6-month substance abuse program
According to the informational briefing notice, the purpose of the hearing was to answer a few questions:
Do these measures violate the U.S. Constitution's 4th Amendment right of unreasonable searches and seizures of the individual?
Private employers are allowed to drug test prospective employees. Does this mean the government should be allowed to drug test welfare recipients or applicants?
Is there a relevant connection between TANF recipients and illegal drug use?
Are these measures unreasonably targeting or stereotyping TANF (public assistant) recipients and applicants?
Presentations were made by Pankij Bhanot (Deputy Director, Department of Human Services), James Walther (Department of the Attorney General), Laurie Temple (American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii), Alan Johnson (Hina Mauka), Kat Brady (Community Alliance on Prisons), Jeanne Ohta (Drug Policy Forum of Hawai‘i) and Larry Geller (Kokua Council).
Alan Johnson noted that Hina Mauka does drug testing for TANF. Drug use has been recognized as a health issue and drug testing is one tool that can help determine what treatment is needed. Unfortunately, the governmental funding source is drying up.
Pankij Bhanot, James Walther and Laurie Temple noted that singling out one group of individuals for warrantless drug testing is illegal.
Jeanne Ohta (Drug Policy Forum of Hawai‘i) noted that it is impossible to keep up with every new synthetic and designer drug. “Law enforcement cannot keep up with the purveyors of purportedly pleasurable substances. It is an easy matter to change a molecule here and there and come up with a new designer drug.” Drug testing has an unintended side effect where we learn about new designer drugs when people show up in hospitals.
Kat Brady (Community Alliance on Prisons): A study by Pennsylvania State University, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago study found that “psychiatric disorders are much more prevalent than illicit drug dependence among TANF recipients. So we are really talking about where we are going to put our resources. We should put them where we need them. In an article by a former District Attorney and Miami Prosecutor ...Jim Rockefeller, from the Rockefeller Law Center ...said: “It's ironic that we in a nation of opportunity, always turn on the downtrodden, in times of trouble.” TANF doesn't just support individuals, we're talking about families. We're talking about children. And you know here we are trying to target one population instead of trying to lift people up and give them the help they need in a time when resources are so precious. To me it really breaks my heart that we would even consider this. ...The data is there. The court cases are there. We know that DHS, we know what they do. They give individualized service. This is about families, this is about children. Please don’t criminalize people because they are economically disadvantaged. Drug testing is not going to help.”
The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago study "Substance Abuse and Welfare Reform" (2004) noted: “Our analyses also document that psychiatric disorders, especially major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, are more prevalent than drug and alcohol dependence among welfare recipients. ...While substance use, abuse, and dependence are barriers to self-sufficiency, so are poor
education, lack of transportation, physical and mental health problems, and many other difficulties that are more common than substance abuse among welfare recipients.”
Larry Geller (Kokua Council): “Its so obvious that children are affected. ...Governor Cuomo, of New York, in his State of the State speech” referred to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps) and TANF. “New York want to fingerprint [people] and for people to be throw out, and he said that “No child should go hungry in the great State of New York, and that we would do all that we can to prevent this.” ... Kokua Council met on Monday for a board meeting and we reviewed the two bills and since then we learned about HB 1885, drug testing in public housing ...we heard the word nexus ...there is a nexus on this. On all these bills, and you know what it is? You have introduced them. And so, we also heard, that drugs problems affect all socio-economic classes. People who need public assistance and using state money, Don Horner at the Board of Ed, and he a member of a class, no different. State Legislators, why are you different from somebody receiving state money. So, I brought with me a plastic cup. There is place there, for you to put your name and the date.”
Rep Mizuno: “I wonder what Larry wants me to do with this”
Larry Geller: “I would like to suggest that anyone who introduces bills in the Legislature in the State of Hawaii, before they are allowed to introduce bills, be required to be drug tested. This makes sense to me. What I need to hear from you is why you introduced all of these bills that compromise our privacy. We need to, as citizens, to resist every time these bills are introduced.”
Rep Mizuno: “Staying on the topic here, a constituent had asked, that I introduce these bills.”
Less than one year ago, on March 28, 2011, Chair Mizuno heard testimony on H.C.R. 246 and H.R. 209 urging “the Department of Human Services to explore the possibility of conducting random drug testing of adult individuals receiving public assistance and suspending this assistance if the individual tests positive for substance abuse.”
The Department of Human Services (DHS) was under the same management as it is today: Director Patricia McManaman and Deputy Director Pankaj Bhanot. DHS testified on drug testing people on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and General Assistance (GA): “For TANF and GA recipients identified to be substance abusers, drug testing is already a requirement. Compliance is monitored by treatment providers.”
Kat Brady, Coordinator Community Affiance on Prisons, also testified: “HCR 246/HR 209 urges the Department of Human Services to explore the possibility of allowing government agencies providing government assistance to conduct random drug testing of adult individuals receiving public assistance and suspending this assistance if the individual tests positive for substance abuse. This is a recurring issue raised in times of economic strife where certain groups are scapegoated as the recipients of our collective anger. In 2004, a similar bill was introduced (HB 2923) and never made it to cross over.
Community Alliance on Prisons is in strong opposition to this resolution for the following reasons: ...
In 2003, a federal court struck down a Michigan law that would have allowed for
“random, suspicionless” [drug testing] saying it violated the US Constitution’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure. ...
The Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMS) recommended against
implementing random drug testing of welfare recipients. CAMH believes that there was little benefit to testing and that the stigma associated with testing impacted those on welfare negatively. They recommended that resources be allocated towards better training for government workers to detect signs of substance abuse and mental disorders, as well as to greater assistance and treatment to those who need help.
In addition, mandatory drug testing of public assistance recipients is opposed by the
American Public Health Association,
National Association of Social Workers, Inc.,
National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors,
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence,
Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs,
National Health Law Project,
National Association on Alcohol, Drugs and Disability, Inc.,
National Advocates for Pregnant Women,
National Black Women’s Health Project,
Legal Action Center, National Welfare Rights Union,
Youth Law Center, Juvenile Law Center, and
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. ...
Lori Temple (ACLU of Hawaii) testified: “Suspicionless, mandatory drug testing is a discriminatory and unnecessary invasion of privacy, as well as scientifically, medically, and constitutionally unsound. Spending any amount of money on studying or implementing these programs is neither an appropriate nor an effective use of state funds. Public assistance recipients’ constitutional rights are no less sacred than the rights of any other state assistance recipients, including those of corporations that receive subsidies from the state. This bill would deny benefits to the neediest children and send the message to public assistance beneficiaries that they are criminals solely because of their socioeconomic level. As a defender of civil liberties, the ACLU of Hawaii believes that all people, rich and poor, are entitled to the same privacy rights. No one should have to choose between their constitutional rights and providing for their health and that of their families.”
Additional Information:
Larry Geller referenced the 2012 State of the State address by New York Governor Cuomo: “No Child Should Go to Bed Hungry in New York. For all of our progress, there are still basic wrongs to right. There is never an excuse for letting any child in New York goto bed hungry. Statewide, 1 in 6 children live in homeswithout enough food on the table. Yet 30 percent of NewYorkers eligible for food stamps — over 1.4 million people —do not receive them, leaving over $1 billion in federal fundsunclaimed every year. We must increase participation in thefood stamp program, remove barriers to participation, andeliminate the stigma associated with this program. And wemust stop fingerprinting for food. No child should go hungryin the great State of New York and we will do all that we canto prevent it.”
“Secretary Duncan leads the chorus of "teachers are the most important factor in student achievement" despite ample evidence that teacher influence on measurable student outcomes, tests, is only about 10-20%. This refrain serves two purposes for the "No Excuses" Reformers: (1) Deflect attention from the 60-80% influence that out-of-school factors play in student achievement, and (2) insure that teachers are de-professionalized, thus creating a cheap labor force for a privatized education system.”—PLThomas, ED
“You can't fatten up cows by weighing them.”—Dr. Larry Lieberman by Larry Geller
Hawaii teachers broke with their union leaders and rejected the state’s contract proposal by a two-to-one margin earlier this month. Was it just a case of bad communication or incompetence on the part of Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) leaders, as the media represented, or are the teachers on to what’s going on?
I spoke to only a couple of teachers, but they were, indeed, very aware of the implications of passively agreeing to “education reform” Hawaii style. Which is to say, the same “education reform” that aims to decimate teachers’ unions across the country if unchallenged.
Educator Dr. Larry Lieberman adopted what is apparently a common New England saying (“You can't fatten up cows by weighing them”) for a radio program I arranged many years ago on Cox Radio. Just testing kids doesn’t improve their education, yet advocates of high-stakes testing and No Child Left Behind have implemented a testing regime that decimates school curricula and bribes states to comply in exchange for federal money.
As Dr. Thomas points out (and as others have before him), teachers are responsible for only a fraction of measurable student achievement.
Secretary Duncan leads the chorus of "teachers are the most important factor in student achievement" despite ample evidence that teacher influence on measurable student outcomes, tests, is only about 10-20%. This refrain serves two purposes for the "No Excuses" Reformers: (1) Deflect attention from the 60-80% influence that out-of-school factors play in student achievement, and (2) insure that teachers are de-professionalized, thus creating a cheap labor force for a privatized education system. … While 50 states have implemented accountability, standards, and testing without satisfactory results, "No Excuses" Reformers are committed to national standards, and the expected national tests to follow. While there is no national or international evidence that standards and testing improve education, this call for federalizing standards and testing proves to be an important lever for removing completely teacher autonomy and creating the platform upon which teachers are easily fired.
The market-based reforms are clearly aimed at destruction of public education as it is today. However, where reformers have been able to charge ahead, their results are no better than anywhere else.
But wait, some of the districts tested by the federal government have been actually implementing the market-based reforms advocated by the corporate reformers: New York City, which has had mayoral control since 2002; Washington, D.C., which has had mayoral control since 2007; Chicago, where Arne Duncan launched market-based reforms in 2001; and Milwaukee, which has had vouchers since 1990.
Since the mayor took charge in 2002, New York City has enthusiastically imposed market-style reforms. It has more choice than any other major city — parents and students get to choose among 400 high schools, as well as more than 100 charter schools. All schools are given letter grades based on test scores. New York City spent $56 million on merit pay, then abandoned the program when it showed zero results. After nine years of market-based reforms, however, the achievement gap between black and white students is unchanged. On the federal tests, math scores are up but no more than in districts without market reforms. Eighth grade reading scores have been flat since 2003.
The article also describes the failure of the Washington DC school district. In fact, minority students are far worse off. Check it out.
As long as the local media avoid this discussion, parents and the general public may remain unaware of the real game that’s playing out in the state. Since the real motivation is not improvement of their children’s education, they could find themselves becoming pawns in a game where big money calls the shots. The antidote is public education. If the newspaper won’t do it, then perhaps the HSTA might start to get the word out.
It is a Smart Move for large centralized fossil fuel utilities such as HECO to advocate for Smart Grids?
It will make them and their stockholders very rich.
Is it wise to allow the utility to develop and implement Smart Grid Technology when it puts all of the marbles in the hands of those who have corrupted the state definitions of renewable energy and those who insist that we need “clean energy” while refusing to define that term in either the “Hawaii Clean Energy Initiate” or Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS)?
For labor unions, will the Smart Grid create the most and best jobs?
For regulators, will Smart Grid models be the easiest to regulate?
For environmentalists, will Smart Grids do the most to reduce environmental and climate impacts?
For local communities, will Smart Grids protect the Hawaiian way of life?
If the utilities have their way, we will never know. The alternatives will never see the light of day.
In the Beginning
It all start so long ago.
In the beginning there was the Big Bang. Artificial light was generated from man-made electricity. Then came the electric grid.
In the early 1880s electric generation stations sprang up across the United States. Thomas Edison built the Pearl Street electric generation station in New York City which produced less than 1 MW of power and provided power for just a few city blocks.
In the late 1880s Iolani Palace was lit, and then the Nuuanu hydroelectric system went on-line providing electricity for a few Honolulu homes and street lamps.
Today these systems would be known as Distributed Generation since the generators (supply) were located near the load (demand). Today that grid would be known as a micro-grid since it served a very localized area. The combined generators and delivery system would today be called micro-grid architecture.
“Micro-grids were the dominant form of electric power system during the first two decades of the twentieth century. In fact, as late as 1918 about half of the customers in the country (in most towns and small cities) were still receiving their power from small-scale isolated power systems with generation plants sized well under 10 MW in capacity. ...
Many early micro-grids were not particularly reliable because only one power plant supplied all of the energy. If that plant failed, then the whole system was down. Furthermore, many of the early power systems were devoted to lighting loads and only generated power at certain times of the day, such as the evening hours, because it was not economical to operate generators during periods of low usage. The cost of energy was often more than $1 per kWh when adjusted for inflation to current dollars (2001).”
For a variety of reasons there was a general move towards centralization in the early 20th century.
Municipally Owned Utilities (MOUs) offered far cheaper rates than Independently Owned Utilities (IOUs). Government commissions were created to protect private companies from the threat of the municipals. Between 1907 to 1921 all but one state in the U.S. established commissions to oversee the utilities. These commissions had different names in different states such as Public Utilities Commission and Public Service Commission.
In Hawaii, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) was established in 1913 when Honolulu Gas Company sought to compete against HECO. HECO agreed to be regulated by the PUC in exchange for being a regulated monopoly. The original owners sold the company, and between 1913-46 HECO was owned by the interlocking Cooke and Atherton families.
In the early twentieth century large power plants were far more economical than smaller plants, they were more reliable, there were less populated areas so that long transmission lines could be strung up, and government regulators favored centralization.
During the Great Depression the federal government built large public work projects including the Hoover Dam, the Grand Coulee Dam, and the Tennessee Valley Authority(TVA) to generate electricity.
Congress decided to bring electricity to rural America by stringing 1000s of miles of transmission and distribution lines in rural areas. Before they could act, private utilities raced in and cherry picked urbanized rural centers, vastly increasing the cost to federal taxpayers to create the infrastructure needed for the truly rural and isolated areas.
Many of these rural areas are now serviced by electric cooperatives. Most electric cooperatives own only distribution lines, while groups of these distribution cooperatives created generation cooperatives to sell them power. Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) would become the first electric cooperative in the nation to own both generation and distribution.
HECO gobbled up MECO, HELCO and Moloka`i Electric Company taking control of 97% of the electricity generated in Hawai`i. From 1958-64 HECO built the Kahe Power Plant and installed the initial 138,000 kV High Voltage Transmission Grid.
Tensions since the 1960s led to new ideas and new ways of thinking.
The 1965 New York City blackout led the military and their university affiliates to explore ways to strengthen the grid. This approach has since come to be known as the Smart Grid:
“The best minds in electricity [research and development] have a plan: Every node in the power network of the future will be awake, responsive, adaptive, price-smart, eco-sensitive, real-time, flexible, humming—and interconnected with everything else.” Wired Magazine (July 2001)
The Arab Oil Embargoes in the early and late 1970s led to federal laws (notably PURPA in 1978) requiring utilities to buy power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) who would create electricity from distributed renewable energy sources and from cogeneration (heat and electricity).
In 1982 the Pentagon released “Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security” by Amory and Hunter Lovins. The report was re-released in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. Amory and Hunter Lovins argued that the existing centralized generation and transmission system is very vulnerable to disruption, whether by Acts of God or terrorism.
Some companies (such as credit card processing facilities) require a level of reliability than cannot be guaranteed by the electric grid so they have installed on-site generation.
Research and innovation has led to a plethora of cheaper and more efficient renewable energy resources including wind, solar, geothermal, OTEC, and ocean wave energy conversion. The price of renewables and energy efficiency devices are trending sharply downward. New types of batteries (lithium, flow, zirconium, flywheels) are being developed and tested. New technology is coming on line (fuel cells, micro-turbines, Bloom Boxes).
The federal and state governments offer tax credits for distributed systems located at businesses and residences.
Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan is seriously taking up the issue of creating Vehicle-To-Grid (V2G) Technology whereby Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) can store excess night-time wind energy and power homes during the day.
Companies are offering small devices which can be installed between a plug and a wall outlet and that measure the flow to each device when the device is on. These devices can also measure phantom power (the energy used by a device when it is off).
The terror attacks in 2001 and the rolling blackouts which occurred in California in the same year has led to renewed interest in distributed generation and micro-grids.
The military in Hawai`i is proposing having military micro-grids which can stay on in the event that HECO has a system wide blackout.
There are now competing interests that seek alternative futures: (1) to strengthen Distributed Generation and Micro-Grids; (2) to build Smart Grids; and (3) to build international grids such as the African-European venture proposed by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC).
Which approach makes more sense for Hawai`i with its six isolated grids? Should we develop micro-grids, island-wide grids or a state-wide grid?
Clearly the utility will maximize its operations by building costly transmission lines and computerizing every meter, every line, every everything.
In terms of job creation, low electric rates, cultural values, and environmental impacts it is not clear which approach is best.
Should we embrace the one that will make our utility the richest, or should we investigate the alternatives before investing billions of dollars?
Another way of looking at it is by examining the definitions in the Hawai`i Revised Statutes.
Chopping down tropical rainforests to grow palm oil is considered a renewable energy under state law but the EPA has just proposed that it not be counted as a Renewable Fuel because it fails the greenhouse gas emission requirements.
Most (95%) of the hydrogen produced in the U.S. is made from fossil fuel. Under state law, if fossil fuel hydrogen is burned at a waste-to-energy facility it is renewable, but if burned at a utility power plant it is a fossil fuel.
If you install a coal plant at your business, the electricity produced is considered a fossil fuel, but the heat produced is considered renewable energy.
If you mine trace minerals, clean them up by pouring acid of them, leave the toxic lake in some other country and use the trace material to make a magnet for your wind turbine, the wind energy is renewable, under state law.
Under state law an island can use only fossil fuel and yet be more than 100% renewable.
If you care about the environment, then focusing on distributed generation enables you to do things sustainably.
Forging ahead with the Smart Grid puts all the marbles in the hands of the entity which has corrupted the current state definition of renewable energy.
The appalling conditions at Foxconn, the company that Apple has chosen to manufacture their (and your?) iPhone, led me to check with Meizu on conditions in their factory.
Of course, it would be great to visit their plant in Zhuhai, just outside of Hong Kong, to check it out in person. Shucks, that’s not likely to happen. So I fired off an email instead, asking about working conditions in their factory.
The reply came back quickly: “The working conditions are very good. Salary is good by Chinese standards, and the atmosphere is relaxed and pleasant. Office staff and factory staff share the same canteen.”
It seems that Engadget beat me to it. The response contained a link to a story about Meizu which also included a visit to their plant: Exclusive: A day trip to Meizu's factory (video) (Engadget, 2/1/2011].
So (sigh) I get to watch the video instead of taste the food in the canteen. From the video, the food (in the smaller restaurant, furnished Western style) looks pretty good! And Meizu gives workers an extra, generous food allowance. The video is worth watching, check it out.
The Engadget visitors could not go onto the production floor although they could see a bit through the glass doors. Certainly, one would like to know more. Interviews with workers would be good, if they could speak freely. But for a start, Engadget has done a great job of demonstrating that the working conditions are better than what we have seen and heard of Foxconn.
At the time the video was made, Meizu was rolling out their M9 phone. The MX made its debut at the very beginning of 2012, and is clearly aimed to eventually enter the US market. For one thing, it’s specs indicate that it’s compatible with US carriers.
Early adopters may mail order, but if penetrating the US market is important to Meizu, look for eventual physical presence or a rep in this country. Times Square? I can already see the lines snaking around the block to get one.
“No compelling evidence exists that individuals on public assistance or more likely to engage in drug use or other illegal behaviors and yet Republicans in more than 30 states have attempted to institute a drug testing requirement to receive benefits. Some laws have even attempted to make it impossible to collect food stamps or unemployment benefits without being tested.” –[Raw Story, Indiana welfare drug testing bill withdrawn after lawmakers included, 1/28/2012]
by Larry Geller
In Hawaii, we are a bit short of Republicans. But several drug testing bills have been introduced in our state legislature this session that demonstrate that wrongheadedness and discrimination are non-partisan.
On Thursday an informational briefing was held by Rep. John Mizuno and a couple of the members of his Health and Human Services Committee who came and left during the testimony. The bills at issue were HB1710 and HB1711, both aimed at drug testing TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) applicants or recipients.
Constitutional protections under the Fourth Amendment aside, how does it help TANF recipients to take away benefits? As I testified, how does it help their children if the family becomes homeless?
No Republicans can be blamed for these bills. Actually, there was a nexus of bills that I found in my hands during that info briefing. Add in HB1885 which would have required mandatory testing of those in public housing.
Hawaii seems to be the “take away state.” Someone made off with the Aloha Spirit before this legislative session began. Taking away TANF harms, not helps people. Same for taking away public housing. What exactly did the children affected do to deserve living on the street or the beaches?
Once homeless, very conveniently, the City and County of Honolulu will jump in and take away any remaining provisions under a new shiny law they just passed. Again, that doesn’t help the people affected, but it sure is cheaper than budgeting for services that might, and much easier than instituting rent control or other measures to assure that there is affordable housing for everyone.
I had one more bill in my hands, HB2288, the one that would spy on each of us by requiring Internet service providers to keep records on everything we do from our home computer terminals and make it available to authorities.
Looking at the set of bills, I couldn’t help thinking, “what were these legislators smoking?”
Bills don’t just happen. I thought it would be useful to note who introduced or voted for these bills. We need to take note of how our lawmakers are working for us. Maybe one day there could be evaluation sheets or a website that would keep score.
Drug test any tenant or any applicant of federal or state low-income housing
Cabinilla, Ito, Mizuno, Awana, Chang, Nakashima
Cabanilla, Ito, Chang, Coffman, Herkes, Nakashima
HB2288
Spying on internet users in Hawaii
Mizuno, Ito, Manahan, Awana, Har, M. Lee, Nishimoto
(bill was deferred)
There are apparently other drug testing bills that have been introduced that I haven’t tracked down yet.
It’s easy to understand the Constitutional objection to these, and we also know that misuse of drugs occurs at every level of society, so that testing only the poor is clearly discrimination. Yet these bills were introduced.
And they have one thing in common, the person who has introduced each of them. He’s no Republican, either.
So at the end of my testimony I pushed a plastic testing cup across the table to Rep. Mizuno and suggested that since state legislators are paid from taxpayer money, before introducing any bills, they might each be required to pee in the cup and be drug tested themselves.
Rep. Mizuno has long been a champion of the downtrodden. He fought hard for the Micronesians who were cut off from health care by former governor Lingle. He got a “safe haven” bill passed to protect unwanted newborns. So I couldn’t help wondering why his name is on these bills.
The two bills won’t be heard. But why were they introduced in the first place?
When famed peace researcher Johan Galtung was visiting professor at the University of Hawaii he was also a frequent guest on Poka Laenui’s weekly Hawaii Public Radio program (this was before current HPR management came in). I was taking classes at UH taught by each of them.
Of course, Prof. Galtung abhorred the ongoing wars and held that there were non-violent methods of settling differences. Ok, we all know about Gandhi. But what other examples are there in history where non-violence has succeeded? Can any of us cite them? In grade school I was made to memorize the dates of each of America’s wars. It was as though our history was just a string of battles, with nothing else in between but the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation (we were little kids, that was probably the extent of our capacity to remember).
So I challenged Prof. Galtung to come up with a radio program that would set the record straight. Just what has non-violence achieved? Shouldn’t students memorize the dates when we didn’t need to go to war?
The result was not one but a series of five programs. Prof. Galtung had no trouble with the question.
So the idea that killing each other is unnecessary, inhuman if you will, and a crazy way to settle disputes is an old thing with me. Yes, I did challenge my fourth-grade teacher with a question something like “why do we have to memorize the dates of all these wars? Is that all there is to history?” Or something like that. I don’t recall her answer, and we still had to pass the test by regurgitating that list of dates.
We are engaged in a kind of war in this country—call it a class war if there is no better description—which is costing lives. The losses are very one-sided. The rich suffer no casualties, but many who become homeless die in the cold on New York City subway grates. Uncounted thousands who are diagnosed with cancer can’t get the necessary treatment because they have no health insurance, or because they had, but when they got sick it was taken away. The casualties are among the children who do not have enough food to eat.
On the other side are the 1%, the fat cats, those who can’t decide, when it snows, which vacation home they’ll escape to.
Both [Sweden and Norway] had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”
So it can be done. The Occupy movement is on the right track.
Maybe we could use a series on Public Radio (after that is reclaimed) explaining how to do it. There’s precedent.
Read the article. It doesn’t claim the path to success was easy.
In both countries, the troops were called out to defend the 1 percent; people died. Award-winning Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg told the Swedish story vividly in Ådalen 31, which depicts the strikers killed in 1931 and the sparking of a nationwide general strike.
In the USA, workers were killed both on the job and while demonstrating for better working conditions. Check out the Wikipedia article Timeline of labor issues and events and search, if you like, on the word “killed.” Workers were shot by police, who then and now are not necessarily working towards “law enforcement” but instead were called in to maintain the status quo for industrialists. On the job, the article notes in an entry for 1914 that 35,000 workers were killed and 700,000 injured, though the space of time is ambiguous. 1914 was also the year of the Ludlow Massacre:
an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914.
So whether we look at Norway, Sweden or our own country, it’s clear that fighting for a better life is not only resisted by that 1%, but by the government as well, and as it turns out, by the newspapers of the time. The deaths are not only those of the workers on the line or those shot by authorities, but also of the families living in crushing poverty.
It’s not that history is repeated because we’ve forgotten. Children who are not taught anything but the dates of wars may grow up ignorant of the history of struggle, both violent and non-violent, that brought us what civil and workers’ rights we have today. They certainly are not aware of the success of peaceful movements around the globe and throughout time. History is not forgotten, it is suppressed.
Check out the story on Norway and Sweden. It mentions mortgage troubles. The backdrop of their struggle resembles conditions in this country. It also suggests that perhaps we can win our economy and government back from the clutches of the 1% who seem so very much in control right now.
It seems that most everything is made in China these days, regardless of the logo on the front. Turn an American-brand item over and it says “made in China” on the bottom. China has quickly grown to be the second largest economy in the world and has largely displaced some segments of American manufacturing.
Most readers are probably aware that iPhones are made in China, in apparent sweatshop conditions, by a company called Foxxconn. Why?
It was in the middle of night when the first truckload of cut glasses arrived at Foxconn city with the re-designed glass screen for iPhone. Apple engineers had been tinkering with the glass screen for weeks.
Suddenly, the light in the factory was turned on.
"A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day," NYT reported.
This is how one million iPhone could be sold within three months.
American workers are not needed as much these days by corporations. That’s why “corporations are job creators” is a joke, even if repeated endlessly by Republican presidential candidates during the travelling circus the media calls the “debates.” “Jobs” is the refrain on both sides of the aisle, and even President Obama toots the “jobs” horn as he campaigns for a second term.
Jobs that have gone to China or India (as examples) are not very likely to return.
Corporations can make plenty of profit just by selling us stuff that’s made overseas. We are still needed as consumers, at least for a while.
It may be possible soon to turn the tables on these companies. Increasingly, electronics, lighting, gadgets, and some clothing can be ordered on the Internet directly from China. There’s no “Sears catalog” quite yet, but can it be far behind? Cell phones, Android tablets, even high-tech bladeless fans can be ordered direct. Yes, it’s possible to skip the middleman, or at least, the USA middleman. When ordering direct, payment is in US dollars, often via PayPal. The postman brings the goodies to your mailbox.
LED flashlights and lighting are made in China anyway, why not order your CREE Q5 flashlight from there and save the markup? The light is bright and penetrating. The LED should be long-lasting.
Admittedly, cellphones and tablets are generally inferior to what we may be used to. The Chinese tablets don’t compare yet to the iPad or the Galaxy. The price, though, can bring a tablet into the affordable range and make it possible for every family member to have one. No more fighting over the iPad. If the kids break one, well, the replacement isn’t expensive.
Both the tablets and cell phones commonly have features that comparable products sold here don’t have. Dual SIM cards mean that one phone can have both a business and personal phone number without carrying around two of them, and their phone books can be merged. Tablets have HDMI outputs, micro memory cards, USB ports, Ethernet ports, and other features that may not be available at all on domestically-sold products. Check reviews, if available—some also may not work.
Right now, it looks like it’s necessary to take a risk and order via the Internet. For some websites, the risk is minimized if they maintain a store on eBay, because eBay backs the purchase. Some other sites provide a 1-year warranty of their own, sometimes paying return postage.
I’ve only started my China-shopping experience, but there are a few things I can report.
For flashlights, some funny electronics (headphones, microphones, multimeters, breathalyzers, pocket watches, weird hairpieces, tattoo machine parts, fingernail stuff and lot of automotive LEDs and test interfaces), check out stores.ebay.com/etopauction, for example. They have CREE Q5 and Q6 flashlights with various options. You’ll notice some similarities: most take three AAA batteries in an internal plastic cartridge. Some offer the cartridge or a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. There’s a quirk to that Li-ion battery though—you’d need to buy a charger if one isn’t supplied. And then you learn that some Li-ion batteries of that size are “protected” and some not. The “protected” ones won’t overcharge, etc. The brightness of these flashlights is awesome, and there’s no bulb to change, ever. I got one with 240 lumens that focuses from a spot to a flood. It has a high-low-strobe switch. I could do without the strobe, but in an emergency, it might be useful. That one stays in the glove compartment. It’s easy to throw three spare batteries in a plastic bag in there also, as backup. I’ve been satisfied with my few purchases—they come in a couple of weeks right to the mailbox, and when I did have trouble, they refunded my money promptly rather than take back the defective product.
Try them for tools to open your watch and change the battery, and you’ll save money over paying a watch shop to do it. They even have a few types of batteries. Lots of magnifiers with built-in LED lights. An IR remote for your laptop when you do presentations, instead of tying up a human being to push buttons for you. Incredibly cheap Bluetooth headsets that work well enough.
A popular site is DealExtreme.com. This one pretends you are getting a discount over the usual selling price, but of course it is fictitious. For any of these sites, add the selling price to the postage cost, if any, and that’s the basis for the purchase decision. This site has all manner of useful and weird gadgets, lots of protective covers for your iPhone, toys, and so much more that it is kind of a “Sears catalog” already, but for things that can be easily mailed. They offer a warranty. I bought a 4.3” video player that was very cheap. It did last a while, but one of the buttons stopped working. No questions asked—they are shipping a new one, and paid my postage to return the defective item.
An alternative to DealExtreme is DinoDirect.com. This site has more of an emphasis on clothing, but you’ll also find telephoto lenses for your iPhone, plenty of watches, and the usual electronics. Check prices carefully, though. I’ve seen the same items for less at one or another of the other websites. This site has equipment at higher prices, and one hopes, correspondingly higher value, than some others.
When I had to purchase a new desktop computer unexpectedly, it required a digital cable to connect to the video monitor. HP did not supply the cable, and it was the Monday after New Years, so I had a hard time finding one. Only one local store had one for $26 and change. You can get one from Monoprice.com for just over $7 including postage. That’s the website to go to for USB or HDMI cables and more, in an impressive range of lengths and colors.
SPEmall.com looks promising for China-made tablets. They seem to mostly have Android versions 2.2 or 2.3, but some are or can be upgraded to 4.0, and they provide help in doing that. A tablet with a 0.3 megapixel camera could clearly be a disappointment, but those are the low-price end of the spectrum. The hot new Meizu cellphone with the 5.0 mp camera is out, but it’s pricey.
You can afford to get the grandparents a 10.1" tablet that’s easy on the eyes for much less than an iPad if they have wireless in their home and don’t need the 3G or 4G connectivity.
Chinavasion.com (is that “vasion” as in “invasion?”) looks promising, I have no experience with them. I just spent about four minutes this morning drooling over a cellphone watch that I really don’t need but was curious about.
There are plenty of other websites. I don’t mean to endorse any in particular. Even Amazon sells Chinese-made tablets, thus reducing a bit of the risk while adding back the middleman.
One day there might be a China store in Kahala Mall across from the Apple Store. I believe the day will come.
Of course, the biggest market for Chinese-made electronics is China itself. Looking further into the future, should the 99% of America that now makes the other 1% rich lose its buying power, it may not matter. Apple could just turn around and sell their iPhone to overseas consumers, and the heck with poor us. Apple, a very rich and successful company, doesn’t need us as workers right now, and maybe they wouldn’t care if we ceased to be consumers later on.
Anyway, you have a chance to play in a new sandbox, the mysterious world of direct purchase from China via the Internet.
Payments to HEI’s top five elite members are skyrocketing.
Three dozen legislators have introduced 100 energy bills for this January-May 2012 legislative session. The Governor is still pushing Big Wind and the inter-island cable. The Legislature will debate giving the PUC “clear regulatory oversight of the State's [electric] grids” and “the implementation of formal electric reliability standards to govern all segments of the electric power system.” The Public Utilities Commission has created a Reliability Standards Working Group consisting of two dozen energy stakeholders which has split into two major factions. All in all, 2012 could be the transitional year in the fight to wean ourselves off our addiction to fossil fuel. We need to make sure that we agree on the destination or all might be lost.
The Legislative Transformation
Statewide the rates paid by ratepayers on each island may be levelized. Moloka`i and O`ahu ratepayers may wind up paying the same rate. However, these rates will be higher that what is paid today.
They are going up. What can be done about it?
The rates will be determined by the energy decisions we make, or the energy decisions we leave to others to make in our name.
This year the Legislature will wrestle with the high and rising cost of electricity; the past controversy over geothermal; the current controversy regarding inter-island high-voltage transmission lines & who is charged with maintaining grid reliability; and the future fight over smart grids which will cost everyone a lot of money and then even more money.
This year Hawai`i Senators and Representatives have introduced about 100 bills which focus on energy policy. The Governor submits identical bills to the House Speaker and the Senate President. I counted each Governor pair as one bill. I searched titles and bill descriptions for keywords rather than searching the entire content of the proposed bills. The keywords I used were electricity, energy, utility, utilities, climate, geothermal, biofuel, and ethanol. There are 100 bills that have been submitted!
Analyzing only the lead authors for each bill I found that about 17 Senators and 21 Representatives have drafted energy bills.
Hermina “Mina” Morita was elected to the State House in 1996. She wanted to Chair the Water and Land Committee but wound up as Chair of the Energy & Environmental Protection Committee. For over a decade Mina made energy policy and other members of the Legislature deferred to her. Last March Mina was appointed by Governor Neil Abercrombie to chair the 3-member Public Utilities Commission.
That left an energy policy void in the Legislature. While many legislators began increasing their energy advocacy, three key legislators stepped forward with competing agendas.
Representative Denny Coffman chairs the House Energy & Environmental Protection Committee and has introduced about 15 energy bills. He favors requiring the utility to become a transmission company, selling off its generators, and thus becoming truly agnostic about which generators to deploy. Denny favors focusing on the big slice of renewable energy, that is, emphasizing baseload geothermal as opposed to intermittent wind and solar.
Senator Mike Gabbard, Chair of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, has introduced about 10 energy bills. He supports the inter-island cable, and greater transparency.
Senator Roselyn Baker, Chair of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, has introduced about 5 energy bills. She favors re-organizing and expanding the PUC and the Consumer Advocate’s office.
Three other legislators have each introduced about 5 energy bills. Senator Solomon is focusing on geothermal. Representative Souki is focusing on repealing ethanol in gasoline blending requirements. Representative Thielen is focusing on solar and climate change.
The Governor has a wide ranging agenda including believing that Big Wind (several hundred wind towers on Lana`i and Moloka`i, each of them 400-500 foot tall) and an inter-island undersea high voltage transmissine line are necessary to achieve state energy goals.
The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Transformation
This year the Public Utilities Commission is seeking to find ways to maximize the penetration of renewable energy by transforming the electric grid.
Gone are the days where the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) rubber-stamped utility proposals. In 1996 Life of the Land jumped head-first into energy regulatory policy. Over the past 15 years Life of the Land has been admitted as a party in 2-3 dozen PUC regulatory dockets.
Now many competing interests -- including DBEDT, DCCA, the four counties, energy stakeholders, renewable energy companies, Representative Denny Coffman, Senator Roselyn Baker and Senator Mike Gabbard -- are pushing and pulling on the PUC to shape Hawai`i’s future in their image. Caught within this web is the PUC chaired by Mina Morita.
The trillion dollar per year energy industry affects every aspect of society including the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Deepwater Horizon explosion, several Middle East wars, air pollution, allergies, balance of trade, climate change, water use, endangered species and environmental justice.
During the past few years the PUC has gone from a little known entity to a central role in shaping Hawai`i’s future. Hawai`i must make some very important choices about its future, ranging from smart grids to decentalized power.
Three major issues before the PUC are the Smart Grid, Reliability Standards, and the Inter-island cable. Every ratepayer will be directly and substantailly impacted by the choices made.
Smart Grids
In late 2008 the HECO Companies (HECO, MECO, HELCO) filed an application with the Hawai`i Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to spend $65M for smart meters. (HECO: $41M; MECO $11M; HELCO $13M).
Life of the Land and the Hawaii Renewable Energy Alliance filed Motion to Intervene in the regulatory proceedings. Over HECO objections that they would delay the process, the PUC admitted LOL and HREA as parties.
HECO then repeatedly asked the PUC for a series of delays. On July 6, 2010, the PUC dismissed the application without prejudice, and closed the docket.
HECO has since bypassed the normal PUC process to team up with multinational corporations and foreign interests to test Smart Grid technologies.
The essence of the Smart Grid argument is that -- in order to connect large renewable energy systems onto the grid -- the grid must be modernized.
The creation of the Smart Grid will cost billions of dollars and this cost will not count in any financial assessment regarding whether the PUC should approve power purchase contracts between the utility and renewable energy companies.
Thus ratepayers will pay HECO to buy renewable energy from renewable energy companies and will pay HECO lots of money to upgrade the grid. This dual approach will significantly raise eveyone’s electric rates.
The utility will then turn around and launch an expensive PR campaign to say that rates are being raised due to the high and speculative cost of oil. This PR campaign started in the year 2011 when the utility sought to stick in to the union through proposed pay cuts – while financially rewarding their elite management team with pay hikes, short and long term incentive hikes and special bonuses.
One of the companies HECO has brought in to help design the Smart Grid is GE, currently ranked number 6 on the Fortune 500 list. GE made news in 2011 when Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster struck. ABC News covered the story: “Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing -- the Mark 1 -- was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.”
GE and HECO are experimenting with a Smart Grid concept that is proprietary. That is to say, Hawai`i ratepayers will foot the bill for a project that they can not review and which is being implemented outside of the normal PUC review process.
The reason that the utility is so hot on the Smart Grid approach is that they can continue with what they know. The 19th century model of centralized generation with long transmission lines can continue into the 21st century.
In the 19th century that made some sense. There was an economy of scale in building large plants. Today -- with modern technology and 100,000’s of existing and underutilized flat roofs -- it may or may not continue to sense. Rather than evaluating the central station versus distributed generation models – the utility is racing ahead with the very costly central station solution.
Central Station models reward multinational corporations. Decentralized approaches involve smaller companies and often create more jobs.
Caught within this struggle is the PUC.
The creation of Public Utilities Commissions
Across the nation all but one PUC was created between 1907-21. They were established to protect incumbent privately-owned utilities from losing market share to municipally-owned utilities which were undercutting them by charging significantly lower rates for electricity. Here in Hawai`i in 1913 the Gas Company proposed competing head-to-head against HECO. HECO agreed to be regulated by the newly created PUC in exchange for being designated as a monopoly.
Reliability Issues and the Public Utilities Commission
Last summer the Hawai`i Public Utilities Commission establsihed the Reliability Standards Working Group to work on developing proposed reliability standards that would maximize the penetration of renewable energy systems onto the grid. The PUC designated some two dozen parties as members of this PUC surrogate group and were charged with developing reliability standards by the end of 2012. Ultimately the PUC would decide what to adopt as requirements.
While each party has their own particular issues and concerns, they have formed two general factions. State government agencies are in both competing factions.
The small, go slow, super cautious faction consists of HECO, MECO, HELCO and the Consumer Advocate (an entity that is located within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and which should be renamed the Utility Advocate).
The other faction which favors faster integration of renewables onto the grid includes DBEDT, the four counties, renewable energy companies (Zero Emissions Leasing, Tawhiri Power, Forest City Hawaii, Castle & Cooke Renewables, Sun Edison, South Maui Renewable Resources, HDBaker & Co), renewable energy trade groups (Solar Alliance, Hawaii PV Coalition, Hawaii Renewable Energy Alliance, Hawaii Solar Energy Association) and advocacy organizations (Blue Planet Foundation, Life of the Land)
The renewable energy transformation will occur quicker if parties feel that for now, and in the future with different Commissioners and a different Governor, the PUC can be trusted with the important responsibility of ensuring reliability. This will depend on the expertise that the PUC develops, the people they hire, and the trust that develops between the PUC and other parties.
The Legislature
One obvious change that will be debated by the Legislature this year is who is charged with maintaining the reliability of the grid. Across the nation electric reliability councils have the regulatory authority to oversee the grid. These councils are independent of electric utilities. Only in Hawai`i does the responsibility for maintaining grid reliability belong to the host utility. Measures are bing proposed that would shift this responsibility from the utility to the PUC. One bill that would change this arrangement is HB 2525.
It may be possible soon to turn the tables on these companies. Increasingly, electronics, lighting, gadgets, and some clothing can be ordered on the Internet directly from China. There’s no “Sears catalog” quite yet, but can it be far behind? Cell phones, Android tablets, even high-tech bladeless fans can be ordered direct. Yes, it’s possible to skip the middleman, or at least, the USA middleman. When ordering direct, payment is in US dollars, often via PayPal. The postman brings the goodies to your mailbox. 
