The unexpected demise of Aloha’s cargo business is providing a crash course in the dangers of total dependence on imported goods. I’ll be watching the neighbor island papers for a better sense of the impact. Maybe this will kick start those sustainability plans. Is it time for the National Guard to begin an airlift of supplies? The rich will be okay, as they can load up their private jets and bring everything with them. For local businesses and consumers, though, it’s looking grim. And for the economy as a whole…better buckle up.
About those bugs. No breakthroughs in identifying what we’re dealing with, but one reader pointed me to this web site where Bishop Museum scientists field questions about local buggies. Now if I can just figure out how to maneuver through it, perhaps I can ask for an opinion on my photo posted here yesterday.
I’m trying to digest the news of the surprise appointment of Tom Fargo (Admiral, ret.) as Superferry CEO. It seems the media have accepted the press release version of events, by and large.
Company officials would not comment on the reason for the leadership change, but said Fargo is joining the $250 million enterprise at a time when passenger and vehicles loads on the Honolulu-to-Maui sailings are growing.
Let’s see. The primary investor, with a controlling interest in the Superferry, sweeps out the founders and their current management and brings in their own CEO at the same time as they bring what appears to be an emergency infusion of cash. It sure looks like Lehman realized the business was failing and had to decide whether to bail out or try to keep the business afloat.
So they recruit Tom Fargo, add him to their stable of top military officers already serving Lehman & Company, and put him in charge.
According to the Honolulu Advertiser:
He is a managing director of J.F. Lehman & Co., and serves on the boards of Hawaiian Airlines, Hawaiian Electric Industries and USAA, the company said.
Interesting. He’s not listed anywhere on the Lehman & Co. web site, nor is there any mention of his affiliation with Lehman anywhere at the NY Times or Wall Street Journal. I can’t find any other report of Fargo’s being appointed or serving as a Lehman managing director, which leads me to believe that he was given that position as part of this deal to take over the Superferry operations.
He previously served as president of Trex Enterprises Corp.
Let’s see. When did he resign as president of Trex, which I believe is a company that he created? There’s a message from Fargo to DBEDT director Ted Liu among the emails of the governor’s staff from the first weekend of Feburary. Fargo was asking Liu for help in landing a contract from the Dept. of Homeland Security. So his departure was quite recent, again perhaps an indication that it was all part of this deal.
So why isn’t this reported as “failing Superferry taken over by primary investor”? Wouldn’t that be a more apt description of what’s going on?
And since the Superferry is competing with Hawaiian Airlines for interisland business, does Fargo now have a conflict serving on the Hawaiian board?
Moving on. A reader offered up this comment:
I got a kick out of your mentioning the duplication in the Star-Bulletin of the previous day’s comics. Somebody wasn’t paying attention! At least the S-B does present the Sunday comics in an easy-to-read tabloid section of its Sunday paper. The Advertiser totally buries its Sunday comics behind full ad pages. It even attaches a quarter ad section that makes it very hard to read the comic pages.
I’m thinking of kids here who might want to read the Sunday comics. That’s how I started reading the newspaper–reading the Sunday comics before I could even fully read. I think a lot of people used to be drawn into newspapers that way. I wrote to the Advertiser editors, not for publication but to express my views, and asked them why they sabotage their comic section on Sunday. I pointed out how difficult it must be for a child to even find the comic section, much less keep it altogether to read it. Of course, nobody even bothered to reply to me.
Hmmmm.
I started this round of Kaaawa’s morning dogs a couple of days ago and still haven’t gotten around to adding captions. But I’m going to post them anyway and catch up later. This is Samson, a senior citizen who has recently moved to Kaaawa and now walks on the beach every morning with his buddy, Chopin, and their person, George. Just click for more.
2 responses so far ↓
1 LarryG // Apr 29, 2008 at 6:52 am
“So why isn’t this reported as “failing Superferry taken over by primary investor”? Wouldn’t that be a more apt description of what’s going on?”
Why indeed. Why did it take the papers so long to bring Superferry news to the public that was in the blogs? Why do print media keep parroting “booking” numbers instead of asking about or measuring actual passenger countes? Hmmm? The damage in drydock broke in the blogs, if I remember correctly, and the controversy raised by Austal workers and former workers about welds etc. still is largely if not entirely a blog thing.
On comics, the Advertiser also had its Sunday comics problems, reverting for one weekend to what looked like the previous lineup. You’d think copy editing was dead as a profession. In fairness, there were no spell checkers in the old days (aside from humans) and modern papers have far fewer typos. But to miss a whole section in error… someone, somewhere has to be asleep at the switch, or maybe the whole thing has been outsourced to another country while we weren’t looking. No? Just wait.
The burying of the Advertiser comics–I’ve written about that too. Of course, no reply. Remember the name of the paper is “Advertiser” and that’s what we have in the comics section.
Maybe a better route is to write/call/fax the advertiser (small “a”) directly and say what we think of their intrusive ads, as currently placed. I, for one, can buy my flooring or car accessories elsewhere until they get their ad moved, no problem.
When the narrow ad was attached at the right end of the page it could be torn off, leaving an easily handled section suitable for readers of all ages. Tear it off now and the back page falls off as well.
Darn, it’s so easy to complain.
2 Andy Parx // Apr 29, 2008 at 10:47 am
“So why isn’t this reported as “failing Superferry taken over by primary investor”? Wouldn’t that be a more apt description of what’s going on?”
You might want look to the left, right, above and below the reports for the ads for the Superferry to get an answer.
You might just as well ask why a primary race where a new of 10 delegate were added to the loser is being hyped by the TV talking heads as a “win” and something that will prolong this idiocy… couldn’t be the windfall of ad revenues could it?
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