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August 17, 2002 - Saturday
Happy birthday to me....
William Greider has an interesting piece in the Aug
5-12, 2002 issue of The Nation. It's a look at attorney
William Lerach, who has taken a lead position in moving
the debate over corporate governance and corporate power
from the editorial pages into the courtroom by suing
corporations for fraud. His current targets include
Enron, WordCom, Qwest, etc.
But Lerach's take on the cult of the CEO, at least as
captured in Greider's essay, caught my eye:
Corporate moguls, Lerach explained, have a
character flaw that is often fatal. 'The CEO
ultimately gets brought down by the very personality
characteristics that made him successful in the first
place,' he said. 'How did these guys get to the point
where they control a big public company? It's not
because they take no for an answer. Their whole life
has been fighting and overcoming people who say no,
you can't do it, don't do it, it's illegal. These guys
say, 'To hell with you, we're doing it, we're getting
it done, nobody can stop me.' And when they get to the
top, nobody dares stop them.
He's talking about the corporate world, but it's a
characterization that sure fits University of Hawaii
President Evan Dobelle. Which, of course, shouldn't be a
surprise since his skill at mixing with the corporate
elite was one of the main reasons cited for his hiring,
which, as you recall, was done almost entirely in
secret.
This comment came in yesterday from a former member of
the Star-Bulletin's sales team:
[Friday's] SB staffer quote is
refreshing in its accuracy. I will be paraphrasing
that individual in my attempt to describe why I left
as well. 'Twas a heady opportunity, quickly smashed
into a reality of bullying and exceptional
expectations.
I'm typing here while holding my feet in the air as
Mr. Duke plays right under my chair with a very large
roach. Just part of his training for the hunt, I
suppose.
All the cats have already checked in this morning with
the exception of Lindsey, who usually shows up at about
this time.
Well, off for the birthday morning walk into the
sunrise. Thanks for stopping by.
August 16, 2002 - Friday
One Star-Bulletin staffer offered these comments
yesterday on the issue of staff retention:
Sometimes it's more than just money. It takes
a perceptive employer to appreciate what drives some
people. A spirited "can do" attitude among the staff
thrives when that sort of culture is instilled from
the top. But like a carefully manicured garden, it
withers with neglect.
When the Bulletin was sold to David Black many
members of the staff saw an opportunity to help build
a better newspaper. But for some reason none of us
were allowed to be a part of that. Instead of
participating as architects the local crew was
designated as basic labor, following orders from
consultants from Canada and elsewhere. Didn't matter
that many of us are experts in our field.
So while the attrition rate is pretty much the same
as what it has always been for years (about a dozen
staffers per year), the reasons for leaving have
changed.
August 15, 2002 - Thursday
It's that time of year again. Just after the
meteors, it's our anniversary (today) and my birthday
(Saturday). This year it comes with a special spin--I'll
be officially "retired" from the old Star-Bulletin, as
I've submitted all the paperwork to Gannett to begin
drawing whatever is in that retirement account. It's not
much, but there's no reason to let it sit there. In honor
of the occasion, I'll be trying to avoid work for several
days, or at least as much as possible. The calendar isn't
totally clear, but it is reasonably clear so far. It
helps that tomorrow is a state holiday.
If you missed the little Honolulu
Weekly item this week about cronyism up at UH, I
downloaded a version. Just click
here. It's already brought some quick additional
leads, and I'm hoping for more.
Yesterday's item about Treena Shapiro moving to the
Advertiser provided the occasion for this exchange.
First, a reader's comment:
I'm not sure why you would not mention the
fact that Treena is daughter of David Shapiro, (former
Star-Bulletin managing editor) who joined the
Advertiser earlier in the year.
C'mon. Treena's move has little to do with poor
conditions at the Star-Bulletin. I've been watching
the newspaper saga for far too long to believe that
morale at the Advertiser is higher than the
Bulletin's.
And my reply:
Re Treena. She may have started as Dave
Shapiro's daughter, but she's earned her own place as
a pretty good writer and, I think, deserves to be
treated as her own person. If Dave were in some kind
of management position, it would be a different story.
But he's just contributing a column.
Re competition: My simple point is that competition
for reporters should provide an incentive for
management to improve conditions as a way to retain
their staff. It's not a judgment on the state of the
Star-Bulletin. It's an economic dynamic. Same goes for
the Advertiser. Competition helps. Gannett would have
a lot more bargaining power if it were the only daily
game in town.
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You may have noticed the new cats banner to
the right, just below the "Photo Gallery".
That's Ms. Kili who appears on it. And the
banner links to new Kaaawa
Cats photos, which will pick up where
Cybelle's Saga left off.
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August 14, 2002 -
Wednesday
So now we hear that Steven J. Hatfill, the
scientist being investigated in the anthrax letters case,
wrote
a novel just a few years ago about a terrorist attack
on Washington D.C. using biological weapons.
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It's sounding eerily like the case of John
Leonard Orr, the former Glendale, California
fire investigator who is now serving a life
sentence after being convicted of arson
involving the deaths of several people. His
novel depicted a serial arsonist being pursued
by a fire investigator, and was written while he
apparently played both roles in real life. This
story is told in Joseph Wambaugh's recent book,
Fire
Lover. Quite an interesting parallel.
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I have a little item in the Honolulu Weekly due out on
the streets today. It should be online sometime later
today, I think. Worth reading. Check it out in their
Honolulu Diary section.
Word from the Star-Bulletin newsroom is that another
of their writers has been recruited by the Advertiser.
This time it's Treena Shapiro, who gave notice at the
Star-Bulletin yesterday and will jump to the competition
soon. Speaking of competition, raids like this will
hopefully keep pressure on David Black to improve
conditions for Star-Bulletin reporters and other newsroom
staffers. It would be a shame if it were simply taken as
an opportunity to hire a lower-cost replacement.
August 13, 2002 - Tuesday
I've got trouble. Nothing like facing an
investigative grand jury such as the one being convened
to probe Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign. But
trouble nonetheless.
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Two of the large cycads in our yard have been
attacked by some kind of bug which has left a
thick coat of gunk on their leaves. Up close, it
looks like a layer of tiny grains of rice. It
can't be good.
A Sunday drive to Koolau Farmers in Kaneohe
yielded their recommendation of a systemic
pesticide. I'm quite reluctant to move to
chemical poison, but in this case I don't really
have a choice. I've been waiting for a bit of
dry weather to apply it, and I'm thinking about
a test run, just to satisfy myself that it won't
inflict its own injury.
These are wonderful old cycads, estimated at
more than 50 years old. There's one on the makai
side of the house, and three on the mauka
side.
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Kaaawa
Cycad
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It would be heartbreaking if we lost one.
Cross your fingers.
August 12, 2002 - Monday
I got up early again to check the meteors, but
there's a light layer of cloud that just enough to
obscure the sky. I hoped it would clear. So far, no luck.
I got a phone message on Friday from Dan Mollway,
executive director of the State Ethics Commission. As I
understood the message, a commission rule requiring home
addresses and telephone numbers to be deleted from their
public records had prompted their staff to also delete
business information as well. This had not been
questioned until I raised the issue last week. But the
new working rule, beginning immediately, is to allow
official business telephone numbers to be disclosed since
they are public by law.
And the Star-Bulletin
reported yesterday that two officials hired by UH Pres.
Dobelle had failed to include information about their
former sources of income on personal financial disclosure
statements, which will now be updated with more complete
information.
And from Japan, a very funny short movie titled,
appropriately, "why
sumo is better than karate." It does take quite a
while to download, but is worth the wait. Warning: This
item contains cat content not suitable for all
readers.
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I did manage to post a new round of pictures
to the photo gallery, so click on this photo (or
the "photo gallery" banner) to check them out.
Sometime later in the week I'll also get to a
new batch of cat photos. There are some gems
among them.
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August 11, 2002 - Sunday
Early a.m. Sunday. I've just been out to check
the leading edge of the Perseid meteor shower. So far,
the shower head is clogged. No meteors sighted. I did
have a bunch of cats crowded around the door hoping to
make a dash for freedom when I opened the door to come
back into the house. I let Harry and Wally out, and would
like to put Leo out as well, but he suddenly makes
himself scarce once he sees that I'm in the ejection
mode.
It's proving more difficult than I expected to get a
copy of the Honolulu Advertiser's contract to produce and
distribute Navy News, the weekly Navy newspaper. A June
27, 2002 Freedom of Information request to Navy Region
Hawaii went unanswered. A July 22 follow-up letter
finally drew a reply dated July 30 in which the request
was kicked over to a different Navy office at Pearl
Harbor. No word back from this second office as of
Friday. I'll have to check Navy regulations again for
official response time limits.
Another reader weighed in with this thought on the
FHB-UH-Dobelle connections: Shouldn't Dobelle really be
doing his business at the UH Credit Union? :)
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Sunrise in Kaaawa is now around 6:10 a.m.,
making it easier for us to get down to the beach
in time for the sun's appearance. This past week
had some serious low tides, leaving wider
stretches of sand and good conditions for
walking.
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