May
22
The Big Island Visitors Bureau outsources its press releases to a P.R. agency on the mainland, far from the vog, though they do breathe smog, or, as they call it there, the “marine effect.”
This West Coast brain trust issued a press release this week playing down the vog. It characterized the matter as “negative publicity.”
The gist of the press release was that the vog has been overplayed and all Californians should board planes at once to come see the beautiful new atmospheric conditions at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, known far and wide for its lovely yellow sunsets.
Also this week, however, House Speaker Calvin Say appointed a team of lawmakers to investigate the vog, and the committee chairman, the venerable Rep. Bob Herkes of the Big Island, said the vog has become an undeclared natural disaster.
Venerable is sometimes used as a euphemism for “really old.” Herkes is in fact really old, but he’s also venerated, or respected anyhow, not least because he is sensible. And this is his take on the vog: that we should start thinking of it like an earthquake, a natural event that has consequences severe enough to consider relief.
The vog has hurt crops and it has hurt tourism. It is real, and it is a real problem. It is not “negative publicity,” nor has the problem been overplayed.
People who never felt the vog before have felt its effects recently. Ask around. I’m not talking about hypochondriacs eager for a new ailment, but the sort of people who are proud of their robust health and are mortified to admit that for some reason the vog this time has really left them short of breath and scratchy-throated.
And this is on Maui and Oahu. I feel for my friends in Hilo.
Pretending that vog so severe it has closed a national park four times in a month is not that big a deal could really backfire if it induces some Californians to come visit the park, then they go home complaining of health effects.
Advice to tourism industry players: be careful not to lean on your press release writers too hard to do something, because many fine press release writers lack the knowledge or backbone to tell you that what you’re asking for is inaccurate, misleading or otherwise ill-advised.
Rather than play the vog up or down, it might be better to play it straight.
May
21
The Hawaii chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers gave out its annual awards Tuesday at the Hawaii Convention Center, and I was honored to announce them from the podium.
What I didn’t expect was to announce an award that got me thinking about the way businesses are buffeted by factors beyond their control.
The one that got my attention was to Weyerhaeuser, its Honolulu general manager Rob Cundiff, production manager Glenn Masaki, human resources director Lyan Bonn and the rest of the factory team.
They were praised for requiring employees to think like owners, ordering them to take action when they see something unsafe, giving them “stop line authority” without fear of reprisal. Result: only one OSHA-reportable injury in 2007 with zero lost workdays.
There’s just one problem.
The Weyerhaeuser plant has closed.
Weyerhaeuser announced several weeks ago that it was selling a division of factories, and would have to shut down its Honolulu facility because the buyer wasn’t interested in acquiring the old Hawaii facility. The company seemed to express genuine remorse for what it was about to do.
There is something poignant about winning an award for running a damn safe factory after the factory has been shuttered. But this isn’t the first time this has happened lately.
Aloha Airlines, which under its last management was finally able to compete head-to-head with Hawaiian for on-time arrivals, beat Hawaiian to take the nation’s top airline on-time spot in the next monthly report to be issued after the total and final cessation of passenger service.
Like the Weyerhaeuser plant, Aloha Airlines failed despite objective evidence that it was run well, and you don’t have to look far to find the reasons. Aloha’s cash had been drained in the interisland fare war, and massive handouts from investors — how ever did management cajole them into coming across with so much for so long? — went straight to jet fuel suppliers.
Think of all the businesses that have not failed, but face major crises not altogether of their own making — Matson, NCL, Hawaiian Airlines, Hilo Hattie — you could even make a case for this applying to go!, since its parent company’s behavior could have unintended consequences.
May
19
Nothing derailed the farm bill. After passing the House Thursday it did clear the Senate Friday, and again by a vetoproof margin.
Thirty-five 35 Republicans voted against their president. He knew they would. Farm bills are like defense bills. There is money for every district.
Here’s more of what was in it for Hawaii. (The bill is hundreds of pages long and sometimes we don’t notice all the good stuff until the Congressional delegation enumerates its accomplishments in a press release.)
The bill contains a new premise for allocating funding — the premise that Hawaii, Alaska and the territories should get a little sumpin-sumpin on account of being far away, or, as the bill puts its, our farmers operate at a geographical disadvantage.
I’m not entirely sure this is so. The biggest disadvantage our farmers face is that the low cost of shipping allows supermarkets to buy milk and produce from California, where farmers have lower land and labor costs, to save a few dollars. The geographical disadvantage is not that we’re isolated but that we’re insufficiently remote to be beyond the reach of West Coast ag.
But let that pass.
The other really cool thing in the bill is a labeling requirement for mac nuts. If a company is selling a Hawaii-branded candy with South African or Australian nuts, the consumer will be able to discern this on the package somewhere.
On another occasion I’ll explain why labeling requirements sometimes pit farmer against farmer in the nut and coffee businesses. (I have the luxury of having friends on both sides of the dispute, thus conferring on me the high honor and privilege of annoying both sides at once.) But generally speaking if you want to address the issue without spending too much money or shaking up the market with unintended consequences, a simple labeling requirement is a good starting point.
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