Free courses
Free courses
I am writing in response to the Feb. 24 article about Hawaii Community College’s Office of Continuing Education and Training online employee training courses. Anyone with a Hawaii state library card (free for Hawaii residents) can access the exact same classes for free through the library that HCC is charging for.
The Gale Courses on the Hawaii State Library System are geared toward employee training, but there also are language classes in Hawaiian, Cantonese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Hindi, Indonesian, Thai, Portuguese (Brazilian), Swahili, Greek (modern), Hebrew (modern) and Arabic (modern standard).
Additionally, Microsoft IT Academy offers patrons free access to 250 e-learning, self-paced, digital literacy and technology training courses that range from computer basics to network architecture and design.
To find out more about these services through our Hawaii State Library System, visit your library.
I hope the state agencies can better coordinate their services. One agency offering the services for free while another agency is charging for the services is not a good use of our taxpayer dollars.
K. Christine Hale
Kailua-Kona
A ‘sick society’
In response to Sunday’s article, “Overrun by homeless?”: This is propaganda, and in my opinion this article, set along side our county receiving a large amount of money to build a new courthouse in Kona, perpetuates the idea that we need more of a police state, and thus more of our tax money being funneled into the prison and military industrial complex, which already commands more than 65 percent of our federal budget.
It is a simple understanding in sociology that the wider the economic gap, the more social problems arise. Therefore, it is of no surprise that if we spend most of our money on questionable industries, rather than on the welfare of our people through education and government jobs, then, of course, we see these problems become bigger and bigger.
But, we will not solve this problem through more policing; we solve it through more social programs. I spend a lot of time in downtown Hilo, and I notice the increase in vagrants. But they are not the problem.
Whatever their choices in life, good or bad, that got them there, they have NO POLITICAL POWER.
What I also notice, and many seem to avoid, is the increase of luxury cars and huge homes in gated communities. These people have the political power, and yet are content with ignoring their fellow human beings. They are worried about losing their stuff instead of giving back. We truly have become a sick society!
Douglas Suffern
Hilo