Project idea
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged businesses to remain financially viable, forcing some businesses to shut down. The lack of available work has forced working-class citizens into poverty.
For example, I have close friends and family members who are having difficulty securing jobs during this pandemic. On the other hand, this pandemic gave me a glimpse of hope and allowed me to explore my creative side to create my own business, Kulia Kosmetics.
With this in mind, I strongly believe that people in Hawaii need hope to find light in the darkest of days. Furthermore, possible solutions that I feel would work immensely is if our government planned and implemented an organized interview or a comprehension test/learning assessment process to identify the strengths, capabilities and interests of individuals.
This project would be funded by special interest grants and philanthropic donations to empower the people to help themselves. This effort is to create a society of skilled workers. Once you have a skill, no one can take that away from you.
As a whole, our government could aspire to create a society of farmers, not to do hard labor, but to teach individuals how to cultivate and grow their own food, and teach them to raise a farm and to learn how to fish. This will give the people a sense of self-worth, self-accomplishment and self-sustainability where their actions have value to oneself and for others.
For example, those who have identified to be hands-on will man the farms and fisheries, and those who have been assessed to be more inclined to planning and executing the organization will be assigned to manage the project.
This proposed project will create a society of unified associates where everyone is lending a helping hand, and therefore preventing hunger and poverty.
Kulia Silva
Hilo
Wrong side of law
Gang cesspools were deemed illegal by the federal government in 1999. The County of Hawaii was given a deadline of 2005 to come into compliance with federal law. They have not done so.
If I paid my sewer bill, I would be complicit with the lawbreakers, Hawaii County. By not paying my sewer bill, I am on the side of the law.
Hawaii County is on the wrong side of the law. That is why they are under a federal administrative order of consent. They are doing me harm by sending me a sewer bill for their gang cesspool. And they are doing me harm by taking me to court for not paying it.
Jerry Warren
Naalehu
Mahalo, lifeguards
Every year, thousands of people flock to the beaches of the Big Island for a seemingly safe, sunny and ocean-filled time. We do live in paradise, don’t we?
Most of the time, these visitors can return home unscathed, besides a sunburn or wana to the foot. But what happens when someone takes a severe tumble at Hapuna Beach, or when they go over the falls at Magic Sands?
We have our trusted lifeguards to the rescue!
Ocean safety officers are there to help the general public when they are in need but don’t want to see people in danger. As a result, they take many precautionary measures such as letting the beachgoers know the types of danger for that day using signs, megaphones and having conversations with daily visitors.
Our lifeguards are trained to save lives. So keep that in mind, and the next time you are at the beach, thank them for being there, and remember: If in doubt, don’t go out!
Sydney Wiernicki
Hawi
