You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
... the University of Hawaii system; and UD has spent as little time as possible scrutinizing its zillion-dollar-and-rising-by-the-minute athletic deficit, its pilfering administrators, the shady politicians who oversee the joint, etc., etc. Hawaii is a laboratory of corruption from which the state of Illinois -- already an expert -- could learn a lot. If you put university hawaii in UD's search engine, you'll get a few sweet tales of life on the islands, but mainly you'll get hard-to-believe story after story of stupidity, secrecy, and avarice.
The Stevie Wonder Concert That Wasn't - in which UH put up hundreds of thousands of dollars for a concert about which Wonder had no idea - departs in no significant way from the UH pattern of stupidity, secrecy and avarice; but its potent distillation of the Hawaii brew is attracting unusual media attention.
******************************
It's some sort of icing on the cake that, since no one in the state of Hawaii seems able to do anything competently, the local news coverage of this event must itself be subject to serious analysis and revision on the part of anyone wanting to understand the story.
Here, for instance, is an article that generously includes back-and-forths between state legislators and representatives from UH on what everyone's calling The Wonder Blunder. The article features a "Mr Peyton" who goes unidentified, though careful re-readers will intuit that he is the concert promoter who may have scammed the university.
Similarly, one wrestles with lines like this:
Sheriff had high praise for Donovan but Apple told the committee that he determined shortly after taking the chancellor’s job in late June that Apple would need to be replaced.
Apple is the UH Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple. He told the committee that he determined shortly after taking his job that he would need to be replaced.
In many ways, this is a praiseworthy move. How many high-ranking administrators take an important, well-paid position and then, shortly after taking it, determine that they need to be replaced?
Finally, there's this:
Kim and Ihara said they are awaiting guidance from the state Office of Information Practices on the issue. OIP Director Cheryl Kakazu Park has been absent from her office since early last month and is scheduled to return October 8.
The director of the office has been away for a month. Why?
Is there an assistant director?
******************************
Hawaii. Don't look directly at it for too long. It will hurt your eyes.
Want articles like this sent straight to your inbox?
Subscribe to a Newsletter
