Musings: Questionable Alliances

The County Council unanimously decided to retain Jay Furfaro as its chair in a straw vote taken yesterday. And though no decision was made on vice chair, newly-elected Councilman Ross Kagawa made it clear that he is aligning himself with Mel Rapozo and the two of them want Nadine Nakamura.

Ross nominated Nadine to serve as vice chair, a post currently held by JoAnn Yukimura. When JoAnn asked Nadine if she wanted the position, Nadine said she hadn't sought it, but would would serve if the majority voted her in. Then, in her characteristic good girl style, she replied, “But I'm also happy to serve as a Councilperson. Both ways work for me.”

JoAnn said she was glad Nadine was interested, “though I wish I would've been told that beforehand.” JoAnn also noted that she made the Council her fulltime job, an apparent dig at Nadine, who works as a planner.

At that point, Ross, who had previously fawned over Jay, said he thought it would be OK to reveal the contents of an email sent by Mel, who had been detained while traveling. “If we have a tie, he plans to vote for her [Nadine],” Ross said.

Gary Hooser and Tim Bynum voted for JoAnn. Jay, while lauding JoAnn's “courage,” said he was supporting Nadine as a “vote in future continuity.” Or in other words, he's grooming her as his successor. The final vote will be taken after the Council is sworn in on Dec. 3. 

Eleele School, meanwhile, has formed a questionable alliance with chemical giant DuPont Pioneer. In exchange for $25 per third-grader, the kids are fully indoctrinated in the glories of genetically modified seed production. They're even taught to pledge their undying allegiance to the corporation:

“Thank you for your tremendous donation,” the students chorused. “We’ll promise to work hard every day. Then one day we’ll come back and say that you were the ones who believed in us. And because of you, we’ll be strong enough to work on Kaua‘i and take the lead, knowing you were the ones who planted our seeds.”

Kinda makes you want to puke.

I understand the teacher was trying to find support for the savings account project after the University of Hawaii cut funding, and I'm not knocking her efforts to do more for the kids. Nor am I criticizing the financial literacy program, which is a great idea, though having the kids work to earn the money might have been a more realistic scenario.

But those who are naive to the ways of "public relations" need to realize there's a reason why big multinational corporations like DuPont have these grant programs. It's to gain access to kids for propaganda purposes while generating the kind of "feel good" publicity in the local paper that it couldn't buy, even if it spent 10  times what it "donated" to Eleele School. And it gets a tax write-off to boot.

It's just another example of the pernicious and insidious effects of corporatization, which now infests every aspect of modern life in America. And we'll be seeing more, not less, as government tightens its purse strings and the corporations grow fatter. Parents, beware. If you even care, that is.