Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 5, 1 May 2002 — Accomplishments far outweigh petty diatribe [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Accomplishments far outweigh petty diatribe

uThe Office of Hawaiian Affairs has maāe history today with its grant to the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, because thisfunding makes possible for the first time in over 100 years, the training of a new generation of Hui Konohiki: Hawaiian Land Managers, especially with regards to the Kia'i 'Āina Ceded Lands Project, where Center for Hawaiian Studies students will learn to define and manage the future lands of the Hawaiian NationC Those were the words of Dr, Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa on April 4, in response to the OHA board's approval of $305,000 a year for the next five years to the University of HawaPi Center for Hawaiian Studies (Action ītem #PM-05). The money would provide the department with the necessary resources to develop several new courses including one mapping the Ceded Lands inventory, as well as a new master's degree, A few other actions taken by the board that day worth mentioning were: ♦ An appropriation of $110,250 to the Nā Lei Na'auao Native Hawaiian Charter School Allianee to aid their efforts in measuring the impact of native-designed and eon-

trolled, community-based education, on Hawaiian student performanee (Action Item#PM-06), and ♦ the initiation of a Hawaiian Entrepreneurial Loan Program (HELP) whieh would provide up to $100,000 in low-interest loans to Hawaiian-owned businesses suffering from the eeonomie downturn primarily resulting from the September 1 1 th national tragedy (Action ītem#PM-04). The passage of these action items held a special significance for me, as they were the latest that had received board approval of those whieh eame out of my last comm.ittee meeting as programs management chairman, Of the nine items moved out of that committee meeting, seven have passed board, including the increase in the Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund ceiling amount from $75,000 to $250,000 (Action Item# PM-03). ,An eighth action item whieh would establish a partnership with Fannie Mae to provide down-payment or closing cost financing opportunities to Hawaiians for the purchase of a home (Action ītem#PM-09), is currently under counsel review and expected to pass the board sometime in the near future.

īn a time when OHA is often criticized for doing nothing, the actions taken at that committee meeting are even more affecting considering that they occurred while OHA's ceded-land payments and our ability to disperse grants had been unceremoniously brought to a halt.

Therefore it is disheartening to me that such a committee meeting, arguably the most productive since the last election, would be so unjustly criticized and fallaciously maligned like it was in last month's

Ka Wai Ola. ī have decided not to specifically cite the article in question nor defend its numerous falsehoods, as doing so would merely drag the matter down to its defamatory level of putrescence, ī feel that the positive facts speak loudly for themselves, and that's where ī'd like to keep the focus, My experiences as a trustee for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, especially following that last Committee on Program Management meeting, have taught me many sad truths, īn politics, people you've considered heroes and friends will let you down, and even turn on you, People will make hurtful statements and even stoop to lying, People will sacrifice the greater good for personal motives, and even do everything in their power to beat whatever spirit and passion you might have out of you, But my experiences have also taught me that for those people who know what they are working for and are able to keep their focus, undeterred by the obstructionists, the opportunities to rise above it all and do amazing things do exist, So do the opportunities to even make history, ■

My experiences have also taught me that for those people who know what they are working for ancf are ahie to keep their focus, undeterred by the ohstructionists, the opportunities to rise above it all and do amazing things do exist.

John D. Waihe'e IV 7rustee,, At-large