HAWAII

CONTENTS

1.  Noh Foods, so good it's literally out of this world

2.  April Fool's Day Tsunami

3.  Halloween Tsunami

4.  HMSA - Hawaii's largest health insurance company

5.  Dude, close your legs

6.  Beatles John Lennon song secret revealed

7.  More Climate Disasters Expected - what Hawaii could look like in 50 years

8.  Danger Alert - PFAS Harming Hawaii

9.  Legalizing Marijuana in Hawaii

10. ROMANCE in Hawaii

Noh Foods, so good it's literally out of this world

Congratulations to local company Noh Foods' 60th anniversary in 2024. Raymond Noh took over the business from his parents who started the company. Today, there are about 40 Noh products with 80% of sales outside Hawaii. Noh sauces are on the US mainland, Europe and even in space, the final frontier. In the late 1980s a Houston company that did the catering for NASA told Raymond that the Noh teriyaki sauce had already been on four space shuttle missions. They said one of the astronauts asked for teriyaki sauce. The catering company tested different brands of teriyaki sauces. Noh teriyaki sauce was the best.

Congratulations Noh Foods and our friend Howard, Raymond's brother, the only Noh we know.

April Fool's Day Tsunami

On April 1, 1946 Hilo was hit by the most devastating tsunami in Hawaii's modern history. Death toll was 158. The tsunami was triggered by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska. Some experts now say it was closer to 8.5-magnitude. The tsunami reached Hawaii in less than five hours.

The massive tsunami arrived as high as a 3-story building. Maximum height recorded in Haena was 45 feet. James DS Barros, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said, “Tsunamis can strike with very little warning and cause enormous destruction.” He said, “We observe Tsunami Awareness Month every year in Hawaii, starting on the anniversary of the deadly April Fools' Day Tsunami that caused so much sorrow and damage . . .”

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency defines a tsunami as a series of ocean wave masses generated primarily by earthquakes or underwater volcanic eruptions and landslides. Tsunamis can strike any time of the year and any time, day or night. Dr. Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami information center said, “We don't know when and where the next big one will occur, so we need to be prepared.”

For more information and 14+ photos from the tsunami aftermath, click this link: https://docdeetipsforyourhealth.blogspot.com/p/april-fools-day-tsunami.html

Halloween Tsunami

October 27, 2012, a few days before Halloween, Hawaii received a tsunami alert from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center after a strong magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred somewhere off the west coast of Canada. People living in coastal areas were told to move to higher areas. In Waikiki, residents of high-rise buildings were told to go up to the third floor or higher. Tsunami warning sirens blared across Honolulu. There was a traffic jam on some roads as people evacuated to higher ground. Many cars lined up at service stations attempting to fill gas.

Waves that arrived were small, 6 inches in Waianae, 1.5 feet in Makapuu, 8 inches in Hilo. This is fortunate because Hawaii news media reported people were swimming at Waikiki beach despite the tsunami warning. On October 31 Star-Advertiser showed results from “The Big Q” (question) subscribers were asked: “What was your main response to the tsunami warning Saturday night?” 13% said, “Evacuation.” 5% said, “Went to get gas, supplies.” 79% said, “Didn't leave home.”  3% said, “Headed to shore to see” (not what you should do). 

HMSA – Hawaii's largest health insurance company

Daryl Huff, for Hawaii News Now, reported some doctors and families say, too often, HMSA [Hawaii Medical Service Association] is refusing to pay for care they need. Hilo attorney, Ted Hong “compiled the stories of more than 30 patients who say they were denied needed care by HMSA's pre-authorization process.” Tammy Souza told her husband, Craig McKinzie, HMSA refused to cover radiation treatment for her breast cancer. He said, before she died, “The last thing she wrote was, 'I want everyone to know that HMSA was basically responsible for my death.'”

Scott Norton was required by HMSA to get weeks of physical therapy before HMSA would approve an MRI or specialist care. His son said Norton “just got worse.” He was in a lot of pain, but no one knew he had cancer because HMSA denied the MRI. “The cancer was literally eating his bones at the time that he had to go through physical therapy.” After months of suffering, Norton died. “He was angry. He said we had been paying HMSA all these years.”

Charlene Orcino was examined by an OBGYN who prescribed medication to stop her premature labor. She went to two different pharmacies that told her HMSA refused to honor the prescription. She had to be medivaced to Honolulu for emergency delivery of an extremely premature baby at 25 weeks gestation. The baby is “substantially disabled.” 

Sophie Cocke, for StarAdvertiser, reported, HMSA executives “received hefty pay raises and bonuses during the COVID-19 pandemic” at the same time HMSA was eliminating and outsourcing the jobs of nearly 200 employees. 107 HMSA workers lost their jobs. Another 89 employees now provide customer service for HMSA as employees of a company based in Mumbai, India, or provide tech assistance for HMSA as employees of a company in Maryland and Bengaluru, India.

Total compensation to Mark Mugiishi, HMSA President and CEO, rose from $2.5 million in 2021 to $3 million in 2022 (18.6% increase).

Gina Marting, HMSA executive vice president and CFO: total compensation rose 20% from $902,402 in 2021 to $1.08 million in 2022.

Janna Nakagawa, HMSA vice president and chief administrative and strategy officer: total compensation rose from $788,287 to $995,633 (26% increase) in 2022.

David Herndon, HMSA executive vice president and chief business operations officer: total compensation rose to $817,361 (3.7% increase) in 2022. Jennifer Walker, HMSA senior vice president for data and analytics and general counsel: total compensation rose nearly 20% to $737,689 in 2022.

Nakagawa said compensation for the top officers is determined by HMSA's board of directors. The board “also voted to begin compensating itself.” Board Chair, Robert Harrison was paid $105,000 in 2022. HMSA has 14 directors. Elizabeth Hokada was paid $99,500; Lisa Sakamoto was paid $93,500. Other directors received between $67,000 and $88,000 in 2022. According to HMSA bylaws, the board is required to hold at least four regular meetings a year.

HMSA is a nonprofit organization. It reported profits of $48.9 million in 2021 and $26.9 million in 2022. In 2021 employee salary increases were capped at 1.5%. Average increase was 1%. In 2022 average employee raise was 3% according to HMSA.

Dude, Close Your Legs

I ride the bus. There seems to be a problem for riders of public transportation anywhere. Emma Fitzsimmons reported for The NY Times, in NY City “A Scourge Is Spreading. MTA’s Cure? Dude, Close Your Legs.” It's called man-spreading.

NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) posted public service ads to “encourage men to share a little less of themselves in the city’s ever-crowded subway cars.” These are men who spread their legs apart, occupying more than one seat. A woman who tweeted photos of these men said, “It drives me crazy . . . it just seems so inconsiderate”

MTA posted ads in subway cars. One ad said: “Dude . . . Stop the Spread, Please." Fitzsimmons wrote, “For men who think that sitting with their legs spread is socially acceptable, manners experts say it is not.”  Peter Post, author of the book “Essential Manners for Men” said the proper way for men to sit is with their legs parallel rather than spread out in a V-shape.

It’s also potentially unhealthy. When I'm on the bus and the guy sitting next to me is spreading his legs so wide, his leg is taking half of my seat and pressing against me I can feel his body heat through his pants and my pants and even a trace of moisture; I'm not sure whether it's from his sweat or my own sweat or maybe both. Body fluid is a risk for transmitting some diseases. Creepy.

If a man-spreader sits next to you, pushes his leg into your seat, pressing his leg against you, if you don’t mind, no problem.

If you don’t like it, some things you can do: If you’re sitting on an outside/aisle seat, you can move part of your butt beyond the outer edge of the seat cantilevering yourself partly off your seat and ride the rest of the way like that. Or wedge your bag between you and the man-spreader and apply gentle, firm pressure, with your leg, on the bag, pushing against the encroaching leg. Or change seats, if that's an option.  

 

Changing seats may present a different problem. One time, escaping from an inside/window seat, I squeezed pass the man spreader through the tight space between our seats and the back of the seats in front of us. As I passed him, he stroked his hand down the length of my inner thigh. I yelled and kicked him. Before I could report him to the driver, he quickly exited the bus. I'm not the only person to have something like that happen on the bus, but lest anyone think poorly of our buses, I've been riding Oahu's buses most of my life. Most riders are not like that.

The buses tend to be reasonably clean and safe. Bus riders include teens, students, working people, retirees, elderly, tourists, and immigrants speaking to each other in their ethnic languages. Most are courteous and law-abiding. Occasionally a pungent, unwashed homeless person gets on and sometimes there's someone loudly arguing with an entity only that person can see. The bus is an experience and immersion in the diversity of humanity.

Beatles John Lennon Song Secret Revealed

Bob Sigall (“Rearview Mirror,” Star-Advertiser, B6, 10/27/23) reported Chicago journalist Peter von Buol told him the Beatles song, “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” is about Richard A. Cooke III and his mother. Cooke is a descendant of early missionaries who came to our islands. Many missionary descendants became wealthy, essentially old-money “aristocracy” here. 50 years ago, after graduating from college Cooke traveled to India with his mother to learn transcendental mediation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Beatles were there. 

Cooke went on a tiger hunt, riding an elephant. He shot a tiger. Next day his mother proudly told the Maharishi. John Lennon was listening. Maharishi coldly replied, “Life destruction is life destruction.”

Months later, new John Lennon song: “Hey Bungalow Bill. What did you kill. Bungalow Bill? He went out tiger hunting with his elephant and gun. In case of accidents, he always took his mom. He's the all-American, bullet-headed, Saxon mother's son.” Yoko Ono sings backup. Sigall wrote, “For Cooke it was a life-changer.” He exchanged his gun for a camera. He became a National Geographic photographer for 22 years. He said, "Now I am an advocate for the natural world and beauty that I so love to photograph."

More Climate-related Disasters Expected

EARTHWEEK: Diary of a Changing World by Steve Newman [StarAdvertiser 01/21/24; A7] reported, Earth's oceans absorbed record amount of heat in 2023, contributing to unprecedented planetary heat and triggering more climate-related disasters worldwide. The international team of scientists, writing in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Science, said temperatures in the oceans were hotter each year, 2012 to 2023, than the year before. Ocean heat is “supercharging” the weather, with higher heat and extra moisture in the atmosphere “creating more severe storms, more powerful winds and heavier downpours that amplify flooding disasters.” 

What Hawaii could look like in 50 years

I subscribe to National Geographic. Kathleen Rellihan reported, “To predict how climate change will expose us to disaster, reshape agriculture, or make some regions unlivable, scientists run models that forecast how the world will change.” Climate change or global warming does not only make the world hotter, it also contributes to impending disasters like more powerful storms and hurricanes, torrential rains and flooding, and rising sea levels due to factors like melting glaciers. The water has to go somewhere.

Rillihand wrote, “the world will look very different if nothing is done to address climate change.” UN's 2023 climate change report says, “The planet is on track for catastrophic warming" World's leading climate scientists warn the world is likely to pass a dangerous temperature tipping point in next 10 years unless nations immediately transition away from fossil fuels. Click photo (left) - best seen on computer, NOT phone. See Iolani Palace & State Capitol. When Earth is warmed by 3ºC .

Climate Central, a non-profit climate research group, produced  “Picturing Our Future” showing versions of the future, such as how the world will look if we keep our current path and warm the earth by 3ºC. “Using peer-reviewed research, these visual projections show how climate and energy choices we make this decade will influence how high sea levels rise in the future.” Click photo (left) - best seen on computer, NOT phone. See downtown Honolulu.

DANGER Alert – PFAS Harming Hawaii

Leila Fujimori reported for StarAdvertiser [Sun, Dec 17, B2], Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez filed a lawsuit against 25 manufacturers of PFAS chemicals (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), forever chemicals, that “contaminated our environment and can cause serious health problems for people of Hawaii.” Lopez said, corporations that created and unjustly profited from sale of PFAS concealed serious risks to human health and the environment. The lawsuit alleges manufacturers' “deceptive and unlawful actions” caused or contributed to PFAS contamination of our air, soil, surface water, groundwater, drinking water. For example samples of drinking water from Kunia Village, were found to have perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS, a type of PFAS) at levels as high as 12.5 times higher than proposed federal maximum contaminant level.

“By today's standards, the maximum concentration of PFOS measured at [Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in 2022] would be approximately 655,000 times higher than what EPA considers health-protective.”

Some of the harm U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned PFAS chemicals can cause are decreased fertility; adverse developmental and behavioral effects in children; increased risk of some cancers, including kidney and testicular cancers; reduced ability of immune system to fight infections; ulcerative colitis; thyroid disease; medically diagnosed high cholesterol and obesity.

PFAS chemicals have been used extensively at Hawaii airports and military installations since the 1940s and were used in Hawaii by local, state and federal fire departments. They are in some common personal and household consumer products.

The lawsuit said manufacturers of PFAS chemicals knew for decades the dangers of PFAS. “Despite this knowledge, [they] chose to not take steps to reduce those risks and instead continued to advertise, market, manufacture for sale, offer for sale, and sell PFAS-containing products . . . to State and local government, businesses, and consumers so that [they] could reap enormous profits . . . [They] seek to foist the equally enormous costs to address those problems back on the victims . . .”

Legalizing Marijuana in Hawaii

Steve Alm, prosecuting attorney for City & County of Honolulu wrote for “Island Voices” in the Star-Advertiser about legalizing marijuana. Full article in Honolulu Star-Advertiser, E3, 10/08/2023.

He said, “we started researching how legalizing marijuana affected states such as Colorado, California, Washington, Oregon, where it has been legal for as many as 10 years.” Alm listed ten things we need to know. Here are some of them.

A study in Colorado found every $1 in tax revenue resulted in approximately $4.50 in costs, ranging from additional health-care costs to more students dropping out of high school.

Legalizing marijuana results in more fatal car collisions. In the Rocky Mountain area in 2020, 24.3% of drivers in traffic fatalities tested positive for marijuana, up from 14.8% in 2013. 48.8% of teen drivers who use marijuana report driving under the influence.

Legalizing marijuana increases mental health problems (including schizophrenia) and hospital and emergency department admissions, particularly for teens. Marijuana-related hospital admissions increased more than 100% in Colorado and California since legalization.

Alm explained, in Hawaii, "Marijuana possession has been decriminalized and medical marijuana is available. Violations are like a parking ticket, not handled in court, with no resulting criminal record."  He said, "If we commercially legalize marijuana, we will change the character of our state forever. Colorado has more marijuana stores than McDonald's and Starbucks combined. Let's not do that. Let's keep Hawaii, Hawaii."  

Romance in Hawaii - Do you want to be a bride?

People in Hawaii's tourism business sell the romance of Hawaii. Before pandemic, according to tourism executives, Hawaii's “romance market” brought half a million visitors a year to Hawaii for weddings and honeymoons. Approximately 657,000 people came here for weddings and honeymoons in 2016; more than a third came from Japan. Couples from Japan are in downtown Honolulu in wedding attire being photographed by professional photographers, escorted by professional guides, often in some of the grungiest places downtown and Chinatown. There must be some aesthetic or fad for the grungy settings. Many young people in Japan are big on copying their latest fads.

Brides in white satin and lace with grooms in bow ties, vest and shorts may not be getting married. Some are already married, others may get married after returning to Japan. Perhaps some may eventually not even get married to each other. One couple from Japan on their honeymoon in Hawaii said the wedding pictures are just a souvenir; the woman was dressed like a bride, the groom wore vest, bow tie, and shorts. It's just another thing to do on vacation in Hawaii; put on wedding clothes, ride a limo to a professional photo shoot. There are wedding packages marketed to the Japanese with no restriction on who can buy the packages.

Before pandemic, one agency said it photographed as many as 400 wedding couples every month. 80 to 90 percent were not getting married at that time. Most of those Japanese tourists in wedding attire, especially grooms in shorts, are not here for their wedding. One company in Japan that offered full service weddings in Hawaii said about 70% of their clients who do wedding photo shoots in Hawaii are not getting married at that time. Japanese travel agents offer wedding-picture packages whether or not customers are getting married. According to HTA around 36,274 Japanese visitors came to Hawaii in 2016 to get married, but nearly 227,000 came for honeymoons. Selling honeymooners photo packages  greatly increases potential revenue.

Why let Japanese tourists have all the fun? Our local people can do this for fun. Why let hotels or Japan affiliated wedding companies make all the money? Local people can start businesses offering locals or tourists the chance to get photographed in wedding attire at romantic, fun, or quirky settings. Locals know the best places. It's legal, no one is getting married, only getting photographed. You can dress up with your spouse, friend, sibling, child, parent, anybody, straight, gay, or trans. You can do it for anniversary, birthday, Valentines Day, Christmas, or Halloween.

Before-pandemic, Royal Kaila Wedding & Spa at Waikiki Beach Marriott hotel offered stylists for hair and makeup, silk flower bouquets, men's outfits, more than 200 wedding dresses to choose, mini-massage for men while "bride" gets made up, limousine transportation, and photo shoot, including 100 digital pictures. They said sometimes they had 20 couples a day, a couple every half hour. Basic “Princess on the Beach” package was $670. “Downtown & Sunset on the Beach” was $1,270. It may cost less than your junket to Las Vegas. Instead of losing money, you'll have photo memories.