Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, our CCG, has created a department to mobilise support for its members, including Vice President Yemi Osimadro, who may be interested in running for office. Now a memo dated February 28 further directed regional, provincial and local heads of the Pentecostal Church to replicate similar desks in their respective domains and appoint officers to man them. Although the Vice President, a senior minister in the church, has yet to openly declare his intention to run for the 2023 presidential elections, analysts are opining that the move is a ploy to mobilise sweeping support for his ambition. Yet the Vice President is believed to be facing stiff contention from his esbwild political leader and benefactor Bola Amedinibu for the ticket of the all-progressive Congress, APC. Well, joining us to discuss this is Ihe Ibeji, Cach Ununuju, both our political analyst and also Chokbe Ilauri, he is a preacher. Thank you very much gentlemen for joining us. Thank you very much. All right. I'm going to start with you Miss Ilauri because you are a preacher and this has to do with a church. It's the first time a church, a very well-known church in Nigeria, is stepping up to the plate to even think of having a political leader. Now, a lot of people are welcoming the idea because, you know, many people have somewhat blurred that line between religion and politics saying that both can coexist. But there are those who think that politics should stay out of church. So I put it to you. When you heard this news, where you are among the people who applauded it and said, well, it's high time that this happened, or are you in a position to the idea? Well, thank you very much for having me. When I actually saw a copy of that memo that was sent from the Redeemed Christian Church of God, I saw that this evening. And I believe it's a very, very welcome development. I believe that it is about time because the church does not exist in a vacuum. And the nation, what goes on in the nation and the things that have to do with leadership also affect the church. So it is about time that we took our destinies in our hands and began to participate. It's all well and good if we begin to criticize and talk about leadership or pray for them. But the Bible does allow us to watch and to pray. So what means to participate? And then to pray means, of course, which is what we do. So we participate. So it is around about time that the church rose up and began to do something about leadership in Nigeria because we have more than enough resources in the church to fill places of leadership. And I believe a much better job that is being done now. The Bible says in Revelation 1 chapter 6 verse 6 that God has made us kings and priests on the earth. Now, each area of priesthood is where you talk about religion. But when you talk about the king, it talks about authority, political authority. So if God has equipped us to be kings and priests, we cannot just focus on one part and leave the other. It will be responsible for the fact that the redeemed Christian God has done this. It's a very welcome development. Why did the redeemed church of God not do this the whole time? We've had governments come and go. Why was this not an idea that was raised? Why now that there are speculations that maybe the vice president might be interested in running for office? And I want to ask you why not because it is when you decide that you want to do it. So maybe we start back and we watch all of these years. And when I say we are in the church, we start back and we watch all of these years. This is the time. I mean, the time here is, there's no time outside now. This is the first time we're having a vice president. And I do not believe that what the redeemed church of God did is the proof of the vice president. The vice president has not even indicated interest in running. He has not. So I know that what they are doing or what has been done is not for the vice president. They cut across all political offices and the believers are now going to be encouraged to go and join political parties and then become functional members of those parties. And then people from church will back them up. Right? So asking me why now because now is the best time. Now is the best time. The best time to do something that you should have done long ago is now. So now is the best time. That's the reason.  Just like he said, well, he's saying that the timing is proper. This is the best next time to get the church involved. But I'm curious, isn't there a danger in letting those lines cross, especially when a church is a place where you have people from different works of life with different political standings and different interests? Will it not look like these people are being pointed in a particular direction? Well, thank you. The first thing I would like to tell you is that the church is simply reacting to what the mosque has done well before now. I'm sure you remember the man, Issa Pantani. Pantani is a frontline member of the Islamic Salafist movement. And here in Notre Dame, Nigeria. Oh my goodness. I think we're having connection issues there with you. Miss Anunidhu, can you hear me? I can hear you well. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead please. Good. The church is simply playing catch up. And this particular thing you're talking about is something that the members of the Salafist movement have been deeply in it. Mr Issa Pantani, today a minister for digital economy and communication in Nigeria is promoted by the Salafist movement. The Salafist movement are Sunnis. So here in Notre Dame, the Sunnis are massively in it. Buwari has had his sustained support by the Sunnis. So I see nothing wrong with the Christians also when you know, because if you had to look at Nigeria, Nigeria by population, it's up to us every second. I think we have another disruption there. But we'll only come to you here while we try to correct that. We're beginning to talk about this across the lines that we're trying to blur, religious lines. We know that Nigeria obviously is divided along religious and ethnic lines. And if we begin to look at our political office holders or push for political holders from those same lines that we're complaining that we need to blur. I'm not in any way shooting this down, so welcome to development. But how do we make sure that it does not become another monster in the room? Okay, so thank you very much for having me. First and foremost, politics and the church has been around for quite a while. I mean, the time of the black movement where you have the Martin Luther King's, the Reverend Jesse Jackson's. They galvanised support, political support when it had to do with extremist issues. The time of the Roman Catholic period, the popes wielding such powers that had to do with authority, but in the Christian way and the political manner. In terms of blurring lines, these are lines that you have to move with wisdom, because at this point in time there's a thin line between religion and the truth, righteousness. So if we say we breed righteousness in the church and people are coming to worship God in the church, there should be leadership that is enough to take care of the needs and suffering of the people. So would you want to allow the lines not to be blurred and sit back while suffering continues? Or would you want to take the mantle and drive the leadership that people would believe in and say, okay, this is what it's supposed to be? I'm not trying to play the devil's advocate here, I'm just asking the questions that need to be asked. These same people that we were saying that are not necessarily leading us right, are not doing the necessary things that need to bring the people out of the door drums. They're sitting in our churches, they sit in the front rows, the commissioners, the ministers, the politicians, they're part of the church. So when we say that we're trying to push somebody from the body to be in those positions, these same people. So I'm trying to understand how do we differentiate between the guy who is fit for leadership who will deliver compared to just saying, well he's our church member, let's galvanize support for them. Sometimes I ask myself whether it is a question of the devil that you know is better than the edger that you don't. In a huge propensity that is what it seems like a lot of times, because he's in your fold. So he's somebody that you see every time, he's somebody who comes in piety with his family. So all of a sudden you begin to accept that this is somebody who you can hold on to. But a lot of times we forget the fact that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So when he emerges as a powerful man in the position of power, all of a sudden he surrounds himself with the paraphernalia of power, you cannot reach him. So there's that fear. And guess what? It happens. It is real. So you're correct. There is a need to be careful with this push. I mean, it's not like something that was not well thought out if you ask me. I mean, this is a massive following. Over 5 million. Wow. I mean anybody who you want to push forward would have quite a lot of following. But it's existed over time. And even in the current dispensation, even in the current political manner, structure, it has always played out in that manner. So I think that what it will be eventually will be to exercise a lot of caution to really come down to being that devil that we know is, I'm sorry, but that's just the blunt truth is preferable to the edger that we don't.  Pasta Paul, a day for us in Pasta Tunde Bacaree. I think we also have in that regard the living faith pastor David Oedipo. These are men of God who have been very vocal in terms of leadership, what our leaders are supposed to be doing. And of course they are also very good at criticising these leaders. So now that we have a lot of leaders, preachers who seem to be standing up for, you know, not just Christianity, but speaking truths to power. Are we going to be seeing more churches saying, well, we want to have a political desk. We want to be able to also galvanize. Should every church, that's my question, the body of Christ, as we call it, be looking in this direction to push for more people within the face.  Should every church begin to toll the line of the answer CG? And again, Miss Anunudu made a statement about the Sudanese who are pushing for their people to also be in power. And I guess they also hold them to some level of responsibility. How does the church do that so that these people do not go rogue? OK. If you think about the greatest issues or the problems we have with political shareholders today, your guest over there was talking about the fact that absolute power corrupts. We need to have people who are grounded, who you can hold accountable and real back in if they begin to drift. But in a situation where you mentioned that, you said that how do we differentiate or delineate between the people who are already in church positions of power and the people who we want to push forward. Now the people who are in positions of power are not really in church. What they do is they use the church when they need to use the church. And they come to church and like you said, they probably sit in the front row and all of that. But if we have a situation where the church has a political arm that holds accountable and lets those people who want to go forward. Now if you are in my church, the fact that you are in my church should not be enough for me to support you. I need to check you out. I need to know your antecedents to know what are you, what are you, what is driving you, what's your motivating force. If a leader cannot tell us why he wants to aspire to leadership then there is no point supporting or backing that leader up. Now, if the church rises up and begins to push people forward, that is the people that are ready to sell and have been vetted by the church, then we are the ones who can hold the people we push forward accountable. The error of Godfatherism is basically the same thing.  Now, I'm not saying that the church is going to become, is going to hold... I was about to take you on that one but you're lucky. Go ahead. Let me land on that. I knew I was going to take you on that. But what would happen is that where we have people, actually the first thing that I would think that the church would check out is what is your history in service in the church and in the community and are you Godfairing. Now, think about the fact that you mentioned some men of God who have been speaking the truth to people in power. What if the person in power is not only somebody who is in power that is far away but is a member of their congregation? They can go to the fellow and say, my dear brother, although you are the governor, although you are the president, you are not going the way that you are supposed to go. In the Bible there are times when the prophets, they used to go to the king directly and speak to them and tell them, no, you have to get away from what God said. So we need to have that part back in our political life. You can speak those in power. Let me come back to Miss Anunudu. I hope we have him back. Miss Anunudu, it's interesting that this is a welcome development for many. But I think that we have not been able to get him back. So I'm going to come back to you. Now that he's telling us that it's safer to have these men and that we can hold them responsible, I want to point to the vice president. He's been a pastor for years before he became the vice president. He's been an attorney general, served excellently. But can we say that this government has really pleased the church? Has this government pleased the people? Should we still be looking for pastors?  We know how it ended. We've had so many of these guys who are pastors who have these appendages, but did not necessarily deliver. So I don't know if it's... I'm still struggling with being a church member, checking their track record.  And once I get that thing, all you see is my back. So is it about just being in church or is there supposed to be some form of boot camp for the want of a better way to describe it? Make sure that we can get good leaders. I mean, they don't fall from trees, but how do we do that? Thank you very much for echoing my exact thoughts. Quite frankly, the excitement about this whole thing is general to a certain level, but there needs to be some level of planning and structure around it. You hit the nail spot on the head. Now the churchgoers, the people who go to church, they are common men like you and I, and they've gone through the ills and the sufferings that have been faced over the years across every administration. So even though themselves must be circumspect, because they have one of theirs who has been in government, or who has been in government several, a lot of them. And in terms of changing things the way they want it to, it hasn't come out that way. A lot of them may not be so satisfied with what they're getting. Maybe this is them saying, okay, you know what, you have been there as a support. Can we have you at the top? But aside that, I'd like to see what the structure is going to be like. For instance, every bank loan, do we get to see a guarantor? So if he gets into power, will he come back for Holy Ghost Congress? Or the experience. Yeah, the experience. Will he come back to church for that?  How do we see this playing out in the future? And how do we also make sure that because it's a church thing, it doesn't also make the man who goes to the mosque feel left out? No, the man who goes to the mosque is already in this game. All the church is trying to do is also to equalize. Don't forget, as I was trying to say before the little point of, Esa Pantami is a loyalist of the Salafist movement. And even Buhari is also a Salafist. So if I walked, Sheikh Gumi started over 10 years ago, has now forced a lot of the Salafist people right now on government. If you liked it, this particular government of President Buhari is something has had a strong nepotics land after the February member of the Salafist movement. And if you look at the country, as I said in numerical sense, it's actually a Christian country in terms of domination. So there is nothing wrong if the Christians also come out the same way the Muslims have come out to actually embrace politics. At the end of the day, it's going to be good going forward. So I don't really see a problem. Let's all say how we play out. I see nothing wrong in this. Well, I want to say thank you to the guests tonight. I want to say thank you to Shopeilori. He's a preacher. Cachon and Adru is a political analyst and Ihe Ibeidi also is a political analyst. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for being part of the conversation. You're welcome. Thank you for having me. Well, thank you all for staying with us. As we round off today's show, we will bring you highlights of this week's conversations. And of course, don't forget plus TV, plus politics, I beg your pardon, returns on Monday at 7 p.m. And we're here every single weeknight. I'm Mary Anacorn. Have a good night and enjoy your weekend. Now, the problem is not as much with the constitution or with the framework as it is with the way we practice it. I don't think the real challenge is the constitution or the legal framework under which we operate. It is part of the problem, but I don't think it's the main challenge. Part of the challenge we face is the leadership recruitment process. How are these guys elected? Are they through representatives of the people? If you notice, you may have observed that in the political process, and don't think very often it is governors or some very powerful political elites that will literally handpick those who will run on the platform of various political parties. So these guys come with a mentality that they're not representing the people that are representing whatever interests I've forced them on the ticket of the political party. Now, of course, they provide resources, they get elected, and they know that primarily they're not representing the people. Zoning is one of the political strategies of the lazy political class who have nothing to offer to just reduce the geographical sphere of people who consider them to be competent. I said I don't believe that you need to zone offices to people who just belong to political parties but don't want to have the required competence and experience. As I have, I'm using the word experience clearly not the way they are using or the way they've abused it. To run a country, I don't believe in zoning and I've said that several times because we have zoned the office of the president and other political offices into different hands and they have left Nigeria a broken place. There is also a role for the family and society and celebrity culture. But you know, with TikTok and social media and celebrity culture, these things happen in two, three minutes, if that. Whereas nation building is a serious issue, the wind needs to be discussed from different perspectives and dealt into. So it's not something a celebrity on TikTok can transmit in a four second video. These are serious issues that need to be talked about seriously within proper structure and context. It's multi-layered and everyone has a role to play. Religion has a role to play. Traditional rulers and traditional institutions have a very important role to play. For me, as a woman of Hensia Town, I have a role as a traditional ruler to provide an example to young girls and women in my society. And even having that position says to those women, here is somebody who has claimed this position and I can do so within a traditional context. I think the APC is trying to resolve their crisis the best way possible. If you look at what they're doing currently, rather than align with me to score through the next election and the next convention, they decided to move, you know, get them out of the place and put in somebody down below with the mandate to organize the convention.  And that is not what they want. Yes, the president will certainly have a deal on who should be particularly the chairman of the party. But we should not forget what they've done in the APC currently. What they've tried to do now is to resolve all the problems also. They've done what we call lateral zoning. The lateral zoning is about dividing the country into two constituencies. That is the north and the south. And all the offices currently occupied by the north will now be moved to the south. All the offices in the south will be moved to the north. And then from there, you now have the micro zoning, you know, within each constituency. So now zone those posts to different areas. So they are trying to resolve it in a representative way and in a way that would be to let conflict.


This is State Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. I should join her. This is Community Matters. And today we are visiting with another candidate. And that is Tommy Waters. And he is running for City Council from District 4, which is huge. Tommy, thank you so much for coming. My pleasure. Thank you for having me on your show. Tell us who is Tommy Waters. Well, thank you. I will be 53 years old in just a few short weeks. Oh, really? Yes. I was born in September 27. I was born and raised here in Honolulu, actually in Kaneohe. Back in Kaneohe was a rural neighborhood before Winward Mall was built. And Polly Highway was brand new back in 1965. I lived three doors down from a cow pasture, believe it or not. It was awesome. It was a Sousa Dairy. And when I got accepted to the Kamehameha schools in high school, I moved to town and lived at 4830 Kolo Hala Street, which is in Kahala. One of the very few Hawaiian families in Wailai Kahala at the time, or even now. I stayed there all the way through high school. I went to the Kamehameha schools. I went to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I had a, or got a degree in political science and speech. And then from there I went to UH Law School, the William S. Richardson School of Law.  What is it? I am a defense attorney. I've been practicing law for 23 years now, ever since I graduated from law school. I enjoyed very much. You know, but I tell you this, back in college I took a class from Marion Kelly. Do you remember Marion Kelly? Yes, I do. It was an anthropology class, but she made us go down to the capital and follow a bill. She said, any bill. Just go down and follow it. Write testimony. Get involved. And that's where I caught the bug. Back then I thought, you know, someday I'm going to be in a place in the legislature where I can make a difference in my home, Hawaii, N.A. And not until 2002 did I decide to run. And I actually served three terms in the Hawaii State Legislature. That's what I think where we first met. Yes, where we met, yes. Years ago. Yes. So now you are running for the city council. That's correct. Now that's a much larger district than the legislature. Huge. I think there's almost three senatorial districts in one house district. Almost five house districts in one council district, I should say. Yes. Now I have a question about that, but I keep asking and no one seems to know. 1908, when the city was created, there were eight what a, they're not what we call now city council people, but there were eight. Now, here we are with a million people and only nine councilmen. There's something, I find that absurd, but no one else seems to see it's like, Ernie Martin's district, have you ever seen that thing on the map? It's huge. It's huge, yeah. Even in my district, I've been walking door to door every day since January 10th. And it's almost impossible to knock on every door. It really is. Oh. I think we have over 100,000 registered voters in our district, and it runs all the way from Makapu Point on the Makai side, all the way to Alamwana Beach Park. And then on the Malka side, same Makapu Point along the ridge to the Sierra Drive, down to Wailai Avenue, cutting down through half of Kamuki, half of Kapuhulu, and all of Waikiki. So it's enormous actually. Well, yes it is enormous, but as a city council district, all of those areas have different needs, different wants, different issues. Yes. And kind of lumping them all together seems something dropped there anyway. So what are the issues, the different issues, because you have different issues in different districts? That's true. That's true. I'll just share with you what I've been learning walking door to door. But I will also share with you initially, in January when I was walking door to door, nobody wanted to talk to me, right? I'm talking on people's doors and introducing myself, and I say, hey, Marcia, I'm Tommy Waters running for city council. Can we talk about how to make our community a better place? And initially everybody said, no, it's okay, we're fine. But nobody was really thinking about it. And by the way, I was trying to make democracy as easy as possible by showing up at somebody's door, right? You don't have to call in. You don't have to email. I'm here, right? As we get closer to the election, people are starting to engage and talk about what's going on. And that's what I want to share with you. I think the number one concern has been homelessness. Did you know that in our district, council four, which I know you live as well, while the numbers island wide are shrinking, the numbers in our district homelessness are growing. And you can see them right across in Kahala, across from Wailai, excuse me, Aloha gas station, got people living under the bridge, panhandling across from Kahala mall, sleeping at the bus stops. Even I met a gentleman up at the top of Wilhelmina Rye saying there's homelessness up at the top of his mountain. In Hawaii, you got homelessness, right? I mean, it's just, it's grown in the last four years. And it troubles me that we haven't really, we've been trying, but our current council, you know, I think has been falling short. I think there is an area that they don't address. Now they say, all these people have mental illness or drugs. And then they stop there. Nobody talks about, if you are making $10 an hour, you can't pay $1,800 a month rent. And to me, that is the issue. That is the real issue. What happens to these people? Where do they go? Right. When a studio apartment costs $1,200 a month for rent, you know, you have working poor living in their cars. Still working, you know, contributing, paying taxes, but just can't afford to live here. You know, I was born a racer. I don't remember seeing this problem when I was growing up. I don't remember seeing the problem. No. And years ago, the city and state used to build low-income housing, right? We don't do that anymore. And I think, as a result of that, we're seeing the negative side of that. You know, people got no place to go, right? They're living on the streets. And by the way, the Sit Alive bill, while it serves a purpose, right? I guess it does. Especially in Waikiki, we don't want people on the sidewalks defecating and urinating, right? Can't do that. That's unacceptable. But at the same time, but just moving people from one neighborhood to the other, that's a short-term fix that ultimately it's going to go wrong. Look what happened in Mother Waldron Park recently with a Japanese tourist.  And if we don't do something about it real quick, it's going to happen more often. What amazes me is, like you said, the cost of moving these people, they could build housing, I think. Because it costs a lot of money. All of the maintenance people and the trucks and whatnot, which I'm sure they don't call that a cost. But it is. It is. Absolutely. And certainly we could build something. You know, part of the problem, too, is we have private citizens, like our churches and the community. I met with a gentleman, again, walking door-to-door and at a coffee hour, where his church wants to build these little modular units, right? Kind of like a dome thing. But he can't get the permits to do it. They've been waiting for over a year now to just get the permit to do it. And it's not going to cost the city or the state any money. This is private donations there. They're going to do it. They just can't get the funding. Or excuse me. The permitting. Well, it seems to me several years ago that that was supposed to be that one-stop place for permitting, you know? Supposed to speed it up. But it obviously doesn't. If your friend says it hasn't. No, over a year they've been waiting for a permit. And this is private money, you know? It's from a church that cares about our people and wants to help, you know? Well, where is the breakdown, do you know? What keeps the permits from... No, and if elected, that's one of the things I want to look at. If we could look through the permitting process and or the entire permitting ordinance and do a complete overhaul. You know, one of the things that people are telling me, well, I'm walking door to door again, right? If they want to just build an in-law bedroom or they have a new child, they want to build a bedroom. And they've got to wait a long time for a permit, right? But then what's amazing to me, which brings me to my next subject, is monster homes. Yes. How are these people getting their permits? Right? Look, there's a monster home. Oh, my God. That's cool. Yes. Oh, but you know, in Cooley O'Oil, there are a couple of monster homes. Two or three. Two or three. They're everywhere, yes. And that little street, where do they park? All those cars. Exactly. The street is that big. Where do they park? There's no place to park. No. Yes. And is it a walk-up? The monster houses? It's a walk-up. It's as if it's a walk-up, yeah, with those 18 bedrooms.  Can you imagine 18 new adults there in that community on that street, 18 more cars? You know, it just doesn't work. Right across the street from Cooley O'Oil, it's near Summer Street. That is, yeah, back in Summer Street, yeah. Right. There's three of them that are built, you know, and they're monstrosities. They're three stories high, right? One, two, three. I hear they're the same owner. It looks, I would think it is because they look different except the color, the pink. Right. Oh, you know exactly where I'm talking about. Other than that, they look the same. Yeah, yeah, they look identical. That's true. You know, that troubles me. It really does. And the neighbors in that neighborhood, you know, are extremely troubled by it. You know? I would think so because that was such a quiet little neighborhood and, again, back to those streets being so narrow. And I've canvased that area years ago. And so many of those people have been there for generations. And now what? What happens to them? Right, right. I agree. And you know what's interesting though, this monster home problem seems to have popped up within the last three or four years. Right? Even four years ago, we didn't have this problem. No, I've never heard the word monster home much less. Right, right. And you know, I think the council has been short to act. They finally put a moratorium on it, right? But to me, I think, and that's why I'd like to work with DPP, Department of Permanent Planning, if at all possible, to see what's the problem. Where was the breakdown? Why did these homes get permitted to begin with? Or did they? Or did they? There's this one on Day Street, you're absolutely right, that has no permit whatsoever, you know. Councilman Ikeika Anderson, as a bill sitting on his desk, he's trying to get it heard in the zoning committee that would allow Department of Permanent Planning to tear it down. And again, walking door to door, talking to people, most people agree, just tear the thing down. There has to be a consequence for breaking our laws. Right? And if you let these guys break our laws, the next people are going to go ahead and do it too. You know? Well, we need to take a break. Okay. And we'll be back in a minute. And then let's talk about the other issues in those districts. Okay. We'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Hi, I'm Dave Stevens, the host of Cyber Underground. Every Friday, here at 1 p.m. on ThinkTechHawaii.com. And then every episode is uploaded to the Cyber Underground, that library of shows that you can see of mine on YouTube.com. And I hope you'll join us here every Friday. We have some topical discussions about why security matters and what could scare the absolute bejesus out of you if you just try to watch my show all the way through. Hope to see you next time on Cyber Underground. Stay safe. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, and this is Community Matters. Today, we are talking to my dear friend, and all of you know I only talk to dear friends, my dear friend, Tommy Waters. And he is running for Honolulu City Council District 4, which is huge. So, Tommy, speaking of huge, how big is the district? I don't mean in square feet. Well, there's over 100,000 registered voters. Over 100,000. And get this only, I think, in the last general election, about 40,000 voted. Or at least, yeah, 40,000 voted. So it's a dismal turnout. I'm trying to think of how we can get more people to come on and vote. Well, okay. So many people say, well, there's nothing to vote for. So you have to give them something to vote for. Absolutely. And again, I'm walking door to door, knocking on people's doors, trying to just encourage people to, number one, vote. And second, of course, asking people to vote for me. But just getting people to vote. I'd be really happy to get people out to vote. You know what I've noticed on the voting rolls? It's a lot of people in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and I've even met people in their 90s. Young people, it's very, very rare. I come across people in their 20s that are voting.  It does. And again, maybe because it's not on the tablet. I don't know. But that age group, they've been voting forever. So they keep on voting. And I think, and I've said this over and over again, it's not enough to vote. If you don't participate, if I vote for you, then I expect when I call your office, you return my call. Absolutely. And when I come to see you, we know who you are. Not just you, but all of the— because people need to be involved. You cannot say, okay, I voted for you. Now go do something. We have to be involved. So speaking of involvement, you have Waikiki in your district. Yes. Now, we remember when Waikiki was magic. And now, what have we got? Well, before we get to Waikiki, can I just address your initial comments? To me, it's vitally important that your legislator knows what's going on in the community. And how do you do that? You've got to be in your community, right? Right. Participating in events that are going on, whether it be neighborhood board meetings, association meetings, you've got to be there. That's number one. And then, number two, when people call your office, you have to return their calls immediately and promptly. And emails as well. It's vitally important. Because your elected official is your representative, right? Right. Keep in touch with them. I put my cell phone on all my walking pieces. And I hope people use it. They call me. Because it makes my job easier if you tell me what you need and want. Right? And what's important to you. I'm out there fighting for you, fighting for our community. Right? So back to Waikiki. Yes. Now, Waikiki is a beautiful, wonderful place. I surf there all the time. And I lived there for a year or two while I was in college on Tusa Tala Street years ago. When that was the jungle. Oh. Well, yeah. You remember the jungle. No, it's a beautiful place.  You got those mopeds. Oh, yes. Up and down the street, the trucks backing up with their loud beepers, right? You got still homeless people on the streets defecating and urinating with signs, you know, saying money for weed. I saw a gentleman with a sign that said that. I mean, it's just not a good idea. There's an overcrowding with these unpermitted businesses on the sidewalks, right? That's not fair to the people who are paying rent to open their business on the sidewalk. That's a problem that people are talking about. You know, it's so sad that those pavilions that they had, they removed the roofs so that they wouldn't have people loitering there. How sad is that? You know, why can't we get the people who are loitering doing bad things, dealing drugs and everything, get them off the sidewalk? Oh, you mean the tops are gone? The tops are gone. You know, we want people to be able to enjoy that. It's a beautiful spot, you know, to go and have lunch. Yeah. It's just sad. It's super sad. It is sad. And now, and the crime, I don't remember crime before, but let's tell you how old I am. Another thing that they tell me, the residents there about the cabaret license is the 4 a.m., you know? Why does it have to be at the 4 a.m.? You know, if they're in a hotel or whatnot, it seems to be better contained, you know? And the hotel can have their own security and regulate this. But a 4 a.m. cabaret license seems to be problematic, you know? Where are they located, the cabarets? I thought everything was within a building. Is this separate? Yeah. Well, there were, remember there was that shooting recently on Cujil Avenue? It was just a business, a bar that was on Cujil. And they have a 4 a.m. license? They have a 4 a.m. license. I don't know the name of the establishment, but I'm reading it in the paper. I'm just surprised, that's all. But I'll tell you how long it's been since I've been away. But the local residents are concerned about that. Of course they are. But it appears to me that, you know, sometimes their, excuse me, their opinions are taken for granted. You know, they're telling people, we don't want 4 a.m. cabaret license, but yet they're still issued. Well, is it that people, our council people don't appreciate that there are real residents in Waikiki and not just tourists?  Yeah, a lot of people live in Waikiki. Do they not know that? Do our city council people not understand? I can't speak for them. I mean, I can speak for myself and I know they're there, you know. I go to the neighborhood board meetings and I see their concerns firsthand. And they're good people and they care about the community just like every other community. They care about Waikiki. They want to make sure it's a safe place. By the way, Marsha, did you know that HPD is over 200 police officers short, island-wide? Over 200 officers. Why? Well, I think there's a number of reasons, right? They were, for a long time, losing officers to other jurisdictions. They're paying more. But you know we're finding out that while the pay is better on the mainland, for example. So it's a risk. The retirement, well, yes, true, it's more dangerous. But the retirement wasn't as good. So that's part of the reason why we were able to retain some. But just people are retiring, you know, they're getting older. You know, we have a system of 25 years and out. But let's see, over 200 officers short. To me, the best deterrent to crime is a patrol and police officer. Even good people will change their behavior when they see a police officer driving behind them, right? You could be going to speed limit. You change your behavior. And criminals will, too, if they see a police officer. So one of the things I want to do is try to help them achieve. I love, I think she's wonderful, by the way.  Yes. Chief Ballard, yeah, she's great. One of the ideas, and I'm sorry to keep talking, but one of the ideas she has is shortening the length of time for the police academy from a year to six months for those who have a college degree, for example. That way we can get more police officers. I hadn't thought about this before, but there's so many military people that have all that same training. Can't they? Wouldn't that shorten the time in the academy? I don't know. Yeah. Just once you mentioned it, I think of looking at other places for people. Even if we do that, apparently, it's still going to take four years to get caught up. But we have to start somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What else, the alloy? Yes. The pollution? Yes. So I'm a canoe paddler. I'm sure you know that. Yes. I was the president of Hui Lanakila Canoe Club way back in the 90s, and I paddled Molokai Channel a number of times, but we practiced it in the alloy. And yeah, oh my goodness, it is really dirty. It is. It's not healthy, right? For our young people, we've got a lot of kids paddling in the alloy. Jeez, there's got to be at least one, two, three, four, five, five, at least five clubs that paddle out of the alloy, you know, practice in the alloy. And it needs to be dredged, you know, on a schedule, you know, rather than once every 10 or 15 years. You know, I think it's a good idea to do it more often. Now the water comes from where? What are the headwaters to the alloy canal? Where does it start? Jeez, everything mocha from the alloy, if you look at it, feeds down into the alloy, especially Manoa, though. Manoa is a big feeder into the alloy. Well, we had a candidate who said the stream up there was polluted, so it's coming all the way down. That's, in Hawaii, it's just hard to imagine as beautiful as it is that it would be polluted. That's unacceptable. Well, initially, you know that the alloy was supposed to connect back to the ocean over where the Kapuhulu groin, right? And that was just never done. That way the water can better circulate. So, I mean, that's always going to be a problem, right? Because it's not circulating. So the idea is you have to dredge it and clean it because all that soap coming down from the mountain just fills up. And then the pesticides and everything else that comes off from people's yards that are feeding into that. When you wash your car, all the soap going into the drains coming down. Something as precious as we are an island, as precious as water, you would think we'd take better care of it. So is that the city, that is the city or is that the state, the alloy and the waters? Are they the city or the state? I think this, I was at the neighborhood board recently and they were talking about the state putting money in the budget for the alloy. I think it's all of our responsibilities in one way or another, but I think the state, through the Department of Health, well, they monitor the water quality, if that's what you're asking about. Okay, they monitor it, but do they do anything? Well, I think, like I said, the state is the one who is going to go in there and clean it out. Don't hold me on that, but I'm quite sure it is. Yeah, so what I want you to do, I want you to look into the camera. Okay. And I want you to tell us who you are and why we should vote for you. Okay, well, thank you. I'm a former legislator. I did three terms in the Hawaii State Legislature. You know, I used to be the chair of the Higher Education Committee and the Judiciary Committee. I know what it takes to do a good job. I'm willing to put the time and effort into it, and I'm a good listener. I think that's the number one thing that you can count on. Although today I seem to be talking a lot, but that's my job. I'm a better listener. And it's important because your opinion matters. I'm a hard worker.  For District 4, from Hawaii Kai to Waikiki. Well, thank you so much, and we look forward to hearing from you after August 11. All right. So keep in touch. Thank you so much. Aloha, and we'll see you next time. Aloha.


Uruzehina nituchun afukuwa miniiwa. talo nratiko waka kwa miniiwa iiweza kwa waduwehio cmupusha waka ako Makumayo para cofotishawe kwa kulta. Haka kwa kwa kutuwa miiaa, Wakilia k Almuza miniiwa kwa miniiwa. Kutuwa kwa kwa miniiwa, kwa kutuwa, kwa kutuwa faktishawe kwa mimiiwa. Kwida kuizu ikia kwenya, kwa waka kwa miniiwa, kwa kutuwa miniiwa kwa miniiwa. Mani kwa kwa miniiwa, to use, to build capacity of the communities that we are going to support in largely restoration of the degraded landscapes and also restoration of degraded rivers and stream banks. We have some of the, or to call indigenous groups of people in the country and those indigenous groups live in the forest. So they feel largely on forest foods and roads some of the leaves can actually be eaten by some of these communities. So, there is a whole broad spectrum of forest foods that Uganda's forest provide. This community heefto negotier for rights. Those band of rights with the responsible body, if it is to benefit from this arrangement or agreement, we're talking about. These tools once such tools kanempawa komuniti. So for us as government we think we should take them on.