Complete cable around the island
Hawaiian Telcom’s main fiber-optic trunk cable for West Hawaii was damaged three times during the past year — twice in the same week. These outages were a major inconvenience for anyone making a purchase or trying to make a phone call. In addition, residents living from Waikoloa to Pahala were not able to call 911 to report emergencies.
The lack of redundancy is the culprit of these outages. Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Hawaiian Telcom have fiber-optic cables going from Kawaihae to the Kona area. Oceanic’s fiber traverses along Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Hawaiian Telcom’s goes along Highway 190. However, these fiber-optic cables end in the Pahala area and don’t circle the island. So, a simple tree limb can knock out service to a large part of our island.
The state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs estimates it will cost $6 million to extend the fiber-optic cable between Volcano and Pahala, which will eliminate this dead zone and create a true fiber-optic ring around the Big Island. This added redundancy will help minimize these recent outages in the future.
I hope the County of Hawaii, Oceanic Time Warner Cable, Hawaiian Telcom and the federal government can work together to help resolve this issue, as our economic well being and public safety is at stake if this is not resolved soon.
Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona
No good reason not to immunize children
A 10-month-old died from measles in Berlin, reportedly a child that had never been immunized.
We have the means to prevent deaths from killer diseases such as measles by using effective vaccinations, yet the World Health Organization states the 147,000 children died last year from measles alone. Too many parents are choosing to not vaccinate their children.
The Obama administration has pledged $1 billion over the next four years from the U.S. to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, to protect childre from preventable diseases such as diphtheria, whooping cough and others, including only recently pneumonia and diarrheal disease, these last two the largest killers of young kids.
Since 2000, GAVI has brought together both endemic and donor countries with vaccine producers and civil society to increase access to vaccines, saving six million lives. Now GAVI is launching an ambitious plan to immunize 300 million more children by 2020, saving more than five million lives.
As a global health advocate, I implore parents to educate themselves about vaccinations since many seem to still believe they are harmful, they are not.
I am a partner in RESULTS, a citizen’s advocacy group dedicated to ending the worst aspects of poverty. We ask our governments to fund programs that are effective in saving lives from some of diseases mentioned, as well as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and poor sanitation. We seek to empower women through microcredit programs, the education of girls and boys and other cost effective means. If interested, check out results .org. We are active in more than 10 countries.
Mary Martin
Kailua-Kona