Jason Schwartz visits with NETRA HALPERIN, candidate in the last election cycle for State House of Representative from Kihei, Maui, Hawaii. Netra shares her views for positive change about foreclosures and housing, education, and more.2011
Summary & Full Timestamped Transcript
This interview features Netra Halperin, a dedicated community advocate and former State House candidate from Maui, who shares her extensive insights on critical social and economic issues affecting Hawaii, especially foreclosure, homelessness, housing, and education. Working as a committee clerk for the Housing Committee under Representative Rita Cabanel, Netra is deeply involved in tackling the foreclosure crisis and homelessness, while also championing improvements in education and nutrition.
Netra explains how the foreclosure crisis began with predatory lending practices by banks and investors in the early 2000s, highlighting systemic banking fraud and deregulation that have left governments and homeowners burdened with massive losses. She describes the nightmare many homeowners face with loan modifications, where banks repeatedly lose paperwork or impose onerous conditions, forcing many families into foreclosure and increasing homelessness. Netra also exposes how banks like Bank of America restrict direct assistance only to legislators, leaving struggling homeowners without proper support.
Homelessness is another pressing issue addressed through legislative efforts like safe parking lots for people living in vehicles and “housing first” initiatives that prioritize stable housing before addressing other social services. However, community resistance (NIMBYism) often stymies progress on these fronts despite the greater social benefits.
Netra emphasizes the power of civic engagement, particularly the importance of public testimonies in legislative processes, which can decisively influence bill outcomes. She encourages people to educate themselves, find their passion, and participate in advocacy efforts, highlighting that every voice matters.
On education, Netra critiques the outdated, test-heavy system rooted in plantation-era models and calls for reforms that nurture creativity, critical thinking, empathy, and address the whole child—including their emotional and social needs. She advocates for less testing and more flexibility, pointing to the public school system’s potential to break cycles of poverty, incarceration, and social issues by providing greater support to at-risk children.
Finally, Netra underscores the importance of nutrition, promoting school and community gardens and healthier school lunches as foundational to well-being. She encourages ongoing public involvement in all these issues and provides contact information for people to reach her and engage directly.
Highlights
- [00:10] ? Introduction of Netra Halperin, passionate community advocate and housing committee clerk.
- [02:35] ? Explanation of the foreclosure crisis origins tied to banking fraud and deregulation.
- [07:23] ? Description of the foreclosure loan modification nightmare faced by homeowners.
- [11:43] ? Bank of America’s policy to restrict direct homeowner assistance, requiring legislative connections.
- [24:14] ?ﾸﾏ Legislative efforts to create safe parking and tent sites for homeless individuals amidst NIMBY challenges.
- [38:05] ? Call to public action: importance of submitting testimony to influence legislative bills.
- [41:32] ? Advocacy for education reform focusing on creativity, empathy, and addressing social needs beyond academics.
Key Insights
- [02:35] ? Foreclosure crisis as a product of systemic banking fraud: Netra highlights that the crisis originated from banks and investors pushing risky, overinflated mortgages, knowing many borrowers would fail. The involvement of pension funds and state investments in auction rate securities adds complexity and scale, illustrating how financial misconduct hurt not just individuals but public budgets as well. This systemic failure underscores the need for strong federal regulation and accountability.
- [07:23] ? Loan modification processes often deepen homeowner distress: The “trial” phases for loan modifications frequently trap borrowers in endless paperwork loops, with banks losing documents or imposing worsening terms. This bureaucratic nightmare prolongs foreclosures, worsens credit scores, and destabilizes families, showing that loopholes in the system exacerbate the housing crisis rather than alleviate it.
- [11:43] ? Bank reluctance to provide direct assistance reveals a lack of consumer care: Bank of America’s policy of offering direct contact only to legislators, not to homeowners, shifts responsibility away from banks and creates barriers to help. This practice reflects a troubling lack of transparency and customer service in the financial industry, reinforcing power imbalances between institutions and vulnerable individuals.
- [24:14] ?ﾸﾏ NIMBYism obstructs effective homelessness solutions despite clear public benefits: Efforts like “housing first” and safe parking programs face opposition from residents fearing neighborhood disruption. Netra’s discussion of the Chinatown housing project’s failure due to community resistance exemplifies how stigma and fear hinder pragmatic interventions that could reduce emergency costs and improve community health. Overcoming NIMBY attitudes is essential for meaningful progress.
- [38:05] ? Public testimony is a critical lever for legislative change: Netra explains how legislators depend on constituent input to support bills. Without public engagement, even well-designed legislation can stall. This insight reveals the power of civic participation at the state level and the importance of organized advocacy to ensure marginalized voices influence policymaking.
- [41:32] ? Education reform must address social-emotional needs, not just academics: Netra advocates moving beyond the plantation-era, test-focused model toward nurturing critical thinking, creativity, and empathy. She stresses that children’s emotional and social challenges must be acknowledged and supported within schools to break cycles of poverty and incarceration. This holistic approach is vital for long-term societal health.
- [33:36] ? Nutrition as a cornerstone of public health and education: Netra’s work to integrate school gardens and locally sourced produce into school cafeterias reflects an innovative approach to improving children’s diets and fostering healthy habits early. This initiative also supports local agriculture and community engagement, highlighting the interconnectedness of health, education, and economy.
Overall Themes
Netra Halperin’s interview paints a detailed and nuanced picture of interconnected social challenges—foreclosure, homelessness, housing, education, and health—and emphasizes systemic causes like banking fraud, regulatory failures, and societal stigma. The discussion reveals the complexity of policymaking and the crucial role of public involvement, civic education, and compassionate leadership in driving change. Netra’s passion and experience underscore the potential for informed advocacy to unlock hope and improve lives in Maui and beyond.
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the time has come to make a change the time has come to unlock the Hope Aloha welcome to another Mama presents or should I say up close and personal 2011 this is the first of uh shows that we’re doing that is sort of a revisit I have a great pleasure I have a great guest this is Netra Halperin hello Jason welcome to the show well thank you so much I always enjoy uh speaking with you as you many of you recall Netra was a candidate in the last election cycle for the State House of Representatives seat
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in Kei Maui and uh you would have thought had she not ured that seat that you’d see her go back and then come back in 2 years maybe or something or try again but this lady has shown me through the times I’ve known her you are a committed person you’re committed to making a difference in our world which I really appreciate and that’s why I thought it was good to start this whole process of revisiting with you because whether in a seat or not you are a candidate for the people for the people what have you been
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doing well I’m over uh working at the legislature I work uh for a representative representative Rita cabanel she’s from Eva Beach and she’s the chair of Housing and so I’m the committee Clerk and we deal with uh issues such as homelessness the Foreclosure crisis I’m also very um very involved in researching that and finding solutions that will help home owners homeowners so that’s what I’m very concerned about well then you know people that I know that have been out there you know Jeanie Vance have you met
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her I do know jeie yes yes she’s a great woman she’s a great woman and been very committed to the challenges that are happening to people in foreclosure what have you seen happening I think we all have seen it but what have you seen from where you said I mean it’s it’s the whole foreclosure crisis it started many many years ago it started back in two 2000 when um Banks were selling overinflated um mortgage the investors started suing them because you know people think there’s the
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mortgage the mortgages and then there’s the banks well there’s the investors the banks themselves are just managing their investors money and some of the investors are Pension funds um the uh state of Hawaii also invested uh over 1 billion dollar in uh slar which is a student loan auction rate Securities um and this is going a little bit of field but it’s part of the whole bigger picture of a bank deregulation and some I will actually say banking fraud that that has happened and is is totally um fraud from the
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banks and from the borrowers and from everybody well mostly the banks mostly the banks um what happened with the uh student with the slar um uh let’s see the uh maril Lynch um these auction rate Securities they uh the the Brokers were one second we just want to know if you hear any cheering that would be hoping would that would be for us but there’s a wedding going on over here and we’re in beautiful eow Valley so just so you know what’s going on so back to where you were you were talking about a serious
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subject so hearing cheering in the background seemed a little odd but we’re good and also just utiliz the beauty of Maui I mean we’ve got these beautiful parks and we want to use them it’s nice to see people are using them I’m here during the week and I see many people use this as that just means they just got married people are using this as their home base because they don’t have places to live that’s another part that’s homeless and we’ll we’ll get to homelessness definitely but I want to
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talk about this a little bit yeah so what maryn and these other uh companies are doing they or did is they pretended that the um auction rate Securities were more liquid than they really were yeah and so many municipalities including the state of Hawaii the county of Maui invested in those and then they uh the market collapsed and um so we were left the state of Hawaii was left holding the bag with about 800 million um with the county of Maui it was about 44 million so the budget deficits are not just due
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to lower tax income they’re also Al due to some banking um basically fraud and and there’s a lot of people suing the banks right now all across the country so far it’s just the beginning it’s the beginning of accountability being brought to this so I keep posted and watch and I will keep people posted but anyway back to borrowers so what happened is the banks were um already being sued back in the 80s and until 2003 and so they said you know we we need to do something and so they started purposefully lending out
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money to people that they knew would eventually for uh not be able and it but it’s a cycle I mean a lot of people were able to make their payments a lot of people are decent hardworking people who had always paid their bills and when they got these loans the bank said um you know when it comes time for the arm the adjustable rate mortgage to uh readjust up don’t worry you can uh refinance just keep your credit up the market is going up you can refinance but of course it didn’t really work that way
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because the arms created the market collapse which created that people either lost their jobs or if they had their own business they lost their customers or you know they lost hours if they were working for a big company and people weren’t able to pay them so it was It was kind of calcul it wasn’t just it didn’t just happen the economy just didn’t go down and what many uh Banks and what many investors who are very well to do and savvy are doing is they’re betting against people succeeding and so the
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rich are still getting richer in this country and now the middle class people with educations hardworking people with educations can’t even make a living because the money is just rising up and you know America’s not in a very good position right now and we’re going to have to stop some of these practices and then this whole modification thing that is a nightmare that’s the right word it’s a they lured people into the uh illusion that they were going to be modifying their loans and they put them
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in these TR if they put them at all in trial packages with an example of their payment for the next while but they need to qualify and the values of the properties keep going down and many people are in high loan to value loans and so more foreclosures are happening and more properties is being lost and the prices keep going down because of over Supply this is like a nightmare but it is we’re we’re breathing and awake and and many of my constituents that I’ve spoken to have said that they have
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submitted their paperwork and then the bank says oh I’m sorry we lost it can you submit it again or oh the notary signed on the wrong page or you know you crossed the T instead of dotted the ey and over and over and over resubmitting the same paperwork and it’s this nightmare and then if they’re in Hawaii they have to send it by FedEx and that’s $75 50 and then also the banks are telling them well yes we can give you a lower uh loan payment but we will ding your credit and we will be assessing
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fees and we’re going to add that all under the back end of the loan how about the fact that you couldn’t even get a modification unless you were two months late on mortgages and so they were encouraging people to be late on their mortgages so they’d be able to do loan modification and then they told them their credit was bad it’s amazing when I mean I grew up in California and I actually did was a customer of Bank of America and I like most people thought you know that’s the
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bank that’s a well regulated you know respectable industry and Bank of America is a huge part of this um I work at the capital and I was in my office uh one afternoon it was around 5:00 and uh two gentlemen came by and my uh representative my boss wasn’t there and so he said you know we’re from I’m the uh VP one of the gentlemen the other was uh White Bankers Association and he said I’m from VP of Bank of America and I can give you and your friends and family and uh your representative and her
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constituents a phone number directly to the president of Bank of America if they’re having trouble with their mortgages and I said oh that’s great I said you know what I also when um evenings and weekends I also work for a foreclosure attorney um I’m sure our uh clients would love to have this number cuz a lot of them are having trouble with Bank of America and he said oh no absolutely not you cannot give that number to them and I questioned that and I said well you know don’t you think that’s a
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little unethical and he said well you know it’s transparent I think it is what it is and then uh the Hawaii Bankers Association said well um it’s kind of like I used to be a representative he said and constituents would call about things like potholes and even though you know that’s a county issue I would you know just to help them out I would send them to the person that could help them with that and I said well you know I don’t think potholes and you know losing your home are really on the same part
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and he said and besides which you know people by the time they call a legislator are you know pretty desperate well there’s a lot of people who aren’t calling their legislators who are pretty desperate and legislative staff um and he also said this is the same number that we give to the Congress people legislative staff and Congress people are not paid by the state or by the the federal govern government to uh Service uh people’s mortgages you know that’s not their job their job is to help the
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representative or the Congress person in fulfilling their duties so basically the bank is giving their job to somebody else um and the other thing is shouldn’t they be giving good service to everyone I mean you shouldn’t have to have a connection with a legislator to um right to get good service and I did speak to a uh reporter from AOL daily Finance Abigail fields and she uh wrote this all up and it is on AOL daily Finance so you know basically letting the country know that I think the title of the story was
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uh AOL uh sorry Bank of America offers help with loans but only if you’re a legislator so you know I mean and he said that the reason that they came to Hawaii was because of some legislation and there was some really good legislation it’s been kind of watered down um you know I’m I’m waiting to see what happens in its final form is that the one that Genie was working on about having representatives from the lender here to have a physical office or something else no that was part of it
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but to me that’s interesting but that’s not the be all end all what what the the other one was is um to require um uh mediation professional mediation people that have been specially trained in um the rules of mortgages and finance and also to do a six months moratorium on non-judicial forclosures that’s another problem that’s very Hawaii specific that isn’t just the full United States is our um nonjudicial foreclosure laws were created uh in an attempt to easily take land away from native
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Hawaiians so they’re worse they’re more Draconian than other states and it’s just way too easy for them to do and then the other thing is what happened during all this this last um maybe eight years is that a new organization started called Ms mortgage electronic registration system and the bank stopped creating paper copies of all of the transactions that they were doing so the mortgages were bundled together in in packages like you know millions of dollars you know hundreds of hundreds of mortgages thousands of
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mortgages actually and um and then the the note and the mortgage the note to the property and the mortgage weren’t always traveling together so sometimes there the mortgage would be over here and the note would be over there and then uh you know a bank would say okay we own that mortgage well yeah but do you own the property so a lot of foreclosures would not happen and this is still in in um the bills that are still alive is uh the requirement that the person The Entity trying toose prove that they actually
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own the property I mean there there the the level of fraud the level of fraud of this thing is bigger financially in dollar amounts than anything ever in the history of the world I mean it is amazing and you know of course the federal government I’m sure knows about it but they’re concerned if they crack down what’s going to happen so there’s this kind of tight walk dance you know are the bank solvent are they not um it’s it’s the whole thing is is frightening but legislators can do
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something I don’t want to just paint this Gloomy picture a lot is the federal legislators the federal legislators just need to get strict you know um I have this other colleague she her profession I I met her she was running a Social Service Agency Hana makami in in Hana and I went out there to talk to her about doing some Consulting for them but her actual her other uh profession is being a bank regulator and she used to work for the federal government and she had like a portfolio of eight Banks and her job was
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to uh make sure that those Banks were following all the rules and of course their um funding got cut uh a lot of the uh regulations were softened and taken away and she they weren’t able to properly regulate the banks and she um even had some personal experience with the mortgage uh uh with her mortgage and she said you know what I am an expert level understanding how banking works and I can’t even do anything about this so I don’t want to go to The Logical conclusion because this problem
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is bigger than any problem we’ve seen before and the federal government doesn’t want to say too much because it’s going to collapse the system right yes and and I don’t I don’t want people to to to start going into fear because you know our best weapon is education you know I think during the rise of our country and where the standard of living was getting better where the expectancy life expectancy rate was getting better people were just enjoying life I mean many of those years I was just enjoying
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my life right and and then I started getting very concerned I started getting alarm like you said and realized no I need to focus my attention on what’s Happening and what can I as an individual do and everybody can do something everybody because I think those days of just enjoying your life and your family I think we also need to get involved ourselves in whatever way you know some people are concerned about this issue some people are concern concerned about agriculture some people are concerned about nutrition and health
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um some people are concerned about animals you know make protecting animals protecting children um helping the most needy there’s many many issues and things that need to be dealt with and government you know I’m working in government I’m running to be a legislator we can only do so much and that’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you as working for a chair of a committee I’m right there and our a bill comes forward and my boss says do we have testimony we don’t have testimony
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call get some testimony so I have to like make all these calls trying to get somebody to testify on something that most people if you ask them they would say oh yeah of course people don’t realize that the legislators are dependent it’s a symbiotic relationship the legislators are dependent on the public to submit testimonies because I’ve seen my boss she wrote A bill she introduced the bill she is the chair of the committee that’s hearing the bill and if nobody from the public comes and
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supports it she has to defer the bill which means it’s just kind of pushed to the side so people don’t realize how much at the state level how much testimony is valuable and really makes a difference I mean people a lot of people do you know send an email blast to their representatives and that’s good for education but the rubber meets the road in the actual committee and it’s very important that’s very I’m really glad to hear that I bet you really now know that you can make a
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difference so when someone has a feeling about an issue directly to the Committees is it what to do it right so what you do is you go to the legisl legislative website www.c capital. hawaii.gov and if you know about a bill just type in the bill number if you don’t know the number of the bill then you can also um do a subject search you know let’s say like I said agriculture Finance forclosures animal rights um Park and Recreation environment whatever your issue so type that in and then just look
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at the bills and if you see one that’s of interest to you then um you can submit testimony online because I know those of us you know living on Maui it’s it’s it’s a long ways so if you can that’s awesome but if you can’t that’s also perfectly fine fine so you just type it up you know dear chairs I strongly support HB blah blah blah or I strongly oppose SB blah blah blah for this and this and this reasons and and that’s what they want to know they want to know how do these bills affect the
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people so your testimony can make the difference between a bill passing or not passing that’s big it’s huge and then the other thing is there’s certain people like for instance I’m very interested in Criminal Justice Reform and there’s this one woman who sends out a cat Brady who sends out a blast to everybody on her email list so I just get the email list and then she says you know testify for this so you know cuz following bills takes a lot of energy so what you do is if there’s a certain
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subject matter that you uh resonate with then you find the group of the people that are have the time to be tracking those bills and then you can you know spend your 15 minutes sitting on your computer bam send done and so it’s like a a team a tag team approach that’s great and it’s nice to hear there are people out there helping that happened because like you say with all the issues it’s a lot to follow but find your passion exactly and stay with it and they have groups that will keep
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you informed yes exactly exactly or then you can put get an alert for those particular bills so that’ll come to your email box or RSS beads that you can um find out not information that about that well you know before any more time goes on I just want public to know I have truly been watching you these last couple of election Cycles I first met you and you were uh running for um Council Council and you had a lot you said a lot and you were very passionate and you didn’t get the seat but I thought this woman is really
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interested and checks out things she talks about she’s not fluff you know having interviewed quite a few candidates people have a lot of passion including myself but don’t have a lot of facts but you really have dug in and seen what’s going on and get involved and that is incredibly appreciated I appreciate so I wanted to be here and give you another opportunity to be here with the public because that’s what we need we need people that are committed come hell or high water this is It’s
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Your Passion I really appreciate it thank you well you’re you’re very welcome Jason thank you so much for your appreciation my passion is showing people like this well without you we wouldn’t have a forum so it’s it’s well I’m glad to be here it’s a really important service that you’re doing I’m I’m very grateful for for for what you’re doing we were on foreclosure and we sort of talking housing but if you don’t mind I want to talk about housing because you know I could get in really
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really blow this subject up in big terms but basic thing like housing people don’t have money no matter what I hear about jobs getting better and all this PR there are a lot of people that don’t have jobs and their money’s getting tighter here in E I live close by and there are people here every day this is their rest stop cuz they live out they don’t have any place to live um anything like that being addressed in the legislature I mean I know it’s a sort of an odd subject we don’t want to
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create uh housing just to happen everywhere with any kind of shelter being okay but I’m sure it’s been in discussion any conversations going on about that stuff yeah um homelessness is um for our housing committee one of our top issues absolutely and um what uh We’ve introduced several bills um uh one about uh homeless parking lots um we were even uh considering going to Santa Barbara and visiting because they have a really good program there in Santa Barbara and what it is is for people
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working homeless or people that basically have a vehicle but no home and if you have a vehicle you may notice that you know it’s hard to find places to park at night you know the police come and say you can’t park here ma’am or sir um you have to leave um you get ticketed did and so the idea is to create a safe haven for people to park their car and you know people would come in in the evening and they’ leave early in the morning and so we were researching that and so we had that idea
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um my uh boss also had the idea of um places where people could put their tents same thing where there’s it’s kind of like you know sometimes there’s things that are happening in society that are not the optimal but it’s better to just admit that it exists and deal with it than just try to push push push people away especially in an island I mean people go here then they go here I mean they’re still on the island they go in a circle but what we have found with all of these bills is that every great
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idea that we have somebody says yes but not in my backyard nimi and so um representative cabanel and I are making a video a 30- second uh PSA public Service Announcement video about nimi and just reminding people that you know we are all one Ohan and that’s not just esoteric it’s also just a fact that every on an economic level on a social level we all affect each other and also sometimes uh there’s really great like an example I wrote about in the Maui News was in Chinatown there was a Honolulu China
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town there was $10.8 Million appropriated to build a housing first project and what housing first is is that when people are living on the street if they need to go to the emergency room they still go to the emergency room and of course they have no money and then we end up all paying for it and so to say well we’re we’re just not going to deal with them it doesn’t work that way cuz they’re actually we’re paying a whole lot more money because they’re still going to go to the emergency room you know the the
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police are still going to be moving them around um some of them will go to jail just to get off the street I mean so this housing first it stipulates that if people are at least in housing then the next steps can come then there can be a case manager to help them with their medical their mental health um their their health all of their other issues and the people in the residents in Chinatown said no we don’t want this because is uh it’s going to attract homeless people well I don’t know if
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anybody here in valy has done this recently but if you go to chinat town especially in the evening especially weekend evening it’s really it’s horrible I mean it smells really bad there’s people lying on the street is just not it’s just not a good thing and and if the PE so what happened is the residents of China said and stop this project and so now nothing progress because people they they feel fear oh we don’t want this that’s going to harm us and actually that would have helped and
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so that’s what our 302nd PSA on nimi was saying is like you know just chill for a second listen to the problem and listen to all the details and that’s what happens a lot in politics most people are busy living their lives taking care of their families working their jobs having a little recreational time and so it takes a lot of time what you were saying before it takes a lot it’s a full-time job to research all the issues because very few isales are really black and white there’s so many details of
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that and so I guess I’m just requesting you know if something is requested to come either a nonprofit a government agency the county the state uh says we want to have this uh project in your neighborhood take the time research if if I support this project what will it actually do to my community if I don’t support this project what’s going to happen with my community will the problem get worse will the Homeless Problem actually get worse and so I think um just we’re I’m requesting we’re requesting a little
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just remembering that we are especially in Hawaii we are all and what if that was you I mean exactly you know there are people that have had had stages in this process over the last now 3 years 2 and 1 half years since the mortgage explosion yeah and uh their attitudes have changed as suddenly they became victim to things that they were judging before exactly and uh I can say again I fact is it’s increasing it may not a lot of it isn’t accounted for you know it’s like an unemployment I think that’s
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funny you go off the unemployment roles and suddenly somehow you’re not being counted and that doesn’t mean you’re not unemployed it means you’re not being counted so the numbers are going up the percentages are staying the same or going down statistics are a funny thing but um you know I we could talk about these subjects I wonder about alternative housing plans now here in Maui we’ve got will Spence now had a planning planning director which is a major CL yeah I I I love will he’s
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awesome I’m very well I’m hoping that in these kind of times alternative housing not only do we need a place but we need to look at other ways of addressing what now is happening people are downsizing and learning they don’t need as much yeah retirees of course don’t need a big house anymore and uh but we’re watching you know with this problem that just happened in Japan which we bless and honor the people in Japan for their strugle the way that they all treat Tre each other and treat each other with
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respect and dignity and helping and no looting and all the things that if all of us would just kind of get in touch with the some our higher power if you will of something that has us respect each other a little bit more and be involved a little bit more and when something is in your area or a project in your get involved a little bit more I think then maybe we have a chance that we can handle this and not protract this problem and make it when someone said the new good what does that mean how are
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you doing oh I’m doing good not really doing good but compared to what others are doing it’s good so that’s the new good but so I thought that was an interesting expression but how would we call it the new the new uninvolved you don’t want to be involved or the new involved the the new involved the new way to to get involved and and you know because I mean we all know that when we give when we help we feel something in in our heart we feel a good feeling and and just kind of encouraging
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that and and in a way where you’re doing it what’s the most uh natural for you you know don’t try don’t force yourself that’s not the point but find something that that you care about again you know what what issue do you care about how would you like to contribute I make a better place better society and that’s what you do that’s what I said um I think of you as my representative well that’s great even though you live in W I’m glad you think I mean it’s very important because you
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truly like I say the passion that you put into doing this is what it’s going to take from all of us and you have the knowledge and now that’s what you’re doing continuing to build your experience to help affect laws to make it better but really it’s it’s from your caring and that’s been very attractive as a a candidate you know someone says oh she’s not in my area you’re in my area you’re in my heart area cuz you’re you’re sharing and doing what we need and um I don’t know
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about you guys out there specifically but I think you all can agree that’s the kind of involvement that you want from your legislators that’s the kind of involvement you want from all of us all of us you know all of us um what other pet I want to say pet issues there so many any other areas that are important and focus you’d like to share with people um health health and nutrition um as I was saying before you know when our standard of living was going up and when our life expectancy
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was was going up right now it’s not going up the Center for Disease Control estimates that of children born in 2000 one3 or 1/ half if it’s a minority child will develop diabetes sometime in your lifetime and I went shopping uh last night at Safeway and everything it was so hard to find something that did not have sugar in it and I don’t mean cookies I mean cra crackers I got something in the olive bar and they had sugar in it I got some sushi and it has sugar in it they’re putting sugar in
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everything and that and the other thing is school lunches I’m very involved in improving school lunches now Hawaii and definitely Maui is fortunate compared to many other states we have in our schools full kitchens full commercial kitchens for the cafeterias so in some other states they just have Monarch or whoever the the supplier is come in and everybody just opens up cans and says okay there’s lunch and then they also have these huge uh junk food dispensaries that the kids are using money for much to the parents CH grin
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and that then that money goes into some of like the athletic programs or Etc but it’s kind of like a self-defending thing yeah let’s give the kids a bunch of of you know junk food and then have an athletic program to keep them healthy it’s kind of but anyway so in Hawaii we don’t have all of that so we are at a good place and so I have been talking um to the director of food services for the Department of Education about um allowing the school guards so a lot of schools are having school guards um
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there’s several organizations uh Community workday has a program um of helping with uh School Gardens at at the elementary and intermediate schools so I think in my district in kii all three oh actually Four uh kamale e school um kii School uh kii charter school and loani Intermediate School all have school Gardens so that’s fun for the kids it gives them something to you know put their hands into and really get involved in and then what the parents and the teachers are noticing is that if you
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give the kids some broccoli on their plate they’re like but you if the kid helps that broccoli grow Nur nurtures that broccoli then they want to eat it so there there’s an involvement in it and you know we’re in Maui this is still pretty rural I mean most people could have a garden or have a friend or a community garden if that’s not your cup of tea if they want but anyway so to get the schools to allow or the the Department of Education to allow Community Garden or school garden food
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to be served in the cafeteria so and also working with the Farm Bureau and uh Farmers Union about uh helping the farmers learn what they need to do to get certified to be served in the school because it’s interesting you can you can sell the food at a swap meet at the grocery store and there’s not that M strict but to serve it to the kids there’s all these strict uh sanitation rules when those same kids are going to go home and the parents are going to and the Prof and the people at the uh School
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are professionals they’re working for a living in a cafeteria so they can know okay you have to wash it this way so so even um the director of Public Health for Maui uh Dr Lauren Pang um I’m a big fan of his um he says you know we don’t have any problem the Department of Health we don’t have any problem if they serve uh the school uh C the school garden food in the cafetaria so so that’s something I’m also working on because nutrition is the Cornerstone and we just all need to eat more vegetables
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I mean you know just you too the guy in the back row there vegetables are the key you know fresh fruit and vegetables and it’s like a habit like anything if you start eating vegetables then if you don’t have any in your meal you’re going to feel like something’s missing so it’s just it’s just what you’re used to well we could go on and probably talk forever and uh that might be fun but how can people get in touch with you because obviously you’re sitting in a very
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important committee there but in general how do people get in touch with you cuz I hope that this video will run on the internet and be a a tool to be encouraging to all people that are out there to be more involved and to realize that a passion can lead to what you’re doing which is now a process at some point hopefully sooner than later you’ll be a representative and uh just a real a great example of that how do they people get in touch with you well if you’re on Facebook uh invite me to be your friend
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and I will accept um or you can look at my website uh www elect Netra.com um so either those two places um and then on there is my email address uh netra elect Netra.com so I’m I’m very easy to find um I’ll even say my phone number CU it’s on all those places 3591 1673 and I’m I’m really happy to hear from people because you know I need to know what are people concerned about what are people uh feeling needs to change uh you know where do the priorities need to be so I I really want to hear from
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you me too and you always see my numbers but I’m on Facebook and uh I’m very happy to have had Netra here thank you for joining me well you’re you’re very welcome I always love talking to you Jason I hope we can do this this again and not have to wait cuz there’s a long time yeah before an election cycle but there’s a lot going on and clearly you’re in touch with what’s going on and we all need to hear that it’s really nice for people to get up close and personal and in an informal setting be
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able to talk about something like thisk thank you I I again I really appreciate that you um are are putting all of the candidates out there and all of the in between candidates Community Advocates my candidates or anyone you’re welcome to call my my cards now say community advocate so basically I’m advocating for the community in whatever uh venue I’m also on the board of Neighborhood Place of wuku and uh we are um thinking of starting uh well it’s actually but something in the educational realm because education I
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didn’t even get time to talk about education but that is definitely why what do you want to say that um about education is that um we you know we need to prioritize it everybody says that but the other thing is getting back to the roots our education system of kids sitting in desk and the teacher talking to them in Rose has been there since Plantation times uh that was an excellent way to train people to be Plantation workers however that’s not that’s not what we’re trying to train
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our kids for anymore we’re trying to train our kids to think to be creative to come up with Solutions and there are other ways to do that that are better and the No Child Left Behind Act I have been pretty vocal that I do not think that’s a good idea um and even race to the top um that the competition model is excellent for business but education competing competing one school against another school for funding is just not right first of all all not all schools are the same you know some kids come from a very
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educationally and financially Rich background other kids come from a background where the parents are just super busy working all the time and don’t have time to help them with all their homework and and learning things and so it’s just unfair and also kids automatically want to learn I mean if you have a 2-year-old you’re always saying stop don’t touch that don’t touch that don’t touch that that’s the nature of human beings I mean curiosity may have killed the cat but human beings are
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inherently curious so the key isn’t to um mold and structure is to nurture children learning because children want to learn and I think children also want to do the right thing it’s just that they need ways to learn how to do that and that’s what adults are that’s what we’re here for so I for education I am um advocating for Less testing less focus on testing more focus on critical thinking uh empathy building um that’s a big one all the things that create risk I mean there’s whole groups of children
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that are at risk for Social Service issues and and then they’re supposed to just go to class and and their emotional sociological needs are completely ignored those are the important ones that’s you know people children need that nurturing and some children are going to need a little bit more nurturing from the public school system and some are getting enough at home but everybody needs it but you know we have those kids for 6 hours every day you know that is a lot of time and we could use that time to you know help kids to
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help break that cycle and I haven’t talked about that this time that is the cycle of um poverty substance abuse domestic abuse crime and incarceration and a child whose parent is incarc erated is seven times as likely to become incarcerated themselves wow and so that is something um that the public school system can intervene in helping kids with those issues and it doesn’t necessarily require a whole ton more money but just a little bit more flexibility in the system and also I think the public school system realizing
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their job is not just to teach math and reading I mean our lives are more than math and reading you know our lives are multi-dimensional we have we have seven different intelligences language and math are only two of them important but they’re only two of them wow you know a lot about a lot of stuff that’s good you bring a strong foundation and uh again I guess it’s very obvious I think a lot of you and I think that it’s really a pleasure to see the level of commitment you’re giving
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all of us well thank you I whether we live in your district and can vote for you thank you well thank you the whole state on some level I care about and of course I’m focused on you know kii mckenny but and Maui too so um anybody can can contact me if they want to if you want to say something make sure I’m aware of something that’s great well thank you all for joining us and uh thank you for joining us thank you Jason thank you very much we will see you again Aloha the time has come to make a
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change the time has come to unlock the hope that lives in each and every one of us and we must do our part we hold the Visions God dreams of our hands can heal the ones we love let’s gather around and let us make us stand for you and me unlock the hope and there’s a better life unlock the hope there’ll be no turning back but nothing changes unless we unlock the whole the time has come to make a change the time has come to unlock the hope that lives in each and every one of us and we must do our
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part we hold the Visions God dreams of our hands can heal the ones we love let’s gather around and let us make a stand for you and me unlock the hope and there’s a better life unlock the hope there’ll be no turning back but nothing changes unless we unlock the whole but nothing changes unless we unlock the whole but nothing nothing changes [Music] oo unless we unlock the [Music] whole unless we unlock the whole unless we we unlock the Hope unless we unlock the hope [Music]
