• March weather • Iraq: democracy is messy March weather Kaua‘i and the Hawaiian islands are experiencing a wet month this March. Flooding has closed roads on the Big Island, Honolulu has had its share of rain, and it looks
• March weather
• Iraq: democracy is messy
March weather
Kaua‘i and the Hawaiian islands are experiencing a wet month this March.
Flooding has closed roads on the Big Island, Honolulu has had its share of rain, and it looks like even arid Ni‘ihau will be a bit greener than normal this spring.
Rainfall is considered a blessing in Hawai‘i, a feeling that goes back to the days when growing taro was a necessity of life.
It is a crop that needs a constant flow of fresh water to grow in abundance.
The rain brings fresh water to islands surrounded by salt water, and is the source of life for every living thing.
“The Water of Kane,” a gem of traditional Native Hawaiian literature, captures the spirit of this belief.
Kama‘aina will recall that March is usually a rainy month on Kaua‘i, though the dry weather of the past few years might have obscured this memory.
March of 1982 led into one of the wettest years in memory on Kaua‘i, a season of dampness that was broken only by the arrival of Hurricane ‘Iwa in late November of that year.
What’s perhaps most interesting about our current stretch of rainy weather is its consistency, and its widespread reach from Waimea across the island to Anahola.
Just about every corner of the island has had a good rain sometime over the past few weeks.
Many comments have been heard about this being an unusually long spell of rain.
A look at one day of rainfall, from Monday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon this week, a day that wasn’t that rainy overall, shows a remarkable rain count for the plateau atop Mount Wai‘ale‘ale.
Over six inches of rainfall were recorded at the peak during this time span.
If it continued to rain at Wai‘ale‘ale at that rate for the rest of the year, we see over 1,500 inches of rain for the year, rather than the 400-plus inches normally recorded.
Those feeling the blues from the rain are our visitors.
Once the thrill of coming from freezing weather on the Mainland to the sub-tropical air of Kaua‘i wears off, muddy ocean waters, lack of sunshine, and shopping areas crowded with visitors looking for something to do can be wearisome.
Hopefully for them, not too many April showers that bring May flowers are on the horizon later this week.
Some of the visitors might have noticed a water restriction mentioned at the bottom of restaurant menus, a warning needed just months ago, and a warning that shows a lack of fresh water is in almost all cases much worse than an abundance.
The current weeks of rain will be a pleasant memory if the summer of 2004 proves to be another dry one.
“You don’t miss your water until your well runs dry,” goes an old country-and-western song.
Iraq: democracy is messy
American proconsul’s Paul Bremer’s decision Sunday to padlock a hostile Baghdad newspaper for 60 days antagonized radical Shiite Muslims in Baghdad, gave their leader the notoriety he craved, and brought more angry people into streets already full of angry people.
It also violated a truth that Bremer himself had espoused just last month: “Democracy is messy; what’s tidy is dictatorship. We did that here, and that’s gone and they’re glad it’s gone. Now we have democracy, and it’s untidy, it’s complicated.”
A coalition spokesman said the newspaper had incited violence, created instability and printed stories that were outright fabrications.
To the extent the U.S. invaded Iraq to bring it democracy, freedom of the press has to be part of the package.
ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH
