To Understand Shinseki, One Must Understand Hawai’i
“Michelle Obama said to understand Barack you have to understand Hawai’i. The same is true for Eric Shinseki,” said Warren Haruki, as quoted today in The Honolulu Advertiser.
Haruki is Shinseki’s nephew and currently president of Grove Farm, a major Kaua’i landowner. Haruki is also a former president of Verizon Hawaii, the local telephone company, now Hawaiian Telcom.
At least some of Shinseki’s leadership skill comes from “growing up in a diverse place where nobody was a majority, everyone was a minority,” Haruki said.
If Shinseki, a third-generation descendant of Japanese immigrants who was born and raised on Kaua’i, is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he’ll be the first Hawai’i-born person to serve in a presidential Cabinet.
