Letter from the Editor

Last week, when I sat down to talk with Kathryn Xian, who runs The Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery (PASS), I barely got a “hello” in before the woman next to us at Starbucks interjected: She wanted to thank Xian for her work.

Since launching PASS in 2009 — and even before that — Xian has been a vocal advocate for the rights of people exploited for sex and labor. As she told me, human trafficking is a silent, often overlooked, problem. The reasons for that are complicated — but part of it, she explained, is because there are a lot of misconceptions about human trafficking. For one, she says, the vast majority of prostitutes (or, the more accurate phrase, prostituted people) were forced or coerced into that life. Another contributing factor to the silence that exists around human trafficking is that it’s hard to gather accurate statistics.

Those are two of the issues that Xian seeks to address in her push to pass SB 265. It’s a continuation of Xian’s years-long battle for justice for human-trafficking survivors — a journey that you can read more about in our profile on her on Page 10.

In this issue, we take a look at people, like Xian, pursuing their passions. This week’s business story peeks into Hawaii Doggie Bakery, which is run by two sisters whose love for animals has led to some tasty treats (Page 9). On Page 12, we chat with Russell Inouye about how his love for the water prompted him to create an event that encompasses all facets of the ocean lifestyle. And on Page 14, check out the story behind Chinatown favorite J.J. Dolan’s (Page 14).