Musings: Fake Out

After a chilly, star-dense night, the morning dawned thick around the edges, with orange gilded cumulous clouds consolidating in the east and a thin layer of fleece floating above the summit of gray-green Waialeale. Overhead, next to a waning moon, Jupiter gleamed gold, then white, then finally faded in the bright light of day.

Remember how I told you how The Media Consortium, a group of supposedly independent “news” sources, was planning to send reporters here to give folks “honest, fair, and accurate journalism” about “pesticide-based pollution, GE food, corporate influence and other important topics?”

One of those first reports is now posted on the Truthout website, under a donation appeal that reads: Truthout doesn't take corporate funding - that's how we're able to confront the forces of greed and regression, with no strings attached. Instead, we need your support: make a donation today by clicking here.

Like I said before, mainland groups are using us and this issue to raise money.

Anyway, this “honest, fair” report quotes only pro-2491 activists Malia Chun — reportedly the sister of newly-appointed Councilman Mason Chock— and Josh Mori. Some of my favorite laugh-out-loud comments and assertions:

"Because there is no disclosure, everything we say is not based on fact," Chun says.

Stands of genetically engineered corn are not what you would expect to see on a tropical island that once hosted sugar cane plantations and has kept its population happy for generations with coconuts, breadfruit, taro and papaya.

In the past months, the drama around Bill 2491 created thick tension on an otherwise tight-nit island of 67,000 residents.

Yes, we're tightly bound by those uku.....lol.

Reports like this are what made me shudder when I read Gary Hooser's Star-Advertiser commentary, reprinted on his blog:

Their communications and public relations budget is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars as demonstrated by the number of radio spots, newspaper advertisements and direct mailers.  They hired prominent community leaders, conducted unethical “push polls”, and employ an army of industry bloggers and social media experts that attack the credibility and integrity of their opponents at every step.

Gary, surely even you can see that both sides are actively engaged in propaganda campaigns.

I think people do want truth. But all we seem to get are fakers and fake outs.

For a dose of truth, consider this:

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the so-called “Apology Bill” — Congress' big “yeah, we admit it was totally illegal for us to overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy and colonize the Islands so hey, brah, sorry 'bout that.” 

And that's as far as it went, even though Sen. Slade Gorton said at the time: 

"...the logical consequences of this resolution would be independence."

In a recent email, Hawaiian national Pilipo Souza shared his frustration over the nothingness that followed the apology, sharing a quote that activist Russell Means issued during one of his many visits to Hawaii to advise kanaka on sovereignty issues:

"Native Peoples of the Americas will not know Sovereignty until the White Man admits they are not Free!"

But for some reason, none of those independent media outlets seem at all interested in covering this core-truth issue in Hawaii. I've been pitching them for decades, and all I've ever gotten is a big yawn.

Here's another bit of fakery, from an article buried in The Garden Island about how Mayor Bernard Carvalho has decided to locate the adolescent drug treatment center on Grove Farm land along Maalo Road. 

Hey, isn't that where the dump is supposed to go? What a great plan: Put the throw-away kids next to the rest of the island's discards. Still, I suppose it is a step up from the late Mayor Baptiste's plan to rehab the old dog pound, which the Humane Society had declared unfit for its strays. Anyway, here's the rest of the fake-out: 

Kimberly Cummings, a certified substance abuse counselor and program director at Women in Need, said the facility would also serve both boys and girls to ensure all adolescents are given the treatment they need.

All adolescents in need? Then how come it's only got beds for up to 10 kids? And it may not have even that. The actual number of beds will depend, according to Dr. Gerald McKenna, on "what the community can tolerate."

There will be no limit, however, on how much rubbish can be dumped in the same community.