Musings: Nexus

A friend recently posted this photo on Facebook, with the comment:  "I hadn't seen the situation in Kakaako until today. These photos don't come close to capturing the scope of this shameful mess. What the hell happened to Honolulu?"

It brought to mind similar scenes I'd encountered in urban India, though the Honolulu tarps are newer, cleaner and waterproof:

Westerners expect to see impoverished homeless people in developing nations. But right next to the fab new John Burns medical school in up-and-coming Kakaako? On the streets and beaches of the tourist mecca marketed as “Paradise?”

Not so much. Still, that's the ugly reality of life in the Islands, and most folks go about their day-to-day without giving it much thought. Just like they return to their self-absorbed, planet-busting business-as-usual after celebrating Earth Day.

Meanwhile, a reader sent this email shortly after I returned from India:

While you’ve been gone, a new and bigger insanity has gripped the state: People are up in arms, absolutely indignant that a university would try to construct a telescope atop Mauna Kea.

First, the fight against building telescopes on Mauna Kea is not new. It's been going on for decades, with the most recent battle against the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) spanning at least seven years. What's new are the Johnny-come-latelies, the anti-GMO protestors who, having failed to achieve anything in the political arena, are turning their attention to TMT in hopes of building an alliance with the Hawaiian community.

And that's where the two comments find a nexus: Why is it that the fight to protect Mauna Kea has gotten more attention, more interest, more recruits, more social media coverage — particularly among non-Hawaiians — than the ongoing fight against homelessness in Honolulu?

Especially since homelessness affects a disproportionate number of Native Hawaiians (click on images to enlarge):

And why is that non-Hawaiians are quick to take offense at the prospect of another telescope atop Mauna Kea, while remaining mum about the hordes of Hawaiians living houseless in their own homeland? Aren't they, as fellow human beings, the indigenous inhabitants of this archipelago, also sacred, like the summit of the highest mountain?

Why is it that students from Kawaikini Charter School and Kauai Community College are protesting TMT, but saying nothing about the mass of tourists traipsing through Ke'e, or Princeville's attempt to co-opt the heaiu there? Why aren't folks taking to the streets to rage against the ice epidemic that is stealing the sacred souls — and thus the culture — of so many Native Hawaiians?

Or to take it one step further, why is it that a telescope on Mauna Kea has ignited the passions of people locally and around the globe, but the horrors of the Kailua-Kona tourist trap, the gentrification of South Kona and North and South Kohala, the ongoing "economic genocide" — to borrow a phrase from the late Peter Nakamura — is a great big ho-hum?

Perhaps it has something to do with social media, where it's easy to garner likes, shares and #We are Mauna Kea supportive selfies for a simplistic message like “Hawaiians fight to protect their sacred land.” But more complicated concepts, like homelessness, and the gentrification and high cost of living that causes both it and the mass out-migration of kanaka to Las Vegas and elsewhere, aren't easily minimized to Internet memes.

It's easy to attract social media devotees and adrenalin-addicted activists to the latest cause celebre. But using that as gauge falsely inflates the size and power of the movement. I've heard the TMT fight likened to Arab Spring, which is actually a pretty apt comparison. While Arab Spring was a big success on social media, it was a big dud in terms of enacting real and meaningful political change.

Does anyone truly believe that photos like these will stop the TMT?

Or that Gov.Ige will be swayed by 5.000 “likes” and 3,000 “shares?” Especially when he's essentially washed his hands of the conflict, issuing the statement:

The TMT team is legally entitled to use its discretion to proceed with construction.

It's clear, from the many passionate commentaries written by folks on both sides of the issue, that there's no clear consensus on the TMT among Hawaiians or non-Hawaiians. I tend to agree with Ian Lind, who wrote:

I’m guessing there are many people who, like me, see this as an unfortunate clash between two positive sets of values, the urge to preserve and protect our natural and cultural resources, and the urge to understand and investigate the nature of the universe around us.

I understand the rage and frustration that many kanaka feel. I understand the value of political symbols. I understand, and deeply respect, the concept of sacred land.

But what I don't understand is the selective attention paid to certain issues — especially among non-Hawaiians — while others of equal importance are ignored. Shouldn't these struggles, which share a common root, produce similar sufferings, be addressed as the complex, inter-related whole that they are, rather than reduced to a bumper sticker slogan, a street march or a selfie?