Musings: Contrasts

After the steel and glass of Seoul, Kauai seems impossibly green and lush, the guinea grass growing before my eyes.

Heading up to the North Shore, past the affordable housing going up at Princeville, I can't help but think of how Princeville has so much land, yet all it can kick down is a crappy piece right on that busy stretch of highway, sandwiched between the shopping center and cop shop, next to its poison mixing station and those radio towers.

But instead of expressing environmental justice outrage, folks are grateful, because after all those years of not fulfilling its affordable housing requirement, Princeville finally is.

Talking to Hanalei and North Shore folks, something struck me as very, very odd: nobody knew nuttin' about the supposed melee at the pier, which in a letter to the editor today is characterized as an “increase in under-age drinking and race-based violence at Black Pot,” thus justifying a call for a police substation in town.

And who, I thought, really benefits from promoting the perception that the dangerous locals need controlling in Hanalei, except for the folks who want to keep selling the town and its beaches to tourists and the elite few buying into the exclusive new development planned for Princeville?

Because from what I could see, locals are in damn short supply on the North Shore, especially Hanalei.

But dead cats along the road remain relatively plentiful, which makes me wonder why Basil Scott, president of the no-kill Kauai Community Cat Project, is still trashing Humane Society Director Penny Cistaro for the “especially troubling” act of supposedly “unnecessarily euthanizing” two kittens from Salt Pond, thus saving them from a fate experienced by far too many feral cats: getting smashed beneath car tires and ground into the pavement.

Meanwhile, Kauai police Sgt. Colin Nesbitt, who reportedly was an otherwise outstanding officer, was arrested on May 23 for driving under the influence of alcohol after crashing his truck into a ditch. He was booked and charged, and is currently on leave, with his police powers suspended, pending an internal/administrative investigation. The criminal case is being handled by the state Attorney General's office.

And Kauai County Councilman Gary Hooser was busted for trespassing on Gay & Robinson land over the weekend. He reportedly was with a French — update, they are Swiss — couple, and they claimed to be producing a documentary, no doubt about the seed companies.

Which of course exempts them from honoring any private property rights, because when it comes to anti-GMO activities, the ends always justify the means. And Gary, in his self-serving arrogance, considers himself a lawmaker above the law.

No word yet on whether G&R plans to press charges, though hope springs eternal.

Finally, failed mayoral candidate, and anti-GMO activist Dustin Barca, continues to express his delusions of grandeur:

Look out, Mark Zuckerberg. Dustin's on your trail.