Musings: First Filings

Black clouds gather, knit together, finally break in a torrent of rain. Thunder cracks and rumbles, scaring the dogs, who whine and tremble, until somehow we all fall asleep. Dawn arrives in shades of red, sky glowing, humidity 86 percent. My hair curls for the first time in a month as I walk along the river bank, happily inhaling the delicious wet-desert smells of sage, yellow-flowered chimisa, moist earth.

The first batch of campaign contribution reports are due to be filed tomorrow, covering the period of Jan. 1 through June 30. It's always a revealing process, and I'm especially curious to see who is financing Dustin Barca's campaign, and how his war chest compares to Mayor Bernard Carvalho's.

I'm also keen to see how the state House Democratic race between incumbent Jimmy Tokioka and Dylan Hooser, who seems to be sponsoring a lot of Facebook posts, is shaping up. But we'll just have to wait and see, because none of those four have filed their reports yet.

Councilman Gary Hooser, however, has. His biggest contribution came from Kim Coco Iwamoto of Honolulu, who gave $2,000, followed by $1,000 from uber-rich Princevillian Bill Porter and $750 from Graham and Susan Nash. He's got a surplus of $4,441.

Councilman Ross Kagawa is sitting very pretty, with $11,173 cash on hand and no reported contributions this past period.

Next up is Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura, reporting $10,627 cash on hand and contributions of $1,200 the last period.

Councilman Mel Rapozo also has a tidy reserve of $10,209, taking in $7,080 during the last period, including $2,000 from Larry Bowman of Falko Partners and $1,000 from A&B.

Incumbents Jay Furfaro and Tim Bynum, both of whom began the period with campaign deficits, have not yet filed, nor has Mason Chock, who was appointed to his seat late last year. Tim's recent fundraising had a dismal turnout, according to an attendee.

Of the challengers who have filed, Felicia Cowden has just $478 left after receiving contributions of $8,905. The largest cash donation — $1,000 — came from Bill Porter's wife, Joan, with Waimea resident Wendall Kabutan giving $500, though he lists a Honolulu address.

And Police Chief Darryl Perry, who plans to run a minimalist campaign and has the name recognition to get away it, reports a $1,270 deficit, with a $2,000 loan and no contributions this past period.

Of course, not everyone has an interest in the upcoming elections, and many have lost faith in our political system, as evidenced by the stickers on this Kilauea dumpster….

Finally, in a follow-up to yesterday's post, which mentioned the brouhaha over Dow's sweet corn donation to the food banks, I saw this on the Facebook page of the island's only truly legit food bank -- and it ain't KIFB:

Did you know that we are actively searching for local produce!!! If you are a Farmer on Kauai and want to donate - it's tax deductible - contact Michelle or Wes at 482-2224 and we can pick it up for you!!! Support THE Hawaii Foodbank - Kauai Branch! Mahalo!

So spread the word to the organic farmers and yardeners, here's a chance to put your produce where your mouth is….

Musings: Possessed

In the high desert, summer dawn is typically a calm, cool, clear affair. Grateful for long pants, sweatshirt zipped up against a low-50s chill, I walk and watch the first rays form a halo behind a blue-black ring of mountains, hulking on the horizon. Slowly, the light shafts lengthen, the sky brightens, the slopes turn green-blue and the sun peeks over a softly-rounded summit. 

In a flash, it will rise and fully possess the day.

I was reading a New Yorker article the other day about the bloody, costly mistake that was the American intervention in Iraq. But I wasn't struck by Dexter Filkins' account of the latest violence, or even his premise that it's deja vu all over again, so much as his description of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki:

His long face conveyed, as it almost always does, a look of utter joylessness. Having spent much of his life hunted by assassins, Maliki gives the impression of a man who learned long ago to ruthlessly suppress his feelings. “He never smiles, he never says thank you, and I've never seen him say, 'I'm sorry,'” a longtime associate of Maliki's told me.

And I thought, what could possibly possess a person to seek out such a life? Who but a psychopath would choose to live in such an emotionally stunted way?

Then I flashed on all the people like Maliki — and his would-be assassins — strung out all over the world, in positions of power great and small, deeply wounded individuals possessed with a need to control, exert their will upon others, indifferent to the misery they mete out.

How does the world change, can the world change, with such an entrenched dynamic in place?

Being away from the Islands has allowed me to view our populace and politicians — some of them similarly possessed — in a slightly different context. For example, the huhu over Kauai Councilman Tim Bynum's petulant pencil-pitching appeared particularly petty when compared to, say, the Espanola, New Mexico, city councillor who was arrested for allegedly pistol-whipping a man and firing gunshots at his car.

And even the most rabid of the “lil fistees” look pretty dang wimpy in comparison to the pistol-packing populace allowed to roam the “roundhouse,” as New Mexico's capitol building is known.

Still, I've been struck by some stunning similarities. Like how the City of Santa Fe passed a half-assed vacation rental law that it doesn't enforce, either, so there's an estimated 700 units operating illegally.

Like how Councilman Gary Hooser, Kauai Rising, and Babes Against Biotech are using the exact same rhetoric — mobilizing democracy, opposing tyranny, grassroots opposition, empowered constituents, the rights of citizens to protect themselves — as the fanatical folks fighting any form of gun control in New Mexico. 

Or to paraphrase Shakespeare: that which we call extremism by any other name would smell as stink.

I see that extremism rear its ugly head daily in letters to the editor, and The Garden Island's  comment section. Most recently, there was outrage over Dow donating corn to the food banks.

Not outrage over the fact that North Shore residents, the wealthiest on the island and the most vocal in their opposition to GMOs and pesticides, gave the absolute least in a recent food drive.

And not a speck of outrage over how many hungry people there are on Kauai — a whopping 20 percent of the population. Yeah, that many. One in five. Most of them keiki and kupuna.

Nope. Just outrage over a company that has been repeatedly pressed to grow food for local consumption growing food for super-specific local consumption: its own employees, with the excess going to the food banks.

Which brings me back to Tim and his pencil. He threw it in a hissy fit because the Council wouldn't quickly pass his anti-ag bill, which seeks to levy higher property taxes on ag land used for seed crops and experimentation. Tim pressed for rapid passage — before the election — saying it's urgently needed to defend “real farms” and make chem companies pay their share.

Of course, we all know by now that Tim himself got around paying his fair share of property taxes by signing a farm dwelling agreement that falsely claimed he was engaging in ag on his CPR lot. And he seriously undermined “real farming” by pushing the bill that allowed vacation rentals on ag land.

So it's hard to buy the sudden urgency, much less Tim as an effective poster boy of this particular cause. 

Still, we'll have another chance on Wednesday to see whether fair and equitable property taxes are indeed a concern for Tim and the Council — when it's the mayor poised to squeeze some political juice. The administration has introduced two bills, which are on the Council's Wednesday agenda.

One, proposed draft bill 2548, corrects a process that has resulted in the majority of timeshares being assessed lower than condominiums.

The other, proposed draft bill 2549, establishes a new property tax class of “residential investor” that would apply to residential properties valued over $1 million that do not have a homeowner exemption. County finance director Steve Hunt articulates the rationale in a memo to the Council:

This new tax class recognizes that high-valued residential properties tend to be more speculative in nature, are not typically offered as affordable housing, and often serve as second homes or investment properties.

Seems reasonable to me.

Finally, imagine my surprise when I noticed, on that very same Council agenda, a request to spend $30,000 in special counsel fees to represent defeated prosecutor Shaylene Iseri, her former first deputy Jake Delaplane and the county in yet another lawsuit stemming from her reign of darkness at the OPA.

And as so often happens, serendipity brought my post brought full circle.

Musings: On Political Pandering

When you don't have any record to speak of, aside from flip-flopping votes on the GMO/pesticide bill, and you're worried about keeping your seat on the County Council, what do you do? Well, if you're Councilman Ross Kagawa, you pander wildly to the pro-football crowd.

As in trot out the coaches, and the athletic directors and the bored young football players, pack them into the council chambers, and let them all whine and whinge on camera about how hard it is to play football in the brutal heat of the day – never mind the football boys training during the summer months, or the tiny keiki out on the mid-day soccer fields – and how poor Kauai is always being punished, this time for having so many seabirds.

Waaaaah.

And if you're Councilman Gary Hooser, fearful of losing the local vote because you pushed through a legally-flawed GMO/pesticide bill just to feed your own ego, you pile on, too.

As in saying shouldn't the state — the same state Gary's repeatedly lambasted as utterly failing to do its job, so Kauai will go its own way — partner with the county? By which he means either kick down some more dough to the football boosters to cover lost game revenues, or share in the cost of a take permit so the county can legally kill endangered seabirds so the kids can play football at night and the politicians can win votes.

Ugh.

County Attorney Al Castillo tried to provide some background, reminding the Council that back on Sept. 9, 2010, he stood before the federal court and pleaded guilty on behalf of the county to one misdemeanor count of illegally taking an endangered species.

At the time, the County was facing at least 18 misdemeanor counts, each with a maximum penalty of $50,000 and/or one year in jail, which in any just society would have been levied against Parks Director Lenny Rapozo for his entrenched “buck the firds” position and failure to deal with the light attraction problem, though the feds had repeatedly warned him the county was breaking the law.

(Btw, the feds told me they saw the video of mayoral candidate Dustin Barca's close encounter with a monk seal, consider it a “take” and are pursuing it as such.)

The county's probation ended March 8, 2013, and as Al said: “I don't want to see Kauai County be a repeat offender, number one.”

But he didn't get to say much more because both Gary and Ross cut him off with “we've heard all that before.” Never mind educating the public, so they understand the legal ramifications of the issue. The Council is pressed for time. Best to keep the voters ignorant so they are more easily swayed by the political rhetoric.

Like Ross' assertion that “fishermen tell me there are plenty of birds out there in the ocean.” He somehow seems to think it will be easier to get birds off the endangered species list than comply with the law. Uh, dream on.

No, best to keep the public indignant and incited, so they join the clamor for a silly, simplistic solution.

Like Councilman Mel Rapozo's idea for an amnesty period during each night game, just a few hours during the prime evening flight time when the county's stadium lights can kill, harass or distract with impunity.

Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura, worried about her own re-election prospects, deemed the proposal “very creative.”

Let's explore that splendidly creative concept. Say, give all motorists amnesty from speeding tickets and cell phone violations for the period each day when they're commuting. Or amnesty for drunk drivers just after the bars close. No? Aw, come on. It's just for a few hours.

But the feds ain't biting, in part because they don't have to, and in part because the county still hasn't negotiated a take permit, which determines how many birds can be killed or harassed each year, and what it will cost to do that.

Unfortunately, Lenny is involved in those negotiations, and his belligerent attitude may explain some of the delay. He can't seem to understand why the county should have to pay for an annual permit even if it doesn't kill any birds. As Lenny sees it: "I'm not buying car insurance."

The elected officials aren't the only ones pandering to the voters. Council hopeful Felicia Cowden has been positioning herself squarely in front of the TV camera at Council meetings. But as her repeated yawns proved, even she can't feign interest in this blatant political bullshit.

Councilmembers kept saying we all must work together to help the birds – not to protect a dwindling bird population that is unique to Hawaii and an important part of its cultural heritage, but so the night games can resume. 

Well, soon they'll have their chance as they draft a bill aimed at controlling the introduced feral cats that are known to prey upon nesting native seabirds and chicks.

Will the Council have the guts to do what it takes, like approve funds for mass trapping and eradication efforts over the cries of cat-lovers who don't want to see one whisker harmed on the bird-killing ferals? Or support free spay-neuter programs over the cries of island veterinarians who don't want to lose an income source?

The answer will depend not on science or economics or conservation or values or even common sense, but whether the issue surfaces in an election year.

Musings: Wrought From Devastation

Smoke from a forest fire to the north tinted the crescent moon an eerie orange last night, turned today's dawn sky into a blazing palette of scarlet, yellow, pumpkin, pink. Though wrought from devastation, the spectacle was no less beautiful.

I was watching the sky as I walked through the narrow, sometimes unpaved, streets of old Santa Fe, the original part of an ancient town that had its roots in agriculture and trade, and now wholeheartedly embraces upscale tourism.

City regulations require building permits and redevelopment proposals (with the dates of the associated decision-making meetings) to be prominently posted in front of each structure, making it easy for neighbors to know what's happening and discouraging unpermitted projects.

The signs, both construction and real estate, tell a story I learned well on Kauai — a story of gentrification, of taking old, low-cost houses and gutting them, expanding them, buffing them out, so that they suit the tastes and requirements of the transient well-heeled.

They will never be affordable again, and the middle class and poor who used to live here have been pushed south, to the edges of town, or completely out of it. I encounter them on my morning walks, driving their pick up trucks and worn cars to the luxurious houses where they perform construction, landscaping, cleaning, yard care, alarm system maintenance for the owners, many of them absentee.

They do not look happy, or content, and neither do the owners. It is an achingly familiar scene, changed only by the high-desert setting.

Sometimes I catch a glimpse, through open gates, of the lavish compounds hidden behind the thick stucco or adobe walls that allow private residences to function as a gated community of one. And I am reminded anew of the great wealth that is spurring this transformation in so many places across the globe. But to what good purpose, what righteous end?

I follow a road that borders an ancient acequia, a communal irrigation ditch that today is running briskly, fed perhaps by a mountain cloudburst. It is all that remains of the robust agriculture that long-ago sustained the inhabitants of this town. Once an essential component of desert agriculture, it now functions more like a water feature, adding quaint charm to a neighborhood of expensive art galleries, shops, homes.

Later, listening to the car radio, I hear a report about economic indicators, mixed messages that suggest the ongoing recovery from the 2008 recession is less-than-robust. An economist opines: “Going forward, the biggest challenge is to sustain the rise in income growth which will drive consumption.”

In truth, our system is based not just on consumption, but over-consumption, a mindset that is inherently unsustainable, and thus destined/doomed eventually to fail. And then what? Agricultural lands that once supported much smaller local populations have been developed, paved over. They cannot be resurrected any more easily than the farmers who once tended them, the rivers that once nourished them.

Through our frenzy of consumption we have made ourselves increasingly vulnerable — communities disrupted and demoralized, agriculture relinquished to the factory farms and corporations that serve up food cheap, irreplaceable resources squandered to supply another quick fix.

I have watched this scenario play out repeatedly in America, and now Asia, India and Africa are adopting the same perverse values, making the same mistakes, sacrificing land, people, ecosystems on the altar of consumerism.

It may be a different flavor there, but it's definitely the same Kool-Aid, with its lure of “ever-more” hiding a reality of bondage — to debt, to the haves, to the market, to wars inevitably waged to feed the greed.

Meanwhile, the fire keeps burning, makes a run to the southeast, fueled by dead wood, brush piles, live trees. When it's finally extinguished by firefighters, or more likely rain, it will have opened the forest for new growth, ushered in a new cycle of life.

Will the same be true for the human race as it rages unchecked, out of control, consuming everything in its path, all the while lulling us into complacency with the beautiful/ugly things wrought from devastation?

Musings: Better Than That

New moon day brings vast expanse of blue mountains, all their rough edges smoothed away, rolling beneath a canvas streaked with clouds — puffy, streaky, wispy — in shades of pearl and dove gray, raising the ever-present desert question: is it going to rain?

Traveling north along U.S. 285, through some of New Mexico's Native American reservations, I got to thinking about how the feds are in Hawaii now, asking kanaka maoli about self-determination. Independence, which many of those testifying really want to talk about, isn't on the table.

Instead, the Department of Interior has much more specific consultation goals:

Should the Secretary propose an administrative rule that would facilitate the reestablishment of a government-to-government relationship with the Native Hawaiian community?


Should the Secretary assist the Native Hawaiian community in reorganizing its government, with which the United States could reestablish a government-to-government relationship?


If so, what process should be established for drafting and ratifying a reorganized Native Hawaiian government’s constitution or other governing document?


Should the Secretary instead rely on the reorganization of a Native Hawaiian government through a process established by the Native Hawaiian community and facilitated by the State of Hawaii, to the extent such a process is consistent with Federal law?


If so, what conditions should the Secretary establish as prerequisites to Federal acknowledgment of a government-to-government relationship with the reorganized Native Hawaiian government?

In other words, do kanaka want a version of the Akaka bill dished up entirely by the feds, or the state/OHA dominated process launched by the Hawaiian Roll Commission?

It's odd the DOI should be asking about a process for drafting a native Hawaiian government constitution when a perfectly good one already exists — the one that was in place when the independent Hawaiian nation was illegally overthrown and colonized by the United States.

And it's telling that the feds are interested in dealing only with a reorganized Hawaiian government, as opposed to one that is reinstated, which apparently would require an admission of wrong-doing well beyond the Apology Act.

But cutting through the rhetoric, the long and short of it all is this: how shall the colonizers dictate the terms by which they recognize the colonized?

I pondered the “value” of federal recognition as I drove past gaudy billboards hawking 24-hour casinos, smoke shops selling tax-free cigarettes, liquor stores peddling cheap booze. Yes, those are the goodies the feds have handed down to Native Americans as paltry payment for land theft, cultural annihilation.

Federally recognized tribes have the right to cater to the lowest possible human vibration, to invite onto their reservations the destructive substances and elements that can help complete the process of genocide.

Oh, and as a further salute, their tribal names and traditional designs are painted onto the overpasses of highways that cut through their reservations.

Where is the value in federal recognition for kanaka maoli, especially when it means permanently extinguishing the hope and promise of an independent nation? Surely they can do better than that.

The DOI meetings on Kauai will be held form 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, June 30, at Waimea Neighborhood Center and Tuesday, July 1, at Kapaa Elementary School.

Musings: Tick, Tick, Tick

A thin sliver of ghost moon hung low in the faintly bluing sky, just below Venus and just above the gentle blue-green curve of desert foothills. A giant black crow screamed “caw, caw” from its perch on a sagging telephone line as a ray of sun touched the blood-red buds of a miniature rose bush, tumbling from a trellis.

The moon is waning, the summer solstice is behind us, June is nearly over. Time's a ticking.

It's been almost a year since I wrote the 20th — and final — installment in the Abuse Chronicles series, which detailed both the county's abject failure to properly implement the vacation rental law and the lyin' and cheatin' many folks relied upon to secure one of the limited and valuable life-of-the-property TVR certificates.

I've resigned myself to the fact that nothing is going to happen to the perps, even though they falsified records, lied on notarized affidavits and hired local attorneys to smooth it all over. Nothing except a free pass, that is. And nothing is going to happen to the county administrators and workers who blew it, aside from demoting planning director Ian Costa to deputy director of parks.

But something is finally being done to pluck the much-referenced "low-hanging fruit:" rogues who run TVRs with no permits at all. The prosecutor's office has filed charges against such four offenders, with a summons to appear served in at least one case. I wrote just one post — Fallen Fruit Chronicles — to highlighting two egregious offenders, though dozens of unpermitted TVRs exist.

Kauai Prosecutor Justin Kollar was interviewed this past Monday on Hawaii Public Radio's “The Conversation" where host Beth-Ann Kozlovich asked if his office got calls from people reporting illegal TVRs. Justin replied:

We get those calls all the time. We take complaints on a regular basis.

No doubt the planning department does, too, unless people have simply given up in frustration.

So it's obviously a concern with the community, and not just because people chafe at sharing their neighborhoods with a steady stream of tourists. Justin gets it, acknowledging that on the North Shore it's “a public health and public safety issue.”

As in improper sewage treatment facilities, inadequate infrastructure and insufficient disaster response for a remote area in a tsunami zone. All issues that are not being addressed in any meaningful way. Still, I deeply appreciate that Justin is pursuing criminal charges, and I share his hope that it will put other outliers on notice.

When Beth asked Justin how he would “characterize where everyone is in the process right now," from the illegal "legals" to the full-on illegals, he replied:

It will be a problem in the event that something goes wrong and people are unable to get out.

That's when, as Justin noted, the finger-pointing will begin.

Of course, it's just a question of time until denial meets disaster. Tick, tick, tick…..

On that note, here's a link to the original Fresno Bee article on the UC Davis study suggesting women who live near agricultural fields where pesticides are sprayed are at increased risk of having a child with autism.

The risks appear to be increased for women exposed to chlorpyrifos in the second trimester and organophosphates in the third trimester — pesticides used in Kauai seed fields, and elsewhere. The Fresno Bee reports: 

Pyrethroids also were associated with autism and developmental delay prior to conception or in the third trimester. Carbamates sprayed nearby while a woman was pregnant were associated with developmental delay, the study said.

Fadipe of the state Department of Pesticide Regulation said scientists in the department had not been able to fully review the UC Davis report, but she said it is a "useful tool for the department to take into consideration."

The study also speaks to the difficulties associated with pinpointing a specific cause:

The report, like others, has shortcomings, Fadipe said. It doesn't provide an accurate sense of whether the exposure actually occurred and whether the exposure resulted in autism.

Researchers said the study has limitations that were unavoidable, including not knowing all of the potential sources of exposure to pesticides from non-agricultural sources, such as on food sources and from residential indoor use of chemicals and outdoor use for pest control.

Still, here's the take-away from senior report author and professor Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto:

The process that pesticides use to kill insects "is also a process that is shared with mammals and with human beings, and I think that makes them something we should think twice about exposing ourselves to."  

Tick, tick, tick…..

Musings: Appreciatively

Sitting in a meadow in a forest burned two years ago, where skeletons of charred ponderosa pine reach toward a cobalt sky, I am marveling at the lushness of the land in this high desert place. Opened by the blaze, the forest floor is a riot of life, profuse with thistle, milkweed, yellow dandelions, delicate wildflowers of pink, lavender, white, blue. 

It is a bursting banquet of food for birds and insects; the elk, deer, rabbits and rodents that feed coyotes, bears, us. In days of old, people, too, would've relished the succulent dandelion and thistle greens, fresh and purifying after the monotony of winter's dead diet.

And now we dismiss them as weeds, deem them bad, unsightly, douse them with poison, eradicate them with a vengeance. How do we come to forgot the value of such things?

I have been appreciating small things in this arid climate: sprinkling salt easily from a shaker left always open; keeping chocolate in its original wrapper, at room temperature, secure in the knowledge it will not be chewed or licked by geckos, ants or cockroaches; towels that dry quickly, even when folded in thirds on a rack.

Some of us are learning to appreciate the importance of pollinators, which are celebrated with a national week of their own. This series of amazing photographs gives a glimpse into the incredible beauty of bees, which come in far more colors than the standard yellow and black.

But the recent Cascadia Times article on seed company pesticide use — rehashed in The Garden Island, though TGI staffer Chris D'Angelo did no original research or verification of his own — is nothing more than the standard propaganda now regularly served up by the anti-GMO/anti-"big ag" forces.

As I reported last November, the Media Consortium is funding a series of supposedly independent articles about “pesticide-based pollution, GE food, corporate influence and other important topics” here on Kauai. The Cascadia Times article is the latest.

So far, every report published has reiterated all the same stuff, including the Cascadia Times piece, which also compared pesticide use on Kauai to the mainland.

The reporter came to the alarming conclusion — dutifully and unquestioningly regurgitated by TGI's Chris D'Angelo — that the seed/chem companies are applying restricted use pesticides here at a much greater rate than most mainland farms. But Dr. Steven Savage, a former manager of research at DuPont and a former professor at Colorado State University whose research is cited in the Cascadia Times article, contends the reporter misinterpreted data.

One example is the restricted use pesticide chlorpyrifos, which is applied in much higher quantities to California crops like walnuts, pecans, sweet potatoes and asparagus than Kauai seed corn, according to Savage.

The Cascadia Times article also compared unlike figures, including the total amount of land leased by seed companies today to the total amount of harvested cropland in the U.S. in 2012. It also extrapolated annualized pesticide use on Kauai by using several months of data reported by the seed companies, which they say is not representative of yearly use. That figure was then compared to mainland pesticide data from 2009.

In short, the article used shoddy “research” to achieve sensationalized results. But that didn't prevent Huffington Post, The Progessive and other like-mined media outlets and blogs from lazily reprinting its findings without question, just like TGI.

And just like the other Media Consortium articles, the Cascadian Times piece quotes only those who tout the party line. Like Councilman Gary Hooser, who previously took the chem/seed industry to task for “employ[ing] an army of industry bloggers and social media experts that attack the credibility and integrity of their opponents at every step.”

But I haven't heard Gary or any of his anti-GMO supporters speak against the blog that was started solely for the purpose of attacking me, Luke Evslin, Joni Kamiya-Rose and anyone else who dares to question the movement, its tactics, its funders, its objectives or its fallout.

The Cascadia Times article includes this quote:

“Kaua‘i is Ground Zero for the testing of GMO crops,” said Gary Hooser, a member of the Kaua‘i County Council and an author of Ordinance 960. “It is also Ground Zero for democracy in action.”

So how, exactly, is an active effort to force dissenters to “shut the fuck” up an expression of “democracy in action”? It's not unlike the recent commenter who could only come to one conclusion for my critique of the movement he endorses: I must be in the pay of the seed companies.

No, as I've stated numerous times, I've never gotten a penny or anything else from those folks. My criticism of the anti-GMO movement and its divisive, simplistic, “with us or against us” mentality is based solely on my disdain for any propaganda-promoting totalitarian crowd. 

It's bad enough that the anti-GMO movement has discredited itself by taking such an approach. But it's even worse that it seems totally blind to the fact that it is behaving exactly like the chem companies it reviles, pushing those of us who appreciate dialogue and discernment into the fertile landscape of middle ground.

Musings: Who is Fooling Who?

It was rather curious to read Fern Rosenstiel's guest commentary —oddly posted under “local news” in The Garden Island's online edition — demanding the chem/seed companies adhere to the county's GMO/pesticide regulatory bill.

She writes:

Your time for open, voluntary disclosure has long passed, it’s time to follow the regulations our island has set in place. It’s time you comply with Ordinance 960.

Surely Fern knows Ordinance 960 — the GMO/pesticide regulatory law — was not scheduled to take effect until Aug. 16. Now that date has been delayed to Oct. 1. The rules have not yet been adopted, and four of the five affected companies have filed suit to block the law's implementation.

The court is set to hold hearings on the case on July 23. Due to "the volume of cross motions that have been filed, all parties have entered into a stipulation and order that delays the effective date of the ordinance," according to a county press release.

In the meantime, voluntary disclosure is all we've got. What's more, Ordinance 960 itself relies on voluntary compliance.

It was also interesting to read Fern's assertion that:

Nearly two years ago, I sat down with [Councilman] Gary Hooser and explained that we needed to know how much of these different pesticides, atrazine specifically, they were spraying, that we needed to know where, so we could really target our studies to better understand what the concern is.

And I wondered, if that was the goal, why didn't Bill 2491/Ordinance 960, which Gary introduced, emphasize pesticide studies or health assessments? Instead, the triggers for an EIS in the original bill were linked solely to GMOs, not actual pesticide use, and no studies were mandated.

Instead, that crucial component is being handled in a decidedly ad hoc manner. The state Department of Health has said it was given no money to conduct any follow ups to the recent statewide study that found trace amounts of pesticides in waterways. Surfrider Foundation is planning to pursue studies with money from unspecified sources, but its objectivity was compromised when it joined the county's legal defense of 960.

So again I find myself questioning the objectives of the 2491/960 movement. Was it to address concerns associated with pesticide use, or eliminate GMOs? I ask, partly to determine its effectiveness — it seems to have failed at both — and because when you look at how the movement has been expressed on the Big Island and Maui, it's all about GMOs — even though the bulk of the atrazine used in the state is applied to the sugar fields on Maui.

Speaking of the Big Island, farmer Richard Ha recently spoke at the Hawaii State Association of Counties 2014 Annual Conference, and discussed why farmers there had filed suit against the anti-GMO bill passed by the Hawaii County Council. I'm sharing an excerpt of his speech because it does a good job of explaining why the anti-GMO movement has met resistance from many who support agriculture in Hawaii:

Why? Clarity: Farmers are law-abiding citizens and we play by the rules. We thought that the Feds and the State had jurisdiction. We want clarity about the rules of the game.

Equal treatment: Only Big Island farmers are prohibited from using biotech solutions that all our competitors can use. How is that equal? It’s discriminatory against local farmers.

When the law was first proposed, they wanted to ban all GMOs. We asked what are papaya farmers supposed to do? They said, we can help them get new jobs, to transition. We were speechless. It was as if they were just another commodity. So farmers and ranchers got together and ran a convoy around the County building in protest. Then they said they would give the Rainbow papaya farmers a break. I was there when the papaya farmers had a vote to accept the grandfather clause for Rainbow papayas. There were a lot of young, second- and third-generation farmers there in the room.

In the end, the papaya farmers said, We are not going to abandon our friends who supported us when we needed help. That is not who we are. Then they voted unanimously to reject the offer. I was there and being a Vietnam vet, where the unspoken rule was we all come back or no one comes back, I could not have been prouder of the papaya farmers. That explains why the Big Island farmers are tight. Old-fashioned values. The rubbah slippah folks absolutely get all of this.

So who are these farmers? I am one. I don't grow GMOs. It isn't about me. I'll make 70 this year and, like almost all the farmers, have never sued anyone. But there comes a time when you have to stand up for what is right.

The group we formed, Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United, grows more than 90 percent of the farm value on the Big Island.

This is about food security. The GMO portion of food security is small. This is not about large corporations. It is about local farmers. It is not about organics; we need everybody. But organics only supply 4 percent of the national food supply and maybe 1 percent of Hawaii’s. Our organic farmers are not threatened by modern farming. Hawaii organic farmers are threatened by mainland, industrial-scale organic farms. That is why there are hardly any locally grown organics in the retail stores. It’s about cost of production. Also, on the mainland winter kills off the bad bugs and weeds and the organic farmers can outrun the bugs through the early part of summer. Hawai‘i farmers don't have winter to help us.

Most importantly, this is about pro-science and anti-science. That is why farmers are stepping up. We know that science is self-correcting. It gives us a solid frame of reference. You don't end up fooling yourself. In all of Hawaii’s history, now is no time to be fooling ourselves.

Which brings me back to Ordinance 960 and all the people who were fooled into thinking they were supporting a bill that would actually “stop poisoning paradise” and address their health concerns, when in fact it does neither.

Musings: Interclass Breedings

White clouds drift in, obscure the expanse of blue, turn gray, then black, temperature drops, thunder rumbles, lightning flashes above mountain ranges hundreds of miles distant, dark fingers of rain soak sand and cinders, quench the desert's thirst. Dust settles. Birds sing. Thunder rumbles, departs.

I'm still off-island, enjoying a very different landscape and fresh creative pursuits, while keeping a finger on the pulse of Kauai, the Islands.

I'll occasionally be sharing guest posts written by some of my Kauai friends, such as this piece by “Mongo,” which touches on the touchy issues of race, culture and rapid socioeconomic change while offering one of those oft-demanded and elusive “solutions” to the many challenges that confront us:

I love hapa children. Everywhere you look, you see beautiful mixtures in all kinds of combinations. Not to say that some won't grow up to be sociopaths, but when they're kids, it's all good. And whether it's by in vitro fertilization or plain ol' fornicating between the races, I say we have at it.

Back in the good old days, before indoor plumbing, people would be dragged through the streets, shot and hung for the miscegenation that thousands of us practice on Kauai every day. Though now days, they would only do it in select parts of Poipu or Princeville...Only joking, you folks, no get excited...I know you only discriminate against the poor and the middle class, not other races... Only joking. I keed, I keed.

What is going to happen on Kauai? I know some of you find it hard to believe, not having quite crossed the drawbridge, but those of us born and raised are going through sticker shock as we watch the island change and it is causing some resentment.

What is my solution? Interclass breeding. Exogamy. The newcomers have to start marrying the yardmen and house cleaners. Nothing says welcome to Kauai like having your grand child's baby luau at your beachfront home in Hanalei! Not to mention all the benefits of instant family on Kauai. And the extended ohana, which by extension becomes your extended family. 

Ho, aunty, can stay over?  

Musings: Something Else

Rambling country roses in bold red and sweet pink, hollyhocks of many hues, bunches of fragrant lavender, clumps of Russian sage, jasmine clinging to fence posts, pansies turning their sweet faces to the morning sun — these are the flowers that greet me in the chill of a desert dawn, the sky already achingly blue.

Kauai is thousands of miles away — and feels like it — though she returned last night in a dream. I was pointing out to a state inspector something that most definitely did not belong within what was clearly the public shoreline, as evidenced by the waves washing up around it, and he was saying, with that characteristic sideways glance, that subtle shrug of the shoulders, “Yeah, but ....”

As in just pretend what you're seeing isn't actually what you're seeing.

I encountered a guy the other day who, upon learning I hailed from Kauai, said, “yeah, I just heard something about how Monsanto is taking over there. That's not right.”

I assured him that no, it wasn't, both figuratively and literally, since Monsanto has no presence there.

The topic that has consumed and polarized Kauai for a year now ripples out across the Pacific and takes form as a misinformed sound byte. Ah, yes, the whole world is watching......something else.

It's worth watching how the Kauai County Council handles the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) charges against Police Chief Darryl Perry, who could well be one of its members after the fall election.

An executive session is scheduled for Wednesday morning to brief the Council on the three claims of workplace retaliation that the EEOC has upheld against the Chief/KPD.

What I find most disturbing about this whole mess — whose fallout include the mayor suspending the chief and three assistant chiefs; a lawsuit to determine if the mayor had that power; an appeal of the Circuit Court decision that yes, he does have that authority; several investigations; and now, claims for damages brought by three police officers, two of whom have been out on medical stress leave for 18 months — is its root cause.

And that is this: A man in a position of authority in 21st Century America made repeated (and disparaging) comments about the breasts of a lower-ranking female colleague.

Truly.

Even a Kauai cop should know better than that.

What I find most intriguing is how the Council so quickly again finds itself in the position of navigating a politically-charged legal mine field in the manner of Tim Bynum vs Shaylene/Sheilah/County. The chief wants a chance to tell his side, as did Shay; the chief is at odds with the mayor, as are many on the Council; the Council is at odds with the county attorney's office, which is negotiating the settlement; and they're all wondering how this will play out for them politically.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of dollars later…..and still counting…..

Also up on Wednesday is a Council committee review of Councilman Tim Bynum's politically-driven bill to “punish” the seed/chem companies by eliminating their ag tax deduction. His proposed Bill 2456 would exclude horticulture and “lands that are used primarily for the research and development of crops or parent seed production, which do not directly gain monetary profit from the ultimate consumer.”

But in the typical blinders-on fashion that narrows and distorts everything to do with the seed industry on Kauai, it fails to consider the broader picture, who else and what else might be affected.

Like experimental hemp crops, or the future cultivation of hemp for fuel, food or fiber. Research on biofuels. Taro, cows and pigs raised for home consumption. The north shore organic ginger and turmeric farmers producing seed for export. Flower growers making keiki. Taro huli banks. Fruit farmers and beekeepers selling to the meadery. Anybody producing a wholesale ag product rather than peddling directly to a consumer.

Aside from hindering non-GMO ag activities that most of us would support as positive contributions to the island, the bill arbitrarily, and bizarrely, bans crops and seeds from the definition of agriculture. For some inexplicable reason you can grow trees, though we have no lumber mills here, and no direct consumer market exists for such a product, but you cannot grow seeds.

Which opens the door to another discrimination lawsuit from the multinational chem/seed companies, as already promised in public session by Pioneer rep Laurie Yoshida. (Btw, after repeatedly hearing the claim that none of the four companies ship seed off the island, I sent inquiries to Dow, BASF, Syngenta and Pioneer, asking if that was true. Laurie was the only one to respond, saying Pioneer harvests and ships “significant amounts of seed” from Kauai.)

Then you have to stop for a moment and look at who, primarily, would be affected by the loss of the ag tax rate under Bill 2456: Gay & Robinson, Grove Farm, A&B, Kamehameha Schools, the state. 

In other words, all the big landowners. And what always and invariably happens to ag land in Hawaii, on Kauai, when it is no longer in production?

That's right: Development. Gentleman's estates. Resorts. Golf courses. Shopping centers. A smattering, here and there, of affordable homes.

And the question any thinking person must raise is this: Why? Why in the world would we want to start down this rutted road? 

Unless it's to boost the real estate/tourism/construction industry and help Councilmen Tim Bynum — and by extension, Gary Hooser and perhaps Mason Chock — get re-elected. 

Musings: Road Show

I'm on a great road trip through the Southwest, which had me perfectly situated to watch the full moon rise over the red rocks of Sedona.

Meanwhile, the citizen news feed from Kauai continues...

First, I was directed to this link to a video of mayoral candidate Dustin Barca apparently beefing with Sol Kahn on the beach.

And someone else checked on the traffic court records of both Dustin and his opponent, Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., discovering:

Dustin had 12 traffic cases between 2002 and 2014, all minor, but at least two speeding cases of 20 or more mph over the speed limit and one crash.

Bernard, on the other hand, has eight traffic cases starting in 1996.

Seems that neither candidate is a stranger to traffic court….

Correction: It appears the "citizen journalist" inadvertently collected traffic data for a Dustin Barra. In checking court records myself, I could find no citations for Dustin Barca. I apologize for not scrutinizing the information more carefully prior to posting it.

Musings: Amendment Rejected

The Kauai County Clerk has rejected Kauai Rising's sweeping proposed charter amendment on technical grounds.

The group apparently failed to follow the correct format for creating a petition, despite being given samples to work from. As a result, its paperwork is invalid and all the signatures must be collected again, within a month, for a chance to appear on the November ballot.

The 18-page anti-ag amendment would create an all-powerful Office of Environmental Health under the sole control of the County Council, impose stringent regulations on the use of toxins, greatly expand the right of citizens to sue and recover legal fees and damages even if they don't win, and would allow people to be found guilty of violations without requiring proof that the defendant "knew or intended that such action, activities or conduct, or failure to act, would cause or contribute to the violation."

It has been billed as the “next step” after Bill 2491/Ordinance 960 — the county's pesticide/GMO regulatory law. That measure targets Kauai Coffee and four seed/chemical companies growing crops on the island. DOW, Syngenta, BASF and Dupont-Pioneer are suing the county over the law, due to take effect in August, and have said the charter amendment is similarly discriminatory.

The signatures that were turned in were not verified because the document itself was flawed. Nor did the county resolve the question of whether the lengthy, multi-faceted proposal is in fact an ordinance, which would require more signatures to qualify for the ballot, or a charter amendment.

Additionally, many signatures were collected from people who were not given a copy of the full amendment to review, but simply a summary.