Musings: Cashing in on Kauai

A friend and I were driving through Kapaa yesterday afternoon while the Super Bowl was being televised. It was like a ghost town, with virtually no traffic, either pedestrian or vehicular, prompting my friend, born and raised on Kauai, to proclaim: “Wow, it’s like before time kine.”

Stopping into a store, the cashier asked, “Where is everybody?”

“Yeah, the town is totally deserted,” I replied.

“They all watching television!” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.

It is kind of amazing how a televised sports event can have the same effect as a neutron bomb.

Not that I’m complaining. The beach was nearly empty, save for two guys setting net and a couple of surfers, as was the Laundromat, where a car parked out front bore the bumper sticker: If you hate the Hawaiians, why the f*** did you move to Hawaii?

Spotted another bumper sticker that expressed a similar sentiment: No fo get fo go home.

I think that’s how more than a few folks feel about Kauai Springs owner Jim Satterfield, who last week got his permits to keep operating a water bottling company that turned a public resource into a private one for his personal profit. According to The Garden Island:

Environmental activist Elaine Dunbar said the water bottling operations “constitute the taking of a public resource,” and that allowing the company to sell the water for profit would open the door for companies such as Coca Cola’s Dasani brand and Pepsi’s Aquafina label to come to Kaua‘i and “suck it dry.”

Of course, for Satterfield it’s all about cashing in on Kauai:

During a break prior to the agenda item, Kaua‘i Springs owner Jim Satterfield said he “came to see if they were going to do what the court told them to do” and that the permits, which he expected to be approved, would open the door for him to court investors to help him take his operation to faraway places like Japan.

Meanwhile, another `aina exploiter, Pioneer Hi-Bred, is whipping up some media attention for itself because it installed solar panels out at its Waimea Research Center.

It kind of shows you just how perverted — and meaningless — these “greening” initiatives are when you have a chemical company that grows GMO crops using intensive chemical agriculture on so-called “ceded lands” stolen from the Hawaiian Kingdom getting a big back pat for, as Chamber of Commerce President Randall Francisco described it, joining “Kaua‘i’s ever-growing list of businesses and residents who believe in the benefits of renewable energy and a sustainable Kaua‘i future.”

Hmm. But is it really a sustainable future it’s embracing, or the estimated $200,000 to be saved yearly on the electric bill?

Even Mayor Bernard Carvalho joined in the fawning, saying:

“I believe a project like this is just a stepping stone for many other projects throughout the island,” Carvalho said. “What a great example for us to look forward to.”

Yes, Bernard, let’s all jump on DuPont’s wagon, a prospect that’s even more amusing when you check out the press release and discover:

DuPont offers the broadest portfolio in the solar energy market with eight essential products. DuPont is a leading material and technology supplier to the photovoltaic industry with more than 25 years of experience in photovoltaic materials development.

Just think: you, too, can save the earth by buying solar panels made from petrochemicals and toxic chemicals (and what kind of environmental footprint does their production and shipping create?) while supporting a giant corporation that wants to control the world’s seed supply and brought us such great cancer-causing products like Teflon.

Gosh, I feel better already.