Monday, July 19, 2010

Musings: Monday's Mix

The squall came in quickly and hard, just as we were about to walk out the door, so there was nothing to do but lie on the bed, beneath the skylight, and watch it lash at the glass and send leaves skittering until it spent itself and moved on, as we did, out into a chilly world of mostly gray skies with patches of pink and blue.

Little rivulets ran down the sloped side of the street, and three waterfalls ran down the face of Makaleha, which was crowned with a puff of pinkish-orangey-gold. Meanwhile, clouds drifting south had picked up a rainbow column, which turned into a rainbow arch, which turned into a rainbow fragment floating above the mountains.

We came upon two small black pigs scratching their backs against a creosote-covered utility pole, but upon spying an alert, excited Koko they gave little barks of alarm, then slipped under the fence of a wooded lot and disappeared from sight.

Such apparently is not the case with toilet paper at Kalalau Valley. A friend said his recent hike into the valley was marred by crowds, helicopters and the sight of used TP everywhere, even tucked into the rock walls of ancient terraces and house sites. “It’s not the hippies living back there who are doing it,” he said. “It’s the people just passing through on their way on someplace else, the ones who hang out there for a month or two, thinking they're connecting with the land while they shit everywhere.” He said the valley was packed, with perhaps double the number of people allowed by permits, but for the first time ever, he did not see any nudity.

“Kauai sure is changing,” he said.

But not the way the cops are claiming. I checked with several folks in the know who said Officer Mark Ozaki was flat out lying when he said there’s a new strain of pot being grown on Kauai that goes from seed to harvest in 28 days and has a THC content of 60 to 70 percent.

“I wish,” said one.

You’d think that given KPD’s ongoing problem with credibility, they wouldn’t make stuff up.

But then, some people believe KIUC’s claim that it’s not to blame for the decline of Newell’s shearwaters, even though I picked up a dead one beneath a maze of 11 electric wires strung across the flyway to a nesting colony. That’s another nest that won’t make it this year, since a chick won’t survive without feeding by both parents.

The criminal trial against KIUC — such indictments are rare, as Michael Levine reported in Civil Beat a while back — is now set for Aug. 24, but that date will change. The feds are pushing for September or October, but KIUC wants to delay until Dec. 7.

That’s about the same length of time the County Council wants to delay making its proceedings accessible to the public by posting more of its documents on line and live-streaming its meetings. Guess you wouldn’t want folks to see too much of that sausage-making before they go to the polls….

We’ve seen an awful lot of stories that have Kauai Springs whining large about its alleged mistreatment by the county — waaah — but while the most recent is especially pathetic, it’s not piteous. It’s kind of hard to feel sorry for someone who moves here from somewhere else and starts bottling a public resource for his private profit, without getting the proper permits, especially since it’s quite clear that selling out is the real game plan here:

Several companies have approached Kaua‘i Springs “to buy out its stock,” [owner Jim] Satterfield wrote in an e-mail. However, the “family-owned business is stuck.”

“We cannot sell the company with the [county’s legal] appeal attached,” he said.


Meanwhile, the legal wrangling over passports that prevented Iroquois Nationals from playing in the World Lacrosse Championships offered Native Hawaiians a look at the kind of treatment they might expect under the Akaka Bill’s version of “sovereignty:”

"That's the reality of today's situation where the tribes continue to be dealt with on this relegated status and subject to the power of the United States government," [Hopi Cultural Preservation Office Director Leigh] Kuwanwisiwma said.

And finally, as I enjoyed some excellent cherries this weekend, I sent out a mahalo to the farm workers, some of them likely undocumented, who made that treat possible. All the xenophobes clamoring for tighter border controls and stiffer immigration policies need to wake up and get real: without Mexicans in the slaughter houses, fields and packing sheds, they wouldn’t find much to eat in the grocery stores.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess farmers shouldn't be allowed to use water to grow crops for their private profits because water is a public resource. What are they thinking? Dirty capitalists.

Anonymous said...

Without borders there is no Country.

Anonymous said...

without countries there are no wars

Anonymous said...

Without borders there is no Country.

without countries there are no wars


That is absurdly naive of human history, most of which did not include borders and countries, but all of which included wars.

Anonymous said...

that's why there are religions, my god can beat up your god your god

Anonymous said...

get ready for the water wars, coming to a country or region soon

Anonymous said...

July 19, 2010 10:28 AM

cute, ya'll can fear each others gods!

jack said...

Yes, and it is one of the numerous misrepresentations by Satterfield at the Kauai Planning Commission, "that he had no intent of selling to a corporation".

Misrepresentation to the Commission (at least according to their rulebook) is grounds, in itself, to deny permits.

In case any of you still donʻt get it: the Hawaii State Constitution states that public resources are for the ʻpublicʻ not to be squandered for oneʻs personal wealth.
Count your blessings that heʻs the only one that has so far gotten away with it. Then youʻd really be whining.
He is a backwoods slug that got kicked out of Alaska, probably for trying to rip the natives off there too.

Anonymous said...

In case any of you still donʻt get it: the Hawaii State Constitution states that public resources are for the ʻpublicʻ not to be squandered for oneʻs personal wealth.

Again with the legal retardation and the slam against farmers. How do you figure farmers can't "squander" the public resource for their personal wealth?

jack said...

Farmers are a group of people, correct? Not just one but a few, maybe many. Unless you are talking about one individual that will use that water to the exclusion of others.
The constitution directs most beneficial usage.
Ensuring Satterfield and his little raggamuffin family of 8 is living in financial comfort at the expense of the public or outlying vegetation, rivermouth, groundwater, surfacewater and all ecologically balanced beneficiaries of that water is slapping yourself in the face.
The law is the law. Read it, donʻt whine about it.

So, another aspect of this argument should be: if any people are to ʻtakeʻ water they should at least have the ancestral rights. That would be a stronger argument.

Anonymous said...

Farmers are a group of people, correct? Not just one but a few, maybe many.

A brilliant distinction. So if lots of bottlers were using the water, then instantly legal! Like I said, legal retard. YOU go read the law. The court said they are right and you are wrong. Whiner

jack said...

Gee youʻre alllllll excited there feller.
Take a deep breath and calm down before we send the paramedics.

"So if lots of bottlers were using the water, then instantly legal! Like I said, legal retard. YOU go read the"

You almost got the gist. Lots of bottlers would translate to: public and moreover beneficial usage.
As opposed to: one individual using and charging for something that technically belongs to us...our property, got it?
Itʻs the same as one family claiming the ball park for their own exclusive events, fundraisers, camping, etc. when it use to be for the public. Aawwwhhwww. You wouldnʻt like that would you?

Anonymous said...

Farmers use of water, like ditch systems, is regulated by state. Satterfield never got a permit from water commission.

Anonymous said...

"without countries there are no wars"..that is just plain wrong. Maybe the poster thinks he/she is. John Lennon. "Imagine" is a great song....the point is if the USA does not defend it's borders then the USA will not be a country for long.Legal immigration is needed to maintain the USA....thus without borders you have no country.

Anonymous said...

Kalalau, like the rest of Kauai, is being loved to death.

wahine warrior said...

Someone who taps into an aquifer, the source of all of our water here, is NOT a farmer, just because it goes cross ag lands.

There is no such thing as "farming or harvesting water", as an agricultural definition.

What is ag use, is for IRRIGATION purposes to grow CROPS. You remember what those are? You know, stuff like beans, lettuce, taro.

I have never seen such a bunch of city dwelling bottom feeding idiots who cannot comprehend what farming actually is. Next we will be farming "air" because it is on ag lands, or "dirt". We already think its real "farming" to farm "sod", a practice that rips up our precious and rapidly disappearing thin veil of soil nutrients, to between 3 and 5 inches to where we can never get it back.

"Farming water", is a ridiculous fantasy, a blatent lie, and this is all to open the door to speculation, and the tapping of every single available aquifer on Kauai for greed and profit.

Guess what? If that happens? Kauai will have NO WATER.

Now, when that nice tourist comes here, and turns on the faucet, only air will come out.

So go ahead, support "water farming, and sod farming to your hearts content. And then, get ready to eat air.

Anonymous said...

http://www.takeourjobs.org/

Kooko said...

Bravo to wahine warrior's comment!

And by the way, how much of a market for "farmed sod" can there really be on lil' Kauai? Give me a break, "sod farmers". Last time I checked green things grow pretty good on Kauai all on their own, no need to pay for grass.

Anonymous said...

"some of them likely undocumented"

really? How did you gather this intel or is it an artistic literary flourish?

Joan Conrow said...

According to government statistics, since the late 1990s, at least 50% of the crop workers have not been authorized to work legally in the United States.

http://www.ufw.org/toj_play/TOJNEW_12_JAL.html

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure documented immigrant workers can do the job just as well as undocumented ones.

Which brings us to the real point - that nobody is saying there's anything wrong with immigrants. We are saying people need to immigrate legally. What problem could you possibly have with that self evident truism?

Anonymous said...

Coca Cola company bought "rights" to a community's water system to bottle its water and make its sodas in Michigan. Now the town is running out of water for its crops.

Its happening all over the world. After buying some politicians....large corporations are taking over water supplies of poor farmers to make profits all over the world.

Its all about exploitation and making money. Taking water out of our Aina is a sin!

Anonymous said...

they were foreign cherries