The rat is very punctual: 5:45 a.m. on the dot. That’s when I hear it clank around under the house, doing whatever it is rats do at that time of the morning.
What we do is Koko jumps out of bed with a little whine and bark and I stretch and think, OK, might as well get up. And then the shama thrushes start warbling their rich, melodic song, and it’s cinched. Time to get out in the world.
The clouds were piled up, thick and slate gray, in the mountains, where it was almost certainly raining, but the sky along the horizon was clear and I watched the sun rise through the chain link fence around the graffiti-emblazoned water tank, where the ground is poisoned so frequently with Round-Up that it’s a miracle any blade of grass or weed dares raise its head.
The wind, making its soft music in the trees that is such a delight to my ears, dropped in intensity overnight, which might bring the Barf-0-Meter index down a bit from the 3 forecast that its creator, Brad Parsons, predicted as the Pukerferry returns to service today.
Dick Mayer circulated a link to the Superferry magazine, which I breezed through, and noticed this pull-out quote on page 11:
John F. Lehman Jr., Former Secretary of the Navy, is enthusiastic about the “seemingly limitless potential for the Superferry.”
Is he, now? And how many of those involve the military since it's proving to be such a dud as a passenger ferry?
The article also contained a comment from the Superferry’s executive vice president of operations, Terry White:
”These ships are the direct descendants of the first catamarans — the double-hulled voyaging canoes that Polynesians invented and use to discover and populate Hawaii over 1,500 years ago.”
Here we go again, co-opting the Hawaiian culture. When HSF first started putting out its press releases, it made a number of references to how passengers could re-experience the thrill of Polynesian voyaging aboard the high-speed ferry.
I forwarded the releases to Kauai’s Dennis Chun, who has experienced the real thrill of long-distance voyaging. He asked them to cease and desist from that marketing angle, noting that voyaging canoes weren’t equipped with shops and restaurants. Not to mention bathrooms where you can puke in private….
While we’re on the topic of co-opting Hawaiian culture, the GMO taro research moratorium bill is moving ahead, but has been watered down so badly if it was poi, you’d need to eat it with a spoon.
Although some 7,000 testimonies were submitted favoring the original bill, Rep. Tsuji pushed through a so-called compromise that reduces the moratorium from 10 years to five, and allows GMO taro — including Hawaiian varieties — grown outside the state to be cultivated here with a federal permit. Reps. Berg, Hanohano and Meyer voted no in protest.
On a brighter note, I noticed one of my own taro plants has a flower, and let me tell you, the scent from a kalo blossom is distinct and sweet.
On a more troubling note, got a call from Ka`iulani Huff and she is planning to occupy the Ha`ena Point site where all the burials were found.
Aside from her disgust at allowing Joe Brescia to build a house on the site — “If Jesus was buried there would they be doing this?” she asks — Ka`iulani is alarmed at how such luxury homes are driving up the property taxes of Hawaiians in the neighborhood, making it hard for them to hold on to their land.
“Where are we supposed to go?” she said.
That’s a very good question, with the land speculators and super-rich driving up prices everywhere. At the rate we’re going, we won’t have to worry about co-opting the culture because there won’t be any Hawaiians who can afford to live here.
Which brings me to Aliomanu, where even more ironwoods have been cut along the coast, even though I called DOCARE last week and reported the carnage. And why? So the speculator/owner of a 4.63-acre ag CPR — with no house and certainly no hint of a farm —can ask $1.995 million for that newly created “white water” ocean view.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Musings: He Had a Dream
I Was listening to Democracy Now! yesterday — the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — and heard a speaker remind us that Dr. King had warned America needs to deal with the triple evils: racism, materialism and militarism.
And it struck me, here we are, 40 years later, and it’s the same old, same old.
We’re out of Vietnam and into Afghanistan and Iraq.
We’re more enamored than ever of all stuff big and bling, and our massive consumer debt proves it.
And we’ve found a new group to dehumanize and hate: Muslims.
Sure, we’ve got laws on affirmative action and desegregation, but how much progress have we really made with that old evil, racism? Finally, a black man is running for president, but there’s still talk of what folks will really do in the privacy of the voting booth. And some wonder if he’ll even make it that far — if you know what I'm saying, and I don’t want to give any of it the power of words.
Yes, there have been some changes, but has anything really changed?
I mean, other than that the system, after killing the man, perversely co-opted his movement?
Now the poor people who might stir up trouble are serving in prison and the military, or strung out on drugs. The rest have been bought off with cheap stuff, cheap jobs and subprime mortgages.
Dr. King had a dream — and many of us still do — but it seems no closer to being realized. In fact, within this dank recess known as the Bush-Cheney years, the daily dish is more akin to a nightmare.
To use a lyric from Rage Against the Machine: Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
And it struck me, here we are, 40 years later, and it’s the same old, same old.
We’re out of Vietnam and into Afghanistan and Iraq.
We’re more enamored than ever of all stuff big and bling, and our massive consumer debt proves it.
And we’ve found a new group to dehumanize and hate: Muslims.
Sure, we’ve got laws on affirmative action and desegregation, but how much progress have we really made with that old evil, racism? Finally, a black man is running for president, but there’s still talk of what folks will really do in the privacy of the voting booth. And some wonder if he’ll even make it that far — if you know what I'm saying, and I don’t want to give any of it the power of words.
Yes, there have been some changes, but has anything really changed?
I mean, other than that the system, after killing the man, perversely co-opted his movement?
Now the poor people who might stir up trouble are serving in prison and the military, or strung out on drugs. The rest have been bought off with cheap stuff, cheap jobs and subprime mortgages.
Dr. King had a dream — and many of us still do — but it seems no closer to being realized. In fact, within this dank recess known as the Bush-Cheney years, the daily dish is more akin to a nightmare.
To use a lyric from Rage Against the Machine: Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Musings: Building on Burials and Farm Lands
Can anything be more lovely than a rainsquall tinted pink?
That’s what I found myself wondering this morning as Koko and I stood beside the road and watched the rising sun fill the clouds raining on Waialeale with rich, rosy color that bled onto the mountains and up into the sky.
It was chilly — 61 degrees, according to my neighbor Andy, who then told me he didn’t like Wednesday’s post, where I wrote of picking veggies in John Wooten’s fields and complained that Hawaiians have no land to farm, while the big seed companies grow GMO crops on Westside “crown lands.”
Andy thought it painted too idyllic and simplistic a picture, when the reality is that most people really don’t want to farm. He said KCC had offered a farming class in the late 1970s or early ‘80s, and only a couple of people signed up.
It’s too difficult to make a living and people don’t actually want to do the hard work of farming, Andy said. They just like to talk about it.
It’s a view I’ve also heard from Farmer Jerry, who has expressed impatience at the notion of getting a lot of people “back on the land” and mentioned more than once during our roadside chats: “Where are all the farmers?”
Jerry also has pointed out that while I and others may not like the GMO crops, they’re providing Westsiders with good-paying ag jobs that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
It’s true that farming is harder work than most of us want to do. After just two hours of bending over to pick, I could feel it in my back, and as I worked I thought many times of how John and Nandie are out there day in and day out, tromping through the mud when it’s raining, worrying about their water bills when it’s not, dealing with the hectic crush of the farmer’s market, placating neighbors who want them to cut the trees that serve as vital wind blocks.
It’s definitely not an occupation for everyone. Still, there are some people who are good at it and want to do it, but don’t want to be tenant farmers and can’t afford land of their own.
And as Jerry has said many times, farming tends to works best when it’s a lifestyle, not just an occupation, so it’s important for people to live by their orchards and fields.
Which is happening, Andy facetiously pointed out, on some of the gentleman’s estates.
So how do we make that happen for those who don’t have half a million bucks to shell out just for land? I’ve always thought ag parks, which the state proposed in the late 1980s but never produced, are a good idea.
What I want to know, and I hope readers will share their views, is what do we, as a community, really want when it comes to agriculture? Large-scale monocrops like sugar and biofuels? Boutique farms? Backyard gardens and fruit trees to supply our own needs and share around, plantation camp style?
Do we want agriculture to be a viable industry, with exports and value-added products, or do we just want to do a better job of feeding ourselves?
Despite the many ag studies, forums and panel discussions — including one planned for next Friday’s conservation conference — these questions have not been adequately answered, and so policies to guide that vision have not been adopted.
Meanwhile, farmland keeps getting used for everything but that purpose. Is this what we want? To wake up one morning and find our ag lands are all built up, and our options are gone?
And on another, more troubling note, do we really want to see people building their homes on top of burials? A friend emailed me a report from yesterday morning’s Burial Council meeting, where the council ruled a man named Brescia, who wants to build a house at Ha`ena Point, must leave 31 iw kupuna (ancient burials) in place.
But since the planning department gave him the green light before the Burial Council ruled, Brescia can build his house over the iwi kupuna.
Here’s more from that email:
Most of the Iwi were women and children, with 8 Iwi dismembered as they dug with bulldozers and excavators and even after they kept finding Iwi, they continued with the machines until fully 1/3 were desecrated, broke up. What kind of society do we have here when we disrespect so? Cultural genocide. The meeting began with a Pule, and full Hawaiian Protocol, ending with all joining hands and singing. The room was overflowing, people were sobbing, chanting, impassioned and determined to protect the Iwi. Questioning the jurisdiction of the state and council, actually letting them know they had no rightful jurisdiction, or ownership for that matter, these are Crown Lands.
Coastal development, sick society, people get to build on a cemetery. What white cemetery would ever be disrespected so? Is there another place in the world where people deliberate on whether they should dig up the ancestors or whether people get to just build on top of them? So sorry.
No, I haven’t heard of any other place where people hold such deliberations, nor of a place where people are so insensitive to the culture and those who came before them that they’re willing to live on top of the bones of others just so they can have their fancy house with an ocean view.
Genocide is a word bandied about often these days, and I heard it used recently by the Dalai Lama, who said that allowing the Chinese to continue moving into Tibet is a form of cultural genocide. Is the situation really any different here, when you’ve got clueless, arrogant people like Brescia moving to Kauai?
That’s what I found myself wondering this morning as Koko and I stood beside the road and watched the rising sun fill the clouds raining on Waialeale with rich, rosy color that bled onto the mountains and up into the sky.
It was chilly — 61 degrees, according to my neighbor Andy, who then told me he didn’t like Wednesday’s post, where I wrote of picking veggies in John Wooten’s fields and complained that Hawaiians have no land to farm, while the big seed companies grow GMO crops on Westside “crown lands.”
Andy thought it painted too idyllic and simplistic a picture, when the reality is that most people really don’t want to farm. He said KCC had offered a farming class in the late 1970s or early ‘80s, and only a couple of people signed up.
It’s too difficult to make a living and people don’t actually want to do the hard work of farming, Andy said. They just like to talk about it.
It’s a view I’ve also heard from Farmer Jerry, who has expressed impatience at the notion of getting a lot of people “back on the land” and mentioned more than once during our roadside chats: “Where are all the farmers?”
Jerry also has pointed out that while I and others may not like the GMO crops, they’re providing Westsiders with good-paying ag jobs that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
It’s true that farming is harder work than most of us want to do. After just two hours of bending over to pick, I could feel it in my back, and as I worked I thought many times of how John and Nandie are out there day in and day out, tromping through the mud when it’s raining, worrying about their water bills when it’s not, dealing with the hectic crush of the farmer’s market, placating neighbors who want them to cut the trees that serve as vital wind blocks.
It’s definitely not an occupation for everyone. Still, there are some people who are good at it and want to do it, but don’t want to be tenant farmers and can’t afford land of their own.
And as Jerry has said many times, farming tends to works best when it’s a lifestyle, not just an occupation, so it’s important for people to live by their orchards and fields.
Which is happening, Andy facetiously pointed out, on some of the gentleman’s estates.
So how do we make that happen for those who don’t have half a million bucks to shell out just for land? I’ve always thought ag parks, which the state proposed in the late 1980s but never produced, are a good idea.
What I want to know, and I hope readers will share their views, is what do we, as a community, really want when it comes to agriculture? Large-scale monocrops like sugar and biofuels? Boutique farms? Backyard gardens and fruit trees to supply our own needs and share around, plantation camp style?
Do we want agriculture to be a viable industry, with exports and value-added products, or do we just want to do a better job of feeding ourselves?
Despite the many ag studies, forums and panel discussions — including one planned for next Friday’s conservation conference — these questions have not been adequately answered, and so policies to guide that vision have not been adopted.
Meanwhile, farmland keeps getting used for everything but that purpose. Is this what we want? To wake up one morning and find our ag lands are all built up, and our options are gone?
And on another, more troubling note, do we really want to see people building their homes on top of burials? A friend emailed me a report from yesterday morning’s Burial Council meeting, where the council ruled a man named Brescia, who wants to build a house at Ha`ena Point, must leave 31 iw kupuna (ancient burials) in place.
But since the planning department gave him the green light before the Burial Council ruled, Brescia can build his house over the iwi kupuna.
Here’s more from that email:
Most of the Iwi were women and children, with 8 Iwi dismembered as they dug with bulldozers and excavators and even after they kept finding Iwi, they continued with the machines until fully 1/3 were desecrated, broke up. What kind of society do we have here when we disrespect so? Cultural genocide. The meeting began with a Pule, and full Hawaiian Protocol, ending with all joining hands and singing. The room was overflowing, people were sobbing, chanting, impassioned and determined to protect the Iwi. Questioning the jurisdiction of the state and council, actually letting them know they had no rightful jurisdiction, or ownership for that matter, these are Crown Lands.
Coastal development, sick society, people get to build on a cemetery. What white cemetery would ever be disrespected so? Is there another place in the world where people deliberate on whether they should dig up the ancestors or whether people get to just build on top of them? So sorry.
No, I haven’t heard of any other place where people hold such deliberations, nor of a place where people are so insensitive to the culture and those who came before them that they’re willing to live on top of the bones of others just so they can have their fancy house with an ocean view.
Genocide is a word bandied about often these days, and I heard it used recently by the Dalai Lama, who said that allowing the Chinese to continue moving into Tibet is a form of cultural genocide. Is the situation really any different here, when you’ve got clueless, arrogant people like Brescia moving to Kauai?
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Musings: Playing Catch Up
It was midnight by the time I finished a story, so Koko and I went out to visit the stars, which I hadn’t seen for a long time, and the look turned into a walk and then another look until the clouds drifted in and tucked them away for the night.
Awoke to two sounds I hadn’t heard in a long time: rainfall, and a rat banging on the bathroom pipes. Farmer Jerry told me March was the driest on Kauai since records have been kept, so hopefully we can catch some more showers this spring. And guess I’d better start baiting the trap so I can catch a rodent this evening.
Hawaii Superferry is apparently hoping to catch a break by resuming service early to take advantage of the instability in the interisland transport market now that Aloha Airlines has shut down.
Hmmm. I was just musing about that strategy in Monday’s post….
But although HSF is rarin’ to go now, according to the Advertiser article there apparently is some vague, unspecified hang up.
Superferry president and CEO John Garibaldi said in an e-mail to The Advertiser yesterday, "There's still work to be done in getting her ready to resume our Maui-O'ahu service. ... We're hopeful that she will be sailing soon. More to come."
Harbors Division chief Michael Formby said Garibaldi told him yesterday the company has not come up with a firm date for the resumption of service. "They are still dealing with some issues that need to be resolved before they resume service," Formby said.
Now those are the kinds of comments that get me, as a reporter, thinking, like what? And I have to wonder, did the reporter ask?
It also appears that information passed on yesterday was incorrect: the Superferry has not yet passed its Coast Guard inspection.
It will be interesting to see if Superferry does any better this time around, what with flights all jammed up and the winter seas calming — well, sort of. Of course, the key issue is fares. According to the Superferry website, the $39 one-way passenger fare and $55 one-way vehicle fares will be offered through June 5. That’s a little more than half the normal fare of $76.11 for a one-way adult fare, with the current fuel surcharge.
It seems that Superferry is following the same bad business model of the airlines in offering fares that are below operating costs.
Meanwhile, Alabama Press Register reported on another bad business model: racial discrimination.
It seems Austal USA, the company that built the Alakai and is now at work on ferry #2, as well as a Littoral Combat Ship for the Navy, is being sued by a group of 22 past and present black employees “claiming that company managers participate in and condone widespread racial discrimination at its Mobile River shipyard.”
The article reports:
Among the allegations:
Black workers at Austal are paid less than white workers in the same positions with similar experience.
Austal doesn't openly post advancement opportunities and chooses less-qualified white workers over more experienced black ones, in some cases making the black workers train their new bosses.
Austal doesn't provide the same training opportunities to black workers as to whites.
Managers retaliated against black workers who complained about racist behavior.
The lawsuit seeks class-action status, which means the plaintiffs could represent other black Austal workers.
But Austal, it seems, is not the only Mobile company to be sued on similar charges. The article reports:
Most recently, Atlantic Marine settled with 85 workers in 2006, giving each about $12,000, or more than $1 million in total.
Now as you may, or may not, recall, Atlantic Marine is owned by HSF Chairman John Lehman, who bought the company to support Navy contract work.
Just another indication of the guy's stellar character. But then, we don't need to worry about stuff like racism in Hawaii, the giant cultural melting pot where all the ethnic groups co-exist in harmony. Yeah, right.
(Hat tip to Dick Mayer for all the Superferry tidbits.)
Awoke to two sounds I hadn’t heard in a long time: rainfall, and a rat banging on the bathroom pipes. Farmer Jerry told me March was the driest on Kauai since records have been kept, so hopefully we can catch some more showers this spring. And guess I’d better start baiting the trap so I can catch a rodent this evening.
Hawaii Superferry is apparently hoping to catch a break by resuming service early to take advantage of the instability in the interisland transport market now that Aloha Airlines has shut down.
Hmmm. I was just musing about that strategy in Monday’s post….
But although HSF is rarin’ to go now, according to the Advertiser article there apparently is some vague, unspecified hang up.
Superferry president and CEO John Garibaldi said in an e-mail to The Advertiser yesterday, "There's still work to be done in getting her ready to resume our Maui-O'ahu service. ... We're hopeful that she will be sailing soon. More to come."
Harbors Division chief Michael Formby said Garibaldi told him yesterday the company has not come up with a firm date for the resumption of service. "They are still dealing with some issues that need to be resolved before they resume service," Formby said.
Now those are the kinds of comments that get me, as a reporter, thinking, like what? And I have to wonder, did the reporter ask?
It also appears that information passed on yesterday was incorrect: the Superferry has not yet passed its Coast Guard inspection.
It will be interesting to see if Superferry does any better this time around, what with flights all jammed up and the winter seas calming — well, sort of. Of course, the key issue is fares. According to the Superferry website, the $39 one-way passenger fare and $55 one-way vehicle fares will be offered through June 5. That’s a little more than half the normal fare of $76.11 for a one-way adult fare, with the current fuel surcharge.
It seems that Superferry is following the same bad business model of the airlines in offering fares that are below operating costs.
Meanwhile, Alabama Press Register reported on another bad business model: racial discrimination.
It seems Austal USA, the company that built the Alakai and is now at work on ferry #2, as well as a Littoral Combat Ship for the Navy, is being sued by a group of 22 past and present black employees “claiming that company managers participate in and condone widespread racial discrimination at its Mobile River shipyard.”
The article reports:
Among the allegations:
Black workers at Austal are paid less than white workers in the same positions with similar experience.
Austal doesn't openly post advancement opportunities and chooses less-qualified white workers over more experienced black ones, in some cases making the black workers train their new bosses.
Austal doesn't provide the same training opportunities to black workers as to whites.
Managers retaliated against black workers who complained about racist behavior.
The lawsuit seeks class-action status, which means the plaintiffs could represent other black Austal workers.
But Austal, it seems, is not the only Mobile company to be sued on similar charges. The article reports:
Most recently, Atlantic Marine settled with 85 workers in 2006, giving each about $12,000, or more than $1 million in total.
Now as you may, or may not, recall, Atlantic Marine is owned by HSF Chairman John Lehman, who bought the company to support Navy contract work.
Just another indication of the guy's stellar character. But then, we don't need to worry about stuff like racism in Hawaii, the giant cultural melting pot where all the ethnic groups co-exist in harmony. Yeah, right.
(Hat tip to Dick Mayer for all the Superferry tidbits.)
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Musings: Ferries and Farms
The sky was a mosaic of clouds — gray, white, black, charcoal, pink, orange, blue — when Koko and I went walking this morning. The lightest rain accompanied our return in the golden light of sunrise, which burst forth and then quickly faded into the paleness of a cloudy day.
It was not unlike yesterday’s sunset, which I witnessed from John Wooten’s farm in Moloaa. With his wife away, another woman and I helped him pick veggies for today’s farmer’s market. I buy produce from the Wootens each week, but never really had a sense of what was required to harvest, much less grow, my order.
As Moira and I picked bouquets of parsley, basil and kale, we remarked on how many people just John’s small farm could feed. I marveled that he could coax these beautiful, healthy veggies from the bright red soil, without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
And then I thought of the many landless Hawaiians I know who are looking for a place to farm and the marvelous dark loamy fields near Mana — much of it “ceded land” seized from the Kingdom — where big corporations are growing GMO seed corn and other transgenic crops using chemical ag techniques.
To borrow a line from Sudden Rush song: “Are we supposed to be happy with the situation?”
I sent a friend who keeps bees in Illinois a copy of an article on a possible link between bee deaths and GMOs. She wrote back:
The biggest issue bees seem to have around here, aside from the two mites (which are treatable) is starvation. Here we are in the breadbasket of agriculture and bees starve. Hmmmmm. Queens are also not as hardy as they used to be, and they did show the chemical build up in the honeycomb is more than they suspected. They are a barometer of what is going on....... I also read an article that bats are in trouble too. Sigh.
It’s pretty simple. No pollinators, no crops. And as the bumper sticker on John’s truck says: “No farms, no food.”
So if you get the chance, hug a farmer today, and tell a bee mahalo.
In other news, a rumor was circulating yesterday that the Superferry, which apparently passed its Coast Guard inspection on Monday, was headed for Kauai, causing quite a stir until Keone Keaaloha aptly fingered it as an April Fools joke. Still, was remarkable to see how quickly folks could mobilize.
Meanwhile, Dan Hempey guys have filed an appeal of Judge Randal Valenciano’s Sept. 6 ruling, which denied a motion for a temporary restraining order to stop the boat from running without an EIS, and nixed use of "presumptions of irreparable harm" in their arguments against the boat’s operations.
It’s interesting how the situation has changed in the past six month. As the Garden Island notes:
Hawaii Superferry had claimed it would face financial strain if forced to stop operations while completing the EA.
Since then, we’ve observed that the Superferry is experiencing fnancial strain even while operating — if it’s extended down time in dry dock and sidelining during big surf could be called that.
The article goes on to report:
The 1,000 Friends of Kaua‘i brief states that “the court should protect the public and enforce (the Hawaiian Environmental Protection Act), even against violators who can show that they cleverly approved a statewide project in severable subparts, or who may lose a lot of money if the environmental laws are applied to them.”
Yup, that's pretty much the crux of the situation. Brad Parsons has posted some interesting tidbits gleaned from the Superferry oversight task force report, including:
Kauila Clark missed 3rd out of 4 meetings. Only 8 round trips for February.
Average passenger load from Oahu to Maui of 115 per one-way trip.
Average vehicle load from Oahu to Maui of 40 per one-way trip.
Average passenger load from Maui to Oahu of 87 per one-way trip.
Average vehicle load from Maui to Oahu of 39 per one-way trip.
It was not unlike yesterday’s sunset, which I witnessed from John Wooten’s farm in Moloaa. With his wife away, another woman and I helped him pick veggies for today’s farmer’s market. I buy produce from the Wootens each week, but never really had a sense of what was required to harvest, much less grow, my order.
As Moira and I picked bouquets of parsley, basil and kale, we remarked on how many people just John’s small farm could feed. I marveled that he could coax these beautiful, healthy veggies from the bright red soil, without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
And then I thought of the many landless Hawaiians I know who are looking for a place to farm and the marvelous dark loamy fields near Mana — much of it “ceded land” seized from the Kingdom — where big corporations are growing GMO seed corn and other transgenic crops using chemical ag techniques.
To borrow a line from Sudden Rush song: “Are we supposed to be happy with the situation?”
I sent a friend who keeps bees in Illinois a copy of an article on a possible link between bee deaths and GMOs. She wrote back:
The biggest issue bees seem to have around here, aside from the two mites (which are treatable) is starvation. Here we are in the breadbasket of agriculture and bees starve. Hmmmmm. Queens are also not as hardy as they used to be, and they did show the chemical build up in the honeycomb is more than they suspected. They are a barometer of what is going on....... I also read an article that bats are in trouble too. Sigh.
It’s pretty simple. No pollinators, no crops. And as the bumper sticker on John’s truck says: “No farms, no food.”
So if you get the chance, hug a farmer today, and tell a bee mahalo.
In other news, a rumor was circulating yesterday that the Superferry, which apparently passed its Coast Guard inspection on Monday, was headed for Kauai, causing quite a stir until Keone Keaaloha aptly fingered it as an April Fools joke. Still, was remarkable to see how quickly folks could mobilize.
Meanwhile, Dan Hempey guys have filed an appeal of Judge Randal Valenciano’s Sept. 6 ruling, which denied a motion for a temporary restraining order to stop the boat from running without an EIS, and nixed use of "presumptions of irreparable harm" in their arguments against the boat’s operations.
It’s interesting how the situation has changed in the past six month. As the Garden Island notes:
Hawaii Superferry had claimed it would face financial strain if forced to stop operations while completing the EA.
Since then, we’ve observed that the Superferry is experiencing fnancial strain even while operating — if it’s extended down time in dry dock and sidelining during big surf could be called that.
The article goes on to report:
The 1,000 Friends of Kaua‘i brief states that “the court should protect the public and enforce (the Hawaiian Environmental Protection Act), even against violators who can show that they cleverly approved a statewide project in severable subparts, or who may lose a lot of money if the environmental laws are applied to them.”
Yup, that's pretty much the crux of the situation. Brad Parsons has posted some interesting tidbits gleaned from the Superferry oversight task force report, including:
Kauila Clark missed 3rd out of 4 meetings. Only 8 round trips for February.
Average passenger load from Oahu to Maui of 115 per one-way trip.
Average vehicle load from Oahu to Maui of 40 per one-way trip.
Average passenger load from Maui to Oahu of 87 per one-way trip.
Average vehicle load from Maui to Oahu of 39 per one-way trip.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Musings: Beggars and Fools
Clouds were racing across the sky when Koko and I went walking this morning, all of us headed for the mountains, driven by a wind that caused the treetops to mimic the sound of breaking surf.
The moon, shaved to a sliver, appeared briefly and then was lost again to the clouds, which drifted away from the horizon and let the sun slide into the sky, a yellow orb that tinted the world first lavender-pink, then orange, then gold, as a light shower blew in.
Just then I ran into my neighbor Andy, and we took brief shelter under a tree and talked about the poor writing skills of so many students and instructors at KCC, local politicians we considered evil and, seeing as how it was trash day, trash cans.
As he talked, Koko and his dog Momi sat at rapt attention, worshiping at the altar of Andy, or at least the little bag of dog biscuits he carries in his pocket. Well, Momi sat anyway. Koko, standing up on her back legs, adopts more of an organ grinder's monkey kind of pose.
It’s not unlike the scene at the Capitol these days. The Lege has a baggie full of money and power, and those of us who want something, like a moratorium on GMO taro research — which will be voted on Thursday morning — or testing for depleted uranium at military training areas beg and wait for handouts.
Speaking of military training areas, I had to respond yesterday to a letter from a Navy captain who was unhappy about the piece I wrote for the Honolulu Weekly on military and other activities at the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument.
My favorite line in Capt. W.S. Gureck’s letter was: “The Navy has [been] and will remain a good steward of the environment.” Guess the good captain has never been to Kahoolawe, Makua Valley, Pearl Harbor or Midway, to name but a few of the places they've trashed.
Anyway, how do you respond when the Navy is telling you that your anti-military bias prevents you from accurately reporting the pro-military propaganda that it wants you to report?
Made me think of a comment made by farmer Jerry, whom I also ran into on my walk this morning. April Fool’s really ought to be a holiday, he said, since so many of us are. Couldn’t argue with that one…..
Heard through the wireless – the Hawaiian tel kind, not coconut — that the Western Pacific Fisheries Council must conduct a “re-do” of the meeting it held in Guam because it wasn’t properly noticed in the Federal Register. Now that’s the first time I’ve ever encountered such a thing. What an embarrassment for Wespac.
Dick Mayer, one of those who monitors Superferry stuff, sent two links to the most recent Superferry Task Force report to the Lege. I couldn’t open either of them, as the applications kept quitting. But Brad Parsons, who did read the reports, sent around an email that mentioned “the shocking number of 31 whale sightings per day by the ship for the 8 days of Feb.” that it was in service before going into drydock.
Katy Rose today sent a link to a very interesting article about how Martin Luther King Jr. got really radical toward the end and was moving beyond civil rights to a major economic and social restructuring of society. And of course we know what happened to him after that.
Katy observed: “Note how early in the article questions about MLK's ‘sanity’ are raised, casting a shadow over the rest of the article.”
Of course, anyone who has ever been involved in movements for social and/or political change knows it does make you a little crazy to go up against the system. It requires a certain obsession to devote your life to a cause. But if you feel it, it makes you crazier to look the other way, and ignore that fire inside.
On that note, I’ll close with this quote from Queen Liliuokalani:
I could not turn back the time for political change, but there is still time to save our heritage. You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail. The way to lose any earthly kingdom is to be inflexible, intolerant and prejudicial. Another way is to be too flexible, tolerant of too many wrongs and without judgment at all.
The moon, shaved to a sliver, appeared briefly and then was lost again to the clouds, which drifted away from the horizon and let the sun slide into the sky, a yellow orb that tinted the world first lavender-pink, then orange, then gold, as a light shower blew in.
Just then I ran into my neighbor Andy, and we took brief shelter under a tree and talked about the poor writing skills of so many students and instructors at KCC, local politicians we considered evil and, seeing as how it was trash day, trash cans.
As he talked, Koko and his dog Momi sat at rapt attention, worshiping at the altar of Andy, or at least the little bag of dog biscuits he carries in his pocket. Well, Momi sat anyway. Koko, standing up on her back legs, adopts more of an organ grinder's monkey kind of pose.
It’s not unlike the scene at the Capitol these days. The Lege has a baggie full of money and power, and those of us who want something, like a moratorium on GMO taro research — which will be voted on Thursday morning — or testing for depleted uranium at military training areas beg and wait for handouts.
Speaking of military training areas, I had to respond yesterday to a letter from a Navy captain who was unhappy about the piece I wrote for the Honolulu Weekly on military and other activities at the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument.
My favorite line in Capt. W.S. Gureck’s letter was: “The Navy has [been] and will remain a good steward of the environment.” Guess the good captain has never been to Kahoolawe, Makua Valley, Pearl Harbor or Midway, to name but a few of the places they've trashed.
Anyway, how do you respond when the Navy is telling you that your anti-military bias prevents you from accurately reporting the pro-military propaganda that it wants you to report?
Made me think of a comment made by farmer Jerry, whom I also ran into on my walk this morning. April Fool’s really ought to be a holiday, he said, since so many of us are. Couldn’t argue with that one…..
Heard through the wireless – the Hawaiian tel kind, not coconut — that the Western Pacific Fisheries Council must conduct a “re-do” of the meeting it held in Guam because it wasn’t properly noticed in the Federal Register. Now that’s the first time I’ve ever encountered such a thing. What an embarrassment for Wespac.
Dick Mayer, one of those who monitors Superferry stuff, sent two links to the most recent Superferry Task Force report to the Lege. I couldn’t open either of them, as the applications kept quitting. But Brad Parsons, who did read the reports, sent around an email that mentioned “the shocking number of 31 whale sightings per day by the ship for the 8 days of Feb.” that it was in service before going into drydock.
Katy Rose today sent a link to a very interesting article about how Martin Luther King Jr. got really radical toward the end and was moving beyond civil rights to a major economic and social restructuring of society. And of course we know what happened to him after that.
Katy observed: “Note how early in the article questions about MLK's ‘sanity’ are raised, casting a shadow over the rest of the article.”
Of course, anyone who has ever been involved in movements for social and/or political change knows it does make you a little crazy to go up against the system. It requires a certain obsession to devote your life to a cause. But if you feel it, it makes you crazier to look the other way, and ignore that fire inside.
On that note, I’ll close with this quote from Queen Liliuokalani:
I could not turn back the time for political change, but there is still time to save our heritage. You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail. The way to lose any earthly kingdom is to be inflexible, intolerant and prejudicial. Another way is to be too flexible, tolerant of too many wrongs and without judgment at all.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Musings: Aloha, Superferry and Mainland Mentality
The moon wore a halo and was accented by Jupiter when Koko and I set out walking under a sky of quilted pink-gold clouds that hinted at a lovely sunrise to come. We were both jazzed — perhaps because of the gusty wind that set the bamboo clattering and the eucalyptus and ironwood sighing.
Stopped to talk with both farmer Jerry and my neighbor, Andy, and it was interesting to hear the take each of them had on the very big news that Aloha Airlines is shutting down today.
Since this is Kauai, both of their comments touched on the Superferry, with Andy saying that if the state had invested $40 million into Aloha instead of harbor improvements for the ferry, maybe we wouldn’t be stuck with just Hawaiian and go! — which I have dubbed "no go" in reference to its crummy service.
Jerry, on the other hand, said you have to wonder if the powers that be knew that airplanes, which are much less fuel efficient than ships, wouldn’t be able to handle the rising oil costs, and so wanted to be sure the state had another transportation option.
According to the Advertiser report, the troubled airline went looking for state help, but didn’t get it.
[Aloha CEO David ] Banmiller said Aloha has been in close contact with the Lingle administration for weeks seeking "possible political and government support" and that company executives told the administration that they had no substantive offers for Aloha. Over the past year, the company received minimal support from the administration and other other lawmakers, Banmiller said.
Talking to Jerry and Andy got me wondering if Superferry, now out of drydock, will push up its service resumption date to take advantage of the instability in the interisland transport market. Can it? I mean, even though it got all buss up and put back together, it can pass Coast Guard inspection, right?
And what kind of fares will it be able to offer?
Brad Parsons, who has been going over the testimony presented to the Lege when it was considering the infamous Act 2, which gutted a court decision to allow the boat to run without an EIS, touches on that topic in a post on his blog. It includes an excerpt from testimony by Rich Hoeppner, that Brad updated in brackets:
More important than any of the above information, is the integrity and truthfulness of the people involved in the promotion of this project. They still advertise their operation as affordable and convenient, with weekend fares at $52 per person and $65 per car. In very fine print is the mention of a fuel surcharge based on marine diesel oil (MDO) priced at $300 per metric ton, with a 2% rise in fare price for each 10% rise is in MDO. They also know that the present MDO price is $585. It was as high as $790 just a few months ago and is on the rise since the elections. Is this deceptive, or outright dishonesty? [MDO is well over $900 per metric ton right now, 3/29/08, three times the pricing cost that HSF originally calculated, see: http://www.bunkerworld.com/markets/prices/]
What I found most intriguing about the newspaper coverage of the shutdown was an Advertiser article with the headline “Post-war Prejudice gave rise to the People’s Airline.” It includes this fascinating bit of history:
When its first flight took off from Honolulu in 1946, the interisland carrier that would become Aloha Airlines was an underdog created by minorities determined to succeed in post-war Hawai'i.
Founded by publisher Ruddy Tongg as Trans-Pacific Airlines, it was the answer to a class struggle.
Tongg and his friends had felt the sting of discrimination. They had been bumped off flights on the only interisland carrier, Hawaiian Airlines, which reportedly excluded Asian pilots, flight attendants and counter help in favor of Caucasians. The solution from Tongg and his business partners was to create their own airline, said aviation historian Peter Forman.
"When Aloha first came in, they were responding to the prejudices of the time," Forman said. "They created an airlines that a person of any ethnicity could fly on and feel equally welcome. There are many old timers who still support Aloha for this reason."
So what does its shut down — caused in good part by a fare war launched by a mainland-based company with questionable business practices and ethics — say about the current social and economic situation here in Hawaii?
It looks an awful lot like we’re witnessing the demise of aloha — in more than a literal sense— and the rise of “mainland mentality.”
A reader offered this comment:
I feel very sad today for the people of Aloha. How do you say Aloha to Aloha?? Fourteen Million or Billion to put planes in the air a minute, to kill people. But we can't save our own Aloha. Thanks Mr. Bush. To bad he will never have to worry about keeping a roof over his famlies head or food in their belly's. I'm so mad what can I do????
And a nurse friend who commutes weekly to Honolulu shared this:
When I called yesterday to try to figure out my relationship with them, I thought the agent was going to cry. So many lives impacted!
Yes, indeed. So many lives impacted.
Stopped to talk with both farmer Jerry and my neighbor, Andy, and it was interesting to hear the take each of them had on the very big news that Aloha Airlines is shutting down today.
Since this is Kauai, both of their comments touched on the Superferry, with Andy saying that if the state had invested $40 million into Aloha instead of harbor improvements for the ferry, maybe we wouldn’t be stuck with just Hawaiian and go! — which I have dubbed "no go" in reference to its crummy service.
Jerry, on the other hand, said you have to wonder if the powers that be knew that airplanes, which are much less fuel efficient than ships, wouldn’t be able to handle the rising oil costs, and so wanted to be sure the state had another transportation option.
According to the Advertiser report, the troubled airline went looking for state help, but didn’t get it.
[Aloha CEO David ] Banmiller said Aloha has been in close contact with the Lingle administration for weeks seeking "possible political and government support" and that company executives told the administration that they had no substantive offers for Aloha. Over the past year, the company received minimal support from the administration and other other lawmakers, Banmiller said.
Talking to Jerry and Andy got me wondering if Superferry, now out of drydock, will push up its service resumption date to take advantage of the instability in the interisland transport market. Can it? I mean, even though it got all buss up and put back together, it can pass Coast Guard inspection, right?
And what kind of fares will it be able to offer?
Brad Parsons, who has been going over the testimony presented to the Lege when it was considering the infamous Act 2, which gutted a court decision to allow the boat to run without an EIS, touches on that topic in a post on his blog. It includes an excerpt from testimony by Rich Hoeppner, that Brad updated in brackets:
More important than any of the above information, is the integrity and truthfulness of the people involved in the promotion of this project. They still advertise their operation as affordable and convenient, with weekend fares at $52 per person and $65 per car. In very fine print is the mention of a fuel surcharge based on marine diesel oil (MDO) priced at $300 per metric ton, with a 2% rise in fare price for each 10% rise is in MDO. They also know that the present MDO price is $585. It was as high as $790 just a few months ago and is on the rise since the elections. Is this deceptive, or outright dishonesty? [MDO is well over $900 per metric ton right now, 3/29/08, three times the pricing cost that HSF originally calculated, see: http://www.bunkerworld.com/markets/prices/]
What I found most intriguing about the newspaper coverage of the shutdown was an Advertiser article with the headline “Post-war Prejudice gave rise to the People’s Airline.” It includes this fascinating bit of history:
When its first flight took off from Honolulu in 1946, the interisland carrier that would become Aloha Airlines was an underdog created by minorities determined to succeed in post-war Hawai'i.
Founded by publisher Ruddy Tongg as Trans-Pacific Airlines, it was the answer to a class struggle.
Tongg and his friends had felt the sting of discrimination. They had been bumped off flights on the only interisland carrier, Hawaiian Airlines, which reportedly excluded Asian pilots, flight attendants and counter help in favor of Caucasians. The solution from Tongg and his business partners was to create their own airline, said aviation historian Peter Forman.
"When Aloha first came in, they were responding to the prejudices of the time," Forman said. "They created an airlines that a person of any ethnicity could fly on and feel equally welcome. There are many old timers who still support Aloha for this reason."
So what does its shut down — caused in good part by a fare war launched by a mainland-based company with questionable business practices and ethics — say about the current social and economic situation here in Hawaii?
It looks an awful lot like we’re witnessing the demise of aloha — in more than a literal sense— and the rise of “mainland mentality.”
A reader offered this comment:
I feel very sad today for the people of Aloha. How do you say Aloha to Aloha?? Fourteen Million or Billion to put planes in the air a minute, to kill people. But we can't save our own Aloha. Thanks Mr. Bush. To bad he will never have to worry about keeping a roof over his famlies head or food in their belly's. I'm so mad what can I do????
And a nurse friend who commutes weekly to Honolulu shared this:
When I called yesterday to try to figure out my relationship with them, I thought the agent was going to cry. So many lives impacted!
Yes, indeed. So many lives impacted.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
No Come Kauai
While walking to one of my favorite beaches, I encountered this scene of carnage on conservation land, down-slope from a house with the survey stakes that indicate a sale is possible or pending, and so the ocean view becomes even more valuable. It used to be an ironwood forest, filled with birdsong and shade. Now it’s rubble.
It reminded me of a piece I wrote earlier about this very same neighborhood:
NO COME KAUAI
All you want to do is make a lot of money, a big return on your investment, some major salad real quick, but you can’t do it in your own town, because the land is too expensive and the regulations are too strict, so you hop on a jet and touch down on Kauai, where you’ve heard the pickings are easy and sweet, and a realtor agrees, saying all you’ve gotta do is buy a chunk of ag land and chop it up into CPRs, but keep the best one for yourself and then decapitate all the trees, because buyers will pay extra for that coveted ocean view, so you do as you’re advised and grade a large pad to build a super-sized spec house that will soon bear a for sale sign and you pour a steep, concrete driveway that funnels all the drainage water from your lot onto the beach, eviscerating the clumps of naupaka that provide cover for the red clay that now bleeds onto the coarse, white sand with each and every rain until soon that stretch of coastline is scarred with small gullies, spoiled and stained, but you don’t notice because you’re someplace else.
All you want to do is go down to the sea, walk a rugged span of shoreline that’s relatively private and still feels real, wild, the way nature intended, without any traffic noise or visual intrusion of human habitation, where you can watch boobies fly and swim in clear, clean waters, but you can’t go anywhere in your own neighborhood, because the county forgot to record the beach access that’s now blocked with chain link, so you drive to another bit of Kauai you especially cherish and clamber down a steep path, among trees that have been felled, exposing the construction site of yet another garish mansion, across coarse, white sand that has been gouged and bloodied, and you feel again the hopelessness of the situation because you already called the deputy county engineer, who is a planner by training, but got his job because he’s good friends with the mayor, and he asked what you thought he was supposed to do about it, and then the state conservation guy, once he finally came and took a look, tried to convince you it was just an act of nature, and the kona winds carry not bird song, but the incessant beep-beep-beep of backhoes and excavators, and you notice, because you visit that stretch of coastline nearly every single day, and you grieve, because you don’t want to go someplace else.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Musings: Sketchy Business
Aside from the sirens that briefly got all the dogs in the neighborhood howling, it was a quiet, sleepy morning when Koko and I set out walking a little bit later than usual. The clouds blocked the sun and its rise and all the interior mountains, except for the face of Makaleha, which was streaked by a lovely waterfall.
Ran into my neighbor Andy, who had spent yesterday planting more fruit trees in his yard. It seems he makes his own guava jam and lilikoi jelly from fruit collected on his property, as well as a soursop sherbet. It’s always nice to see folks actually using their ag land, instead of just growing a crop of grass that’s regularly harvested by a mower.
On the topic of agriculture — one of my favorites — the Garden Island reports today that the Council approved the resolution calling for a 10-year moratorium on GMO taro.
I wasn’t surprised that they passed it, but I was surprised to learn JoAnn Yukimura joined Kaipo Asing and Ron Kouchi in voting against it. According to the paper, she released a statement saying:
”I do not believe it is pono to pass a law instituting a 10-year moratorium without taking the time to understand the objections, reservations and concerns of those who produce the majority of the taro in the state — most of whom are Kaua‘i farmers, our neighbors and friends who for generations have been keeping poi on all of our tables.”
I’m not sure how much more time needs to be spent hashing out the concerns that have been presented by those who both support and oppose the moratorium. It’s also highly unlikely that consensus will ever be reached among taro growers themselves, many of whom are not Hawaiian and so are more concerned about the economic, rather than cultural, significance of the crop.
The article goes on to report:
“All the taro farmers understand and are sensitive to the cultural significance of taro to the Hawaiian community and also have reservations about GMO taro,” Kaua‘i Taro Growers Association President Rodney Haraguchi said in his written testimony. “However, they are opposed to have a law passed for 10 years restricting research which may be necessary.”
His use of the word “all” makes it sound like the farmers unanimously share KTGA’s anti-moratorium stance on this issue, when that is simply not the case. And anyway, the KTGA could not by any stretch of the imagination be said to represent even a majority of the taro growers on the island.
In the end, despite the hours of impassioned testimony, it’s doubtful the resolution — already passed on the Big Island and poised to be adopted by the Maui Council — will have much impact on the Legislature. As you may recall, the Neighbor Island councils also adopted resolutions calling for an EIS before the Superferry could run, and the Lege totally blew them off on that one.
Speaking of the Lege, Ian Lind has an interesting post today about how Rep. Roz Baker managed to craft a bill that would authorize loan guarantees to Aloha Airlines, which recently announced it is again filing Chapter 11.
Such guarantees might not necessarily be a bad thing, but the process by which the bill was “introduced” seems pretty darn sketchy.
But then, that seems to be the way the Lege conducts a lot of its business.
Ran into my neighbor Andy, who had spent yesterday planting more fruit trees in his yard. It seems he makes his own guava jam and lilikoi jelly from fruit collected on his property, as well as a soursop sherbet. It’s always nice to see folks actually using their ag land, instead of just growing a crop of grass that’s regularly harvested by a mower.
On the topic of agriculture — one of my favorites — the Garden Island reports today that the Council approved the resolution calling for a 10-year moratorium on GMO taro.
I wasn’t surprised that they passed it, but I was surprised to learn JoAnn Yukimura joined Kaipo Asing and Ron Kouchi in voting against it. According to the paper, she released a statement saying:
”I do not believe it is pono to pass a law instituting a 10-year moratorium without taking the time to understand the objections, reservations and concerns of those who produce the majority of the taro in the state — most of whom are Kaua‘i farmers, our neighbors and friends who for generations have been keeping poi on all of our tables.”
I’m not sure how much more time needs to be spent hashing out the concerns that have been presented by those who both support and oppose the moratorium. It’s also highly unlikely that consensus will ever be reached among taro growers themselves, many of whom are not Hawaiian and so are more concerned about the economic, rather than cultural, significance of the crop.
The article goes on to report:
“All the taro farmers understand and are sensitive to the cultural significance of taro to the Hawaiian community and also have reservations about GMO taro,” Kaua‘i Taro Growers Association President Rodney Haraguchi said in his written testimony. “However, they are opposed to have a law passed for 10 years restricting research which may be necessary.”
His use of the word “all” makes it sound like the farmers unanimously share KTGA’s anti-moratorium stance on this issue, when that is simply not the case. And anyway, the KTGA could not by any stretch of the imagination be said to represent even a majority of the taro growers on the island.
In the end, despite the hours of impassioned testimony, it’s doubtful the resolution — already passed on the Big Island and poised to be adopted by the Maui Council — will have much impact on the Legislature. As you may recall, the Neighbor Island councils also adopted resolutions calling for an EIS before the Superferry could run, and the Lege totally blew them off on that one.
Speaking of the Lege, Ian Lind has an interesting post today about how Rep. Roz Baker managed to craft a bill that would authorize loan guarantees to Aloha Airlines, which recently announced it is again filing Chapter 11.
Such guarantees might not necessarily be a bad thing, but the process by which the bill was “introduced” seems pretty darn sketchy.
But then, that seems to be the way the Lege conducts a lot of its business.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Musings: Conscious Politics
Awoke in the dead of night to complete and utter silence — punctuated by an occasional far-off rooster crowing — and marveled at the contrast when Koko and I much later went walking in a world filled with sound, all of it made by birds, chirping, cooing, trilling, tweetering.
White clouds rode atop gray ones and then turned to pink, burying all the interior mountains in fluff as we, too, moved through air scented by citrus blossoms and the faint smell of wet pavement from a light rain that fell in the night.
Chatted briefly with farmer Jerry, smiling as always, on his way to work, and was struck by how many people I don’t know wave to me from their cars as they drive by. There’s something wonderful about living in a place where people acknowledge one another, instead of making like you don’t even exist.
Ran into my neighbor Andy, walking one of his daughter’s dogs, as well as his own, and we talked about collecting. It seems the excitement is not in the having, but the acquiring. I don’t collect stuff, but I suppose I do collect experiences. They’re easier to maintain, and priceless, at least to me.
I had a rather remarkable one last night when I attended a session of Deeksha, the Oneness Blessing, in Kalaheo. A woman who had read an article I wrote in Spirit of Aloha called me out of the blue and invited me, thinking — based on what I’d written — that it was something I would enjoy. Such openings don’t happen often, so when they do, I heed them.
It turned out to be a meditation, followed by a hands-on blessing, and I definitely felt the spiritual energy. But what struck me most was sitting with a dozen total strangers and feeling such a deep sense of love and acceptance.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the failings of social movements and political systems, and discussing the issue with a few close friends. In abstract, so many of the concepts behind such efforts are laudable, but in practice they fall apart, largely due to greed, ego-tripping, the desire for power and other manifestations of unconscious behavior.
More and more I’m convinced that the answer lies in transforming ourselves, and from that process will come the profound shift needed to achieve a world that’s just, peaceful and pono.
Which is not to say that one should ignore what is going on or not speak out about wrong doings and injustices. Andy said he’d rather read about politics than spirituality in my blog, which got me thinking that a lot of our political problems stem from the absence of “spirituality.” And by that I do not mean religion or even any sort of spiritual practice, but consciousness, an awareness of the deep consequences of our actions.
That’s what I see is at the root of the debate over genetic engineering, especially when it comes to taro — an issue the County Council took up again yesterday. The Garden Island article on the hearing included this quote:
”Don’t fool around with the taro,” said John A‘ana, a Westside farmer for the past 30 years, who held up a taro plant as he addressed council. “The bottom line is you need to show respect for the Hawaiian culture.”
Although it’s good to see the Council debating a resolution to support a 10-year moratorium on GMO taro research, the real decision lies with the Lege, which is already backing away from the proposal. The House Agriculture Committee deferred action on Senate Bill 958, which calls for the moratorium, after a seven-hour hearing in which testimony favored the resolution. The action doesn’t bode well for the bill’s passage.
In other news, KITV reported last night that the Superferry — which it termed a “troubled vessel” — has moved out of drydock and is now awaiting Coast Guard inspection. The action contradicts those who predicted the damage it suffered in drydock would permanently sideline the big boat, a prediction I thought at the time was based on wishful thinking. Still, no passenger service is planned until April 23.
I got an email from a reader about the post In Defense of Wildness, in which I spoke against plans to extend the concrete bike path from Donkey Beach to Anahola. She said she had attended a meeting in Anahola about three years ago in which “the majority of the people
in the room ( Hawaiians) did NOT want it.” Once again, however, we’re faced with an agency, this time Department of Hawaiian Homelands, that is pushing ahead with the proposal regardless.
She wrote: “I would like to help stop the Path from invading Anahola...”
I agree. Enough concrete along the coast already. Councilman Mel Rapozo, who has an interesting new blog, shares this view. Who else can we get on board to stop this concrete snake from slithering deeper into the wilderness?
White clouds rode atop gray ones and then turned to pink, burying all the interior mountains in fluff as we, too, moved through air scented by citrus blossoms and the faint smell of wet pavement from a light rain that fell in the night.
Chatted briefly with farmer Jerry, smiling as always, on his way to work, and was struck by how many people I don’t know wave to me from their cars as they drive by. There’s something wonderful about living in a place where people acknowledge one another, instead of making like you don’t even exist.
Ran into my neighbor Andy, walking one of his daughter’s dogs, as well as his own, and we talked about collecting. It seems the excitement is not in the having, but the acquiring. I don’t collect stuff, but I suppose I do collect experiences. They’re easier to maintain, and priceless, at least to me.
I had a rather remarkable one last night when I attended a session of Deeksha, the Oneness Blessing, in Kalaheo. A woman who had read an article I wrote in Spirit of Aloha called me out of the blue and invited me, thinking — based on what I’d written — that it was something I would enjoy. Such openings don’t happen often, so when they do, I heed them.
It turned out to be a meditation, followed by a hands-on blessing, and I definitely felt the spiritual energy. But what struck me most was sitting with a dozen total strangers and feeling such a deep sense of love and acceptance.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the failings of social movements and political systems, and discussing the issue with a few close friends. In abstract, so many of the concepts behind such efforts are laudable, but in practice they fall apart, largely due to greed, ego-tripping, the desire for power and other manifestations of unconscious behavior.
More and more I’m convinced that the answer lies in transforming ourselves, and from that process will come the profound shift needed to achieve a world that’s just, peaceful and pono.
Which is not to say that one should ignore what is going on or not speak out about wrong doings and injustices. Andy said he’d rather read about politics than spirituality in my blog, which got me thinking that a lot of our political problems stem from the absence of “spirituality.” And by that I do not mean religion or even any sort of spiritual practice, but consciousness, an awareness of the deep consequences of our actions.
That’s what I see is at the root of the debate over genetic engineering, especially when it comes to taro — an issue the County Council took up again yesterday. The Garden Island article on the hearing included this quote:
”Don’t fool around with the taro,” said John A‘ana, a Westside farmer for the past 30 years, who held up a taro plant as he addressed council. “The bottom line is you need to show respect for the Hawaiian culture.”
Although it’s good to see the Council debating a resolution to support a 10-year moratorium on GMO taro research, the real decision lies with the Lege, which is already backing away from the proposal. The House Agriculture Committee deferred action on Senate Bill 958, which calls for the moratorium, after a seven-hour hearing in which testimony favored the resolution. The action doesn’t bode well for the bill’s passage.
In other news, KITV reported last night that the Superferry — which it termed a “troubled vessel” — has moved out of drydock and is now awaiting Coast Guard inspection. The action contradicts those who predicted the damage it suffered in drydock would permanently sideline the big boat, a prediction I thought at the time was based on wishful thinking. Still, no passenger service is planned until April 23.
I got an email from a reader about the post In Defense of Wildness, in which I spoke against plans to extend the concrete bike path from Donkey Beach to Anahola. She said she had attended a meeting in Anahola about three years ago in which “the majority of the people
in the room ( Hawaiians) did NOT want it.” Once again, however, we’re faced with an agency, this time Department of Hawaiian Homelands, that is pushing ahead with the proposal regardless.
She wrote: “I would like to help stop the Path from invading Anahola...”
I agree. Enough concrete along the coast already. Councilman Mel Rapozo, who has an interesting new blog, shares this view. Who else can we get on board to stop this concrete snake from slithering deeper into the wilderness?
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Musings:Making Like an Environmentalist
The moon — remarkably bright, although waning — called me out early and then promptly hid, leaving Koko and me to walk in a cloudy world of murky shadows, with a promise of gold and pink around the eastern edges.
At the top of the hill we stood to watch rain squalls in the distance, and a few drops fell on my head, just to remind me we’re all connected, and as we returned, me clutching a fistful of fragrant spider lilies plucked from the roadside, the squalls still marching mauka, up the Wailua Valley, the sun rose and a thick shaft of rainbow formed in the darkest cloud mass and reached faintly for the heavens.
Soon Kauai cops will be reaching for their tasers, according to an article in today’s Garden Island, which reports that a contract has been approved to purchase the immobilizing stun guns. The county plans to buy 20 tasers outfitted with cameras, at a reported cost of $30,000.
I was reading a short piece in the New Yorker the other day about women holding “taser parties” — the modern version of Tupperware parties — in New York, where stun guns can be purchased by civilians. The woman running the party, who previously slept with a knife under her pillow, said she’d been zapped for one second in her rump, just to know what it felt like, and described it as the absolute worst pain she’d ever experienced. Yet here she was selling guns that would zap somebody for 30 seconds to women with no training, but plenty of fear.
Fear was also the reaction of the nene that were subjected to the advances of 7-year-old Lindsey Tresler who “tried to make friends” prior to their release from the pens that held them on Grove Farm land.
According to the Garden Island:
Warren Haruki, Grove Farm’s president, suggested that Lindsey slowly approach the flock of two dozen of the endangered Hawaiian fowl and let them get used to her.
But the nene would have none of that and several of them fluttered into the folds of the shade cloth that covered their pen.
Now why, you might wonder, was a little kid encouraged to approach endangered birds with an eye toward “making friends” when the last thing nene need is to become habituated toward humans, who are one of their primary threats? These are wild birds, after all, not zoo animals or pets, and their survival depends on avoiding humans, with their dogs, cars and unhealthy hand outs.
It’s because little Lindsey is the daughter of a Grove Farm vice-president, and GF is allowing the state DLNR guys to use some of their hand as holding pens for goslings collected at Kauai Lagoons until they’re old enough to be released.
Sure it’s great that GF is doing this, and they make sure we know of their largess under the “no good deed shall go unpromoted” approach that typically characterizes corporate giving, but the encounter had to put state wildlife biologist Thomas Kaiakapu in a bit of tight spot.
Because he and his staff don’t get chummy with the birds and he knows of the dangers nene face when they get friendly with humans, but what could he say when he’s desperate to find release areas near Lihue and Grove Farm owns much of the open land around there?
The whole thing rankled me because it’s yet another example of how a developer, whose sole reason for being is to greatly alter the natural environment, gets to play like they’re the great conservator of our most imperiled creatures.
And sure enough, the Garden Island dutifully reported that the nene release site “is just one of the environmental initiatives it [Grove Farm] undertakes.”
Meanwhile, in the planning room, these same officials sit around and figure out how they can continue their systematic urbanization of central Kauai. If they’re really sincere about their “environmental initiatives,” why don’t they take development of Maha`ulepu off the table?
At the top of the hill we stood to watch rain squalls in the distance, and a few drops fell on my head, just to remind me we’re all connected, and as we returned, me clutching a fistful of fragrant spider lilies plucked from the roadside, the squalls still marching mauka, up the Wailua Valley, the sun rose and a thick shaft of rainbow formed in the darkest cloud mass and reached faintly for the heavens.
Soon Kauai cops will be reaching for their tasers, according to an article in today’s Garden Island, which reports that a contract has been approved to purchase the immobilizing stun guns. The county plans to buy 20 tasers outfitted with cameras, at a reported cost of $30,000.
I was reading a short piece in the New Yorker the other day about women holding “taser parties” — the modern version of Tupperware parties — in New York, where stun guns can be purchased by civilians. The woman running the party, who previously slept with a knife under her pillow, said she’d been zapped for one second in her rump, just to know what it felt like, and described it as the absolute worst pain she’d ever experienced. Yet here she was selling guns that would zap somebody for 30 seconds to women with no training, but plenty of fear.
Fear was also the reaction of the nene that were subjected to the advances of 7-year-old Lindsey Tresler who “tried to make friends” prior to their release from the pens that held them on Grove Farm land.
According to the Garden Island:
Warren Haruki, Grove Farm’s president, suggested that Lindsey slowly approach the flock of two dozen of the endangered Hawaiian fowl and let them get used to her.
But the nene would have none of that and several of them fluttered into the folds of the shade cloth that covered their pen.
Now why, you might wonder, was a little kid encouraged to approach endangered birds with an eye toward “making friends” when the last thing nene need is to become habituated toward humans, who are one of their primary threats? These are wild birds, after all, not zoo animals or pets, and their survival depends on avoiding humans, with their dogs, cars and unhealthy hand outs.
It’s because little Lindsey is the daughter of a Grove Farm vice-president, and GF is allowing the state DLNR guys to use some of their hand as holding pens for goslings collected at Kauai Lagoons until they’re old enough to be released.
Sure it’s great that GF is doing this, and they make sure we know of their largess under the “no good deed shall go unpromoted” approach that typically characterizes corporate giving, but the encounter had to put state wildlife biologist Thomas Kaiakapu in a bit of tight spot.
Because he and his staff don’t get chummy with the birds and he knows of the dangers nene face when they get friendly with humans, but what could he say when he’s desperate to find release areas near Lihue and Grove Farm owns much of the open land around there?
The whole thing rankled me because it’s yet another example of how a developer, whose sole reason for being is to greatly alter the natural environment, gets to play like they’re the great conservator of our most imperiled creatures.
And sure enough, the Garden Island dutifully reported that the nene release site “is just one of the environmental initiatives it [Grove Farm] undertakes.”
Meanwhile, in the planning room, these same officials sit around and figure out how they can continue their systematic urbanization of central Kauai. If they’re really sincere about their “environmental initiatives,” why don’t they take development of Maha`ulepu off the table?
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Musings: Real World
It’s interesting when you walk, especially on a road, because you see things you otherwise wouldn’t notice from a car, and a lot of it is dead. Today it was toads with their intestines hanging out, a belly-up gecko, a pile of feathers that once was a rooster and a rat with its head ripped off, presumably by a cat.
There’s a certain detachment that happens when you see the aftermath of death, rather than death as it happens, which is probably why the guys fighting in Iraq are troubled with nightmares and PTSD while the Americans at home — who don’t even see the aftermath — are now more preoccupied with their own finances than the war, where 4,000 GIs have died.
Still, it’s all worth it according to President Bush, who was quoted on Democracy Now! yesterday as saying:
“And I guess my one thought I want to leave with those who still hurt is that one day people will look back at this moment in history and say, thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come.”
Yes, George, I’m sure that will erase all the hurt and suffering, especially when there’s absolutely no indication that any foundations of peace have been laid at all.
That was followed by Cheney, the draft dodger, saying:
“The President carries the biggest burden, obviously. He’s the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, an all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm’s way for the rest of us.”
You have to wonder what world they live in. Certainly it’s not the same real world as the paralyzed veteran or the average American, who now spends 36 percent of his or her disposable income on food, medical expenses and energy — the highest percentage since records were first kept in 1960. Add in credit card payments and whopping mortgages, and things are looking pretty lean.
That also seems to be the situation for some folks on Molokai now that Molokai Ranch has announced it’s laying off 120 people and winding down operations in 60 days.
Today’s Advertiser article blamed the closure on luxury home opponents, but the comment from the Ranch’s Singapore owners didn’t seem to support that assertion.
The reporter wrote:
Molokai Ranch ordered the shutdown after failing to win enough support for a controversial master plan to develop 200 lots for luxury oceanfront homes at La'au that would help finance other ranch business investments that the company said loses a few million dollars annually.
According to the ranch's Singapore-based parent company GuocoLeisure Ltd., Molokai Ranch had positive cash flow last year by selling land, but GuocoLeisure's board told Molokai Ranch to cease operating.
GuocoLeisure added that the shutdown isn't expected to have any significant financial impact on GuocoLeisure, a publicly traded company that reported a $12.6 million net profit last year on revenue of $422 million and is headed by Malaysian billionaire Quek Leng Chan.
Do you suppose Chan would have been satisfied even if the La`au Point project was approved? I doubt it.
I thought of that when I was on Lanai, where owner David Murdock, one of the world’s richest people, has already built two very upscale resorts and is now selling off luxury home sites, thus perpetuating the pattern of gentrification that has come to characterize development in Hawaii.
It creates a strange mix of average people who work hard to survive in a place where gas costs $4.60 a gallon, and the bored super rich, one of whom I heard asking — unsuccessfully —for a local to take them around because, as his wife said, “We need an adventure today.”
Maybe they should try living in the real world.
Speaking of living large, I noticed the state today will dedicate the new Hawaiian Homes HQ — replete with a $75,000 portrait of Prince Kuhio — in Kapolei.
It’s yet another example of the misuse of money that is supposed to benefit Native Hawaiians, many of whom have died on the list waiting for a homestead award.
Along those same lines, got an email from Andre Perez of Hui Pu about a hearing set for Thursday afternoon on Senate Concurrent Resolution 138 SD1, which disapproves a proposal to hike the pay of trustees for Office of Hawaiian Affairs and also requests a financial and management audit of that agency.
It seems like a good time to bring OHA trustees into the real world occupied by their beneficiaries, many of whom don't have a job, much less a fat paycheck.
There’s a certain detachment that happens when you see the aftermath of death, rather than death as it happens, which is probably why the guys fighting in Iraq are troubled with nightmares and PTSD while the Americans at home — who don’t even see the aftermath — are now more preoccupied with their own finances than the war, where 4,000 GIs have died.
Still, it’s all worth it according to President Bush, who was quoted on Democracy Now! yesterday as saying:
“And I guess my one thought I want to leave with those who still hurt is that one day people will look back at this moment in history and say, thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come.”
Yes, George, I’m sure that will erase all the hurt and suffering, especially when there’s absolutely no indication that any foundations of peace have been laid at all.
That was followed by Cheney, the draft dodger, saying:
“The President carries the biggest burden, obviously. He’s the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, an all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm’s way for the rest of us.”
You have to wonder what world they live in. Certainly it’s not the same real world as the paralyzed veteran or the average American, who now spends 36 percent of his or her disposable income on food, medical expenses and energy — the highest percentage since records were first kept in 1960. Add in credit card payments and whopping mortgages, and things are looking pretty lean.
That also seems to be the situation for some folks on Molokai now that Molokai Ranch has announced it’s laying off 120 people and winding down operations in 60 days.
Today’s Advertiser article blamed the closure on luxury home opponents, but the comment from the Ranch’s Singapore owners didn’t seem to support that assertion.
The reporter wrote:
Molokai Ranch ordered the shutdown after failing to win enough support for a controversial master plan to develop 200 lots for luxury oceanfront homes at La'au that would help finance other ranch business investments that the company said loses a few million dollars annually.
According to the ranch's Singapore-based parent company GuocoLeisure Ltd., Molokai Ranch had positive cash flow last year by selling land, but GuocoLeisure's board told Molokai Ranch to cease operating.
GuocoLeisure added that the shutdown isn't expected to have any significant financial impact on GuocoLeisure, a publicly traded company that reported a $12.6 million net profit last year on revenue of $422 million and is headed by Malaysian billionaire Quek Leng Chan.
Do you suppose Chan would have been satisfied even if the La`au Point project was approved? I doubt it.
I thought of that when I was on Lanai, where owner David Murdock, one of the world’s richest people, has already built two very upscale resorts and is now selling off luxury home sites, thus perpetuating the pattern of gentrification that has come to characterize development in Hawaii.
It creates a strange mix of average people who work hard to survive in a place where gas costs $4.60 a gallon, and the bored super rich, one of whom I heard asking — unsuccessfully —for a local to take them around because, as his wife said, “We need an adventure today.”
Maybe they should try living in the real world.
Speaking of living large, I noticed the state today will dedicate the new Hawaiian Homes HQ — replete with a $75,000 portrait of Prince Kuhio — in Kapolei.
It’s yet another example of the misuse of money that is supposed to benefit Native Hawaiians, many of whom have died on the list waiting for a homestead award.
Along those same lines, got an email from Andre Perez of Hui Pu about a hearing set for Thursday afternoon on Senate Concurrent Resolution 138 SD1, which disapproves a proposal to hike the pay of trustees for Office of Hawaiian Affairs and also requests a financial and management audit of that agency.
It seems like a good time to bring OHA trustees into the real world occupied by their beneficiaries, many of whom don't have a job, much less a fat paycheck.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Musings: Go Figger
The moon, hidden for days, shone white and clear this morning as Koko and I walked amid a world of chirpy waking birds. I love the way birds start and end the day happy.
Spent the last two days working on Lanai, where the bird song is far more sparse, given the corresponding scarcity of trees, and not a rooster was to be heard or wild chicken to be seen.
Lanai is a beautiful little island, slow and sleepy and quiet, with roads that make Kauai’s look like the rutted, pot-holed messes they are. Of course, we get a lot more traffic, what with the hordes of visitors, nearly all of them behind the wheel of a rental car, that descend on our island each day.
As I mentioned to my neighbor Andy, when our paths crossed this morning, Lanai locals don’t seem to hate the tourists like Kauai folks do. He and I both agreed that we don’t dislike individual tourists, some of whom are very nice, interesting to talk to and even concerned about what’s going on. But the tourism enmasse is so off-putting.
On Lanai, they trickle in on small planes that are about half-filled with locals or arrive on the ferry —small, not super-sized — that runs from Maui. Many of them forego renting a car and take the shuttle buses that cruise around the island.
It’s not like Kauai, where big jets almost totally filled with tourists touch down repeatedly through the day and shortly thereafter a long line of rental cars heads north or south, and you go to a place like Kee or Lydgate or Poipu and think, OMG, and just want to immediately turn around and leave.
And when I was in the interior and backcountry on Lanai, I didn’t hear one single helicopter — the flying scourge of Kauai that heavily mars the tranquility and beauty of places like Waimea Canyon, Na Pali and Hanalei.
We’ve clearly maxed out on tourism over here, at least from a social perspective, although I know the economic forces that always opt for growth over status quo feel otherwise. Their motto is “Bring ‘em on! Who cares if aloha is dwindling?”
But then I suppose attempts to put any sort of reasonable limits on growth or tourism would be branded as “socialism” or an infringement on personal rights by folks like Charley Foster and those who post comments on his blog, where he recently chastised Councilwoman Yukimura and others concerned about reducing fossil fuel consumption for trying to impose “the burden of their amateur prognosticating on the rest of the community” with a proposal to require solar hot water heaters be installed in new homes.
Never mind that we live on an island where we have abundant solar resources and absolutely no fossil fuels, so it just makes common sense to use what we’ve got. No, that’s somehow impinging on the rights of others to wildly consume. Of course, no mention was made of the fact that we all must bear the burden of higher utility bills when KIUC has to keep expanding its generating capacity to satisfy our insatiable demands for electricity.
Apparently those kinds of burdens are OK to impose, but any associated with conservation or alternative energy are not. Go figger.
And go figger how it is that someone like Sherman Shiraishi is serving on the Charter Review Commission, which is now considering one amendment that would make it easier for the Council to meet in closed session and another that deals with the ethics of allowing those who serve on county boards and commission to continue doing business before the County.
According to an article in The Garden Island this morning:
Despite public testimony against the measure, the commission is considering a separate amendment that could let voters decide if volunteer county board and commission members should be allowed to represent private business interests before other county departments, agencies or boards except the board or commission on which they serve.
The proposal came forward after the county Ethics Board recently voted unanimously that no conflict of interest exists in one such case. Specifically, Charter Review Commission Chair Jonathan Chun, who was absent yesterday, asked the board to decide if he should be allowed to sit on the commission while serving as an attorney for private businesses appearing before County Council, the county Planning Commission and other agencies.
[Bruce] Pleas and Kapa‘a residents Glenn Mickens and Ken Taylor said they opposed even considering this as a possible charter amendment.
Taylor said the first thing the commission must consider for any proposed charter amendment is how this change benefits the community. He said he only sees this proposed ethics change benefiting a “handful of people” serving on county boards and commissions.
That’s a very good point, Ken. Pray tell, how would the public possibly be served by making it even easier for cronyism to be standard operating procedure on Kauai?
The article goes on to say:
The County Attorney’s office issued a legal opinion on the matter, which relates to charter section 20.02 D, but it has not been made known to the public.
The refusal to make legal opinions public – which has become the MO for both the Administration and Council to blow off the public — prompted Council-watcher Glenn Mickens to push for yet another amendment. It would require the County Attorney’s office to make public within two days any opinions related to law and public policy.
That issue came up most recently when Harold Stoessel, whose open letter to the council, mayor and Garden Island on the topic is now circulating via email, asked the Ethics Commission to explain its rationale for keeping secret the county attorney’s opinion about Chun’s possible conflict of interest.
His request, which seems perfectly reasonable to me, met with this arrogant response from Ethics Commission Chairman Mark Hubbard: “I do not intend to answer that, Horace. It could be that I don’t know; it could be that I just don’t wish to answer that question.”
Of course, it’s not too hard to figger why Mark Hubbard, who works for Grove Farm, a company with frequent business before the County and lots of land to develop, wouldn’t want to delve too deeply into this nasty business of conflict of interest. After all, it might get folks wondering why the heck he’s serving on the Ethics Commission at all.
Spent the last two days working on Lanai, where the bird song is far more sparse, given the corresponding scarcity of trees, and not a rooster was to be heard or wild chicken to be seen.
Lanai is a beautiful little island, slow and sleepy and quiet, with roads that make Kauai’s look like the rutted, pot-holed messes they are. Of course, we get a lot more traffic, what with the hordes of visitors, nearly all of them behind the wheel of a rental car, that descend on our island each day.
As I mentioned to my neighbor Andy, when our paths crossed this morning, Lanai locals don’t seem to hate the tourists like Kauai folks do. He and I both agreed that we don’t dislike individual tourists, some of whom are very nice, interesting to talk to and even concerned about what’s going on. But the tourism enmasse is so off-putting.
On Lanai, they trickle in on small planes that are about half-filled with locals or arrive on the ferry —small, not super-sized — that runs from Maui. Many of them forego renting a car and take the shuttle buses that cruise around the island.
It’s not like Kauai, where big jets almost totally filled with tourists touch down repeatedly through the day and shortly thereafter a long line of rental cars heads north or south, and you go to a place like Kee or Lydgate or Poipu and think, OMG, and just want to immediately turn around and leave.
And when I was in the interior and backcountry on Lanai, I didn’t hear one single helicopter — the flying scourge of Kauai that heavily mars the tranquility and beauty of places like Waimea Canyon, Na Pali and Hanalei.
We’ve clearly maxed out on tourism over here, at least from a social perspective, although I know the economic forces that always opt for growth over status quo feel otherwise. Their motto is “Bring ‘em on! Who cares if aloha is dwindling?”
But then I suppose attempts to put any sort of reasonable limits on growth or tourism would be branded as “socialism” or an infringement on personal rights by folks like Charley Foster and those who post comments on his blog, where he recently chastised Councilwoman Yukimura and others concerned about reducing fossil fuel consumption for trying to impose “the burden of their amateur prognosticating on the rest of the community” with a proposal to require solar hot water heaters be installed in new homes.
Never mind that we live on an island where we have abundant solar resources and absolutely no fossil fuels, so it just makes common sense to use what we’ve got. No, that’s somehow impinging on the rights of others to wildly consume. Of course, no mention was made of the fact that we all must bear the burden of higher utility bills when KIUC has to keep expanding its generating capacity to satisfy our insatiable demands for electricity.
Apparently those kinds of burdens are OK to impose, but any associated with conservation or alternative energy are not. Go figger.
And go figger how it is that someone like Sherman Shiraishi is serving on the Charter Review Commission, which is now considering one amendment that would make it easier for the Council to meet in closed session and another that deals with the ethics of allowing those who serve on county boards and commission to continue doing business before the County.
According to an article in The Garden Island this morning:
Despite public testimony against the measure, the commission is considering a separate amendment that could let voters decide if volunteer county board and commission members should be allowed to represent private business interests before other county departments, agencies or boards except the board or commission on which they serve.
The proposal came forward after the county Ethics Board recently voted unanimously that no conflict of interest exists in one such case. Specifically, Charter Review Commission Chair Jonathan Chun, who was absent yesterday, asked the board to decide if he should be allowed to sit on the commission while serving as an attorney for private businesses appearing before County Council, the county Planning Commission and other agencies.
[Bruce] Pleas and Kapa‘a residents Glenn Mickens and Ken Taylor said they opposed even considering this as a possible charter amendment.
Taylor said the first thing the commission must consider for any proposed charter amendment is how this change benefits the community. He said he only sees this proposed ethics change benefiting a “handful of people” serving on county boards and commissions.
That’s a very good point, Ken. Pray tell, how would the public possibly be served by making it even easier for cronyism to be standard operating procedure on Kauai?
The article goes on to say:
The County Attorney’s office issued a legal opinion on the matter, which relates to charter section 20.02 D, but it has not been made known to the public.
The refusal to make legal opinions public – which has become the MO for both the Administration and Council to blow off the public — prompted Council-watcher Glenn Mickens to push for yet another amendment. It would require the County Attorney’s office to make public within two days any opinions related to law and public policy.
That issue came up most recently when Harold Stoessel, whose open letter to the council, mayor and Garden Island on the topic is now circulating via email, asked the Ethics Commission to explain its rationale for keeping secret the county attorney’s opinion about Chun’s possible conflict of interest.
His request, which seems perfectly reasonable to me, met with this arrogant response from Ethics Commission Chairman Mark Hubbard: “I do not intend to answer that, Horace. It could be that I don’t know; it could be that I just don’t wish to answer that question.”
Of course, it’s not too hard to figger why Mark Hubbard, who works for Grove Farm, a company with frequent business before the County and lots of land to develop, wouldn’t want to delve too deeply into this nasty business of conflict of interest. After all, it might get folks wondering why the heck he’s serving on the Ethics Commission at all.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Musings: Not the Information Age
I participated in my usual sunrise service today, out walking with Koko, admiring the creation, allowing myself to get present in it. It was cloudy, but there was enough space along the horizon for the sun to glow through and set everything shimmering.
Stopped briefly to check the headlines on my neighbor’s newspaper and saw that the incumbents were re-elected to the board of the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative.
I never did receive a ballot, although I regularly receive my utility bill, so I can’t help but wonder how many others were left out of the voting loop. That’s the problem with a vote by mail system.
Noticed in The Advertiser that Oahu continues to make life miserable for its already miserable homeless, this time by taking their dogs.
The cops — really, don’t they have anything better to do on high-crime Oahu? — say they’re just enforcing a law against keeping dogs in city parks. But not all city parks, it seems, just those along the Waianae Coast.
HPD's Maj. Michael Moses said the dog sweeps are part of a stepped-up effort to enforce rules governing city parks along the Wai'anae Coast, such as park closure hours, no-drinking laws and parking lot restrictions.
Moses cites concerns — undocumented, at least in the article – voiced by unnamed folks in the rapidly gentrifying community.
"We're responding to community concerns about the increasing dog population in our parks," said Moses. "There is the issue of loose dogs, and some people have been attacked. Some say they've been bitten. And, of course, others are concerned about the health aspects — dog feces, and fleas and all that stuff."
Yes, all that stuff, like the inconvenient homeless who keep the dogs.
It’s just another way to harass the homeless and get them into the legal loop. Even if they go down and spend money they don’t have to buy into the avid chip racket at the Humane Society, the cops can still cite them for having the dogs in the parks, which means a trip to court, a fine that they can’t pay, etc.
Meanwhile, the bigger issue of why so many local folks are homeless continues to get shoved under the rug. Didn’t it break anybody else’s heart to see the old Hawaiian Aunty and Uncle in their tent on the front page of the paper?
What happened to respect for our kupuna and the ohana? Guess there’s no place for those old-fashioned values in the new glitz of big money Hawaii.
I’m headed off-island today for a quick work trip, so I won’t have a post tomorrow. But to counter all the bad news doom/gloom stuff that is just waiting to jump out at your from cyber space, TV and newspapers, I wanted to leave you with this poem from David Whyte:
This is not the age of information.
This is NOT the age of information.
Forget the news, and the radio, and the blurred screen.
This is the time of loaves and fishes.
People are hungry, and one good word is bread for a thousand.
Spread joy whenever you can, and love.
Stopped briefly to check the headlines on my neighbor’s newspaper and saw that the incumbents were re-elected to the board of the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative.
I never did receive a ballot, although I regularly receive my utility bill, so I can’t help but wonder how many others were left out of the voting loop. That’s the problem with a vote by mail system.
Noticed in The Advertiser that Oahu continues to make life miserable for its already miserable homeless, this time by taking their dogs.
The cops — really, don’t they have anything better to do on high-crime Oahu? — say they’re just enforcing a law against keeping dogs in city parks. But not all city parks, it seems, just those along the Waianae Coast.
HPD's Maj. Michael Moses said the dog sweeps are part of a stepped-up effort to enforce rules governing city parks along the Wai'anae Coast, such as park closure hours, no-drinking laws and parking lot restrictions.
Moses cites concerns — undocumented, at least in the article – voiced by unnamed folks in the rapidly gentrifying community.
"We're responding to community concerns about the increasing dog population in our parks," said Moses. "There is the issue of loose dogs, and some people have been attacked. Some say they've been bitten. And, of course, others are concerned about the health aspects — dog feces, and fleas and all that stuff."
Yes, all that stuff, like the inconvenient homeless who keep the dogs.
It’s just another way to harass the homeless and get them into the legal loop. Even if they go down and spend money they don’t have to buy into the avid chip racket at the Humane Society, the cops can still cite them for having the dogs in the parks, which means a trip to court, a fine that they can’t pay, etc.
Meanwhile, the bigger issue of why so many local folks are homeless continues to get shoved under the rug. Didn’t it break anybody else’s heart to see the old Hawaiian Aunty and Uncle in their tent on the front page of the paper?
What happened to respect for our kupuna and the ohana? Guess there’s no place for those old-fashioned values in the new glitz of big money Hawaii.
I’m headed off-island today for a quick work trip, so I won’t have a post tomorrow. But to counter all the bad news doom/gloom stuff that is just waiting to jump out at your from cyber space, TV and newspapers, I wanted to leave you with this poem from David Whyte:
This is not the age of information.
This is NOT the age of information.
Forget the news, and the radio, and the blurred screen.
This is the time of loaves and fishes.
People are hungry, and one good word is bread for a thousand.
Spread joy whenever you can, and love.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Musings: Blown Off
The moon was headed toward full all night, but thick clouds muffled her brilliance, so she made her way across the sky without fully strutting her stuff and now the sun is being similarly thwarted. But that’s OK, because cloudy days and showers are all a part of Spring.
It was wet and quiet when Koko and I went walking on this religious holiday that a Rasta friend dubbed “Bad Friday” because it perverted Christianity into a belief system that links suffering and love. As he noted, it also sets up a good Christian justification for war and killing, which otherwise would be considered sins. If God sacrificed His only Son, surely you shouldn’t fuss about sending your kid off to die, too.
Even if you do fuss about all the people dying in Iraq, Bush and Cheney ain’t listening. That was made crystal clear on Democracy Now! yesterday, which broadcast a report: “Bush, Cheney Dismiss Iraq War Opposition.”
It began with Bush’s usual denial of reality.
At the Pentagon, President Bush dismissed criticism of the war, saying US occupation has brought “undeniable” success in Iraq.
President Bush: "There is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me: removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win.”
Bush’s approval rating is at 31 percent, a forty-point drop since the eve of the Iraq invasion.
A recent survey found more than two-thirds of Iraqis believe US-led coalition forces should leave Iraq. A quarter of those surveyed said they had lost a family member to murder since the war began. Meanwhile a new CNN poll shows two-thirds of Americans oppose the war, while more than seven-out-of-ten believe it’s hurt the economy.
But far more chilling was Cheney’s blatant “piss off, screw you” attitude toward the public, as captured in an interview with ABC’s "Good Morning America" and rebroadcast on Democracy Now!
Vice President Dick Cheney: “On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.”
Martha Raddatz: “Two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.”
Cheney: “So?”
Raddatz: “So? You don’t care what the American people think?”
Cheney: “No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”
Nope, ya gotta hold the course that's taking the ships right onto the rocks — even if it means blowing off an overwhelming majority of the citizenry. Hmmm. Isn’t that the point where a democracy become a dictatorship?
It was wet and quiet when Koko and I went walking on this religious holiday that a Rasta friend dubbed “Bad Friday” because it perverted Christianity into a belief system that links suffering and love. As he noted, it also sets up a good Christian justification for war and killing, which otherwise would be considered sins. If God sacrificed His only Son, surely you shouldn’t fuss about sending your kid off to die, too.
Even if you do fuss about all the people dying in Iraq, Bush and Cheney ain’t listening. That was made crystal clear on Democracy Now! yesterday, which broadcast a report: “Bush, Cheney Dismiss Iraq War Opposition.”
It began with Bush’s usual denial of reality.
At the Pentagon, President Bush dismissed criticism of the war, saying US occupation has brought “undeniable” success in Iraq.
President Bush: "There is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me: removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win.”
Bush’s approval rating is at 31 percent, a forty-point drop since the eve of the Iraq invasion.
A recent survey found more than two-thirds of Iraqis believe US-led coalition forces should leave Iraq. A quarter of those surveyed said they had lost a family member to murder since the war began. Meanwhile a new CNN poll shows two-thirds of Americans oppose the war, while more than seven-out-of-ten believe it’s hurt the economy.
But far more chilling was Cheney’s blatant “piss off, screw you” attitude toward the public, as captured in an interview with ABC’s "Good Morning America" and rebroadcast on Democracy Now!
Vice President Dick Cheney: “On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.”
Martha Raddatz: “Two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.”
Cheney: “So?”
Raddatz: “So? You don’t care what the American people think?”
Cheney: “No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”
Nope, ya gotta hold the course that's taking the ships right onto the rocks — even if it means blowing off an overwhelming majority of the citizenry. Hmmm. Isn’t that the point where a democracy become a dictatorship?
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Musings: No Respect
Faint Venus brightened up when she freed herself from thick clouds and then was lost again in the glow of a yellow sun struggling to break through the gray gloom before it, too, gave up and gave in, suffusing charcoal rain clouds with pink.
Today is the vernal equinox, the day when the sun moves into Aries, signaling the start of spring, new life, new beginnings, hope springs eternal, that sort of thing. I must confess my own war-torn thoughts weren’t quite that bright and cheery as Koko and I went walking, but I could smell the promise of it all around us in the heady sweetness of citrus blossoms, the perfume of spider lily.
Ran into my neighbor Andy, who gave me a brief update on the contested case hearing that started this week over the mansion planned for Kilauea. Aside from the massiveness of the project, there’s the location to be considered. The guy wants to erect the monument to his wealth on land overlooking Kahili Beach, near the Kilauea river mouth.
It’s on land the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had planned to buy next year to expand the Kilauea refuge and give the public access to the river and falls, but Mr. Big Bucks beat the feds to the punch. Guess the realtor just couldn’t wait to make the sale.
I got the figures wrong last time I wrote about this project. The house itself isn’t 35,000 square feet. Instead, that’s the combined total of the main house, the caretaker’s house and the barn, which itself comes in at 5,000 square feet. Kala mai.
Still, who really needs that much personal space? Used to be people who moved to Kauai tried to fit in, be a part of things, build houses that weren’t so outlandishly out of place and touch. But that concept has gone out the window.
As my friend Eddie, one of the Wainiha boyz, observed:
“The haoles are coming in so fast you can’t keep up. They taking over the place. With the haoles here now, it’s not so bad because they came in slow and we could teach ‘em. We gave some of them guys dirty lickins, but they learned the right way to do things and now they know. They paid their dues. They show respect. But now there’s so many of them, and they coming in so fast, we don’t even have time for give all these new guys dirty lickins. They getting in without paying their dues. They do any kine stuff. They got no respect.”
Meanwhile, at the other end of the island chain, we’re getting a good reminder of who’s really in charge in the Islands, who really deserves some respect. According to an article in The Advertiser:
The first explosive eruption at Kilauea volcano in almost a century scattered boulders and smaller rocks over 75 acres of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in the middle of the night when no one was around.
“Oh, but Pele stay up,” said a friend, who called early, when I read him that bit over the phone.
Yes, Pele stay up, and she’s restless. Wonder what other surprises she has in store?
It came as no surprise that Kauai had the biggest turnout in the state when the Superferry EIS scoping hearings were held here yesterday. I think The Garden Island summed up the sentiments pretty well:
Residents remain concerned about the impact that a large-capacity ferry service could have on the environment, traffic and culture in Hawai‘i but few seem to have faith in state officials’ ability or willingness to eliminate or mediate this threat.
Gee, I wonder when the citizens lost faith? Was it during the back room deals that led to the exemption from an environmental review in the first place? The arm twisting that got the Lege to adopt a Superferry-approved bill to let the big boat run without an EIS? The drydocking that takes the boat out of commission during the period when an oversight committee is supposed to be determining if the operating conditions imposed on the ferry in the interim are stringent enough?
I found the comments posted on the Star-Bulletin article about the meeting quite interesting. People sure have a strange idea about Kauai. Why do you suppose we get under their skin like that?
Anyway, if you missed the hearing and sitll want a chance to express your concerns, comments will be accepted through March 24. Fax to 808-538-7819 or mail to Lesley A Matsumoto, Belt Collins Hawaii Ltd, 2153 North King St., Suite 200, Honolulu, HI 96819.
Mahalo to LightLine for disseminating that info from John Tyler.
Today is the vernal equinox, the day when the sun moves into Aries, signaling the start of spring, new life, new beginnings, hope springs eternal, that sort of thing. I must confess my own war-torn thoughts weren’t quite that bright and cheery as Koko and I went walking, but I could smell the promise of it all around us in the heady sweetness of citrus blossoms, the perfume of spider lily.
Ran into my neighbor Andy, who gave me a brief update on the contested case hearing that started this week over the mansion planned for Kilauea. Aside from the massiveness of the project, there’s the location to be considered. The guy wants to erect the monument to his wealth on land overlooking Kahili Beach, near the Kilauea river mouth.
It’s on land the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had planned to buy next year to expand the Kilauea refuge and give the public access to the river and falls, but Mr. Big Bucks beat the feds to the punch. Guess the realtor just couldn’t wait to make the sale.
I got the figures wrong last time I wrote about this project. The house itself isn’t 35,000 square feet. Instead, that’s the combined total of the main house, the caretaker’s house and the barn, which itself comes in at 5,000 square feet. Kala mai.
Still, who really needs that much personal space? Used to be people who moved to Kauai tried to fit in, be a part of things, build houses that weren’t so outlandishly out of place and touch. But that concept has gone out the window.
As my friend Eddie, one of the Wainiha boyz, observed:
“The haoles are coming in so fast you can’t keep up. They taking over the place. With the haoles here now, it’s not so bad because they came in slow and we could teach ‘em. We gave some of them guys dirty lickins, but they learned the right way to do things and now they know. They paid their dues. They show respect. But now there’s so many of them, and they coming in so fast, we don’t even have time for give all these new guys dirty lickins. They getting in without paying their dues. They do any kine stuff. They got no respect.”
Meanwhile, at the other end of the island chain, we’re getting a good reminder of who’s really in charge in the Islands, who really deserves some respect. According to an article in The Advertiser:
The first explosive eruption at Kilauea volcano in almost a century scattered boulders and smaller rocks over 75 acres of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in the middle of the night when no one was around.
“Oh, but Pele stay up,” said a friend, who called early, when I read him that bit over the phone.
Yes, Pele stay up, and she’s restless. Wonder what other surprises she has in store?
It came as no surprise that Kauai had the biggest turnout in the state when the Superferry EIS scoping hearings were held here yesterday. I think The Garden Island summed up the sentiments pretty well:
Residents remain concerned about the impact that a large-capacity ferry service could have on the environment, traffic and culture in Hawai‘i but few seem to have faith in state officials’ ability or willingness to eliminate or mediate this threat.
Gee, I wonder when the citizens lost faith? Was it during the back room deals that led to the exemption from an environmental review in the first place? The arm twisting that got the Lege to adopt a Superferry-approved bill to let the big boat run without an EIS? The drydocking that takes the boat out of commission during the period when an oversight committee is supposed to be determining if the operating conditions imposed on the ferry in the interim are stringent enough?
I found the comments posted on the Star-Bulletin article about the meeting quite interesting. People sure have a strange idea about Kauai. Why do you suppose we get under their skin like that?
Anyway, if you missed the hearing and sitll want a chance to express your concerns, comments will be accepted through March 24. Fax to 808-538-7819 or mail to Lesley A Matsumoto, Belt Collins Hawaii Ltd, 2153 North King St., Suite 200, Honolulu, HI 96819.
Mahalo to LightLine for disseminating that info from John Tyler.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Musings: Hearts Sighing
The rain visited, blessed us for a few hours, and then departed, just in time for Koko and me to take our usual walk. The streets were wet and the clouds were on the move, traveling fast, north to south, driven by a wind I couldn’t feel, but that set the tall eucalyptus and ironwood trees sighing.
Today my heart is sighing as our nation enters a sixth year of war in Iraq, and it was sighing yesterday afternoon as I drove to an interview, listening to the Winter Soldier hearings being broadcast all this week on Democracy Now!
It wasn’t easy listening, the tales these young soldiers and veterans told of their tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wanted to turn it off, but felt I owed them at least my attention. They had a story they wanted and needed to tell, a story of their own disillusionment and despair and grief and guilt, and I felt that I, as a member of the nation that had packed them off to war, had the obligation to listen.
It was difficult to hear some of the things they’d done and seen, but what struck me most was the psychic burden they carry and likely always will. Their hearts were and still are heavily sighing.
This war has been especially devastating for soldiers, who don’t always die, but suffer higher rates of hearing loss, brain damage and amputated limbs than those in previous conflicts. But what about the deeper wounding to the heart and soul that occurs when you know that you’ve done bad things for all the wrong reasons?
That’s what haunted me about their stories: the deep regret and cold cynicism that I heard in their voices; the memories, doubts and questions they articulated that will be circulating through their thoughts for perhaps a lifetime.
And will it be a lifetime cut short or weakened by exposure to the depleted uranium our nation used so casually in the Middle East, contaminating our own soliders and the people who still must live there?
From everything I’ve learned about DU, the answer is yes. And now, thanks to military exercises, we’ve got DU in Hawaii, too.
The state Senate committees on Health and Energy and Environment, (of which our own Sen. Hooser is vice chair) today are conducting a hearing on HB 2076, which would require the health department to establish air sampling stations to monitor for levels of depleted uranium.
It’s a great idea. But why an effective date of July 1, 2020? Surely it would be wise to assess the threats to public health and safety more quickly than that. I'm afraid 2020 is a little too late. You can send testimony to testimony@capitol.hawaii.gov.
Speaking of testimony, I got an email from KAHEA, the Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, saying that more than 6,000 people had submitted testimony yesterday supporting the moratorium on GMO taro research.
The question is, though, who will the Lege listen to? The biotech industry and UH? Or the public?
The Lege did listen to those who opposed the so-called “ceded lands” settlement between the state and its agency, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a controversy I wrote about in the Honolulu Weekly.
Both The Advertiser and Star-Bulletin reported yesterday on the Legislature’s decision to shelve the bill, citing comments from senators who felt the public hadn’t been involved in the negotiations, the $200 million package was insufficient and it was difficult to determine how the two parties had come up with the deal.
With the bill dead, the question now before Hawaii is how will we resolve the question of what kanaka maoli are due for the theft of their land during the overthrow of the monarchy?
Perhaps the state will feel some compunction to finally deal with the much larger topic of “ceded land” ownership now that it’s prohibited by the Hawaii Supreme Court from selling or transferring such lands until that issue is resolved.
And it also seems like a good time to look more closely at OHA and persistent criticisms that the agency isn’t doing enough for its beneficiaries — the Native Hawaiians — with the money it’s already getting from “ceded lands” revenues.
Really, it's an issue whose resolution is long past due. It's been 115 years since the U.S. overthrew the monarchy, and five years since we overthrew Saddam Hussein’s regime. Will we still be in Iraq a century from now? Will debts stemming from our thefts still be unsettled? Will the hearts of those who have had to impose and endure the suffering caused by our imperialism still be grieving and sighing?
The sign in front of Hawaiian activist Mark Boiser’s place in Moloa`a said it all: “FREE LIKE IRAQ.”
Today my heart is sighing as our nation enters a sixth year of war in Iraq, and it was sighing yesterday afternoon as I drove to an interview, listening to the Winter Soldier hearings being broadcast all this week on Democracy Now!
It wasn’t easy listening, the tales these young soldiers and veterans told of their tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wanted to turn it off, but felt I owed them at least my attention. They had a story they wanted and needed to tell, a story of their own disillusionment and despair and grief and guilt, and I felt that I, as a member of the nation that had packed them off to war, had the obligation to listen.
It was difficult to hear some of the things they’d done and seen, but what struck me most was the psychic burden they carry and likely always will. Their hearts were and still are heavily sighing.
This war has been especially devastating for soldiers, who don’t always die, but suffer higher rates of hearing loss, brain damage and amputated limbs than those in previous conflicts. But what about the deeper wounding to the heart and soul that occurs when you know that you’ve done bad things for all the wrong reasons?
That’s what haunted me about their stories: the deep regret and cold cynicism that I heard in their voices; the memories, doubts and questions they articulated that will be circulating through their thoughts for perhaps a lifetime.
And will it be a lifetime cut short or weakened by exposure to the depleted uranium our nation used so casually in the Middle East, contaminating our own soliders and the people who still must live there?
From everything I’ve learned about DU, the answer is yes. And now, thanks to military exercises, we’ve got DU in Hawaii, too.
The state Senate committees on Health and Energy and Environment, (of which our own Sen. Hooser is vice chair) today are conducting a hearing on HB 2076, which would require the health department to establish air sampling stations to monitor for levels of depleted uranium.
It’s a great idea. But why an effective date of July 1, 2020? Surely it would be wise to assess the threats to public health and safety more quickly than that. I'm afraid 2020 is a little too late. You can send testimony to testimony@capitol.hawaii.gov.
Speaking of testimony, I got an email from KAHEA, the Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, saying that more than 6,000 people had submitted testimony yesterday supporting the moratorium on GMO taro research.
The question is, though, who will the Lege listen to? The biotech industry and UH? Or the public?
The Lege did listen to those who opposed the so-called “ceded lands” settlement between the state and its agency, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a controversy I wrote about in the Honolulu Weekly.
Both The Advertiser and Star-Bulletin reported yesterday on the Legislature’s decision to shelve the bill, citing comments from senators who felt the public hadn’t been involved in the negotiations, the $200 million package was insufficient and it was difficult to determine how the two parties had come up with the deal.
With the bill dead, the question now before Hawaii is how will we resolve the question of what kanaka maoli are due for the theft of their land during the overthrow of the monarchy?
Perhaps the state will feel some compunction to finally deal with the much larger topic of “ceded land” ownership now that it’s prohibited by the Hawaii Supreme Court from selling or transferring such lands until that issue is resolved.
And it also seems like a good time to look more closely at OHA and persistent criticisms that the agency isn’t doing enough for its beneficiaries — the Native Hawaiians — with the money it’s already getting from “ceded lands” revenues.
Really, it's an issue whose resolution is long past due. It's been 115 years since the U.S. overthrew the monarchy, and five years since we overthrew Saddam Hussein’s regime. Will we still be in Iraq a century from now? Will debts stemming from our thefts still be unsettled? Will the hearts of those who have had to impose and endure the suffering caused by our imperialism still be grieving and sighing?
The sign in front of Hawaiian activist Mark Boiser’s place in Moloa`a said it all: “FREE LIKE IRAQ.”
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Musings: For Love of Haloa
Late yesterday afternoon, frazzled and fret from a day’s tedious work, I headed for the hills and rediscovered joy.
Standing out there, in the midst of all that life, my eyes feasting on ohia lehua, hala, uluhe and kukui, my ears filled with birdsong and breeze, I said “I love you” out loud to the world.
It’s a sentiment I’ve expressed often in my backyard taro patch, for which I have a special and abiding affection.
Ever since my friend Ka`imi told me the story, in a Hanalei taro patch, of Haloa, the stillborn offspring of gods that became the first taro plant from whom the Hawaiian people are descended, I’ve seen it as more than just a beautiful, hardy, useful, productive crop.
Ever since he planted the first row of huli behind my house and said, “Now you have an army of Hawaiians guarding you Aunty Joan,” I’ve found it impossible to view it as just as another plant.
We’ve developed a rapport, the kalo and me, as I’ve watched it grow, harvested and eaten it, re-planted the huli and seen it expand from a small army to a force to be reckoned with.
When I got sick, it started ailing, too. When I recovered, it flourished. When I walk among it, it leans toward me. When the moon is bright, it glows silver. When the rain is heavy, fat drops pool in the heart of its leaves.
In a world of remarkable plants, kalo is something special. It’s sacred. Its cultural roots run very, very deep.
That’s why I’m so adamantly opposed to the University of Hawaii’s attempts to genetically modify taro. I happen to believe that all genetic engineering is morally wrong, scientifically dubious, economically motivated and environmentally dangerous.
And when it comes to taro, it’s absolutely unconscionable. Many Hawaiians vehemently oppose it, seeing it as the final co-opting of their culture, and I agree. Taro farmers haven’t asked for it. No current disease problem warrants it. Consumer acceptance of it is doubtful. It’s a bad idea in every way — except for UH, which could make money from selling the patent.
Don’t be fooled by arguments that research should continue “just in case.” It costs a lot of money to develop a genetically engineered plant. Once it’s done, UH will want to sell it and then it will be difficult to keep it out of the taro patch.
If the state and the University truly want to help taro farmers, then they should figure out a way to eradicate the apple snail, take steps to restore water to the streams and put taro lands back into the hands of Hawaiians.
But leave the kalo genome alone.
At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the House committee on agriculture, chaired by Rep. Clift Tsuji, will conduct a hearing on SB 958, which imposes a 10-year moratorium on developing, testing, propagating, cultivating, growing, and raising genetically engineered taro in the State.
Please, take a moment to submit your testimony to SB958writtenonlytaro@capitol.hawaii.gov. They'll be accepting comments up through the end of the hearing.
If you want more details, visit Hawaii Seed.
Malama kalo. Aloha Haloa.
Standing out there, in the midst of all that life, my eyes feasting on ohia lehua, hala, uluhe and kukui, my ears filled with birdsong and breeze, I said “I love you” out loud to the world.
It’s a sentiment I’ve expressed often in my backyard taro patch, for which I have a special and abiding affection.
Ever since my friend Ka`imi told me the story, in a Hanalei taro patch, of Haloa, the stillborn offspring of gods that became the first taro plant from whom the Hawaiian people are descended, I’ve seen it as more than just a beautiful, hardy, useful, productive crop.
Ever since he planted the first row of huli behind my house and said, “Now you have an army of Hawaiians guarding you Aunty Joan,” I’ve found it impossible to view it as just as another plant.
We’ve developed a rapport, the kalo and me, as I’ve watched it grow, harvested and eaten it, re-planted the huli and seen it expand from a small army to a force to be reckoned with.
When I got sick, it started ailing, too. When I recovered, it flourished. When I walk among it, it leans toward me. When the moon is bright, it glows silver. When the rain is heavy, fat drops pool in the heart of its leaves.
In a world of remarkable plants, kalo is something special. It’s sacred. Its cultural roots run very, very deep.
That’s why I’m so adamantly opposed to the University of Hawaii’s attempts to genetically modify taro. I happen to believe that all genetic engineering is morally wrong, scientifically dubious, economically motivated and environmentally dangerous.
And when it comes to taro, it’s absolutely unconscionable. Many Hawaiians vehemently oppose it, seeing it as the final co-opting of their culture, and I agree. Taro farmers haven’t asked for it. No current disease problem warrants it. Consumer acceptance of it is doubtful. It’s a bad idea in every way — except for UH, which could make money from selling the patent.
Don’t be fooled by arguments that research should continue “just in case.” It costs a lot of money to develop a genetically engineered plant. Once it’s done, UH will want to sell it and then it will be difficult to keep it out of the taro patch.
If the state and the University truly want to help taro farmers, then they should figure out a way to eradicate the apple snail, take steps to restore water to the streams and put taro lands back into the hands of Hawaiians.
But leave the kalo genome alone.
At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the House committee on agriculture, chaired by Rep. Clift Tsuji, will conduct a hearing on SB 958, which imposes a 10-year moratorium on developing, testing, propagating, cultivating, growing, and raising genetically engineered taro in the State.
Please, take a moment to submit your testimony to SB958writtenonlytaro@capitol.hawaii.gov. They'll be accepting comments up through the end of the hearing.
If you want more details, visit Hawaii Seed.
Malama kalo. Aloha Haloa.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Musings: Masking the Stink
Even though it’s Sunday, my eyes popped open at 6 a.m., the same time Koko popped out of bed, so we hit the road through a neighborhood so quiet I wondered if a neutron bomb had gone off and I was somehow spared.
But despite the absence of human activity, the birds were twittering merrily beneath a cloudy sky and flowers and blossoms of all sorts enveloped me in fragrance along the way, just as each time I awoke in the night I smelled the gardenias that are always a welcome house guest.
It’s wonderful to live in a naturally perfumed world. It helps to make the stink of environmental degradation, militarism and political game playing more tolerable.
Yes, folks, today’s post will touch on all three of those cheery topics, starting with the news that Hawaiian monk seals are seriously on the ropes. Don’t be fooled by the ones you see sunning themselves on Kauai’s beaches, or even the poor buggers that haul up on Oahu.
Although numbers around the main Hawaiian Islands are slowly growing, the main population in the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument is now declining at a rate of 4 percent a year.
According to a summary of the Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Plan, “Biologists estimate the current population at about 1200 individuals, and modeling predicts that the species population will fall below 1000 animals within the next three to four years. This places the Hawaiian monk seal among the world’s most endangered species.”
I became aware of this when I called Dr. Mimi Olry, the state’s monk seal specialist, the other day to get her comments on how military activities within the monument might affect the seals.
“They’d be detrimental,” Mimi said. “The seals are in a crisis situation already.”
It seems that the young seals in the monument “aren’t making it the first year,” Mimi said. “They’re starving. Something’s not right in the ecosystem up there.”
So shoots, why not make it more worse by shooting down missiles over Nihoa and Mokumanamana (Necker), where seals live and cruise over to Niihau and Kauai? Why not blow up some old ships and stuff and put more toxins in the water? Why not harass the hell out of them with that incessant ping-ping-ping of sonar?
Don’t you love it when your federal tax dollars are used that way?
As for your state tax dollars, they’re being used — for reasons that have never been made clear — to pay for the Superferry EIS that is now under way. Usually those who are proposing a project pay for the EIS, but the state in its unending generosity toward the big boat is picking up the tab.
Scoping meetings to ask the public what should be addressed in the EIS are being held around the state, and according to a Star-Bulletin article that Brad Parsons cited in his blog yesterday, the first scoping meetings have already been held on Molokai, where 30 people turned out, and Oahu, where a total of 12 people showed up for two meetings.
By apparent way of explanation for the low turnout, the article offers this quote:
Neighbor island residents are much more aware than they are on Oahu" of harbor activities, said Mike Formby, deputy director of the state Harbors Division. "They are aware of when passenger ships are in, cargo ships are in, when milk's arriving. They seem to have a general awareness and consciousness."
I’m not sure that’s all there is to it. It might also have something to do with the fact that Oahu residents by and large didn’t seem much concerned about environmental impacts, while that was the big issue on the Neighbor Islands.
Garans there will be a bigger crowd than that when the hearings are held on Kauai — 2-5 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at KCC — Maui and Big Island. And I’m sure one point that will be made is the need to study the impact on monk seals that use Nawiliwili Harbor.
Brad also noted a Star-Bulletin editorial that weighs in on the state audit — mandated by the Lege and delayed by the gov’s refusal to release documents — that is already significantly behind schedule.
In fact, it may not even be ready before the Lege adjourns. Now wouldn’t that be convenient for the gov and her cronies? And as the editorial points out, with the Superferry in drydock, the oversight task force that was formed to make recommendations on possible changes in operating conditions for the ferry won’t have much to report on before the Lege adjourns, either. Again, how convenient.
As the editorial states: ...the public is due an explanation to dispel a perception that something untoward was behind the February 2005 exemption [from an environmental review for the ferry].
Ass right, we’re due an explanation, not only about the exemption but the Administration’s delays. But so long as Gov. Lingle and her Attorney General, Mark Bennett, play the stall game and the Lege doesn’t push back, it doesn’t look like the public is gonna get its due.
Since we’re on the topic of folks getting their due, my Honolulu Weekly article on the proposed “ceded lands” settlement is now posted on line.
I don't want to bum you out completely, so here's some good news: black holes aren't really black! And they don't just suck stuff in, they also spew it out!
Heck, we're learning new stuff all the time. Maybe we'll figure our big problems out.
Have a nice day! ☺
(photo by Mimi Olry)
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Musings: Short Memories
It was feeling like typical March weather — gray, cool and windy — when Koko and I started on our walk this morning, but while we were out, the sun punched through the clouds, cloaking Makaleha’s jagged outline in soft, rosy garb and casting the pastures in a golden glow.
Now it’s shaping up to be a mild spring day — replete with my first honohono blossom of the season just about to open, and already exuding its characteristic sweet fragrance.
On mornings like this, when the weather is gentle, and my neighborhood quiet and calm, it’s easy to ignore the conflict that is marring so many lives all around the world. But America’s military has been much on my mind lately as we approach the 5-year anniversary of the war in Iraq.
That’s not the only thing that’s pushed our nation’s militarism into the forefront of my consciousness. I’m also writing an article about the Navy’s plans to conduct live fire training exercises in Papahanaumokuakea — the new national marine monument — and yesterday I listened to Democracy Now, which broadcast excerpts from the 1971 Winter Soldier hearings, which included horrific accounts of American soldiers testifying about the torture, rape and murder they witnessed and carried out while serving in Vietnam.
The other night, my bedtime reading turned out to be Paul Kramer’s New Yorker article about how Americans were using the “water cure” — a more primitive form of waterboarding — back in the early 1900s to torture confessions out of insurgents in the Philippines.
Then yesterday, when I went into the Whaler’s store in Anahola, I saw the banner headline on the The Advertiser, which read: “Army wants to add 2,000 troops in Hawaii.”
According to the article, that’s the latest estimate of how many more soldiers may come to the Isles under a "Grow the Force" initiative. In January 2007, President Bush announced he would increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps to provide for current and future needs and to reduce stress on deployable personnel.
It left me wondering just what the President has in mind in terms of “future needs” for an expanded military. And it also left me wondering why we as Americans have such a short memory when it comes to the horrors of our war and the brutalities of our imperialistic forays into other nations.
I was struck, as I listened to the Democracy Now broadcast, at how we were surprised to discover soldiers were running amok in Iraq and Afghanistan, when they’d done the exact same thing in Vietnam.
And I was astounded, as I read the New Yorker story, at how the same arguments that were used to justify torture in the Philippines were trotted out a century later to rationalize torture in the “War on Terror.”
We keep acting like this is all new stuff, when in fact, it’s the same old same old. We not only haven’t learned from history, we don’t even remember history.
That’s why it still hasn’t sunk that imperialism and economics — not a heartfelt desire to expand democracy — are what drive us to invade and control other nations.
That’s why we still haven’t recognized that when young men are sent to fight a war waged for immoral purposes, they will behave in immoral ways.
That’s why it still hasn’t clicked that torture is not only an ineffective means of gathering useful information, it debases those who carry it out and makes a mockery of the rule of law.
That’s why it still hasn’t dawned on us that all of our imperialistic excursions are always destined to turn out the same bad way: massive environmental destruction, millions of lives lost or destroyed, countless resources squandered and the coffers of a few greatly enriched by the suffering of others.
Two sayings came to mind as I pondered all this: those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
Do we really want this craziness to continue?
Now it’s shaping up to be a mild spring day — replete with my first honohono blossom of the season just about to open, and already exuding its characteristic sweet fragrance.
On mornings like this, when the weather is gentle, and my neighborhood quiet and calm, it’s easy to ignore the conflict that is marring so many lives all around the world. But America’s military has been much on my mind lately as we approach the 5-year anniversary of the war in Iraq.
That’s not the only thing that’s pushed our nation’s militarism into the forefront of my consciousness. I’m also writing an article about the Navy’s plans to conduct live fire training exercises in Papahanaumokuakea — the new national marine monument — and yesterday I listened to Democracy Now, which broadcast excerpts from the 1971 Winter Soldier hearings, which included horrific accounts of American soldiers testifying about the torture, rape and murder they witnessed and carried out while serving in Vietnam.
The other night, my bedtime reading turned out to be Paul Kramer’s New Yorker article about how Americans were using the “water cure” — a more primitive form of waterboarding — back in the early 1900s to torture confessions out of insurgents in the Philippines.
Then yesterday, when I went into the Whaler’s store in Anahola, I saw the banner headline on the The Advertiser, which read: “Army wants to add 2,000 troops in Hawaii.”
According to the article, that’s the latest estimate of how many more soldiers may come to the Isles under a "Grow the Force" initiative. In January 2007, President Bush announced he would increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps to provide for current and future needs and to reduce stress on deployable personnel.
It left me wondering just what the President has in mind in terms of “future needs” for an expanded military. And it also left me wondering why we as Americans have such a short memory when it comes to the horrors of our war and the brutalities of our imperialistic forays into other nations.
I was struck, as I listened to the Democracy Now broadcast, at how we were surprised to discover soldiers were running amok in Iraq and Afghanistan, when they’d done the exact same thing in Vietnam.
And I was astounded, as I read the New Yorker story, at how the same arguments that were used to justify torture in the Philippines were trotted out a century later to rationalize torture in the “War on Terror.”
We keep acting like this is all new stuff, when in fact, it’s the same old same old. We not only haven’t learned from history, we don’t even remember history.
That’s why it still hasn’t sunk that imperialism and economics — not a heartfelt desire to expand democracy — are what drive us to invade and control other nations.
That’s why we still haven’t recognized that when young men are sent to fight a war waged for immoral purposes, they will behave in immoral ways.
That’s why it still hasn’t clicked that torture is not only an ineffective means of gathering useful information, it debases those who carry it out and makes a mockery of the rule of law.
That’s why it still hasn’t dawned on us that all of our imperialistic excursions are always destined to turn out the same bad way: massive environmental destruction, millions of lives lost or destroyed, countless resources squandered and the coffers of a few greatly enriched by the suffering of others.
Two sayings came to mind as I pondered all this: those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
Do we really want this craziness to continue?
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