The sky was dark, more from clouds than night, when Koko and I set out walking this morning on streets glistening from frequent passing showers. A scientist friend said the rain gauge on Waialeale is down 70 percent this year, so this recent spate of precipitation is a very good thing.
As we meandered through the neighborhood, past political signs that speak to an election that seems like it’s been going on forever, the sun rose and turned the gray into dreamy pink. Back home, the rat that had been lured into a trap by a piece of meat pilfered from Koko’s dinner bowl was awaiting perpetual dream time. Since I didn’t hear any banging around this morning, I’m pretty sure I got the one that was trying to become my uninvited roommate.
While out in the yard yesterday, enjoying a perfect double rainbow in the clouds, I noticed that the chickens had dug up all the graves of the rats I dispatched last year, making meals of the insects that had made meals of the corpses. It was neat to see that natural cycle played out. I don’t especially want to feed the chickens, but at least the rats didn’t go to waste.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the shocking $1.55 billion that was raised — and spent — in this year’s presidential campaign.
As the Lynchburg, Virginia News & Advance opines:
The figures are still being compiled for all the congressional races this year — all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and a third of the U.S. Senate. When that figure’s in, it’s likely 2008 will be the most expensive year yet for the cost of conducting an election.
That fact should send shivers down the spine of any American, for money is now the driving force of politics in this nation to an extent that was unimaginable three decades ago when public financing of campaigns began in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
Sad thing is, so much of that money was spent not educating or informing voters, but frightening, misinforming and alienating them.
In following Hunter Bishop’s blog, I’m reminded that mayoral elections on the Big Island always seem to be so much more interesting than the ones on Kauai. Why is that? We face many of the same issues — waste to energy, overdevelopment, GMOs — but our races tend to be yawn-o-ramas.
Speaking of GMOs, I was disappointed to read that Big Island Mayor Harry Kim, whose reign is winding down, vetoed the Hawaii County Council’s unanimously approved ban on growing and researching GMO coffee and taro, even though public testimony was overwhelmingly in support of the measure.
I used to think Harry was a progressive, a politician for the people, but the rationale he spouted sounded like something right out of a Syngenta brochure:
Kim added, "There is global demand for new, improved, safe and dependable plant genetics, and Hawaii is a special place for research because of its location and its year-round growing environment."
Then he went on to prove he’s really out of touch:
Kim repeated a call for more public education about genetic modification, including the strict state and federal regulations it must meet.
That’s the problem, Harry old boy. There ain’t any strict regs it’s gotta meet, especially at the state level. As Hunter pono reports, Harry also vetoed a ban on plastic bags, a North Kohala downzoning and the Council’s budget. Hmmmm. He sure is acting a lot like the Republican he always claimed he wasn’t.
On the state level, Rep.Mina Morita wrote a good op-ed piece on why folks should vote no on the Con-Con, a view shared by Sen. Gary Hooser.
And for those who are still wondering if there’s even going to BE an election tomorrow, a friend sent this link to a YouTube video that locates “potential prison camps around the country.”
Gee. What a waste of good barbed wire.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Musings: R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Hunger, and the thunking-thumping, rustling-rummaging of a rat — which still has Koko whining and pacing — woke me up early, so we went out walking beneath a sky where Orion was directly overhead and the Big Dipper, handle down, had risen not much earlier in the east. It was a comforting celestial continuation of the sunset action of the past two nights, where flashy Venus has been cozying up to a golden crescent moon.
As we walked, the stars gave way to clouds and the struggling sun turned the sky above the still sleeping Giant the yellowish-purple of an old bruise. Sheets of traveling rain drew a thin curtain over Kalepa Ridge and drifted our way, dampening us, but not our spirits.
It was easy to feel the spirits of those who came before, as well as those who are here now, while sitting on the grass at Ka-ulu-o-Laka heiau at Ke`e yesterday afternoon. As a man chanted and tapped out a steady beat on a pahu (drum), traditional ho`okupu of ti, taro, sweet potatoes and a garland of lauwa`e fern were placed on an altar dedicated to the goddess of forest and dance. In the background, waves broke on the rocks and birds occasionally broke into song.
As a helicopter droned overhead and lifeguards shouted orders through megaphones to tourists on the beach below, I found it remarkable that Hawaiians have managed to hold on to their culture at all — the chants, the dance, the language, the rituals of protocol — amid the continuing crush of Westernization that nearly extinguished, and still threatens, their race.
It was heartening to see that a halau hula (hula school) had been there earlier, leaving its own offerings of ti-leaf lei. This is one heiau that is cared for and still used in traditional ways, although it gets its share of well-intentioned, but inappropriate, offerings like crystals, “rock laulau” (pohaku wrapped in ti leaf), oranges and heliconia.
At the end of the ceremony, one of the men spoke of the importance of caring for the ancient sites, the sacred places that serve as a physical representation of the culture and offer a link to the past. So many have been lost, and most are under the auspices of the state, which tends to have a different idea than Hawaiians on how they should be interpreted and maintained.
Several tourists were among us at the heiau, and many more had gathered earlier to watch and take pictures when the lua boys arrived with their offerings at the beach. All but two complied when asked not to take photos during the kava ceremony, where the offerings were dedicated, and they all joined hands, then sat in a circle with the rest of us. Afterward, many came forward when Dallas Watanabe, who manned the kava bowl, invited them to try the traditional drink.
It was nice that they were included, and it struck me that these tourists, in the Islands for just a few days or weeks, expressed more interest in and respect for the Hawaiian culture than many folks who were born here or have lived here for years.
Because it’s clearly a lack of respect that prompts people to build their homes on top of burials, to pursue developments that make it economically unfeasible for Hawaiians to remain in their homes and homeland, to promote unrestrained tourism that drives locals from their beaches, to pursue an ostentatious lifestyle so at odds with local culture.
I missed the dawn blessing that paid homage to the iwi kupuna, the bones of the ancestors, now encased in cement on the Brescia property, but I stopped by there on the way home and looked in and saw the offerings and lei that had been left on the burials, never mind the locked gate.
Aside from the foundation, no additional construction has been done on the house. I don’t know if they’re waiting for materials or the final decision of the Burial Council or what, but it’s obviously on hold, unlike the giant eyesore being built right next door. This used to be one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline on Kauai. Now it’s a rich person’s ghetto, packed tight with oversized, overpriced houses that completely miss the point of their stellar surroundings.
It’s become, like Ke`e, a place where what’s happened to it makes it a place where I no longer want to go, and I thought of how many desecrated places like this there are around Kauai now, and throughout the Islands, the world, and I wondered, as I often do, whether those resisting the madness, the disrespect, will be overwhelmed, or somehow prevail.
And then the lyrics of a Mana Caceres song came into my head:
They took the land, they took aloha, overtook the Queen even though they didn't know her, suppressed ikaika, evict kupuna from the `ohana, but they couldn't take the mana, but they couldn't take the mana.
As we walked, the stars gave way to clouds and the struggling sun turned the sky above the still sleeping Giant the yellowish-purple of an old bruise. Sheets of traveling rain drew a thin curtain over Kalepa Ridge and drifted our way, dampening us, but not our spirits.
It was easy to feel the spirits of those who came before, as well as those who are here now, while sitting on the grass at Ka-ulu-o-Laka heiau at Ke`e yesterday afternoon. As a man chanted and tapped out a steady beat on a pahu (drum), traditional ho`okupu of ti, taro, sweet potatoes and a garland of lauwa`e fern were placed on an altar dedicated to the goddess of forest and dance. In the background, waves broke on the rocks and birds occasionally broke into song.
As a helicopter droned overhead and lifeguards shouted orders through megaphones to tourists on the beach below, I found it remarkable that Hawaiians have managed to hold on to their culture at all — the chants, the dance, the language, the rituals of protocol — amid the continuing crush of Westernization that nearly extinguished, and still threatens, their race.
It was heartening to see that a halau hula (hula school) had been there earlier, leaving its own offerings of ti-leaf lei. This is one heiau that is cared for and still used in traditional ways, although it gets its share of well-intentioned, but inappropriate, offerings like crystals, “rock laulau” (pohaku wrapped in ti leaf), oranges and heliconia.
At the end of the ceremony, one of the men spoke of the importance of caring for the ancient sites, the sacred places that serve as a physical representation of the culture and offer a link to the past. So many have been lost, and most are under the auspices of the state, which tends to have a different idea than Hawaiians on how they should be interpreted and maintained.
Several tourists were among us at the heiau, and many more had gathered earlier to watch and take pictures when the lua boys arrived with their offerings at the beach. All but two complied when asked not to take photos during the kava ceremony, where the offerings were dedicated, and they all joined hands, then sat in a circle with the rest of us. Afterward, many came forward when Dallas Watanabe, who manned the kava bowl, invited them to try the traditional drink.
It was nice that they were included, and it struck me that these tourists, in the Islands for just a few days or weeks, expressed more interest in and respect for the Hawaiian culture than many folks who were born here or have lived here for years.
Because it’s clearly a lack of respect that prompts people to build their homes on top of burials, to pursue developments that make it economically unfeasible for Hawaiians to remain in their homes and homeland, to promote unrestrained tourism that drives locals from their beaches, to pursue an ostentatious lifestyle so at odds with local culture.
I missed the dawn blessing that paid homage to the iwi kupuna, the bones of the ancestors, now encased in cement on the Brescia property, but I stopped by there on the way home and looked in and saw the offerings and lei that had been left on the burials, never mind the locked gate.
Aside from the foundation, no additional construction has been done on the house. I don’t know if they’re waiting for materials or the final decision of the Burial Council or what, but it’s obviously on hold, unlike the giant eyesore being built right next door. This used to be one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline on Kauai. Now it’s a rich person’s ghetto, packed tight with oversized, overpriced houses that completely miss the point of their stellar surroundings.
It’s become, like Ke`e, a place where what’s happened to it makes it a place where I no longer want to go, and I thought of how many desecrated places like this there are around Kauai now, and throughout the Islands, the world, and I wondered, as I often do, whether those resisting the madness, the disrespect, will be overwhelmed, or somehow prevail.
And then the lyrics of a Mana Caceres song came into my head:
They took the land, they took aloha, overtook the Queen even though they didn't know her, suppressed ikaika, evict kupuna from the `ohana, but they couldn't take the mana, but they couldn't take the mana.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Musings: Suck-Ups and Scary Stuffs
The sky was just turning yellowish pink around the edges when Koko and I set out walking this morning on soil that had been quenched and replenished by the recent heavy rains. After two days of near lock down, Koko was frisky and rarin’ to go, lunging at trucks and whining at the yards of her dog friends in an attempt to entice them out for a sniff fest.
But we encountered only a shama thrush engaged in the high-risk behavior of pecking at something in the street, which was already littered with the blood, guts, feathers and flesh of numerous chickens, toads and other unidentifiable creatures. Rainy days take a heavy toll on wildlife.
Folks are thinking the bell may soon be tolling for Hawaii Superferry, now that the state Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for 9 a.m. Dec. 18 on whether Act 2 — adopted in a special session of the Lege so the boat could run prior to conducting an environmental assessment — is unconstitutional special legislation.
My own guess is that the Alakai, sinking under the weight of low ridership and high expenses, won’t be long for Hawaii. HSF and Austal have done what they intended to do — prove the boat can run in rough waters, albeit with a high puke factor — so I’m betting that as they negotiate a contract with Uncle Sam for the recently completed second ferry, they’ll make it a two-fer deal.
Meanwhile, other folks are wagering that the next job held by Gov. Lingle — still on the road for McCain, where she’s blaming Dems for the economic problems — will be at JF Lehman Co., the big bucks behind the HSF (aside from taxpayers). That would give her two years in the board room of a high profile company to raise the outside money she needs to run a Senate campaign in 2012. That scenario sure explains her major suck-up to Superferry.
In national elections, I got an email from a friend in the swing state of Colorado who has been campaigning hard for Obama. She wrote:
I'll be glad when it's over; I've been way too anxious the last few weeks. I've heard the same thing from a lot of my volunteers. The thought of McCain/Palin winning is too scary to contemplate and no one trusts the GOP not to pull some shit! I must think positively!!!
I think a lot of people are wondering what dirty tricks the GOP has up its sleeve, aside from the ongoing legal challenges of voter registration and vote flipping on electronic voting machines.
In local elections, The Garden Island is running another one of its meaningless on-line polls that shows JoAnn beating Bernard, with 52 percent of the vote. Let's hope this is one time when it's accurate, because the thought of Ian Costa continuing as planning director is too loathsome to imagine.
In an effort to be a well-informed voter, I finally got around to reading all the proposed county charter amendments. While some sound good in principle, the way they’re likely to play out on Kauai is a different story.
Take the idea of creating a new position of county auditor. Yeah, it would be great to have more oversight of county funds and functions. But in reality, it would just turn out to be another high-paying county job given out as a political favor to someone who doesn’t do anything.
You know, sort of like the County Attorney, who doesn't bother to attend county meetings. I thought of that when reading a story about the planning commission’s decision this week to reauthorize permits for those two controversial, unneeded and unwanted resort projects that would add 547 new units to the already maxed-out Waipouli area. The article stated:
Still, Chair Steven Weinstein, who voted against the permit when it was originally approved by the commission, said he believed it was too late to revoke the permit and instead encouraged fellow commissioners, including troubled neophyte Herman Texeira, to consider only the amendments before them.
Now, we have members of the public and an attorney for Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. telling the commissioners they have more options than they realized, yet Weinstein is going by what he believes. Where was the county attorney assigned to the commission? Why not ask him or her for legal advice instead of relying on Weinstein’s opinion?
Anyway, since it’s Halloween, I’ll leave you with this graphic, created by a friend of KauaiEclectic. Oh, and guess what the most popular mask is this year? Sarah Palin. Yes, who is behind that carefully constructed façade?
But we encountered only a shama thrush engaged in the high-risk behavior of pecking at something in the street, which was already littered with the blood, guts, feathers and flesh of numerous chickens, toads and other unidentifiable creatures. Rainy days take a heavy toll on wildlife.
Folks are thinking the bell may soon be tolling for Hawaii Superferry, now that the state Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for 9 a.m. Dec. 18 on whether Act 2 — adopted in a special session of the Lege so the boat could run prior to conducting an environmental assessment — is unconstitutional special legislation.
My own guess is that the Alakai, sinking under the weight of low ridership and high expenses, won’t be long for Hawaii. HSF and Austal have done what they intended to do — prove the boat can run in rough waters, albeit with a high puke factor — so I’m betting that as they negotiate a contract with Uncle Sam for the recently completed second ferry, they’ll make it a two-fer deal.
Meanwhile, other folks are wagering that the next job held by Gov. Lingle — still on the road for McCain, where she’s blaming Dems for the economic problems — will be at JF Lehman Co., the big bucks behind the HSF (aside from taxpayers). That would give her two years in the board room of a high profile company to raise the outside money she needs to run a Senate campaign in 2012. That scenario sure explains her major suck-up to Superferry.
In national elections, I got an email from a friend in the swing state of Colorado who has been campaigning hard for Obama. She wrote:
I'll be glad when it's over; I've been way too anxious the last few weeks. I've heard the same thing from a lot of my volunteers. The thought of McCain/Palin winning is too scary to contemplate and no one trusts the GOP not to pull some shit! I must think positively!!!
I think a lot of people are wondering what dirty tricks the GOP has up its sleeve, aside from the ongoing legal challenges of voter registration and vote flipping on electronic voting machines.
In local elections, The Garden Island is running another one of its meaningless on-line polls that shows JoAnn beating Bernard, with 52 percent of the vote. Let's hope this is one time when it's accurate, because the thought of Ian Costa continuing as planning director is too loathsome to imagine.
In an effort to be a well-informed voter, I finally got around to reading all the proposed county charter amendments. While some sound good in principle, the way they’re likely to play out on Kauai is a different story.
Take the idea of creating a new position of county auditor. Yeah, it would be great to have more oversight of county funds and functions. But in reality, it would just turn out to be another high-paying county job given out as a political favor to someone who doesn’t do anything.
You know, sort of like the County Attorney, who doesn't bother to attend county meetings. I thought of that when reading a story about the planning commission’s decision this week to reauthorize permits for those two controversial, unneeded and unwanted resort projects that would add 547 new units to the already maxed-out Waipouli area. The article stated:
Still, Chair Steven Weinstein, who voted against the permit when it was originally approved by the commission, said he believed it was too late to revoke the permit and instead encouraged fellow commissioners, including troubled neophyte Herman Texeira, to consider only the amendments before them.
Now, we have members of the public and an attorney for Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. telling the commissioners they have more options than they realized, yet Weinstein is going by what he believes. Where was the county attorney assigned to the commission? Why not ask him or her for legal advice instead of relying on Weinstein’s opinion?
Anyway, since it’s Halloween, I’ll leave you with this graphic, created by a friend of KauaiEclectic. Oh, and guess what the most popular mask is this year? Sarah Palin. Yes, who is behind that carefully constructed façade?
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Musings: Re-Establishing a Presence
Rains kept moving through this morning, keeping my bedroom dark and the temperature cool, scuttling plans for a walk and repeatedly lulling me back into the pleasant land of dreams. And then suddenly I awoke, clear and full of energy and ready to move forward and respond to the demands of the day.
That's the same kind of energy that's going to be present up at Naue this Saturday, where the ongoing concern and respect for iwi kupuna — the bones of the ancestors — and the Hawaiian culture in general will be highlighted through a ceremony that will start at Naue and end at Ke`e.
The purpose is to bring the issue of Hawaiian burials into public attention, educate youth and non-Hawaiians in proper cultural protocol and re-establish a cultural and spiritual presence at Ke`e.
It will begin at Naue at 6 a.m. with the traditional hiuwai, or purification ceremony, with ho`okupu, or offerings, made to the kupuna who have been laid to rest there. Only traditional offerings — salt, lei made without string, native plants — should be brought.
Aunty Louise Sausen, who is helping to organize the event, also wants to line the street in that subdivision with flowers to bring attention to the other burials that have been discovered there, besides those at the Brescia property. For that activity, modern lei and tropical flowers will be accepted.
Then participants will march to Ke`e, stopping to sing to kupuna who are buried along the way, so as to make the younger generation aware of where these burials are located, she said.
At Ke`e, ceremonies will begin at noon with the blowing of the pu. Participants are asked to bring pohaku “because the Kupuna Council wants to make sure certain areas are blocked from people entering,” Aunty Louise said. “There’s been a lot of desecration going on. It’s a state park, so people think they can niele (snoop) around and go anywhere. These things have to stop. We need control.”
My friend Ka`imi Hermosura, who is among those restoring the lo`i at Ha`ena with Hui Maka`ainana o Makana, said the ceremony at Ke`e will be “all about restoring the energy, making it living.”
He and some of his friends and relatives — young men born and raised in Wainiha and Ha`ena — have been doing extensive caretaking work at Ke`e, as well as educating visitors about the high cultural significance of the area, which has burials, a heiau dedicated to Laka and other ancient features.
“This is a younger generation stepping up to the plate,” Aunty Louise said. “A lot of our young men are feeling displaced and this is a pu`uhonua (place of refuge) for these boys. It’s a very sensitive cultural area.”
I’ve been up to see the work that Ka`imi and “the boys” are doing and also wrote an article about it for Kauai People. It’s really inspiring to witness what they’ve accomplished, much of it by hand and all of it volunteer. These are young men who grew up fishing and hunting and living off the land, and they’ve seen their neighborhood change radically in their short lives. But rather than get pissed off — well, there’s a little bit of that — they’ve put their energy to positive use re-establishing a cultural presence among the hordes of tourists and luxury homes.
Anyway, if you’re like most Kauai residents, you probably avoid Ke`e like the plague. But this Saturday, you might want to venture up there mid-day. It’s not a protest or a demonstration, but a gathering with a spiritual and cultural essence. Bring a potluck dish and a pohaku and join in. It’s open to everyone, and I’m sure you’ll leave feeling better than when you came.
That's the same kind of energy that's going to be present up at Naue this Saturday, where the ongoing concern and respect for iwi kupuna — the bones of the ancestors — and the Hawaiian culture in general will be highlighted through a ceremony that will start at Naue and end at Ke`e.
The purpose is to bring the issue of Hawaiian burials into public attention, educate youth and non-Hawaiians in proper cultural protocol and re-establish a cultural and spiritual presence at Ke`e.
It will begin at Naue at 6 a.m. with the traditional hiuwai, or purification ceremony, with ho`okupu, or offerings, made to the kupuna who have been laid to rest there. Only traditional offerings — salt, lei made without string, native plants — should be brought.
Aunty Louise Sausen, who is helping to organize the event, also wants to line the street in that subdivision with flowers to bring attention to the other burials that have been discovered there, besides those at the Brescia property. For that activity, modern lei and tropical flowers will be accepted.
Then participants will march to Ke`e, stopping to sing to kupuna who are buried along the way, so as to make the younger generation aware of where these burials are located, she said.
At Ke`e, ceremonies will begin at noon with the blowing of the pu. Participants are asked to bring pohaku “because the Kupuna Council wants to make sure certain areas are blocked from people entering,” Aunty Louise said. “There’s been a lot of desecration going on. It’s a state park, so people think they can niele (snoop) around and go anywhere. These things have to stop. We need control.”
My friend Ka`imi Hermosura, who is among those restoring the lo`i at Ha`ena with Hui Maka`ainana o Makana, said the ceremony at Ke`e will be “all about restoring the energy, making it living.”
He and some of his friends and relatives — young men born and raised in Wainiha and Ha`ena — have been doing extensive caretaking work at Ke`e, as well as educating visitors about the high cultural significance of the area, which has burials, a heiau dedicated to Laka and other ancient features.
“This is a younger generation stepping up to the plate,” Aunty Louise said. “A lot of our young men are feeling displaced and this is a pu`uhonua (place of refuge) for these boys. It’s a very sensitive cultural area.”
I’ve been up to see the work that Ka`imi and “the boys” are doing and also wrote an article about it for Kauai People. It’s really inspiring to witness what they’ve accomplished, much of it by hand and all of it volunteer. These are young men who grew up fishing and hunting and living off the land, and they’ve seen their neighborhood change radically in their short lives. But rather than get pissed off — well, there’s a little bit of that — they’ve put their energy to positive use re-establishing a cultural presence among the hordes of tourists and luxury homes.
Anyway, if you’re like most Kauai residents, you probably avoid Ke`e like the plague. But this Saturday, you might want to venture up there mid-day. It’s not a protest or a demonstration, but a gathering with a spiritual and cultural essence. Bring a potluck dish and a pohaku and join in. It’s open to everyone, and I’m sure you’ll leave feeling better than when you came.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Still Ferry-Free
It looks like the tanking world economy is going to keep Kauai ferry-free for at least another year, according to a breaking story in today’s Advertiser.
Apparently, HSF has finally sobered up and realized that since it’s already bleeding cash with the Alakai, it doesn’t make sense to gouge the wound deeper by adding the second ferry, which is now pau and under going sea trials.
According to the article:
The company will look at short-term opportunities for use of the ship prior to its induction into service in the islands.
Gee, I wonder what those might be — especially since this new ferry is outfitted with all the equipment needed to make it suitable for military operations.
The article goes on to dutifully report the usual self-serving shibai we’ve come to expect from HSF:
Hawaii Superferry President and CEO Tom Fargo the company remains committed to serving the people and businesses of Hawaii.
"Postponing the introduction of our second ship will defer over $10 million in start-upcosts and enable us to maintain our sound financial position," Fargo said. "Given today's economic uncertainties, this decision is both prudent and provides us with additional time to develop this market, while continuing to grow our successful Oahu and Maui service.
Fargo said the company still intends to go forward with the long-term plan to expand service to the Big Island and Kauai. The company had planned to start with Kauai earlier but faced opposition from residents there.
Indeed it did — and still does. heh heh
Meanwhile, Dick Mayer of Maui noted that Tuesday travel will no longer be offered after Nov. 4, and that no reservations are being accepted at all after March 15.
On this very rainy day on Kauai, it seems that every cloud does indeed have a silver lining. Mahalo to the anonymous reader who brought this to my attention.
Apparently, HSF has finally sobered up and realized that since it’s already bleeding cash with the Alakai, it doesn’t make sense to gouge the wound deeper by adding the second ferry, which is now pau and under going sea trials.
According to the article:
The company will look at short-term opportunities for use of the ship prior to its induction into service in the islands.
Gee, I wonder what those might be — especially since this new ferry is outfitted with all the equipment needed to make it suitable for military operations.
The article goes on to dutifully report the usual self-serving shibai we’ve come to expect from HSF:
Hawaii Superferry President and CEO Tom Fargo the company remains committed to serving the people and businesses of Hawaii.
"Postponing the introduction of our second ship will defer over $10 million in start-upcosts and enable us to maintain our sound financial position," Fargo said. "Given today's economic uncertainties, this decision is both prudent and provides us with additional time to develop this market, while continuing to grow our successful Oahu and Maui service.
Fargo said the company still intends to go forward with the long-term plan to expand service to the Big Island and Kauai. The company had planned to start with Kauai earlier but faced opposition from residents there.
Indeed it did — and still does. heh heh
Meanwhile, Dick Mayer of Maui noted that Tuesday travel will no longer be offered after Nov. 4, and that no reservations are being accepted at all after March 15.
On this very rainy day on Kauai, it seems that every cloud does indeed have a silver lining. Mahalo to the anonymous reader who brought this to my attention.
Musings: Terror By Any Other Name
The world, or at least my small part of it, is muffled today. Human sounds are squelched by a thick layer of clouds, but bird song, happily, still comes through loud and clear.
Syria is, quite rightly, loudly condemning America’s helicopter raid within its borders, which left eight people dead in a strike on not a known or convicted terrorist, but a suspected al Qaeda facilitator.
But America, as usual, doesn’t seem to hear.
Syrian Embassy spokesman [Jihad ] Makdissi said the United States cannot take matters into its own hands.
"They should come to Syrian authorities and share their information instead of applying the law of the jungle," Makdissi told the BBC.
Sunday’s cross-border raid is a continuation of our current U.S. policy to commit terror in the so-called “war on terror” by using special operations forces to carry out assassinations. It`s yet another example of our “do as I say and not as I do” approach to foreign policy.
Because, of course, if such a thing had happened in this country, we’d already have dispatched the fighter jets to blow the perps away, along with a number of civilians and city blocks for good measure. Somehow we just don’t catch the hypocrisy.
The incident reminded me a conversation I had the other day with two Rastafarian friends, one of them a priest and reggae musician just back from the U.S. Virgin Islands. We were discussing the system of rule within the Virgin Islands, a U.S. protectorate, and how reluctant America is to give up its empire.
We just can’t imagine that folks wouldn’t be universally thrilled at the chance to live under the wing — or boot — of Uncle Sam. Those who resist, such as the Iraqis and Afghanis, are viewed, as one person noted in the comments section of a previous post, as “ungrateful Shites.”
What’s the matter with them? Heck, we’re killing people all over the world to spread American democracy!
Our conversation reminded my Rasta friend of an encounter he’d had in a Georgia waffle house recently, when he and his reggae band were traveling through the South after a gig in the North.
“We were sitting around, talking consciousness stuff like this, when a guy walked up and said, ‘It’s America, nigger, love it or leave it.’ And we said, well, we are in a waffle house in Georgia.”
I wasn’t sure what troubled me most: the racist nationalism expressed by the waffle house patron, or my friend’s acceptance of such things as the norm, something to be expected if one is an African American in certain places within the U.S.
Even though a black man is running for president, racism is alive and well in America, as evidenced by the report of a foiled skinhead plot “to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.”
Now that's some terror for ya.
It’s not just African Americans who are at risk for such terrifying incidents. In Mesa, Arizona, recently, 30 sheriff’s deputies and 30 “volunteer posse” members — all armed with semiautomatic weapons — conducted a 2 a.m. raid on the town’s city hall and library to arrest 16 janitors. Can you imagine the terror the janitors must have felt when that crowd of hooligans burst through the door? Regardless of how one feels about immigration, actions that are intended to evoke terror are terrorism, and should be viewed as such.
But in America, the terrorists are always somebody else, out there. We refuse to see the terror we’ve inflicted on so many people, whether they’re in Middle Eastern villages, the cells of Guantanamo Bay, the meat-packing houses of the Midwest, the race-based traffic stops of our own inner cities, the jungles of Southeast Asia.
And until we recognize, and rectify, our own propensity toward terrorism, we shouldn't be too surprised if others want to terrify us. It's the old what goes around comes around law of nature.
Syria is, quite rightly, loudly condemning America’s helicopter raid within its borders, which left eight people dead in a strike on not a known or convicted terrorist, but a suspected al Qaeda facilitator.
But America, as usual, doesn’t seem to hear.
Syrian Embassy spokesman [Jihad ] Makdissi said the United States cannot take matters into its own hands.
"They should come to Syrian authorities and share their information instead of applying the law of the jungle," Makdissi told the BBC.
Sunday’s cross-border raid is a continuation of our current U.S. policy to commit terror in the so-called “war on terror” by using special operations forces to carry out assassinations. It`s yet another example of our “do as I say and not as I do” approach to foreign policy.
Because, of course, if such a thing had happened in this country, we’d already have dispatched the fighter jets to blow the perps away, along with a number of civilians and city blocks for good measure. Somehow we just don’t catch the hypocrisy.
The incident reminded me a conversation I had the other day with two Rastafarian friends, one of them a priest and reggae musician just back from the U.S. Virgin Islands. We were discussing the system of rule within the Virgin Islands, a U.S. protectorate, and how reluctant America is to give up its empire.
We just can’t imagine that folks wouldn’t be universally thrilled at the chance to live under the wing — or boot — of Uncle Sam. Those who resist, such as the Iraqis and Afghanis, are viewed, as one person noted in the comments section of a previous post, as “ungrateful Shites.”
What’s the matter with them? Heck, we’re killing people all over the world to spread American democracy!
Our conversation reminded my Rasta friend of an encounter he’d had in a Georgia waffle house recently, when he and his reggae band were traveling through the South after a gig in the North.
“We were sitting around, talking consciousness stuff like this, when a guy walked up and said, ‘It’s America, nigger, love it or leave it.’ And we said, well, we are in a waffle house in Georgia.”
I wasn’t sure what troubled me most: the racist nationalism expressed by the waffle house patron, or my friend’s acceptance of such things as the norm, something to be expected if one is an African American in certain places within the U.S.
Even though a black man is running for president, racism is alive and well in America, as evidenced by the report of a foiled skinhead plot “to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.”
Now that's some terror for ya.
It’s not just African Americans who are at risk for such terrifying incidents. In Mesa, Arizona, recently, 30 sheriff’s deputies and 30 “volunteer posse” members — all armed with semiautomatic weapons — conducted a 2 a.m. raid on the town’s city hall and library to arrest 16 janitors. Can you imagine the terror the janitors must have felt when that crowd of hooligans burst through the door? Regardless of how one feels about immigration, actions that are intended to evoke terror are terrorism, and should be viewed as such.
But in America, the terrorists are always somebody else, out there. We refuse to see the terror we’ve inflicted on so many people, whether they’re in Middle Eastern villages, the cells of Guantanamo Bay, the meat-packing houses of the Midwest, the race-based traffic stops of our own inner cities, the jungles of Southeast Asia.
And until we recognize, and rectify, our own propensity toward terrorism, we shouldn't be too surprised if others want to terrify us. It's the old what goes around comes around law of nature.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Musings: Political Talk Story
The sky was a brilliant blanket of stars last night and that clarity persisted until morning, when Koko and I went walking beneath a sky that was blue in the center and soft pink along the edges. I ran into farmer Jerry almost immediately, and he pointed out the thinnest thumbnail of moon in the eastern sky, waning to a place of newness tomorrow.
Every crevice and jagged peak of every mountain was visible, and as I gazed upon Waialeale, which usually seems to be flat-faced, I realized a bowl has formed on its eastern side, which makes sense, considering how much water has poured down from that summit.
But none was flowing today, only mist lakes floating in distant pastures. The nippy air had prompted Jerry to bundle up in a flannel shirt, and my neighbor Andy had gotten a late start, saying it was just cold enough to make him want to linger in bed.
With both, the conservation turned to politics, which seems to be the favored topic of discussion with nearly everyone I encounter, even more than the economy. Andy was surprised that Rep. Mina Morita had appeared in an ad endorsing Derek Kawakami, who I happened to see at shopping at the Kapaa Big Save yesterday.
He and his wife were decked out in their red and gold Kawakami shirts, and he greeted everyone, including me, as he pushed his cart through the aisles. He’s better looking in person, more alert. He tends to look sort of sluggish in his photos.
Later, I mentioned seeing him to a friend, who said that another friend had told him that the Kawakami campaign was passing out tongs during its door-to-door canvassing, and nice ones, too. But he didn’t have any on him at Big Save.
I said I was favorably inclined toward Kipukai Kualii, whose dad was hanaied by the Corr family in Hanapepe, whom I like, and my friend said, yeah, but isn’t his campaign all about gay rights? I said no, I’d never heard a word of that. And why would that even be an issue for someone running for Counci, and who was spreading these homophobic rumors, anyway?
The conversation then turned to Lani Kawahara, and he said he’d liked her initially, but read that she favored the Superferry if they talked to the community, so that had turned him against her, and I said, I’ve got news for you, even JoAnn Yukimura is now supporting the Superferry.
Nah, he said, no way, and I said, yes, it’s true, so long as all the environmental concerns are addressed, but you know they never they can be, even if the EIS claims they can, so what does her position really mean, anyway?
He was even more surprised by the ad that showed Jimmy Nishida, a mutual friend and former JoAnn supporter, endorsing Bernard Carvalho with the words: “Bernard is a person you can trust to keep his word and follow through.”
“Maybe he trusts him but he’s not going to vote for him,” my friend ventured, and then it was my turn to say nah, no way.
Jimmy’s endorsement had also caught the eye of another mutual friend, and longtime JoAnn supporter, who I ran into on the mountain trail on Friday. He wasn’t surprised, noting only that “for a non-aggressive person, JoAnn sure has made a lot of enemies.”
Tis true. A lot of her supporters aren’t as wholehearted as they used to be, and some, like Jimmy, have jumped ship completely. I find that I’m uneasy with Bernard’s lack of experience, yet also uneasy with JoAnn’s experience. I’ve seen her in action, and it wasn’t always pretty.
Having someone I like and respect, like Jimmy, come out in favor of Bernard has given me pause, made me wonder what I've missed in my assessment, just like Mina’s endorsement of Derek, who I was prepared to write off. And several friends have asked for my opinion on candidates and ballot measures, which I know they’ll take seriously.
It struck me that these types of personal connections influence elections far more than campaign signs and debates and bumper stickers, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Even if you try to be informed, what do you know about most of these people, anyway?
I read all the candidate statements submitted to Kauai People, and most of them sounded good, and surprisingly similar. Candidates can, and do, say anything, and the rumor mill further clouds the waters. So when it comes time to choose, if we’re uncertain, we turn to those we know and trust: our family and friends.
Every crevice and jagged peak of every mountain was visible, and as I gazed upon Waialeale, which usually seems to be flat-faced, I realized a bowl has formed on its eastern side, which makes sense, considering how much water has poured down from that summit.
But none was flowing today, only mist lakes floating in distant pastures. The nippy air had prompted Jerry to bundle up in a flannel shirt, and my neighbor Andy had gotten a late start, saying it was just cold enough to make him want to linger in bed.
With both, the conservation turned to politics, which seems to be the favored topic of discussion with nearly everyone I encounter, even more than the economy. Andy was surprised that Rep. Mina Morita had appeared in an ad endorsing Derek Kawakami, who I happened to see at shopping at the Kapaa Big Save yesterday.
He and his wife were decked out in their red and gold Kawakami shirts, and he greeted everyone, including me, as he pushed his cart through the aisles. He’s better looking in person, more alert. He tends to look sort of sluggish in his photos.
Later, I mentioned seeing him to a friend, who said that another friend had told him that the Kawakami campaign was passing out tongs during its door-to-door canvassing, and nice ones, too. But he didn’t have any on him at Big Save.
I said I was favorably inclined toward Kipukai Kualii, whose dad was hanaied by the Corr family in Hanapepe, whom I like, and my friend said, yeah, but isn’t his campaign all about gay rights? I said no, I’d never heard a word of that. And why would that even be an issue for someone running for Counci, and who was spreading these homophobic rumors, anyway?
The conversation then turned to Lani Kawahara, and he said he’d liked her initially, but read that she favored the Superferry if they talked to the community, so that had turned him against her, and I said, I’ve got news for you, even JoAnn Yukimura is now supporting the Superferry.
Nah, he said, no way, and I said, yes, it’s true, so long as all the environmental concerns are addressed, but you know they never they can be, even if the EIS claims they can, so what does her position really mean, anyway?
He was even more surprised by the ad that showed Jimmy Nishida, a mutual friend and former JoAnn supporter, endorsing Bernard Carvalho with the words: “Bernard is a person you can trust to keep his word and follow through.”
“Maybe he trusts him but he’s not going to vote for him,” my friend ventured, and then it was my turn to say nah, no way.
Jimmy’s endorsement had also caught the eye of another mutual friend, and longtime JoAnn supporter, who I ran into on the mountain trail on Friday. He wasn’t surprised, noting only that “for a non-aggressive person, JoAnn sure has made a lot of enemies.”
Tis true. A lot of her supporters aren’t as wholehearted as they used to be, and some, like Jimmy, have jumped ship completely. I find that I’m uneasy with Bernard’s lack of experience, yet also uneasy with JoAnn’s experience. I’ve seen her in action, and it wasn’t always pretty.
Having someone I like and respect, like Jimmy, come out in favor of Bernard has given me pause, made me wonder what I've missed in my assessment, just like Mina’s endorsement of Derek, who I was prepared to write off. And several friends have asked for my opinion on candidates and ballot measures, which I know they’ll take seriously.
It struck me that these types of personal connections influence elections far more than campaign signs and debates and bumper stickers, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Even if you try to be informed, what do you know about most of these people, anyway?
I read all the candidate statements submitted to Kauai People, and most of them sounded good, and surprisingly similar. Candidates can, and do, say anything, and the rumor mill further clouds the waters. So when it comes time to choose, if we’re uncertain, we turn to those we know and trust: our family and friends.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Musings: Role Models
This latest piece of crock from the GOP campaign really makes you wonder about McCain’s grasp on reality. First, there’s his bold prediction, uttered as polls show him trailing Obama by 13%:
"This is going to be a very close race, and I believe I'm going to win it," he said. McCain said he's been heartened by the size of the crowds and the level of enthusiasm at his events.
Gee, kinda reminds me of W, who only spoke to crowds where even those with nay-saying tee-shirts were ejected. But then, maybe old John knows something we don’t about how the election fix is already in…..
Next, McCain shifts into classic denial and projection:
He also dismissed criticism about the Republican Party spending $150,000 on her [Palin’s] wardrobe at high-end retailers.
"She lives a frugal life, she and her family are not wealthy, she and her family were thrust into this," McCain said. "She is a role model to millions and millions of Americans."
He continued to paint Obama as a big-spending liberal.
First, I read that the Palins were worth more than $1 million. Now compared to McCain’s wife, that may seem not wealthy, but compared to most of us, it is.
Second, I don’t care whether you’re a liberal or a conservative, if you’re spending $150,000 on clothes — especially a wardrobe that will be out of style next season — you’re not frugal, you’re a big spender.
Couldn’t they get one of those TV make-over shows to take her on? Surely a run through the racks at Ross and Payless Shoes would have endeared Palin even more to those "real Americans" she professes to represent.
But mostly I'm wondering, is that really the kind of role model we want in the White House, someone who is spending money she doesn’t have on fancy clothes, just so she can appear to be someone she’s not?
I mean, isn’t that precisely the kind of thinking/spending that got us into this financial mess?
"This is going to be a very close race, and I believe I'm going to win it," he said. McCain said he's been heartened by the size of the crowds and the level of enthusiasm at his events.
Gee, kinda reminds me of W, who only spoke to crowds where even those with nay-saying tee-shirts were ejected. But then, maybe old John knows something we don’t about how the election fix is already in…..
Next, McCain shifts into classic denial and projection:
He also dismissed criticism about the Republican Party spending $150,000 on her [Palin’s] wardrobe at high-end retailers.
"She lives a frugal life, she and her family are not wealthy, she and her family were thrust into this," McCain said. "She is a role model to millions and millions of Americans."
He continued to paint Obama as a big-spending liberal.
First, I read that the Palins were worth more than $1 million. Now compared to McCain’s wife, that may seem not wealthy, but compared to most of us, it is.
Second, I don’t care whether you’re a liberal or a conservative, if you’re spending $150,000 on clothes — especially a wardrobe that will be out of style next season — you’re not frugal, you’re a big spender.
Couldn’t they get one of those TV make-over shows to take her on? Surely a run through the racks at Ross and Payless Shoes would have endeared Palin even more to those "real Americans" she professes to represent.
But mostly I'm wondering, is that really the kind of role model we want in the White House, someone who is spending money she doesn’t have on fancy clothes, just so she can appear to be someone she’s not?
I mean, isn’t that precisely the kind of thinking/spending that got us into this financial mess?
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Musings: Magical Thinking
While walking up the mountain trail about sunset time last evening, with Koko running fast and free, birds singing gleefully all around, shafts of sun shining on the jagged Kauai peaks and the ferns and grasses blanketing the Earth in green, I figured out one of the things that’s wrong with the world:
Humans make far too many important decisions behind closed doors. And I’m not talking about the ones that are deliberately slammed to exclude us lowly humans from the back room wheelings and dealings, but the ones that regularly and consistently shut out nature — the real world, the place you can’t reduce, with any justice, to a video clip or a piece of a paper.
So many meetings — nearly all, it seems — are held in climate-controlled rooms where you never feel the breeze or hear an animal sound or sit with your back pressed against a tree or squint your eyes against the light. And that’s why we repeatedly make wrong decisions, because we forget so much of what’s around us, what supports us. In our insular little conference rooms and meeting halls it becomes all about us, and the heck with nature.
For example, you would not applaud the state’s new energy plan, which calls for, among other things, “sending wind energy from Maui, Lana'i and Moloka'i to O'ahu via state-of-the-art undersea cables,” if you had ever walked among the pohaku at Lanai’s Keahiakawelo — Garden of the Gods. The silence and splendor of this sacred wilderness would be destroyed forever by the wind farm that Castle & Cooke plans there.
And why? So Oahu, primarily, can continue to suck down electricity excessively. The entire time I was in Honolulu I was cold, except when I was walking and in my own hotel room, where I used no AC. Every building was cooled to an extreme, its chill often extending into the street. Yet when I skimmed through the energy plan, while I saw plenty of glitzy and expensive new technology, I did not see one word about conservation. Isn't that where it all should start? Cut to the bone, and then see how how much energy we really need?
I’m so tired of hearing about “green energy” when the truth is, the only “green energy” is the energy you don’t use. Otherwise, it ALL has an impact, primarily on the earth we are supposedly trying to save before our asses can no longer survive on it.
Later, I was reading a New Yorker brief entitled ”Wiz Bucks, that made this very astute observation:
Over the past thirty years, Wall Street has honed the art of creating and selling financial products with an increasingly tenuous connection to reality. It has been an extraordinarily creative period—a modernism of money, with an equivalent trend toward abstraction. Relatively simple derivatives evolved into ever more arcane contrivances. The risk and the leverage piled up, and, in the short term, the billions rolled in. This is over now.
One problem is that the contrivers mistook their art for a science. A pre-modern money manager explained last week, “They looked at it all as a science experiment.” They tested each new product—each hypothesis—against a bunch of historical precedents, running computer models to see how the product would fare under the conditions of various bygone catastrophes. “The problem was, they didn’t have any historical precedent for when it all melts down. The historical precedents they used are not relevant.”
In fact, it wasn’t science at all. It was more like what anthropologists and psychologists call magical thinking—the tendency to believe that wishing it so makes it so.
It struck me that this sort of thinking applies as well to our quest for alternative energy. If only we can get the wind, solar, geothermal, etc. up and running, we won’t have to make any fundamental changes in our wasteful society. Meanwhile, we’ve tapped into the magical thinking that all these alternatives won’t produce any waste or toxins, or demand any extractive processes from the Earth, in their manufacture, transport and inevitable retirement.
This sort of thinking also seems to explain our fascination with genetic engineering, our bizarre acceptance of the idea that we can create these new patented life forms and release them out into nature with no consequences. In truth, folks, this is another giant science experiment. And just like what’s happening with these new forms of failing financial products, we won’t have any idea what to do when it all goes wrong and the dominoes start falling.
But when you really look at all these schemes, there’s a common thread running through that isn’t at all magical. In fact, it’s one of the vices oft-cited in religious doctrines, and that’s greed. No matter how much folks try to put a green or humanitarian spin on it, it all comes down to one thing: the desire to make not just a profit, but a killing, with no desire to accept responsibility for the true costs.
Humans make far too many important decisions behind closed doors. And I’m not talking about the ones that are deliberately slammed to exclude us lowly humans from the back room wheelings and dealings, but the ones that regularly and consistently shut out nature — the real world, the place you can’t reduce, with any justice, to a video clip or a piece of a paper.
So many meetings — nearly all, it seems — are held in climate-controlled rooms where you never feel the breeze or hear an animal sound or sit with your back pressed against a tree or squint your eyes against the light. And that’s why we repeatedly make wrong decisions, because we forget so much of what’s around us, what supports us. In our insular little conference rooms and meeting halls it becomes all about us, and the heck with nature.
For example, you would not applaud the state’s new energy plan, which calls for, among other things, “sending wind energy from Maui, Lana'i and Moloka'i to O'ahu via state-of-the-art undersea cables,” if you had ever walked among the pohaku at Lanai’s Keahiakawelo — Garden of the Gods. The silence and splendor of this sacred wilderness would be destroyed forever by the wind farm that Castle & Cooke plans there.
And why? So Oahu, primarily, can continue to suck down electricity excessively. The entire time I was in Honolulu I was cold, except when I was walking and in my own hotel room, where I used no AC. Every building was cooled to an extreme, its chill often extending into the street. Yet when I skimmed through the energy plan, while I saw plenty of glitzy and expensive new technology, I did not see one word about conservation. Isn't that where it all should start? Cut to the bone, and then see how how much energy we really need?
I’m so tired of hearing about “green energy” when the truth is, the only “green energy” is the energy you don’t use. Otherwise, it ALL has an impact, primarily on the earth we are supposedly trying to save before our asses can no longer survive on it.
Later, I was reading a New Yorker brief entitled ”Wiz Bucks, that made this very astute observation:
Over the past thirty years, Wall Street has honed the art of creating and selling financial products with an increasingly tenuous connection to reality. It has been an extraordinarily creative period—a modernism of money, with an equivalent trend toward abstraction. Relatively simple derivatives evolved into ever more arcane contrivances. The risk and the leverage piled up, and, in the short term, the billions rolled in. This is over now.
One problem is that the contrivers mistook their art for a science. A pre-modern money manager explained last week, “They looked at it all as a science experiment.” They tested each new product—each hypothesis—against a bunch of historical precedents, running computer models to see how the product would fare under the conditions of various bygone catastrophes. “The problem was, they didn’t have any historical precedent for when it all melts down. The historical precedents they used are not relevant.”
In fact, it wasn’t science at all. It was more like what anthropologists and psychologists call magical thinking—the tendency to believe that wishing it so makes it so.
It struck me that this sort of thinking applies as well to our quest for alternative energy. If only we can get the wind, solar, geothermal, etc. up and running, we won’t have to make any fundamental changes in our wasteful society. Meanwhile, we’ve tapped into the magical thinking that all these alternatives won’t produce any waste or toxins, or demand any extractive processes from the Earth, in their manufacture, transport and inevitable retirement.
This sort of thinking also seems to explain our fascination with genetic engineering, our bizarre acceptance of the idea that we can create these new patented life forms and release them out into nature with no consequences. In truth, folks, this is another giant science experiment. And just like what’s happening with these new forms of failing financial products, we won’t have any idea what to do when it all goes wrong and the dominoes start falling.
But when you really look at all these schemes, there’s a common thread running through that isn’t at all magical. In fact, it’s one of the vices oft-cited in religious doctrines, and that’s greed. No matter how much folks try to put a green or humanitarian spin on it, it all comes down to one thing: the desire to make not just a profit, but a killing, with no desire to accept responsibility for the true costs.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Musings: Big Time Bungler
A swirl of gray clouds and a few drops of fat rain greeted Koko and me this morning as we took a slow, sleepy, short walk. We're generally on the same energy wave length — until chickens come into the picture. Then she becomes a little brown rocket at the end of the leash, and she’s not satisfied until her lunging sends them scurrying for cover.
I can’t help but take a certain satisfaction in seeing someone like Alan Greenspan knocked off his pedestal. For years he enjoyed God-like status, with all the perks and fawning and fat salaries that accompanied it.
Now it’s clear — and even he’s admitting it, kind of — that he bungled big time. According to a Reuters article:
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress on Thursday he is "shocked" at the breakdown in U.S. credit markets and said he was "partially" wrong to resist regulation of some securities.
"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity -- myself especially -- are in a state of shocked disbelief," said Greenspan, who stepped down from the Fed in 2006.
That’s the problem. Those who are so wrapped up in the financial system, like Greenspan, can’t see that it’s built largely upon greed and deception. That’s the Achilles heel that trips it up every time. When the getting is good, that’s all that matters. There’s no responsibility to anyone but one’s own personal fortune-making. Then average Americans see the insiders raking in the dough and they, in their usual sheep-like fashion, also want to gorge at the trough.
And so it goes: boom, bust, boom, bust, until finally we get this giant kaboom!
The article continues:
While Greenspan was once hailed as one of the most accomplished central bankers in U.S. history, the low interest rates during his final years at the Fed have been blamed for fueling the housing bubble and eventual crash that touched off the current financial crisis.
His strong advocacy for limited regulation of financial markets has also been called into question as a result of the crisis.
So now the question becomes: if someone “once hailed as one of the most accomplished central bankers in U.S. history” can make this kind of mess, what’s the likelihood that a person chosen as Treasury Secretary by President Bush has the brains and integrity to clean it up?
But as the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. The last time I filled gas, two weeks ago, it was $4.51 a gallon. Now, thanks to oil prices that have been forced lower by the recession, it’s down to $3.80. And for the average consumer, that’s a lot more meaningful than a $750 billion bailout.
I can’t help but take a certain satisfaction in seeing someone like Alan Greenspan knocked off his pedestal. For years he enjoyed God-like status, with all the perks and fawning and fat salaries that accompanied it.
Now it’s clear — and even he’s admitting it, kind of — that he bungled big time. According to a Reuters article:
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress on Thursday he is "shocked" at the breakdown in U.S. credit markets and said he was "partially" wrong to resist regulation of some securities.
"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity -- myself especially -- are in a state of shocked disbelief," said Greenspan, who stepped down from the Fed in 2006.
That’s the problem. Those who are so wrapped up in the financial system, like Greenspan, can’t see that it’s built largely upon greed and deception. That’s the Achilles heel that trips it up every time. When the getting is good, that’s all that matters. There’s no responsibility to anyone but one’s own personal fortune-making. Then average Americans see the insiders raking in the dough and they, in their usual sheep-like fashion, also want to gorge at the trough.
And so it goes: boom, bust, boom, bust, until finally we get this giant kaboom!
The article continues:
While Greenspan was once hailed as one of the most accomplished central bankers in U.S. history, the low interest rates during his final years at the Fed have been blamed for fueling the housing bubble and eventual crash that touched off the current financial crisis.
His strong advocacy for limited regulation of financial markets has also been called into question as a result of the crisis.
So now the question becomes: if someone “once hailed as one of the most accomplished central bankers in U.S. history” can make this kind of mess, what’s the likelihood that a person chosen as Treasury Secretary by President Bush has the brains and integrity to clean it up?
But as the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. The last time I filled gas, two weeks ago, it was $4.51 a gallon. Now, thanks to oil prices that have been forced lower by the recession, it’s down to $3.80. And for the average consumer, that’s a lot more meaningful than a $750 billion bailout.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Musings: Imagining the Unimaginable
I had dinner with several friends last night, and before the meal one couple sang a lovely Maori children’s song. Afterward, the husband translated it, and one line has stayed with me: “Illuminate the lantern in my heart; make me a brilliant star.”
It seems that pretty much sums up our purpose here on Earth.
We got to talking around the table about the prospects for social and political change, and the man who had translated the song recalled as a child looking at a 1913 atlas of the world that had been his father’s. The map of Africa, he said, was entirely comprised of colonies held by every major nation in the world. And over the past century, all that has changed.
Yes, all the so-called civilized nations have given up their colonies — except the U.S. It’s still clinging to Puerto Rico and all its little colonies in the Pacific, most notably Hawaii. I know some folks don’t view it like that, but then we’ve also got Holocaust-deniers and people who believe that we went into Iraq to impose democracy. So go figger.
Anyway, one of the comments left on Monday’s post asked:
Could anyone describe the scenario of a suceeded Hawaiian state. Leave off the ideals, just describe how this takes place in real time. What happens socially, politicaly, economically and physically to the one million people of this state? Do we all return to our ethnic homelands?
Well, Anonymous, this little scenario might make it more understandable:
Two weeks from now, you rise and check the news only to discover that by a process of (choose at least one) mass election fraud, Supreme Court corruption, declaration of martial law, the GOP still controls the Oval office. Worse, Sarah Palin is poised to assume the Presidency. (Be sure to click on all the items in the room for the full effect of the horror.)
You mind lurches from thoughts of suicide to revolution to emigration, when suddenly it hits upon the answer: decolonization! That’s right. You’re in living in Hawaii. You don’t need to leave the U.S., the U.S. can leave Hawaii. Simply pledge allegiance to the Hawaiian nation and pay your taxes to the Hawaiian government, rather than the state and feds. You can petition for citizenship, or get a green card to maintain residency, just as is done in every other modern nation. Nobody has to return to their ethnic homeland; services continue uninterrupted. In short, life goes on, with new folks in charge. And if you don’t want to be part of the Hawaiian nation, well, you’re free to leave.
Think of it like moving to Canada, New Zealand, Fiji, without having to pack.
Yes, I know this is simplistic — intentionally so. But what I’m saying is, we’ve got plenty of decolonization models to follow. It’s not some impossible, unimaginable process.
John McCain apparently finds it unimaginable that he has black relatives. Under the subject line “something I didn’t know,” John Tyler sent a link to something I didn’t know either: McCain’s family owned slaves, and he’s got a black ohana. But he’s blown them off, and they’re voting for Obama.
In local elections, Andy Parx has been trying to get an answer to a question that has puzzled many Kauai voters, including myself: just how did Dickie Chang manage to get Walaau, the title of his TV show, after his name on the ballot?
I’m sure that many candidates would find it useful to have a little clue word printed next to their name to help voters distinguish them in the crowded Council pack. You know, like “librarian,” next to Lani Kawahara, or “Jabba da Hut” next to Ron Kouchi. But wouldn’t that give them an unfair advantage?
In offering an explanation to Andy, Dickie reportedly claimed that, “Everybody knows me as ‘Mr. Wala`au.’” While I find that assertion questionable, even more troubling was the rest of Dickie’s answer:
Chang said “it wasn’t my idea- I wasn’t the one who said how to put my name on the ballot”, although he declined to say who did.
“I just filled out all the papers they told me to” at the elections office, he said.
Now that’s the kind of leadership that will fit right in on the Council. Go Dickie!
It seems that pretty much sums up our purpose here on Earth.
We got to talking around the table about the prospects for social and political change, and the man who had translated the song recalled as a child looking at a 1913 atlas of the world that had been his father’s. The map of Africa, he said, was entirely comprised of colonies held by every major nation in the world. And over the past century, all that has changed.
Yes, all the so-called civilized nations have given up their colonies — except the U.S. It’s still clinging to Puerto Rico and all its little colonies in the Pacific, most notably Hawaii. I know some folks don’t view it like that, but then we’ve also got Holocaust-deniers and people who believe that we went into Iraq to impose democracy. So go figger.
Anyway, one of the comments left on Monday’s post asked:
Could anyone describe the scenario of a suceeded Hawaiian state. Leave off the ideals, just describe how this takes place in real time. What happens socially, politicaly, economically and physically to the one million people of this state? Do we all return to our ethnic homelands?
Well, Anonymous, this little scenario might make it more understandable:
Two weeks from now, you rise and check the news only to discover that by a process of (choose at least one) mass election fraud, Supreme Court corruption, declaration of martial law, the GOP still controls the Oval office. Worse, Sarah Palin is poised to assume the Presidency. (Be sure to click on all the items in the room for the full effect of the horror.)
You mind lurches from thoughts of suicide to revolution to emigration, when suddenly it hits upon the answer: decolonization! That’s right. You’re in living in Hawaii. You don’t need to leave the U.S., the U.S. can leave Hawaii. Simply pledge allegiance to the Hawaiian nation and pay your taxes to the Hawaiian government, rather than the state and feds. You can petition for citizenship, or get a green card to maintain residency, just as is done in every other modern nation. Nobody has to return to their ethnic homeland; services continue uninterrupted. In short, life goes on, with new folks in charge. And if you don’t want to be part of the Hawaiian nation, well, you’re free to leave.
Think of it like moving to Canada, New Zealand, Fiji, without having to pack.
Yes, I know this is simplistic — intentionally so. But what I’m saying is, we’ve got plenty of decolonization models to follow. It’s not some impossible, unimaginable process.
John McCain apparently finds it unimaginable that he has black relatives. Under the subject line “something I didn’t know,” John Tyler sent a link to something I didn’t know either: McCain’s family owned slaves, and he’s got a black ohana. But he’s blown them off, and they’re voting for Obama.
In local elections, Andy Parx has been trying to get an answer to a question that has puzzled many Kauai voters, including myself: just how did Dickie Chang manage to get Walaau, the title of his TV show, after his name on the ballot?
I’m sure that many candidates would find it useful to have a little clue word printed next to their name to help voters distinguish them in the crowded Council pack. You know, like “librarian,” next to Lani Kawahara, or “Jabba da Hut” next to Ron Kouchi. But wouldn’t that give them an unfair advantage?
In offering an explanation to Andy, Dickie reportedly claimed that, “Everybody knows me as ‘Mr. Wala`au.’” While I find that assertion questionable, even more troubling was the rest of Dickie’s answer:
Chang said “it wasn’t my idea- I wasn’t the one who said how to put my name on the ballot”, although he declined to say who did.
“I just filled out all the papers they told me to” at the elections office, he said.
Now that’s the kind of leadership that will fit right in on the Council. Go Dickie!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Musings: Blunderings
The air had that wintry nip when Koko and I headed out in the colorless time just before sunrise, the grass sparkling with the remnants of last night’s rain. It could have passed for frost, except my feet, in rubber slippahs, knew better.
Garbage cans lined the street, the relentless Tuesday morning reminder of our great throw-away society, which always makes me feel a bit glum. But then a shama thrush, with its rust-colored breast and shiny black coat, flitted on to my mailbox, then my trash can and sang a few notes of beauty before retreating to the mock orange hedge, its tail flashing white in flight.
Spirits thus lifted, I was able to endure a peek at the headlines of my neighbor’s paper, where I learned that Gov. Lingle is defending her unconscionable decision to cut funding for the state’s universal health insurance program for children.
Lingle told reporters an alternative to the "Keiki Care Plan," called Children's Plan, will be sufficient even though parents will be charged $55 a month for each child who is enrolled. The Keiki Care Plan cost the state about $50,000 a month and was mostly free to families.
Now, $55 a kid might not seem like much to someone who is childless and earns what she does, but to families on the lowest end of the economic spectrum, it might as well be $550. Surely the state could cut $50,000 a month from the tourism promotion budget. Or better yet, why not raise the rents on the military? Don’t you think the Navy would pay more than its current $187 per year for PMRF? And if the military can’t afford the rising rents, well, then it could move to Las Vegas and Okalahoma and Texas, like the Hawaiians who have already been squeezed out.
As many predicted, it didn’t take long for the rapidly eroding eastside shoreline to start squeezing out that ribbon of coastal concrete known as The Path.
Yes, in typical Kauai County fashion, one blunder has been made atop another, and the blundering is poised to continue. First, the county built a seawall behind Pono Kai without a permit. Now — surprise! — the coastline is eroding around the seawall. This tends to occur around “shoreline hardening” projects, which is why they’re discouraged and permits are required.
After searching for a solution for more than a year, [County Engineer Donald] Fujimoto told the Kaua‘i County Council last week that the only feasible option is to build a new revetment behind the existing one.
This will entail ripping up a portion of the coastal path that the county completed last year. Due to space constraints created by an abutting private property, the path will likely be redesigned to run on top of the new seawall, Fujimoto said.
Let me get this straight. It didn’t work the first time, so let’s do it again at a cost of at least $2 million. OK, sounds like a plan.
Interesting, how in a bit of campaign fluff deposited in my mailbox yesterday, Bernard Carvalho takes credit for leading the county task force assigned to completing the Kapaa to Kuna Bay portion of the path.
Yet the Garden Island article on the seawall notes:
Council members Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho said last year they cautioned the late Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s administration to wait until the revetment issue was resolved before constructing the next phase of the coastal path from Lihi Boat Ramp to Kealia.
Hmmm. This boondoggle doesn’t seem to reflect too well on Bernard’s already meager managerial skills.
I was actually starting to feel a bit kindly toward Bernard until I got that campaign flyer and noticed that among his “accomplishments,” which totaled all of six and included cleaning up Black Pot and Hanamaulu beach parks (BFD), he took credit for expanding bus service and initiating 10 affordable housing projects currently in progress.
Now how, pray tell, could the head of parks and rec have done that? It’s one thing to have limited experience. That’s understandable for someone who isn’t a career politician, and it’s OK. But to feather your cap with made up stuff, well, that’s pretty lame, Bernard. Perhaps he'll clear his conscience in confession at St. Catherine's, where he's a pastoral council member and past president of the parent-teacher guild. Oh, and don't forget he was also past president of the Kam Schools Assn. of Kauai. Wow, Bernard, your "commitment to community" is certainly impressive.
There’s something else that really bugs me about Bernard — besides the photo of him playing in some long ago Hula Bowl game on his most recent election flyer — and that’s the glaring dearth of haoles in any of his campaign literature.
I’m sure he doesn’t need, and maybe he doesn’t even want, our vote. But most politicians attempt at least some semblance of inclusiveness in choosing photos that show them interacting with the ethnically diverse members of our community.
His slogan may be “Together we can!” But the real message of his campaign is: “Locals only.”
Garbage cans lined the street, the relentless Tuesday morning reminder of our great throw-away society, which always makes me feel a bit glum. But then a shama thrush, with its rust-colored breast and shiny black coat, flitted on to my mailbox, then my trash can and sang a few notes of beauty before retreating to the mock orange hedge, its tail flashing white in flight.
Spirits thus lifted, I was able to endure a peek at the headlines of my neighbor’s paper, where I learned that Gov. Lingle is defending her unconscionable decision to cut funding for the state’s universal health insurance program for children.
Lingle told reporters an alternative to the "Keiki Care Plan," called Children's Plan, will be sufficient even though parents will be charged $55 a month for each child who is enrolled. The Keiki Care Plan cost the state about $50,000 a month and was mostly free to families.
Now, $55 a kid might not seem like much to someone who is childless and earns what she does, but to families on the lowest end of the economic spectrum, it might as well be $550. Surely the state could cut $50,000 a month from the tourism promotion budget. Or better yet, why not raise the rents on the military? Don’t you think the Navy would pay more than its current $187 per year for PMRF? And if the military can’t afford the rising rents, well, then it could move to Las Vegas and Okalahoma and Texas, like the Hawaiians who have already been squeezed out.
As many predicted, it didn’t take long for the rapidly eroding eastside shoreline to start squeezing out that ribbon of coastal concrete known as The Path.
Yes, in typical Kauai County fashion, one blunder has been made atop another, and the blundering is poised to continue. First, the county built a seawall behind Pono Kai without a permit. Now — surprise! — the coastline is eroding around the seawall. This tends to occur around “shoreline hardening” projects, which is why they’re discouraged and permits are required.
After searching for a solution for more than a year, [County Engineer Donald] Fujimoto told the Kaua‘i County Council last week that the only feasible option is to build a new revetment behind the existing one.
This will entail ripping up a portion of the coastal path that the county completed last year. Due to space constraints created by an abutting private property, the path will likely be redesigned to run on top of the new seawall, Fujimoto said.
Let me get this straight. It didn’t work the first time, so let’s do it again at a cost of at least $2 million. OK, sounds like a plan.
Interesting, how in a bit of campaign fluff deposited in my mailbox yesterday, Bernard Carvalho takes credit for leading the county task force assigned to completing the Kapaa to Kuna Bay portion of the path.
Yet the Garden Island article on the seawall notes:
Council members Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho said last year they cautioned the late Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s administration to wait until the revetment issue was resolved before constructing the next phase of the coastal path from Lihi Boat Ramp to Kealia.
Hmmm. This boondoggle doesn’t seem to reflect too well on Bernard’s already meager managerial skills.
I was actually starting to feel a bit kindly toward Bernard until I got that campaign flyer and noticed that among his “accomplishments,” which totaled all of six and included cleaning up Black Pot and Hanamaulu beach parks (BFD), he took credit for expanding bus service and initiating 10 affordable housing projects currently in progress.
Now how, pray tell, could the head of parks and rec have done that? It’s one thing to have limited experience. That’s understandable for someone who isn’t a career politician, and it’s OK. But to feather your cap with made up stuff, well, that’s pretty lame, Bernard. Perhaps he'll clear his conscience in confession at St. Catherine's, where he's a pastoral council member and past president of the parent-teacher guild. Oh, and don't forget he was also past president of the Kam Schools Assn. of Kauai. Wow, Bernard, your "commitment to community" is certainly impressive.
There’s something else that really bugs me about Bernard — besides the photo of him playing in some long ago Hula Bowl game on his most recent election flyer — and that’s the glaring dearth of haoles in any of his campaign literature.
I’m sure he doesn’t need, and maybe he doesn’t even want, our vote. But most politicians attempt at least some semblance of inclusiveness in choosing photos that show them interacting with the ethnically diverse members of our community.
His slogan may be “Together we can!” But the real message of his campaign is: “Locals only.”
Monday, October 20, 2008
Musings: Never Too Late
The moon, just slightly fuller than half, was directly overhead in a patch of blue within a sky of quilted gray that soon enveloped it, too, when Koko and I set out on this breezy morning.
As we walked, I detected two distinct vibrations of sound — chirping crickets and buzzing bees — that were audible even through the cacophony of crowing roosters. Koko, for her part, focused on scents lurking in the grass and dead things in the street.
I found a small bird’s nest beneath a stand of ironwood trees, and was carrying it, cupped in one hand, marveling at its intricate construction, when we ran into my neighbor Andy and his dog, Momi, an encounter that never fails to thrill Koko — and me, to a lesser degree.
We talked about my trip to Honolulu, which was taken up with research into Hawaii’s fisheries and an interview with the Rev. Kaleo Patterson, a former Kauai resident who is continuing to work on nonviolent approaches to social change through the Pacific Justice & Reconciliation Center.
I was working on a story last night about Kaleo and his explorations into indigenous peace-making initiatives, including the Hawaiian practice of ho`oponopono, so regrettably was unable to attend “The Queen's Women,” a play that re-enacts a meeting about the Kue, or "monster," petitions, which were signed by nearly every kanaka maoli to protest America’s annexation of the Hawaiian Islands.
People don’t seem to realize that Hawaiians never did support America’s theft of their kingdom, and 115 years later, that sentiment is still very much alive.
The federal and state governments obviously find that rather threatening, and I was interested to learn from Kaleo that the state has its own little “Secret Service,” a group that monitors Hawaiian activists and their activities. I wonder if it’s comprised of bruddas, in the usual attempt to pit Hawaiians against Hawaiians, or if it’s staffed by non-Hawaiians who don’t give a rip about the injustice that was committed.
I’m always struck, in video footage I see, by the faces of local cops when they have to participate in actions against Hawaiians. It’s obvious that they don’t relish the duty. In one video, I saw several cops wiping tears from their eyes as they walked through Brescia’s land at Naue, where each burial was identified by a little tiki torch. And in the film “Noho Hewa,” their expressions were grim and their actions were very gentle as they arrested houseless Hawaiians living alongside the road on Oahu. Kaleo said that during the Star Wars protests out at PMRF in the early 1990s, Kauai cops participated the first day, then refused to return for the second round of action, requiring the navy to bring in MPs from Schofield to execute the dirty deeds.
Obviously, many local cops recognize this kind of stuff for the travesty that it is. I mean, arresting Hawaiians for objecting to launching rockets from a sacred burial dune, or for being without houses in their own homeland? How bogus is that? How can the state in good conscience criminalize homelessness, anyway, especially when it’s caused by the state’s own economic policies, which favor the rich who are rapidly displacing the poor, a disproportionate number of whom are Hawaiians?
In researching my piece on Kaleo, I came across an article he’d written for the New Internationalist back in 1993, following Iniki, in which he talked about how tourism and militarism have adversely affected Hawaiians.
In the 15 years since it was published, both have only gotten more entrenched, with tourism morphing into even more insidious forms: the proliferation of vacation rentals in the conservation district and luxury estates that are sprawling over coastal ag land. Both types of construction frequently disrupt burials.
“Noho Hewa” included footage of the many burials that were disturbed in building the Hokulia golf course and estate homes on the Big Island. And if that’s not bad enough, burials that are preserved are turned into marketing tools, offering the clueless a chance to feel like they’re really getting close to "Hawaiian heritage."
When I was in Honolulu, I had dinner with a man who attended Kamehameha Schools for nine years, during the 1970s, yet learned virtually nothing about his culture. As we talked about “Noho Hewa,” he gave the responses I frequently hear from Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike: “Isn’t it too late to get the land back?” and the kicker, “This is too depressing.”
Yes, it is depressing, but only if one resigns oneself to accepting this injustice, to believing that it is too late, and that nothing can change. I’ve come to believe that it doesn’t matter what form sovereignty ultimately takes, or how it all shakes out for non-Hawaiians.
The first step is to make things pono again, to acknowledge the wrong that was committed when the U.S. overthrew the monarchy — as was done in the 1993 Apology Resolution, Public Law 103-150 — and take concrete, good faith steps to begin the process of reconciliation mandated by the resolution.
Once that’s done, and I’m not talking about the rip-off known as the Akaka Bill, then the rest of the solution can fall into place.
As we walked, I detected two distinct vibrations of sound — chirping crickets and buzzing bees — that were audible even through the cacophony of crowing roosters. Koko, for her part, focused on scents lurking in the grass and dead things in the street.
I found a small bird’s nest beneath a stand of ironwood trees, and was carrying it, cupped in one hand, marveling at its intricate construction, when we ran into my neighbor Andy and his dog, Momi, an encounter that never fails to thrill Koko — and me, to a lesser degree.
We talked about my trip to Honolulu, which was taken up with research into Hawaii’s fisheries and an interview with the Rev. Kaleo Patterson, a former Kauai resident who is continuing to work on nonviolent approaches to social change through the Pacific Justice & Reconciliation Center.
I was working on a story last night about Kaleo and his explorations into indigenous peace-making initiatives, including the Hawaiian practice of ho`oponopono, so regrettably was unable to attend “The Queen's Women,” a play that re-enacts a meeting about the Kue, or "monster," petitions, which were signed by nearly every kanaka maoli to protest America’s annexation of the Hawaiian Islands.
People don’t seem to realize that Hawaiians never did support America’s theft of their kingdom, and 115 years later, that sentiment is still very much alive.
The federal and state governments obviously find that rather threatening, and I was interested to learn from Kaleo that the state has its own little “Secret Service,” a group that monitors Hawaiian activists and their activities. I wonder if it’s comprised of bruddas, in the usual attempt to pit Hawaiians against Hawaiians, or if it’s staffed by non-Hawaiians who don’t give a rip about the injustice that was committed.
I’m always struck, in video footage I see, by the faces of local cops when they have to participate in actions against Hawaiians. It’s obvious that they don’t relish the duty. In one video, I saw several cops wiping tears from their eyes as they walked through Brescia’s land at Naue, where each burial was identified by a little tiki torch. And in the film “Noho Hewa,” their expressions were grim and their actions were very gentle as they arrested houseless Hawaiians living alongside the road on Oahu. Kaleo said that during the Star Wars protests out at PMRF in the early 1990s, Kauai cops participated the first day, then refused to return for the second round of action, requiring the navy to bring in MPs from Schofield to execute the dirty deeds.
Obviously, many local cops recognize this kind of stuff for the travesty that it is. I mean, arresting Hawaiians for objecting to launching rockets from a sacred burial dune, or for being without houses in their own homeland? How bogus is that? How can the state in good conscience criminalize homelessness, anyway, especially when it’s caused by the state’s own economic policies, which favor the rich who are rapidly displacing the poor, a disproportionate number of whom are Hawaiians?
In researching my piece on Kaleo, I came across an article he’d written for the New Internationalist back in 1993, following Iniki, in which he talked about how tourism and militarism have adversely affected Hawaiians.
In the 15 years since it was published, both have only gotten more entrenched, with tourism morphing into even more insidious forms: the proliferation of vacation rentals in the conservation district and luxury estates that are sprawling over coastal ag land. Both types of construction frequently disrupt burials.
“Noho Hewa” included footage of the many burials that were disturbed in building the Hokulia golf course and estate homes on the Big Island. And if that’s not bad enough, burials that are preserved are turned into marketing tools, offering the clueless a chance to feel like they’re really getting close to "Hawaiian heritage."
When I was in Honolulu, I had dinner with a man who attended Kamehameha Schools for nine years, during the 1970s, yet learned virtually nothing about his culture. As we talked about “Noho Hewa,” he gave the responses I frequently hear from Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike: “Isn’t it too late to get the land back?” and the kicker, “This is too depressing.”
Yes, it is depressing, but only if one resigns oneself to accepting this injustice, to believing that it is too late, and that nothing can change. I’ve come to believe that it doesn’t matter what form sovereignty ultimately takes, or how it all shakes out for non-Hawaiians.
The first step is to make things pono again, to acknowledge the wrong that was committed when the U.S. overthrew the monarchy — as was done in the 1993 Apology Resolution, Public Law 103-150 — and take concrete, good faith steps to begin the process of reconciliation mandated by the resolution.
Once that’s done, and I’m not talking about the rip-off known as the Akaka Bill, then the rest of the solution can fall into place.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Musings: Wise Up
Murky skies greeted me this Honolulu dawn as I prepared to return to nani Kauai, more appreciative than ever of the little gem that I call home. Had a couple of conversations with Koko while I was away; she didn’t speak, but the friend who is watching her said her tail wagged madly when she heard my voice on the phone.
I’m still hearing some of the compelling words that were uttered on ”Noho Hewa,” the powerful film by Anne Keala Kelly that I watched at the Dole Cannery theatre as part of the Hawaii Film Festival yesterday afternoon. They were words that often brought tears to my eyes, words that opened my heart and mind.
I’d very much wanted to see it, then as so often happens when things are meant to be, Ikaika Hussey, the publisher of The Hawaii Independent, who I planned to meet with, anyway, said he was going, so I got to tag along.
If you don’t know much about what’s really going in Hawaii, then this is a movie you need to see to wise up and advance your education. If you do know, it’s worthwhile viewing to be reminded of why this struggle is so important.
Kelly, a journalist and filmmaker, touches upon all the issues currently impacting Native Hawaiians: burial desecration, the influx of high-end development, homelessness, environmental degradation, tourism, the Akaka bill, the ignorance and insensitivity of so many who come here and most of all, the intense military presence in the Islands.
I’ve always known that Hawaii is the most heavily militarized state, but this film put that presence in the context of the oppressive foreign occupation that it really is and does an excellent job of portraying what it’s like to live as a colonized people in your own homeland.
If you’re in Honolulu, you can see it for free at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, and I strongly urge that you do.
As Kelly said: “It’s important to see it on a big screen because these issues are always made small. They’re trying to make us invisible.”
What's really remarkable is that America hasn't succeeded.
I’m still hearing some of the compelling words that were uttered on ”Noho Hewa,” the powerful film by Anne Keala Kelly that I watched at the Dole Cannery theatre as part of the Hawaii Film Festival yesterday afternoon. They were words that often brought tears to my eyes, words that opened my heart and mind.
I’d very much wanted to see it, then as so often happens when things are meant to be, Ikaika Hussey, the publisher of The Hawaii Independent, who I planned to meet with, anyway, said he was going, so I got to tag along.
If you don’t know much about what’s really going in Hawaii, then this is a movie you need to see to wise up and advance your education. If you do know, it’s worthwhile viewing to be reminded of why this struggle is so important.
Kelly, a journalist and filmmaker, touches upon all the issues currently impacting Native Hawaiians: burial desecration, the influx of high-end development, homelessness, environmental degradation, tourism, the Akaka bill, the ignorance and insensitivity of so many who come here and most of all, the intense military presence in the Islands.
I’ve always known that Hawaii is the most heavily militarized state, but this film put that presence in the context of the oppressive foreign occupation that it really is and does an excellent job of portraying what it’s like to live as a colonized people in your own homeland.
If you’re in Honolulu, you can see it for free at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, and I strongly urge that you do.
As Kelly said: “It’s important to see it on a big screen because these issues are always made small. They’re trying to make us invisible.”
What's really remarkable is that America hasn't succeeded.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Musings: Keep Moving
An elevator traveling up the side of a nearby building reflects the rising sun, sending periodic flashes of rosy light into my hotel room. The low rumble of buses replaces the usual morning bird song.
But I’ve seen the big moon rise two nights in a row, sparkling down on dark water, and last night’s sunset at Ala Moana beach park was a extravaganza of orange and pink that faded to showcase Venus.
Yes, I’m here in the Big City, where I’ve been for the past couple of days, so I haven’t had time to blog. It's all go-go-go.
I don’t really mind spending a few days in Honolulu, although my eyes always feel gritty. It’s an opportunity to reflect on my own life and human existence, because so many people do live in urban areas.
Mostly I’m astounded by all the stores. It’s easy in a city to realize that consumer spending drives America’s economy. For me, though, it amounts to serious overload, a reminder of how easy it is to get caught up in that drive to have more.
Never much of a shopper, I ventured into Ala Moana Shopping Center yesterday and was quickly overwhelmed by “too much” – too many choices, too many people, too much noise, too much stimulation. Although briefly tempted by a pair of Cole Haan shoes, I rightly reasoned that I’d have little opportunity to wear them and justify such an expensive purchase.
I left without buying anything, partly because I didn’t really need anything and also because I was thinking of the small businesses that struggle to make it on Kauai. While a lot of people come to Honolulu solely to shop, I felt like I should try to spend my money at home. Those are the guys who are there day in and day out when we need them.
It also seems there’s a lot more ethnic diversity here, with folks speaking languages other than English, and restaurants that reflect that mix. I’ve enjoyed that, but not the overall crush of people. Where do folks go to get away from it all, be alone here?
I saw one woman living, pretty well camouflaged, in a cardboard box in an alleyway. Our eyes met and she nodded, aware that I’d spotted her, and I smiled back, while wondering how she managed her rough existence, or the old lady moving very slowly and deliberately down the sidewalk, dragging a couple of carts.
Those sorts of sights trouble me in a city, along with the way that pedestrians and motorists don’t even seem to notice, as if it’s just part of the urban landscape. But while I observed, I kept moving, too.
But I’ve seen the big moon rise two nights in a row, sparkling down on dark water, and last night’s sunset at Ala Moana beach park was a extravaganza of orange and pink that faded to showcase Venus.
Yes, I’m here in the Big City, where I’ve been for the past couple of days, so I haven’t had time to blog. It's all go-go-go.
I don’t really mind spending a few days in Honolulu, although my eyes always feel gritty. It’s an opportunity to reflect on my own life and human existence, because so many people do live in urban areas.
Mostly I’m astounded by all the stores. It’s easy in a city to realize that consumer spending drives America’s economy. For me, though, it amounts to serious overload, a reminder of how easy it is to get caught up in that drive to have more.
Never much of a shopper, I ventured into Ala Moana Shopping Center yesterday and was quickly overwhelmed by “too much” – too many choices, too many people, too much noise, too much stimulation. Although briefly tempted by a pair of Cole Haan shoes, I rightly reasoned that I’d have little opportunity to wear them and justify such an expensive purchase.
I left without buying anything, partly because I didn’t really need anything and also because I was thinking of the small businesses that struggle to make it on Kauai. While a lot of people come to Honolulu solely to shop, I felt like I should try to spend my money at home. Those are the guys who are there day in and day out when we need them.
It also seems there’s a lot more ethnic diversity here, with folks speaking languages other than English, and restaurants that reflect that mix. I’ve enjoyed that, but not the overall crush of people. Where do folks go to get away from it all, be alone here?
I saw one woman living, pretty well camouflaged, in a cardboard box in an alleyway. Our eyes met and she nodded, aware that I’d spotted her, and I smiled back, while wondering how she managed her rough existence, or the old lady moving very slowly and deliberately down the sidewalk, dragging a couple of carts.
Those sorts of sights trouble me in a city, along with the way that pedestrians and motorists don’t even seem to notice, as if it’s just part of the urban landscape. But while I observed, I kept moving, too.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Musings: Questionable
Few sounds are more welcomed than rain pounding on the roof, dripping on the ti, bouncing off the banana leaves, and that’s what I awoke to this morning.
The moon, which rose full and jack-o-lantern orange through last night’s high clouds and haze, was nowhere to be seen, and the sun was but a slight smudge of pale pink in the east when Koko and I slipped out for a short walk among plants and soil that were fully quenched.
When you get right down to it, that’s the only kind of bounty that really matters, yet most of our focus lately has been on the other kind, the human-created kind, which Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke cautioned “won’t rebound quickly,” despite a massive infusion of government aid.
The talk was all about money when I took Koko to the vet yesterday, where the desk clerk and several customers were in a heated discussion about the growing disparity between Kauai’s super-rich and everyone else. They were all locals, and they weren’t concerned so much about the economy in general as getting squeezed off the island in particular.
One woman said a realtor had told her: “Forget the millionaires, now Kauai’s attracting billionaires.” Another cited home prices at the new Kukuiula subdivision in Poipu that start at $1 million, asking: "Who can afford that?"
They were particularly upset that the county has failed to provide any new programs or facilities or activities for youth and teens, despite getting so much more money in property tax revenues.
I just observed it all, Koko on my lap, and was struck by how they bonded over their rejection of the class-consciousness that is starting to become more prevalent on Kauai. Hmmm. Maybe it’s no longer fashionable to be a conspicuous consumer.
I read a short article on billionaire Warren Buffet in “The Week” last night that noted he’s fond of saying: “You want to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.” Suddenly I understood why I’m not rich. I always thought the goal was to avoid both fear and greed.
When it comes to greed, I often think of Joe Brescia building his spec houses over burials at Naue. There he is with his millions, and meanwhile, the Hawaiians who are protesting it are scrimping along. One of them, Andre Perez of Oahu, who was arraigned on Kauai yesterday on trespassing charges stemming from an Aug. 7 protest at the site, noted the contrast in a Monday email:
I heard that the Noho Hewa video was shown at the film festival tonight and that it was pretty good. I had mixed feelings cause I wanted to go but was $10 and bread is kinda tight right now.. I couldn't help contrasting these thoughts- I like watch dis video about Hawaiian resistance but at the same time no can go cause gotta save money and gotta get up early for court on Kauai. Basically, no can watch the video about the struggle cause of the struggle. Fuck up.. BUT- we will continue to persevere - ONIPA'A!
Speaking of perseverance, those fighting the Superferry in court – in particular, the way a special law was passed to allow it to sail without first having the EIS required by another law — will have another chance to be heard.
The Honolulu Advertiser reported last night:
The Hawai'i Supreme Court today agreed to hear an appeal seeking to invalidate a state law that allowed Hawaii Superferry to begin operation last year without an environmental impact statement.
The court said it was transferring the case from the lower Intermediate Court of Appeals and would schedule oral arguments because it involves a matter "of imperative or fundamental public importance." A date for arguments was not announced.
The Sierra Club, Maui Tomorrow and the Kahului Harbor Coalition requested the transfer as part of their appeal of a Maui Circuit Court ruling in November that upheld the new law known as Act 2.
The last time the three groups were allowed to present oral arguments before the Supreme Court, they won an uncommonly swift judgment that brought a halt to Hawaii Superferry service.
In an update of the story this morning, the paper reports:
Wailuku attorney Isaac Hall, representing the Sierra Club, Maui Tomorrow and the Kahului Harbor Coalition, said "it's encouraging" the court accepted the case on the grounds that it involves an issue of importance and at the discretion of Chief Justice Ronald T.Y. Moon.
"If the court rules that Act 2 is unconstitutional, then the injunction should be reinstated until a real EIS is done pursuant to Chapter 343," Hall said.
The comments that followed the story included the familiar whining about how no one has fussed over the environmental impacts of other ships and the usual cheap shots at Isaac Hall.
But “sweetleaf” did raise a good point:
One would think that a "$250 million enterprise" would take the time to time to read the rules first. Of course it's gonna come back and kill em... what a costly mistake.
As did “flyin bob":
Why is the DOT doing the EIS and not a private company that would normally do it, and WHO is paying for the EIS?
Good questions. Maybe they could forward their queries to Gov. Lingle. Oh wait, she’s on the campaign trail for McCain, whose national security adviser and campaign contribution “bundler” is Superferry investor and Board Chairman John Lehman.
Any more questions?
The moon, which rose full and jack-o-lantern orange through last night’s high clouds and haze, was nowhere to be seen, and the sun was but a slight smudge of pale pink in the east when Koko and I slipped out for a short walk among plants and soil that were fully quenched.
When you get right down to it, that’s the only kind of bounty that really matters, yet most of our focus lately has been on the other kind, the human-created kind, which Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke cautioned “won’t rebound quickly,” despite a massive infusion of government aid.
The talk was all about money when I took Koko to the vet yesterday, where the desk clerk and several customers were in a heated discussion about the growing disparity between Kauai’s super-rich and everyone else. They were all locals, and they weren’t concerned so much about the economy in general as getting squeezed off the island in particular.
One woman said a realtor had told her: “Forget the millionaires, now Kauai’s attracting billionaires.” Another cited home prices at the new Kukuiula subdivision in Poipu that start at $1 million, asking: "Who can afford that?"
They were particularly upset that the county has failed to provide any new programs or facilities or activities for youth and teens, despite getting so much more money in property tax revenues.
I just observed it all, Koko on my lap, and was struck by how they bonded over their rejection of the class-consciousness that is starting to become more prevalent on Kauai. Hmmm. Maybe it’s no longer fashionable to be a conspicuous consumer.
I read a short article on billionaire Warren Buffet in “The Week” last night that noted he’s fond of saying: “You want to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.” Suddenly I understood why I’m not rich. I always thought the goal was to avoid both fear and greed.
When it comes to greed, I often think of Joe Brescia building his spec houses over burials at Naue. There he is with his millions, and meanwhile, the Hawaiians who are protesting it are scrimping along. One of them, Andre Perez of Oahu, who was arraigned on Kauai yesterday on trespassing charges stemming from an Aug. 7 protest at the site, noted the contrast in a Monday email:
I heard that the Noho Hewa video was shown at the film festival tonight and that it was pretty good. I had mixed feelings cause I wanted to go but was $10 and bread is kinda tight right now.. I couldn't help contrasting these thoughts- I like watch dis video about Hawaiian resistance but at the same time no can go cause gotta save money and gotta get up early for court on Kauai. Basically, no can watch the video about the struggle cause of the struggle. Fuck up.. BUT- we will continue to persevere - ONIPA'A!
Speaking of perseverance, those fighting the Superferry in court – in particular, the way a special law was passed to allow it to sail without first having the EIS required by another law — will have another chance to be heard.
The Honolulu Advertiser reported last night:
The Hawai'i Supreme Court today agreed to hear an appeal seeking to invalidate a state law that allowed Hawaii Superferry to begin operation last year without an environmental impact statement.
The court said it was transferring the case from the lower Intermediate Court of Appeals and would schedule oral arguments because it involves a matter "of imperative or fundamental public importance." A date for arguments was not announced.
The Sierra Club, Maui Tomorrow and the Kahului Harbor Coalition requested the transfer as part of their appeal of a Maui Circuit Court ruling in November that upheld the new law known as Act 2.
The last time the three groups were allowed to present oral arguments before the Supreme Court, they won an uncommonly swift judgment that brought a halt to Hawaii Superferry service.
In an update of the story this morning, the paper reports:
Wailuku attorney Isaac Hall, representing the Sierra Club, Maui Tomorrow and the Kahului Harbor Coalition, said "it's encouraging" the court accepted the case on the grounds that it involves an issue of importance and at the discretion of Chief Justice Ronald T.Y. Moon.
"If the court rules that Act 2 is unconstitutional, then the injunction should be reinstated until a real EIS is done pursuant to Chapter 343," Hall said.
The comments that followed the story included the familiar whining about how no one has fussed over the environmental impacts of other ships and the usual cheap shots at Isaac Hall.
But “sweetleaf” did raise a good point:
One would think that a "$250 million enterprise" would take the time to time to read the rules first. Of course it's gonna come back and kill em... what a costly mistake.
As did “flyin bob":
Why is the DOT doing the EIS and not a private company that would normally do it, and WHO is paying for the EIS?
Good questions. Maybe they could forward their queries to Gov. Lingle. Oh wait, she’s on the campaign trail for McCain, whose national security adviser and campaign contribution “bundler” is Superferry investor and Board Chairman John Lehman.
Any more questions?
Monday, October 13, 2008
Musings: Manna and Mana
I almost rolled over and went back to sleep, but the slightest glimmer of pink light filtering through the window pulled me up and out into a morning that prompted both farmer Jerry and my neighbor Andy to remark upon its beauty when Koko and I encountered them as we walked along the road.
In the east were mackerel skies, brushed with broad streaks of vibrant coral, as silvery-white mist huddled above a lush pasture soaked by last night’s frequent rains. The air was chilly enough to make me shiver in my sweatshirt, and Waialeale, bare and bold, flushed first lavender-pink, as the sun emerged, then green, as it rose higher.
It was a continuation of the splendor I’d witnessed the day before, sitting in the long golden rays of a lowering sun, the air heavy with the scent of hinano — hala flowers — watching rainbows flying off the backs of big North Shore waves, dark squalls along the horizon transformed into what my friend termed “rainbow columns.”
Driving home, beneath a fat moon encircled by a ring, I was called to a favorite quiet spot inhabited by pohaku where I received, for lack of a better phrase, a spirit infusion.
It was a much different energy than the cash infusion that governments around the world are pumping in to the financial markets to keep the material world going. And the great god Dow Jones was appeased and rewarded his followers with manna. I know you can’t take mana to the bank, but I find stockpiling it to be far more rewarding.
A persistent AP reporter got his reward when he bagged the interview we’ve all been breathlessly waiting for: Levi Johnston speaking out about what it’s really like to be marrying Gov. Palin’s daughter.
I’ll give you the highlights: he dropped out of high school to get a job to support his pending family and tattooed Bristol’s name on his finger so he wouldn’t have to bother about a ring. Oh, and he didn’t get around to registering, so he won’t be able to vote, but he’s still rooting for his future mother-in-law.
Now a real scoop would have been discovering he was an Obama supporter.
Meanwhile, his future mother-in-law is busy making like ”troopergate” was no big deal, blaming it all on partisan politics as she “she glossed over the findings that she had broken ethics rules, which amounted to an abuse of her office.”
Now, that’s not a great start for a possible future President, who is at least supposed to wait until he/she gets into the Oval Office before they start abusing power.
Even more troubling is another sort of abuse of power, and that’s the hate mongering and rabble rousing at which this self-described pit bull is so adept. It’s a strategy that’s prompted lifelong Republican, Frank Schaeffer, to equate McCain/Palin rallies with “lynch mobs:”
“John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as ‘not one of us,’ I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.
“At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, ‘Kill him!’ At one of your rallies, someone called out, ‘Terrorist!’ Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee—an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.
This would be troubling no matter who is running, because more hate is one thing we definitely don’t need. But given the sort of institutional and mob violence that has been directed at African-Americans, it’s even more alarming.
The question now is whether McCain and Palin want to — or even can — raise this particularly ugly vibration.
In the east were mackerel skies, brushed with broad streaks of vibrant coral, as silvery-white mist huddled above a lush pasture soaked by last night’s frequent rains. The air was chilly enough to make me shiver in my sweatshirt, and Waialeale, bare and bold, flushed first lavender-pink, as the sun emerged, then green, as it rose higher.
It was a continuation of the splendor I’d witnessed the day before, sitting in the long golden rays of a lowering sun, the air heavy with the scent of hinano — hala flowers — watching rainbows flying off the backs of big North Shore waves, dark squalls along the horizon transformed into what my friend termed “rainbow columns.”
Driving home, beneath a fat moon encircled by a ring, I was called to a favorite quiet spot inhabited by pohaku where I received, for lack of a better phrase, a spirit infusion.
It was a much different energy than the cash infusion that governments around the world are pumping in to the financial markets to keep the material world going. And the great god Dow Jones was appeased and rewarded his followers with manna. I know you can’t take mana to the bank, but I find stockpiling it to be far more rewarding.
A persistent AP reporter got his reward when he bagged the interview we’ve all been breathlessly waiting for: Levi Johnston speaking out about what it’s really like to be marrying Gov. Palin’s daughter.
I’ll give you the highlights: he dropped out of high school to get a job to support his pending family and tattooed Bristol’s name on his finger so he wouldn’t have to bother about a ring. Oh, and he didn’t get around to registering, so he won’t be able to vote, but he’s still rooting for his future mother-in-law.
Now a real scoop would have been discovering he was an Obama supporter.
Meanwhile, his future mother-in-law is busy making like ”troopergate” was no big deal, blaming it all on partisan politics as she “she glossed over the findings that she had broken ethics rules, which amounted to an abuse of her office.”
Now, that’s not a great start for a possible future President, who is at least supposed to wait until he/she gets into the Oval Office before they start abusing power.
Even more troubling is another sort of abuse of power, and that’s the hate mongering and rabble rousing at which this self-described pit bull is so adept. It’s a strategy that’s prompted lifelong Republican, Frank Schaeffer, to equate McCain/Palin rallies with “lynch mobs:”
“John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as ‘not one of us,’ I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.
“At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, ‘Kill him!’ At one of your rallies, someone called out, ‘Terrorist!’ Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee—an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.
This would be troubling no matter who is running, because more hate is one thing we definitely don’t need. But given the sort of institutional and mob violence that has been directed at African-Americans, it’s even more alarming.
The question now is whether McCain and Palin want to — or even can — raise this particularly ugly vibration.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Musings: Act Local
Walking through the neighborhood in the usual quiet of a Saturday morning, with chickens and bird song and barking dogs providing the bulk of the background noise, it seems impossible to believe that the human part of the world is so precariously poised.
On the one hand, we have President Bush — never a reassuring or credible presence —telling folks there’s no need to panic and the government’s big action was big enough to stem the crisis.
And on the other, we’ve got the very same government calling international meetings to save the world from economic collapse as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson delivers such unsettling comments as:
"This is a period like none of us has ever seen before," declared Paulson at a rare Friday night news conference.
If none of them have ever seen anything like this, how can they be so certain they’ll be able to “fix it?”
A friend just back from an Indonesia vacation told of watching the world news — “They even have Al Jezeera broadcasts,” he marveled — at a surf camp there, and seeing well-heeled surfers from Brazil, Australia and Europe digest reports of America’s financial woes spreading across the globe, causing their own investments to nose dive.
It’s kind of like the 21st Century equivalent of the venereal and other diseases that infected vast numbers of unsuspecting persons at the onset of colonialism, causing entire civilizations to collapse.
My favorite comment of the week came from Bush:
"In an interconnected world, no nation will gain by driving down the fortunes of another.”
Since when? Isn’t that the basis of all the war-mongering that made the 20th Century the bloodiest in human history? Isn’t that why the World Bank has crushed the economies of developing nations with debt? Isn’t that the purpose of NAFTA and other trade agreements?
Meanwhile, Larry Geller at Disappeared News is wondering, where’s the public outrage over the meltdown?
I think a lot of folks are numb, or just don’t know what to think. Then there’s a sizable group that figures the government will fix it, because that’s what the government keeps saying it’s going to do.
And then there’s the misplaced outrage, like the anger expressed toward the Dems at recent GOP political rallies. That leads me to my second favorite quote of the week:
“I’m mad; I’m really mad!” the [Republican] voter bellowed. “And what’s going to surprise ya, is it’s not the economy — it’s the socialists taking over our country.”
Ironically, he was referring to Obama, not Bush, the President who orchestrated the biggest government intervention in the financial sector in history, and whose Treasury Secretary is now talking about nationalizing banks.
On a local level, I haven’t seen any outrage or even much overt concern, although folks are definitely aware of what’s happening. A friend who works construction said some guys are really crying because work has dried up, although it hasn’t for him, while another reported that North Shore condos aren’t selling, with some on the market for over 700 days. Meanwhile, a local charity cancelled a planned fundraising ball because it feared the tickets were too pricey.
So things are obviously decelerating on Kauai, but some people are viewing it like a hurricane, without the damage, imposing a slowdown that’s somewhat welcome after the frenetic activity of the past six years. All of a sudden it’s possible to easily make a left turn onto Kuhio Highway in Kapaa in the middle of the day because the traffic has eased. And folks opposed to the massive Kukuiulua development in Poipu are smirking as it stalls out just as it’s coming on line.
I don’t know if this attitude will persist if things get worse, but Kauai has weathered tough times in the past, in large part because there’s still a sense of caring here. Despite our differences, folks are generally willing to help one another, local-style.
That makes me think of an exchange I witnessed the other day while sitting with some guys at a picnic table by the beach at Pine Trees in Hanalei. A Lakota named Black Fox came by and joined us. He got to talking and said he’d met a girl who asked him: “Are you a local?”
He had replied, “I don’t know,” which set us all to laughing and prompted one of the guys, from a North Shore Hawaiian family, to say: “There’s no way to tell by looking who’s local in Hawaii. It’s, do you act local?”
And on Kauai, fortunately, a lot of folks do.
On the one hand, we have President Bush — never a reassuring or credible presence —telling folks there’s no need to panic and the government’s big action was big enough to stem the crisis.
And on the other, we’ve got the very same government calling international meetings to save the world from economic collapse as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson delivers such unsettling comments as:
"This is a period like none of us has ever seen before," declared Paulson at a rare Friday night news conference.
If none of them have ever seen anything like this, how can they be so certain they’ll be able to “fix it?”
A friend just back from an Indonesia vacation told of watching the world news — “They even have Al Jezeera broadcasts,” he marveled — at a surf camp there, and seeing well-heeled surfers from Brazil, Australia and Europe digest reports of America’s financial woes spreading across the globe, causing their own investments to nose dive.
It’s kind of like the 21st Century equivalent of the venereal and other diseases that infected vast numbers of unsuspecting persons at the onset of colonialism, causing entire civilizations to collapse.
My favorite comment of the week came from Bush:
"In an interconnected world, no nation will gain by driving down the fortunes of another.”
Since when? Isn’t that the basis of all the war-mongering that made the 20th Century the bloodiest in human history? Isn’t that why the World Bank has crushed the economies of developing nations with debt? Isn’t that the purpose of NAFTA and other trade agreements?
Meanwhile, Larry Geller at Disappeared News is wondering, where’s the public outrage over the meltdown?
I think a lot of folks are numb, or just don’t know what to think. Then there’s a sizable group that figures the government will fix it, because that’s what the government keeps saying it’s going to do.
And then there’s the misplaced outrage, like the anger expressed toward the Dems at recent GOP political rallies. That leads me to my second favorite quote of the week:
“I’m mad; I’m really mad!” the [Republican] voter bellowed. “And what’s going to surprise ya, is it’s not the economy — it’s the socialists taking over our country.”
Ironically, he was referring to Obama, not Bush, the President who orchestrated the biggest government intervention in the financial sector in history, and whose Treasury Secretary is now talking about nationalizing banks.
On a local level, I haven’t seen any outrage or even much overt concern, although folks are definitely aware of what’s happening. A friend who works construction said some guys are really crying because work has dried up, although it hasn’t for him, while another reported that North Shore condos aren’t selling, with some on the market for over 700 days. Meanwhile, a local charity cancelled a planned fundraising ball because it feared the tickets were too pricey.
So things are obviously decelerating on Kauai, but some people are viewing it like a hurricane, without the damage, imposing a slowdown that’s somewhat welcome after the frenetic activity of the past six years. All of a sudden it’s possible to easily make a left turn onto Kuhio Highway in Kapaa in the middle of the day because the traffic has eased. And folks opposed to the massive Kukuiulua development in Poipu are smirking as it stalls out just as it’s coming on line.
I don’t know if this attitude will persist if things get worse, but Kauai has weathered tough times in the past, in large part because there’s still a sense of caring here. Despite our differences, folks are generally willing to help one another, local-style.
That makes me think of an exchange I witnessed the other day while sitting with some guys at a picnic table by the beach at Pine Trees in Hanalei. A Lakota named Black Fox came by and joined us. He got to talking and said he’d met a girl who asked him: “Are you a local?”
He had replied, “I don’t know,” which set us all to laughing and prompted one of the guys, from a North Shore Hawaiian family, to say: “There’s no way to tell by looking who’s local in Hawaii. It’s, do you act local?”
And on Kauai, fortunately, a lot of folks do.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Musings: The Sky is Falling?
My alarm clock today was Koko, flying out of bed, small feet narrowly missing my head, intent to get outside where a chicken was making a particularly blood-curdling cackle.
By the time I indulged her, having had to first write down a dream, brush my teeth and get dressed, the chicken was nowhere to be seen or heard, but another soon came rocketing out of the bushes, running for its life, or so it seemed from its loud and frantic cries, which had Koko tugging sharply on her leash and even roused the neighbor’s cat from his sunbath and sent him off in hot pursuit.
I would have thought that discretion would have more surely guaranteed safety, but instead it was if the chicken was putting itself in greater danger by crying out, “look at me, look at me, I’m in trouble.” It was not unlike the headlines on the neighbor’s morning paper that screamed: Economic Meltdown, followed by bold print announcing the IMF prediction that the world economy will slow dramatically, led by the U.S.
It wasn’t until the fifth paragraph that the story reported:
The IMF's projection was made before the Federal Reserve and other major central banks from around the world slashed interest rates Wednesday in an attempt to prevent a financial crisis from becoming a global economic meltdown.
So we still don’t really know how this whole thing will shake out, but folks are bailing like mad to keep the boat afloat and the fear alarm is ringing madly.
It made me think of a comment that farmer Jerry made the other day about how the baby boomers — and he’s solidly one of ‘em — mistrusted government and the system, and now it’s obvious that they were right. Because they’re the ones who are gonna get screwed as their retirement funds evaporate in this volatile market.
And that got us talking about what lured the once distrustful baby boomers to Wall Street, a place they once viewed as the evil spawn of the industrial-military complex, the dreaded domain of the suits? What got them speculating on real estate, when they once talked about living off land held in common ownership?
The answer, it seems, is the desire for security. Somehow even the free-wheeling, free-loving boomers got caught in that trap, which so often causes people to abandon their best interests and stay in bad marriages, bad jobs, bad investments, fervently holding on to the hope — the myth — that somebody or something’s going to take care of them.
That’s an attitude that folks had better snap out of quick, according to author Naomi Klein [correx: Naomi Wolf], who is now sounding the alarm that the government essentially staged a coup when it sent armed troops to patrol American streets. In a YouTube interview, she makes some pretty compelling arguments about how the nation is sliding into facism.
Among them are the mass arrests of immigrants, which she called practice for large-scale detainments, threatening Congress with martial law if it didn’t pass the bailout bill, the recent arrest of journalists (ahem) and fine print buried in the bailout bill that gives the Prez total authority over $1 billion. And now he has own personal army, as he has sole control over the 3,000 to 4,000 troops now training for domestic operations in America.
In a Democracy Now! interview, Army Col. Michael Boatner claimed the troops won't be used for law enforcement:
The primary purpose of this force is to provide help to people in need in the aftermath of a WMD-like event in the homeland.
And even though the 3rd Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat unit has spent three of the last five years in Iraq in counterinsurgency operations, and will be armed with Tasers and rubber bullets, Col. Boatner assured us they won’t snap in domestic situations:
So, I would say that our soldiers are trustworthy. They can deploy in the homeland, and American citizens can be confident that there will be no abuses.
There’s quite a lot more to the interview, including the fact that every member of the National Governors Association signed a letter that said, “This provision was drafted without consultation or input from governors and represents an unprecedented shift in authority from governors…to the federal government,” so I’d encourage you to read it, and also watch Naomi’s video and make up your own mind about what’s going on in America.
It seems so far away, but let’s not forget that Hawaii is the most heavily militarized of all the states and the only one to have experienced martial law.
I’ll leave you with this olelo noe'au, which was sent to Andre Perez of Oahu when he turned himself in yesterday on a trespassing warrant stemming from the Aug. 7 protest at the Naue burial site:
Eku mai la mamua ka `ino -- said of one who is courageous and stands firm amongst the forces before him.
By the time I indulged her, having had to first write down a dream, brush my teeth and get dressed, the chicken was nowhere to be seen or heard, but another soon came rocketing out of the bushes, running for its life, or so it seemed from its loud and frantic cries, which had Koko tugging sharply on her leash and even roused the neighbor’s cat from his sunbath and sent him off in hot pursuit.
I would have thought that discretion would have more surely guaranteed safety, but instead it was if the chicken was putting itself in greater danger by crying out, “look at me, look at me, I’m in trouble.” It was not unlike the headlines on the neighbor’s morning paper that screamed: Economic Meltdown, followed by bold print announcing the IMF prediction that the world economy will slow dramatically, led by the U.S.
It wasn’t until the fifth paragraph that the story reported:
The IMF's projection was made before the Federal Reserve and other major central banks from around the world slashed interest rates Wednesday in an attempt to prevent a financial crisis from becoming a global economic meltdown.
So we still don’t really know how this whole thing will shake out, but folks are bailing like mad to keep the boat afloat and the fear alarm is ringing madly.
It made me think of a comment that farmer Jerry made the other day about how the baby boomers — and he’s solidly one of ‘em — mistrusted government and the system, and now it’s obvious that they were right. Because they’re the ones who are gonna get screwed as their retirement funds evaporate in this volatile market.
And that got us talking about what lured the once distrustful baby boomers to Wall Street, a place they once viewed as the evil spawn of the industrial-military complex, the dreaded domain of the suits? What got them speculating on real estate, when they once talked about living off land held in common ownership?
The answer, it seems, is the desire for security. Somehow even the free-wheeling, free-loving boomers got caught in that trap, which so often causes people to abandon their best interests and stay in bad marriages, bad jobs, bad investments, fervently holding on to the hope — the myth — that somebody or something’s going to take care of them.
That’s an attitude that folks had better snap out of quick, according to author Naomi Klein [correx: Naomi Wolf], who is now sounding the alarm that the government essentially staged a coup when it sent armed troops to patrol American streets. In a YouTube interview, she makes some pretty compelling arguments about how the nation is sliding into facism.
Among them are the mass arrests of immigrants, which she called practice for large-scale detainments, threatening Congress with martial law if it didn’t pass the bailout bill, the recent arrest of journalists (ahem) and fine print buried in the bailout bill that gives the Prez total authority over $1 billion. And now he has own personal army, as he has sole control over the 3,000 to 4,000 troops now training for domestic operations in America.
In a Democracy Now! interview, Army Col. Michael Boatner claimed the troops won't be used for law enforcement:
The primary purpose of this force is to provide help to people in need in the aftermath of a WMD-like event in the homeland.
And even though the 3rd Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat unit has spent three of the last five years in Iraq in counterinsurgency operations, and will be armed with Tasers and rubber bullets, Col. Boatner assured us they won’t snap in domestic situations:
So, I would say that our soldiers are trustworthy. They can deploy in the homeland, and American citizens can be confident that there will be no abuses.
There’s quite a lot more to the interview, including the fact that every member of the National Governors Association signed a letter that said, “This provision was drafted without consultation or input from governors and represents an unprecedented shift in authority from governors…to the federal government,” so I’d encourage you to read it, and also watch Naomi’s video and make up your own mind about what’s going on in America.
It seems so far away, but let’s not forget that Hawaii is the most heavily militarized of all the states and the only one to have experienced martial law.
I’ll leave you with this olelo noe'au, which was sent to Andre Perez of Oahu when he turned himself in yesterday on a trespassing warrant stemming from the Aug. 7 protest at the Naue burial site:
Eku mai la mamua ka `ino -- said of one who is courageous and stands firm amongst the forces before him.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Naue Overview
The Hawaii Independent, a well-done — and very welcome — alternative news website put together by Ikaika Hussey, Chad Blair and others, has posted an article I just wrote that lays out the chronology and issues of the Naue burials debate. As I researched and wrote the piece, I was amazed at all the twists and turns this story has taken. You can read it here.
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