The canopy of stars that gleamed in the night were gone by the time Koko, Pa`ele and I went walking, smothered by clouds and dimmed by the first light of day. Yet Venus twinkled on, sandwiched between two gray smudges.
I’m often struck by the vibrancy of dawn sound: the roar of the ocean miles away, the intense twittering of waking birds massed in the trees, the whisper of wind slipping through the trees, and today, the grunting of a pigs in bushes right alongside the road, which got the dogs very worked up.
As frequent readers of this blog well know, I tend to get worked up over rich people acting like piggies. I thought about that when I went to Kauapea Beach yesterday and saw the Keep Out and No Trespassing signs posted by wealthy landowners whose plants, sprinkler heads, irrigation runoff and greenwaste extend into the public easement. I wanted to turn the signs around so they were facing into the “private property,” but I figured the owners likely wouldn’t catch my drift, or even see it, because in so many of these places, the lights are on, the refrigerators, dehumidifiers and pond/pool pumps are running, but no one is home.
I thought about it when a friend told of being sent to a remodel job overlooking Hanalei Bay, where he saw a perfectly good, very new, upscale house being totally torn up — we’re talking jack-hammering the slate around the pool, ripping out custom-made cabinets, covering over a marble floor and more — because the new owners wanted "something different." It left him with a sick, disgusted feeling, he said, and the others on the job felt the same way, seeing all the hard work of the tradesmen before them destroyed, all those expensive materials being trashed and sent to the dump, though they salvaged what they could.
And I thought about it when I read about the Oxfam report that warns the price of food staples will double in the next 20 years, pushing even more people into poverty. Already, some 925 million people go hungry every day. As the Guardian reports:
A devastating combination of factors – climate change, depleting natural resources, a global scramble for land and water, the rush to turn food into biofuels, a growing global population, and changing diets – have created the conditions for an increase in deep poverty.
[Oxfam] said global food reserves must be urgently increased and western governments must end biofuels policies that divert food to fuel for cars.
It also attacked excessive corporate concentration in the food sector, particularly in grain trading and in seed and agrochemicals.
The Oxfam report followed warnings from the UN last week that food prices are likely to hit new highs in the next few weeks, triggering unrest in developing countries. The average global price of cereals jumped by 71% to a new record in the year to April last month.
The World Bank warned last month that rising food prices have pushed 44 million people into poverty since last June.
In this case, the rich piggies are all we “First Worlders,” especially Americans, with our addiction to cheap energy, insatiable hunger for double bacon cheeseburgers, propensity to buy more than we need at super stores like Costco, and then throw much of it away, and tendency to eat too damn much.
And then there are those who speculate and trade on the misery of others. As Reuters reports,
"This report from Oxfam re-emphasizes the need to address food security in the context of poverty alleviation," [Martin Mortimer, director of the University of Liverpool's Food Security Network] said.
The report said the shortcomings of the food system flowed from failures of government to regulate and to invest, which meant that companies, interest groups and elites had been able to plunder resources.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports, demand is increasing, even as production declines:
The average growth rate in agricultural yields has almost halved since 1990 and is set to decline to a fraction of one percent in the next decade while increasing regional and local crises could double the need for food aid in the next 10 years.
But it doesn’t seem we piggies are too good at heeding warnings. I mean, how many have we gotten about the need to reduce carbon emissions NOW? Yet as the International Energy Agency reported yesterday:
Energy-related carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2010 were the highest in history.
After a dip in 2009 caused by the global financial crisis, emissions are estimated to have climbed to a record 30.6 Gigatonnes (Gt), a 5% jump from the previous record year in 2008, when levels reached 29.3 Gt.
In addition, the IEA has estimated that 80% of projected emissions from the power sector in 2020 are already locked in, as they will come from power plants that are currently in place or under construction today.
“This significant increase in CO2 emissions and the locking in of future emissions due to infrastructure investments represent a serious setback to our hopes of limiting the global rise in temperature to no more than 2ÂșC,” said Dr Fatih Birol, Chief Economist at the IEA who oversees the annual World Energy Outlook, the Agency’s flagship publication.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Musings: Real and Fake
A light rain had just passed and Makaleha was cast in a pale pink glow when the dogs and I set out toward the place where the sun was getting rosy on the horizon. I didn’t know exactly where we were going, only that it was makai.
We followed a rainbow and ended up on the thick sands of Kauapea, the beach so wide that in places I could sit and not even see the sea, making it feel almost like I was in a desert landscape. Since it’s Memorial Day, I thought of all the warriors who had been killed in that place — the site of many horrific battles in days of old, or so I’ve been told — and of all the death that humans have meted out to one another for what somebody thought was a worthy cause, a good enough reason.
And that made me think of my friend Kaimi, who stopped by last night after spending the past two weeks in New York. He, and a few other denizens of the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi (PKOA) were attending a World Indigenous Persons conference at the United Nations.
There were plenty of sad stories to be told and heard, and he recounted some of them: gang rapes, disappeared relatives, orphaned children soldiers, immigrants gunned down at the U.S.-Mexico border, rocket attacks in Gaza — the experiences of indigenous people who had survived, and sometimes still lived with, intense violence. It provided a sobering global context for the struggle that kanaka maoli face in regaining their nation, living with an occupation.
“At least we’re not getting bombed,” he said.
We were silent, as that fortunate reality sank in fully. He broke it with the heartfelt utterance of a question that bears repeated asking: “Why does there even have to be war?”
He was carrying a passport — the result of a friendship forged with a Cherokee man on an earlier visit to the UN — issued to him by the United Nations of Turtle Island as a diplomat with the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi.
“I used it at the airport, on my way back from New York,” he reported. “The TSA guy who checks your ID got all excited. He was like, ‘OMG, does this mean you guys finally broke away from the United States?’”
Which gave Kaimi an opportunity to explain that the Hawaiian Kingdom never was part of the U.S. because it was illegally overthrown and annexed. The agent called over his supervisor and co-workers, showing them the passport and saying, “We’re going to be seeing more of these now.”
Kaimi said the PKOA has been forming treaties with other nations, gaining recognition, making international connections. On this visit, they reportedly even forged an alliance with some folks who want to help fund efforts to grow jatropha, a plant used in biofuel production, rather than GMO crops on the Westside.
While not everyone they encountered knew about Alii Nui Dayne Aipoalani, they were all familiar with what had happened to the indigenous people of Hawaii. And while different indigenous groups were pressing different issues, Kaimi said a common theme ran through: "Ask permission, and give them the right to practice their own spirituality.”
Those representing the PKOA weren’t the only kanaka in attendance. Kaimi said they also ran into some who were advocating “nationhood OHA-style, for Hawaiian-Americans,” as well as others who were presenting themselves as someone, or something, they were not.
“It’s not just our nation that has this going on,” Kaimi said. As he surveyed the crowds attending the sessions, listened to representatives from nations large and small, heard stories of indigenous movements co-opted by governments, corporations, infighting, greed, he found himself scrutinizing.
"It's the hardest thing, you know, figuring out, who is the faker? And who is the real group?"
We followed a rainbow and ended up on the thick sands of Kauapea, the beach so wide that in places I could sit and not even see the sea, making it feel almost like I was in a desert landscape. Since it’s Memorial Day, I thought of all the warriors who had been killed in that place — the site of many horrific battles in days of old, or so I’ve been told — and of all the death that humans have meted out to one another for what somebody thought was a worthy cause, a good enough reason.
And that made me think of my friend Kaimi, who stopped by last night after spending the past two weeks in New York. He, and a few other denizens of the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi (PKOA) were attending a World Indigenous Persons conference at the United Nations.
There were plenty of sad stories to be told and heard, and he recounted some of them: gang rapes, disappeared relatives, orphaned children soldiers, immigrants gunned down at the U.S.-Mexico border, rocket attacks in Gaza — the experiences of indigenous people who had survived, and sometimes still lived with, intense violence. It provided a sobering global context for the struggle that kanaka maoli face in regaining their nation, living with an occupation.
“At least we’re not getting bombed,” he said.
We were silent, as that fortunate reality sank in fully. He broke it with the heartfelt utterance of a question that bears repeated asking: “Why does there even have to be war?”
He was carrying a passport — the result of a friendship forged with a Cherokee man on an earlier visit to the UN — issued to him by the United Nations of Turtle Island as a diplomat with the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi.
“I used it at the airport, on my way back from New York,” he reported. “The TSA guy who checks your ID got all excited. He was like, ‘OMG, does this mean you guys finally broke away from the United States?’”
Which gave Kaimi an opportunity to explain that the Hawaiian Kingdom never was part of the U.S. because it was illegally overthrown and annexed. The agent called over his supervisor and co-workers, showing them the passport and saying, “We’re going to be seeing more of these now.”
Kaimi said the PKOA has been forming treaties with other nations, gaining recognition, making international connections. On this visit, they reportedly even forged an alliance with some folks who want to help fund efforts to grow jatropha, a plant used in biofuel production, rather than GMO crops on the Westside.
While not everyone they encountered knew about Alii Nui Dayne Aipoalani, they were all familiar with what had happened to the indigenous people of Hawaii. And while different indigenous groups were pressing different issues, Kaimi said a common theme ran through: "Ask permission, and give them the right to practice their own spirituality.”
Those representing the PKOA weren’t the only kanaka in attendance. Kaimi said they also ran into some who were advocating “nationhood OHA-style, for Hawaiian-Americans,” as well as others who were presenting themselves as someone, or something, they were not.
“It’s not just our nation that has this going on,” Kaimi said. As he surveyed the crowds attending the sessions, listened to representatives from nations large and small, heard stories of indigenous movements co-opted by governments, corporations, infighting, greed, he found himself scrutinizing.
"It's the hardest thing, you know, figuring out, who is the faker? And who is the real group?"
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Musings: Wala'au with the Mayor
I went to see Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. yesterday.
He’d called me last week, and asked if I’d be willing to sit down and talk story. We'd met, but never really had a discussion.
“Sure,” I said. Because I’m always open to talking to the people I write about. I mean, fair is fair. But few ever call; instead, their wives and attorneys post nasty anonymous comments. Yes, I know who some of you are.
“Maybe he’s going to offer you a job,” suggested an idealistic friend.
“Ummm, I don’t think so,” I said, reminding her that I’d neither assisted the mayor’s campaign, nor voted for him.
“Ask how big was the envelop starwood gave him wen he wen 2 ask them 2 hire local instead of tht Mexican crew frm Texas,” texted a more cynical friend.
He kept me waiting just a few minutes, then ushered me into the spacious office I hadn’t entered since it was occupied by Bryan Baptiste. Mary Daubert didn’t follow us in, and Beth Tokioka wasn’t there, either. In other words, I was going to get the mayor unembellished. I took that as a good sign.
After a bit of small talk, he made the reason for our get-together clear: he wanted to know the person behind the blog. Like others — most recently, Joel Guy, who expressed trepidation about our first meeting — he seemed surprised to discover I’m neither mean nor scary. I think “cool” was the word they both used. Must be my multi-colored hair, which gives me a chance to plug my fab stylist, HS Ferreira.
Bernard then said he was opening the door for me to call him any time, and asked if I had any questions. The first one to pop into my head addressed an issue that, unbeknownst known to me, Councilman KipuKai Kualii had raised quite eloquently and astutely that very same day before voting on the budget: the mayor’s five new hires, and their sizable salaries.
As The Garden Island reports today in its account of the Council budget vote and discussion:
“Four of these five positions were dollar-funded positions, additions to the budget that the mayor chose to make,” [Kualii] said. “The council needs to have full budgetary powers in order to protect the interests of our citizens by being a check and balance of the administration on all expenditures, especially salaries. If it takes changing the law then that needs to happen.
“It’s against the interest of the community to give council authority for budgetary oversight when it comes to taking on new expenditures in excess of $6,500 for equipment, furniture and vehicles in the middle of the fiscal year but not have a law to prevent the manipulation of vacant or dollar-funded positions resulting in several new positions each costing over $100,000, positions that some citizens have brought to my attention as unnecessary political hires,” Kuali‘i said.
KipuKai also provided the paper with a rundown on those five positions that outlined the old and new job titles and salary. It includes the Special Assistant to the Housing Director position created for Imai Aiu when he was moved out of the planning department — a topic addressed in my second question, which I’ll discuss in another post — as well as an administrative aide, an executive assistant, an Environmental Services Officer and a Risk Management Administrator. Combined, they’re making $430,252 per year, plus $208,455 in benefits.
In explaining the rationale behind his hires, the mayor used a football metaphor that placed him as the quarterback in the line up. “I gotta be able to trust the guys on either side of me,” said the former Miami Dolphins player, looking right and left, his face and voice registering excitement. I could imagine him preparing to hike the pigskin. “I don’t ask how much they’re making, I just know they’re gonna be able to run with the ball and make a touchdown.”
It seems that Bernard, who advanced from the rank and file during his 26 years with the county, knows how difficult it can be to light a fire under the butts of some county workers, is aware of their tendency to cruise and wait out the term of the newest mayor. After sitting in the mayor’s chair for two years, fulfilling the term and agenda of the late Mayor Baptiste, he was eager now to make his own mark, advance his own ideas. And to do that, he said, he knew he needed to put people he could trust, and whom he could personally hold accountable, in some key positions.
He acknowledges their participation in his campaign, and is aware that some of us view it as political patronage. He, however, sees it as insurance that at least some of the changes he envisions will occur.
This was followed by a rather lengthy monologue, as is the nature of most politicians, about his efforts to reorganize and better organize the workings of the county, as well as some aspects of his vision, such as creating an online tracking system for capital improvement projects and a policy and procedures manual for new hires; training staff in sexual harassment; and other administrative housekeeping measures that one would think would already be in place, but apparently aren’t.
It became clear, while listening, that the mayor is smarter than I’d thought, in that he is at least able to see the bigger picture and what needs to be tweaked to make it function better.
I also can understand why he, as captain, wants to assemble his own team of trusted players.
But that doesn't change the fact that we, the voters, need to be able to trust him, which is why I agree with KipuKai’s position on the mayor's new hires:
“Having the council approve these changes to positions in between budgets and prior to any actual hiring would prevent the administration from acting alone and would restore the public’s confidence in our county hiring process.”
I also happen to agree with Councilman Mel Rapozo on the overall budget presented by the mayor, against which he cast the lone vote in opposition:
“The philosophy I thought this year was to reduce and we didn’t,” Rapozo said. “We increased and we increased substantially.” He said he believes the increased spending sends the wrong message to the state, to the Federal government and to voters.
Especially after some county workers lost substantial pay during the furloughs.
"So is there anything you want to ask me, or say about anything I've written?" I asked the mayor, in the spirit of fair play.
“Some of the things you've written have been hurtful," he said. "Not to me, because I'm a big boy, and I can take it, but to my family."
I winced, though only a little, because I'm sorry, but it goes with the territory.
"And some of it has been just been plain wrong," he continued.
I don't doubt it.
"But I don’t expect you to always agree with me, and I would never ask you to change anything you’ve been doing,” said the mayor, who, having majored in communications and worked briefly at KGMB, said he understands the role of a journalist.
That's good, and as it should be.
Still, he’s politically savvy enough to know that it’s easier for a journalist to inflict damage from a Predator drone than to thrust a bayonet while looking into the eyes of your opponent.
But at least now I know I can call Bernard directly and say, "Hey, what's up with that?" And I imagine that from now on he'll be doing the same with me.
He’d called me last week, and asked if I’d be willing to sit down and talk story. We'd met, but never really had a discussion.
“Sure,” I said. Because I’m always open to talking to the people I write about. I mean, fair is fair. But few ever call; instead, their wives and attorneys post nasty anonymous comments. Yes, I know who some of you are.
“Maybe he’s going to offer you a job,” suggested an idealistic friend.
“Ummm, I don’t think so,” I said, reminding her that I’d neither assisted the mayor’s campaign, nor voted for him.
“Ask how big was the envelop starwood gave him wen he wen 2 ask them 2 hire local instead of tht Mexican crew frm Texas,” texted a more cynical friend.
He kept me waiting just a few minutes, then ushered me into the spacious office I hadn’t entered since it was occupied by Bryan Baptiste. Mary Daubert didn’t follow us in, and Beth Tokioka wasn’t there, either. In other words, I was going to get the mayor unembellished. I took that as a good sign.
After a bit of small talk, he made the reason for our get-together clear: he wanted to know the person behind the blog. Like others — most recently, Joel Guy, who expressed trepidation about our first meeting — he seemed surprised to discover I’m neither mean nor scary. I think “cool” was the word they both used. Must be my multi-colored hair, which gives me a chance to plug my fab stylist, HS Ferreira.
Bernard then said he was opening the door for me to call him any time, and asked if I had any questions. The first one to pop into my head addressed an issue that, unbeknownst known to me, Councilman KipuKai Kualii had raised quite eloquently and astutely that very same day before voting on the budget: the mayor’s five new hires, and their sizable salaries.
As The Garden Island reports today in its account of the Council budget vote and discussion:
“Four of these five positions were dollar-funded positions, additions to the budget that the mayor chose to make,” [Kualii] said. “The council needs to have full budgetary powers in order to protect the interests of our citizens by being a check and balance of the administration on all expenditures, especially salaries. If it takes changing the law then that needs to happen.
“It’s against the interest of the community to give council authority for budgetary oversight when it comes to taking on new expenditures in excess of $6,500 for equipment, furniture and vehicles in the middle of the fiscal year but not have a law to prevent the manipulation of vacant or dollar-funded positions resulting in several new positions each costing over $100,000, positions that some citizens have brought to my attention as unnecessary political hires,” Kuali‘i said.
KipuKai also provided the paper with a rundown on those five positions that outlined the old and new job titles and salary. It includes the Special Assistant to the Housing Director position created for Imai Aiu when he was moved out of the planning department — a topic addressed in my second question, which I’ll discuss in another post — as well as an administrative aide, an executive assistant, an Environmental Services Officer and a Risk Management Administrator. Combined, they’re making $430,252 per year, plus $208,455 in benefits.
In explaining the rationale behind his hires, the mayor used a football metaphor that placed him as the quarterback in the line up. “I gotta be able to trust the guys on either side of me,” said the former Miami Dolphins player, looking right and left, his face and voice registering excitement. I could imagine him preparing to hike the pigskin. “I don’t ask how much they’re making, I just know they’re gonna be able to run with the ball and make a touchdown.”
It seems that Bernard, who advanced from the rank and file during his 26 years with the county, knows how difficult it can be to light a fire under the butts of some county workers, is aware of their tendency to cruise and wait out the term of the newest mayor. After sitting in the mayor’s chair for two years, fulfilling the term and agenda of the late Mayor Baptiste, he was eager now to make his own mark, advance his own ideas. And to do that, he said, he knew he needed to put people he could trust, and whom he could personally hold accountable, in some key positions.
He acknowledges their participation in his campaign, and is aware that some of us view it as political patronage. He, however, sees it as insurance that at least some of the changes he envisions will occur.
This was followed by a rather lengthy monologue, as is the nature of most politicians, about his efforts to reorganize and better organize the workings of the county, as well as some aspects of his vision, such as creating an online tracking system for capital improvement projects and a policy and procedures manual for new hires; training staff in sexual harassment; and other administrative housekeeping measures that one would think would already be in place, but apparently aren’t.
It became clear, while listening, that the mayor is smarter than I’d thought, in that he is at least able to see the bigger picture and what needs to be tweaked to make it function better.
I also can understand why he, as captain, wants to assemble his own team of trusted players.
But that doesn't change the fact that we, the voters, need to be able to trust him, which is why I agree with KipuKai’s position on the mayor's new hires:
“Having the council approve these changes to positions in between budgets and prior to any actual hiring would prevent the administration from acting alone and would restore the public’s confidence in our county hiring process.”
I also happen to agree with Councilman Mel Rapozo on the overall budget presented by the mayor, against which he cast the lone vote in opposition:
“The philosophy I thought this year was to reduce and we didn’t,” Rapozo said. “We increased and we increased substantially.” He said he believes the increased spending sends the wrong message to the state, to the Federal government and to voters.
Especially after some county workers lost substantial pay during the furloughs.
"So is there anything you want to ask me, or say about anything I've written?" I asked the mayor, in the spirit of fair play.
“Some of the things you've written have been hurtful," he said. "Not to me, because I'm a big boy, and I can take it, but to my family."
I winced, though only a little, because I'm sorry, but it goes with the territory.
"And some of it has been just been plain wrong," he continued.
I don't doubt it.
"But I don’t expect you to always agree with me, and I would never ask you to change anything you’ve been doing,” said the mayor, who, having majored in communications and worked briefly at KGMB, said he understands the role of a journalist.
That's good, and as it should be.
Still, he’s politically savvy enough to know that it’s easier for a journalist to inflict damage from a Predator drone than to thrust a bayonet while looking into the eyes of your opponent.
But at least now I know I can call Bernard directly and say, "Hey, what's up with that?" And I imagine that from now on he'll be doing the same with me.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Musings: Guinea Pigs
The wind sang a sweet shush-shash song in the ironwoods outside my bedroom all night long, delivering a lullaby that was suitably lulling until a waning half moon peeked through the trees in the first inkling of dawn.
Roused, like the roosters, by the light, Koko, Paele and I soon were out walking, heading into that brisk wind, which carried the faintest trace of rain from the black fringe blowing mauka above a swath of pale apricot-colored sky.
President Obama is blowing smoke over in the UK, telling both Houses of the British Parliament that the U.S. and Britain remain, according to a New York Times report, “’indispensible’ nations for peace and stability” — even as the two countries continue to feed the carnage and instability in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and “turn up the heat” in Libya with air strikes that are almost certainly killing the civilians they’re intended to protect.
We’re supplying the drones, while France — and soon Britain — are using attack helicopters, supposedly to ensure more precise killing. Oh, yes, those "surgical" air strikes.
It brought to mind a long article I recently read in the Los Angeles Times that detailed a Predator drone attack that went way wrong in Afghanistan, killing 15 to 23 people (depending on whether you believe the U.S. military or elders from an Afghan village). All of the dead and injured were unarmed civilians, including two little boys.
The story, though difficult to read, showed clearly the problems associated with drone warfare. It seems that even advanced technology can’t override the biases and assumptions that come into play when you’ve got guys eager to gun somebody down — at no personal risk to themselves.
While we’re on the topic of the military, I got an email with a link to an article published on Al — as in short for Alabama — .com about Austal USA and the ferry-builder’s fast foray into American military contracts. It noted:
Its most prominent commercial contract was a $190 million deal to build two ships for Hawaii Superferry Inc. That deal turned into a quagmire for the shipbuilder. A judge made the Hawaiian company stop operating the ferry service because of environmental concerns. That caused Superferry to file for bankruptcy, forcing Austal to eat a $23 million loan it made to the company.
Still, that $23 million was chump change, considering what came next:
In 2008 Austal won a $1.6 billion deal with the U.S. Army and Navy to build 10 high-speed vessels, which were basically militarized versions of the ferries it built for Hawaii.
But no, we weren’t guinea pigs.
Speaking of guinea pigs, France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety is saying another 70,000 people should be moved from an area outside the Fukushima evacuation zone because it's contaminated by radiation from the crippled nuke plants.
What I find interesting are all the assurances of “don’t worry, no problem,” from officials in Japan and elsewhere, even as every report from the plant indicates damage is greater than initially thought and reported, and it’s not yet clear just how much radiation has leaked out.
Meanwhile, The Mainichi Daily News is reporting that thousands of nuclear plant workers suffered internal radiation after apparently inhaling radioactive substances while visiting Fukushima Prefecture.
A special earthquake-resistant building that serves as a base for emergency workers at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had its doors strained by hydrogen explosions at the No. 1 and 3 reactors in March, making it easier for radioactive substances to come in. "We had meals there, so I think radioactive substances came into our bodies," a male worker in his 40s said. "We just drink beer and wash them down," he added.
Roused, like the roosters, by the light, Koko, Paele and I soon were out walking, heading into that brisk wind, which carried the faintest trace of rain from the black fringe blowing mauka above a swath of pale apricot-colored sky.
President Obama is blowing smoke over in the UK, telling both Houses of the British Parliament that the U.S. and Britain remain, according to a New York Times report, “’indispensible’ nations for peace and stability” — even as the two countries continue to feed the carnage and instability in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and “turn up the heat” in Libya with air strikes that are almost certainly killing the civilians they’re intended to protect.
We’re supplying the drones, while France — and soon Britain — are using attack helicopters, supposedly to ensure more precise killing. Oh, yes, those "surgical" air strikes.
It brought to mind a long article I recently read in the Los Angeles Times that detailed a Predator drone attack that went way wrong in Afghanistan, killing 15 to 23 people (depending on whether you believe the U.S. military or elders from an Afghan village). All of the dead and injured were unarmed civilians, including two little boys.
The story, though difficult to read, showed clearly the problems associated with drone warfare. It seems that even advanced technology can’t override the biases and assumptions that come into play when you’ve got guys eager to gun somebody down — at no personal risk to themselves.
While we’re on the topic of the military, I got an email with a link to an article published on Al — as in short for Alabama — .com about Austal USA and the ferry-builder’s fast foray into American military contracts. It noted:
Its most prominent commercial contract was a $190 million deal to build two ships for Hawaii Superferry Inc. That deal turned into a quagmire for the shipbuilder. A judge made the Hawaiian company stop operating the ferry service because of environmental concerns. That caused Superferry to file for bankruptcy, forcing Austal to eat a $23 million loan it made to the company.
Still, that $23 million was chump change, considering what came next:
In 2008 Austal won a $1.6 billion deal with the U.S. Army and Navy to build 10 high-speed vessels, which were basically militarized versions of the ferries it built for Hawaii.
But no, we weren’t guinea pigs.
Speaking of guinea pigs, France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety is saying another 70,000 people should be moved from an area outside the Fukushima evacuation zone because it's contaminated by radiation from the crippled nuke plants.
What I find interesting are all the assurances of “don’t worry, no problem,” from officials in Japan and elsewhere, even as every report from the plant indicates damage is greater than initially thought and reported, and it’s not yet clear just how much radiation has leaked out.
Meanwhile, The Mainichi Daily News is reporting that thousands of nuclear plant workers suffered internal radiation after apparently inhaling radioactive substances while visiting Fukushima Prefecture.
A special earthquake-resistant building that serves as a base for emergency workers at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had its doors strained by hydrogen explosions at the No. 1 and 3 reactors in March, making it easier for radioactive substances to come in. "We had meals there, so I think radioactive substances came into our bodies," a male worker in his 40s said. "We just drink beer and wash them down," he added.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Musings: They're Back
I heard my first Newell’s shearwater of the season on Saturday morning, that distinctive braying-wheezing call, directly overhead, low and close, sending a shiver through my body as I stood outside with the dogs in the damp grass and darkness of 4:30 a.m.
“They’re back,” I thought with a thrill that was shortly followed by a sense of foreboding and the second thought, “I hope I don’t find any dead ones this year.”
Or as a friend in the Midwest wrote this morning, after stopping to move off the highway an opossum that had regularly visited her home, and was now dying after being hit by a car: “There's the worry about creatures trying to navigate a human world...”
Especially one that’s hostile.
But still, there are people who care, like my friend, who paid enough attention to recognize that little opossum by its markings, and another friend, who reported hearing first the faint calls of a Newell’s last week, and then heartier, more robust calls this past weekend, and Kathy Valier, whose heart was so touched by finding a downed Newell’s chick last fall that she helped out at the SOS (Save Our Shearwater) program and just returned from five weeks of volunteering at the Wetlands and Wildfowl Trust in Slimbride, England, where they reared nene in the 1950s for release in Hawaii.
While there, she kept a thoughtful, photo-heavy blog that recorded some of her encounters with nene, Laysan ducks and other birds. It’s definitely worth checking out.
And I had the opportunity to see an adult Laysan albatross feeding its hungry chick this past weekend. I’d always heard that they feed the chicks squid oil, but this meal was all squid and fish, in copious quantities.
As the hungry chick pecked at the parent’s bill, the parent regurgitated the partially digested fish and deposited it directly into the chick’s gaping mouth, without a speck of waste. This was repeated numerous times, over the span of about 10 minutes, then the parent headed over to the bluff and flew out to sea to catch another meal. The chick, almost as tall as its parent, and chubbier, waddled after it, still making its feeding cry, then returned for a nap in its nest beneath an ironwood tree.
The albatross chicks will be leaving in another month or so to begin their lives at sea.
It’s been a rough year for the albatrosses on Kauai, with a lot of egg abandonment, avian pox (a sometimes fatal disease spread by mosquitoes) and even crossbill, a deformity caused by pox that will prevent the chick from feeding itself upon maturity.
The chicks reared on private lands have apparently fared better than those hatched at the Kilauea Lighthouse, for reasons that remain unclear. Overall, it seems that food has been an issue, as is often the case in a La Nina year.
But as with everything, there's still so much we don't know.
“They’re back,” I thought with a thrill that was shortly followed by a sense of foreboding and the second thought, “I hope I don’t find any dead ones this year.”
Or as a friend in the Midwest wrote this morning, after stopping to move off the highway an opossum that had regularly visited her home, and was now dying after being hit by a car: “There's the worry about creatures trying to navigate a human world...”
Especially one that’s hostile.
But still, there are people who care, like my friend, who paid enough attention to recognize that little opossum by its markings, and another friend, who reported hearing first the faint calls of a Newell’s last week, and then heartier, more robust calls this past weekend, and Kathy Valier, whose heart was so touched by finding a downed Newell’s chick last fall that she helped out at the SOS (Save Our Shearwater) program and just returned from five weeks of volunteering at the Wetlands and Wildfowl Trust in Slimbride, England, where they reared nene in the 1950s for release in Hawaii.
While there, she kept a thoughtful, photo-heavy blog that recorded some of her encounters with nene, Laysan ducks and other birds. It’s definitely worth checking out.
And I had the opportunity to see an adult Laysan albatross feeding its hungry chick this past weekend. I’d always heard that they feed the chicks squid oil, but this meal was all squid and fish, in copious quantities.
As the hungry chick pecked at the parent’s bill, the parent regurgitated the partially digested fish and deposited it directly into the chick’s gaping mouth, without a speck of waste. This was repeated numerous times, over the span of about 10 minutes, then the parent headed over to the bluff and flew out to sea to catch another meal. The chick, almost as tall as its parent, and chubbier, waddled after it, still making its feeding cry, then returned for a nap in its nest beneath an ironwood tree.
The albatross chicks will be leaving in another month or so to begin their lives at sea.
It’s been a rough year for the albatrosses on Kauai, with a lot of egg abandonment, avian pox (a sometimes fatal disease spread by mosquitoes) and even crossbill, a deformity caused by pox that will prevent the chick from feeding itself upon maturity.
The chicks reared on private lands have apparently fared better than those hatched at the Kilauea Lighthouse, for reasons that remain unclear. Overall, it seems that food has been an issue, as is often the case in a La Nina year.
But as with everything, there's still so much we don't know.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Musings: On the Fence
At the beach, saturated in shimmer intensified by the wind-roughened ripple of the sea’s surface, looking for glass glinting in white light low on the horizon and finding that today it was delivered in cubes, rectangles, squares, while on other days, all the glass that washes in is triangle-shaped, and still other days, a mix, and I wondered, was it a factor of sand, current, tide, or sheer coincidence, and was the same true at any other beach?
The fence went up at the Lepeuli Beach trailhead yesterday, blocking off the lateral access.
And the world did not end, even though Bruce Laymon had clearly tempted fate by installing it on May 21.
I didn’t know it was going to happen. I just happened to be in the neighborhood, meeting a friend who said, “I heard the fence went up this morning. I thought you might want to check it out.”
Indeed.
“I expected protests,” she said when we got there. “But there’s nothing.”
“Well, there’s not much anybody can do about it now, except cut it or climb it, and either way, they risk arrest.”
It’s a strong and serious fence, with barbed wire around the top and numerous red-lettered signs that proclaim PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESSPASSING.
I don’t like fences, especially near the beach.
Still, I totally understand why he did it. Keeping cattle in is only part of it. Quite frankly, it’s the only thing that would keep me, and everyone else who has ever used that path, out.
Besides, let’s not forget that there is, after all, another perfectly good access right there, and it had been freshly weed-whacked to make its presence quite clear.
“That’s it?” said my friend. “From what I’d heard, I thought you had to scale rocks, risk life and limb. It doesn’t look bad at all.”
“It's not,” I replied. “That’s been totally overblown. Most anyone could go down it.”
“Except, for some reason, the nudists,” she said.
Yes. Strange, that.
Later, when I got home, I found an email with photos that lateral access advocates had sent around, including one of three women, with the caption:
And red shirted Nyoc-Lan Pham who was on a family pilgimage.
Her husband died at Larsen's Beach 11 years ago.
She wanted to see the beach "and touch the water" where her husband died..
Unfortunately a head injury a couple of years ago has left her weak.
Her family tried to lead her down the steep trail (one in front, one behind) but she couldn't make it.
I wonder, did those who heard her story suggest she call Bruce? Because I’m pretty sure he would have been happy to drive her. And did her husband drown because the lateral trail made it oh so very easy to access the dangerous waters of that beautiful beach?
I know that some are very worked up about the fence. I’m not one of them, primarily because we still have an access. Anyway, I believe it’s going to be better for the albatross and shearwaters, because it encloses the area under the ironwoods where they like to nest. And if it does, indeed, discourage the hordes, then it will also help resting seals and nesting turtles, which benefit from fewer humans in their midst.
I am, however, very interested in the question of whether the trail it blocks is a traditional ala loa — an issue that will be decided by the courts, and not Bruce Laymon’s fence or those who prefer to sunbathe in the nude — an activity I do not, btw, in any way oppose. I just never could understand why they couldn't use the public trail.
At the moment, I’m more concerned about the future of the ag lands that front and surround that still wild beach — lands that are owned by the nonprofit Waioli Corp., which so far has resisted pressure to sell; Falko Partners, whose future development plans can be guessed, and Tom McCloskey, who currently has a big chunk on the market at a price that precludes anyone growing something legal.
Do we really want our coastline to be Luxeville all the way from Aliomanu to Ke`e? Because, you know, that’s exactly where we’re heading.
The fence went up at the Lepeuli Beach trailhead yesterday, blocking off the lateral access.
And the world did not end, even though Bruce Laymon had clearly tempted fate by installing it on May 21.
I didn’t know it was going to happen. I just happened to be in the neighborhood, meeting a friend who said, “I heard the fence went up this morning. I thought you might want to check it out.”
Indeed.
“I expected protests,” she said when we got there. “But there’s nothing.”
“Well, there’s not much anybody can do about it now, except cut it or climb it, and either way, they risk arrest.”
It’s a strong and serious fence, with barbed wire around the top and numerous red-lettered signs that proclaim PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESSPASSING.
I don’t like fences, especially near the beach.
Still, I totally understand why he did it. Keeping cattle in is only part of it. Quite frankly, it’s the only thing that would keep me, and everyone else who has ever used that path, out.
Besides, let’s not forget that there is, after all, another perfectly good access right there, and it had been freshly weed-whacked to make its presence quite clear.
“That’s it?” said my friend. “From what I’d heard, I thought you had to scale rocks, risk life and limb. It doesn’t look bad at all.”
“It's not,” I replied. “That’s been totally overblown. Most anyone could go down it.”
“Except, for some reason, the nudists,” she said.
Yes. Strange, that.
Later, when I got home, I found an email with photos that lateral access advocates had sent around, including one of three women, with the caption:
And red shirted Nyoc-Lan Pham who was on a family pilgimage.
Her husband died at Larsen's Beach 11 years ago.
She wanted to see the beach "and touch the water" where her husband died..
Unfortunately a head injury a couple of years ago has left her weak.
Her family tried to lead her down the steep trail (one in front, one behind) but she couldn't make it.
I wonder, did those who heard her story suggest she call Bruce? Because I’m pretty sure he would have been happy to drive her. And did her husband drown because the lateral trail made it oh so very easy to access the dangerous waters of that beautiful beach?
I know that some are very worked up about the fence. I’m not one of them, primarily because we still have an access. Anyway, I believe it’s going to be better for the albatross and shearwaters, because it encloses the area under the ironwoods where they like to nest. And if it does, indeed, discourage the hordes, then it will also help resting seals and nesting turtles, which benefit from fewer humans in their midst.
I am, however, very interested in the question of whether the trail it blocks is a traditional ala loa — an issue that will be decided by the courts, and not Bruce Laymon’s fence or those who prefer to sunbathe in the nude — an activity I do not, btw, in any way oppose. I just never could understand why they couldn't use the public trail.
At the moment, I’m more concerned about the future of the ag lands that front and surround that still wild beach — lands that are owned by the nonprofit Waioli Corp., which so far has resisted pressure to sell; Falko Partners, whose future development plans can be guessed, and Tom McCloskey, who currently has a big chunk on the market at a price that precludes anyone growing something legal.
Do we really want our coastline to be Luxeville all the way from Aliomanu to Ke`e? Because, you know, that’s exactly where we’re heading.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Musings: On Trust
Dew dripped from the eaves and ivory clouds waltzed with an egg-shaped white moon when the dogs and I went out walking this morning. A fiery patch in the east blazed briefly, then was extinguished, as the world entered that time of birdsong-infused grayness that precedes the dawn.
It announced its arrival by staining western clouds pink, as I picked a few surviving blossoms from a gardenia bush whose flowers had mostly succumbed to heat exhaustion and thrips. Then a shaft of sunlight stretched out and touched Makaleha, turning her southern-facing slopes lime green before a shower blew down from the summit, pulling a lacy curtain over the ridges as a rainbow arched up into the heavens.
So much beauty is offered up to us each day.
I haven’t had much time to devote to blogging lately, seeing as how my Internet was down this past week and I’ve been busy with work, moving and the other aspects of life. But I do read all the comments, and while many can be easily dismissed, some prompt reflection.
I especially liked this one from the last post, which was on sustainability:
Another word that has been contorted, distorted, diluted so much that it is now a misnomer. And NONE of them truly knows or understands the word/meaning. So letʻs try a meaningful phrase to replace it: how about, Living Without Corporate Dictatorship.
Ya know, that pretty much sums it up. Imagine, a world without sponsors.
And then there was this one, which was posted a while ago, but it stuck in my head:
Good column and blog but.... The theme all the time is: don't trust no one or what they say. That's a hard tack to take through life, must be hard on the mind all the time. Give us something you DO trust and believe in :)
It’s true. After three decades of reporting, I’ve learned not to trust government, or really any system or institution. But I do trust people who have proven to be trustworthy.
Primarily, though, I trust my own powers of discernment, my own heart, my own knowing, the messages and direction I receive from my own na`au.
It’s taken me a long time to first develop that trust, and then make it unshakeable, and the process has been facilitated by many metaphysical tools, as well as therapy and extensive introspection, as in “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
But the most profound tool I’ve found is IQM — Integrative Quantum Medicine — which is aptly described on its website as the art of energy, the art of empowerment.
I mention it in today’s post because Louise Mita, its founder, is offering a workshop this weekend on Kauai.
I was skeptical when I first heard about IQM, and only attended the introductory meeting because it was being held at the home of a trusted friend. But after seeing Louise in action, I thought, I want to learn how to do this, and on the way home, I thought, with intense excitement, this is going to change my life.
It has. It’s hard to describe, but it’s primarily a process for learning to trust yourself, to tune in and get answers; in short, to know and use the power we all have.
It’s not a membership thing, a religion, or a cult, and you don’t have to pledge allegiance to anyone or anything.
I use IQM every day, for healing, guidance, protection, clarity. It’s never once failed me, and most important, it’s worked to eliminate all insecurity and fear. Because there’s a solidness and profound sense of freedom that’s achieved when you learn how to function from your na’au.
But don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself.
It announced its arrival by staining western clouds pink, as I picked a few surviving blossoms from a gardenia bush whose flowers had mostly succumbed to heat exhaustion and thrips. Then a shaft of sunlight stretched out and touched Makaleha, turning her southern-facing slopes lime green before a shower blew down from the summit, pulling a lacy curtain over the ridges as a rainbow arched up into the heavens.
So much beauty is offered up to us each day.
I haven’t had much time to devote to blogging lately, seeing as how my Internet was down this past week and I’ve been busy with work, moving and the other aspects of life. But I do read all the comments, and while many can be easily dismissed, some prompt reflection.
I especially liked this one from the last post, which was on sustainability:
Another word that has been contorted, distorted, diluted so much that it is now a misnomer. And NONE of them truly knows or understands the word/meaning. So letʻs try a meaningful phrase to replace it: how about, Living Without Corporate Dictatorship.
Ya know, that pretty much sums it up. Imagine, a world without sponsors.
And then there was this one, which was posted a while ago, but it stuck in my head:
Good column and blog but.... The theme all the time is: don't trust no one or what they say. That's a hard tack to take through life, must be hard on the mind all the time. Give us something you DO trust and believe in :)
It’s true. After three decades of reporting, I’ve learned not to trust government, or really any system or institution. But I do trust people who have proven to be trustworthy.
Primarily, though, I trust my own powers of discernment, my own heart, my own knowing, the messages and direction I receive from my own na`au.
It’s taken me a long time to first develop that trust, and then make it unshakeable, and the process has been facilitated by many metaphysical tools, as well as therapy and extensive introspection, as in “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
But the most profound tool I’ve found is IQM — Integrative Quantum Medicine — which is aptly described on its website as the art of energy, the art of empowerment.
I mention it in today’s post because Louise Mita, its founder, is offering a workshop this weekend on Kauai.
I was skeptical when I first heard about IQM, and only attended the introductory meeting because it was being held at the home of a trusted friend. But after seeing Louise in action, I thought, I want to learn how to do this, and on the way home, I thought, with intense excitement, this is going to change my life.
It has. It’s hard to describe, but it’s primarily a process for learning to trust yourself, to tune in and get answers; in short, to know and use the power we all have.
It’s not a membership thing, a religion, or a cult, and you don’t have to pledge allegiance to anyone or anything.
I use IQM every day, for healing, guidance, protection, clarity. It’s never once failed me, and most important, it’s worked to eliminate all insecurity and fear. Because there’s a solidness and profound sense of freedom that’s achieved when you learn how to function from your na’au.
But don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Musings: Ignorance Is Bliss
The roosters were screaming at a one-day-past-full moon that was sliding down in a snakeskin cloud sky when the dogs and I went out walking this morning. We headed east, looking up, where the world was growing light, rather than down, where it remained dark, walking toward the place where the first streaks of pale gold were turning into soft brush strokes of pink, past the goats lying peacefully in dew-damp pastures, past more roosters, past a stream that gurgled softly, toward Venus, brighter even than the brightness of approaching dawn.
By the time we returned, the birds that live in my yard were singing and twittering more loudly than the roosters, and the rosy flush had stretched all the way across the heavens to turn the verdant slopes of Makaleha into rust, the first of many shifts it will experience this day — heck, this hour.
Since interviewing Adam Asquith a week ago, I’ve been thinking about the concept of sustainability, and what it might take to shift western civilization — or more specifically, those of us inhabiting this particularly speck in the Pacific — into a mindset that would make such a way of existing in the world possible.
And I’ve pretty much determined that it’s not going to happen, or at least, not on any widespread scale, barring a catastrophe that leaves us with no other options.
Creating a sustainable Kauai is, like aloha, one of those concepts that is embraced by most in theory, but only a very few in practice, primarily because it requires us to make profound changes first in our values and worldview, and then in how we live. In other words, it demands the conscious attention, hard work, connection to our environment and even hardship and sacrifice that modern life, ironically, strives so mightily to eliminate.
So instead, sustainability has become an intellectual exercise, something some of us talk about. Malama Kauai, for example, is devoting all of 20 minutes to it this evening — the same amount of time it is giving the mayor to discuss his Sustainability HoloHolo 2020 plan in an event that seems intended more to publicize a political alliance that chew on this meaty issue.
I wonder, will the mayor take the bus to the event — oops, no can, it doesn’t run that late, or traverse the side street to Common Ground — or ride a bicycle all the way from Lihue?
And how, exactly, does sustainability fit into miniature golf courses and solar farms on ag land, celebrating the anniversary of PMRF, pumping thousands of dollars into tourism promotion, and a campaign war chest filled with contributions from the construction industry?
Which is all a way of saying that it’s so much easier to talk and plan and chat and mingle than track a wild pig or coax food from the soil or gore the sacred cows in order to totally revamp our completely unsustainable economy.
I don’t mean to knock Malama Kauai, which has done some good things, or even the mayor, who hasn’t, but to point out how this whole sustainability discourse is just that, which is why I tend to dismiss it as a giant waste of time.
And to see the mayor positioning himself as a leader is not only laughable, but wrongheaded, because sustainability is not, and never has been, a top down, centralized endeavor, as a look at the people who are actually living sustainably in this world makes clear.
If we want to get serious about living sustainably, which I am not at all convinced most of us really do, since we’re not yet forced into it, we need to start by looking at how much we can give up, do without. Or as Adam said, rather than debating how to develop energy projects that will keep people on the grid with unlimited electricity on demand, we need to think of how many hours a day we can live with brown outs or blackouts, and then figure out how to meet those reduced needs with small projects that serve individual households or neighborhoods.
Yet all of our talk about sustainability is couched in this giant disconnect of continuing life essentially as we now know it, which we have already seen is clearly not in any way, shape or form sustainable.
Rather than debating which of our ag lands are important enough to save, we need to be planting all of them, because if you look back at the history of the kanaka maoli, who did sustain themselves here with no outside imports, it’s clear that they were growing food in every available square inch.
As Adam noted, sustainability requires an intensively managed landscape, which runs counter to our aesthetic ideals of open spaces and wilderness and lush lowlands, and our modern mindset of humans distinct from nature.
Living on this island in a sustainable way also requires us to cultivate two values that have gone decidedly out of style: patience and delayed gratification.
But first, it requires that we get honest about how we are able to live the way we currently do, which is possible, to use Adam’s words, “only because we have the ability to externalize our needs and demands. We let someone else exploit their landscape. And it’s largely indigenous people that pay the price for it. Our demand is destroying indigenous people and the remaining resources all over the world.”
“Ignorance,” he said, “is bliss. But now that I know that, I know that I have to find another way and teach my children those values.”
When we start talking about and planning for sustainability within the context of those profound value changes, perhaps we’ll be ready to achieve it. Until then, it’s essentially a feel-good exercise -- nothing more than mental masturbation.
By the time we returned, the birds that live in my yard were singing and twittering more loudly than the roosters, and the rosy flush had stretched all the way across the heavens to turn the verdant slopes of Makaleha into rust, the first of many shifts it will experience this day — heck, this hour.
Since interviewing Adam Asquith a week ago, I’ve been thinking about the concept of sustainability, and what it might take to shift western civilization — or more specifically, those of us inhabiting this particularly speck in the Pacific — into a mindset that would make such a way of existing in the world possible.
And I’ve pretty much determined that it’s not going to happen, or at least, not on any widespread scale, barring a catastrophe that leaves us with no other options.
Creating a sustainable Kauai is, like aloha, one of those concepts that is embraced by most in theory, but only a very few in practice, primarily because it requires us to make profound changes first in our values and worldview, and then in how we live. In other words, it demands the conscious attention, hard work, connection to our environment and even hardship and sacrifice that modern life, ironically, strives so mightily to eliminate.
So instead, sustainability has become an intellectual exercise, something some of us talk about. Malama Kauai, for example, is devoting all of 20 minutes to it this evening — the same amount of time it is giving the mayor to discuss his Sustainability HoloHolo 2020 plan in an event that seems intended more to publicize a political alliance that chew on this meaty issue.
I wonder, will the mayor take the bus to the event — oops, no can, it doesn’t run that late, or traverse the side street to Common Ground — or ride a bicycle all the way from Lihue?
And how, exactly, does sustainability fit into miniature golf courses and solar farms on ag land, celebrating the anniversary of PMRF, pumping thousands of dollars into tourism promotion, and a campaign war chest filled with contributions from the construction industry?
Which is all a way of saying that it’s so much easier to talk and plan and chat and mingle than track a wild pig or coax food from the soil or gore the sacred cows in order to totally revamp our completely unsustainable economy.
I don’t mean to knock Malama Kauai, which has done some good things, or even the mayor, who hasn’t, but to point out how this whole sustainability discourse is just that, which is why I tend to dismiss it as a giant waste of time.
And to see the mayor positioning himself as a leader is not only laughable, but wrongheaded, because sustainability is not, and never has been, a top down, centralized endeavor, as a look at the people who are actually living sustainably in this world makes clear.
If we want to get serious about living sustainably, which I am not at all convinced most of us really do, since we’re not yet forced into it, we need to start by looking at how much we can give up, do without. Or as Adam said, rather than debating how to develop energy projects that will keep people on the grid with unlimited electricity on demand, we need to think of how many hours a day we can live with brown outs or blackouts, and then figure out how to meet those reduced needs with small projects that serve individual households or neighborhoods.
Yet all of our talk about sustainability is couched in this giant disconnect of continuing life essentially as we now know it, which we have already seen is clearly not in any way, shape or form sustainable.
Rather than debating which of our ag lands are important enough to save, we need to be planting all of them, because if you look back at the history of the kanaka maoli, who did sustain themselves here with no outside imports, it’s clear that they were growing food in every available square inch.
As Adam noted, sustainability requires an intensively managed landscape, which runs counter to our aesthetic ideals of open spaces and wilderness and lush lowlands, and our modern mindset of humans distinct from nature.
Living on this island in a sustainable way also requires us to cultivate two values that have gone decidedly out of style: patience and delayed gratification.
But first, it requires that we get honest about how we are able to live the way we currently do, which is possible, to use Adam’s words, “only because we have the ability to externalize our needs and demands. We let someone else exploit their landscape. And it’s largely indigenous people that pay the price for it. Our demand is destroying indigenous people and the remaining resources all over the world.”
“Ignorance,” he said, “is bliss. But now that I know that, I know that I have to find another way and teach my children those values.”
When we start talking about and planning for sustainability within the context of those profound value changes, perhaps we’ll be ready to achieve it. Until then, it’s essentially a feel-good exercise -- nothing more than mental masturbation.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Musings: So it Goes
A gray mouse was riding a motorcycle down a short, rose-colored track when the dogs and I went out walking this morning. To the left of that scene shone Venus, and what I believe was Jupiter, though it could have Mercury, seeing as how the planets have been ganging up lately, while in the distance, lavender-scarlet anvils and towers were sidling up to Kalalea.
The roosters — I now live near a very large fighting cock farm — had been up for hours, giddy over the nearly full moon and cheering, like a crowd rooting for the home team, the approach of a golden dawn, which created shadow play on the green peaks of Makaleha and revealed, for the first time since I moved here, the white-streaked summit of Waialeale.
I’ve been immersed the past week in work and the world of moving — packing, unpacking, loading, unloading, cleaning, dirtying — and while it’s not over yet, the end is in sight.
The same could be said of KIUC, which on Friday finally received a federal permit that allows it to legally kill 162 adult Newell’s shearwaters and another 18 eggs and/or chicks with its — or rather, our — lights and power lines every year. I wondered how the feds came up with those particular numbers, seeing as no one really knows just how many `A`o are left in this world, or how many the population can stand to lose before drifting into extinction.
I wondered if KIUC would dutifully report all its dead and wounded, especially if it goes over the limit, and how many more are “taken,” but no one notices, because they fall in remote areas or their bodies are ground into the pavement before they can be recovered and counted.
And I wondered how many of these native seabirds had been killed since 1995, when the utility was directed to get its incidental take permit as part of the consent decree between the community and what was then Kauai Electric over the placement of lines through Kalihiwai.
But hey, I guess 16 years late is better than nevah.
KIUC still has to get its state permit before the federal permit is valid, but rather than follow DLNR’s directive and do an environmental assessment, it’s appealing that requirement to the governor, further delaying the process.
I try to have faith and trust in our utility, but seeing the foot-dragging, law-skirting approach that it’s taken with the Newell’s makes me just a bit uneasy about its FERC-directed foray into hydroelectric.
While the lack of coverage may have caused some to forget about the nuclear catastrophe in Japan, it seems Tokyo Electric Co. has now acknowledged that two more of its reactors suffered core meltdown and it suspects the containment vessel is damaged and leaking highly radioactive water at its No. 1 reactor. Where that leakage is going isn't made clear, but there are two likely places: land and sea.
Meanwhile, Asahi.com is reporting that a new map of ground surface contamination shows high levels of radiation in areas outside of the evacuation zone. In some areas where people are still living, it was higher than the mandatory relocation zone around the Chernobyl plant.
"I am surprised by the extent of the contamination and the vast area it covers," said Tetsuji Imanaka, assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute.
And I wondered just how much officials do and don't know, and how much they aren't saying.
What really brought it home, though, was this video clip from The Guardian about dairy farmers who have returned to tend their cows in the evacuation zone. The cows survived, but now the farmers fear their soil is too contaminated to grow the feed their animals need, which means the end of their cows and their farms and the food they produce to feed others.
And so it goes as we poison the earth, and along with it ourselves.
The roosters — I now live near a very large fighting cock farm — had been up for hours, giddy over the nearly full moon and cheering, like a crowd rooting for the home team, the approach of a golden dawn, which created shadow play on the green peaks of Makaleha and revealed, for the first time since I moved here, the white-streaked summit of Waialeale.
I’ve been immersed the past week in work and the world of moving — packing, unpacking, loading, unloading, cleaning, dirtying — and while it’s not over yet, the end is in sight.
The same could be said of KIUC, which on Friday finally received a federal permit that allows it to legally kill 162 adult Newell’s shearwaters and another 18 eggs and/or chicks with its — or rather, our — lights and power lines every year. I wondered how the feds came up with those particular numbers, seeing as no one really knows just how many `A`o are left in this world, or how many the population can stand to lose before drifting into extinction.
I wondered if KIUC would dutifully report all its dead and wounded, especially if it goes over the limit, and how many more are “taken,” but no one notices, because they fall in remote areas or their bodies are ground into the pavement before they can be recovered and counted.
And I wondered how many of these native seabirds had been killed since 1995, when the utility was directed to get its incidental take permit as part of the consent decree between the community and what was then Kauai Electric over the placement of lines through Kalihiwai.
But hey, I guess 16 years late is better than nevah.
KIUC still has to get its state permit before the federal permit is valid, but rather than follow DLNR’s directive and do an environmental assessment, it’s appealing that requirement to the governor, further delaying the process.
I try to have faith and trust in our utility, but seeing the foot-dragging, law-skirting approach that it’s taken with the Newell’s makes me just a bit uneasy about its FERC-directed foray into hydroelectric.
While the lack of coverage may have caused some to forget about the nuclear catastrophe in Japan, it seems Tokyo Electric Co. has now acknowledged that two more of its reactors suffered core meltdown and it suspects the containment vessel is damaged and leaking highly radioactive water at its No. 1 reactor. Where that leakage is going isn't made clear, but there are two likely places: land and sea.
Meanwhile, Asahi.com is reporting that a new map of ground surface contamination shows high levels of radiation in areas outside of the evacuation zone. In some areas where people are still living, it was higher than the mandatory relocation zone around the Chernobyl plant.
"I am surprised by the extent of the contamination and the vast area it covers," said Tetsuji Imanaka, assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute.
And I wondered just how much officials do and don't know, and how much they aren't saying.
What really brought it home, though, was this video clip from The Guardian about dairy farmers who have returned to tend their cows in the evacuation zone. The cows survived, but now the farmers fear their soil is too contaminated to grow the feed their animals need, which means the end of their cows and their farms and the food they produce to feed others.
And so it goes as we poison the earth, and along with it ourselves.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Musings: On the Move
The day began with the sound of rain-swollen Makaleha Stream roaring, as mist floated up from the pastures and white tendrils draped themselves around the mountain peaks now visible from my house.
Heading down the hill, on dawn patrol with the dogs, the world was all soft grays, with just an edging of pink tracing the tip of one cumulus cloud and boobies heading out for a day of fishing in the placid waters that soon enveloped me.
I'm in the process of moving, which brings the usual disruptions, fatigue and chaos, but also the joy of settling in to a new place that is so far superior to the old in every way. As a friend who is also a perennial renter agreed, every move gets better. And so it seems does life -- or at least, my life.
I was talking to a man the other day who is having a rough time with his 17-year-old son, who got addicted to OxyContin and is now taking another drug to help wean him from the pain pills.
"They're worse than ice," he said, "because they're even easier to get and the kids think they can't get hooked."
But they do, and when the try to quit they suffer the gut wrenching nausea of withdrawals, which sends them back to the drug for relief.
He said he gave the cops his son's cell phone, which held the numbers of at least 10 dealers. The cops told him the information confirmed what they already knew, and they moved to arrest at least some of the dealers.
"That slowed things down a little bit, but all it really did was push the price up," he said. "Now they're selling for twenty, twenty-five dollars each. You can imagine, the guys who are getting prescriptions for 200, 300 of these every month, how much money they're making. We're talking thousands.
"Our kids are getting addicted, and some people are getting arrested, but what about the doctors who are writing these prescriptions? Shouldn't they be held accountable, too? Because some people, you know,they're going to two or three doctors, and nobody's checking, and the doctors are writing prescriptions for hundreds at a time. It just makes it too easy to sell them."
He'd found there really wasn't much help available for his son, saying "it seems like everything's geared to kids who get arrested." But he'd finally found a doctor who was willing to help. It worried him to give his son one drug to wean him off another, but he couldn't bear to see him suffer.
And then he looked at me and asked, "Can't you help get the word out, through the newspaper or whatever outlets you have? Let people know oxies are the big problem now. It's not ice, it's oxies. They're everywhere."
Heading down the hill, on dawn patrol with the dogs, the world was all soft grays, with just an edging of pink tracing the tip of one cumulus cloud and boobies heading out for a day of fishing in the placid waters that soon enveloped me.
I'm in the process of moving, which brings the usual disruptions, fatigue and chaos, but also the joy of settling in to a new place that is so far superior to the old in every way. As a friend who is also a perennial renter agreed, every move gets better. And so it seems does life -- or at least, my life.
I was talking to a man the other day who is having a rough time with his 17-year-old son, who got addicted to OxyContin and is now taking another drug to help wean him from the pain pills.
"They're worse than ice," he said, "because they're even easier to get and the kids think they can't get hooked."
But they do, and when the try to quit they suffer the gut wrenching nausea of withdrawals, which sends them back to the drug for relief.
He said he gave the cops his son's cell phone, which held the numbers of at least 10 dealers. The cops told him the information confirmed what they already knew, and they moved to arrest at least some of the dealers.
"That slowed things down a little bit, but all it really did was push the price up," he said. "Now they're selling for twenty, twenty-five dollars each. You can imagine, the guys who are getting prescriptions for 200, 300 of these every month, how much money they're making. We're talking thousands.
"Our kids are getting addicted, and some people are getting arrested, but what about the doctors who are writing these prescriptions? Shouldn't they be held accountable, too? Because some people, you know,they're going to two or three doctors, and nobody's checking, and the doctors are writing prescriptions for hundreds at a time. It just makes it too easy to sell them."
He'd found there really wasn't much help available for his son, saying "it seems like everything's geared to kids who get arrested." But he'd finally found a doctor who was willing to help. It worried him to give his son one drug to wean him off another, but he couldn't bear to see him suffer.
And then he looked at me and asked, "Can't you help get the word out, through the newspaper or whatever outlets you have? Let people know oxies are the big problem now. It's not ice, it's oxies. They're everywhere."
Friday, May 6, 2011
Musings: Seems Questionable
It seems questionable that we, as a supposedly secular nation, have a “National Day of Prayer,” and that we paid, according to an article in The Garden Island, “a good-sized gathering of County of Kaua‘i employees” to offer up what sounded like exclusively Christian prayers — at the county building, no less — in honor of it.
Still, I can’t quibble with our mayor that we should “pray that our government leaders will make good and just decisions.” The intervention of a divine power is about the only thing likely to ensure it.
But it’s really too bad that even as they were offering up prayers for the military, churches, pastors and ministries (which would seem to generate enough prayers on their own), business, government and media, no one apparently saw fit to pray for the `aina, kai and wai that support and sustain us.
And therein lies the big disconnect.
It seems questionable that the U.S. reportedly spent at least $3 trillion over the past 15 years fighting Usama bin Laden “counting the disruptions he wrought on the domestic economy, the wars and heightened security triggered by the terrorist attacks he engineered, and the direct efforts to hunt him down.”
To put it in some perspective, that’s “one-fifth of a year's gross domestic product — more than the entire 2008 budget of the United States government.” And what, really, do we have to show for it?
It seems questionable that even as Obama is calling upon God to bless America after the reported assassination of bin Laden, Al-Qaeda is calling upon Allah for “his help, support and steadfastness to continue on the path of jihad,” according to a statement the group allegedly posted on line confirming bin Laden’s death and vowing revenge.
So much for the “positive power of prayer” that our mayor referenced.
It seems questionable that the U.S. persists in using what Winona LaDuke characterized as “native nomenclature” in its military operations, including Black Hawk helicopters, Apache Longbow helicopters, Tomahawk missiles and most recently, Geronimo as code for bin Laden:
The term used when you leave a military base in a foreign country is to go 'off the reservation, into Indian Country.' So what is that messaging that is passed on? It is basically the continuation of the wars against indigenous people."
Donald Rumsfeld, when he went to Fort Carson, named after the infamous Kit Carson, who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Navajo people and their forced relocation, urged people, you know, in speaking to the troops, that in the global war on terror, U.S. forces from this base have lived up to the legend of Kit Carson, fighting terrorists in the mountains of Afghanistan to help secure victory. "And every one of you is like Kit Carson."
[T]he Seventh Cavalry, that went in in Shock and Awe, is the same cavalry that massacred indigenous people, the Lakota people, at Wounded Knee in 1890. You know, that is the reality of military nomenclature and how the military basically uses native people and native imagery to continue its global war and its global empire practices.
It seems questionable that the U.S. should be allowed to carry out assassinations, which is why UN human rights investigators are calling on the U.S. to disclose details of the raid to “allow an assessment in terms of international human rights law standards.” Or in other words, was there any plan to capture bin Laden, or was it a "cold-blooded execution?"
It’s important for the truth to come out, both to clarify the contradictory statements about what really went down and to determine whether this kind of action will be sanctioned by nations that supposedly revere the rule of law. I’m sure many view Obama and Dubya as mass murderers, seeing as how between them they authorized actions that resulted in the deaths of many thousands, but I doubt anyone would sanction targeted hits of either as “justice served.”
Still, it’s not likely that the U.S. will respond to such inquiries. After all, we’re convinced we’ve got God on our side.
And for those of us who believe in a higher power that is love-based, that really seems questionable.
Still, I can’t quibble with our mayor that we should “pray that our government leaders will make good and just decisions.” The intervention of a divine power is about the only thing likely to ensure it.
But it’s really too bad that even as they were offering up prayers for the military, churches, pastors and ministries (which would seem to generate enough prayers on their own), business, government and media, no one apparently saw fit to pray for the `aina, kai and wai that support and sustain us.
And therein lies the big disconnect.
It seems questionable that the U.S. reportedly spent at least $3 trillion over the past 15 years fighting Usama bin Laden “counting the disruptions he wrought on the domestic economy, the wars and heightened security triggered by the terrorist attacks he engineered, and the direct efforts to hunt him down.”
To put it in some perspective, that’s “one-fifth of a year's gross domestic product — more than the entire 2008 budget of the United States government.” And what, really, do we have to show for it?
It seems questionable that even as Obama is calling upon God to bless America after the reported assassination of bin Laden, Al-Qaeda is calling upon Allah for “his help, support and steadfastness to continue on the path of jihad,” according to a statement the group allegedly posted on line confirming bin Laden’s death and vowing revenge.
So much for the “positive power of prayer” that our mayor referenced.
It seems questionable that the U.S. persists in using what Winona LaDuke characterized as “native nomenclature” in its military operations, including Black Hawk helicopters, Apache Longbow helicopters, Tomahawk missiles and most recently, Geronimo as code for bin Laden:
The term used when you leave a military base in a foreign country is to go 'off the reservation, into Indian Country.' So what is that messaging that is passed on? It is basically the continuation of the wars against indigenous people."
Donald Rumsfeld, when he went to Fort Carson, named after the infamous Kit Carson, who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Navajo people and their forced relocation, urged people, you know, in speaking to the troops, that in the global war on terror, U.S. forces from this base have lived up to the legend of Kit Carson, fighting terrorists in the mountains of Afghanistan to help secure victory. "And every one of you is like Kit Carson."
[T]he Seventh Cavalry, that went in in Shock and Awe, is the same cavalry that massacred indigenous people, the Lakota people, at Wounded Knee in 1890. You know, that is the reality of military nomenclature and how the military basically uses native people and native imagery to continue its global war and its global empire practices.
It seems questionable that the U.S. should be allowed to carry out assassinations, which is why UN human rights investigators are calling on the U.S. to disclose details of the raid to “allow an assessment in terms of international human rights law standards.” Or in other words, was there any plan to capture bin Laden, or was it a "cold-blooded execution?"
It’s important for the truth to come out, both to clarify the contradictory statements about what really went down and to determine whether this kind of action will be sanctioned by nations that supposedly revere the rule of law. I’m sure many view Obama and Dubya as mass murderers, seeing as how between them they authorized actions that resulted in the deaths of many thousands, but I doubt anyone would sanction targeted hits of either as “justice served.”
Still, it’s not likely that the U.S. will respond to such inquiries. After all, we’re convinced we’ve got God on our side.
And for those of us who believe in a higher power that is love-based, that really seems questionable.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Musings: On Various Things
I awoke in the night to a chill breeze that felt like winter and the welcome sound of heavy rain, which stopped about the time the sky began to lighten. The dogs and I had only walked about half our usual distance when I looked back to see a massive black cloud on the approach. Turning around, I heard a roar that I knew couldn’t be the ocean, and we broke into a run, racing the rain, which won, but barely, leaving us damp and energized.
Though the Akaka bill is fortunately dead, state lawmakers have re-energized its most loathsome aspects with Senate Bill 1520, which appears likely to be sent to the governor for his signature. By loathsome, I am referring to its objective of creating a state-sanctioned process to do what Hawaiians can and should do on their own: establish — or more accurately, re-establish — their own government.
Unfortunately, the process the bill sets forth is to be orchestrated by OHA, a state agency, which taints it from the get-go. Further, to use a paragraph from an AP story, it’s based on a premise that grates:
Native Hawaiians are the last remaining indigenous people in the United States who have not been allowed to establish their own government, a right already extended to Alaska Natives and American Indian tribes.
None of the independence advocates I’ve ever talked to believe they need to be granted a right to establish their own government, both because their nation was illegally overthrown and the Queen never relinquished her country's sovereignty.
In other news of the U.S. having its way in sovereign nations — in this case, Pakistan, which has criticized the raid as an "unauthorized unilateral action," — Administration officials are now claiming that killing Usama bin Laden was an act of ”national self defense.” Ummm hmmm. Right.
Meanwhile, they continue to “correct key details from earlier accounts,” according to a report from Associated Press. You know, just minor stuff, like not only didn’t bin Laden engage in a firefight, he wasn’t even armed. And it wasn’t his wife who was killed, but that of an aide, and she wasn’t used as a human shield, but got caught in the crossfire.
I mean, surely White House officials were fully briefed on what actually went down, so there’s absolutely no excuse for initially releasing false accounts of the raid. Unless, of course, it’s intended to — in the words of Glenn Greenwald — “produce deliberately misleading accounts of the most significant news items -- falsehoods which endure no matter how decisively they are debunked in subsequent days.”
Meanwhile, as The New York Times reports, Obama’s approval rating jumped 11 percent after the raid, which is more than the 8 percent bump Bush got after Saddam Hussein was captured. "My guy's badder than your guy, my guy's badder by far..."
Returning to local news, The Garden Island, which is usually quick to print KIUC press releases, has made no mention of the petition that was presented to the utility, even though the cooperative issued a press release that included this statement from CEO David Bissell:
“Regardless of the outcome of the petition verification process, KIUC welcomes every opportunity it is afforded to meet with members of the cooperative to discuss the potential development of small hydroelectric projects on Kaua‘i. We are at the very beginning of a multi-year stakeholder engagement process, so it is understandable that there is some misinformation and confusion at this early stage.”
In other words, those poor petitioners are woefully misinformed, but we’ll set ‘em straight.
Instead of covering an issue of substance, like this one, the paper devoted many inches to a Humane Society puff piece about a family reunited with its supposedly “accident prone” dog, though it sounded more like human negligence.
Anyway, I was skimming it when I saw a reference to my neighbor Andy Bushnell and his daughter — the ones who own the dogs that killed my cat and attacked Paele. Seems the dog showed up at their place. As I read further, I saw this and had one of those “aha” moments:
The organization sent out Humane Officer Jessica Venneman, who happens to be Bushnell’s former history student.
Oh, now I understand why nothing ever came of my complaint to KHS about the attack on Paele. The case was referred to Jessica, who called me for more details. But even though I called her back four times, she never responded. When I finally got ahold of her, she said she had given Andy a warning because she never heard back from me so she assumed it wasn't serious.
And then I recalled how Andy had previously told me that KHS came out one time to cite him for a leash law violation, but the officer turned out to be his former student, and so she let him off.
This is the kind of thing that is so discouraging about living on Kauai.
And it brought to mind a scene I encountered yesterday, as I moved through a seat belt trap set up on Haleko Street and saw all the shaka-flashing going on between the four cops and local motorists. I couldn’t help but wonder how many tickets they were likely to write for their friends.
Though the Akaka bill is fortunately dead, state lawmakers have re-energized its most loathsome aspects with Senate Bill 1520, which appears likely to be sent to the governor for his signature. By loathsome, I am referring to its objective of creating a state-sanctioned process to do what Hawaiians can and should do on their own: establish — or more accurately, re-establish — their own government.
Unfortunately, the process the bill sets forth is to be orchestrated by OHA, a state agency, which taints it from the get-go. Further, to use a paragraph from an AP story, it’s based on a premise that grates:
Native Hawaiians are the last remaining indigenous people in the United States who have not been allowed to establish their own government, a right already extended to Alaska Natives and American Indian tribes.
None of the independence advocates I’ve ever talked to believe they need to be granted a right to establish their own government, both because their nation was illegally overthrown and the Queen never relinquished her country's sovereignty.
In other news of the U.S. having its way in sovereign nations — in this case, Pakistan, which has criticized the raid as an "unauthorized unilateral action," — Administration officials are now claiming that killing Usama bin Laden was an act of ”national self defense.” Ummm hmmm. Right.
Meanwhile, they continue to “correct key details from earlier accounts,” according to a report from Associated Press. You know, just minor stuff, like not only didn’t bin Laden engage in a firefight, he wasn’t even armed. And it wasn’t his wife who was killed, but that of an aide, and she wasn’t used as a human shield, but got caught in the crossfire.
I mean, surely White House officials were fully briefed on what actually went down, so there’s absolutely no excuse for initially releasing false accounts of the raid. Unless, of course, it’s intended to — in the words of Glenn Greenwald — “produce deliberately misleading accounts of the most significant news items -- falsehoods which endure no matter how decisively they are debunked in subsequent days.”
Meanwhile, as The New York Times reports, Obama’s approval rating jumped 11 percent after the raid, which is more than the 8 percent bump Bush got after Saddam Hussein was captured. "My guy's badder than your guy, my guy's badder by far..."
Returning to local news, The Garden Island, which is usually quick to print KIUC press releases, has made no mention of the petition that was presented to the utility, even though the cooperative issued a press release that included this statement from CEO David Bissell:
“Regardless of the outcome of the petition verification process, KIUC welcomes every opportunity it is afforded to meet with members of the cooperative to discuss the potential development of small hydroelectric projects on Kaua‘i. We are at the very beginning of a multi-year stakeholder engagement process, so it is understandable that there is some misinformation and confusion at this early stage.”
In other words, those poor petitioners are woefully misinformed, but we’ll set ‘em straight.
Instead of covering an issue of substance, like this one, the paper devoted many inches to a Humane Society puff piece about a family reunited with its supposedly “accident prone” dog, though it sounded more like human negligence.
Anyway, I was skimming it when I saw a reference to my neighbor Andy Bushnell and his daughter — the ones who own the dogs that killed my cat and attacked Paele. Seems the dog showed up at their place. As I read further, I saw this and had one of those “aha” moments:
The organization sent out Humane Officer Jessica Venneman, who happens to be Bushnell’s former history student.
Oh, now I understand why nothing ever came of my complaint to KHS about the attack on Paele. The case was referred to Jessica, who called me for more details. But even though I called her back four times, she never responded. When I finally got ahold of her, she said she had given Andy a warning because she never heard back from me so she assumed it wasn't serious.
And then I recalled how Andy had previously told me that KHS came out one time to cite him for a leash law violation, but the officer turned out to be his former student, and so she let him off.
This is the kind of thing that is so discouraging about living on Kauai.
And it brought to mind a scene I encountered yesterday, as I moved through a seat belt trap set up on Haleko Street and saw all the shaka-flashing going on between the four cops and local motorists. I couldn’t help but wonder how many tickets they were likely to write for their friends.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Musings: Get the Picture
The thunder came again at about 3 a.m., accompanied, perhaps preceded, by lightning and followed by torrential rain. It made for a restless new moon night of trembling dogs that ended with a dawn walk beneath a sky that had white puff balls floating against a pearlescent background. As the sun rose, shards and shafts of rainbows appeared in the misty rain above the mountains, where Waialeale stood clear-topped, draped in a filmy shawl, and Makaleha was black-hooded, her face streaked with falls.
As the media frenzy over the reported death of Usama bin Laden continues unabated, my mind keeps playing that old Marvin Gaye song:
People say believe half of what you see,
Son, and none of what you hear.
It seemed especially fitting when I read an AP article that reported:
[Northern Illinois University psychologist Brad] Sagarin said most people will probably be convinced bin Laden is dead because they cannot imagine the government maintaining such an extraordinary lie to the contrary in this day and age.
Suckers! This is EXACTLY the kind of stuff the government thinks up, and has for years. And it’s easier than ever to perpetuate lies in “this day and age” of unquestioning media and hordes of sheeple who believe everything they see/hear on TV/Internet/radio.
But like I said yesterday, it doesn’t matter if he’s dead or alive, what matters is what people believe, and the incredible political hay that is now being reaped from it.
Consider this: We have a president who was sucking wind so badly that even idiots like Donald Trump thought they could beat him. Next thing you know, Obama reportedly issues the order to blow away bin Laden, and suddenly you have photos — issued by the White House and dutifully reprinted by media lapdogs — that proclaim him "on the cusp of history" as he deliberates the hit.
Meanwhile, John Brennan, the president's top counterterrorism adviser, is completing the varnishing by claiming his boss made “one of the most gutsiest [sic] calls of any president in recent memory" in an article that includes this very telling paragraph:
The revelation that intelligence gleaned from the CIA's so-called black sites helped kill bin Laden was seen as vindication for many intelligence officials who have been repeatedly investigated and criticized for their involvement in a program that involved the harshest interrogation methods in U.S. history.
"We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day," said Marty Martin, a retired CIA officer who for years led the hunt for bin Laden.
Are you starting to get the picture now? It’s OK to use torture, black sites and secret renditions if you get your guy! And so what if Congress has appropriated $1.3 trillion on wars, extra security measures and veterans' healthcare since 9/11? It’s all worth it if you get your guy!
But vigilance, of course, never sleeps, so pungle up another trill, give up some more of your rights and screw the rule of law. We’re America. We’re not bound by that shit.
While we’re on the topic of the feds and the rule of law, it seems the Obama Administration, after initially saying it was gonna take a hands off approach to how the states handled medical marijuana, is now sending threatening letters that warn even state employees could be subject to prosecution for their role in marijuana regulation.
The letters have had a chilling affect on several states preparing to implement medical marijuana laws, and this stance points to yet another area where Obama, who has proven to be such a disappointment to progressives, has backpedaled.
Meanwhile, a group of citizens is hoping that KIUC directors will backpedal on their plan to develop hydro with Free Flow Power using the FERC process, which gives the feds power over local water uses.
Yesterday, they delivered a petition with the signatures of some 300 coop members that asks the Board to reconsider its contract with FFP and bring the issue to a vote of the membership. Now the KIUC attorney is asking for the original signatures, even though KIUC by-laws do not specify that original signatures must be submitted. The request poses a problem, since many of the signatures were collected electronically, and raises the question of whether KIUC can legitimately request them.
Isn’t it great to know our cooperative is so cooperative?
As the media frenzy over the reported death of Usama bin Laden continues unabated, my mind keeps playing that old Marvin Gaye song:
People say believe half of what you see,
Son, and none of what you hear.
It seemed especially fitting when I read an AP article that reported:
[Northern Illinois University psychologist Brad] Sagarin said most people will probably be convinced bin Laden is dead because they cannot imagine the government maintaining such an extraordinary lie to the contrary in this day and age.
Suckers! This is EXACTLY the kind of stuff the government thinks up, and has for years. And it’s easier than ever to perpetuate lies in “this day and age” of unquestioning media and hordes of sheeple who believe everything they see/hear on TV/Internet/radio.
But like I said yesterday, it doesn’t matter if he’s dead or alive, what matters is what people believe, and the incredible political hay that is now being reaped from it.
Consider this: We have a president who was sucking wind so badly that even idiots like Donald Trump thought they could beat him. Next thing you know, Obama reportedly issues the order to blow away bin Laden, and suddenly you have photos — issued by the White House and dutifully reprinted by media lapdogs — that proclaim him "on the cusp of history" as he deliberates the hit.
Meanwhile, John Brennan, the president's top counterterrorism adviser, is completing the varnishing by claiming his boss made “one of the most gutsiest [sic] calls of any president in recent memory" in an article that includes this very telling paragraph:
The revelation that intelligence gleaned from the CIA's so-called black sites helped kill bin Laden was seen as vindication for many intelligence officials who have been repeatedly investigated and criticized for their involvement in a program that involved the harshest interrogation methods in U.S. history.
"We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day," said Marty Martin, a retired CIA officer who for years led the hunt for bin Laden.
Are you starting to get the picture now? It’s OK to use torture, black sites and secret renditions if you get your guy! And so what if Congress has appropriated $1.3 trillion on wars, extra security measures and veterans' healthcare since 9/11? It’s all worth it if you get your guy!
But vigilance, of course, never sleeps, so pungle up another trill, give up some more of your rights and screw the rule of law. We’re America. We’re not bound by that shit.
While we’re on the topic of the feds and the rule of law, it seems the Obama Administration, after initially saying it was gonna take a hands off approach to how the states handled medical marijuana, is now sending threatening letters that warn even state employees could be subject to prosecution for their role in marijuana regulation.
The letters have had a chilling affect on several states preparing to implement medical marijuana laws, and this stance points to yet another area where Obama, who has proven to be such a disappointment to progressives, has backpedaled.
Meanwhile, a group of citizens is hoping that KIUC directors will backpedal on their plan to develop hydro with Free Flow Power using the FERC process, which gives the feds power over local water uses.
Yesterday, they delivered a petition with the signatures of some 300 coop members that asks the Board to reconsider its contract with FFP and bring the issue to a vote of the membership. Now the KIUC attorney is asking for the original signatures, even though KIUC by-laws do not specify that original signatures must be submitted. The request poses a problem, since many of the signatures were collected electronically, and raises the question of whether KIUC can legitimately request them.
Isn’t it great to know our cooperative is so cooperative?
Monday, May 2, 2011
Musings: Dead or Alive
First the flashes of lightning came, then the thunder — great rolling cracks of thunder that had the dogs and me outside at 3 a.m. beneath a sky devoid of stars, yet strangely light. Two hours later, the world was brightening, though black clouds that never did deliver rain were piled thickly atop Waialeale and the lightning still flashed and the thunder still rumbled.
All the world, it seems, is rumbling with the news that Americans have killed Usama Bin Laden in an assassination that our President, taking ample credit, characterized as “justice has been done.”
Though it’s hard for me to see how justice is served by hunting down and murdering, vigilante-style, someone who has never been convicted of a crime, unless, of course, you’re talking about the Old Testament/Old West “eye for an eye” kind of justice, which is assured to keep the violence, and thus the war on terror and all its associated expenditures and abrogations of civil liberties, going for decades longer.
And besides, haven’t we, in retaliation, already slaughtered way more of “them” in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, than ever were killed in the events of 9/11? Last I looked, the civilian casualties in Iraq alone were over 100,000, but I guess we didn’t consider the score even because the lives of “innocent” Americans are apparently worth way more than those we deem guilty by virtue of religion and geography.
Obama claimed the decade-long manhunt was part of our commitment to the families who lost loved ones in 9/11 “to see that we do whatever it takes to prevent another attack on our shores.”
Yet his announcement was followed immediately by a breaking news headline on CNN: “U.S. State Department warns of "enhanced potential for anti-American violence."
So what, really, was the point?
Unless, of course, the “secret raid” of a mansion near the Pakistani military academy was intended to play out as the American version of a royal wedding — a media feast on which the sheeple can gorge, distracting themselves from the radioactive particles circling the globe, the crappy economy, the fattening of the corporate elite, while simultaneously reveling in the reborn greatness of America.
Besides, is Bin Laden really dead? As a Salon piece noted, even while unquestioningly accepting the most recent account as “the real thing,” there have been numerous previous reports of his death. And WhatReallyHappened.com, which reported that Bin Laden died in December 2001, claims its website came under “massive distributed denial of service attack” just moments before the Prez gave the news.
This time, though, you can take the government’s word for it, because they've got the body. Oh wait, no, seems he was already buried at sea. The U.S. supposedly had to move quickly, “in accordance with Muslim traditions.” Like we really give a shit about such things.
But there is the DNA proof — oh, wait, maybe not quite yet. As Reuters reported today, “the DNA results would be known “in the next few days.” Which makes me wonder why they didn’t confirm his identity before they announced it. Meanwhile, other media outlets — quoting senior defense and intelligence officials “who could not be named" — reported the DNA results were already in, offering “near 100 percent certainty” and “100 percent proof,” depending on the source — not that we’ll actually ever have any way of verifying any of it.
Of course, there is that gory photo. Yup. Looks just like him. Gotta be for sure real now.
But in the end, it really doesn’t matter if Bin Laden is long dead, newly dead or still alive, because the reports have two results.
One is an orgy of renewed nationalism, as led by Obama:
But tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it’s the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place.
Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
And the other is reissuance of the blank check for the “war on terror:”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security expects "threats of retaliation" from al-Qaida in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death.
All the world, it seems, is rumbling with the news that Americans have killed Usama Bin Laden in an assassination that our President, taking ample credit, characterized as “justice has been done.”
Though it’s hard for me to see how justice is served by hunting down and murdering, vigilante-style, someone who has never been convicted of a crime, unless, of course, you’re talking about the Old Testament/Old West “eye for an eye” kind of justice, which is assured to keep the violence, and thus the war on terror and all its associated expenditures and abrogations of civil liberties, going for decades longer.
And besides, haven’t we, in retaliation, already slaughtered way more of “them” in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, than ever were killed in the events of 9/11? Last I looked, the civilian casualties in Iraq alone were over 100,000, but I guess we didn’t consider the score even because the lives of “innocent” Americans are apparently worth way more than those we deem guilty by virtue of religion and geography.
Obama claimed the decade-long manhunt was part of our commitment to the families who lost loved ones in 9/11 “to see that we do whatever it takes to prevent another attack on our shores.”
Yet his announcement was followed immediately by a breaking news headline on CNN: “U.S. State Department warns of "enhanced potential for anti-American violence."
So what, really, was the point?
Unless, of course, the “secret raid” of a mansion near the Pakistani military academy was intended to play out as the American version of a royal wedding — a media feast on which the sheeple can gorge, distracting themselves from the radioactive particles circling the globe, the crappy economy, the fattening of the corporate elite, while simultaneously reveling in the reborn greatness of America.
Besides, is Bin Laden really dead? As a Salon piece noted, even while unquestioningly accepting the most recent account as “the real thing,” there have been numerous previous reports of his death. And WhatReallyHappened.com, which reported that Bin Laden died in December 2001, claims its website came under “massive distributed denial of service attack” just moments before the Prez gave the news.
This time, though, you can take the government’s word for it, because they've got the body. Oh wait, no, seems he was already buried at sea. The U.S. supposedly had to move quickly, “in accordance with Muslim traditions.” Like we really give a shit about such things.
But there is the DNA proof — oh, wait, maybe not quite yet. As Reuters reported today, “the DNA results would be known “in the next few days.” Which makes me wonder why they didn’t confirm his identity before they announced it. Meanwhile, other media outlets — quoting senior defense and intelligence officials “who could not be named" — reported the DNA results were already in, offering “near 100 percent certainty” and “100 percent proof,” depending on the source — not that we’ll actually ever have any way of verifying any of it.
Of course, there is that gory photo. Yup. Looks just like him. Gotta be for sure real now.
But in the end, it really doesn’t matter if Bin Laden is long dead, newly dead or still alive, because the reports have two results.
One is an orgy of renewed nationalism, as led by Obama:
But tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it’s the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place.
Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
And the other is reissuance of the blank check for the “war on terror:”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security expects "threats of retaliation" from al-Qaida in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death.
Friday, April 29, 2011
New Post on PIKO: Pile of Pohaku Part II
I've just posted part two of "Pile of Pohaku," which outlines how a vacation rental that had zoning violations and was never approved by the Planning Commission is nevertheless being actively rented.
The post shows how Planning Commissioners did recognize that some of the TVR-related transgressions were, to use the words of Commissioner Hartwell Blake, "just blatant, in your face, poke you in the eye."
Yet they failed to follow up or dig deeper. Instead, they blindly trusted former Planning Director Ian Costa and Deputy Director Imai Aiu, both of whom were subsequently removed from their posts without public explanation, and the advice of inexperienced Deputy County Attorney Ian Jung.
It also shows how the Council simply compounded the problem with its recent passage of the amended vacation rental bill, which allows non-compliant properties to slide on through since no inspections are required. You can thank Councilman Tim Bynum for that little gift to the speculators.
It's ugly, and it's sad, because this particular case illustrates so vividly how some developers have totally scammed the system as the county either looked the other way or abetted the deception.
The post shows how Planning Commissioners did recognize that some of the TVR-related transgressions were, to use the words of Commissioner Hartwell Blake, "just blatant, in your face, poke you in the eye."
Yet they failed to follow up or dig deeper. Instead, they blindly trusted former Planning Director Ian Costa and Deputy Director Imai Aiu, both of whom were subsequently removed from their posts without public explanation, and the advice of inexperienced Deputy County Attorney Ian Jung.
It also shows how the Council simply compounded the problem with its recent passage of the amended vacation rental bill, which allows non-compliant properties to slide on through since no inspections are required. You can thank Councilman Tim Bynum for that little gift to the speculators.
It's ugly, and it's sad, because this particular case illustrates so vividly how some developers have totally scammed the system as the county either looked the other way or abetted the deception.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
New on PIKO: "Pile of Pohaku"
PIKO has a new post, Pile of Pohaku. It's the latest installment in the ongoing chronicle of the scam that has allowed developers to transform modest beach homes into lavish vacation rentals, while bypassing federal flood insurance rules.
Read it and weep, then check in Friday (ran out of time, so had to delay it a day) for part two of this particular segment.
Read it and weep, then check in Friday (ran out of time, so had to delay it a day) for part two of this particular segment.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Musings: Complete Insanity
A wedge of gold moon hung in a soft sky that appeared to have been colored with crayons when the dogs and I went walking this still morning. Rosy wisps and swirls brushed elbows with towering cumulus that took the shape of dragon, fox head, heart, bunny ears, as meanwhile a rain-bearing block of gray approached steadily from the east, rising just enough to allow a white sun to slide in.
Now that KIUC has allowed Free Flow Power (FFP) slide in and stake its claims to Kauai waters — supposedly on our behalf — some folks are likening the Massachusetts-based FFP to pirates. As Dr. Adam Asquith writes:
They have NO interest in our history or our future. They can read public information and see what our electrical rates are. They understand FERC completely and understand that FERC allows for, even encourages, predatory claims to water development anywhere in the U.S. They understand that if they can keep everything within the FERC process, then if we do not want them involved, our only option is to purchase the permits from them. Pirates they are. They sailed all the way here from the Atlantic for the sole purpose of claiming our water resources and making money from them by either selling us electricity or paper.
What’s most disturbing about FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is that it trumps a state’s jurisdiction over its water. In California v. FERC, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the feds superceded the state’s right to set minimum stream flows. And that’s critical in Hawaii, which has a unique water code that factors in the rights of native ecosystems and Hawaiians.
Interestingly, FERC has jurisdiction only over navigable waters, a term the feds have interpreted quite broadly. But the state apparently fought off a FERC application 15 years ago by arguing that the upper Wailua is not and never was navigable.
So why KIUC would opt for a FERC process to develop hydro projects on irrigation ditches, which are clearly not navigable, unless you count inner tubes? Why would it embark on a course that is guaranteed to generate opposition and expensive litigation?
Or in other words, why did KIUC join the pirates? As Adam opines:
In October 2010, the pirates of FFP moved to steal the development rights to some of our water. KIUC freaked out because then THEY (US) would not be able to develop the water. So they began negotiations with the pirates. They agreed to pay a ransom for our water. Then KIUC figured that these pirates were really good at using the FERC process to claim water rights, so they agreed to hire the pirates as consultants to further steal some additional water.
Adam is circulating a petition to KIUC members that asks the Board to reconsider its contract with FFP and bring the issue to a vote of the membership. Signatures must be gathered by April 29, and he’s posted an electric petition at change.org. Unfortunately, that site is “experiencing intermittent downtime due to a denial of service attack from China … in response to a Change.org petition signed by more than 100,000 people worldwide standing against the detention of Chinese artist and activist Ai WeiWei.”
But don't worry. KIUC won't cut your juice if you sign.
While we’re on the topic of energy plans gone awry, today marks the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. This photo gallery offers an eerie and disturbing look at the human creations that were radiated, and so had to be abandoned, in the exclusionary zone.
And on a related note, in this video geophysicist Leuren Moret talks about how the Fukushima nuke plant destruction and subsequent release of radiation was far worse than Chernobyl. She also gets into Queen Elizabeth's vast uranium holdings and the HARP weapon system, noting:
What this HARP system, this new weapon of war, is doing, is it’s artificially triggering natural events that release huge amounts of energy that can be used as a destructive force.”
Moret sums it up by saying:
We’ve been nuclear guinea pigs since 1945. Nuclear power, nuclear weapons, are not compatible with human life. What species kills their young for energy? What species kills their young for security? What species kills their young for power? None. It’s complete insanity.
.
Now that KIUC has allowed Free Flow Power (FFP) slide in and stake its claims to Kauai waters — supposedly on our behalf — some folks are likening the Massachusetts-based FFP to pirates. As Dr. Adam Asquith writes:
They have NO interest in our history or our future. They can read public information and see what our electrical rates are. They understand FERC completely and understand that FERC allows for, even encourages, predatory claims to water development anywhere in the U.S. They understand that if they can keep everything within the FERC process, then if we do not want them involved, our only option is to purchase the permits from them. Pirates they are. They sailed all the way here from the Atlantic for the sole purpose of claiming our water resources and making money from them by either selling us electricity or paper.
What’s most disturbing about FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is that it trumps a state’s jurisdiction over its water. In California v. FERC, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the feds superceded the state’s right to set minimum stream flows. And that’s critical in Hawaii, which has a unique water code that factors in the rights of native ecosystems and Hawaiians.
Interestingly, FERC has jurisdiction only over navigable waters, a term the feds have interpreted quite broadly. But the state apparently fought off a FERC application 15 years ago by arguing that the upper Wailua is not and never was navigable.
So why KIUC would opt for a FERC process to develop hydro projects on irrigation ditches, which are clearly not navigable, unless you count inner tubes? Why would it embark on a course that is guaranteed to generate opposition and expensive litigation?
Or in other words, why did KIUC join the pirates? As Adam opines:
In October 2010, the pirates of FFP moved to steal the development rights to some of our water. KIUC freaked out because then THEY (US) would not be able to develop the water. So they began negotiations with the pirates. They agreed to pay a ransom for our water. Then KIUC figured that these pirates were really good at using the FERC process to claim water rights, so they agreed to hire the pirates as consultants to further steal some additional water.
Adam is circulating a petition to KIUC members that asks the Board to reconsider its contract with FFP and bring the issue to a vote of the membership. Signatures must be gathered by April 29, and he’s posted an electric petition at change.org. Unfortunately, that site is “experiencing intermittent downtime due to a denial of service attack from China … in response to a Change.org petition signed by more than 100,000 people worldwide standing against the detention of Chinese artist and activist Ai WeiWei.”
But don't worry. KIUC won't cut your juice if you sign.
While we’re on the topic of energy plans gone awry, today marks the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. This photo gallery offers an eerie and disturbing look at the human creations that were radiated, and so had to be abandoned, in the exclusionary zone.
And on a related note, in this video geophysicist Leuren Moret talks about how the Fukushima nuke plant destruction and subsequent release of radiation was far worse than Chernobyl. She also gets into Queen Elizabeth's vast uranium holdings and the HARP weapon system, noting:
What this HARP system, this new weapon of war, is doing, is it’s artificially triggering natural events that release huge amounts of energy that can be used as a destructive force.”
Moret sums it up by saying:
We’ve been nuclear guinea pigs since 1945. Nuclear power, nuclear weapons, are not compatible with human life. What species kills their young for energy? What species kills their young for security? What species kills their young for power? None. It’s complete insanity.
.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Musings: Friday Finale
The sparkling brilliance of a starry midnight had been replaced by a cloud-mottled dawn when the dogs and I went out walking this morning. A hapai half-moon lit our way along a street that was quiet, in a holiday (for some) kind of way, which allowed the sweetness of bird song to dominate.
We had already returned home, and the dogs had their faces deep in their food bowls, when the sun rose through the trees, a hot pink sphere that turned the world a shimmery gold before assuming that color itself, its rays seeming to pulse as they moved through the moisture laden air and shot directly into my eyes. Wake up and live!
It’s Friday, a good time to clear the desk, and mind, of things that caught my interest recently.
For starters, the Hawaii Supreme Court has agreed to hear Ikaika Pratt’s long-running case pertaining to the rights of Native Hawaiians to engage in their traditional and customary practices. It stems from Ikaika’s arrest for camping in Kalalau for longer than is allowed, and without a permit, while he cared for a heiau there.
Attorney Dan Hempey, in successfully petitioning the high Court, noted:
From Petitioner’s perspective, the case has almost played out like a trap, with the State conceding an important point at trial, the trail court agreeing that the matter has been proven, and the Petitioner then losing the case on appeal because an ICA [Intermediate Court of Appeals] judge held that he failed to present evidence on the very same conceded issue.
While we’re on the topic of Hawaiian issues, Gov. Abercrombie, apparently unfazed — or perhaps unaware — of the circumstances that led to former deputy planning director Imai Aiu’s demotion within the ranks of county personnel, appointed him to the Hawaiian Homes Commission. Among those submitting supportive testimony to a recent hearing chaired by Sen. Brickwood Galuteria was Pua Aiu, Imai’s sister and the State Historic Preservation Division director who approved the very controversial plan to allow the disinterment of burials at Kawaiahao Church, a project in which Brickwood’s mother has played an instrumental part.
And while we’re talking about burials, Pua Aiu and demotd public servants, the County Council this week deferred action on a resolution nominating Nancy McMahon to the Kauai Historic Preservation Review Commission. Nancy, as you may recall, was the former Kauai district archaeologist and SHPD deputy director who approved the burial treatment plan that allowed Joe Brescia to build on top of iwi kupuna. Pua Aiu signed off on the plan after it was rejected by the Kauai Niihau Island Burial Council, thus setting the precedent that capping iwi in concrete and building over them is compatible with a determination to “preserve in place.”
In looking back through the Kauai Eclectic archive in response to a request for information about the Naue/Brescia debacle, I encountered this reference, which pretty much sums up why Nancy shouldn’t be appointed to the Commission — unless, of course, you’re looking for someone who isn’t going to be advocating for preservation:
But that irritation was tempered by the good news that Nancy McMahon, the state archaeologist whose misdeeds created the Bresica boondoggle – to quote Judge Watanabe: ““The heart of this case is the failure of the state to follow procedures put in place to protect cultural practitioners, the general public and the rights of landowners.” — has been placed on indefinite administrative leave without pay. Her suspension followed a National Park Services inquiry into and state legislative hearings on the screwed up mess that is the State Historic Preservation Division.
Councilman Mel Rapozo asked for the deferral after receiving an email from Richard Spacer, who has been active in the access issue at Lepeuli (Larsen’s Beach). Richard alleged that Nancy had refused to come and inspect an archaeological feature in the area where Bruce Laymon wanted to run cattle, even as she signed a petition saying Bruce was doing a good job of cleaning up the beach.
Speaking of beaches, I couldn’t help but think of how vulnerable our built-up coastlines are while watching the video posted over at Disappeared News under the apt heading “Latest tsunami video horrible to watch.”
And for a soberingly different perspective on the fallout from the Japanese nuke plant disaster, check out this site, which reports on the efforts of animal rescue operations to help thousands of animals abandoned, and often starving, in the radiation exclusion zones:
“It’s like Katrina with radiation – a ghost town with only animals. All we hear are barking dogs,” said Brenda Shoss, the executive director of Kinship Circle, an animal organization working in the exclusion zone to rescue animals at the direct request of their guardians. “It’s a crisis for domesticated animals. It’s not like we’re in a disaster aftermath. The disaster is still happening.”
And while we’re talking about animals, in the aforementioned archival search I also stumbled upon this excerpt from an entry written after one of neighbor’s dogs had killed my cat:
One of the dog owners contacted me to say he was taking steps to make sure his dog never did that again to another animal, and that’s really the best outcome I could hope for from this unfortunate situation.
Ah, yes, Miss Pollyanna hoping for the best. Yet one year later, the guy’s dog is still running loose and was part of the pack that attacked Paele.
So to the person who chided me in comments to “look for the good in people and believe perhaps that they and most people, have goodness in their heart” let me just say that I do, indeed, always look for the good that I believe is in every heart.
Unfortunately, it’s often deeply buried under selfishness, stupidity, unconsciousness and greed.
Which seems to be a fitting segue to the Ainana Hou project, and the Sierra Club’s denouncement of approvals granted for it, in part due to concerns about the precedent it could set in allowing commercial uses of ag land though the special use permit process.
As I noted previously, merits of the amphitheater aside, if developer Bill Porter was truly sincere about wanting to do good for the community, he should have sought a land use reclassification from the state and zoning change from the county.
We had already returned home, and the dogs had their faces deep in their food bowls, when the sun rose through the trees, a hot pink sphere that turned the world a shimmery gold before assuming that color itself, its rays seeming to pulse as they moved through the moisture laden air and shot directly into my eyes. Wake up and live!
It’s Friday, a good time to clear the desk, and mind, of things that caught my interest recently.
For starters, the Hawaii Supreme Court has agreed to hear Ikaika Pratt’s long-running case pertaining to the rights of Native Hawaiians to engage in their traditional and customary practices. It stems from Ikaika’s arrest for camping in Kalalau for longer than is allowed, and without a permit, while he cared for a heiau there.
Attorney Dan Hempey, in successfully petitioning the high Court, noted:
From Petitioner’s perspective, the case has almost played out like a trap, with the State conceding an important point at trial, the trail court agreeing that the matter has been proven, and the Petitioner then losing the case on appeal because an ICA [Intermediate Court of Appeals] judge held that he failed to present evidence on the very same conceded issue.
While we’re on the topic of Hawaiian issues, Gov. Abercrombie, apparently unfazed — or perhaps unaware — of the circumstances that led to former deputy planning director Imai Aiu’s demotion within the ranks of county personnel, appointed him to the Hawaiian Homes Commission. Among those submitting supportive testimony to a recent hearing chaired by Sen. Brickwood Galuteria was Pua Aiu, Imai’s sister and the State Historic Preservation Division director who approved the very controversial plan to allow the disinterment of burials at Kawaiahao Church, a project in which Brickwood’s mother has played an instrumental part.
And while we’re talking about burials, Pua Aiu and demotd public servants, the County Council this week deferred action on a resolution nominating Nancy McMahon to the Kauai Historic Preservation Review Commission. Nancy, as you may recall, was the former Kauai district archaeologist and SHPD deputy director who approved the burial treatment plan that allowed Joe Brescia to build on top of iwi kupuna. Pua Aiu signed off on the plan after it was rejected by the Kauai Niihau Island Burial Council, thus setting the precedent that capping iwi in concrete and building over them is compatible with a determination to “preserve in place.”
In looking back through the Kauai Eclectic archive in response to a request for information about the Naue/Brescia debacle, I encountered this reference, which pretty much sums up why Nancy shouldn’t be appointed to the Commission — unless, of course, you’re looking for someone who isn’t going to be advocating for preservation:
But that irritation was tempered by the good news that Nancy McMahon, the state archaeologist whose misdeeds created the Bresica boondoggle – to quote Judge Watanabe: ““The heart of this case is the failure of the state to follow procedures put in place to protect cultural practitioners, the general public and the rights of landowners.” — has been placed on indefinite administrative leave without pay. Her suspension followed a National Park Services inquiry into and state legislative hearings on the screwed up mess that is the State Historic Preservation Division.
Councilman Mel Rapozo asked for the deferral after receiving an email from Richard Spacer, who has been active in the access issue at Lepeuli (Larsen’s Beach). Richard alleged that Nancy had refused to come and inspect an archaeological feature in the area where Bruce Laymon wanted to run cattle, even as she signed a petition saying Bruce was doing a good job of cleaning up the beach.
Speaking of beaches, I couldn’t help but think of how vulnerable our built-up coastlines are while watching the video posted over at Disappeared News under the apt heading “Latest tsunami video horrible to watch.”
And for a soberingly different perspective on the fallout from the Japanese nuke plant disaster, check out this site, which reports on the efforts of animal rescue operations to help thousands of animals abandoned, and often starving, in the radiation exclusion zones:
“It’s like Katrina with radiation – a ghost town with only animals. All we hear are barking dogs,” said Brenda Shoss, the executive director of Kinship Circle, an animal organization working in the exclusion zone to rescue animals at the direct request of their guardians. “It’s a crisis for domesticated animals. It’s not like we’re in a disaster aftermath. The disaster is still happening.”
And while we’re talking about animals, in the aforementioned archival search I also stumbled upon this excerpt from an entry written after one of neighbor’s dogs had killed my cat:
One of the dog owners contacted me to say he was taking steps to make sure his dog never did that again to another animal, and that’s really the best outcome I could hope for from this unfortunate situation.
Ah, yes, Miss Pollyanna hoping for the best. Yet one year later, the guy’s dog is still running loose and was part of the pack that attacked Paele.
So to the person who chided me in comments to “look for the good in people and believe perhaps that they and most people, have goodness in their heart” let me just say that I do, indeed, always look for the good that I believe is in every heart.
Unfortunately, it’s often deeply buried under selfishness, stupidity, unconsciousness and greed.
Which seems to be a fitting segue to the Ainana Hou project, and the Sierra Club’s denouncement of approvals granted for it, in part due to concerns about the precedent it could set in allowing commercial uses of ag land though the special use permit process.
As I noted previously, merits of the amphitheater aside, if developer Bill Porter was truly sincere about wanting to do good for the community, he should have sought a land use reclassification from the state and zoning change from the county.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Musings: Outnumbered
The moon — yellow, and losing its fullness fast — guided Koko, Paele and me as we headed mauka in that ethereal time when the sights and sounds of day replace those of night. On our return, when I could see things more clearly, I spotted a mound of mist in the middle of a pasture, perfectly formed into a dome, like some ephemeral outdoor sculpture. I could see Venus, pale white in a brightening sky, but clouds that shone red through the coconut palms caused me to miss the other players in the great planetary conjunction that continues into next month.
A Neighborhood Watch meeting where I work caused me to miss the KIUC dog and pony show last night, and thus the opportunity to assess the mood of co-op members who came to collect a free bag of rice. But all was not lost, as I did learn a few things, like KPD has just two beat cops on duty between Kalaheo and Polihale during each shift, and only three officers patrolling the beat that encompasses the area between Maluhia (Tree Tunnel) Road in Koloa and Kukui Road in downtown Kapaa.
“So when I see three cop cars respond to a situation here, that means we’ve got all your available manpower locked up?” I asked.
“Pretty much,” the sergeant replied.
It’s amazing to think such a small force is able to respond to all the calls that come in — so many of them small-kine stuff that people should be able to work out themselves — and also issue a whopping 20,282 citations last year.
Sometimes the chronic staff shortages result in tense situations, as apparently was the case recently in Nawiliwili, when the cruise ship came in and the passengers and crew headed for the harbor area bars. Before long, a fight broke out and soon two guys were beating on each other. The cops used their Tasers to subdue the perps and were preparing to handcuff them and take them away when the 80 or so drunk onlookers started to move in, prompting the badly outnumbered cops to pull out their pepper spray.
That tale left me thinking again of how tourism is such a double-edged sword. Yes, the boat people are out spending money in Lihue, but certainly not without some public cost. Maybe the cruise ships should have to provide onshore security.
It also got me thinking of how unlikely such a scenario would be if those people had been smoking cannabis instead of drinking alcohol. Yet the herb continues to be illegal — with a bill that would have decriminalized possession likely to fail again this session in the Lege, despite a promising start.
Meanwhile, even as folks in Mexico protest against using that nation’s military to fight drug cartels, the U.S. is opening another front in its own war on drugs, this one against prescription painkillers. The plan includes doctor education, apparently to counter the hype offered by the pharmaceutical companies, and requires all states to adopt prescription drug monitoring programs to track what physicians are prescribing and what pharmacies are dispensing.
I found it interesting that drug companies, which spend so much marketing their wares, will be asked to contribute to a public education campaign aimed at keeping stuff like oxycodone away from kids.
While government officials are touting it as the first-ever comprehensive strategy against the abuse of opioids, not everyone is convinced it will achieve its rather modest goal of reducing misuse by 15 percent in five years.
"Anything would help, because we're drowning in it up here in eastern Kentucky," [Letcher County Sheriff Danny] Webb said, adding that he is skeptical any government plan will ultimately work. "I don't know if there's ever going to be a winning to this war on drugs."
He's not alone in that view. As the Los Angeles Times reported, Mexican drug cartels are setting up shop in the U.S., with the Justice Department estimating that Mexican cartels now directly control drug markets in 230 major American cities.
AOL News also reported that the U.S. government has received uncorroborated information that Mexican criminal gangs may intend to attack U.S. law enforcement officers or U.S. citizens, in Mexico, in the near future.
And that prompted this response from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition:
“Al Capone brought appalling violence to American streets during our first prohibition,” says former US Border Patrol and Homeland Security Officer, Terry Nelson. “But, it was nothing in comparison to what the Mexican drug cartels have in store for us if we do not stop this senseless war on drugs.”
A Neighborhood Watch meeting where I work caused me to miss the KIUC dog and pony show last night, and thus the opportunity to assess the mood of co-op members who came to collect a free bag of rice. But all was not lost, as I did learn a few things, like KPD has just two beat cops on duty between Kalaheo and Polihale during each shift, and only three officers patrolling the beat that encompasses the area between Maluhia (Tree Tunnel) Road in Koloa and Kukui Road in downtown Kapaa.
“So when I see three cop cars respond to a situation here, that means we’ve got all your available manpower locked up?” I asked.
“Pretty much,” the sergeant replied.
It’s amazing to think such a small force is able to respond to all the calls that come in — so many of them small-kine stuff that people should be able to work out themselves — and also issue a whopping 20,282 citations last year.
Sometimes the chronic staff shortages result in tense situations, as apparently was the case recently in Nawiliwili, when the cruise ship came in and the passengers and crew headed for the harbor area bars. Before long, a fight broke out and soon two guys were beating on each other. The cops used their Tasers to subdue the perps and were preparing to handcuff them and take them away when the 80 or so drunk onlookers started to move in, prompting the badly outnumbered cops to pull out their pepper spray.
That tale left me thinking again of how tourism is such a double-edged sword. Yes, the boat people are out spending money in Lihue, but certainly not without some public cost. Maybe the cruise ships should have to provide onshore security.
It also got me thinking of how unlikely such a scenario would be if those people had been smoking cannabis instead of drinking alcohol. Yet the herb continues to be illegal — with a bill that would have decriminalized possession likely to fail again this session in the Lege, despite a promising start.
Meanwhile, even as folks in Mexico protest against using that nation’s military to fight drug cartels, the U.S. is opening another front in its own war on drugs, this one against prescription painkillers. The plan includes doctor education, apparently to counter the hype offered by the pharmaceutical companies, and requires all states to adopt prescription drug monitoring programs to track what physicians are prescribing and what pharmacies are dispensing.
I found it interesting that drug companies, which spend so much marketing their wares, will be asked to contribute to a public education campaign aimed at keeping stuff like oxycodone away from kids.
While government officials are touting it as the first-ever comprehensive strategy against the abuse of opioids, not everyone is convinced it will achieve its rather modest goal of reducing misuse by 15 percent in five years.
"Anything would help, because we're drowning in it up here in eastern Kentucky," [Letcher County Sheriff Danny] Webb said, adding that he is skeptical any government plan will ultimately work. "I don't know if there's ever going to be a winning to this war on drugs."
He's not alone in that view. As the Los Angeles Times reported, Mexican drug cartels are setting up shop in the U.S., with the Justice Department estimating that Mexican cartels now directly control drug markets in 230 major American cities.
AOL News also reported that the U.S. government has received uncorroborated information that Mexican criminal gangs may intend to attack U.S. law enforcement officers or U.S. citizens, in Mexico, in the near future.
And that prompted this response from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition:
“Al Capone brought appalling violence to American streets during our first prohibition,” says former US Border Patrol and Homeland Security Officer, Terry Nelson. “But, it was nothing in comparison to what the Mexican drug cartels have in store for us if we do not stop this senseless war on drugs.”
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Musings: Industrial Disease
The black clouds that had hovered over the mountains all afternoon swooped in last night and brought the kind of steady, noise-blotting rain that makes it easy to sleep, which is why the sun was well-risen when the dogs and I went walking this morning. Rounding a corner, I saw two thick streaks of white on the face of Makaleha, nearer to whom I’ll moving next month, and as I drew closer to Waialeale, six slim waterfalls could be seen streaming down the front of the mountain.
And I thought of how multiple falls aren’t seen on Waialeale’s face as often as they used to be, and they do not linger long. Yet even in her diminished state we’re still making our plans to exploit her further, for more drinking water, hydroelectric power. When was the last time we acknowledged what she already gives, much less say thanks?
The executives and shareholders at BP are giving thanks that their profits are once again strong and stock dividends are being paid. Yes, it’s only been a year since BP created one of the world’s worst environmental catastrophes, but it’s already back to business as usual. As Live Trading News reported:
The 1st deep-water permit issued after the Obama administration lifted a post-spill drilling ban went to Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE:NBL) for work on a well off the coast of Louisiana.
BP is not the operator but it has a 46% stake in the well. BP also bought out Shell’s 25% interest in 2 Gulf fields in December, making BP the sole owner of both.
BP’s spokesman Scott Dean said the leading leaseholder in the Gulf, will remain active in all facets of the Gulf of Mexico Crude Oil exploration. The Company has applied for a permit to drill 1 new well in the Gulf and is certain to apply for more.
Meanwhile, many of the folks who live in the ravaged areas and helped clean up the giant mess are finding their fortunes and future are not quite so bright as BP's. Yes, just as everyone with a brain expected, they’re experiencing all sorts of medical problems associated with their exposure to the nasty substances found in chemical dispersants and crude oil, most notably benzene.
“Mystery illnesses plague plague Louisiana oil spill crews” reads an Associated Press headline, but really, it’s no mystery at all. It’s what happens when living creatures are exposed to toxins:
Some similar symptoms, including eye irritation, breathing problems, nausea and psychological stress, have been seen among responders to the Prestige oil tanker spill off Spain in 2002 and the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 off Alaska.
Local chemist Wilma Subra has been helping test people's blood for volatile solvents, and said levels of benzene among cleanup workers, divers, fishermen and crabbers are as high as 36 times that of the general population.
"As the event progresses we are seeing more and more people who are desperately ill," she said.
"Clearly it is showing that this is ongoing exposure," Subra said, noting that pathways include contact with the skin, eating contaminated seafood or breathing polluted air.
"We have been asking the federal agencies to please provide medical care from physicians who are trained in toxic exposure."
She said she has received no response.
BP officials, meanwhile, have learned well from the government, which continues to avoid responsibility for the medical ailments of toxin-exposed military veterans and 9-11 responders:
"Illness and injury reports were tracked and documented during the response, and the medical data indicate they did not differ appreciably from what would be expected among a workforce of this size under normal circumstances," [BP] added.
Any compensation for sick workers would fall under state law, and "BP does not make these determinations, which must be supported by acceptable medical evidence."
[Mike] Robichaux, an ear, nose and throat specialist whose office an hour's drive southwest of New Orleans is nestled on a roadside marked with handwritten signs advertising turtle meat for sale, says he is treating many of the local patients in their homes.
"Their work ethic is so strong, they are so stoic, they don't want people to know when they're sick," he said.
"Ninety percent of them are getting worse... Nobody has a clue as to what it is."
Actually, Dire Straits pegged it correctly as industrial disease:
There's a protest singer, he's singing a protest song, he says
They wanna have a war to keep their factories
They wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
They wanna have a war to stop us buying Japanese
They wanna have a war to stop industrial disease
They're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
They wanna sap your energy, incarcerate your mind
Which leads me to this website, which shows where all those taxes we just paid go. Note how number one is “national defense.” But what, really, do Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have to do with “national defense?”
And wouldn’t protecting the health of our citizenry and natural resources more logically be considered “national defense" — without the associated industrial disease?
And I thought of how multiple falls aren’t seen on Waialeale’s face as often as they used to be, and they do not linger long. Yet even in her diminished state we’re still making our plans to exploit her further, for more drinking water, hydroelectric power. When was the last time we acknowledged what she already gives, much less say thanks?
The executives and shareholders at BP are giving thanks that their profits are once again strong and stock dividends are being paid. Yes, it’s only been a year since BP created one of the world’s worst environmental catastrophes, but it’s already back to business as usual. As Live Trading News reported:
The 1st deep-water permit issued after the Obama administration lifted a post-spill drilling ban went to Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE:NBL) for work on a well off the coast of Louisiana.
BP is not the operator but it has a 46% stake in the well. BP also bought out Shell’s 25% interest in 2 Gulf fields in December, making BP the sole owner of both.
BP’s spokesman Scott Dean said the leading leaseholder in the Gulf, will remain active in all facets of the Gulf of Mexico Crude Oil exploration. The Company has applied for a permit to drill 1 new well in the Gulf and is certain to apply for more.
Meanwhile, many of the folks who live in the ravaged areas and helped clean up the giant mess are finding their fortunes and future are not quite so bright as BP's. Yes, just as everyone with a brain expected, they’re experiencing all sorts of medical problems associated with their exposure to the nasty substances found in chemical dispersants and crude oil, most notably benzene.
“Mystery illnesses plague plague Louisiana oil spill crews” reads an Associated Press headline, but really, it’s no mystery at all. It’s what happens when living creatures are exposed to toxins:
Some similar symptoms, including eye irritation, breathing problems, nausea and psychological stress, have been seen among responders to the Prestige oil tanker spill off Spain in 2002 and the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 off Alaska.
Local chemist Wilma Subra has been helping test people's blood for volatile solvents, and said levels of benzene among cleanup workers, divers, fishermen and crabbers are as high as 36 times that of the general population.
"As the event progresses we are seeing more and more people who are desperately ill," she said.
"Clearly it is showing that this is ongoing exposure," Subra said, noting that pathways include contact with the skin, eating contaminated seafood or breathing polluted air.
"We have been asking the federal agencies to please provide medical care from physicians who are trained in toxic exposure."
She said she has received no response.
BP officials, meanwhile, have learned well from the government, which continues to avoid responsibility for the medical ailments of toxin-exposed military veterans and 9-11 responders:
"Illness and injury reports were tracked and documented during the response, and the medical data indicate they did not differ appreciably from what would be expected among a workforce of this size under normal circumstances," [BP] added.
Any compensation for sick workers would fall under state law, and "BP does not make these determinations, which must be supported by acceptable medical evidence."
[Mike] Robichaux, an ear, nose and throat specialist whose office an hour's drive southwest of New Orleans is nestled on a roadside marked with handwritten signs advertising turtle meat for sale, says he is treating many of the local patients in their homes.
"Their work ethic is so strong, they are so stoic, they don't want people to know when they're sick," he said.
"Ninety percent of them are getting worse... Nobody has a clue as to what it is."
Actually, Dire Straits pegged it correctly as industrial disease:
There's a protest singer, he's singing a protest song, he says
They wanna have a war to keep their factories
They wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
They wanna have a war to stop us buying Japanese
They wanna have a war to stop industrial disease
They're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
They wanna sap your energy, incarcerate your mind
Which leads me to this website, which shows where all those taxes we just paid go. Note how number one is “national defense.” But what, really, do Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have to do with “national defense?”
And wouldn’t protecting the health of our citizenry and natural resources more logically be considered “national defense" — without the associated industrial disease?
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