Hawaii in Lala Land

SUBHEAD: Delusional thinking still is front and center in the thoughts of most people in Hawaii. By Juan Wilson on 2 March 2011 for Island Breath - (http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2011/03/hawaii-in-lala-land.html) Image above: Screen shot of a computer game in which you help young Summer with her job to make her picky clientele's vacation the most relaxing and comfortable they've ever had! From (http://www.flixya.com/blog/2398193/Club-Paradise-Game). Yesterday I checked the headlines on the front page of Kauai's only daily paper, the Garden Island News. They told the story of our dysfunctional culture here in "paradise". Let's review the three top articles. 1) Poipu Beach Restoration Story number one, with a color aerial photo, is titled: "Poipu Beach Restoration", with the subhead "County sand story moves forward". The gist of the story is that the County of Kauai, the Hawaii Tourism Authority and Poipu Beach Foundation have come together, with almost a quarter of a million dollars, to study how to best place 6,000 cubic yards of sand to "restore" the pleasant, but disappearing beachfront at Poipu Beach Park. Why there and not at another beach suffering from loss of sand? Tourist dollars! Poipu is where visitors have been told is the best place to wade, swim, snorkel, boogie board or surf. A billion dollars worth of resorts, timeshares, vacation rentals and condos have been built with more on the way dedicated to the mantra "Poipu No Ka Oi" (Poipu is the best!). Visitors sit cheek to jowl on towels and oil themselves on the ever receding sandspit that was Nu Kumoi Point and has been struggling since 2006 to be Nu Kumoi Island. The sandy beach is pulling away from the point and quickly receding towards the parking lots behind. This is a natural phenomena. It is a geological certainty. In general, erosion by runoff and ocean action chews away these islands until they pass into atolls and slip below the sea surface. Once vulcanism stops there is little to counter this inevitability but the growth of coral reefs. Needless to say the popularity of Poipu for snorkeling (as well as global warming accelerated by jet travel) has pulled the rug out from under coral reef building. Kauai, is the oldest in the chain of inhabitable islands in the chain. Only the Big Island (the newest) is still growing. All the others are eroding into the Pacific. Kauai will be an atoll in a few more million years. Get over it! The plan of spending the energy and money needed to keep Poipu's beaches intact and Nu Kumoi attached to the island is pathetically short sighted. That 6,000 yards of sand will drift away in a few years to be dispersed over what little remains of the living reefs that once thrived. It will kill two birds with one stone. 2) Hawaii Floats Ferry Proposal This article by TGI editor Nathan Eagle has the subtitle "Hearing today on state run system". As we have stated several times on this blog, we are in favor of interisland ferries. We are not in favor of the Superferry (nicknamed by its operators intersate "H4") that moved cars at high-speed between islands at an average 6000 gallons of diesel per trip. And that is what the old-boy network on Oahu are digging out of the graveyard once again. The legislature is "crafting" a bill to have the state lease, or buy, from the Maritime Administration the two vessels built to military specs and run at a loss until 2009. The state of Hawaii is already out $40 million on this deal. The buyback could be another $150 million (the cost of the boats). The outer islands have demonstrated they do not want the service that the Superferries provided. The desire for Superferry service comes from Oahu. Wouldn't you want to drive away from Oahu if you could? What Hawaii does need is ferry service for freight and passengers that is energy efficient. The economy speed for a loaded Superferry is about 35 knots. I have been told by one large catamaran tour boat captain who has made crossings between Oahu and Kauai that in a winter sea swell speed and power is vital... 20- 25 knots. Studies have shown that high speed travel (25 knots and above) is responsible for 50% of whale strikes. The Superferry was designed to cruise at 40 knots (and capable of 5o). The business model for the Superferry indicated it needed the higher speeds between islands to achieve the number of trips per day to cover operating costs. Of course this all goes up in smoke with $150 per barrel oil. As I write oil is over $100 a barrel and the Arab world is on fire politically. If the state of Hawaii were interested in long term solutions, it should be looking into building large scale vessels in the style the Hawaiians used to move throughout the Pacific: large double hulled ships built by local craftsmen with local materials carrying sails (with a bio-diesel auxiliary). 3) State May Start Hawaiian Government The lead-off on this Associated Press article is:

"Hawaii (the US federal state) could step in to grant native Hawaiians self-government rights after federal proposals to do so failed."

This would be funny if it were not so pathetic. Yes, it seems the Akaka Bill has failed. Now it seems the state entity is looking to cut a deal that will do what they hope the Akaka Bill would do... keep them in business. The incentive offered by the state for Hawaiians to give up their ongoing sovereignty efforts would be to negotiate for their own land "ceded" by the U.S. takeover (and some U.S. wampum). The article goes on to say.

"Native Hawaiians are the last remaining indigenous people in the United States who haven't been allowed to establish their own government..."

Read "have not been subjected to a reservation nation". And we can count our lucky stars for that. Internationally recognized Hawaiian sovereignty is contingent on not cutting such a deal. How is the imposed state government going to determine who might be a "Native Hawaiian" and what might be negotiated with those selected. Poka Laenui, chairman of the native Hawaiian Convention said:

"The Legislature... is attempting to get into the act and trying to ... drive this process to essentially reflect the integrationist approach by repeating what the Akaka bill didn't do on the federal level."

Laenui opposes the bill because he says the Hawaiian Community not the State Legislature should determine the process for its future government. There are several sovereignty efforts active in Hawaii. Each has it own virtues and vices. I believe the vices are largely due to the problems of being embedded in the culture of Western greed and consumerism. The state of Hawaii would do better to find a way to join the ongoing sovereignty movements than to undermine them with co-optation. The way to go As has been mentioned many times on this site: Our future health and welfare here in Hawaii requires us to seek self-reliance, resilience, de-centralization, and may I add, this must be done with a sense of realism. Without cheap oil, out here in the middle of the Pacific, our resources are few and our time will be short. The March 1st headlines in our daily paper do not bode well for our ability to grasp reality and act on it. .