Queen Ka'ahumanu
kept a taboo pet:
a large black hog
which she named
after herself . . .
- Honolulu Magazine
"It's Astounding"
As dutiful Hawaii Public Radio supporters, we receive Honolulu Magazine each month as part of our pledge swag. The new February issue promised to reveal "54 mind-boggling facts about our islands."
A quick perusal of the mind-boggling facts revealed what its regular readers already know: Honolulu Magazine is very Honolulu-centric. Of the 54 facts, only a couple were Neighbor Island facts, and even those were incidental.
For instance, the article "It's Astounding: Things you didn't know about our islands" declares that the original Kamehameha statue stands not in Honolulu, but in front of the Kohala courthouse on the Big Island. The mind reels!
The only other non-Honolulu reference I could find involved Queen Ka'ahumanu, Maui's most famous person before Shane Victorino. The article claims Ka'ahumanu kept a black hog as a "taboo" pet.
No date is given, but the taboo reference suggests some time pre-1819, the year Ka'ahumanu helped overthrow Hawaii's venerable taboo system. Before then, it was taboo for women to eat pigs or, presumably, keep them as pets.
That was cool to read, as were many of the article's other astounding facts. I hadn't known, for instance, that 1938 was the first year Honolulu police used a breathalyzer. It was called the "drunk-o-meter." Likewise, I was mildly astounded to learn Iolani Palace got electric lights in 1881, four years before the U.S. White House did.
Most of the other facts were less astounding, but the article did set me wondering if the Maui district could generate "54 mind-boggling facts" of its own (53, if you count Ka'ahumanu as a native Mauian).
I'm still working on my list, but I thought I'd share a few entries that popped up early in the process. Did you know, for instance, that Kahoolawe has giant moray eels that slither up onto the beach? Or that a menehune was sighted on Molokai as recently as 1938? Or that the champion calf roper Jack Aina had only one arm?
OK, you knew that. Most Maui people know that. It's in the history books. But recent developments may prove even more mind-boggling. Here are some that have astounded me lately:
* Maui's inshore waters supposedly generate millions of dollars in revenues from such tourist pastimes as snorkeling and scuba diving. Yet our policymakers continue to allow unrestricted "taking" of reef fish for the global aquarium trade. Most of the "taken" fish perish before reaching their destinations. The reefs also have perished.
* Not astounded? OK. Even though nature has blessed Maui County with a benevolent year-round climate, abundant natural resources and untold acres of farmland, we import more than 90 percent of our food and fuel. That percentage is growing.
* I'm sensing you're still not boggled. Let's try this one. Forty years after it was first proposed, work on the "Lahaina bypass" highway has finally begun. In the interim, Maui's population tripled. Now planners have approved 30,000 more housing units for the island. Next we'll need a Lahaina bypass bypass.
Human nature being what it is, these developments aren't really astounding. They're just the natural consequence of our composite lifestyle choices. Perhaps more astounding are proposals that once seemed certain but did not come to pass.
After watching everything else that has come down over the past 35 years, it still astounds me that Makena's Oneloa Beach escaped the fate of Kaanapali and Wailea. Ten hotels were supposed to have been developed at Oneloa, but a handful of determined citizens fought for 15 years to create a state park there instead. You can enjoy the park today. That's astounding.
Other amazing nondevelopments: The Ritz Carlton not being built on a Hawaiian grave site at Kapalua; a vast international airport not being built at Kahului; the predicted 8 million visitors a year not coming to Maui; a Japanese billionaire golf village not being built at the old Waihee dairy.
Elsewhere in the county, it still boggles my mind that a loose ohana of determined Hawaiians freed Kahoolawe from a half-century of U.S. military control. I still pinch myself when I realize the state land use commission zoned 7,000 West Molokai acres for urban development that never happened. And with respect to Lanai, I'm amazed one man can own an entire island. How can that be?
Yes, Honolulu, we have 54 mind-boggling facts about our county, also. I'm just too astounded to remember them all.
I'll get back to you.
* Tom Stevens is a freelance writer whose "Shave Ice" column appears every Wednesday. Send e-mail to him at shaveicemaui@gmail.com.
