VIEWPOINT: Obsolete practices are hurting HC&S
By ED WENDT and LYN SCOTT
The analysis in the Jan. 30 editorial is shallow and wrong. The Maui News presumes "very good jobs" would be lost unless sugar stays around so there can be a "transition to a viable operation, like alternative energy."What about the lost opportunity for alternative jobs and development?
For more than 100 years, Alexander & Baldwin has invested in diverting water from East Maui to Central Maui to operate a sugar plantation, dewatering streams that fed a vibrant Hawaiian culture and jobs of other kinds - taro farming, fishing and subsistence gathering that put food on the family tables throughout East Maui. The diversions caused untold suffering to our families, who for many decades were no longer able to feed or support themselves. Of necessity, many abandoned ancestral lands that could not be made productive.The foundations of our culture, allegedly revered by the people of Hawaii, weredestroyed. Restoring streams is but a small measure toward repair of inestimable damage the diversions have caused.
The people of Hawaii have enshrined - in the state constitution - protection and restoration of the Hawaiian culture when public agencies act. The law is squarely on the side of restoration. Why is it that an agribusiness corporation controls resources that the people of this state - through protections in their constitution - have pledged to protect?
All along, Hawaiians have been asking for reasonable sharing. But with no more to guide it than a corporate conscience, the A&B/East Maui Irrigation Co./Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar triumvirate has refused and instead embarked upon well-funded political, legal and public relations campaigns.HC&S is wasting massive amounts of water that it diverts from 33,000 acres of public lands - much of it highly desirable lands prized and held by the monarchy as crown lands. It transports water miles from what was a verdant tropical rainforest in East Maui to Central Maui.
Over the century, A&B has not properly repaired and upgraded an antiquated and leaky irrigation system. Because the rent charged is below market rate, it has no financial incentive to repair leaking ditches, siphons and structures that were first built to transport water a century ago. HC&S can afford to dump water and not invest in upgrading its systems.
The water commission staff determined that HC&S water usage is excessive, exceeding reasonable use by 40 to 70 percent during a typical year. HC&S could easily share water with East Maui where the need is desperate.
Na Moku Aupuni O Ko'olau Hui, the nonprofit organization whose membership includes East Maui farmers of Keanae-Wailuanui and Honopou families seeking restoration, has repeatedly sought cooperation from A&B/EMI/HC&S over the years to no avail.
The Maui News' perspective is that HC&S is too big to fail because it controls 800 jobs.You patently disregard any notion of sustainability and other benefits the restoration of streams could bring to offset that loss.HC&S shipments of raw and refined sugar more than 5,000 miles to produce and market sugar is the antithesis of sustainability and food security - demanding oil from which Hawaii is so desperately trying to free itself. These obsolete practices defy the findings of the 2050 Sustainability Task Force as key to our state's survival in the future.
This crisis for HC&S is neither new nor unforeseeable. HC&S is the last of a dozen major sugar plantations to operate in Hawaii. It and its former competitors faced the harsh reality of the marketplace for decades. Even Gay & Robinson, its last competitor, made the strategic switch to alternative fuel crops years ago. HC&S talks about a similar strategy now as if it just thought about it recently. This procrastination reflects shortsighted management. Trying to hang on to its final year, in this context, is hardly something worthy of the praise heaped upon it at this eleventh hour.
Let the water commission perform its constitutional duties.You do a disservice to your readers by confusing the issues, facts and reality staring HC&S in the face with an unbalanced editorial on such a major resource allocation issue for Maui.
* Ed Wendt is a member of Na Moku Aupuni o Ko'olau Hui. Lyn Scott is a member of the Honopou ohana.
*****
ALLOW A CHOICE REGARDING FOIE GRAS
Well, here we go again. A bunch of busybodies, who have no idea what they are talking about, have decided to prevent me from eating foie gras.
Have they ever visited a foie gras farm? I have. The animals are perfectly happy and well treated. They don't even have a gag reflex like we do and they don't at all mind being force fed.
March for the protection of abused children, for feeding the hungry. Stop trying to boss society - and me - about what we eat. Eat your sprouts and hush up.
Mary Shenfield
Kihei
*****
CANDIDATE IS REALLY AN INDEPENDENT
Mahalo for mentioning that I'm a "noted Republican" when introducing my candidacy for mayor in the story headlined "Election season officially under way" (The Maui News, Feb. 2). Allow me to clarify that in this nonpartisan race I prefer to be noted as an independent. One of the goals of my campaign is to attract thousands of disenchanted voters who may have given up on the inefficiency of "politics as usual" in Maui County and sat out past elections.
I understand your disenchantment as I've voted both as a Republican and as a Democrat in Silicon Valley, Calif., before losing hope and sitting out a few elections myself. I graduated in the top 10 percent of my class from Stanford University in only three years in electrical/computer engineering. Having become an executive, managing 50 people at age 25, I concentrated on business and my career.
I moved to Maui 16 years ago and as a management consultant helped clients' teams all over the world complete their projects in half the time at half the cost while having double the fun by organizing themselves more efficiently. I'd like to help Maui County create real change and have effective and ethical government. As Maui no kai oi, we could lead the way and beam as a model for the rest of the world to emulate while we create "Mauitopia."
Orion "Ori" Kopelman
Kahului
*****
REPORTS ON GLOBAL WARMING HOAX NEEDED
Just was wondering if The Maui News was planning to print an article that summarizes the recent events of Climategate manipulation of data, Himalayan glaciers alarm, and questionable data from Chinese weather stations.
The admissions and the crimes of scientists misrepresenting the truth and taking millions of tax dollars to perpetuate their hoax are wrong. And the worst crime of all is that they politicize the whole hysteria to saddle the American people with a huge cap and tradetaxburden.
Just an informative article that tells the factsfor our community to be properly informed of these important events.
The wheels are coming off the global warming hysteria train, and I think a sober, unbiased article is in order. It is important to inform those that don't regularlyresearch these things.If you don't watch Fox Newsand don't read certain publications you could miss the recent events that demonstrate the total deception of humanity by the global warming movement.
Most everyone in our nontransient community reads The Maui News. Thank you for all you do to keep us informed.
Tom Fairbanks
Wailuku
*****
MAINLANDERS SHOW MORE KINDNESS
This is to the person who wrote the Feb. 8 editorial.
I'm appalled at the ignorance and arrogance in which you brand the Mainland as cold and heartless and spread the myth that Mauians have the monopoly on kindness and generosity.
One Christmas Eve, back on the Mainland, we were driving home from a family Christmas party when we were hit head-on by a drunken driver 40 miles from home. Several people in nearby homes heard the crash and came out to help. They covered us with blankets, made hot chocolate and stayed with us until the ambulance arrived.One family kept our gifts safe at their home for several days.
A few years ago, my wife and I were walking into Paia Bay beach when she tripped and broke her leg. A crowd of about a dozen came over and watched me struggle unsuccessfully to get her into the car so I could take her to the ER. Not one offered to assist me even after I asked for help. All I got were a few obscenities followed by the word haole.Fortunately, a tourist from Oregon came by, put down his beach chair and helped me out. Is that what you mean by the island tradition of lending a hand?
I would like you to look every person who's been robbed and/or beaten on Maui in the eye and tell them all about the island tradition of aloha.
James White
Pukalani
*****
PUUNENE IS CENTER OF MAUI; PUT JAIL ELSEWHERE
A jail in Puunene? Are they crazy? Why are our leaders stuck in the past, not visualizing the future?
Maui may be the best place in the world to live. Until someone finds a way to stop growth, Maui will continue to grow. Puunene is the center of Maui. The triangle from Puunene to Maalaea to Sugar Beach is where the three built-up regions of Maui come together. Planners dream of communities where people people live and work in the same place. If they are going to plan such a place on Maui, it should be in Puunene. Even without such central planning, anything built to serve the entire population of the island should go in that triangle. And that is where nonresort growth should gravitate. Placing a jail there will destroy that possibility forever.
(We all know that the sugar industry will close in the foreseeable future, leaving Puunene to be deindustrialized.)
Why not put a new jail in a place which is not the center of gravity of Maui? A place where growth is unlikely. I suggest over by the landfill. We will also need to soon build a new sewage treatment plant out of the tsunami inundation zone. It also should go in that direction.
Richard Thompson
Kula
*****
QUEST CUTS WILL HURT EVERYONE
Once again the blind, disabled and elderly who receive medical benefits through QUEST are getting shortchanged by a state government that refuses to tackle its revenue problems and prioritize services.
This is a program, which according to the Feb. 8 Maui News, gets two-thirds of its funding from the federal government. That means that for every dollar the state spends, it receives $2 from the feds. I defy anyone to find an investment that returns such an aggressive percentage.
So, while our Legislature runs away from enacting laws that would increase revenue, such as civil unions (tourist dollars), lotteries, gaming and a regulated marijuana industry, the most vulnerable in our society get their health care cut. The fallout from this will be increased emergency room visits resulting in increased costs to the state, private providers and degraded care for everyone. What a great deal.
Joe D'Alessandro
Wailuku
*****
COUNTY TRYING TO SHUT DOWN FRUIT STANDS
I hope to generate local concern and a grass-root support for the viability of our quaint roadside fruit stands.
It seems that Maui County objects to people trying to eke out a living selling or trading local produce and has made a vigilante effort to shut these poor folks down all along Hana Highway.
Why not work with the owners and make sure they have any and all needed permits? Their approach has been draconian instead - shutting them down must be easier.
Tourists love these stands. The photo opportunities are quite a draw, besides being able to purchase locally grown Maui Gold pineapples, bananas, papayas and coconuts.
Do hard economic times make for hardhearted bureaucrats?
Elizabeth Holmes
Paia
*****
FAVORS FOR RICH HAVE GOTTEN OUT OF HAND
Due process needs to be incorporated for the kamaaina, not part-time owners trying to make a profit off land and property.
If there is a nonresident living there, then property taxes need to go up. Those who can afford to be paying should be paying. Favoritism toward lodge ambitions and properties is getting out of hand. No more favors for the rich when we've got the majority struggling to make ends meet.
No Gov. Linda Lingle-backed phony lawsuits detouring the direction of our culture and Hawaiian and local preservation.
The 808 mentality is here to stay. If you are an outsider who doesn't like it then you can catch a plane back to the Mainland. You can never make us change because our love and pride for our people and the Hawaiian Islands runs deep. We will represent the island chain forever, so feel the mana that we bring.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Edward Hoapili Ka'ahui Jr.
Wailuku
*****
RULING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FREE SPEECH
In response to the Feb. 8 letter "Obama wrong; court furthered free speech":
In January, five radical Republicans on the Supreme Court overturned 100 years of American law.
They gave huge corporations a constitutional right to spend unlimited amounts of money to elect candidates at all levels - from mayor to president.
As President Barack Obama declared in his State of the Union address, this ruling will "will open the floodgates for special interests - including foreign corporations - to spend without limit in our elections. I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people."
In 2009, the Chamber of Commerce spent $145 million to defeat health care and global warming laws and by November, these special interests could spend 10 or 100 times as much simply to promote their ultraconservative right-wing agenda.The New York Times reports that the nation's banks are opening up the floodgates of cash to Republican candidates because of President Obama's efforts to rein in and regulate banking corporations.
This radical Supreme Court ruling has nothing to do with free speech but everything to do with big business and corporations' efforts to take away our free speech, the voting rights of the public, as well as special interests efforts' to control the outcome of the November elections.
Lance Holter
Chairman, Maui Democratic Party
Paia
*****
SHIPWRECK IN LAHAINA IS A TOURIST DRAW
From the Jan. 11 Maui News: Ridding Lahaina of a shipwreck? Eyesore? Filthy? State Rep. Angus McKelvey wants to castrate the mast off and slice up the hull.
The Dolphin rests a bit outside Lahaina's historic district or it might qualify as another desecration of the Hawaiian nation. The captain was sucking 'em up in a bar on Halloween when it snapped mooring and sank.
Is another drunken sailor going to accidentally ram into it? If they are that far off course, they might just as well crack the Front Street seawall. It's an old historical whaling town, people. Shipwrecks are cool.
The really juicy conspiracy story: Think Department of Land and Natural Resources. The Carthaginian was a huge draw for visitors, photographers and artists to Lahaina. The proposed Lahaina pier couldn't be built with the Carthaginian docked where it was. I'm one of many believing she was deliberately allowed to deteriorate, declared a navigational hazard and ultimately sold for $1 to the submarine guys, who scuttled her off Puamana.
Captain Wally, who dressed up as a pirate to scare children and entertain adults, lived aboard the Carthaginian and got fired for constantly complaining the ship was being neglected. The outfit responsible for her maintenance had money, and if not, a community fundraiser would have kept the picturesque sailing brig floating.
Chopping the Dolphin to pieces is a waste of resources and serves no purpose whatsoever. Call McKelvey and voice your support to save our shipwreck.
Kenny Hultquist
Lahaina
*****
MISS MAUI PAGEANT RESULTS QUESTIONED
Wow, Maui, what's up? Went to the Miss Maui pageant on Jan. 31. The results were totally unjust, unfair and made no sense.
One girl, Maya, won the talent and really deserved it, but came in third runner-up. She was so awesome. Good job, girl.
The biggest upset of the night was Miss South Kihei Coalette Cuaresma. She was everything we hope for in a Miss Maui to represent our island. She has the whole package. What happened? She won every award but didn't win either title that night. Seems there's some shadyscoring or judging in paradise.
Sorry to the gals that won, but I think you know the scores were questionable.
Good luck to all of you.
Patty Murakami
Lahaina
*****
SUIT A POSITIVE MOVE IN WATER METER FIGHT
Three cheers for James Davis and James Fosbinder ("Wait list for water meter is challenged," Feb. 7). Perhaps they will accomplish using the law what I have been trying to accomplish before the County Council using reason and shame.
My Web site, www.umla.ws, documents my testimonies and those of others to the council and other agencies. It is an experiment in participatory democracy proposing solutions to the unfair Upcountry meter list to, hopefully, receptive people. Instead, I found the council unresponsive, the Kula Community Association antagonistic and the list people apathetic.
As the election nears, the site will serve as a discussion forum for the interested Maui voter, augmenting the usual meaningless, slogan-based advertisements. Meanwhile, I will continue to publish pertinent water meter and lawsuit-related facts.
At last we can use the courts to save the people for a change.
Richard Pohle
Kula
*****
RED CROSS TO REPORT ON USE OF HAITI DONATIONS
As part of Haiti's relief operation, the American Red Cross has 100-plus relief specialists and volunteers helping in Haiti.More than 600 Red Cross and Red Crescent workers from 30 countries are also in Haiti working with 2,500-plus Haitian Red Cross volunteers in areas such as health, logistics and relief supply distribution.
Money donated toward Haiti will be spent there for both the immediate relief we are already providing and longer-term projects that will help rebuild Haiti's future.To ensure funds are spent as intended, the American Red Cross is actively tracking the spending and distribution of resources with financial controls and an audit trail.
As always, the Red Cross will publicly report details on how we use all donations for Haiti relief efforts. On average, 91 cents of every donated dollar will be spent on disaster relief operations and recovery. The other 9 cents support general Red Cross infrastructure/office operations (human resources, information technology, communications, fundraising, corporate finance).
The Red Cross has among the lowest administrative and fundraising expenses in the nonprofit sector. We meet the strict standards for charity accountability established by the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. The recent change in our rating by Charity Navigator is based solely on financial information, not service delivery outcomes, and does not accurately capture the type of work the Red Cross performs as part of its mission.
Coralie Matayoshi
CEO, Hawaii Red Cross
Honolulu
