The winds of change are blowing on Kaua’i. On the North Shore, people are upset and complaining about the berms and the proposed development of Kilauea and Princeville. Development is proceeding at a breakneck pace, with little or no regard
The winds of change are blowing on Kaua’i.
On the North Shore, people are
upset and complaining about the berms and the proposed development of Kilauea
and Princeville. Development is proceeding at a breakneck pace, with little or
no regard for the wants and needs and traditional playgrounds of the people who
live here. There is unequal enforcement of laws, depending on who your friends
are, how deep your pockets are.
Many people say, “Relax, the island will
take care of it,” meaning another Hurricane Iniki. I think back to September
1992 and I shiver. I wasn’t here, but I have heard and seen enough from my
friends and neighbors to know I don’t want another Iniki. Besides, doesn’t it
seem kind of lazy, even irresponsible, to expect Mother Nature to take care of
a problem that we should be taking care of ourselves, that is our
kuleana?
When I was a little girl, there was a concept that was expressed
in a then commonly-known phrase. As Oprah puts it, “From those to whom much is
given, much is expected.” It is the concept of how important it is for those
who have made money from the community to give back to the human family as a
whole.
A friend of mine thinks the problem is rich people. I have great
friends who have money on this island and on the mainland, and they do good
things with it. In so many ways – from the arts to progressive politics to
funding local kids’ educations – they give back.
I’ve been rich and I’ve
been without, and anyone who says they weren’t happier when they had money is
probably pulling your leg.
Everyone deserves the chance to be financially
successful. Nothing wrong with having money. The trick is in how you use it.
Making money can become like a sport, maybe even ad addiction if you have that
propensity.
Say you have a lot of money from selling cars on Oahu. You want
to make even more money by taking a piece of land in its natural state and
carving it up into million-dollar estates for fancy second homes for
mainlanders – homes that local people will never be able to afford. That is
your right, under the system we live under, if the representatives of the
people agree with your plans.
But then, to put the icing on the cake, you
decide that you will put a high berm along the highway to block those ugly cars
(like the ones you used to sell) from the view of your luxury estates. You
don’t really think about what the loss of that view from the highway to the
ocean might mean to the locals. You just ignore the limits on that
county-issued permit that might get in the way of what you had in mind.
But
you don’t worry about breaking the law. You are used to the old Kaua’i way, the
plantation way. Maybe you give the big bucks at election time and you’re
friends with the mayor and she appointed the head of the Planning Commission,
and he’s an old friend, too, and maybe you have friends among the County
Council. You hired the county engineer’s daughter to do some work on the berms
for you, and you had already diverted streams and built man-made ponds with no
permit, either, so for whatever reason, you just don’t think anybody’s going to
say anything about it.
And you’re right. For the longest time, nobody that
matters says a thing. And a few other powerless people on the North Shore
complain a lot, but it never gets into the local paper, even.
So, since
nobody important squawks, some other folks decide to do the same thing for
their million-dollar-plus estates. Maybe these people feel so cocky they don’t
even bother to apply for a permit for their berm. Until somebody starts asking
questions. Then they amble on down to see their friends at the planning
department. It’s nice to have friends who will help you out.
Which brings
us to the questions. What does it take to get the law enforced on rich white
folks around here? What will it take to get rid of the second berm? Must we
embarass people in the communities where they are known, where their friends
are? Is that really what is necessary in order to get the law obeyed over here
on Kaua’i? Are there some laws for the rich and a different set for the rest of
us, who can’t get a permit to add on a lanai to our house or an ohana unit for
the kids and their kids?
We can all speculate on the reasons why the
super-rich feel the need to extort more and more value from the land to add to
their bulging fortunes. Lack of self-worth and measuring self-worth in terms of
money certainly come to mind.
A better way to build true self-worth, as
well as a legacy for the future, might be to think of giving something
beautiful – a park, a waterfall, some land to stay wild in its natural state –
as a gift to the community. People like this deserve our compassion and perhaps
even our pity. But they do not deserve to break the laws of our island and be
allowed to get away with it by our public servants.
We see that fewer
people voted in the past Kaua’i elections. Well, maybe we felt there were no
good choices. Maybe you are tired of government that is motivated by fear of
change and new ideas. Well, you have the opportunity to choose differently
now.
We have real choice this year. But it means talking to our friends
about candidates and voting for only the candidates we really want, not all
seven. Always remember that when you vote all seven of your votes, one of those
seven votes you cast could be the one that beats the two or three people you
really and truly want to get elected.
For myself, I’m voting for Gary
Hooser for the County Council, the only guy with the guts to challenge Pflueger
and his berm, who received the nasty phone calls to prove it. The guy who’s
been at the losing end of many a 6 to 1 vote, including the A&B development
on the South Shore and the pay raises for the mayor and her friends.
But
it’s not enough to elect this guy. There must be others on the council to vote
with him. There are some old familiar faces from the past who have come out of
retirement because they are so concerned about the crisis our island is facing
from serious and bad chronic leadership. Well-respected names like John
Barretto and Kaipo Asing. They are voices of honesty and intelligence, who can
see through hype and deception, who will insist that the average person is
treated fairly when they come before the council.
There is some new blood
in the race, too, people with Hawaiian culture and values – women, working
mothers. Isn’t it about time? Rhoda Libre and Kauilani Kahalekai show a feeling
for the island and its heart and soul, its aloha, and a willingness to stand up
for the traditional values of Kaua’i.
It is so clear to so many of us that
we as an island are moving in the wrong direction. No amount of charm and hula
dancing can make it right. If we allow it to happen without doing all we can to
reverse the trend, to stand up for ourselves and what we deserve in terms of
jobs, a clean environment and a better economy, and all the placs we know and
love – the beaches and hunting grounds and valleys – then maybe we deserve to
lose them.
But Kaua’i deserves better.
Liz Randol lives in the
North Shore area of Kaua’i. She is a real estate agent and has a practice in
alternative healling.
