• Camels and Kaua‘i • Melon-head whales Camels and Kaua‘i Despite Mayor Baptiste’s dismay over the recent branding of “Kauai Kolada” cigarettes by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, we should instead thank their advertising wizards for promoting a laidback indolence
• Camels and Kaua‘i
• Melon-head whales
Camels and Kaua‘i
Despite Mayor Baptiste’s dismay over the recent branding of “Kauai Kolada” cigarettes by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, we should instead thank their advertising wizards for promoting a laidback indolence for which the Garden Island is noted. The young hula-hula girl on the label might even displace that tired out Joe Camel as a powerful icon of a hugely popular smoking product.
With this campaign R.J. Reynolds should expand the associations of personal pleasure, freedom and sophistication between Camel cigarettes and Kaua‘i in two ways. First, a special “Kauai Kolada” blend could be cultivated on our unused Westside fields, along with an open-air visitors’ center which could hand out free samples. Second, as Kaua‘i’s well-known as a place of healing and positive energy, Reynolds could establish hospital wards for those who would return to complete their life journeys in the tropical splendors of paradise.
Heck, Reynolds might even be able to get that ridiculous restaurant smoking ban repealed (but that might be expecting too much).
Dana Bekeart
Kapa‘a
Melon-head whales
The death of the baby melon head whale in Hanalei Bay over the Fourth of July weekend is a tragic loss and should be a loud awakening to us all. In our misguided humanitarian efforts to save the pod from some hypothesized demise, we forced them out of a protected bay where, it turns out, a calf had been left behind. Had the baby’s body not washed up on shore the next day, it would have been assumed that the pod was without a doubt distressed and disoriented and that this was indeed a “storybook ending,” as was heralded in the press. We must consider the possibility that the pod was here to birth and was prematurely shepherded out to sea before the baby could keep up.
Many of us present intuited that the whales did not appear stressed; they huddled, frolicked, and sometimes playfully tail-slapped. There was never any indication that they might beach themselves. The human pack on shore, however, did seem frenzied. The experts seemed certain that these rarely studied mammals could not survive in shallow waters. This rush to judgment is where I take issue. Dolphins and whales are our planet’s oldest and wisest inhabitants; holding ancient knowledge. Hanalei Bay may have been stored in their memory banks as a peaceful refuge. Perhaps these intelligent mammals were in complete control, possibly seeking safe harbor from RIMPAC, or gathering for a birthing. Can we really claim bragging rights for saving the pod? Why do we think we know more than a species knows about itself? They live in the ocean, we do not!
What happened at Hanalei Bay seems like a pumped-up display of questionable scientific prowess. With an amped crowd and overzealous officials, the fateful decision was made the next morning — and mourning is what we should be doing.
Elsa Flores Almaraz
Ha‘ena
