• Much has changed on Kaua‘i • Rudeness all around • Work toward aloha • They have done well Much has changed on Kaua‘i Peter Nilsen’s letter (“More cost comparisons,” Letters, Oct. 1) made me think of some things that
• Much has changed on Kaua‘i
• Rudeness all around
• Work toward aloha
• They have done well
Much has changed on Kaua‘i
Peter Nilsen’s letter (“More cost comparisons,” Letters, Oct. 1) made me think of some things that haven’t been discussed much in this explosive Superferry dialogue.
About four years ago, a prototype of the Superferry came to Kaua‘i for people to look at. It was jokingly named the “H4” and hundreds, if not thousands of people came out to look at this boat. At that point in time, there were no protesters, there were just a lot of interested spectators.
A lot has changed for Kaua‘i in those four years. First, and most important regarding the economics of the situation, there were only two airline companies regularly taking people between the islands, and at that time these companies were charging $175 per person one way. When that first prototype ferry arrived in Nawiliwili, it cost more to go to O‘ahu than it does to go to some destinations on the Mainland today. Almost $400 not including the cost of a rental car is and was a lot of money for Kauaians to spend on travel between the islands. Four years ago, in a different economic era, an alternative form of transportation was desired by a large part of our population.
Unfortunately for the Superferry, in the time it took them to get the permits and to raise the hundreds of millions of dollars it takes to build a ferry (and its relative bureaucracy), a lot has changed on Kaua‘i.
Most importantly (staying with the economics of the situation), a third air carrier came to the islands and the fare wars began. Now, when air travel to the other islands can cost as little as $9, most of the economic benefits of having this alternative form of transportation have disappeared. Unfortunately, if you take the economics out of the situation, a lot of the reasons why people initially wanted the ferry have disappeared.
In addition, besides the basic economic change, Kaua‘i has faced many other “changes” in the past four years: Costco arrived creating a dialogue about big box stores; the Waipouli development was completed; numerous huge construction projects began on the South Shore and Princeville; in addition, the Kaloko Dam was breached in Kilauea; the nurses’ strike dragged on and on due to a change in the healthcare system; and the median home price went past half-a-million dollars.
Again, a lot has changed in the past four years.
Fairly or unfairly, I think the Superferry has come to represent inevitable change for many people on Kaua‘i, as we watch our island home rapidly change from paradise to … something else.
I think what’s needed here is patience and understanding more than anything else: both patience and understanding for our island as it gets used to the changes being imposed upon it, and patience and understanding for (and from) a “big business” that invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build something it thought people wanted.
Noah Evslin
Waimea
Rudeness all around
Brian Flournoy (“Shame over Superferry meeting,” Letters, Oct. 1) states, “Thank you for making the effort to open up dialogue.”
Gov. Linda Lingle said in all of her public meetings she has never seen such rudeness displayed by Hawaiians. Yes, there was rudeness displayed at the Thursday evening meeting. But who started the rudeness:
• Who ignored our state Senator with 6,000 signatures of Kauaians seeking to have Gov. Linda Lingle obey the law and get an EIS first?
• Who insulted Hooser later by saying, “Why didn’t you come to me sooner?”
• Who came to Kaua‘i, not to listen to concerns supported unanimously by our County Council, but to lecture Kauaians on how to not break newly imposed restrictions (already being challenged as unconstitutional) while she ignores a current court decision that the Superferry must get an EIS, which the law itself says must be done before operation (condition precedent)?
The pent-up anger from being ignored resulted in the rudeness displayed. A good manager should consider whether it was their own actions which caused an outburst of frustration. In addition, there was no violence at the meeting. There was way more violence in the 1960s in our so-called peaceful protests of the Vietnam War than there was at the War Memorial Convention Hall. There is a difference between vocal and violent.
The protesters were passionately concerned. She wasn’t listening and hasn’t been listening for several years; she was lecturing us on keeping her new law. A law-breaker threatening law-abiding citizens with a passion for protecting the land with severe punishment is disrespectful, rude and bullying. Not only so, but her explicit threats of severe punishment for breaking the law to a select group of protesters, before any law is broken, is also being challenged (by the ACLU) as explicit coercion against a constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
Thank you, JoAnn Yukimura and Gary Hooser for leading the people of Kaua‘i in the face of Gov. Linda Lingle acting like a monarch.
Paul Kelley
Kalaheo
Work toward aloha
I express my deepest concerns to the people of Hawaiian ancestry who are participating with the protest concerning the Superferry to be careful of your involvement with the protesting and sincerely ask that you step away from this protesting.
Beware of those protesters’ words that hide the truth. Please see that your protesting tampers with the destiny of the Hawaiian spirit of aloha to live side-by-side among our own and those of other ethnic races that allow us to exercise the freedom of our own respectful choices and concerns. In the end, if you continue your protesting it will lead us into the deceitfulness of those protesters’ hands and our lands are no more.
The land is the foundation that governs our sovereignty. Speak the truth and show the respect. In this we all can strive for the pursuit of happiness. In light of all that has happened the aloha spirit has been jeopardized and it is our responsibility to bring that back. Let’s work toward the aloha now and start by giving and stop the taking.
The Hawaiian blood runs deep in the islands. Let’s keep it that way.
Deborahlee Celestino
Kekaha
They have done well
People of Maui and Kaua‘i say they are worried about invasive species invading their islands.
They need not worry anymore because they are already there. They are settled in all the exclusive properties ranging from 5 to 100 acres.
You can’t stop progress. They will be coming because they can afford it. The sad thing about this is the locals who cannot afford the taxes will suffer eventually and one day become homeless. Even without the ferry this will happen. People of Hawai‘i, wake up. Don’t let these malihinis influence your way of thinking. These people are like the missionaries. They came to do good and they have done very well.
You all know what I am talking about.
Lloyd Y. Yamasaki
Wahiawa, O‘ahu
