• All about location • Warrior pundits give headaches • Adopt, please • Varrao mite bees • Inmates offer thanks All about location Looks like somebody needs to learn to read a map. Since Captain James Cook of the Royal
• All about location
• Warrior pundits give headaches
• Adopt, please
• Varrao mite bees
• Inmates offer thanks
All about location
Looks like somebody needs to learn to read a map. Since Captain James Cook of the Royal Navy stumbled onto Waimea, Kaua‘i, 230 years ago, the outside world learned that these islands were the perfect place from which to control the world’s biggest ocean. Location … location … location.
In 1817, a Czarist Russian representative enlisted the aid of High Chief Kaumuali‘i, to build three forts on Kaua‘i, in the hope of conquering the rest of the island chain, with the aid of Russian troops. In the 1830s, a French gunboat extorted gold, by threatening to shell Honolulu. In 1843, Royal Navy Commander Lord George Paulet seized control of Honolulu for six months, until forced to relinquish it by his commanding officer. Finally, in 1893, American businessmen, protected by sailors and marines from the USS Boston, overthrew the monarchy. It was not the presence of military bases, but the lack of them that precipitated the Kingdom’s downfall.
Any local kid who attended public schools here knows these facts. The Japanese brought death, destruction; and the threat of imperial rule in 1941. In the 21st century, economic superpower China, and rising superpower Russia, are flexing their military strength. What more perfect place to build airfields and harbors, than these Hawaiian Islands? Anyone who believes that Hawai‘i would be safer without American military bases, should visit the remains of Fort Elisabeth in Waimea, just across the river from where the British landed. Perhaps they could learn how to say “I surrender” in Mandarin Chinese, or “Please, don’t kill me” in Russian.
Emmette Honjiyo
Kapa‘a
Warrior pundits give headaches
A 12-and-0 football team can’t be rated or judged by anyone, especially by a bunch of ex-coaches and jocks who come before, and at halftime, and at the end of the game, with their spiels they have been up all night rehearsing. Some fans take these pundit’s word as gospel truth. As for myself, they give me a headache. There is no way a team can honestly be judged until they are defeated and at that point and only then do you have something to compare.
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight (or conference WAC, PAC 10 etc.) but the size of the fight in the dog that matters. Until the dog has lost he can’t be judged. So when Hawai‘i defeats Georgia — and they will — will you give the national title to a loser or a winner.
A great football team with great fans: “Go Warriors.”
Bill Murphy
Koloa
Adopt, please
Looking through the classified ads the other day I noticed the “Pets” section. I was upset to see ads for pure-bred animals starting at $725 to $1,500. It seems to me like a nice side-job, selling puppies or kittens for exorbitant prices. Please realize, Kaua‘i, that for every “pure-bred” animal you buy, another is put to sleep at the Humane Society. We are overrun with stray animals, and it is our fault, not the animal’s fault. If people would be responsible and spay and neuter their pets, we would not have a situation where thousands of cats and dogs are put to sleep every year.
That fact makes me sick to my stomach. My animals have been and will always be the strays that no one wants. And I have to say, I have the best animals. They’re loving and gentle, and to me, they are the most beautiful animals in the world.
Please, Kaua‘i, respect and take care of each other, the animals and the ‘aina.
Karen Kinoshita
Kapa‘a
Varrao mite bees
Last Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 26, entomologist and bee keeper Dr. Michael Kliks removed a large hive of Varroa miteninfested bees from a pipe flange on the roof of 206 Merchant St., which is literally a stone’s throw from where the Superferry was berthed at the time … and had been berthed for about two weeks.
Our concern is that feral colonies close to any port or airport, such as this one, were to have been removed physically or through the use of attractant or toxicant-baited traps, by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture long ago. If the HDOA is actually conducting active monitoring and surveillance, and if an effective trapping and extermination program is in place, there should be no more feral colonies in the zoosanitary cordon zones around these sensitive facilities. Whatever the HDOA claims to be doing, it is not preventing feral hives from existing in, and swarms from entering into, the sanitary cordon around our ports and airports.
In that the Hawaii Superferry is to begin operations to the Varroa mite free island of Maui and will begin operations to Kaua‘i (also free from Varroa mites) I request that the leadership in the House and Senate agriculture committees, together with industry and HDOA representatives make on-site inspections of the current Varroa mite control measures being taken by the HDOA at each of the pier areas of the Port of Honolulu, at Honolulu International Airport, at Wheeler Army Air Base and at other key sites of interisland traffic. Furthermore, it would be prudent that the Agriculture Department educate Hawaii Superferry personnel on the subject of Varroa mite infestation and the millions of dollars in irreparable damage this invasive species will do to Hawai‘i’s agriculture industry.
Lance Holter, Maui group chair, Sierra Club Hawai‘i Chapter
Paia, Maui
Inmates offer thanks
The inmates and staff of Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center want to thank all those who have donated the massive amount of excellent reading material to this facility. Approximately 2,500 books were donated.
We are grateful and we feel blessed by so much kindness and generosity. Every housing unit at the facility has received new reading material.
A special thanks to Magenta Billett, Lani Kawahara of Kapa‘a Public Library, Sgt. Victorino, Lt. Charles Naihe, Wanda Aki and all the inmates who helped unload Magenta’s station wagon whenever she brought drop offs.
Thank you to Nicole DuPont who donated a huge bookcase.
Thank you to the warden for his support, and the inmates who sorted, boxed, stored and have read and enjoyed these magnificent books. This community is always so gracious, kind and responsive.
May you all be blessed for thinking of others and putting love into action.
Jean Marie McEntee
KCCC
