• Frustration on Moloka‘i • Poi dog pondering • Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative? • On miles and travel Frustration on Moloka‘i Moloka‘i/Lana‘i Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Colette Machado won the 2008 statewide election against challenger Waipa Purdy. Here is
• Frustration on Moloka‘i
• Poi dog pondering
• Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative?
• On miles and travel
Frustration on Moloka‘i
Moloka‘i/Lana‘i Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Colette Machado won the 2008 statewide election against challenger Waipa Purdy.
Here is a deeper look at the whole story. On Jan. 31, 2007, an extraordinary event consisting of 1,300 Moloka‘i citizens participated in an election for the seats on the Moloka‘i Enterprise Community, or EC. To get a sense of how extraordinary, some 1,200 Moloka‘i citizens participated in this year’s state elections.
Colette Machado lost her seat in the 2007 EC election by a huge margin garnering only 29 percent of the votes. A short time later, she was “appointed” back onto the EC board where she sits as an officer today.
On Nov. 4, 2008, in the state elections, Colette lost to Waipa Purdy in Maui County, and as happened in January of 2007 got trounced on the island of Moloka‘i, and received only 26 percent of the votes in her own precinct.
The citizen voice of Moloka‘i was as loud as you can get in trying to pick their leader, but the process drowned out their voices. Something is wrong with this picture, and the process needs fixing. Moloka‘i has only two resident publicly elected officials, an OHA trustee and our county councilperson, neither of which Moloka‘i elects. This is a true life story of frustration in trying to believe and participate in the system from the taxation without representation island of Moloka‘i.
• Walter Ritte, Moloka‘i
Poi dog pondering
In response to Stan Godes’ letter (“Obama the Elitist,” Letters, Nov. 10):
You gotta be kidding with the Obama/Mutt Dog/Elitist comments. How anyone with even a partially open mind could interpret President-elect Barack Obama’s comment regarding his choice of source and breed for his family’s dog as a thinly veiled reference to how he will be setting up his cabinet is way beyond me.
The fact is that one of his daughters is allergic and so although he might prefer to adopt a poi dog, he will probably have to go to a breeder that specializes in a breed that is more “hypoallergenic.”
Boy, now that the election is over some folks on the losing side are really reaching for any little piece of straw in order to still feel like they have a relevant voice. Please spare us all the useless and certainly premature ranting and whining — so far Obama has been doing all the right things to facilitate an efficient, productive transfer of power.
Instead of spewing vitriol in such a nonsensical shotgun pattern, why don’t you try and get behind our president elect and wish him a job well done, which would benefit us all as a nation. Or at least give your overly active imagination and your keyboard a rest until such a time comes, if it comes, that he really has done something that is worthy of honest, well-thought-out and fact-based criticism. Sheesh. Nuff’ awready.
• Stan Koga, Kapa‘a
Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative?
Thank you Peter Nilsen for your comment on Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s lack of response to the oil cost drop while other island utilities fairly respond by dropping prices (“Why the higher rates?,” Letters, Nov. 11).
What bothers me is the lack of communication on Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s part as to why their costs are not being adjusted.
This is a co-op?
If so, aren’t the members supposed to be receiving benefits?
Or is this a project for creating local jobs? Which is a good thing, but not at the expense of KIUC members.
Any comments out there?
• Ray Holmes, Kapa‘a
On miles and travel
After reading Stan Godes’ letter (“No more friendly skies,” Letters, Nov. 6) about the “unfriendly skies at United” I was going to transfer my miles to an Alliance Airlines account and close my United Miles account.
But then I looked at the new chart.
The miles to come to your beautiful island is only 40,000 miles, a 5,000 mile increase, not double like Stan wrote.
Stan, I think you looked at first class tickets? I am on my way this Friday for my visit. Yes, I will probably spend a little less this year at the restaurants … sorry wait staff. But I am still coming and will be back in February.
I have found that my tickets for this trip were less than I have spent in the last four years, only $401 non-stop from Phoenix. I am using my miles to upgrade my seat instead. I also found that my rental car was much less than in the recent past as well. The airline industry has been hurt very badly by oil prices and the economy, like most other businesses. Those of us who really want and still have jobs will be coming to your beautful island, but with the unemployment rate at what it is, your visitors will be fewer. And it is not the airlines’ fault.
• Mike Dobbins, New River, Ariz.
