• SHPD moving ahead • How To Spend $85,000 • Where’s the balance? • Plight of the honeybees • SHPD moving ahead After my extensive years working with our community and its politics, I have learned that there are always
• SHPD moving ahead • How To Spend $85,000 • Where’s the balance? • Plight of the honeybees •
SHPD moving ahead
After my extensive years working with our community and its politics, I have learned that there are always two sides to every story. I’ve also learned that consultants who come from outside of Hawai‘i rarely understand the dynamics and complexity of working in our islands, often underestimate our abilities and tend to want to do things as it is done on the continent.
I know that Puaalaokalani (Pua) Aiu is committed, dedicated and passionate about our Kanaka ‘Oiwi, our cultural sites and our cultural practices. She lives and practices aloha ‘aina. As the leader of a State Historical Preservation Division that was systematically dismantled by the Peter Young/Melanie Chinen administration, Pua took on one of the toughest jobs in Hawai‘i’s state government, overcame tremendous obstacles and brought stability, focus and direction to SHPD. She is a competent and caring administrator who supports her staff and looks after their well-being. The division is now engaged in a strategic planning process for 2012-2017, part of the corrective steps to be completed by Sept 30, and public meetings have encouraged community input and engagement. I would like to encourage The Garden Island to be part of the solution by supporting and encouraging our SHPD staff as they do their outreach and work in good faith to fulfill the corrective action plan by September 30.
For all who are concerned about our cultural and historic places and sites, I encourage you to go to this site and participate in the survey for the 2012-2017 Hawai‘i Historic Preservation Plan at www.hawaiihistoricpreservation.com.
Mahalo.
Davianna Pomaika’i McGregor, Professor of Ethnic Studies University of Hawai’i, Manoa
How To Spend $85,000
With $85,000 of taxpayer money seemingly on hand for next year our fiscal stewards at the County Council could:
• Put in around 10,000 yards of sidewalk so kids walking on Koloa Road could travel safely to their elementary school.
• Build two public concrete skateparks on land donated for that purpose.
• Hire several more workers to maintain public facilities in various county parks.
• Make a substantial dent in efforts to prevent young people from falling into the snare of substance abuse.
• Fund and support student film makers as they aspire to develop in their craft.
• Create a scholarship fund to encourage the best and brightest of next year’s grads in their ongoing education.
• Refurbish or replace ageing or damaged playground equipment, picnic tables and BBQs in county parks.
• Contribute toward building a cell tower in Kokee so that those lost or in an emergency situation can reach help immediately.
• Purchase need vehicles or equipment for County Lifeguards.
• A combination of these things or many, many other needed and worthy things for various strata of Kaua‘i’s people.
Or they could spend it on a half-day marathon.
Rick Bundschuh, Koloa
Where’s the balance?
Thank you, Gordon Oswald, for telling everyone about how great America is while completely ignoring its faults.
Ignorance of the balance of things that is the real downfall of this country as well as previous countries and civilizations. America isn’t any greater than it is lesser than anyone else on this planet, because we are all governed by the balance of the yin and yang of existence. To trumpet how great you are as a nation or as an individual while ignoring wrongs is the epitome of ignorance and is the calling card of propagandists pedalling a self-serving agenda. One of the biggest wrongs of the U.S. that is purposely kept in the shadows by the media is how much defense contractors in this country profit off of making weapons of war that are sold to our military and paid for with our tax money. These same weapons are sold or traded to other governments with no other purpose than to kill and maim other beings on our planet who are usually just caught in the crossfire of the power struggles of egomaniacs. It’s long past time to pass a law in this country and in the United Nations that makes it illegal for anyone to profit from the manufacture of weapons of war. Weapons of war may be necessary at times but anyone who claims that profiting from their production is something that should continue is beyond immoral and should be publicly shamed and ridiculed.
Jason Nichols, Lawa‘i
Plight of the honeybees
TGI’s coverage of the “plight of the honeybees” is an excellent springboard to collaborative action. It is clear that individuals, entities and agencies in the public and private sectors now need to find ways to set strategies, combine resources, and support one another in an all-out effort to raise consciousness in ensuring ways in which the natural pollination processes may continue with honeybees. After all, this is the Garden Isle. Kaua‘i would be devastated in catastrophic proportions if many of our flowers, fruits, and vegetables are seriously compromised or cannot flourish because of such threats to our honeybees. The time has come to call for a task force to focus attention and efforts on implementing an action plan that provides opportunities for schools and communities to become actively involved in the process of protecting our bees, This is something we cannot leave for others to take care of By promoting awareness, by encouraging collaborative effort, by being a part of the solution rather than merely a pointer of the problem, we will be taking steps in the right direction.
Jose Bulatao, Jr., KBEE member, Kekaha
