• A ‘Shift Change’ for a better economy • Where are the effective lawmakers? • A solution for biotech companies • A proud coconut tree hugger A ‘Shift Change’ for a better economy This letter is addressed to all Kauai
• A ‘Shift Change’ for a better economy • Where are the effective lawmakers? • A solution for biotech companies • A proud coconut tree hugger
A ‘Shift Change’ for a better economy
This letter is addressed to all Kauai working people. I know we all want to have a bright economic future here on Kauai, or at least to have more than a subsistence level of comfort. That should be a basic human right.
There are alternatives to slaving away at dead-end jobs for low pay and minimum wages at Walmart, McDonalds, Burger King and all the other big corporate employers.
Why do you work in the GMO fields, or in the hotels cleaning up after tourists? I would venture a guess that most working class citizens on Kauai are working at jobs like those and in other employment situations where folks feel that’s their only option to feed their families.
Maybe those folks would rather work at more dignified jobs, in more democratic workplaces, where the worker/member has an ownership stake in the company that employs him/her? Where the jobs and the company have a sustainable footprint, and the real promise of a fulfilling future for the coming generations?
Consider how vulnerable we are way out here in the middle of the Pacific, if/when the oil and gas and the barges and planes stop running? We would be left to our own devices, without the corporations, the bloated government bureaucracy, the big boxes, the military, the GMOs and the tourist industry, etc.
There is a new movie out called “Shift Change,” which shows a better way for working people to improve their lives and their livelihoods. It focuses on successful worker-owned co-ops in Europe and America, using the Mondragon model, which has been operating in Spain for more than 50 years, in which local economies are thriving and workers have great benefits, democratic workplaces and real equity in their future.
The Kauai Alliance for Peace and Social Justice will be presenting the Hawaii premiere of “Shift Change” today at 6:30 p.m. at The Children of the Land Center in Kapaa, next to Papaya’s. Admission is free. A short, special presentation of world class songs about the struggles of workers will be played and sung in Peruvian, by Danitza Galvan, and in English by Blu Dux. They will be accompanied by the amazing John Dumas.
After the movie is shown, there will be a public discussion about worker-owned co-ops on Kauai and other places. Please come and learn with all of us, for a better economy. For more info, call Fred, 651-2815.
Fred Dente
Kapaa
Where are the effective lawmakers?
Unleashed dogs roaming in neighborhoods, dogs on the beach dropping feces aimlessly on the sand. Pack dogs terrorizing neighborhood kids, even attacking, and now dogs killing dogs! Where and when will the island political lawmakers take responsibility by doing the right thing? Lawmakers are most willing to create laws that are passive and loose knit, but try getting them to create laws that will send their neighbors or friend to be arrested pay a larger than life penalty or jail time … ?
What will it take to get them to act effectively? My goodness! They lack courage and political will to do what is right. Enough already!
James Torio
Anahola
A solution for biotech companies
Perhaps the seed companies (aka the major chemical companies) could use mulch and they wouldn’t have to use herbicides any longer. Perhaps there could be a community effort to help them procure cardboard, the very easy mulch.
Just think of all the money they’ll save, and our keiki, bees, groundwater and reefs will be safer, too. Hallelujah!
A vibrant, sustainable Kauai is attainable. It only requires knowledge, ingenuity and working as one with all creation. If we are not thinking of the seventh generation to come, we are failing at our responsibilities. Let’s think this through.
Michaela Boudreaux
Kalaheo
A proud coconut tree hugger
The recent article about the plan to off the gorgeous grove of coconut trees to build a new Longs really caught my eye.
Do we really need more sprawl in that area? It’s already more of a parking lot than a free flowing roadway. It was mentioned that the trees are old and will be dead in about 10 years, anyway.
What odd thinking. Almost like saying, grandma is old, we might as well bury her now as opposed to enjoying each and every moment we have left with her. Countless visitors and residents alike love the look and feel of this particular tree laden stretch of road. If someone is feeling the urge to destroy coconuts to build something new, why not start with the Coconuts restaurant, in Kapaa, that has sat vacant and rotting for years now? Come on everybody, let’s stop living out that old song lyric about paving paradise to put up a parking lot.
Sign me coconut tree hugger.
Rebecca Gorsline
Kapaa
