• Celebrate garden’s golden anniversary • Thieves can steal in peace Celebrate garden’s golden anniversary As a tourist, garden volunteer and longtime repeat visitor at the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) on Kauai’s South Shore, I’m excited about the 50th
• Celebrate garden’s golden anniversary • Thieves can steal in peace
Celebrate garden’s golden anniversary
As a tourist, garden volunteer and longtime repeat visitor at the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) on Kauai’s South Shore, I’m excited about the 50th anniversary year, 2014, and the launch of renewal in the gardens.
Andy Jasper, NTBG South Shore director of gardens, wears enough hats to make that renewal a top hat reality. Jasper left the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, and as head of research, encourages a relationship between people and plants. His work experience in heritage preservation, culture, tourism and counseling intersect at the Allerton and McBryde gardens.
Jasper, in a recent brown-bag luncheon meeting at NTBG, outlined how Cornwall and Kauai both share a substantial percentage of GDP in the tourism industry: Cornwall at 25 percent and Kauai at 65 percent. The Eden Project, in its 12-year tenure, has seen over 15 million visitors, placing it eighth in British tourist attractions, trailing giants like the Tower of London, Stonehenge and Edinburgh Castle.
Just as the Allerton and McBryde gardens are Eden-esque templates over the top of post-industrial economic decline (sugar), so too the Eden Project built the world’s largest biome conservatories over the spoils of China clay mining. It became, as is the 20/20 vision forecast for NTBG’s South Shore Garden, an internationally acclaimed must-see on the visitor checklist. It also became an educational resource and an environmental showcase for all ages.
Jasper foresees protecting safety over asset gains, while preserving and celebrating Hawaiian culture. The key to success is in building strong relationships between staff, volunteers and the community according to Jasper. And as for impending change, he quotes American futurist, Marilyn Ferguson, “It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear … It’s like being between trapezes. It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold on to.”
And French essayist, Andre Gide: “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Expect to see the logo for NTBG South Shore’s 50th renewal for at least a year or two, and well into a shared and sustainable future. For a longtime visitor to Kauai, that fits with the aloha spirit on the Garden Isle.
Joan Boxall
British Columbia, Canada
Thieves can steal in peace
Dogs bark for many reasons. Their voices give notice of strangers approaching and of things unusual. A dog has a built-in protective instinct, a great love and honor for his owner, his possessions and he is part of the family.
In my case, I live alone, away from others, and I have things stolen, day or night. My dogs are kept in their kennels. Every loose object of value is stolen. If you don’t believe me, call the police and get the shock of your life at what this theft involved: my throw net, five chain saws, from the biggest Husky to the standard 24-inch Still, $650 wood lathe chuck, the biggest Shindaiwa weed wacker bought from Kawamuras, brand new bowl gauges costing more than $130 each, trail machete with super grade blade, wood stack, hard wood, 2x4x14, 2x6x16, roofing iron, hand tools and many more.
Christmas 2013, 7:30 a.m., my dogs were barking. I got out of bed to see what they were barking at and saw movement in my workshop. I rushed to the area and the person/persons were gone. I drove my truck up the road and found no vehicle parked. I know I was on the road before anyone could drive away and there were no signs of any vehicle traveling the route. The person/persons must have walked through pastures in the Wailua Houselots area, where I reside.
Someone complained to the Kauai Humane Society about my barking dogs. At that time, they had the perfect reasons to set their alarm. If you prefer my dogs not warn me, that’s not going to happen. The dogs have the God-given trait to protect and warn. Dogs can scent strangers quite a distance by air. Without the dogs, I may have greater problems.
Besides all of my personal reasons, the most important reason is, we are a county, not a city where people have many benefits, services and pay. We lack many things that city people have. We are country people. Don’t make city laws to ruin our lifestyle. Come on JoAnn. You have been to Stanford, but now you are home in the country!
Robert M. Hamada
Kapaa
