• Eyesore in Koloa • Military overkill • Plastic bag ban affecting visitors • Slow down • Eyesore in Koloa It has now been three years since Knudsen Trust rushed to cut down Koloa’s monkeypods before the community could organize
• Eyesore in Koloa • Military overkill
• Plastic bag ban affecting visitors •
Slow down •
Eyesore in Koloa
It has now been three years since Knudsen Trust rushed to cut down Koloa’s monkeypods before the community could organize sufficiently against them. The trees had to go down so construction could begin, and the walls went up.
Three years later, not so much as a shovel load of dirt has been moved, but the ugly black wall still stands.
So come on Knudsen Trust, either build the marketplace already or take the walls down and give Koloa its beauty back!
Roger Barques, Koloa
Military overkill
Four Catholic Priests, two Protestant ministers and dozens of residents of Gangjeung village in South Korea were arrested on Dec. 28 in a confrontation with the US Navy. Their village is on Jeju Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Island of Peace because it is a popular tourist wedding destination. In South Korea, it is the island farthest from North Korea and closest to China, which lies 300 miles to the west.
Oil tankers must traverse between Jeju and China to offload at the refinery port of Dalian. The villagers believe that is the reason the Navy intends to raze the village and landfill then pave over the offshore coral reef to make way for an Aegis Missile Destroyer base. They understand they are pawns in an ongoing US strategy to encircle China militarily and that their home would thereafter be in the front line of conflict.
This is not an isolated incident. With more than 700 bases in 63 countries (six added in the last 10 years) and a baseline Pentagon budget projected to grow 2.5 percent each year for the next ten years, resentment and blowback are inevitable. Homeland Security and the FBI acknowledge as much in reporting the increasing volume and variety of terror threats.
The response is disturbing. Homeland Security is rolling out a campaign to alter our perception of the unimaginable. A spokesperson at Office of Health Affairs says, if an improvised nuclear device is detonated in a major city, “It’s more survivable than most people think.” Craig Fugate at FEMA says “We have to get past the mental block that says it’s too terrible to think about.”
Civil Defense is prudent and necessary, but there is a profound disconnect when the government prepares its citizens psychologically for the loss of a major city while failing to address its role in causing the threat by intruding militarily into the homelands and affairs of other countries.
The US needs to forswear the notion of Exceptionalism, that its military can “Americanize” others with impunity. Only those forces should be maintained to accomplish the core mission which is defense.
The military’s primary duty station is inside the US. From the Revulutionary War to World War II, Americans were instinctively suspicious of the notion of a standing army in times when there was no imminent threat. It is an invitation to abuse of power as the last 10 years has shown.
Military force should only be used as a last resort. The Bush Doctrine, bestowing upon the President the authority to start a war based on perceived but unproven threats, has caused tragedy. Violence is not a short cut to resolving complex historical differences.
Our Congressional Representative Hirono needs to be reminded of her role in this since she voted last month in favor of the biggest military spending bill, $725 billion, in history.
Kip Goodwin, Kapa‘a
Plastic bag ban affecting visitors
I love visiting the beautiful garden isle of Kaua‘i but I was very lucky to spend this holiday in Waikiki. I was startled to hear that next time I come to Kaua‘i I will not be able to get plastic bags at the grocery store and this disappoints me.
I wonder how the money that my trip puts into the economy is being used. Are there not recycling plants to effectively deal with plastic bags?
I feel that this decision really should be re-evaluated for the benefit of the numerous visitors who support day to day life on Kaua‘i. Are there any plans to remedy this situation?
Thank you for having such a beautiful island.
Martin de Bergerac III, Houston
Slow down
As I sit here at my girlfriend’s house in the morning, sipping coffee on Elua St. in Lihu‘e, I hear the sounds of cars passing going to work. The speed limit is 25 and it sounds like a freeway from certain people speeding 35 to 45 miles an hour.
This has been going on for a long time now and I’ve seen the police tag a few people. I wish they would put a digital speed meter on the road so people would slow down and maybe get an idea of how fast they are going.
Kaneala Renaud, Kapa‘a
