• Kilauea amphitheater a bad idea • Is Kaua‘i toxic? Kilauea amphitheater a bad idea If Kaua‘i is such a democracy … Kilauea Amphitheater … Just received information in mail from knowledgeable concerned neighbor of Kilauea regarding noise levels to
• Kilauea amphitheater a bad idea • Is Kaua‘i toxic?
Kilauea amphitheater a bad idea
If Kaua‘i is such a democracy … Kilauea Amphitheater … Just received information in mail from knowledgeable concerned neighbor of Kilauea regarding noise levels to be 35 times greater than allowed permissible from the (state) Health Department Chapter 46. And the lights will kill shearwaters which are almost instinct. It should have been voted on. Kaua‘i is not Disneyland. Put it on Maui. I’d like to take this time to thank Dr. Monty (Downs) at Wilcox (Memorial Hospital). We need blasting noise till midnight?
Barbara Beissert, Kilauea
Is Kaua‘i toxic?
It’s front-page headline news (TGI May 16, 2010). The GMO (genetically-modified organisms) seed companies have become a big part of the economy of Kaua‘i. But, at what cost to our fragile environment, our water, the health of the people, to non-GMO crops, global seed supplies and to the future of the world’s food production?
Kaua‘i has long been the Petri dish for Planet Earth, with a laundry list of chemical and GMO seed companies making their home here, and on O‘ahu, Maui, and Moloka‘i. Dow Agro Science/Chemical, Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Syngenta, DuPont, Bayer, BASF, Carghill, HARC, C. Brewer. Using low-profile names, others are here in the Islands as subsidiaries of some the larger companies. Most, if not all are organized under HCIA — Hawai‘i Crop Improvement Association, based on Moloka‘i, an offshoot of the Corn Research Program at the University of Hawai‘i College of Agriculture.
The remoteness of the Islands, the excellent climate and the plantation mentality of those in charge have made it easy for these corporations to get a foothold. And, it didn’t hurt that Hawai‘i’s stolen land was practically given away to anyone but the Hawaiians, like with the sugar and pineapple plantations in the past.
In bed with the UH, welcomed by the Chamber of Commerce, politicians and business leaders, these companies have found a bright and shiny future for themselves here in Paradise. After all, they do provide tax base and jobs, right? And, what’s more important than that in this freaky parallel universe of Kaua‘i’s post-sugar-plantation politics and economy? Even though many of the jobs go to non-union workers on temporary work permits from Micronesia and other places, and even though most of the profits these companies make go off to corporate headquarters overseas, they have the nerve to justify their existence here by telling us how many hundreds of millions of dollars they generate in their diabolical experiments.
The most notorious of the chemical products of these companies is Agent Orange, which was tested here by Monsanto and, shamefully, the University of Hawai‘i. As a result, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people have died and many more have been maimed by cancers, birth defects and a laundry list of health horrors, caused by the U.S. military’s chemical-warfare campaign during the Viet Nam debacle. Many U.S. veterans, some of whom live on Kaua‘i, are still suffering terrible aftereffects, since they ran in the same jungles which were targeted for defoliation. Monsanto is allegedly gone from Kaua‘i, but not before they left us plenty of Roundup, which is now beginning to cause diabolical superweeds to have mutated out of control.
Even though many countries, including the entire European Union, have banned GMO seeds and food products entirely from their borders, the U.S. State Department and its allies actively promote the biotech industry, and are beginning to aggressively confront critics. They say it’s a way to feed the world, but science that is being done in Russia says that sterility is occurring in the third generation of lab animals who were fed GMO soy. A report on a local radio station just yesterday claimed that GMO corn, which is by far the largest segment of the Hawai‘i biotech industry, caused “empty placentas” in farmed pigs on Moloka‘i. How many generations of testing has been done on humans? None. Are we in for a big ugly surprise in the coming years? Nobody knows.
In Haiti, according to The Huffington Post (May 17, 2010), “A new earthquake is what…the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides.” The farmers have “…committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and have called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.”
In an alternative parallel universe here on Kaua‘i, all the land occupied by these giant corporations could be growing healthy organic non-toxic food to feed our people and our animals. Jobs could go to the local people, and we’d all be healthier for it. If it’s all about money and taxation for the government, then the GMO companies win, hands down. If it’s about sanity in this insane world, common sense and a healthy environment, all the GMO, pesticide and chemical companies should be banned from these Sacred Islands forever.
Speak out, boycott GMO products and companies, food stores and restaurants who serve and sell these products, and feed stores who are selling GMO feed. We can’t let the giant corporations and the near-sighted politicians control our lives and our world.
Fred Dente, Kapa‘a
