Nov. 1 2003 By KAWIKA MAKI In forty years of living on Kaua’i, we’ve seen the number of people increase three-fold with attendant increases in traffic, housing, and surfers in the lineup. Remember what it was like surfing beautiful waves
Nov. 1 2003
By KAWIKA MAKI
In forty years of living on Kaua’i, we’ve seen the number of people increase three-fold with attendant increases in traffic, housing, and surfers in the lineup. Remember what it was like surfing beautiful waves at Acid Drop with a few friends, eating so many Hayden mangoes, driving to Hanalei, passing 5 cars going the other way, surfing all day and finding out that Big Save and every other store had closed at 5 p.m.? Lucky we lived in a VW bus. Tai Hook Aloha us at Black Pot, what a loving friend; Hanohano Pa, telling us stories of life in Kalalau, John and Paul Akana, Howard Kanehe. They would give you food, shelter, land whatever you needed. But most of all, they gave lots of aloha, by the tons they gave, always giving. They really made our days Heaven on Earth. As Henry said one day, “We’ve seen the Golden Years.” I miss those guys. They had so much aloha. That’s the main thing in life. Thank you everyone for all your aloha. Thank God. Aloha ke Akua.
The author of the book, the Population Bomb predicted in 1961 that the World’s population would triple by the year 2000. It did 2.2 billion increased to over 7 billion. Think the roads, surf spots every where is getting crowded? The same author just came out with a new book predicting that at the present rate of growth, the world population will double, to 14 billion by the year 2020. Imagine twice the number of people on the roads, in the surf, at the checkouts. How are we going to get along? Aloha one another. May racial, economic, religious and every other illusion that separates us dissolve and let us live in harmony. God bless you all. May your Puuwai be filled with aloha. Love God, love your neighbor. There is only one god and one family. Let it be in unity.
Think about it, when you do what you have everything is all right. God created us out of love. Let us make the world a garden, filled with aloha. Mangoes and lychee too!
P.S. The Hanalei river is being polluted by buffalo dung, fertilizers, herbicides, cesspool leaching and boat oil and gas operated motors. I lived a 1/2 mile up the river in the 1970s and watched the river become a cesspool of oil slicks and pollution. The major sources of pollution on Kaua’i are auto exhaust, (we’re all guilty) sugar cane smoke, diesel fumes from power plants, pesticides and herbicides, malathian and diazinon have been proven to cause cancer and the EPA has ordered them removed from store shelves. Pesticide drift from corn company spraying. Unsafe drivers. The silver sports car that ran the stop sign at the Hyatt access road on the 6th of Oct. about 2 p.m. caused me to swerve to the left lane and almost caused a major collision. What really makes me wonder is the driver was laughing and looking at his girlfriend as he pulled out into our land and caused me to swerve to the left to avoid hitting his car broad side. We need better roads and get drunk drivers off the roads. People don’t need alcohol to “feel good”. They need more exercise. Every rental car should have posted or printed rules of the road on Kaua’i. No stopping in the middle of the road to look at the scenery. Pull all the way off the road to look around. Obey all traffic rules, stop at stop signs. It is getting crowded and the speedsters in their souped-up Hondas and pickups better slow down if they want to live a long life.
Kawika Maki is a resident of Hanapepe.
Military Stryke against the public and Sunshine Law
The recent Stryker arrests on O’ahu is but the most recent example of a Sunshine work-a-round that is a major and serious infringement on our first amendment rights to free speech and open government. Ho’ike and KIUC have used the same ploy in the past to keep people from expressing themselves on public issues, and now the US military is using this anti-democratic ploy.
The ploy is to hold a “public meeting” on “private property”. This is an oxymoron because on “private property” the property owner is acting as a proxy for the meeting holder, and can limit public expression because it is “private property”. The unanswered question is “if Hawaii Sunshine Law does not apply, in what sense is the meeting “public.”
If a public meeting is to be held on private property then Sunshine Laws should supercede any private property rights that conflict with Sunshine Laws for the duration of the meeting. If not, this ploy used by Ho’ike, KIUC, and now the US military will censor public speech by preventing the public from expressing themselves on issues. Combine this with concurrent attacks upon (and disregard for) Hawaii Open Records laws, and you create a situation where the public cannot know (denied access to records) and cannot express themselves (public neetings held on private property).
These assaults on the public’s right to know and be heard impacts the public’s ability to influence leglislation on all issues. It must be addressed now!
Ed Coll
Lihue
