(Reader Opinions Disclaimer: This column allows members of the community to share their opinions and views, which do not necessarily reflect those of Hawaii 24/7, its staff, sponsors or anyone other than the writer. Hawaii 24/7 reserves the right to refuse any column deemed to be misinformation, of an unethical nature, a personal attack, or a blatant commercial pitch.)

Aloha e,

The media continues to mistakenly refer to the recent and on-going noxious mauka fires as brush fires. They are not…these fires are occurring within native forests filled with numerous endangered and threatened plant and animal species.

Topping it all off was Sunday’s incredibly insensitive “Fire Sale” ad in West Hawai’i Today complete with a photo of the still smoking forest that is choking thousands of residents each night.

I have attached the state Board of Land and Natural Resource’s “Approval in Principle for Acquisition of Perpetual Conservation Easement” for the mauka 9,000 acres of the 11,570 acre Kealakekua Ranch. The United States Congress provided the agency with $2,000,000 to purchase 4,000 acres with another installment of $2 million due to purchase the remaining 5,000 acres.

The area that is burning “contains many different forest types, including mixed open forest, closed ‘ohi’a lehua rainforest, open koa forest with mamane, and open koa forest. This forest mosaic supports a wide variety of federally listed threatended and endangered plant and animal species.

The document goes on to describe the “Need for Acquisition…Due to agricultural zoning, forest in Kona are threatened by conversion to non-forest uses. Sales for development would result in drastic changes to the area’s rare habitat and important watershed needs. Since its recent purchase of the property, Seller [the Pace family] has received multiple offers to purchase for the purpose of completing the existing development entitlements. In addition to development concerns, Kona’s forests are threatened by the spread of invasive non-native plants and feral ungulates, all of which increase wildfire susceptibility and decrease natural forest regeneration.

The acquisition will insure preservation of the forested areas of the property through an on-going management plan by Kealakekua Heritage Ranch LLC, as required by the conservation easement. The management plan shall be implemented by Kealakekua Heritage Ranch LLC with oversight by the Division of Forestry and Wildlife.”

Has anyone seen or heard from the state DNLR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife in this sad state of affairs?

Charles Flaherty
Captain Cook

(Reader Opinions Disclaimer: This column allows members of the community to share their opinions and views, which do not necessarily reflect those of Hawaii 24/7, its staff, sponsors or anyone other than the writer. Hawaii 24/7 reserves the right to refuse any column deemed to be misinformation, of an unethical nature, a personal attack, or a blatant commercial pitch.)

By Sydney Ross Singer

There is a new type of disease that has gained a frightening foothoold in Hawaii. It affects the mind, filling it with hate and rage, intolerance and paranoia, and leads to violence and acts of cruelty.

Animals are slaughtered in cold blood, burned to death, or poisoned. Plants are ripped out by the roots or killed with herbicide. Entire areas are bulldozed to kill all that lives.

Worst of all, those doing this destruction feel no remorse or conscience, since this disease fills their minds with a sense of self-righteousness, determination, and aggression, so much so that others stand by in silence and fear as they watch the destruction.

This disease is now causing people to attack the mangroves on the Big Island. They are being poisoned as an experiment, with the help of Monsanto, and are left to rot in place, polluting the water as they decay.

Fish will die, nesting birds and other animals will be harmed, and the environment will look diseased. The attack is already underway, with only a few mangrove locations, such as Pohoiki, still scheduled for assault.

Why attack mangroves? Haven’t they been in Hawaii for over 100 years, brought here to help the environment? Don’t they clean the water and protect against storm surge? Aren’t they protected around the world for their importance to the preservation of coastlines? Don’t they create an important environment for fish and other life? Aren’t they beautiful and interesting trees that add to the biodiversity of our island?

The answer is yes. Then why are they being targetted for eradication?

It is because they are “alien” and “don’t belong here”, according to those attacking them. They cite unpublished observations that suggest mangroves are bad for native fish. They don’t care about collateral damage to fish or other wildlife caused by poisoning the mangroves, since most of the victims are also “alien”.

For them, the rot and smelly pollution of poisoned mangroves is preferable to allowing these “invasive alien intruders that can take over the islands”.

The disease is not new. It has manifested before as violence and hatred against blacks, Jews, gays, haoles, or anyone else considered different or “alien”. It is a xenophobia that has caused uncountable bloodshed and wars.

But now this disease has taken on a new target – the environment, along with the animals and plants that live in it. It is a bio-xenophobia, and it is causing immense destruction to ecosystems, attacking plants and animals whose sole “crime” is that they came to Hawaii from somewhere else.

Instead of white supremacism, Hawaii suffers from species supremacism. It has the naïve goal of returning the islands to the way they were 400 years ago.

This species supremacism has taken over and destroyed the environmental movement whose goal had been to save the environment from development and pollution. Now, aggressive and angry “environmentalists” seek out alien species to destroy.

Invasive Species Committees have organized, which are species supremacist groups that have partnered with the government. They have put laws in the books to force property owners to comply with their eradication efforts, and punish those harboring “aliens”.

The environment is no longer seen as good so long as it is clean, healthy and filled with wildlife. Now, the wildlife itself is targetted for destruction, including birds, lizards, insects, mammals, trees, fish, frogs, flowering bushes, and any other life form that was not originally in Hawaii prior to Western contact.

Never mind that we live on an island, and that everything had to come here from somewhere else on the planet. Everything living in Hawaii had been introduced one way or another. The species revered by native supremacists were themselves once immigrants. Killing species that have come to Hawaii over the past centuries will not return the islands to some “native” state. There really is no going back.

But ardent species supremacists are blinded by their passion, and will attack any species, even those that give food (such as cattle, pigs, strawberry guava and passionfruit), even by using experimental poisons and diseases (biocontrol), all in the name of environmental cleansing.

With a grant from the Hawaii Tourism Authority (which should not be giving money for such things), a small environmental group set out to destroy mangroves in Vacationland in Kapoho, which is zoned conservation land. Private property owners were notified, but the public was not, even though the mangroves are at the high tide mark and are therefore on public land. Never before were so many mangroves poisoned at once and left to rot in place.

It is a test of a Monsanto herbicide, with the misnomer “Habitat”, to see what it would do to the mangroves, aquatic life, and the overall environment. Monsanto donated the poison.

Soon after, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife gave another grant to Malama o Puna to attack all the other mangroves on the Big Island. Several agencies were contacted, including the Hawaii Department of Health, Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the County of Hawaii. All allowed this experiment to continue with no environmental assessment (EA).

This means that there was no way for the public to be intelligently informed about this mangrove eradication plan, it methods, its rationale, the potential adverse impacts to the environment and public, and it denied the right of citizens to comment on proposed changes to our environment. (Hawaii Revised Statute 343 requires an EA when state or county land or funds are used or when the land is shoreline or zoned conservation. Federal law would also require an EA since federal funding were also used.)

We must not allow these people to continue their defilement of our environment in the name of species cleansing. We must demand that the public be given a say in what happens to public land, public trees, and public animals. We must stand up to government corruption that looks the other way, and even encourages these deadly deeds without proper legal and scientific review and public comment.

Most importantly, we must reject the very notion that some species should be eradicated simply because they are not “native”. In human affairs we call this ethnic cleansing and genocide, and we have seen how ugly it is. It is no less ugly when unleashed on a plant or animal.

—

Sydney Ross Singer is a medical anthropologist, Director of the Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease, and co-author of the numerous groundbreaking books exposing the cultural/lifestyle causes of disease, including the bestseller, Dressed To Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras (Avery/Penguin Putnam, 1995; ISCD Press, 2005). He works with his wife and assistant, Soma Grismaijer, and offers an online do-it-yourself lifestyle research website, www.SelfStudyCenter.org.

Sydney Ross Singer can be reached at the Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease, P.O. Box 1880, Pahoa, Hawaii 96778 (808) 935-5563.

Kelvin Bloom is in his second term as chairman of the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

I recently returned from a week in China, accompanying Governor Lingle in Beijing and Shanghai.  All of the dynamic stories I’ve been hearing and reading about for some years, and the incredible potential this burgeoning country offers all came to vivid life for me from the moment I stepped out of Beijing International Airport.

There’s no substitute to being there and that’s certainly true in this case.

After a couple of fruitful days in Beijing and shortly after landing in Shanghai, Governor leaned over to me and said “Kelvin, Shanghai is like New York on steroids.”  She’s right.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have lived in a number of different countries but have never experienced the level of energy, optimism, and activity of Shanghai.

As reported in the China Daily News about our recent visit, “Hawaii is looking to China’s growing outbound tourism market as a much needed new gold mine for visitors to our islands.”

The publication went on to quote Governor Lingle as saying, “With a nine percent increase in GDP in the third quarter, China’s continuing economic recovery is critical to the recovery worldwide, as well as to Hawaii’s economy.  It is important for Hawaii to continue to strengthen our partnership with China so that our local businesses have the opportunity to capitalize on this large, emerging market.”

The state’s initiative to diversify Hawaii’s visitor market began several years ago and continues today with the recent trip to China to encourage travel to our islands.

I was fortunate to take part in the discussions with travel writers, travel sellers, the U.S. Embassy in China and with the China National Tourism Association (CNTA) chairman Shao Qi Wei.

Our tourism agenda included maximizing opportunities for Chinese tourists to travel to Hawaii.  Hawaii welcomed about 10,000 Chinese visitors a year in the 1990s and that jumped to 30,000 by 1998 and doubled to nearly 60,000 last year.

And with a daily per person per day expenditure of $324, the Chinese were our highest spending visitors in 2008.  This compares most favorably to our largest market, visitors from the U.S. West at $146 and our high spending Japanese at $288.

At a luncheon meeting in Beijing, I talked to a Chinese visitor who spent in excess of $100,000 in retail shopping alone during her last visit to the U.S.

We are hopeful to welcome to our island state 100,000 visitors in 2010, thanks to the Memorandum of Understanding which allowed for increased group leisure travel from China to the United States commencing in June of last year.

We believe our goal of 100,000 visitors in 2010 is achievable, in part, due to Hainan Airlines’ approval from the US Department of Transportation to begin nonstop service between Beijing and Honolulu.  Airlift is a key factor in increasing visitors from any destination.

Our discussions with our partners in China included a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Huntsman and his Embassy staff to ensure that obtaining a U.S travel visa will not be an obstacle to traveling to Hawaii.  He and his staff were most reassuring as they committed to work closely with us to facilitate Chinese travel to our islands and the mainland U.S.

Although my schedule required my return to Hawaii and I was unable to continue on to Hainan, I was delighted to learn of the outcome of the meeting between Gov. Lingle and Hainan Airlines’ founder and chairman of the board Chen Feng and Vice President Chen Ming.

It is my understanding that Chairman Feng shared with the governor that her trip was critical in expressing Hawaii’s support for their airline’s nonstop flight to Honolulu and advised they are planning to fly two flights per week between Beijing and Honolulu and hope to begin service by the second quarter of next year.

Tourism opportunities exist in the developing countries in Asia as well as in North America and Japan.  As an industry, we have done an admirable job in collectively increasing our marketing and promotions in our base markets of North America and Japan.

Developing and broadening our relationships in new emerging Asian markets will assist us in diversifying our market sources and enable us to expand tourism’s impact on our economy.

As James F. Smith, chief economist of Parsec Financial Management in North Carolina said “you have to get the Chinese people coming to Hawaii.  They are the way of the future.”  Indeed.

Kelvin Bloom

Hawaii Tourism Authority, Chairman

Aston Hotels & Resorts, President

(Reader Opinions Disclaimer: This column allows members of the community to share their opinions and views, which do not necessarily reflect those of Hawaii 24/7, its staff, sponsors or anyone other than the writer. Hawaii 24/7 reserves the right to refuse any column deemed to be misinformation, of an unethical nature, a personal attack, or a blatant commercial pitch.)

(Reader Opinions Disclaimer: This column allows members of the community to share their opinions and views, which do not necessarily reflect those of Hawaii 24/7, its staff, sponsors or anyone other than the writer. Hawaii 24/7 reserves the right to refuse any column deemed to be misinformation, of an unethical nature, a personal attack, or a blatant commercial pitch.)

On Wednesday, Nov. 18, the Hawaii County Council will again consider Resolution 237-09, providing exemptions from vaccinations. At the core of this resolution opposing mandatory vaccinations is a deep sense of distrust — distrust of federal and state governments that may want to impose their will on the public, as well as distrust of the pharmaceutical industry and its vaccination products and research.

Distrust is a major social disease of our time. The root cause is that we are a society that puts money before people. This is as true for medicine as it is for politics. Years of abuse of the sacred trust the people place in their leaders has lead to our current state of distrust.

It seems strange that the County Council is addressing the issue of mandatory vaccinations, which is typically a federal and state government concern. However, it makes sense when you consider that this is the smallest governmental body in our system. It consists of councilmembers who are our neighbors and friends. This makes the County Council the most accessible and responsive to our individual concerns.

So I understand why this resolution is being brought to the County Council. And I also understand why it is important that the Council support this resolution. The people need some assurances that they are being heard, that they can trust government at least on this local level.

The County Council may be small, and its decisions may seem trivial on the state and national levels. But it is the closest the government ever gets to hearing and responding to the voice of the people. In this sense, the County Council is the most important governmental body we have. It is here that our trust in government and authority can be mended.

As for the issue of getting vaccinated against disease, flu or otherwise, all medical treatment should be at the discretion of the individual. It is our most basic freedom to make decisions about what goes into our bodies.

However, the government does serve a legitimate function in preventing and controlling infectious disease epidemics. We live in a time when few, if any, of us experienced the horrors of smallpox, polio, Bubonic plague, and other killer diseases. Quarantine is a common practice to stop the spread of these diseases. I have also been told by military personnel of villages in Africa being bombed to stop the spread of Ebola virus.

Vaccination is another method for controlling some diseases.

While vaccines all have potential adverse side effects and vaccination programs always result in some unintended injuries and even deaths, public health officials consider these costs worth the benefits. Public health officials consider society as a whole. People, to them, are statistics. And like generals conducting a war, these healthcare warriors fighting an infectious disease are willing to accept civilian casualties if it means winning the war, which, to them, means most of the public survives the epidemic.

To those individuals and their families who become the casualties of that war, however, the cost is dear, sometimes too dear for them to accept. Vaccinations may help society as a whole, but it could harm some individuals who otherwise may have survived.

This is the conflict between public healthcare and private healthcare. Our government officials focus on society as a whole, while we the people focus on ourselves and our families. Unfortunately, what is good for the whole may not be good for us as individuals, and vice versa.

As a society based on individual freedom and an inalienable right to life and liberty, the thought of forced vaccinations is abhorrent. That is why current laws have respected the right of individuals to refuse vaccinations. However, if someone spreads a deadly disease to others, we no longer can be regarded as individuals, but as members of a social group. At that point, what’s good for the group could outweigh the choices of any one individual.

Again, this abrogation of individual freedom is only justified in extreme life-threatening situations. At those times, quarantine and vaccination are appropriate. We must accept some loss of personal freedom when at war, whether that enemy is human or microbial.

That is why we need to trust our leaders. When they declare war, they take away some of our freedom. However, this is a power that can, and has been, abused. We no longer trust our leaders to give us the full, honest story.

When is it time to declare a health emergency and declare war on a disease? The answer to that depends on your point of view. To the drug industry, government purchases of vaccine and treatment drugs is an economic boon. And given the fact that the current swine flu epidemic is no more deadly than the regular flu, the worldwide rush for vaccines seems more like an economic stimulus plan for the pharmaceutical industry than anything else. However, people will die from the swine flu, and from the seasonal flu. Does that make this an emergency, worthy of forced vaccinations or quarantine?

I propose the following answer. If people are debating the severity of a communicable disease, then it is not severe enough to warrant intrusion into personal freedom with mandatory vaccines or quarantine. If people were dying in the streets from a new plague, and everyone was afraid to go outside for fear of contracting it, then there would be no debate. The war would be real, and people would know it and comply with the strategies used to fight it.

I do not believe this is a time for such a war. And since the state and federal governments are not forcing this swine flu vaccine on the public, clearly they agree.

Why, then, vote to support this resolution? It is because it is a resolution to respect the rights of the people to be individuals, and not some statistic of a public health official. As a resolution, it has the weight of conscience, not law. But it is this conscience of respect for individuals that needs to be reaffirmed. It will not impair the ability of state and federal health officials to protect us in times of war. It will just tell the authorities that we care about our individual freedom, and that we will not easily give up our personal sovereignty without just cause.

Sydney Ross Singer, Medical Anthropologist,

Director, Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease

P.O. Box 1880, Pahoa, Hawaii 96778

In case you haven’t heard the buzz, the honey bee in Hawaii is gravely threatened by a newly introduced parasite, the varroa mite, which can wipe out our bee population within a few years, and is spreading across the state.

The question is, should we save the honey bees, or is the mite doing us a favor?

If you ask residents, farmers, and beekeepers, the honey bee is a blessing in Hawaii. They provide delicious honey, they help pollinate all sorts of fruit trees and crops, and they are interesting creatures to raise as a hobby. For most people, our islands would surely be less sweet without honey bees.

On the other hand, if you ask some conservationists who only value “native” species and wish to eradicate introduced ones, the honey bee is an invasive species curse in Hawaii. They compete with native pollinators, and they pollinate alien plant species that are encroaching on native forests. For these people, conservation would best be served by the eradication of the honey bee.

Unfortunately, the Hawaii government holds both of these opinions. And this spells doom for the honey bee.

According to Lyle Wong of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (DOA), who is leading efforts on the Big Island to stem the spread of the varroa mite, the Hawaii government is not sure whether to regard the honey bee as a friend or foe (personal communication).

The DOA acknowledges the importance of the honey bee in agriculture, and that most farmers rely on feral, or wild, honey bees to pollinate their crops. On the other hand, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), which works closely with the DOA, considers the honey bee as an invasive species, and thinks Hawaii would be better off without them.

This ambivalence towards the honey bee is also reflected in the fact that the DOA lists the honey bee as an agricultural pest for control or eradication. hawaii.gov/hdoa/admin-rules/subtitle-6-division-of-plant-industry/AR-69A.pdf

Add to this the fact that the varroa mite is considered a form of biocontrol against wild honey bees. www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/varroa_destructor.html

This is from a wikipedia entry: As an invasive species, feral honey bees have become a significant environmental problem in places where they are not native. Imported bees may compete with and displace native bees and birds, and may also promote the reproduction of invasive plants that native pollinators do not visit. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_honey_bee

The loss of the honey bee will accomplish what the DOA and DLNR, along with the US Forest Service, had in mind for strawberry guava biocontrol. They proposed releasing an alien scale insect to attack the strawberry guava to reduce its fruit production in order to slow its spread in the forests. That proposal has been made moot by the introduction of the varroa mite. The loss of honey bees mean less strawberry guava fruit. No need for the scale now that the mite is here.

The announcement of the invasion of the varroa mite on the Big Island came two weeks after the Hawaii County Council chastised the federal and state governments for their biocontrol plan for strawberry guava. Some people believe the varroa mite could have been secretly released by zealous biocontrol proponents who wish to see the demise of the honey bee in order to reduce the spread of guava, strawberry guava, and other “weed” trees. Since the scale insect release plan was being attacked, could the deliberate release of the varroa mite on the Big Island have been “Plan Bee”?

Whether it happened by design or through incompetence, the varroa mite was not stopped in Hilo, where it was first discovered. Now, the mite is expected to infest the entire Big Island, as it has Oahu.

Meanwhile, the DOA is killing healthy honey bees in swarm traps around the Big Island, certainly not a sign of friendship or support for the bees. According to Lyle Wong, the bees are killed to see if they had mites. However, there are effective nonlethal methods to tell this, as beekeepers will attest. Nevertheless, over 350 healthy bee hives have been killed around Hilo, and healthy bees are still being killed in swarm traps on the Kona side.

Why have swarm traps? It helps to see if the mite has arrived in that area by inspecting the bees in the trap. Of course, there is nothing that this information tells you beyond the fact that the mite has arrived.

So why kill the bees in the traps if they are healthy? It’s because it is just easier for the government workers to bag the swarm traps and kill all the bees instead of moving the bees to a hive and letting them live.

This disregard for the honey bees should not be a surprise given the way the state regards the bee. But it has stirred the anger of some local bee lovers who want to save the bees, and move healthy bee swarms from the traps into hives that can be given to residents and farmers who want bees. However, the DOA is resisting these efforts to save the healthy bees, insisting on killing them.

It is also important to have as many healthy bee hives as possible to allow the bees to evolve and adapt to the mite.

In fact, natural selection could ultimately create a resistant honey bee that could survive this mite attack. But until that happens, we will see our food supply reduced. Beekeepers will have to manage their hives for mites and sell pollination services to large farm operations, as is now required on the Mainland as a result of varroa mite destruction of wild bee populations. Meanwhile, our wildlife will suffer from lack of fruit, causing some wildlife, such as pigs and birds, to encroach on backyards and farms to find food. Hunters and gatherers from the wild will find less game and fruit. Our wild food resources, as well as our gardens and orchards, will suffer.

Less honey. Less fruit. Less abundance. Life will not be as sweet in the islands.

But not everyone will lament. The DLNR will celebrate, along with all the invasive species committees and councils, with their state, federal and private alliances, all dedicated to eliminating non-native species from Hawaii. They will call the elimination of the honey bee “sweet”.
But it is all the rest of us who will get stung.

Sydney Ross Singer

Pahoa

–
Reader Opinions Disclaimer: This column allows members of the community to share their opinions and views, which do not necessarily reflect those of Hawaii 24/7, its staff, sponsors or anyone other than the writer. Hawaii 24/7 reserves the right to refuse any column deemed to be misinformation, of an unethical nature, a personal attack, or a blatant commercial pitch.

July l8, 2009 Marks 25th Anniversary of the Hilo nuclear warship swimming blockade

I, Jim Albertini, organizer of the blockade, extend an open invitation to come and join the Friday, July 17, 2009 –Hilo Peace Vigil now in its 409th consecutive week. We will have an open microphone to share thoughts for peace, then and now. I will talk story about the blockade, the journey to prison and beyond.

Today in 2009, it has been confirmed there is military radiation contamination on Hawaii Island from weapons training at the Pohakuloa Training Area. In July 2008 the Hawaii County Council voted 8-1to call for a halt to all live-fire at Pohakuloa, and a clean up of the radiation along with several other points of action. Once again, the military arrogantly ignores the call to action.

The Nuremberg principles established following WWII state that citizens have a moral and legal duty to act in resistance to the crimes of their government. What was applied to Nazi Germany needs also to be applied to the U.S.A.

Silence and indifference in such times, then and now, is not acceptable. Break the silence. Come alive. Speak out and act for justice and peace. Stop the Wars. End U.S. occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Hawaii, etc.

Mahalo.
Jim Albertini

Some background:

In l98l the Hawaii County Council unanimously passed an historic law –the first in the U.S. declaring Hawaii County a Nuclear-Free Zone.

The military ignored the law, sending in nuclear-powered and/or armed warships on junkets. For 3 years peace activist politely asked the military to respect the Nuclear-Free law. Copies of the ordinance were presented to Navy ship captains. Picket lines were set up of the visiting nuclear ships for the Merrie Monarch Festival, and the Festival of the Pacific sponsored by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii. Besides –what’s merry or festive about a nuclear warship. It’s a death machine with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

Finally in June of l984, Malu ‘Aina announced that a non-violent blockade would take place for the next ship if the military kept ignoring the law. The drama began. The Navy asked the Coast Guard to declare civilian Hilo Bay a security zone where people would be subject to felony violations if they entered anywhere in the Bay to protest the entrance of the Nuclear warship on the day of its arrival. County Council chair Steven Yamashiro called emergency sessions of the council to amend the nuclear-free law to “EXEMPT” THE MILITARY. That would be like having a no smoking law and exempt the smokers. The law was rushed through in what appeared to be a clear violation of the sunshine law requirements of proper notice. The questionable legal amendment was signed into law the day before the ship arrived.

On July l8, l984 hundreds of people gathered in protest on the Hilo docks. I had numerous phone call death threats that if I even showed up on the docks on July l8, l984 I would be shot dead between the eyes. There was a charged atmosphere in the community.
Dozens of people expressed interest in jumping in the bay to protest the warship. As a leader, I urged caution. I told people not to do the right thing for the wrong reason. With possible serious consequences of physical injury or death and the risk of a felony conviction, I urged people NOT to act unless they had thoroughly discussed the situation with family and searched their motivations and conscience.

Given the heavy-handed military response of Navy Seals, helicopters, speed boats, zodiacs, and several Coast Guard Cutters, escorting the USS Ouellet nuclear armed-warship Hilo Bay looked like a Persian Gulf war zone.
In the end, three of us entered the water as a symbolic protest to uphold the spirit, if not the letter of Hawaii County’s Nuclear-Free Law. We swam toward the warship and help our hands up to say “STOP”. Indeed the warship was stopped if only for a brief time before Warren Wineman –a former Naval officer, Jim Snyder, and myself were arrested.

We were tried in U.S. Federal Court before visiting Judge Spenser Williams from California, a former 25 year Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy. He declared our Nuclear-Free law irrelevant along with the Nuremberg conventions and other international law that condemns weapons of mass destruction. Basically denied a defense, we were speedily convicted and I was sentenced the very next day to 3 years in Federal prison and ordered into custody within 2 weeks. The judge then left town like a Mafia hit man. My co-defendants were sentenced later –by a different judge. Warren Wineman (who lost his job as a Bishop Insurance salesman) was not given jail time but was fined $l0,000. Jim Snyder was given 60 days in jail

I spent the entire year of l988 and part of l989 in Federal custody at a variety of prisons. I was kicked out of federal prison after a little more than l year mainly because of international protest. But a year in prison is still a long time for a swim for peace.
–
Jim Albertini

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action
P.O.Box AB
Kurtistown, Hawai’i 96760
phone: 808-966-7622
email: ja@interpac.net
Visit us on the web at: www.malu-aina.org

Friends of Puna’s Future (FoPF) has delivered a formal letter of demand (see attached) to the County of Hawaii administration to achieve equality in the delivery of public services to Puna.   Public records show a long term pattern of discrimination in delivery of public services in Puna and other areas of Hawaii County.  FoPF looks forward to working with the County to resolve these inequities and avoid the need for filing of Federal complaints.

Friends of Puna’s Future

P.O. Box 1959, Pahoa, HI 96778 808-965-1555
www.fopf.org

Mayor Billy Kenoi July 6, 2009
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720

Subject: Demand for Equitable Distribution of Public Services

Aloha Mayor Kenoi,

The District of Puna has developed a population level and tax base equal to or approaching that of Hilo However, the delivery and level of county services by all departments has not occurred on an equitable basis. Puna lacks public service and infrastructure by several magnitudes compared to the Hilo and other Districts.

We respectfully demand that you, as Chief Executive of the County of Hawaii, provide public services by all county departments throughout the county on a per capita basis. We make this demand under the equal treatment under the law doctrine provided by the U.S. Constitution. This is a civil rights issue.

It is within your ability to immediately locate county personnel, especially police protection, to the Puna District to provide service on a per capita basis. We respectfully demand that you do so forthwith.

We respectfully demand that you institute planning within the 2010 budget and beyond for delivery of the necessary infrastructure to meet present and projected growth needs for at least fire, water, police, roads, ADA access and recreation.

We know you are aware of the general lack of infrastructure and public services in Puna. You spoke of it during your election campaign. It is time and we believe you are legally required to deliver pubic services on an equitable basis.

We ask for an appointment to meet with you on these topics and request that your administration provide a written response to these demands on or before August 21, 2009.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,

Rob Tucker, President