I don't watch the news much (too depressing and/or frustrating), but I happened to catch the channel 2 report last night about the Ranch's closing. What really irritated me was that they showed an older Hawaiian woman who works there. I don't know what her intention was with her comments, but by the way the news people edited her interview, her comments seemed to infer that the Ranch's closing was because of the protests, and that the problem was "Hawaiians against Hawaiians."I say it's the media that keeps pitting "Hawaiians against Hawaiians."From my limited knowledge about La'au Point, this is not about "Hawaiians against Hawaiians." This was about the majority of Molokai's residents against development that would have a direct negative impact on the island and its resources. It wasn't even about Hawaiians against Molokai Ranch...from what I've read, the residents didn't oppose most of the ranch's development plans. It was specifically the La'au Point portion that they didn't want.Molokai Ranch backing out like this is akin to a 2-year old child throwing a temper tantrum because his lollipop was taken away. But even though the ranch provides jobs, do the residents really want a child like this being the bully in the school? The ranch didn't care about what the residents wanted throughout the whole La'au process, so why would the island want to keep the ranch around? Hawaiians traditionally took care of their own...so that's what to do now. Not depend on the big bully who doesn't really care about you.I just had to chime in with my two cents...this whole thing about "Hawaiians against Hawaiians" is getting old. It's not about that anymore. We should know better by now that we need to all work together and help each other if we ever hope to rule our own nation.
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From Marion's post to KAHEA's blog at http://blog.kahea.org:Last week, KAHEA submitted written testimony to the State Land Use Commission in opposition to "the proposal by Molokai Properties Limited to build 200 luxury estates at La'au Point" which will negatively impact the environment and culture.Our comments point out that: although there is overwhelming scientific evidence supporting that the main Hawaiian Islands serve as foraging and breeding grounds for monk seals and millions of dollars for research and monitoring have been set aside, little has been done by the state and federal governments to permanently protect habitat -- like that La'au point. The truth is that the single most important action we can take to save monk seals is provide them places of permanent pu`uhonua, true and forever sanctuaries. Monk seals survive best when left alone in a place where humans do not dominate the landscape, in sanctuaries marked only by the presence of blowing sands and waves crashing against jagged lava formations at the water's edge.Further, because "Molokai is one of a few communities that still have resources to sustain traditional subsistence", they need to be honored and protected to ensure the perpetuation of these traditional practices of gathering for their families and communities. The reason why these practices still remain today have to do primarily with the fact this shoreline is undeveloped and difficult to access.The proposed development will limit access to this 40-mile stretch of coastline by providing only two points of entry, one at each end of the proposed coastline development even though the "state law requires that public access to the shoreline be available every quarter mile" which is clearly not honored in this proposal.The Molokai community has voiced their undying concern regarding the relentless and greedy development plans of Molokai Properties Limited. The community has no interest in having a community split and culturally and socially restricted by the influx of big money. Today, they are standing up, protecting their inherent rights to collect what they need from the mountains to the oceans that keeps their culture alive.
