Friday, September 22, 2023

SLAP IN THE FACE - MAUI SET TO REOPEN FOR TOURISM - RESIDENTS OUTRAGED




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ABCNews.Go.com - September 19, 2023

West Maui, an area devastated by wildfires that ravaged the historic town of Lahaina less than two months ago, is set to reopen for visitors on Oct. 8. Lahaina will remain fully closed to the public until further notice, according to the Hawaiian Tourism Authority.

The decision to open up for tourism has prompted outrage from some residents, many of whom remain displaced and have yet to pick up the pieces of their destroyed homes.

Jeremy Delos Reyes, one of the roughly 7,500 displaced residents, is living with his family at a nearby hotel and is angered to learn that the state is planning for the return of visitors to the disaster area. Reyes has lived on Maui for 48 years.

"Why am I stuck at a resort right now every day, waking up wondering if me and my wife and my family are going to get kicked out because tourists need a place to stay?" he told ABC News in an interview.

He continued: "Why do these displaced people that lost family members -- lost everything they own -- have to go to work now and put on a smile to serve cocktails, to bring towels, to clean their room? How would that make you feel if you lost your family and everything you own?”

Oct. 8 will mark two months since the wildfires began their destruction.

Displaced residents say they have yet to revisit their old homes, as they await clearance from federal and local agencies to clear the areas as safe from hazardous materials and poor air quality. The disaster area is restricted to authorized personnel only, and many areas still don't have access to clean, safe drinking water.

Many children from the region are still being transported to schools outside of West Maui, with expectations that schools will start up around Oct. 13 if they prove to be safe for return.

Jordan Ruidas, a resident and community organizer, has created a petition to delay the reopening of West Maui that has gathered more than 5,000 signatures. Tiny.One/DelayTheReopening

"With it being exactly two months after the tragic fires … it seemed like a slap in the face honestly," she told ABC News in an interview.

Ruidas said she and others know that West Maui will eventually need to open, "but what's concerning to me is our government officials have not hit certain benchmarks that a lot of us working class, Lahaina locals feel like we need before we can even start to get back to some kind of normalcy.”

However, some business owners in the region are anxious for economic support.

Noah Drazkowski, who was born and raised in West Maui and owns a local business, said his feelings are mixed about the reopening. The majority of his income comes from tourism, he says. The impact of the fire has compounded on top of the economic hit the COVID-19 pandemic had on his business.

"Being born and raised here, it's difficult to want to reopen and that tourism is going to come back in," Drazkowski said. "But as a business owner, I know that we need it. I know that our families need it. You know, we need to be able to get back to some kind of normalcy to help push forward.”

Tourism accounts for a large chunk of Maui County's economy. According to the Maui Economic Development Board, approximately 70% of every dollar is generated directly or indirectly by the visitor industry. The board calls tourism the “economic engine” for the County of Maui.

Some residents don't want it to be this way, arguing that the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands has impacted the ownership of land and water for Native Hawaiians. Maui has been under water restrictions in recent years amid an ongoing drought and has been facing a housing crisis, as costs skyrocket.

As residents continue to grieve, some fear the devastation will be exploited by visitors gawking at the tragedy.

Those who do decide to come when West Maui opens, residents ask that they be respectful of the grieving city. Drazkowski recommends volunteering in the recovery efforts while on vacation if possible.

"We went through a crisis. We went through a natural disaster. A lot of families are still grieving and still processing and they don't really want to see, they don't really want to see anyone on the side of the road trying to take pictures of what happened to their home," said Drazkowski.

Thursday, September 21, 2023

HAPPENING SATURDAY



Wednesday, September 20, 2023

FREE HAWAI`I TV
THE FREE HAWAI`I BROADCASTING NETWORK

 

"WHAT WAS REALLY LOST IN THE MAUI FIRES?"

 

With The Start Of Our 18th Year Of Free Hawai`i TV, We Ask This Question.

Turns Out There Are Two Different Answers.

One For Hawaiians & One For Foreign Settlers & The US.

Watch This To Discover Both Very Different Answers.
 

Tuesday, September 19, 2023



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT IS THE RED HILL COMMUNITY REPRESENTATION INITIATIVE?

Community Representation Initiative membership includes ten community representatives meeting with government agencies approximately once a month through the closure of the Red Hill facility. 

The group will review Red Hill information and provide input on decisions related to closure, defueling, and assuring safe drinking water. 

The CRI is comprised mostly of 70% women and 40% Kanaka Maoli.

The reps are diverse - some are attorneys, environmentalists, kia`i, an expert on contaminated materials, cultural practitioners, and an educator.

Ten O`ahu Water Protector Candidates Ran For Election. All Ten Were Elected. To See Them Go Here - Facebook.com/OahuWaterProtectors

Monday, September 18, 2023

 FREE HAWAI`I TV LAUNCHES SEASON 18


 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Internet Report Achieves Milestone Of Seventeen Years On The Air

Free Hawai`i TV, the weekly online report about independence for Hawai`i completed its seventeenth year on the air last week and Wednesday starts season eighteen.

“We are excited Free Hawaiʻi TV has reached this amazing milestone,” states host `Ehu Kekahu Cardwell. Our viewership is worldwide and huge. We say mahalo to our loyal weekly viewers throughout Hawai`i as well as around the world and to their support in helping make this happen.”

“It continues to be our mission to educate viewers about the true history of Hawai`i, in particular the illegal 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom government and the prolonged US occupation of Hawai`i to this day, as well as the real cause of the Maui fires,” remarked Cardwell.

Launched by the Koani Foundation on YouTube in September 2006, Free Hawai`i TV has aired a report ever single week since its inception on various aspects of the political state of the Hawaiian Kingdom in its quest for freedom and de-occupation by the US.

A part of the Free Hawai`i Broadcasting Network, Free Hawaii TV can be viewed at FreeHawaiiTV.com as well as on several blogs, over thirty different Facebook pages, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Pinterest.

Free Hawai`i TV is broadcast to over 125,000 viewers each week worldwide.

New reports are aired every Wednesday.

Free Hawai`i TV has viewers in Hawai`i and throughout the Pacific, across the US, Europe, Asia and in the Middle East.


Sunday, September 17, 2023

LAHAINA & MOKU`ULA - SEE THEM BEFORE THE FIRES ON “VOICES OF TRUTH - ONE-ON-ONE WITH HAWAI`IʻS FUTURE"

"Before The Fires - Lahaina & Moku`ula - A Visit With Ke`eaumoku Kapu" 

A last look at Lahaina & Moku`ula before the fires. See why Moku`ula was so significant in ancient Hawai`i & why there are already plans to build it back today as it once was in ancient times - Watch It Here

 

Now you can become a fan of Voices Of Truth on Facebook by clicking Here and see behind the scenes photos of our shows and a whole lot more.  

Voices Of Truth interviews those creating a better future for Hawai`i to discover what made them go from armchair observers to active participants. We hope you'll be inspired to do the same.
 
Voices Of Truth airs throughout Hawai`i on all islands and reaches over 24 million households across the US and throughout the world. Check your local cable TV listings.

For news and issues that affect you, watch Free Hawai`i TV, a part of the Free Hawai`i Broadcasting Network.
 
Please share our Free Hawai`i Broadcasting Network videos with friends and colleagues. That's how we grow. Mahalo.

Saturday, September 16, 2023

TODAY ONLY - YOUR CHANCE TO ELECT HAWAIIANS TO HELP SHUT DOWN RED HILL



Friday, September 15, 2023

ALSO AS SEEN ON FREE HAWAI`I TV WEDNESDAY - HOW TO PREVENT FUTURE WILDFIRES


 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HonoluluMagazine.com

In the wake of overwhelming death tolls, harrowing survivor stories and the heartbreaking devastation of Lahaina, Hawai‘i’s top wildfire experts got angry. As co-executive director of the nonprofit Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization, Elizabeth Pickett spent 16 years collaborating, educating and encouraging prevention before wildfires erupted on Aug. 8 in Lahaina, Kula and Kīhei. “We’ve been shouting it from the rooftops for 16 years; no one believed us,” Pickett says. “This is a human-caused disaster exacerbated by changing climate factors.”

Worldwide, scientists have repeatedly warned that climate change is cranking up risk factors: that humans burning fossil fuels make the planet warmer, and that hotter temperatures increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as droughts, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding. Globally, the summer of 2023 saw record-breaking high temperatures, and major wildfires tore through Canada, Greece, California, Nevada and Maui.

Hawai‘i: 1,000 Fires Each Year

In Hawai‘i, wildfires are on the rise and growing more severe. Every year since 2018, Pickett says an average of 1,000 wildfires have burned across the Islands, fueled by fast-burning nonnative grasses. Those invasive grasses now cover at least a million acres statewide, more than a quarter of all land in Hawai‘i. “We know that things are drying out, and we know that we’re facing more drought, our fuels are more primed and ready to ignite,” she says.

The wildfires that crushed Lahaina left a path of profound loss in a town that once served as the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom—at least 115 deaths and more than 2,200 destroyed structures, including homes, businesses, schools, churches and historic landmarks.

At the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, board chair Carmen “Hulu” Lindsey mourns the immeasurable losses on her home island of Maui. “The fires of today are in part due to the climate crisis, a history of colonialism in our Islands, and the loss of our right to steward our ‘āina and wai,” she says. “There is so much history that will be forever lost, a history that tethers all of us, young and old, not only to the ‘āina, but to ourselves and to each other.”

There Were Warnings

For years, both Pickett, who is based on Hawai‘i Island, and Clay Trauernicht, a specialist in wildland fire science and management at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, have told elected officials, business executives, community leaders and others about the tremendous, and rapidly growing, dangers of wildfires. Backed by more than a century of data, they developed maps (see below) that show West Maui in the highest risk area. Many other communities across the Islands, including some of O‘ahu’s most densely populated areas, are likewise considered at high risk for wildfires.

While no place was hit as hard as Lahaina in August 2023, firefighters across Maui and Hawai‘i Island were fighting other fast-moving fires. “Six fires were burning at the same time as Lahaina,” Pickett says. “The four neighborhoods next to me were evacuated on the Big Island. This is a statewide problem.”

In 2022, the Leilani fire burned 17,000 acres along Hawai‘i Island’s Saddle Road and Waikoloa. In 2021, the massive Mana Road fire burned 40,000 acres on the slopes of Maunakea above Waimea, also on Hawai‘i Island. In 2018, 16,000 acres burned at Waikoloa on Hawai‘i Island. On O‘ahu, in 2018, 6,000 acres burned on the Wai‘anae Coast. “Three valleys were burning at once,” Trauernicht recalls.

For some West Maui residents, the Aug. 8 fire was eerily similar to fires five years before. On Aug. 24, 2018, Hurricane Lane sparked a fire across Kaua‘ula Valley that destroyed 21 houses, 27 cars, burned 2,100 acres and left $4.3 million in damage. In the weeks after, the Lahaina News reported “it was a miracle that Lahaina survived.” The story included residents praising first responders while asking the same questions posed after the recent Lahaina fires: Why were no sirens sounded? When does Maui Electric Co. shut off power to live wires? What is the plan to prevent future fires?

Humans Cause Fires

As the tragic extent of the Aug. 8 Maui disaster unfolded, both experts spoke more bluntly than ever. Like climate change, Pickett says, “wildfire is not a natural hazard. We have converted our landscape to be fire-prone; it didn’t come that way.”

In Hawai‘i, Pickett says fewer than 1% of wildfires can be attributed to lava or lightning strikes. “We are a fire-prone state; we need to be careful,” she says. At the time this story went to print, the cause of the West Maui fire had not been officially determined, but multiple groups blamed live power lines from utility poles, knocked down by hurricane-force winds, for sparking fires that led to the devastation.

In multiple lawsuits filed on behalf of Maui fire victims, Hawaiian Electric Co., the parent company of Maui Electric, is accused of negligence in not mitigating the potential for catastrophic fires despite warnings, for failing to maintain its electrical grid and other business practices that cost lives. The lawsuits, including one filed by Maui County, says HECO failed to shut off power despite red-flag warnings from the National Weather Service that live wires could start wildfires amid exceptionally high winds from Hurricane Dora.
But HECO disputes those claims. In a news release Aug. 27, HECO President and CEO Shelee Kimura said live wires could not have sparked the devastation because the most destructive fire on the afternoon of Aug. 8 happened after power lines had been de-energized for six hours. “There was no electricity flowing through the wires in the area or anywhere else on the West Maui coast,” she said, adding that the company has internal records to back this, and has informed federal investigators of its findings.

Residents shot video in the morning of fires starting and restarting near live wires. And HECO now states that the morning fire “appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds.” Maui firefighters reported those fires contained by 9:55 a.m., and crews left to fight other blazes. Then HECO blames the leveling of Lahaina on what it’s calling the afternoon fire—reported at 3 p.m.—which Maui firefighters could not contain so “it spread out of control toward Lahaina.”

Power Policy

Questions remain, however, about whether HECO took wildfire threats seriously enough prior to the fires, amid ample warnings.

At an Aug. 14 news briefing, Kimura says HECO, which supplies power to 95% of Hawai‘i’s residents, did not have a power shut-off policy in place and that it did not want to cut power to water pumps that firefighters use or to those depending on medical equipment. “We, like most utilities, don’t have that program,” she said, referring to shut-off protocols. “And it’s worth noting that even in places where this has been used, it’s controversial and it’s not universally accepted.”

The Maui Department of Water Supply has said it routinely uses diesel generators to back up several of its Lahaina water facilities during power outages. However, on Aug. 8, Maui County sent out a news release that asked West Maui to conserve water because “power outages are impacting the ability to pump water.” Maui firefighters also have said they were slowed by loss of water pressure to battle the blazes due to “so many pipes downstream rupturing” as fire consumed the area.

A Horrific Wake-Up Call

Hawai‘i Gov. Josh Green has estimated Maui’s disaster damage to be at least $6 billion. In the 2023 session of the Hawai‘i State Legislature, Hawai‘i State Fire Protection Forester Mike Walker had pushed for a bill requesting $1.5 million a year for two years to control invasive grasses to reduce the threat of wildfires, but the measure died in committee. In March 2018, both Pickett and Trauernicht testified at the state Legislature about the growing wildfire risks, but only a handful of lawmakers attended the hearing and no action was taken. After the tragedy on Maui, they’ll be watching to see if fire safety will finally be properly funded: “Is this enough to show that it’s worth investing?” Trauernicht asks.

During interviews, both Pickett and Trauernicht struggled with anger rooted in grief over the enormity of the disaster. The fire maps they first created in 2014 show exactly which areas on Maui, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i Island, Kaua‘i and Moloka‘i are at high risk for wildfires. They include most of the developed western coastal communities across the primary Hawaiian Islands and other scattered spots.

On Maui, the maps show high risk not only in Lahaina, Kā‘anapali, Kīhei and Upcountry, but also in urban Wailuku and the southern coast. On O‘ahu, those areas include the Mākaha, Wai‘anae and Nānākuli coasts and upland areas, which have been fire hot spots. But the island’s high-risk zones extend to some of urban Honolulu’s most densely populated areas, much of the East Honolulu coastline and upland area, Hale‘iwa and Waialua on the North Shore, much of Kāne‘ohe and part of Kailua.

Although most wildfires are caused by accident, including from fireworks and campfires, risks can be reduced by managing land that has become overgrown with invasive fire-prone grasses, which serve as fuel for fires, Pickett says. Landowners, elected officials and businesses can mitigate risks through more vigilant land management, Trauernicht adds.

Care for Land, People

“This thing was avoidable, and people should be angry about it,” he says, pointing to a post-plantation era that left behind vast fire-prone grasslands ready to ignite. “The Maui fires—as with nearly all fires in Hawai‘i—are a result of failing to care for land. Changing that begins with caring for people.”

In 2016, Alexander & Baldwin Inc. announced that the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. plantation on Maui was closing. In 2018, the company sold 41,000 acres of land to Mahi Pono, a farming venture of Pomona Farming and Canada’s Public Sector Investment Board, which plans to grow diversified crops there. (By August 2023, Mahi Pono reported planting 1.8 million trees on about 10,000 acres.)

But three years after the plantation closed, Maui fire officials described 2019 as “the year of fire.” They said that thousands of acres of former sugar land provided fuel for fires and compounded problems caused by the island’s already “dry, windy, and hot conditions.” “Boom, 17,000 acres of Maui burned, right in the footprint,” Trauernicht says, “and we’re sitting there—‘What the fuck?’ What else can we do to show that this is a problem?”

For more than a decade, both experts testified repeatedly for prevention funding, warning of dangers to Lahaina and other communities. And they find no satisfaction that this disaster might serve as a horrific wake-up call, one that Trauernicht describes as “beyond anything we could have possibly imagined as far as the worst-case scenario.”

 At an Aug. 10 news briefing, the governor was asked what changes or preparations had been made by the state in response to earlier warnings from wildfire experts of the increasing danger—and after Hurricane Lane sparked similar fires in 2018, which Lahaina narrowly escaped. He responded: “We’ve never experienced a wildfire that affected a city like this before.” Looking ahead, he said, “I do think that as we rebuild, we’ll have to take into consideration a lot more fire safety. … Climate change is here.”

Big Changes Can Make a Difference

While residents can take steps to make their properties more fire-resistant, Trauernicht and Pickett say elected officials, large landowners not focused on agriculture or conservation, utility companies and others who oversee property can make the largest impact against fire. They believe much can be done at every level to prevent future devastation.

“There’s no one silver bullet,” Pickett says. “There’s no one entity or any certain government agency or sector or population group that holds all the responsibility. But officials, communities and individuals can each play a part. The bigger picture is that our subdivisions are being developed and designed without fire safety in mind. So it’s left up to our nonprofits and volunteerism by citizens to retrofit, and that’s unacceptable. We need development codes and standards that are fire-safe from the start.”

By investing in roads, water access and community retrofits and enforcing development codes, Pickett says fewer people will be at risk. Now, she hopes decision-makers and voters will demand these changes. “We know how to reduce fire risk,” she says, but “we don’t have the authority or the funds to make it happen. … It’s going to take legislation, it’s going to take money, it’s going to take enforcement of code.”

Meanwhile, much of the state is looking at Hawaiian Electric Co. to explain why wildfire risk mitigation hasn’t been a high priority and what can be done to prevent a similar disaster. On Aug. 30, President Joe Biden pledged $95 million to strengthen Hawai‘i’s electric grid, and HECO subsequently said the funds would pay for half of the $190 million it requested from the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission in 2022 to upgrade its power grid to better withstand wildfires and other climate change disruptions. The federal funds will bolster critical transmission lines, including two on Maui; support hospitals, water facilities, emergency response and the military; replace wooden poles with fire-resistant material; deploy technology to help reduce wildfire risk; remove hazardous trees; and move the Maui control center to a more resilient location.

In her statement, Kimura says the “funding significantly alleviates the cost burden on customers as we intensify work to strengthen our grids on Maui and across the islands we serve.” In 2022, the company estimated the plan would cost customers on O‘ahu an additional 33 cents per month on their electric bills, 71 cents more on Maui and 86 cents more on Hawai‘i Island.

Wildfire Warnings

In California, the state’s power company, Pacific Gas & Electric, learned a costly lesson about not heeding wildfire warnings. Since 2017, the company has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires that destroyed towns and killed 113 people, leading to PG&E declaring bankruptcy and negotiating to pay more than $13.5 billion to wildfire victims. Since then, the utility has implemented extensive wildfire prevention plans across California, announced it will spend billions of dollars to put power lines underground, put in place a power shut-off program during natural disasters and emerged from bankruptcy. The HECO request to the PUC cited the California fires as evidence that action was needed.

How Did Hawai‘i Get Here?

To understand why Hawai‘i is at such risk for wildfires, it’s important to look at our state’s “deeper history of plantation agriculture, how it emerged, how it was built off of colonization and theft of land,” Trauernicht says. “It really makes us confront these historical injustices and really think about how we can be smarter about the ways in which we use land.”

Historians point to Hawai‘i’s thriving verdant and productive agricultural community before Western contact in 1778. Lahaina, in particular, was lush with natural resources, including fishponds and fields of kalo. Water flowed so plentifully for decades that it was sometimes referred to as the Venice of the Pacific. But the ouster of Native Hawaiian leaders, up to and including the 1893 illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, led to a shift from using land to sustain residents to producing and exporting commodity crops to enrich the power brokers and plantation owners who took over.

That shift to growing sugar cane and pineapple on plantations—which employed immigrant workers from across the globe—and ranching also cleared native forests, making the land more prone to drought, Trauernicht says. At its peak in 1930, sugar cane covered 250,000 acres, he says, but by the 1950s, plantations began to close as workers demanded higher wages and production shifted to countries with cheaper labor. After plantations closed, sugar and pineapple fields were replaced by invasive fountain and guinea grasses, which spread unchecked, Trauernicht explains. Now, those grasses are fuel for fires.

Protecting Communities

Both experts say that focusing resources going forward can help protect communities. “We have the potential and knowledge and know-how to transform these abandoned agricultural lands,” Trauernicht says. Some landowners, ranchers and trusts are already managing for ecosystem health and community safety, Pickett says, but others aren’t. “First, they had the properties for agriculture, then that was no longer lucrative. So now they’re holding these properties for real estate,” while allowing the overgrowth of invasive plants.

Lindsey, from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, blames modern land management practices for turning the once-verdant Lahaina area into a fire-prone tinderbox: “The same Western forces that tried to erase us as a people now threaten our survival with their destructive practices,” she says.

Slowing the Flames

As climate change dials up dangers, Pickett says the government can and must make communities safer from fire. She says lives can be saved by modifying roads to allow people to escape in emergencies, providing at least two ways in and out of communities to prevent deadly bottlenecks. Maui officials have said fallen power lines blocked scores of drivers desperately trying to escape the fast-moving flames. She also says communities need adequate firefighting and emergency crew access and water supplies.

Both fire experts praise firefighters, residents and community leaders for finding creative solutions to combat wildfires and restore wetlands. Farmers, communities and conservationists, including some with the Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources, are part of initiatives that include building kalo terraces that can serve as fire breaks and raising sheep to eat invasive grass.

Although wildfires are not solely caused by climate change, George Washington University professor Lisa Benton-Short says decision-
makers must better prepare communities for such extreme weather as hurricanes and very hot temperatures and to become more resilient not just to wildfires, but tsunamis, floods and other disasters. “Many places are going to be vulnerable to things that they’re not used to seeing,” she says.

Benton-Short expects utility companies to increasingly be required to move utility lines underground. While it’s too early to say whether this will happen in Lahaina, she hopes leaders will resist pressure to build back as quickly as possible and will instead seek ways to create more resilient communities with the help of Native Hawaiians and other residents.

How Did Hawai‘i Get Here?

To understand why Hawai‘i is at such risk for wildfires, it’s important to look at our state’s “deeper history of plantation agriculture, how it emerged, how it was built off of colonization and theft of land,” Trauernicht says. “It really makes us confront these historical injustices and really think about how we can be smarter about the ways in which we use land.”

Historians point to Hawai‘i’s thriving verdant and productive agricultural community before Western contact in 1778. Lahaina, in particular, was lush with natural resources, including fishponds and fields of kalo. Water flowed so plentifully for decades that it was sometimes referred to as the Venice of the Pacific. But the ouster of Native Hawaiian leaders, up to and including the 1893 illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, led to a shift from using land to sustain residents to producing and exporting commodity crops to enrich the power brokers and plantation owners who took over.

That shift to growing sugar cane and pineapple on plantations—which employed immigrant workers from across the globe—and ranching also cleared native forests, making the land more prone to drought, Trauernicht says. At its peak in 1930, sugar cane covered 250,000 acres, he says, but by the 1950s, plantations began to close as workers demanded higher wages and production shifted to countries with cheaper labor. After plantations closed, sugar and pineapple fields were replaced by invasive fountain and guinea grasses, which spread unchecked, Trauernicht explains. Now, those grasses are fuel for fires.

 Protecting Communities

Both experts say that focusing resources going forward can help protect communities. “We have the potential and knowledge and know-how to transform these abandoned agricultural lands,” Trauernicht says. Some landowners, ranchers and trusts are already managing for ecosystem health and community safety, Pickett says, but others aren’t. “First, they had the properties for agriculture, then that was no longer lucrative. So now they’re holding these properties for real estate,” while allowing the overgrowth of invasive plants.

Lindsey, from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, blames modern land management practices for turning the once-verdant Lahaina area into a fire-prone tinderbox: “The same Western forces that tried to erase us as a people now threaten our survival with their destructive practices,” she says.

Create Helper Hubs

Moving forward, Hawai‘i can consider strategies from other communities, Benton-Short says. In Washington, D.C., officials created climate vulnerability maps showing the heat history of different areas, including where elderly and child care centers are, and what resources might be needed in those areas during emergencies.

In Baltimore, an abandoned fire station was turned into a solar-powered community center that serves as one of seven resiliency hubs designed to help those within walking distance. The hubs, created in partnership with community organizations, provide a place to find out information, charge cell phones, use two-way radios, refrigerate medicine and to act as cooling and heating centers; services can be stepped up at the hubs during extreme weather events and other emergencies.

Call to Action

Now, as Maui rebuilds with a spotlight on the staggering loss, it seems more likely that wildfires and other climate issues will be a priority. “I would just say that it feels like criminal negligence to put people in harm’s way and not do anything about it when we could,” Pickett says.

She hopes residents will demand change and action: “We need to settle for no less.”

Thursday, September 14, 2023

AS SEEN ON FREE HAWAI`I TV YESTERDAY - WHAT ARE OTHER HIGH RISK AREAS FOR WILDFIRES?


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As far back as 2015, the devastated Lahaina was reported among the areas across Hawai‘i most at risk for wildfires. Yet it’s not the only neighborhood across the Islands identified as high risk.

The Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization initiated a project to better understand the hazards and determine what could be done to prevent fires and kick-start collaboration.

The following maps they provided us show the communities facing the highest risk, which include most of the developed western coastal communities across the primary Hawaiian Islands, and other scattered spots across each island. The gray areas represent wildland areas that were not assessed.

On O‘ahu, those areas include the Mākaha, Waianae, Nānākuli Coast and upland areas, which have been fire hotspots. But it also includes some of urban Honolulu’s most densely populated areas and much of the East Honolulu coastline and upland area as well as Hale‘iwa and Waialua on the North Shore and much of the Kāne‘ohe community and part of Kailua.

On Maui, the maps show high risk not only in Lahaina, Ka‘anapali, Kīhei and Upcountry but also in urban Wailuku and the southern coast.

And for Hawai‘i Island, the red zones include Kawaihae, Waimea, Waikoloa, Kailua-Kona, South Kona, Hawaiian Ocean View and Nā‘ālehu, many spots where fires have already erupted this summer.

On Moloka‘i, swaths of high risk cover the west side as well as the communities of Ho‘olehua and Kaunakakai. Lana‘i shows smaller hotspotsOn Moloka‘i, swaths of high risk cover the west side as well as the communities of Ho‘olehua and Kaunakakai. Lana‘i shows smaller hotspots.

On Kaua‘i, the map shows high risk for the largest city of Līhu‘e, as well as Anahola, Kapa‘a, Wailua, Koloa, Waimea…

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

FREE HAWAI`I TV
THE FREE HAWAI`I BROADCASTING NETWORK

 

"COULD FIRES HAPPEN WHERE YOU LIVE IN HAWAI`I?"

 

Unfortunately The Answer Is Yes.

Hawai`i Already Has A Record Number Of Wildfires.

And All Islands Are Extremely Vulnerable.

Watch This To Discover If Your Neighborhood Is At Risk.
 

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

CHINA SOWS DISINFORMATION ABOUT MAUI FIRES


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York Times - September 11, 2023

When wildfires swept across Maui last month with destructive fury, China’s increasingly resourceful information warriors pounced.

The disaster was not natural, they said in a flurry of false posts that spread across the internet, but was the result of a secret “weather weapon” being tested by the United States. To bolster the plausibility, the posts carried photographs that appeared to have been generated by artificial intelligence programs, making them among the first to use these new tools to bolster the aura of authenticity of a disinformation campaign.

For China — which largely stood on the sidelines of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections while Russia ran hacking operations and disinformation campaigns — the effort to cast the wildfires as a deliberate act by American intelligence agencies and the military was a rapid change of tactics.

Until now, China’s influence campaigns have been focused on amplifying propaganda defending its policies on Taiwan and other subjects. The most recent effort, revealed by researchers from Microsoft and a range of other organizations, suggests that Beijing is making more direct attempts to sow discord in the United States.

The move also comes as the Biden administration and Congress are grappling with how to push back on China without tipping the two countries into open conflict, and with how to reduce the risk that A.I. is used to magnify disinformation.

The impact of the Chinese campaign — identified by researchers from Microsoft, Recorded Future, the RAND Corporation, NewsGuard and the University of Maryland — is difficult to measure, though early indications suggest that few social media users engaged with the most outlandish of the conspiracy theories….

Monday, September 11, 2023

OCCUPIED BY THE US - WILDFIRES RENEW HAWAIIAN CALL FOR SOVEREIGNTY


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Disaster Capitalists Descend On Lahaina, Indigenous Hawaiians Fight For Self-Governance

The Guardian - September 7, 2023

At a time of climate crisis, dwindling resources and unfettered capitalism, the decades-long Native Hawaiian struggle for sovereignty has gained a renewed sense of urgency following the August wildfires that incinerated west Maui.

Indigenous activists say restoring Hawaiʻi as a self-sufficient island nation is the only way to preserve it for their children and grandchildren.

“When we talk about sovereignty, it’s about literally, physically and spiritually taking up space that we were forcibly removed from,” said Noelani Ahia, an Indigenous activist and healer in Lahaina who has been organizing mutual aid initiatives for fire victims. “The people in this movement have been fighting for our community, our land, our ocean for decades. It’s woven into the fabric of who we are and who we stand for.”

When the fire decimated Lahaina, Indigenous leaders across Maui organized distribution hubs to bring food, medicine and shelter to thousands of displaced and hungry survivors. But already, Ahia said, disaster capitalists have descended on Lahaina to exploit development opportunities that pose immense danger to the island’s fragile ecosystems – and the Indigenous people who have lived there for thousands of years. Real estate agents were cold-calling survivors just days after the fire with aggressive offers for their ancestral homes, prompting the governor, Josh Green, to explore a moratorium on property sales.

“The potential of being further displaced is very real,” Ahia said. “If that happens, that is going to feel like the end for us.”

For much of the 19th century, the Hawaiian Kingdom was an internationally recognized sovereign nation. Then in 1893, a group of US sugar magnates overthrew Queen Liliuokalani in a coup d’état that paved the way for the US to annex the islands five years later. Today, Native Hawaiians are the only Indigenous group in the nation that does not have self-governance rights.

The grassroots sovereignty movement grew out of demands to reclaim the nearly 1.8m acres of kingdom lands that the US took, said Jonathan Osorio, the dean of the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. But in addition to self-determination, he said, advocates are also fighting to reclaim Indigenous culture and language.

In recent years, sovereignty groups have mobilized against rampant development, such as the construction of a massive telescope on Mauna Kea, a sacred volcano on Hawaiʻi. But federal efforts to establish a Native Hawaiian government, which would have given the group self-governance rights similar to Native American tribes, highlighted divisions within the movement, as some advocates consider it incompatible with the goal of re-establishing the islands as an independent nation.

In west Maui, the issue of sovereignty featured most prominently in long-running disputes over water and land access, through grassroots campaigns to return diverted streamwater and restore cultural practices like taro farming. Many of the Indigenous organizers leading relief efforts in Lahaina also emerged from the sovereignty movement, said Healani Sonoda-Pale, an Oʻahu-based sovereignty activist and spokesperson for the Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi political action committee.

Tiare Lawrence, a community organizer and sovereignty activist, converted her home into a makeshift donation hub for displaced families in the Upcountry area. Kaipo Kekona, a taro farmer who has spent decades fighting for food sovereignty in Lahaina, organized a major food and clothing distribution hub in the nearby town of Napili. The values of caring for one another and rebuilding their home in a sustainable way, Sonoda-Pale said, is linked to the struggle for sovereignty.

“It’s no accident that Hawaiians lived here for 2,000 years,” she said. “Hawaiians are good stewards of their resources. It’s not just about making money, tourism and developing.”

When state and federal aid lagged in the days after the fire, Indigenous-led and faith-based organizations stepped up to provide shelter and resources to survivors, said Tamara Paltin, a West Maui county councilmember. A host of volunteer-powered distribution tents provided food, clothing and medication, as well as acupuncture and lomi practitioners.

“As far as I’ve been taught, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi still exists,” she said. “We’re a nation occupied by the US.”

The fire displaced more than 10,000 people and destroyed some of the only low-income housing units on the island, where the median cost of a home exceeds $1m.

Hawaiian lawmakers, however, have limited power to alleviate the housing crisis that has hit Indigenous people the hardest, Paltin said. Green has extended a program allowing wildfire victims to stay in hotels and short-term vacation rentals while they look for alternative housing. But because Hawaiʻi is a US state, he said, lawmakers cannot prevent non-Hawaiians from buying properties.

“The governor is not allowed to simply say a resident of Hawaiʻi can buy this house, a resident from California can’t buy this house,” Green told Honolulu Civil Beat last month. “This is a very tricky legal question, and as much as we’d like to snap our fingers and just do it for local people, it’s hard.”

Paltin said: “If and when occupation ends, Hawaiʻi could run itself like other nations.” She noted that Tahiti, for example, has a law making foreigners ineligible for home ownership. Sovereign status would also allow Hawaiians to collect tax revenues generated by airports, harbors and universities built on kingdom lands, she said.
The Hawaii fires are a dire omen of the climate crisis’s cost to Pacific peoples
Read more

While progress is often slow and costly, she said, Native Hawaiians have come a long way toward restoring their culture after decades of erasure. When she went to kindergarten 40 years ago, Paltin said, it was illegal to speak Hawaiian. Now, many children can attend Hawaiian-language immersion preschools.

“Those of us who are born and raised here love this place with all our hearts,” Paltin said. “We’ll fight tirelessly for our future and our kids’ future.”

Resistance to US occupation has always been strong, Osorio said, but anti-military activism and the rising tourism industry during the 1960s and 1970s sparked the modern sovereignty movement.

The adverse environmental effect of Hawaiʻi’s second world war-era military bases, particularly on the islands’ air quality and shoreline, has long been a point of conflict between sovereignty groups and the US government. It came to a head last year when the navy confirmed that an oil leak from one of its tank facilities had contaminated Pearl Harbor’s tap water.

A decade after Hawaiʻi became a US state in 1959, annual visitors jumped from 250,000 to more than 1.7 million. Last year, more than 9 million tourists traveled to the islands. During those decades, investors from all over the world began buying land in Hawaiʻi, inflating property values and displacing thousands of Indigenous people. Native Hawaiians today comprise just 10% of the islands’ populations.

“Since the 1980s, generations of Native Hawaiians have been demanding the restoration of our control over these islands,” Osorio said.

But the climate crisis, Osorio said, is shifting the conversation around land rights to creating a sustainable society for future generations. For many Native Hawaiians, the ruins of Lahaina are a harbinger of what’s to come if Hawaiʻi continues to follow the capitalist system under US occupation.

“Lahaina has burned to the ground and people have lost so much: lives, families, businesses, possessions,” he said. “What happens to that aina – that land – now is tremendously suggestive of what our future is going to be.”

Resistance to US occupation has always been strong, Osorio said, but anti-military activism and the rising tourism industry during the 1960s and 1970s sparked the modern sovereignty movement.

The adverse environmental effect of Hawaiʻi’s second world war-era military bases, particularly on the islands’ air quality and shoreline, has long been a point of conflict between sovereignty groups and the US government. It came to a head last year when the navy confirmed that an oil leak from one of its tank facilities had contaminated Pearl Harbor’s tap water.

A decade after Hawaiʻi became a US state in 1959, annual visitors jumped from 250,000 to more than 1.7 million. Last year, more than 9 million tourists traveled to the islands. During those decades, investors from all over the world began buying land in Hawaiʻi, inflating property values and displacing thousands of Indigenous people. Native Hawaiians today comprise just 10% of the islands’ populations.

“Since the 1980s, generations of Native Hawaiians have been demanding the restoration of our control over these islands,” Osorio said.

But the climate crisis, Osorio said, is shifting the conversation around land rights to creating a sustainable society for future generations. For many Native Hawaiians, the ruins of Lahaina are a harbinger of what’s to come if Hawaiʻi continues to follow the capitalist system under US occupation.

“Lahaina has burned to the ground and people have lost so much: lives, families, businesses, possessions,” he said. “What happens to that aina – that land – now is tremendously suggestive of what our future is going to be.”

Sunday, September 10, 2023

BEFORE THE FIRES - LAHAINA & MOKU`ULA ON “VOICES OF TRUTH - ONE-ON-ONE WITH HAWAI`IʻS FUTURE"

"Before The Fires - Lahaina & Moku`ula - A Visit With Ke`eaumoku Kapu" 

A last look at Lahaina & Moku`ula before the fires. See why Moku`ula was so significant in ancient Hawai`i & why there are already plans to build it back today as it once was in ancient times - Watch It Here

 

Now you can become a fan of Voices Of Truth on Facebook by clicking Here and see behind the scenes photos of our shows and a whole lot more.  

Voices Of Truth interviews those creating a better future for Hawai`i to discover what made them go from armchair observers to active participants. We hope you'll be inspired to do the same.
 
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Saturday, September 09, 2023

KE AUPUNI UPDATE - SEPTEMBER 2023

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s not forget Kapu Aloha
If there is any time for Kapu Aloha, this is it. The fires that ravaged Lāhainā a month ago has brought out the best in us — many acts of kōkua, mālama and aloha kekahi i kekahi — as well as some unfortunate venting.

The world is watching us like never before. How we behave now, in this time of crisis, is going to speak volumes on whether the world’s sympathy and outpouring of concern for the people of Hawaiʻi is warranted.

We just celebrated the 185th birthday of our Queen Liliʻuokalani. If there was anyone who would have been justified to lash out in anger, vengeance and bitterness against those who deposed her, stole her kingdom and subjugated her people, it was her. But she maintained her composure anchored in her faith in Ke Akua Mana Loa and Kapu Aloha.

And just a few years ago, we witnessed and participated in one of the greatest outpouring of Kapu Aloha — Kū Kiaʻi Mauna. It was a situation that could have easily turned ugly, but because of the steadfast guidance of our Kūpuna who spoke, sang, chanted, prayed and counseled our people to embrace and trust in Kapu Aloha, Kū Kiaʻi Mauna became a modern-day example that Kapu Aloha works amazingly.

Let us not forget these lessons and the many more in our history and allow it to guide and inspire us in the challenging times ahead.

One of the insidious legacies of colonialism is the tendency to think like an American — in legal terms, laws, rights, contracts — rather than in human terms of caring, respect, aloha.  The American way is adversarial, trying to defeat your opponent rather than working things out through friendship and good will.

About a year ago, I was having a conversation with the Ambassador from Kiribati (our nearest neighbor to the West). He said “I don’t use the term, ‘win-win’. Instead, I use the term, ‘happy-happy’.” This means relationships should not be based on winning over or defeating someone, it should be to make both parties happy. Hence, ‘happy, happy.’ This is quite profound! This is the Pacific way.

This is what we have lost because we have been trained to think in terms of adversarial positions, where you battle things out, rather than of friendly positions, where you work things out. The whole idea of hoʻoponopono is that you work things out, you make things right (pono) between the two of you. You’re ‘happy-happy,’ both sides happy with the result.

The American colonial system is based on winning and losing, buying and selling, owning and owing, using and being used. People’s lives only matter when it serves the American system. Why not, instead of adversarial, adopting a system based on kindness and respect and helping one another? This is the way we should behave as Hawaiians, as People of the Pacific and as Human Beings.

In our efforts to restore our beloved Lāhainā as well as our beloved nation, we should not do so at the expense of our honor and our aloha.

“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani
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Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

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For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 
6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53. 

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"And remember, for the latest updates and information about the Hawaiian Kingdom check out the twice-a-month Ke Aupuni Updates published online on Facebook and other social media."

PLEASE KŌKUA…
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Malama Pono,


Leon Siu


Hawaiian National