The Office of Hawaiian Affairs approved a motion on July 2, 2009 that expressed their support of the selection of Mauna Kea as the location to build the Thirty Meter Telescope.This is a pretty significant endorsement. Thus I’m cautiously hopeful that Mauna Kea will be selected over Chile as the location to build this world class facility later this month. (a big mahalo to Richard Ha for letting me know about this)
Lastly,I’m a bit perplexed and irritated by this letter to editor supporting Councilman Greenwell’s proposal to bring Gitmo prisoners to the Big Island.These folks were sent there because they were suspected of being terrorists. Thus this proposal makes me feel very uncomfortable as I don’t want our tranquil island destroyed by these Muslim extremists.
However Councilman Greenwell seems to not get the latter, according to this HFP letter to the editor.He was utterly rude and combative to this person. On top of that, he is seriously naive to think he can make unilateral decisions that he thinks is the best for his constituency just because he was elected to represent them.
Greenwell comes across as arrogant and self-righteous in the transcript. Because his ancestor swindled the Hawaiians out of huge tracts of prime agricultural land, Greenwell apparently considers himself quasi-royalty who doesn’t owe the peasants any explanation for his actions.
This quote was particularly appalling:
# Greenwell (he interrupts again): How long have you lived here?
# Me: 10 years, but that has nothing to do….. (another interruption)
# Greenwell: You come here without knowing anything about the land and the people and then you want to tell me how I should do my job.
Greenwell should let us know just how long a voter/taxpayer/citizen must have lived here before he’s entitled to give his opinion to his elected representative. News flash, Kelly. You’re not part of the ali’i; you’re an old white man who was born into privilege, and you were elected by the voters (shame on us!) to represent this district. You work for us.
Recall, anyone?
The endorsement from OHA does not surprise me.
OHA knows a bit more about the future of our Keiki then many other Hawaiian organizations.
I wonder how much OHA got for backing it? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$