Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 3, 1 March 1987 — Year of the Hawaiian and Aloha ʻAina [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Year of the Hawaiian and Aloha ʻAina

By Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Hawai'i

In this Year of the Hawaiian and this month of March, we must pause and honor George Helm and Kimo Mitchell, who disappeared on Kaho'olawe several years ago. These two fine young men had a great deal of love for our people, culture, traditions and 'aina. They paid the supreme price that Ha-

waiian values would not be overwhelmed by the wave of foreign, eeonomie, cultural and social influences. It is for us who eonhnue the struggle for a Hawaiian Hawai'i to understand and perpetuate the value of aloha 'aina — a value that makes Hawai'i unique in the world. This value system of aloha 'aina means to love the land, to take care of the 'aina! Our kupuna lived in balanee with, not against or adverse to, the 'aina. Our honorable Hawaiian Governor John Waihe'e and Hawai'i Mayor Dante Carpenter and the other mayors should see that "living in tune" with the 'aina be the guiding philosophy for lanel use in this state. Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono. Many feel that geothermal development as well as the rape of sacred ohi'aforests by Campbel! Estate has provoked Pele's wrath for the past four years — there are no signs of her letting up! In the spirit of aloha 'aina we must be wary of seamining and its damaging, polluting ramifications to the land, oeean and people of Hawai'i Island. There are plans to strip-mine the oeean f!oor (possibly off the Big Island). Scraping the ocean's floor for these manganese crusts could distrub and destroy organisms and ecosystems that have never seen the liaht of day. This minina

will cause a murky colloidal-clay plume that will block the sun's rays thus interrupting the photosynthesis necessary to the production of plankton whieh is fish food and the basis of the ocean's food ehain. Such pollution would spell an eeonomie catastrophe to the tourist and fishing industries. Sea mining and waste dumping ean pollute the oeean; processing ean pollute the 'aina and people. The process plant is proposed for Kea'au. It is also proposed that the 97 percent lethal toxic waste of thalium, arsenic and lead be dumped off the Puna coastline in a trench three miles deep and 25 miles long. This trench extends to Hilo Bay. These toxic wastes ean cause cancer to ourselves and our 'ohana, as we are a fish-eating people. Sea mining ean turn our coastline into a "Love Canal". This is an utterly irresponsible plan and must not be implemented. In the name of Aloha 'Aina in this Year of the Hawaiian, we must remember that Ellison Onizuka in 1983 stated that there should be no space port in Ka'u for en-

vironmental and other reasons. We must also remember that although C. Brewer promises to give 500 acres for the space port, mueh more surrounding land will be needed and condemned for this space-use. If you recall, the space port we were told about last year would have been on 10,000 acres of Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and 12,000 acres of Bishop Estate Hawaiian 'aina — a total of 22,000 acres. This 500 acres, or socalled "gift," is just the beginning of the 'aina needed for this vast proposed project. Many feel that C. Brewer has donated this land to help push through their Punalu'u proposed development of two or three hotels, condos and single-family homes. Punalu'u is the only open beach recreational area from Volcano to Miloli'i for the people living on this island. With the planned resort development the loeal people will be squeezed out for the expected 5,000 resort users. The shoreline will be polluted by proposed makai development and loeal fishermen and their boats

denied access to traditionai fishing grounds. Hawaiian Home Lands is two miles away from the proposed space port site whieh is but a few seconds through space. An accident could easily happen directly above Hawaiian Home Lands or Na'alehu, Pahala or Kailua. Have we fully appraised the risk factors involved here? Remember the Challenger. On Jan. 14, several hundred people appeared at a public meeting at Na'alehu theatre. Residents testified for hours and only two or three said maybe the space port could be a good idea but wanted mueh more information. This meeting was chaired by Rep. Andy Levin. After the gathering, Levin told the Hawaii Tribune Herald two days later on Jan. 16 that instead of Gov. Waihe'e setting up a task force to sell the space port internationally as he had stated, the task force should be set up to investigate whether there should be any space port at all. Why is it that Ellison Onizuka, who knew and worked in the space industry, stated that he was against the space port in Ka'u for environmentai reasons, yet Senator Spark M. Matsunaga in his whole 19-page press release about this Ka'u space project did not mention one word about the environment. On Jan. 30, the newspapers carried articles about Ka'u going into water shortages and drought. Hasn't this been happening for years? If we don't e ven have enough water for the people and land of Ka'u now, where do they plan on getting water for the 30,000-40,000 expected residents of the proposed space port? What about the water for the 5,000 expected Punalu'u resort residents?

Aloha 'aina is what makes the difference between here and the mainland: E ala, na moku o kekai liloloa, E moe loa nei maka'e o ka po. Wake up, our is/ands are ebbing away, While you sleep we are on the edge of darkness. Aloha 'aina! Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono!