Thursday, October 11, 2007

 

Kamehameha the Great could not conquer Kauai--can Lingle?


by Larry Geller

Kauai was the only island not conquered by Kamehameha the Great (he tried twice) during his 18th century campaign to unify the islands.

Thanks to Joan Conrow for her latest article which included a link to this Los Angeles Times story Hawaii Superferry sets off battle for Kauai that she notes would never be printed in Hawaii:

...

In late August, with the arrival of the Hawaii Superferry, the first interisland car-carrying ferry, the simmering boiled over. Islanders, in the face of Coast Guard gunboats, formed a floating blockade at the harbor entrance and, after a 3-hour standoff, forced the $85-million ferry to turn back to Honolulu. The protest had turned into a citizen uprising.

...

"The population is saying, 'Enough already,' " says Dennis Chun, 57, who, with his surfboard, had helped lead the human flotilla.

Click on over and read the story for some excellent background on the current Superferry flap. You'll come to understand what this issue feels like for Kauai residents, why many of them protested, and why there's more protest ahead if the Legislature ignores them in its upcoming special session, which the papers say is likely.

The two websites with the best information that you won't find in the daily papers or on TV are Joan's KauaiEclectic and Ian Lind's blog.



Comments:

Tidbit from the Maui News (in a longer article about how the Superferry's email campaign is backfiring):

"If there is a special session, [Sen. J. Kalani] English said, he will demand as Senate transportation chairman that public hearings be held on Kauai, Maui and the Big Island before the Legislature takes action."

Good for him!
 


That seems eminently fair... the polls have been overwhelmingly Oahu-centric and it's obvious that hearings held on Oahu could be easily stacked against Neighbor Island residents.
 


Indeed. And from the poll you analyzed, even given their misleading questions (and small sample size/huge margin of error on neighbor islands), 68.7% of Maui respondents said the Superferry should do an EA, and a plurality (46.7%) on Maui said it should not be allowed to operate while the EA is being done.
 

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