#honolulu civil beat

[deathcupcake]

This. This is what I meant when I mentioned how exhausting it is to try to weed through the outsider perspective to find the real local story. Also glad to see that she called out the Washington Post's tone-deaf request for (mostly non-kamaaina) memories of Lahaina. I already sent them an email about how I found this call for memories insulting, 'cause it wasn't going to be of and for the people of Lahaina. It just doesn't feel right.

I get that non-locals have good memories, but maybe now is not the time for those reminiscences.

[freehawaii]

THE ARTICLE HONOLULU CIVIL BEAT RECENTLY REFUSED TO PUBLISH

OHA Trustee Mililani B. Trask Response to Honolulu Civil Beat article by Peter Apo (04/18/2023) “OHA Abandons Commitment To Self Governance”

Recently, Civil Beat teamed up with ex OHA Trustee/State Legislator, Peter Apo, in an effort to resurrect the Hawaiian vs Hawaiian debate on building a Hawaiian nation. Civil beat failed to include the history of the state democratic party’s effort to create a native nation for the state’s benefit and did not review years that were wasted on failed initiatives. Civil & Apo also ignored the millions of dollars of costs for the effort, paid by OHA with revenues from the Ceded Land Trust. 

The historic record speaks for itself. Hawaiians did not initiate the Kanaiolowalu and Na’i Aupuni Nation Building initiatives. These initiatives were created by the state legislature, but OHA was made to pay for it with our beneficiaries trust funds. 

The record reveals the following: 

1. For over a decade the State supported federal recognition of Hawaiians under the “Akaka Bill” in Congress because of fears that federal funding provided to native Hawaiians as “Native Americans” would be lost to the State unless there was a Hawaiian ‘Indian Nation’. 

2. When the Akaka Bill died in the Congress, the State legislature moved to create a Hawaiian nation on their own! They passed ACT 195, later known as the Kana’iolowalu (HSEC) Initiative. The effort involved the formation of a Hawaiian Roll Commission to register 200, 000 Hawaiians to vote in a future election for delegates to a Hawaiian Constitutional Convention thereby creating a Hawaiian Nation. Over 60% of the nearly 85,000 who were sent ballots in mail refused to participate in the election of delegates. 

3. In 2014 when it was clear that Kanaiolowalu was dead, a group of Native Hawaiian individuals who were members of Hawaiian organizations that had received funding for Kanaiolowalu, moved on their own to form a non-profit Consortium called Na’i Aupuni. This non-profit did not identify directors with DCCA when it was created, nor did it have a G.E. Tax license for tax exempt status as required by the IRS. Millions were wasted. In the end, no election of delegates by Hawaiians was ever achieved. 

4. OHA did not create Kanaiolowalu or Na’i Aupuni but was required to provide millions of trust dollars in order to facilitate federal recognition for a paper nation which would have no land and no jurisdiction over the assets and resources of the Hawaiian people. 

In the years that have transpired since these events occurred, a new OHA Board of Trustees has been elected. The majority of the current OHA board knows the definition of ‘Self-Determination’ ..... it is a Human right of all peoples including the Hawaiian peoples. It is not a political right of the United States or the State of Hawaii. The current Board of OHA Trustees has no intention of usurping the right of our Hawaiian beneficiaries to pursue their right of ‘Self-Determination’ through Nation building. 

OHA’s priorities are clear, they are the development of Kaka’ako and Hakuone so that Hawaiian beneficiaries will have a place to call home, a cultural center to showcase the value of our peoples. Our priorities are to create an economic engine for maintaining existing programs in the areas of Health, Education, the preservation of Native Language, the protection of native Legacy Lands, and the provision for affordable housing for the 28,000 Hawaiians currently dying on the Department of Hawaiian Homes Land waiting list. 

The current board of OHA trustees are well aware of the past abuses that our office was subjected to in the pursuit of ‘federal recognition’. It is significant to note that the State Auditor, the Clifton Larson Allen Accounting Firm and Plante Moran Finance Firm, who conducted the 3 audits of OHA’s expenditure in past years all flagged the Nation building effort and the activities of Na’i Aupuni as Fraud Waste and Abuse. 

In an ongoing effort to achieve accountability and address these past abuses, the current Board of Trustees has delivered all materials, information, and data relating to The Kanaiolowalu (HSEC)/Na’i Aupuni Nation building effort to appropriate Federal and State Investigators for follow-up. 

Mahalo nui loa, 

Mililani B. Trask

Hawai’i Island Trustee 

OHA Board of Trustees Vice Chair 

 https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/04/oha-abandons-commitment-to-self-governance/ (Civil Beat Article written by Peter Apo 4/18/2023) 

https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/11/an-initiative-for-self-governance-without-state-or-federal-interference/ (Civil Beat Article written by Mililani B. Trask 11/13/15) 

https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/10/roll-of-thunder-lifting-the-veil-on-nai-aupuni/ (Civil Beat Article written by Trisha Kēhaulani Watson 10/27/15) 

https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/06/native-hawaiian-roll-commission-must-release-voter-records/ (Civil Beat Article written by Chad Blair 6/4/15) 

http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/Articles-Main/ID/13906/Kanaiolowalu-Broken-Trust-on-Steroids (Hawaii Free Press article written by Andrew Walden 11/2/14)

[biglisbonnews]

The shift to a green energy future is renewing plantation-era water wars in Hawaii A proposed hydro project in Kauai — the first of its kind in the world — could supply up to a quarter of the island’s power by diverting 4 billion gallons a year from the Waimea River. https://grist.org/agriculture/the-shift-to-a-green-energy-future-is-renewing-plantation-era-water-wars-on-kauai/

[sexcromancy]

saw a post that had some tweet screenshots with true but shallow info about issues affecting native hawaiians so I am gonna share some news articles from honolulu civil beat, the best (and really only 😑) source of investigative reporting in hawai'i!

on the topic of 'olelo, the native hawaiian language, in schools:

^ this article describes a state bill that is unlikely to go anywhere but is such an exciting step towards 'olelo becoming a staple in schools! it already is an option in 32 public high schools, not even counting the many private/charter immersion schools. in general 'olelo is spoken literally 1000%+ more than it was in the 1970s, when it was officially unbanned and the hawaiian language and cultural revival began.

on the school to prison pipeline and disproportionate, punitive incarceration of native hawaiians:

if you read some/all of these articles, please consider dropping some $$ to civil beat! they are entirely subscriber and donor funded and have no paywall, ever. their reporting on the ongoing bureaucratic mishandling of the lahaina victims is also very strong.

[bighermie]

More bullshit and lies coming

[meret118]

The power was already out in West Maui at 5 a.m. on Aug. 8 and it could have stayed that way had Hawaiian Electric decided not to re-energize its lines.

Instead, the company rebooted a tripped transmission line so that it could provide electricity to some of its customers in Lahaina despite an ongoing windstorm and repeated warnings of extreme fire danger.

The power came back on around 6 a.m. and within the hour a downed power line near the intersection of Lahainaluna Road and Hoohakuna Street sparked a blaze that may have been the origin of the deadly inferno that ripped through much of Lahaina and killed at least 99 people. Four others are still listed as missing by the Maui Police Department.

[rainbow-femme]

Kinda tired of people talking about how amazing Marvel is for having villains with understandable motivations when the ones they point to as evidence are “black and indigenous men angry at colonization”

And there’s lots to unpack there but I would specifically like to remind people of Aulani Disney resort in Hawai’i

This article from Honolulu Civil Beat does a great job of explaining why the locals are angry at Disney for building a resort near one of the largest indigenous Hawai’ian populations, causing costs to rise and forcing many people out, taking more land for American profit, using their culture as a caricature to make money, etc

And I would just like to say that maybe the company that makes movies about scary indigenous men who want to harm corporate profits rich tourists feelings you, and your loved ones, and your favorite movie characters, might have a vested interest in you seeing people who fight colonization as dangerous and scary radicals who need to be stopped

Just saying, maybe there’s a reason you’re supposed to think that colonization is fixed by the wealthy personally finding outreach centers in the poorest places where people are most affected by colonization and slavery, a thing that definitely very commonly happens, and not by any actual changes to how countries are run or by the idea that anything should significantly change

I don’t care what movies you like or watch, I’m not saying any movies starring these villains are bad or don’t have merit or don’t have important elements or places for actors of various backgrounds to finally be seen as main characters. I’m just saying no movie is perfect and when a series of movies made by the same corporation have a certain thing in common it may be good to think of why that might be

[jvzebel-x]

[excerpt from the Honolulu Civil Beat: "Tuesday’s announcement marks the first time the Navy has given a timeline for Red Hill’s permanent closure. The closure plan is separate from the defueling process, which is slated to be complete by the end of June 2024.

Hawaii’s health department ordered the Navy to remove the fuel from Red Hill last year after thousands of gallons of jet fuel contaminated the drinking water of Pearl Harbor-area families. Amid sustained community and political pressure, the secretary of defense subsequently ordered the facility to be shut down for good.

“Permanent closure of the Red Hill tanks is long overdue,” the agency said.

However, the water utility said it has concerns about how long it will take to decommission the facility and the Navy’s desire to leave its fuel storage infrastructure in place. BWS officials also felt the plan lacked detail and stakeholder input.

The Sierra Club of Hawaii also has concerns, according to executive director Wayne Tanaka.

“I understand the cost and safety concerns associated with removing the Red Hill tanks,” Tanaka, an engineer, said in a statement.

“However, I cannot imagine how it would ever be considered safe to reuse them for the storage of anything, even non-fuel substances, given their proximity to our aquifer, their dilapidated condition, and environmental issues like the continual infiltration of rainwater that corroded the tanks and other infrastructure for 80 years.”

He noted that Red Hill could pose longterm threats to the aquifer even after the tanks are drained." /end text]

🙃

i genuinely have no idea why i'm so shocked, lmao.

it only took a full year from the initial publicized leak (&a full year and a half from the leak they lied about in May 2021) that poisoned thousands of families, killed pets, &left infants hospitalized to announce a timeline to defuel.

i suppose a full two years (at best) to defuel, &five to decide whether or not they'll be keeping the decaying WWII era tanks in place (despite the fact that the tanks themselves rusting into the environment were a concern before they allowed thousands of gallons of fuel to leak into the islands primary water source) is only to be expected.

if they don't drag this out as long as humanly possible while also making it near impossible for average local residents to show up to meetings about what's happening, how else are they going to slowly let this all be forgotten so they can continue to abuse the islands they stole??

[quotesfrommyreading]

Conspiracy theories are a constant in American history, and it is tempting to dismiss them as inconsequential. But as the 21st century has progressed, such a dismissal has begun to require willful blindness. I was a city-hall reporter for a local investigative-news site called Honolulu Civil Beat in 2011 when Donald Trump was laying the groundwork for a presidential run by publicly questioning whether Barack Obama had been born in Hawaii, as all facts and documents showed. Trump maintained that Obama had really been born in Africa, and therefore wasn’t a natural-born American—making him ineligible for the highest office. I remember the debate in our Honolulu newsroom: Should we even cover this “birther” madness? As it turned out, the allegations, based entirely on lies, captivated enough people to give Trump a launching pad.

Nine years later, as reports of a fearsome new virus suddenly emerged, and with Trump now president, a series of ideas began burbling in the QAnon community: that the coronavirus might not be real; that if it was, it had been created by the “deep state,” the star chamber of government officials and other elite figures who secretly run the world; that the hysteria surrounding the pandemic was part of a plot to hurt Trump’s reelection chances; and that media elites were cheering the death toll. Some of these ideas would make their way onto Fox News and into the president’s public utterances. As of late last year, according to The New York Times, Trump had retweeted accounts often focused on conspiracy theories, including those of QAnon, on at least 145 occasions.

The power of the internet was understood early on, but the full nature of that power—its ability to shatter any semblance of shared reality, undermining civil society and democratic governance in the process—was not. The internet also enabled unknown individuals to reach masses of people, at a scale Marshall McLuhan never dreamed of. The warping of shared reality leads a man with an AR-15 rifle to invade a pizza shop. It brings online forums into being where people colorfully imagine the assassination of a former secretary of state. It offers the promise of a Great Awakening, in which the elites will be routed and the truth will be revealed. It causes chat sites to come alive with commentary speculating that the coronavirus pandemic may be the moment QAnon has been waiting for. None of this could have been imagined as recently as the turn of the century.

QAnon is emblematic of modern America’s susceptibility to conspiracy theories, and its enthusiasm for them. But it is also already much more than a loose collection of conspiracy-minded chat-room inhabitants. It is a movement united in mass rejection of reason, objectivity, and other Enlightenment values. And we are likely closer to the beginning of its story than the end. The group harnesses paranoia to fervent hope and a deep sense of belonging. The way it breathes life into an ancient preoccupation with end-times is also radically new. To look at QAnon is to see not just a conspiracy theory but the birth of a new religion.

  —  The Prophecies of Q

[statesone]

The Sunshine Blog: A Hawaii State Budget For Dummies - Honolulu Civil Beat

📣 StatesOne — https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMijwFBVV95cUxNLUZMcG40SGFxdlVpbG55Y0Vodk9TSFhIOWhUemxtU0hEUU16d0l3Qm83cHo1bC1fQ0RkRERJUUFoV0VmOXNjVFEzcDFKZXltN3FrTFIyb01TMHVKWmdvNm1ndXZCMTRIOU5jVXMweWdudnBGWWNfSEdUYUQ3NEgza0YtVzNLSkxsZThCZGp2UQ?oc=5&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[newstfionline]

Saturday, August 31, 2024

The economic cost of the wildfire season (The Week) With deadly blazes sweeping across Brazil, and Greece braced for high-risk weather, wildfire season is in full swing. Typically lasting from June until late September, this period not only poses a serious threat to human and animal life, but also wreaks devastating damage on homes, landscapes, and livelihoods. And the economic cost—for affected countries and individuals—has proven enormous. Bloomberg reported that wildfires cost Europe €4.1 billion (£3.46 billion) in damages last year, with Greece, Spain, and Italy facing the majority of the impact. And in Hawaii, state government officials spent more than $410 million (£310 million) responding to the aftermath of Maui’s 2023 wildfires, according to the Honolulu Civil Beat. When you include the long-term impacts of wildfires, those costs spiral. The wildfires that raged across Sicily in 2023 caused more than €60 million (£50.7 million) of infrastructure damage in a matter of days, said The Guardian, but “damage to agriculture caused by fires and the intense heatwave amounted to about €200 million”.

Major power outage hits Venezuela’s capital, with Maduro government blaming ‘sabotage’ (AP) Venezuelans awoke Friday to a major power outage in the capital, Caracas, and several states. President Nicolas Maduro’s government blamed the outage, which it said began about 4:50 a.m., on “electrical sabotage.” Freddy Nanez, the communications minister, said in a voice message on Telegram that all 24 of Venezuela’s states had been at least partially impacted. He characterized the outage as a “desperate” attempt by Maduro’s opponents to violently oust the president. Venezuela in 2019, during a period of political unrest, suffered from regular power outages that the government almost always blamed on its opponents, but that energy experts said were the result of brush fires damaging transmission lines and poor maintenance of the country’s hydroelectric infrastructure. Venezuela’s power grid relies heavily on the Guri Dam, a giant hydroelectric power station that was inaugurated in the late 1960s. The electrical system has been burdened by poor upkeep, a lack of alternative energy supplies and a drain of engineering talent as an estimated 8 million Venezuelan migrants have fled economic misery in recent years.

Brazil Blocks X After Musk Ignores Court Orders (NYT) Brazil blocked the social network X on Friday after its owner, Elon Musk, refused to comply with a Brazilian judge’s orders to suspend certain accounts, the biggest test yet of the billionaire’s efforts to transform the site into a digital town square where just about anything goes. Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, ordered internet providers to block access to X across the nation of 200 million because the company lacked a necessary legal representative in Brazil. Mr. Musk closed X’s office in Brazil last week after Justice Moraes threatened arrests for ignoring his orders to remove X accounts that he said broke Brazilian laws. X said that it viewed Justice Moraes’s orders as illegal and that it planned to break their legal seal and publish them. In a highly unusual move, Justice Moraes also said that any person in Brazil who tried to still use X via common privacy software called a virtual private network, or VPN, could be fined nearly $9,000 a day.

Russia-Ukraine energy war (Washington Post) Ukrainian forces struck two oil depots within Russia overnight, while Moscow on Thursday launched the third major aerial attack on Ukraine this week—the latest in strikes by the two sides on each other’s energy infrastructure, causing electricity cutoffs throughout Ukraine and raising the prospect increased international energy prices. The attacks take place just weeks after Kyiv and Moscow were believed to be on the verge of an agreement to halt infrastructure attacks, diplomats and officials said. Instead, the two sides have resumed bombarding each other’s power plants and fuel refineries, in an escalatory struggle that in addition to its international effects could lead to a bleak winter for Ukraine. The attacks also come as Ukraine has been pushing for a lifting of the restrictions on the long-range weapons it has received from its Western partners so it can hit more targets inside Russia.

Zelensky Dismisses the Head of the Air Force Days After F-16 Crash (NYT) President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine dismissed the head of the country’s Air Force on Friday, days after the crash of an F-16 warplane in what may have been a friendly fire incident. A Western official who has been briefed on the preliminary investigation of the crash said that there were “indications” that friendly fire from a Patriot missile battery might have brought down the jet, though mechanical failure and pilot error have not been ruled out. The plane crashed on Monday while defending against an intense aerial attack by Russian forces, which on Friday hit an apartment block in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, killing at least seven people and wounding scores more, local authorities said. The possibility of friendly fire incidents becomes especially acute during mass attacks by missiles and drones, military experts say.

The first election in a decade is planned in Indian-controlled Kashmir (AP) Residents of Indian-controlled Kashmir are gearing up for their first regional election in a decade that will allow them to have their own truncated government, also known as a local assembly, instead of remaining under New Delhi’s direct rule. Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan and claimed in its entirety by both. The Indian-administered part has been on edge since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ended its special status in 2019 and also scrapped its statehood. In theory, the polls will see a transition of power from New Delhi to a newly elected local assembly. But the new polls will hardly give the new government any legislative powers as Indian-controlled Kashmir will continue to be a “Union Territory”—a region directly controlled by the federal government—with India’s parliament remaining as the region’s legislator. The elected assembly will only have nominal control over education and culture.

A Hong Kong court convicts 2 journalists in a landmark sedition case (AP) A Hong Kong court on Thursday convicted two former editors of a shuttered news outlet in a sedition case widely seen as a barometer for the future of media freedoms in a city once hailed as a bastion of free press in Asia. The trial of Stand News former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam was Hong Kong’s first involving the media since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Stand News, which closed in December 2021, had been one of the city’s last media outlets that openly criticized the government as it waged a crackdown on dissent following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019. Chung and Lam had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications—charges that were brought under a colonial-era sedition law used increasingly to crush dissidents. They face up to two years in prison. The case was centered on 17 articles Stand News had published. Prosecutors said some promoted “illegal ideologies,” or smeared the security law and law enforcement officers.

Nearly 40,000 people died home alone in Japan this year, report says (BBC) Almost 40,000 people died alone in their homes in Japan during the first half of 2024, a report by the country’s police shows. Of that number, nearly 4,000 people were discovered more than a month after they died, and 130 bodies went unmissed for a year before they were found, according to the National Police Agency. Japan currently has the world’s oldest population, according to the United Nations. The agency hopes its report will shed light on the country's growing issue of vast numbers of its aging population who live, and die, alone. Japan has long tried to counter its ageing and declining population, but the shift is becoming hard for the country to manage. Last year, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country is on the brink of not being able to function as a society because of its declining birth rate.

Tropical Storm Shanshan (NYT) The Japan Meteorological Agency issued flood and landslide warnings in two dozen prefectures on Friday for Tropical Cyclone Shanshan, including in the Japanese capital of Tokyo and regions as far northeast as Iwate and as far southwest as Kyushu. Having made landfall on Thursday as a typhoon and since been downgraded to a tropical depression, Shanshan has recorded gusts of up to 112 miles per hour. Authorities warn of high waves and tides as well as possible lightning storms and tornadoes. At least six people have been killed and more than 100 others injured in storm-related incidents thus far. Scientists believe that Shanshan could be one of the strongest storms to hit the region in history.

Toll Reaches 17 Dead in Israel’s West Bank Raid, Including a Militant Commander (NYT) Israel’s military stormed a mosque in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, where it said weapons were being stored, and engaged in gun battles that left at least five Palestinians dead, including a young militant commander who Israel says was responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians. It was the second straight day of an Israeli incursion into the northern West Bank, focused in and around the cities of Tulkarm and Jenin, involving columns of armored vehicles, fleets of drones and hundreds of troops. The raids are Israel’s biggest military actions in the West Bank in more than a year. The raid in the West Bank is an escalation along a third front for Israel, in addition to the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and the increased air attacks across its northern border with Lebanon against the militant group Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran.

Aid group says Israel hit convoy to hospital in Gaza. Israel says it hit gunmen who seized the car (AP) An Israeli missile hit a convoy carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati hospital in the Gaza Strip, killing several people from a local transportation company, the American Near East Refugee Aid group said Friday. Israel claimed without immediate evidence that it opened fire after gunmen seized the convoy. The strike killed several people employed by a transportation company that the aid group was using to bring supplies to the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, said Sandra Rasheed, Anera’s director for the Palestinian territories. Israeli forces have opened fire on other aid convoys in the Gaza Strip. The World Food Program announced Wednesday it is pausing all staff movement in Gaza until further notice over Israeli troops opening fire on one of its marked vehicles, hitting it with at least 10 rounds. The shooting came despite having received multiple clearances from Israeli authorities. On July 23, UNICEF said two of its vehicles were hit with live ammunition while waiting at a designated holding point. An Israeli attack in April hit three World Central Kitchen vehicles, killing seven people.

The UN says Sudan is at a ‘breaking point.’ (AP) War-wrecked Sudan ‘s humanitarian crisis is at “a catastrophic breaking point” amid fighting and devastating flooding, the U.N. migration agency said Monday. The northeastern African nation plunged into chaos in April last year when tensions between the military and a notorious paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, turned into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the country. The western region of Darfur has seen some of the most devastating bouts of fighting. The conflict has killed thousands of people and pushed many into starvation. Its atrocities include mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the U.N. and international rights groups. Sudan’s war has created the world’s largest displacement crisis. More than 10.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since fighting began. Devastating floods in recent weeks have compounded the tragedy. Dozens of people have been killed and critical infrastructure has been washed away in 11 of Sudan’s 18 provinces, according to local authorities. “We are at a breaking point, a catastrophic, cataclysmic breaking point,” said Othman Belbeisi, IOM’s regional director.

[freehawaii]

MENTIONED YESTERDAY ON FREE HAWAI`I TV - WHAT IF THE NAVY GAVE MUCH OF PEARL HARBOR BACK TO HAWAI`I?

    Honolulu Civil Beat - December 6, 2023 - By Naka Nathaniel

On the eve of the most solemn day at Pearl Harbor, I’d like us to look ahead 18 years from now. 

Last week, I closed my column with a call to change the trajectory of the Navy, and the military at large, in Hawaii after a few years of terrible headlines. Today, I offer not precise solutions but something that will motivate us to act: A deadline. 

We need to make Dec. 7, 2041, the most significant date in Hawaii in the 21st century. 

Why?

The past few years have not been good for the Navy’s reputation in Hawaii. It’s remarkable to see how the botched handling of the Red Hill catastrophe unified so many varied groups in Hawaii against the Navy. 

Those on Oahu who aren’t upset with the Navy yet will be when they see the rate increases in their water bills.

In conversation after conversation I’ve had about the military’s future in Hawaii, the end of the military’s multiple leases were repeatedly called “the elephant in the room.” 

The elephant is also an opportunity that courageous leaders in Hawaii have to shape the future, instead of having it shaped for them. 

For the first time in a long, long time, the people of Hawaii have the opportunity to have a say in what has traditionally been a one-way relationship.

In addition to being better partners and long-term guests and stewards, the military also has an opportunity to modernize its approach to national security here.

Gen. Mark Milley, the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned in a report that the military’s current decision-makers are too connected to conventional tank and aircraft carrier warfare. 

Hawaii’s strategic importance as the gas station of the Pacific has waned in the age of digital and drone warfare. It’s hard to conceive what warfare will look like in the age of hypersonic missiles and AI, but it’s possible that Hawaii’s geography can be used in more innovative and inspiring ways.

“The American homeland has almost always been a sanctuary during conflict, but this will not be the case in a future war,” Milley wrote.

Since the nature of national defense is changing, Hawaii needs to take advantage of this sea change. 

Pearl Harbor served its purpose for the Navy and now it’s time for it to follow a proud tradition of hand off. Our memories don’t have to stretch too far back to think about the return of Hong Kong, the return of the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, the bases in the Philippines and the dynamic change brought to many communities in the ‘90s when American military bases were reimagined in the wake of the Cold War.

We need to envision what a Pearl Harbor reintegrated into the fabric of Oahu would be like. For too long, Pearl Harbor has been off-limits for most Hawaiians. 

What if the Navy returned significant parts of Pearl Harbor to Hawaii?

Would it make Hawaii more or less vulnerable? I would argue that it minimizes our exposure. We need to recalibrate what the Navy, and military presence at large, means here in the Pacific.

The people of Hawaii should be the beneficiaries of generously hosting the military for dozens of decades. Sites like Pearl Harbor have the infrastructure to solve myriad problems facing Hawaii. 

It’s not too hard to see how a reimagined Ford Island could become the epitome of sensible 21st century living. 

Or, with the threat of climate change being a menace at least as equal to security threats, some of Pearl Harbor could be converted into a hub for climate mitigation and resiliency efforts.  

In 18 years, instead of only wreath-laying and somber remembrances, let’s envision a day that includes hope for the future. 

Let’s envision a day, Dec. 7, 2041, when a partial handover occurs and a new dawn begins for a better Hawaii and a redeemed and reimagined military.

[biglisbonnews]

Hawaii quietly rolls back innovative plan to manage marine resources The change came amid pressure from the state's vocal fishing community. https://grist.org/article/hawaii-quietly-rolls-back-innovative-plan-to-manage-marine-resources/

[focusonthegoodnews]

Oahu Coral Group Gears Up To Help Maui's Battered Reefs - Honolulu Civil Beat

https://www.civilbeat.org/2024/07/oahu-coral-group-gears-up-to-help-mauis-battered-reefs/

[cdoc1890]

8 Hawaii Sheriff's Deputies Are Now On Leave As Harassment And Other Investigations Unfold - Honolulu Civil Beat

[calvinhillcapstone]

Tumblr Update #7

Last week went well for my postings, I featured Honolulu Civil Beat, which can be found here:

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It was really interesting researching, interviewing, and making the posts for Civil Beat. They had some of the longest and most insightful answers to my questions, and their website has a lot of information I was able to use. This week, I'm featuring AccesSurf, and the posting schedule is going to be doable for the rest of the semester.

I feel like I've found my stride with making and posting my content, but I need to get better at updating my workback plan and all the Google Drive assets. I'll be doing that this week as well.