A DEAFER EAR: A month ago today we detailed the latest in the sad story of KKCR, the so-called “community and supposedly non-commercial” radio station in Princeville and the completion of the takeover by the LA music industry that began in the mid 90’s- as PNN detailed in a Parxist Conspiracy TV newsmagazine episode in 1999- with the appointment of a long-time music industry insider as general manager last year.
We included updates of our investigative report PNN Investigative Report: KKCR- A Study In Brown And White that’s been linked on our right rail since we completed it a year ago April.
Today we received an open letter from former programmer Katy Rose and what she’s found out is about to happen with the slot and program she established, confirming much of what we wrote on August 11. We reproduce it in full below.
To recap- essentially, with the possible exception of Rose and her partner Jimmy Trujillo, local public affairs programming has remained bare bones over the years with a rotating series of white KKCR clique members and long time “insiders” who can be trusted to produce ill-informed pap, solely in two, one-and-a-half hour slots a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Those are the times reserved for general local public affairs programming and the rest is music, although Trujillo has sought to add on one more day a week with varied success due to the imposition of the same onerous requirements that apply to music programmers.
We detailed how local people have been systematically excluded over the years and how and why only an expansion of public affairs slots and a concerted effort to recruit experienced and talented public affairs programmers- something there is no shortage of on the island- could serve the needs of the community beyond the current virtually all music programming.
We exposed how most local people have given up on trying to overcome the “club” atmosphere at the station and how, despite the need for local public affairs programming those who might serve they need are forced to compete for slots with the slew of “vanity radio” music programmers.
As we said only by first opening up and reserving more local public affair programming slots and actively recruiting local people- and not forcing them to go through the backbiting, ass-kissing process that music programmers go though to secure their slots- would anyone bother to try to break the barrier.
We even provided a member of the KKCR Public Advisory Committee with a long list of possible and suggested programmers- people who currently write and speak on local issues who are articulate and well informed and would probably be able to make the time to inform the public. But, as we said when we submitted the list, not if they were treated as if they were seeking one of those “personality” music programs slots as they are called on the mainland at Pacifica Radio where they do separate out the processes for recruiting music and public affairs programmers
After that we were approached by one board member who first chided us for being “negative” and too critical last month and then, oblivious to what we wrote, demanded the list and essentially asked if these people were willing to go through the same process and volunteer requirements as music programmers- failing to recognize that that very attitude was what was keeping these people from KKCR’s airwaves despite the lip-service KKCR pays in acknowledging the severe need for local public affairs programming.
Anyway all this typing has us clutching at our shoulder so here’s Katy’s letter open letter. It should serve as a reminder of why as we said last time:
If at this point KKCR opens up a bunch of slots and gets down on their knees and begs them to produce programming, we’ll get down on ours and salute the flying pigs.
---------------
An Open Letter (from Katy Rose) To My Friends And Allies:
Kaua`i Community Radio management is choosing a replacement host for the program I helped produce until my recent move, and they are leaning toward the appointment of a KKCR insider who holds distinctly Rightist views. I think it is important to preserve the program for a thoughtful Leftist perspective, and to cultivate new voices for the airwaves. I want to explain why I believe that, and ask you to help ensure that it happens.
As you know, my time at KKCR was fractious. Two years ago, an alliance of former and current programmers, community advisory board members, and concerned Kaua`i citizens joined forces to protest what we identified as a systemic problem of racial exclusion at KKCR and to organize a grassroots push for a more democratic, inclusive, vibrant, and relevant community radio station.
We stridently challenged the institutionalized racism that we had identified, and helped to educate the broader community about the nature of systems of oppression that keep valuable resources like media access out of the hands of local working-class people, dissident thinkers, and Kanaka Maoli on Kaua`i.
In our work, we developed a comprehensive set of demands that we presented to KKCR, and we organized significant turn-out for public meetings in which community members voiced their concern about the direction of the station. In an important but not central victory, this grass-roots alliance was able to pressure the station to re-instate programmers who had been suspended during the struggle, including myself and my former co-producer Jimmy Trujillo, and Kanaka Maoli sovereignty activist Kaiulani Huff.
My aim as a volunteer producer at KKCR was to develop an intellectually challenging public-affairs program which explored in depth the theory and practice of radical and progressive social movements. I felt it was important to provide an alternative to the generally unplanned, unprepared, anything-goes, directionless programming that was the norm for afternoon public affairs programs at KKCR.
I also felt that although some programmers at KKCR might identify themselves as “liberal” or “progressive,” the spectrum of Left thinking extends beyond these reformist trends and it is very rare to hear that reflected in any media at all, let alone community radio.
To that end, I spent significant time reading, researching, and preparing for interviews with a range of critical social actors from a variety of Leftist tendencies and struggles. Among the many important topics we covered were anti-racism; the role of non-Native allies in Native peoples’ struggles; the scholarly work of Kanaka Maoli and local-Asian academics critiquing colonialism; demilitarization organizing in Hawaii; the struggles of workers, including Hawaii’s public workers and the workers employed by Superferry-builder Austal-USA in Alabama; the LGBTQ movement; direct action; anarchism and socialism; state suppression of peoples’ movements, and more.
I was primarily concerned with exploring autonomous grass-roots struggle, rather than political-party activism or reformist appeals to politicians and legislators. It was critically important to me to prioritize the voices of women, people of color, youth, Native people, queer people, and workers. Some people call this “giving a voice to the voiceless,” but I totally disagree with this framing. We have voices! We just need more ears out there to hear them!
One of the obstacles to opening up KKCR to under-represented voices and demographics in our community is that the “in-crowd” tends to know very few people outside of their circle. So, chances are, they’ll pick someone they already know to fill an empty spot on the air, rather than doing the difficult and uncomfortable work (for some) of meeting the people where they’re at.
So, I am asking you to consider being a community radio programmer, or to encourage someone else you know to become one. It sounds intimidating. I know. I had never done it before and I had to learn everything from square one. I also felt that I was “putting myself out there” in a way that felt awkward at first. But when I thought about it as community service, and realized that it really wasn’t about showing off or having my ego stroked, I was able to let go of a lot of my fear and hesitation.
In my opinion, the last thing KKCR needs is another public-affairs time slot to be filled by someone who is already hosting another program, espouses mainstream, conservative opinions already well-represented in commercial and community radio alike, and who is already a KKCR “insider.” We fought to expand KKCR, not contract it.
But the reality is that KKCR is not going to come to us – we have to go to KKCR. A few years ago, I was encouraged by two close comrades to step up and apply for an open time slot, which I did, despite all my doubts.
Now I’m encouraging you to do the same. I’ll be honest with you: you will probably run into obstacles thrown in your path. You will most certainly have to deal with some bullshit. But I think that community radio is important enough – particularly in this time of rapid social change – to fight for.
Save KKCR – for the people!
Toward freedom,
Katy
----------
Happy 9-11 everyone. Don’t forget to send a card. (What, too soon?)
Showing posts with label Katy Rose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Katy Rose. Show all posts
Friday, September 11, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
HOLY MOLE
HOLY MOLE: Another week, another mystifyingly shallow look at issues from the local newspaper’s editorial board which, we found out this week is comprised of editors Nathan Eagle, Michael Levine and publisher Mark Lewis.
But the content this time has raised not just our hackles but those of Joan Conrow and even Katy Rose who, despite a move back to the mainland to complete her education, has started up a new blog on local issues called, as the now-ubiquitous bumper sticker says, “No Forget Fo’ Go Home”.
Which were the precisely the words shouted during a recent local vs. tourist incident according to the editorial.
As Katy succinctly describes it, the editorial expresses the distinctly mainland- and implicitly extortionate- view of things, telling us all to:
Play nice, children. Be nice to haole tourists, because your survival depends on it.
The article tells the tale of a hapless tourist who refused to pick up a hitch-hiker, and was then called "haole," which sent him crying all the way back to vanilla suburbs, USA, where he joined the swelling ranks of injured white people who have had their vacations ruined by being called names.
The editorial bemoans what “bad publicity” this is for our tourism industry, with all the distinct tin ear for the roots of the incident that a malahini or their local sycophantic supplicants can muster.
The editorial expresses perhaps the attitude that typifies the source of the rage many local people feel, with one of those “if rape is inevitable sit back and enjoy it” type of rants we hear from rich haoles with a western sense of American privilege and entitlement, borne of a wealth-worshipping, individualist culture.
Like it or not, Kaua`i remains exceedingly dependent on a struggling tourism industry to drive its economy and keep its people off of the unemployment rolls and in their homes.
Ah, it’s “like it or lump it” time, eh?
We all know the type. He doesn’t just come over and snap up a bunch of ag land for his McMansion, he isn’t just smug about his “right” to be here because his country “stole, fair and square” the sovereignty of the islands, but he takes every opportunity to let everyone know how much of a bastard he is.
Usually most have enough sense to spew their hate anonymously. Just take a look at all the no-name comments at Conrow’s blog where, though moderation is now in force, a few of these ass-wipes are for some reason still allowed to glom onto Joan’s readership and spew their smug sense of entitlement via anti-kanaka, anti-local-culture rants.
Here’s one from today:
The editorial is right. So what if someone has money for a vacation here - or if you don't enough much money to make yourself happy - be nice anyway! Life is too short.
Here’s a few more just from the past week that are typical whenever Joan writes passionately about the hewa haumia of stolen kanaka maoli rights and the illegal overthrow, annexation and statehood.
--Whine, whine, whine... More "native Hawaiians" feel comfortable and thankful that they are part of the USA than those who don't. There will never be a groundswell of majority opinion otherwise. Dream on, though. It's a free country you live in, after all, and a pretty good welfare system to most of those "disaffected masses".
--Do you really think that if the American masses knew the truth, that it would make any difference?...If so, that's a delusion even greater than a hope for an independent Hawaii.
--Hawaii is a state and will never, ever be allowed to be anything else. Most everybody's OK with that, too.
--So, rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic if it makes you happy, deludes you that such changes are "meaningful" and "progressive" and serve "social justice"...ie, makes you happy. I'll just sit here in my first class seat and await the destruction.
Despite the fact that the comments are always “I” this and “me” that they are smart enough to hide exactly who “I” is. But that isn’t necessarily the case for the streams of ugly Americans who are blown in with the tide of daily jets.
Just sit one of these types down at the Tahiti Nui bar, put a few drinks in everyone and see how long before someone cracks ‘em one.
Does anyone wonder why when they amble up to a bar and start in with the “ya know what they ought to do” rants about how dumb the local people are because they didn’t bend over for a resort on the beach or a Superferry spitting thousands of extra cars or about how “they don’t know what’s good for them- they ought to be thanking us.”
The newspaper tries to depict it as some kind of abstraction saying:
Some are chalking such verbal and physical attacks up to incensed idiots simply taking their personal frustrations — with the dire financial outlook or the dilution of Hawaiian culture in a sea of Johnny-come-latelys — out on the nearest target. Others feel they are being wrongfully blamed for the current state of affairs here.
But many if not most of these incidents are the stuff of real, personal, immediate and premeditated provocations.
And worst of all is when they get in your face and then ask “what happened to the Aloha spirit”.
As the editorial ironically put it:
Why can’t we heap aloha on everyone instead of hurling insults at strangers? Why can’t we pick friends instead of fights?...
Reach out to a visitor as you would your neighbor. Offer some useful information without divulging favorite local secrets. When a friend or family member treats another person — any person — harshly or unfairly, step up and tell them to knock it off. That type of regrettable behavior demeans us all
We wouldn’t want to tell “bwana tourista” to knock it off would we? We’re used to being demeaned so what’s one more?
“Why can’t we heap aloha on everyone?” Oh- you must mean the Kauai Visitors Bureau produced bumper-sticker-kine aloha- the one that reads “Aloha- it’s Kauai’s Spirit”.
When akamai island people see that they read “Plantation- it’s Kauai’s Mentality”.
The fact is that these fat blobs of privilege that blew in from the pan-Pacific plastic patch wouldn’t know aloha if it stung ‘em like a jellyfish.
Aloha is when you see a mango tree in someone’s yard and you knock on the door and ask if you can have one from the ground and they not only come out with the picker and pluck you a bag of the bes’ kine- from the tree in the back- but they invite you in for dinner and probably let you marry their daughter.
But aloha is also when you march into the yard and try to take fruit without asking and the same people come out of the house and chase you down the road with shotguns a-blazin’.
The root of aloha is respect. It isn’t about cleaning tourists’ toilets with your tongue for minimum wage and smiling as you say “thank you sir- can I have another?”.
And aloha, like respect is earned.
But the content this time has raised not just our hackles but those of Joan Conrow and even Katy Rose who, despite a move back to the mainland to complete her education, has started up a new blog on local issues called, as the now-ubiquitous bumper sticker says, “No Forget Fo’ Go Home”.
Which were the precisely the words shouted during a recent local vs. tourist incident according to the editorial.
As Katy succinctly describes it, the editorial expresses the distinctly mainland- and implicitly extortionate- view of things, telling us all to:
Play nice, children. Be nice to haole tourists, because your survival depends on it.
The article tells the tale of a hapless tourist who refused to pick up a hitch-hiker, and was then called "haole," which sent him crying all the way back to vanilla suburbs, USA, where he joined the swelling ranks of injured white people who have had their vacations ruined by being called names.
The editorial bemoans what “bad publicity” this is for our tourism industry, with all the distinct tin ear for the roots of the incident that a malahini or their local sycophantic supplicants can muster.
The editorial expresses perhaps the attitude that typifies the source of the rage many local people feel, with one of those “if rape is inevitable sit back and enjoy it” type of rants we hear from rich haoles with a western sense of American privilege and entitlement, borne of a wealth-worshipping, individualist culture.
Like it or not, Kaua`i remains exceedingly dependent on a struggling tourism industry to drive its economy and keep its people off of the unemployment rolls and in their homes.
Ah, it’s “like it or lump it” time, eh?
We all know the type. He doesn’t just come over and snap up a bunch of ag land for his McMansion, he isn’t just smug about his “right” to be here because his country “stole, fair and square” the sovereignty of the islands, but he takes every opportunity to let everyone know how much of a bastard he is.
Usually most have enough sense to spew their hate anonymously. Just take a look at all the no-name comments at Conrow’s blog where, though moderation is now in force, a few of these ass-wipes are for some reason still allowed to glom onto Joan’s readership and spew their smug sense of entitlement via anti-kanaka, anti-local-culture rants.
Here’s one from today:
The editorial is right. So what if someone has money for a vacation here - or if you don't enough much money to make yourself happy - be nice anyway! Life is too short.
Here’s a few more just from the past week that are typical whenever Joan writes passionately about the hewa haumia of stolen kanaka maoli rights and the illegal overthrow, annexation and statehood.
--Whine, whine, whine... More "native Hawaiians" feel comfortable and thankful that they are part of the USA than those who don't. There will never be a groundswell of majority opinion otherwise. Dream on, though. It's a free country you live in, after all, and a pretty good welfare system to most of those "disaffected masses".
--Do you really think that if the American masses knew the truth, that it would make any difference?...If so, that's a delusion even greater than a hope for an independent Hawaii.
--Hawaii is a state and will never, ever be allowed to be anything else. Most everybody's OK with that, too.
--So, rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic if it makes you happy, deludes you that such changes are "meaningful" and "progressive" and serve "social justice"...ie, makes you happy. I'll just sit here in my first class seat and await the destruction.
Despite the fact that the comments are always “I” this and “me” that they are smart enough to hide exactly who “I” is. But that isn’t necessarily the case for the streams of ugly Americans who are blown in with the tide of daily jets.
Just sit one of these types down at the Tahiti Nui bar, put a few drinks in everyone and see how long before someone cracks ‘em one.
Does anyone wonder why when they amble up to a bar and start in with the “ya know what they ought to do” rants about how dumb the local people are because they didn’t bend over for a resort on the beach or a Superferry spitting thousands of extra cars or about how “they don’t know what’s good for them- they ought to be thanking us.”
The newspaper tries to depict it as some kind of abstraction saying:
Some are chalking such verbal and physical attacks up to incensed idiots simply taking their personal frustrations — with the dire financial outlook or the dilution of Hawaiian culture in a sea of Johnny-come-latelys — out on the nearest target. Others feel they are being wrongfully blamed for the current state of affairs here.
But many if not most of these incidents are the stuff of real, personal, immediate and premeditated provocations.
And worst of all is when they get in your face and then ask “what happened to the Aloha spirit”.
As the editorial ironically put it:
Why can’t we heap aloha on everyone instead of hurling insults at strangers? Why can’t we pick friends instead of fights?...
Reach out to a visitor as you would your neighbor. Offer some useful information without divulging favorite local secrets. When a friend or family member treats another person — any person — harshly or unfairly, step up and tell them to knock it off. That type of regrettable behavior demeans us all
We wouldn’t want to tell “bwana tourista” to knock it off would we? We’re used to being demeaned so what’s one more?
“Why can’t we heap aloha on everyone?” Oh- you must mean the Kauai Visitors Bureau produced bumper-sticker-kine aloha- the one that reads “Aloha- it’s Kauai’s Spirit”.
When akamai island people see that they read “Plantation- it’s Kauai’s Mentality”.
The fact is that these fat blobs of privilege that blew in from the pan-Pacific plastic patch wouldn’t know aloha if it stung ‘em like a jellyfish.
Aloha is when you see a mango tree in someone’s yard and you knock on the door and ask if you can have one from the ground and they not only come out with the picker and pluck you a bag of the bes’ kine- from the tree in the back- but they invite you in for dinner and probably let you marry their daughter.
But aloha is also when you march into the yard and try to take fruit without asking and the same people come out of the house and chase you down the road with shotguns a-blazin’.
The root of aloha is respect. It isn’t about cleaning tourists’ toilets with your tongue for minimum wage and smiling as you say “thank you sir- can I have another?”.
And aloha, like respect is earned.
Friday, October 3, 2008
OVERKILL FOR THE UNDERDOG
OVERKILL FOR THE UNDERDOG: Sometimes you’ve gotta wonder if people who attended a meeting were in the same room or on different planets.
And supposedly that’s why we have people who call themselves reporters. Their job is to figure out what the “news” is as it occurs, news being not the usual Dog Bites Man” but the unexpected “Man Bites Dog”.
But in this age of corporate newsrooms and busy if not jaded reporters, journalists often have their stories written- at least in their minds- before going in.
Many have apparently forgotten how to, or don’t have the time to, do the job and so often it falls to the alternative press- both professionals and every day citizens- to let us know what actually happened.
And yesterday’s coverage of the meeting of the Kaua`i Burial Council is a case study in how preconceptions can make reporters blind to the overarching “news”.
One could avoid taking their bedtime dose of Ambien by they reading the three mainstream press articles from the attending scribes.
Oh there was plenty of the perfunctory reporting of “five hours of testimony” and “emotion packed, anger-fueled blah-de-blah” and the like as well as tons of regurgitation of background info.
But we had to learn of the fact that the place was filled with armed state “conservation” cops from eyewitness bloggers Katy Rose and Joan Conrow.
Katy describes the scene that greeted her
When I arrived at the meeting at 9:45 a loud debate had broken out about the presence of armed DOCARE officers in the room. The outcry against having guns in the room was so intense that Mark Hubbard, the Burial Council chair, requested that the officers be asked to leave. Pua Aiu, the SHPD administrator, explained that the armed officers were called in because of "unruly meetings" in the past, but she did honor the request to remove them from the room.
As inappropriate as their presence was, it is an indication of the power of the people that the State felt so threatened by emotional testimony that it felt it necessary to call them in the first place.
Joan was even more outraged and provided a little more detail.
I’ll start with the words uttered by Pua Aiu, administrator of the State Historic Preservation Division, when several people asked why men with guns were in the room. She replied that she had requested DOCARE officers because of “unruly meetings in the past” and noted: “They come with guns. That’s how they come equipped.”
As Sharon Pomroy ironically observed, standing up and holding the traditional wood staff carried by Hale Mawae: “Guns are here because there’s a Hawaiian with a stick in the room.”
At the request of Chair Mark Hubbard, the three state enforcement officers did leave the Council Chambers and spent the rest of the day hanging out in the heat and humidity on the front steps of the Historic County Building. Some Kauai cops also showed up because people had called them to complain about the DOCARE officers. It was not only an utter waste of da guys with guns’ time and taxpayer money, but a tragic commentary on the climate of fear that seems to pervade the state when it comes to Hawaiians and their issues.
The last time I saw armed officers at a meeting was when Office of Hawaiian Affairs hit the road to explain to folks why its proposed settlement with the state was such a good deal. Strange, that the two state agencies that deal most closely with Hawaiian issues are so quick to call in the guns. Could it be because they know best how badly the kanaka are getting screwed?
As Tracey Schavone, who is not a kanaka, noted in her testimony to the Council: “It’s very disturbing to think, this is a Hawaiian issue, and oh my god, they think they need to have guns in the room.”
It’s hard to say what’s more appalling, the fact that lawbreakers like Grove Farm VP, Chair Hubbard (he also being the Chair of the unethical Kaua`i Ethics Board) along with dufusses like State Archeologist Nancy McMahon and her coconut overlord Aiu (who caused the whole mess in the first place by skirting the law) though they needed armed guards to protect them at the meeting, or the fact that it went unreported in the mainstream press.
We’ve probably been to well over a thousand meetings in that room, many regarding issues just as, if not more, contentious and have never seen armed guards.
Perhaps that’s what happens when you have a para-military force that isn’t subject to regulation by a citizen panel, only to Land and Natural Resources Chief Laura Thielen.
Her private “Conservation Enforcement” crew is comprised in large part of people who were too unstable to continue being real law enforcement officers... just the type of people we want holding guns at an emotion-packed meeting.. .
But perhaps it’s another chapter in the truly perplexing recent response of the thieves who stole these islands to challenges of their authority to rape the very land they stole.
In the 30 some-odd years since the native Hawaiian cultural and political renaissance the worst thing that the authorities might have physically suffered at the hands of kanaka maoli is a paper cuts from the documents the Hawaiians routinely waive under their arrogant noses.
This disproportionate response is even more bewildering when you look at the words of the common beneficiaries of the genocide who see the theft of Hawai`i as a fait accompli.
To hear them tell it in comment sections of newspapers and blogs throughout the state they don’t seem to be worried that their land deeds may be worthless and that they are illegal immigrants, according to the UN and international law.
They know that crooked Amerikan courts and the yield of bloated military budgets are standing in wait behind the curtain to support and carry out their nefarious piracy.
These worthless slugs laugh like the maniacal James Bond villains they are when someone dares to suggest that their morally bankrupt value system is being challenged by a bunch of peaceful lava-lave clad victims of their genocide.
And perhaps it’s because no matter how restless the natives are it isn’t like anyone can think of even one incident of armed insurrection in this or the last century in response to their “you and what army” challenges.
But obviously these western condo-conquerors either don’t know something their militaristic overlords do or the “authorities” are insanely overreacting to a threat that their minions on the other hand pooh-pooh.
In one way, like Joan and Katy say, it’s a complement to the Hawaiian sovereignty movement that the Amerikan powers that be think they need to arm themselves in response to kanaka demands for justice.
Lately it hasn’t been enough to have the cops and courts harass peaceful non violent protesters like those whose plight we’ve detailed or those in yesterday’s show trial for the handful of Maui denizens who were arraigned yesterday for their actions at Iolani Palace this summer, both in attempts to peacefully highlight injustices.
Now they are bringing armed guards to community meetings where both cultural and ethnic non-westerners might show up to challenge the very idea of their authority to desecrate, denigrate and commit genocide.
What’s next?- an naval armada to accompany a unwanted ferry boat and attack surfers and kayakers who are armed with only bathing suits and surfboards?.
Oh, wait...
And supposedly that’s why we have people who call themselves reporters. Their job is to figure out what the “news” is as it occurs, news being not the usual Dog Bites Man” but the unexpected “Man Bites Dog”.
But in this age of corporate newsrooms and busy if not jaded reporters, journalists often have their stories written- at least in their minds- before going in.
Many have apparently forgotten how to, or don’t have the time to, do the job and so often it falls to the alternative press- both professionals and every day citizens- to let us know what actually happened.
And yesterday’s coverage of the meeting of the Kaua`i Burial Council is a case study in how preconceptions can make reporters blind to the overarching “news”.
One could avoid taking their bedtime dose of Ambien by they reading the three mainstream press articles from the attending scribes.
Oh there was plenty of the perfunctory reporting of “five hours of testimony” and “emotion packed, anger-fueled blah-de-blah” and the like as well as tons of regurgitation of background info.
But we had to learn of the fact that the place was filled with armed state “conservation” cops from eyewitness bloggers Katy Rose and Joan Conrow.
Katy describes the scene that greeted her
When I arrived at the meeting at 9:45 a loud debate had broken out about the presence of armed DOCARE officers in the room. The outcry against having guns in the room was so intense that Mark Hubbard, the Burial Council chair, requested that the officers be asked to leave. Pua Aiu, the SHPD administrator, explained that the armed officers were called in because of "unruly meetings" in the past, but she did honor the request to remove them from the room.
As inappropriate as their presence was, it is an indication of the power of the people that the State felt so threatened by emotional testimony that it felt it necessary to call them in the first place.
Joan was even more outraged and provided a little more detail.
I’ll start with the words uttered by Pua Aiu, administrator of the State Historic Preservation Division, when several people asked why men with guns were in the room. She replied that she had requested DOCARE officers because of “unruly meetings in the past” and noted: “They come with guns. That’s how they come equipped.”
As Sharon Pomroy ironically observed, standing up and holding the traditional wood staff carried by Hale Mawae: “Guns are here because there’s a Hawaiian with a stick in the room.”
At the request of Chair Mark Hubbard, the three state enforcement officers did leave the Council Chambers and spent the rest of the day hanging out in the heat and humidity on the front steps of the Historic County Building. Some Kauai cops also showed up because people had called them to complain about the DOCARE officers. It was not only an utter waste of da guys with guns’ time and taxpayer money, but a tragic commentary on the climate of fear that seems to pervade the state when it comes to Hawaiians and their issues.
The last time I saw armed officers at a meeting was when Office of Hawaiian Affairs hit the road to explain to folks why its proposed settlement with the state was such a good deal. Strange, that the two state agencies that deal most closely with Hawaiian issues are so quick to call in the guns. Could it be because they know best how badly the kanaka are getting screwed?
As Tracey Schavone, who is not a kanaka, noted in her testimony to the Council: “It’s very disturbing to think, this is a Hawaiian issue, and oh my god, they think they need to have guns in the room.”
It’s hard to say what’s more appalling, the fact that lawbreakers like Grove Farm VP, Chair Hubbard (he also being the Chair of the unethical Kaua`i Ethics Board) along with dufusses like State Archeologist Nancy McMahon and her coconut overlord Aiu (who caused the whole mess in the first place by skirting the law) though they needed armed guards to protect them at the meeting, or the fact that it went unreported in the mainstream press.
We’ve probably been to well over a thousand meetings in that room, many regarding issues just as, if not more, contentious and have never seen armed guards.
Perhaps that’s what happens when you have a para-military force that isn’t subject to regulation by a citizen panel, only to Land and Natural Resources Chief Laura Thielen.
Her private “Conservation Enforcement” crew is comprised in large part of people who were too unstable to continue being real law enforcement officers... just the type of people we want holding guns at an emotion-packed meeting.. .
But perhaps it’s another chapter in the truly perplexing recent response of the thieves who stole these islands to challenges of their authority to rape the very land they stole.
In the 30 some-odd years since the native Hawaiian cultural and political renaissance the worst thing that the authorities might have physically suffered at the hands of kanaka maoli is a paper cuts from the documents the Hawaiians routinely waive under their arrogant noses.
This disproportionate response is even more bewildering when you look at the words of the common beneficiaries of the genocide who see the theft of Hawai`i as a fait accompli.
To hear them tell it in comment sections of newspapers and blogs throughout the state they don’t seem to be worried that their land deeds may be worthless and that they are illegal immigrants, according to the UN and international law.
They know that crooked Amerikan courts and the yield of bloated military budgets are standing in wait behind the curtain to support and carry out their nefarious piracy.
These worthless slugs laugh like the maniacal James Bond villains they are when someone dares to suggest that their morally bankrupt value system is being challenged by a bunch of peaceful lava-lave clad victims of their genocide.
And perhaps it’s because no matter how restless the natives are it isn’t like anyone can think of even one incident of armed insurrection in this or the last century in response to their “you and what army” challenges.
But obviously these western condo-conquerors either don’t know something their militaristic overlords do or the “authorities” are insanely overreacting to a threat that their minions on the other hand pooh-pooh.
In one way, like Joan and Katy say, it’s a complement to the Hawaiian sovereignty movement that the Amerikan powers that be think they need to arm themselves in response to kanaka demands for justice.
Lately it hasn’t been enough to have the cops and courts harass peaceful non violent protesters like those whose plight we’ve detailed or those in yesterday’s show trial for the handful of Maui denizens who were arraigned yesterday for their actions at Iolani Palace this summer, both in attempts to peacefully highlight injustices.
Now they are bringing armed guards to community meetings where both cultural and ethnic non-westerners might show up to challenge the very idea of their authority to desecrate, denigrate and commit genocide.
What’s next?- an naval armada to accompany a unwanted ferry boat and attack surfers and kayakers who are armed with only bathing suits and surfboards?.
Oh, wait...
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