Thousands of Native Hawaiians and their supporters have been congregating since July 15 at the base of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano and mountain on the island of Hawaii. Known in Hawaiian as the kia’i, the protectors—a term the group prefers to “protesters”—seek to deter construction of the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere. Business owners and state officials promise the telescope will provide jobs, educational opportunities and high-resolution astronomical imagery.
The protectors’ mobilization stems from a number of concerns about the vulnerability of the mountain to the effects of a new, 18-story telescope, as well as a fight for Indigenous self-determination in the face of colonialist control. Mauna Kea is an environmentally sensitive conservation district; it’s also sacred in Native Hawaiian traditions and religions, remaining one of the few bastions of Indigenous cultural preservation and sovereignty in the state.
The current demonstrations at Mauna Kea are the culmination of decades of state land mismanagement and broken promises over the mountain, dating back to 1968, when the state leased the mountain to the University of Hawaii. Since then, Mauna Kea has been prized by astronomers for its high altitude and lack of atmospheric pollution, leading to the construction of 21 telescopes within 13 observatories. The TMT would be the 22nd telescope; the Washington Post (7/18/19), Associated Press (7/16/19) and other outlets have erroneously tallied the telescopes at 13.
National media coverage of the protectors’ struggle accelerated around 2014 and 2015, when the kia’i first assembled at Mauna Kea in opposition to the TMT, preventing its construction. Yet this reporting fell woefully short.
“In 2014 and 2015,” corporate media outlets “were obsessed with this idea of science versus culture, as if our kupuna [elders] haven’t practiced applied science,” Kaniela Ing, a Mauna Kea protector and Hawaii Community Bail Fund manager, told FAIR. At that time, as Marisa Peryer recently noted for the Columbia Journalism Review (7/29/19), CNN (8/27/15) published an article headlined “Science and Religion Fight Over Hawaii’s Highest Point.”
A New York Times piece headlined “Seeking Stars, Finding Creationism” (10/20/14) called opposition to the Mauna Kea telescope a “turn back toward the dark ages.”
Other coverage was outright condescending. In 2014, the New York Times (10/20/14) called the protectors’ movement “creationism,” ridiculing activists’ claims that the telescope was a profit-seeking venture, omitting the TMT’s status as an LLC funded largely by multibillionaire Intel founder Gordon Moore’s philanthropic organization. The article dismissed the cooperation between Native Hawaiians and environmentalists as a “marriage of convenience,” condemning the protectors for “waging skirmishes against science.”
Peryer also cited a New York Times editorial (5/2/15) portraying the TMT as an innocent scapegoat caught in the middle of a battle dating back to the US’s 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom. The piece lamented that “coexistence may never satisfy the core group of protesters who have been demanding the total erasure of technology from Mauna Kea’s peak.”
Many kia’i agree that media outlets have been more careful in recent months to avoid such facile binaries. Still, protectors face the challenges of specious narratives.
One of these relates to portrayals of public support of the TMT. A 2018 poll from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser indicated that 77 percent of respondents, and 72 percent of Native Hawaiian respondents, supported the construction of the TMT. The poll was referenced in various local and national media outlets, in addition to the Star-Advertiser: Hawaii News Now (7/21/19; 7/22/19), Hawaii Public Radio (7/29/19), AP (3/26/18), HuffPost (10/31/18) and the New York Times (7/10/19).
It’s imperative, however, to consider whose opinion was sought. The Star-Advertiser surveyed a total of 800 registered voters, only 78 of whom were Native Hawaiian; notably, Native Hawaiians have historically been subjected to voter suppression. “There were all these internally invalid measures of how this poll could really have any weight,” Uahikea Maile, a Mauna Kea protector and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, told FAIR. “I’m fearful of the misrepresentation, because it’s obviously disproportionate to the reality of the situation.”
The Washington Post (7/17/19) adapted an AP story for its “KidsPost” feature by adding a more propagandistic headline.
Mischaracterization of the protectors took other forms. The Associated Press (7/16/19), for example, reported that protesters were “bullying” supporters of the telescope, a claim that the protest’s organizational structure and tactics directly contradict. The story was republished on NBC News (7/17/19) and in the Washington Post, under the headline “Native Hawaiians’ Protests Stop Researchers From Studying the Skies.”
The Associated Press (8/10/19) propagated a similar narrative in an article headlined “Amid Protest, Astronomers Lose Observation Time.” The story bemoaned astronomers’ reported loss of some 2,000 hours of viewing time at Mauna Kea’s existing telescopes in light of the protests. It also paraphrased astronomers’ statements that the resistance had denied them “regular, guaranteed access to their facilities, which puts their staff and equipment at risk.”
According to veteran Mauna Kea protector Kealoha Pisciotta, who was quoted in the Associated Press article, astronomers weren’t blocked by the kia’i; rather, their employers ordered them to descend the mountain. Astronomers “haven’t been blocked from the beginning. When they were allegedly blocked, it was really their own choice, because the observatories made their staffs stay down” amid the demonstrations, Pisciotta told FAIR. “They tried to argue that they were losing science because of us. How can you say it’s because of us? You’re the ones who ordered your people down. Not us.”
Pisciotta also noted that media coverage has muted the cultural and religious significance of Mauna Kea. “For a long time, the Associated Press [7/16/19, 7/18/19], everybody,” including USA Today (8/21/19), “kept using the words ‘some Hawaiians’” in reference to who holds the mountain sacred. “At one point, we said, ‘It’s not ‘some Hawaiians.’ We are the majority.’”
She added that Native Hawaiians’ right to ascend the mountain for “subsistence, cultural and religious purposes” is enshrined in the Hawaii State Constitution. Despite this, state government temporarily denied cultural practitioners access to the mountain in mid-July, later permitting them one vehicle to ascend the mountain per day (Big Island Video News, (8/9/19).
As the protests continue, outlets report that the kia’i and TMT supporters are at an impasse, and suggest that negotiations might allow the project to proceed on Mauna Kea (Hawaii News Now, 7/25/19; NBC News, 8/18/19; Honolulu Civil Beat, 7/31/19). “What is tragic,” the aforementioned 2015 New York Times editorial cried, “is the missed opportunity for shared understanding.”
While proposals to compromise might appear fair, protectors say, they dismiss the historical context in Hawaii of colonialism and the usurpation of Indigenous land that continues today. Thus, these suggestions elide the stark power asymmetry between historically disenfranchised and marginalized Native Hawaiians and the billion-dollar, state-backed TMT project.
“The point that that misses is there’s not anything to negotiate. Either the Mauna is sacred or it’s not. When you talk about these issues, how do you compromise that?” said Kenneth Lawson, a Mauna Kea protector and law professor at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.
“We have shared the mountain since 1968,” said Pisciotta. “It’s our temple, it’s our church, it’s our house of worship.”
At the heart of the Mauna Kea action is thus a challenge not only to a telescope, but to capital and the pursuit of unmitigated industrial growth at any cost. It’s no wonder, then, that when corporate-owned media are tasked with examining this movement, their limitations rear their heads.
“Is the advancement of a certain field of science worth the further disenfranchisement, the pain of a marginalized group?” asked the Bail Fund’s Ing. “I think that’s a valid question for the media, but [the media] scrapes the surface of what this is really about.”
Are the corpress displaying their “limitations”
Or their limitless capacity for cultural arrogance?
Rebecca Watson made a good video about TMT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwMVSokHAJQ
I’m sorry, but my impression is that you’re simply siding with a small group of protesters just to stick it to the corporate media. You are not providing any unbiased view.
Are you challenging media bias by this: ‘There were all these internally invalid measures of how this poll could really have any weight,” Uahikea Maile, a Mauna Kea protector and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, told FAIR.’
?
The statement above seems to lack any facts/objectivity whatsoever. Ahem, what are these “internally invalid measures”? — didn’t you care to ask?
There are more possible contradictions in YOUR story:
“Astronomers weren’t blocked by us” — c.f. picture from the detestable Washington Post with protesters blocking the road. Was it staged or were they really blocking the road? Surely, a “veteran protector” is going to tell you like it is.
” ‘It’s not ‘some Hawaiians.’ We are the majority.’” — does not square with the poll results. Besides, holding the mountain sacred isn’t quite the same as prohibiting telescope construction, is it? You can build a telescope and still love the mountain. You point out that there are already several telescopes up there, why can’t there be one more? — I didn’t see the answer to that, only the implied “look, there is 21 already isn’t it enough?”.
Re colonialism and all: I think it’s fair to say that we live in the 21st century now. It’s come and gone. Did it leave some damage to the indigenous culture? — Yes, it did. The sanctity of the mountain, is now a fringe thing though. Do 75% of the population support construction? — Yes they do. While I do not wish to offend the protesters, but it seems they simply have to deal with it.
“But it seems they simply have to deal with it.”
Isn’t that what they told Native Americans (among many others) before “wiping them out”?
(Bolsonaro’s saying the same thing in Brazil as the Planet’s lungs are burning)
And now that your “culture” that “left some damage” to the indigenous cultures is destroying the Planet for everyone.
Time to reconsider some assumptions, eh?
When you say ‘your “culture”‘, you curiously exclude yourself. You presumably make use of many fruits of civilization and technological progress too, right? Well, most of us are.
Cruel and unjust treatment of the natives sadly did happen. Long ago. I don’t think it entitles their descendants for any special treatment. Everybody’s ancestors were screwed one time or another.
If my forefathers were sun worshipers, and I happen to be too, and my religious feelings are offended by people installing solar panels, can I tell them to stop, and more importantly, should they listen? — I don’t see a huge difference between this and the “holy mountain” argument here.
You’re right, we live in a world where population growth is causing more and more problems all over the world. This is exactly the reason why select few cannot claim a mountain or in fact any shared resource like these guys are trying to do.
The history of what happened to Native Hawaiians during the past 200 years has become blurred, therefore periodically we need a reminder. This letter is that reminder. This fight is about Native Hawaiians watching their sovereign nation being desecrated by a coordinated plan aimed at chipping away at the foundations of their lives with the ultimate goal of annhilating their nation. It’s about the Hawaiian language being extinguished almost to the point of extinction by banning the use of Hawaiian language in schools, streets, and public places, with English being the compulsory language. It’s about interfering with Native Hawaiian education, including the ban on printing and distributing books in the Hawaiian language. It’s about watching the familiar names of places, beaches, and roads changing to English names because the Hawaiian names were too complicated to pronounce. It’s about slowly losing access to areas that were once freely traveled by their ancestors. It’s about watching the disintegration of their political and social institutions, their culture, their economic patterns, and their religion. It’s about the destruction of their personal security, health, and dignity, and it’s about the removal of national symbols and names, including their flag. While these rights were slowly being taken away, the colonization of the occupying power slowly took over, with the imposition of its financial, economic and educational systems. This systematic imposition of an occupying power over a population in the occupied territory is considered a war crime when it happens in foreign countries, as it results in the death of a soul of the country. So, you see, this fight is about way more than a telescope.
Your “great Queen” sold land to foreigners, as well as continued a long line of tradition of discouraging the use of Hawaian language. Kamehameha was actually the first to do that. Maybe if the kingdom had had their shit together, and the queen wasn’t drunk all the time, they’d have listened to their loyal constituents vehemently complaining about not being able to trade with the rest of the world, and not having a decent life…because the royals controlled everything and kept the common people living like animals. You’re pushing a cert dark and false narrative that is nothing more than the saddest and most self-entitled form of victim mentality. If you truly were pushing against “colonialism” you might take accountability for Kamehameha uniting (murdering/subjugating) the islands…he did so with military technology and strategy that he traded with the British for. So,go take it up with him, or better yet, his descendants. This revisionist version of history your lot keep pushing is nothing more than thinly veiled racial hate, intertwined with sheer ignorance and an absolutely abysmal understanding of history or any semblance of reason. It points a HUGE spotlight on just how uneducated and ignorant a lot of people can get, not just on the Islands…but the world over. If you and all the protesters were serious about affecting change, you might start with VALUING education and intelligence, research things even if they’re uncomfortable, VOTE, be involved in actual community. Maybe they protesting where it actually matters…like the endless throngs of new foreigners owned resorts and hotels that keep popping up,…blocking ancestral views of the valley and ocean…clean up the beaches,…volunteer to protect the heiaus which ACTUALLY get desecrated,…as in for real. But, yeah,…totally…let’s attack the one thing that we know won’t get armed security and the national guard sent put to stop us…let’s attack the needs who want to help us not get hit by asteroids.
Spot on, mate! Logic and common sense FTW
PS: This is WAY MORE than “a telescope”. The complex is designed to cover 5 acres of ground and will be by far the largest on the Mauna.
How much f*cking over of natives is enough, hmmm? 126 years since USAmericans (Rich White Men) stole the land from the people who lived here.
Of course blocking the road was “staged” (although arrests were real). How the hell else can Native People get the attention of the corporate media and force redress of longstanding grievances?
But as the Hawai’ian people have been f*cked over for over 1 1/4 centuries now, the PTB figured, “Hell, we’ll just roll all over them again.”
Not to mention how entirely corrupt the process (and the bought and paid for persons involved in ) granting the “permissions” has been…so we won’t mention it…
Under basic international law, the United States has no legal claim to the Hawai’ian Islands. Of course, when has that ever stopped the USAmerican Empire?
And there are other less culturally biased places to put it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Meter_Telescope
State has it in their power to make this situation right today as the State controls Mauna Kea land in Trust. Hope the State will honor the culture, Aina, natural resources and beliefs of the People. Why is it taking Governor Ige so long to just say no to TMT? Money, In addition to rent from TMT 80% to the State & 20% to OHA State wants some of the billions from National Science Foundation.
In news: The university was expecting to be in a good position to receive billions for TMT-related astronomy research and instrumentation development from the National Science Foundation but the funding will go elsewhere if the telescope isn’t built in Hawaii, Syrmos said.
The university’s Institute for Astronomy is among the top three programs at the school in terms of the amount of research dollars generated.
No one “stole” anything. The kingdom sold land to numerous countries and private parties. There’s receipts. The common people overthrew the royals with the help of NUMEROUS western bankrolls. British, U.S. German. They were tired of a constantly drunk queen not allowing them to trade with the westerners that had been there for 80 years. It was a power struggle like any other between the “have’s” and the “have not’s”,…and retelling it like it was an all out war beset by the U.S. govt is just sad as it is disingenuously false. It’s done. You can’t go back in time, and after what Japan did to EVERYONE on the islands in their cowardly sneak attack (remember they attacked our Isnalds…REGARDLESS of why…they killed Hawaiians as well as military personnel) well, after that, the U.S. will never relinquish strategic authority over the islands. If they did, we’d be taken by China or Russia by weeks end. Everything you know and love came from how history went down. Do you have a giant tape worm in you right now? Did you contract polio in your life? Do you have access to adequate healthcare? Do you not have more freedoms than anyone in the entire world? Are you communicating with me on devices that are more powerful than the computers that got us to the moon? Some of us are appreciative of the things you people seem to take for granted…and we want to go even further and learn more about the big bang and know if a big GD asteroid is going to hit us. Some of us want to travel the stars. And no amount of rewriting history to fit an agenda based in victims mentality, will ever change that.
Appreciate your 22, not 13, correction. But your Ing informant is an unlikely trustee of a ‘bail fund,’ having repeatedly shown complete incompetence operating his own campaign funds, with consequent sanctions short of criminal referral only because he’s in the dominant political party. See Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission.
As for ‘voter suppression,’ … yikes. Your own reference articles belie the exaggerated charge.
The mountain protest may be somewhat maligned or misunderstood in the general press but a telescope consortium is not ‘capital,’ nor is sky gazing a form of colonialism. It appears to many that the protest is a operating under a big misunderstanding as well. There’s a lot of ‘preaching to the choir’ on both sides of this issue.
Taking 22 acres of Native Hawaiian protected land on their most holy of sites sure sounds like colonialism, all just to construct a 22nd telescope?
Not “just to construct a 22nd telescope”. To construct a telescope of unprecedented precision, that will explore issues not just of scientific interest, but of broad existential import to humanity as a whole. Perhaps its not your cup of tea, but learning about what happened in the very earliest stages of the universe and how the universe as we know it came to be, the locations and properties of exoplanets and whether they can or do harbor life and exploring whether we are alone, and how/why our best theories of the basic properties and workings of the universe fail and are incompatible with one another (embodied in black holes, where general relativity and quantum mechanics meet… and fail), is of great importance and significance to many people, not just scientists.
And so this is a clash of genuine and defensible interests, science and exploration vs. culture and religion. Both sides are perfectly justified in their positions. And so simplistic black-and-white narratives (as in the article and your post) are not only unhelpful, but actively harmful and misleading.
You’re statement is hyperbole, at best. After 100 years, everyone using the telescope will be no closer to any answers.
Words have meaning, but action is still greater!
There isn’t anything hyperbolic in my entire post. This particular telescope is unprecedented, and designed specifically to be able to look at the earliest/farthest objects in space, and so will without question increase our understanding of the early universe, as well as our ability to observe exoplanets, the area around black holes, etc… The only question is, to what degree.
You can’t really contribute to a discussion if you deny the basic, uncontroversial factual background of the topic: you’re firmly in Trumpian “alternative fact” territory here.
There are space telescopes and space probes that have long since surpassed any resolution possible from ground-based telescopes — Hubble being the most notable, but there are currently plenty of others*. It’s not at all clear that another ground-based telescope is going to contribute anything significant astronomically. Will some astronomers with a self-interest in increasing their self-importance claim otherwise? Yes, guaranteed. Just like cities building unneeded sports stadiums & arenas have their cheerleaders, astronomy undoubtedly has its own ‘bricks & mortar’ contingent.
At this point in time, a superfluous instrument like this should either be re-sited or better-yet, the money spent on a space-based unit, IF that’s even necessary.
*. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_telescopes
Strawman argument in its entirety. Space based telescopes are by definition (unless you’re illiterate) inherently far more difficult and costly to launch, repair, and maintain. Your point is moot and only serves to muddy the already murky waters. Pure derailment.
You’re throwing around too many big words, brother. They take them as disrespect.
Wow, this is the real info. Newspapers, the public news, fb media: wading through bs. Here is the scoop if you want to know why people are fighting. Why i fight: my mom is 1st generation from a country that doesn’t exist. I don’t want to see her die with such a broken heart. I am 2nd generaton and have to conform to american policy, law, and practice, that almost always goes against my beliefs and values.
You could go back to the homeland that doesn’t exist, and see how well you fare there. Nobody is forcing you to endure the benefits of this country. Weak claim. Get a better one one or move into the surrounding forest if you can find one.
No, they’re fighting science. A lot of time wasted writing this, to be blunt.
Aloha!
Indeed. “Not fighting science” yet they ONLY take the fight to science…not the numerous foreign owned resorts and hotels that pop up, not voting, not getting educated, not protecting the heiaus and holy burial sites…the actual ones. No, no, not going to show up to THAT fight because armed security and police will and DO shut that b.s. down immediately. They sure are clever figuring out that this would be the easiest fight that Ige would HAVE to bend to. The mob rules in mob rules. These people are cowards.
Julianne, this is irresponsible and dishonest reportage on your part. You did not offer an objective view and you ignored a lot of crucial information. There is no way to get to truth of the matter here by siding so exclusively with one POV, one that is dominated by people who have told so many falsehoods about the observatories and the people who work at them (which includes kanaka who are scientists and staff).
There are numerous legitimate threats to Hawaii (like the Jones Act). Observatories are not among them. There are many Hawaiians who support the TMT and all astronomy in Hawaii. You owe it to them to hear their side.
Agree, this is a disappointingly biased/subjective take on the subject, and only contributes to obscuring the matter rather than clarifying it. Normally this be par for the course, but FAIR exists pretty much for the exact opposite purpose: to get to the objective factual matters apart from this or that journalist’s or news outlets bias or interest on a given topic.
I mean, everyone screws up or fails of their own standards every now and then, and FAIR is consistently good at what they do… but this is definitely a case of them failing of their own standards. This is a thoroughly complicated moral gray-area, not a black and white good guys vs. bad guys situation.
Absolutely. This is a real glimpse into the false narrative being pushed by those who think with their hearts instead of their heads. Completely irrelevant and irresponsible “journalism.”
This issue is alot more complicated and less black-and-white than proponents on both sides would like you to believe. The protesters aren’t “creationists”, they’re not religious fundamentalists, and this isn’t about being anti-science: its opposition to further encroachment on and appropriation of culturally and religious significant land.
On the other hand, this is not about greedy military/industrial complex profiteering either, its about science. The telescope may well generate some revenue and certainly will generate some jobs, but that’s incidental: its a scientific instrument, and in some ways an unprecedented telescope technology, that will allow us to better observe and study the earliest and farthest objects in the universe (increasing our knowledge of how the universe evolved in its earliest stages, and how we got where we are today), the role of black holes and supermassive black holes in galaxy formation/evolution, and the features of exoplanets and the possibility of life therein. So, not only crucial scientific knowledge, but existentially significant knowledge that benefits everyone.
Thus, this isn’t Luke Slywalker and his band benevolent rebels vs. Darth Vader and the evil Empire. Its two conflicting sets of perfectly defensible interests. Anyone trying to present it as something else are either trying to mislead you, or are themselves ignorant. Let’s leave the fictional black/white morality narrative where it belongs: in fantasy books.
Ive just been on vacation to hawaii and its horrible. These people are stupid and racist as #!$& and would not know their own head from their ass.
Let us not forgot that modern day colonialism comes from eguipt. The eguiptions conquered europe and then trough their monarch bloodlines colonialized the rest of the world.
Im a white person from holland and if you look at the dutch royal sygil there are two lions. There are no lions in europe. This is an Eqgyptian bloodline….
Also from meeting with the maoris from new zealand, also origionally pasific islanders we have the story of the ‘wakathene’ the ‘white people that they dont like’ that lived there before the maoris came and where the white native peoples that lived in new zealand and australia. There are not much reverences to this except in the vatican library and the story from tolkien who visited there and after wrote the lord of the rings. Ulthan where the elves are from is obviusly a reverence from when australia had an inland sea. And a higher peacefull white race that lived there.
These hawains are so retarted and at the very least should look at their own ‘black’ background and rasist history and rape culture. Incest and fat smelly gassified disguesting sweat clouds these people leave behind. ( im never going to hawaii again).
The white people are as much a victom of colonialism as they are if not more and at the very least are reclaiming their white heritage islands. Which has been this way since the times of atlantis. Even their own Jason Mamoa just made a big hollywood movie about this called Aquaman and it shows you how deep the black equiption propaganda goes by having a Hawaiin play the king of Atlantis. Wjich also in the movie is inhabited by white people.
They also have rasism agaisnt wallmart and mcdonald but 95% of the people that work there are ‘hawaiin’.
I guess you reap what you sow even if its decennia later and you tried to forget your culture of rape and murder.
White people just like lord of the rings displayed correctly are the ruling class of the earth because we are not agressive and tend not to sleep with ours cousins 8 generations in a row and tend to have more cultured cooking that does not revolve around eating piles of old meat that tastes like your moms #:;&$. Making you fat, ugly, really stick and in the long term retarted.
White people are not the problem on this earth. Black hate is and eguiptian colonialism and i admit white people fueled by black hate.
Dont hate the white man, hate the racist lazy sellout black culture that (equipt) started modern day slavery and started the slavery alkohol culture.
Alkohol is a pioson that makes people stupid. Fake native Hawaiin cannot claim parts of hawaii because they lost the war that they karmically attracted trough there rape culture and harrasment of woman.
They do not honour their woman and do not honor their goddess which you can read from the hate in their eyes and the fat on their skin. Fat ugly toads and that is why they do not deserve land.
Mother nature wants peace and balance. If you cannot get on board with that you gotta go. + balnce allows for 1 or more new observatories where there are allready 13 standing.
If you want repect from the international community then dont lie about your rape culture past, dont squat our white peoples cultural heritage and the high elves persuit of the stars and at the very least LOOSE SOME WEIGHT.
Ive been harrased there just because om white by people that are at the intelectual level of a homeless meth addict pretending to be hawaiin and proud.
It was clear with lord of the rings that trowing the ring of power (symbol of hate and violence) was the right thing to do. These people have been corrupted beuond redemption and will share the fate of golum. They are not worthy of this paradice. There is enough land to enjoy hawaii for everyone. Being against this telescope is a sign of jelousy against white intelligance and our succes in the persuit of happyness. AKA having money and spending it on something nice. With fat ugly body’s and self hatred a culture of slavery, rape and hate is WHAT THEY PREVER. You reap what you sow..
And if this was not true then would not just have had a month of black harresment and people try to schrew with over with money.
#$&@ off, go back to africa where ALL black people origionally come from. Stop being a reverse pshycology violent agressive asshole.
Sander Boskma, I have never witnessed as much of a disgusting and racist POV than yours here.
It is obvious that you have absolutely no understanding of the Hawaiian (learn to spell) people, their culture, nor their history; but instead are letting your hate stereotype all Hawaiian people into one viewpoint—as well as anyone else who is not of your “Superior Whiteness”.
You are the scourge of this earth and a part of the hate that is devouring and making it sick and dying, with no respect for anyone who is not like you.
We truly hope you never return to Hawai’i.
Thank you Tawnja Ching. That was horrible.
He’s obviously very angry, but he’s not wrong for the most part. Just because you don’t see it…doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I’m so happy and lucky my family left Hawaii in my formative years. I was actually able to get a decent education and can see how dark and disgusting most of the culture of the islands is …which you’ve shown again in your knee jerk response. If you truly lived with Aloha, youd wish this person a blessing and invite him to your world to at least try to show him something better. No aloha here. And you don’t speak for all Hawaiians.
Sorry you didn’t experience the true aloha from the most loving kind spiritual Hawaiians. They truly give from their heart not expecting in return most of my best respected friends are Hawaiian. One thing to note is most Hawaiians do not sell out for money they are committed to more importantly beliefs and what is right to do. Right now Hawaii State government has the opportunity to do what is right & the desire of most Hawaiian people and say NO to TMT. Many injustices have been done to Hawaiian people and people all over the world but this is a situation where Hawaii State Governor & politicians can do justice. Just say No to TMT its not worth the money.
Well, they’re about 100 years too late if “colonialism” is their concern. They should keep it honest instead of going after an easy target instead (the TMT). And speaking of lies, all of their “environmental concerns” are straight up propaganda. They’re literally calling the EIS reports fake. Lol, you can’t win with ignorant people, so just arrest them (the protesters) instead.
Thank you! So nice to see some actual intelligence still, in all of this.
Also the mentality of these people is not that there against colonialism. This is more about living in an illusion. Because there is no such thing as free money! And they want free money. They are not against colonialism at all. If they would have there way they would not change the system at all accept fill there pockets. There history is that of rape, cousin sex and extortion of woman. Hawaii is big enough to live a happy life for everypne. Instead these people choose to be violent and disruptive and all deserve to be put away for ever. They want white people to leave hawaii because its disruptive to their rape culture.
Ps its not a 1000 people! Get your nrs straight this is the internet, people want facts. I was there its more like 90 to max 100 people. This news is totally out of proportion and all these people should find their OWN persuit of happyness or send away to a reeducation FEMA camp.
You are so wrong! I live on the Mauna! It’s MUCH MORE than 100,000!! The numbers of Kia’i on the Mauna at one time varies—Hawaiian people do work and therefore they take shifts going up their in protest …and the number of those against TMT being built here and that are against it are much greater than those that are for it. I don’t care what their illegitimate polls say—if you live here you know—that’s twisted news/data.
Sander, you are a very sick person. I hope you get the help you need. Your hate and racism has no place in Hawai’i.
Shut your uneducated ass up.know when you lose an argument? When you start calling everyone “racist” that doesn’t conform to your ignorant set of opinions. You’re a loser of the highest order.
To have a stronger understanding of the sacredness of Mauna Kea is to be born and educated with the spiritual knowledge and feeling of the ancestors. Like in the Bible the white man carried his sacredness and knowledge of their ancestors beliefs . Every Nation has their own sacred generations of elders who have passed down knowledge, chants and stories. Respect in life is the key to all living matters.
Was it sacred before or AFTER the Tahitians came and raped and murdered the Marquesans out of their homeland?
Your article is full of tired clichés. How is this Colonialism? Its a scientific instrument. This is not unbridled industrial growth. The people supporting the scope are not industrial moguls. They are liberal educated people who strongly support hawaiian aspirations. This is not a drilling rig. Its not some giant corporation destroying the ecology its a non profit scientific instrument, carefully designed and planned to coexist on the mountain and which will benefit all mankind. Its one of 15 already up there, yet they do not object to those. 3 existing facilities will be removed and the land restored. The goal of the protest is no different than when the catholic religion stopped astronomy in forcing Galileo to say the sun revolves around the Earth, because it offended their cultural sensibilities. You assume all Hawaiians are against this project. Its a vocal minority. How are Hawaiians disenfranchised? They make up one fifth of the voters in Hawaii, which is a democracy. My vote is not worth any more than one of theirs. They have a government organization, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which is well funded and devoted to Hawaiian welfare, and is well funded and controls a vast amount of land. OHA is paying for this civil disobedience ie law breaking and trampling on others civil rights, at about $100,000 a day. This is money that could be used to benefit Hawaiians at sea level, where the is is always a need for attention to problems The mountain is 644,000 acres. The 5 acres for TMT is at the very top where no Hawaiians ever lived. Not even all Hawaiians agree the mountain is “sacred” and even if it is, whats wrong with sharing the mana for the good of all mankind. This group wants to go back to the days where the sun revolves around the Earth, and if you disagree you are an evil colonialist practicing scientific imperialism, in their own words.
One thing I have yet to see any journalist seek out is the religious reasons that the telescope would be off-limits. That is, why would their gods or spirits object to a telescope?
Yeah, this fight may be more about sovereignty and a long history of screwing over the indigenous, but there still seems to have to be some spiritual basis. Otherwise protests like these would happen whenever any new building is going to be constructed.
What’s special about that volcano and why do higher powers want it left alone? Explicitly?
Exactly! Thank you! That’s what I’ve been saying for years now. I never see these people doing anything to protect the real sacred burial sites or the heiaus that commonly are desecrated. You don’t see these people show up when new resort and hotels owned by foreign interest get built. Why? Because these cowards know armed security protecting millions of TAXPAYER dollars will remove them. “Not against science” pffff it’s EXACTLY against science, because science won’t push back…they’re just nerds, right??
I write in kapu aloha. This is a good article, mahalo! Please understand that this is not colonialism, it is a 127 year occupation. Mauna Kea belongs to the Hawaiian Kingdom & itʻs people, not the registered voters. It is sacred for the same reason that it is conservation land; do not desecrate/develope that which sustains Life.
This fight is about more than a telescope. It’s about Native Hawaiians watching their sovereign nation being desecrated by a coordinated plan aimed at chipping away the foundations of their lives with the ultimate goal of annhilating their nation. It’s about the Hawaiian language being extinguished almost to the point of extinction by banning the use of Hawaiian language in schools, streets, and public places, with compulsary language being English. It’s about interfering with Native Hawaiian eduction, including the ban on printing and distributing books in the Hawaiian language. It’s about watching the familiar names of places, beaches, and roads changing to English names because the Hawaiian names were too complicated to pronounce. It’s about slowly losing access to areas that were once freely traveled by their ancestors. It’s about watching the disintegration of their political and social insitutitions, their culture, their economic patterns, and their religion. It’s about the destruction of their personal security, health, and dignity, and it’s about the removal of national symbols and names, including their flag. While these rights were slowly being taken away, the colonization of the occupying power slowly took over, with the imposition of its financial, economic and educational systems. This systematic imposition of an occupying power over a population in the occupied territory is considered a war crime when it happens in foreign countries, as it results in the death of a soul of the country. So, you see, this fight is about way more than a telescope.
There is zero voter suppression in Hawaii of any group. I defy anyone to show evidence of that claim.
The, “voter suppression” argument is basically only Hawaiians should have the right to vote. I.e., it’s their (the Hawaiian Kingdom) country and people who do not belong to the Kingdom should not be voting.
Just a bit hypocritical calling it, “voter suppresion” though.
“Voter Suppression”?! I’m kanaka maoli and have lived on the Big Island of Hawaii all my life. I’ve never had my vote suppressed. I’ve taken part in many polls, the Star-Advertiser poll being one. To say that the poll was somehow prejudiced, skewed or suppressed is disingenuous.
This protest is a land dispute, nothing more. It has nothing to do with the TMT or even Maunakea. It is between some native Hawaiians and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands; native Hawaiians who feel the DHHL has not been forthcoming with its distribution of the ceded lands. All the rest of it — “the mauna is our temple; the mauna is sacred; the telescopes are desecration” — is all distraction. As we speak, protesters are building unpermitted structures on the access road to the mauna. That alone tells you this is more a land dispote and less a protest for sanctity.
The “voter suppression” the article mentions, yet fails to elaborate the details in any way, seems to intentionally imply CURRENT voter suppression. There is NO current voter suppression. What was fallaciously omitted was that the actual voter suppression happened over 130 years ago with the signing of the Constitution of The Kingdom of Hawaii in 1887. New requirements for minimum income and land ownership did, in fact, suppress the ability for native Hawaiians and other citizens of the Kingdom (notably the Chinese and the poor of all races). However…this was long ago and is no longer true. What IS true now, is that many native Hawaiians simply choose not to vote, for all sorts of reasons. This is not SUPPRESSION, it is the willful choice to not participate
At first, the protectors were protecting the environment. This position was backed by internet memes claiming that TMT was going to release mercury and thousands of gallons of waste into the aquifer. Then the protesters went as far as starting yet-another-meme claiming that TMT was atomic powered and would pump nuclear waste into the aquifer. Then over time the fact that TMT is a zero-waste facility finally got through.
Then the protesters changed tactics. Now TMT is desecrating their sacred mountain. TMT supporters pointed out that TMT is actually located over a mile from the summit and 400′ below it. TMT is only, “monster” relative to other telescopes, but small relative to the Mauna… TMT supporters also pointed out how hard TMT has worked to get input from indigenous practitioners who helped choose the TMT site.
Now the protesters have changed tactics again, and the issue is now, “colonialization”. A people who are fiscally savvy cannot be colonialized. Education is the best defense against colonialization. TMT understands people are concerned about colonialization, and to address this concern, have committed a million dollars a year to local education, including science, engineering, and technology.
NOT building TMT will denigh those students the very education that will defend them against colonialization. Without education students today will be limited to low wage service jobs (i.e., waitressing, cleaning hotel rooms) – the very jobs that are indicative of colonialization!!!
If anyone benefits from NOT building TMT, it will be business that cater to tourists, such as the big hotel chains, big chain restaurants, i.e, the colonialists!
Thank you.com lol. Seriously thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, for those points. Logic, sense and reason are outright missing from these people. And the tactic changing shows just how hypocritical and false this whole thing is. It truly makes me disgusted and sad. And it truly shows just how bad the education system is, not just in Hawaii, but the country and the world over. People read these disingenuous, false headlines, have an emotional reaction, and think they automatically know the ins and outs.
“The Associated Press (7/16/19), for example, reported that protesters were “bullying” supporters of the telescope, a claim that the protest’s organizational structure and tactics directly contradict.”
As a TMT supporter, I can certainly testify that many of the TMT protesters are bullies. I fear wearing my imuaTMT shirt in public, or to put a sticker on my car. Comments on Facebook have resulted in comments such as, “GO HOME FUKA CUT YOUR TUNGOUT”. Many times there are hundreds of horrid comments with name-calling, vulgarity, and threats.
To refer to the protesters as “peaceful”, and protesting with “Kapu Aloha” only refers to some of the protesters. We live in fear of the rest.
How can this article appear on, “FAIR Challenging media bias since 1986”? Those of us who support TMT, those of us who are actually in the majority are getting steamrollered in the popular press by protesters that are adept at using social media – not because they are actually in the right.
FAIR is being UNfair.