I’m sure that few people on Maui had a chance to notice that Hawaii – and Maui – were mentioned in four rather long articles during last Sunday’s (December 30’s) New York Times.
Two articles were about the impending UH game at the Sugar Bowl. One article predicted that UH would have a tough time winning the game – and they were right of course. The second discussed Colt Brennan’s possible NFL career – the Times had doubts. Time will tell.
A third article, in the Times business section, reviewed “Island Living,” and included an interview with a new couple who just moved to Kauai a year ago after plowing under a hunk of fine Kauai nature and building a multi-million dollar home on a yet-to-be-completed golf course (just what Kauai needs of course). After complaining about how tough island living can be, the husband said, “my wife went into sticker shock the first year at the price of milk.”
Really? Shock? For a whole year? Sitting in her shiny new million-dollar abode? Poor baby, I’ll bet it hurt her handicap. I’m sure the natives empathize. Let us poll the pineapple and cane field workers – I’m positive they’ll be happy to take up a collection for the stressed out poachers.
I can report great glee about the final article – in the travel section no less, under the heading of “Heads Up,” as in “watch out if you’re planning to go here….”
The article details the slimy back room dealings which forced the Superferry onto Mauians, who very much not only don’t want it but don’t want any more of just about anything. The Times summarized Maui’s point of view: “More tourists, more second homes, more hotels? No thanks!”
Other interesting quotes:
“Waikiki has become a forest of featureless high-rises…a monumental aesthetic and environmental tragedy.”
“We’re tired of having developments crammed down our throats,” says one Maui man.
And my favorite, from a woman on Molokai: “Tourism is just a way for outsiders to take our best places and then offer to pay us to change their sheets.”
From the Maui point of view then, as reported by the Times, we can summize: the governor is a corporate whore, the Superferry sucks and needs to die, and tourists and second-homers can go fuck themselves as long as they do it someplace other than Maui.
What this island – this state – needs is more such reporting in lots of markets throughout the mainland, and the sooner it happens, the faster we can turn back the tide, and save a few square feet of this once pretty island.
– Maui Curmudgeon, somewhere on Maui
National Trivia Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Hunahuna ‘ike: Trivia