Nov 11, 2010 | Community
Elections represent the will of citizens and election year 2010 was no different.
Congratulations are due to candidates who will be sworn in to offices in Maui County, the Hawaii State Legislature, the 5th floor of the State Capitol and in Congress, but also to the candidates who offered voters a choice in ideas, philosophy and records.
The results will mean change in the Maui County Council and Hawaii State Legislature, in the Maui mayor’s seat and in the governor’s office. The results also mean change in many state and county departments as new appointees take over as directors and managers.
But if campaign slogans mean anything, there will be no change to perpetuation of core community values espoused by the constituency of Focus Maui Nui.
With the incoming leaders of the State of Hawaii, voters can be assured of attention to quality education as selection of members of the Board of Education is turned over to the new governor under the constitutional amendment approved by voters. Even as they differed on how to achieve the goals, returning incumbents and successful challengers all voiced support for values articulated by the participants of the Focus Maui Nui process: fostering quality education, preserving the Islands’ environmental and cultural resources, promoting targeted economic development and meeting the social and infrastructural needs of the community.
Those values are essential components of a healthy future for Maui Nui. The Focus Maui Nui process will continue to pursue consensus on strategies that provide quality opportunities for the residents of Maui County.
We look forward to the work ahead.
Nov 4, 2010 | Community
Meeting human needs and preserving local culture are twin core values espoused by our community through the Focus Maui Nui process. Sharon Balidoy, a social worker at Queen Lili`uokalani Children’s Center (QLCC) in Wailuku, is a prime example of a practitioner active on both fronts, making profound contributions to the community.
QLCC is one of ten units statewide founded by the Queen Lili`uokalani Trust; the trust was founded over a century ago. “The work of the Children’s Center is to offer support and counseling services for Hawaiian orphans and their `ohana,” says Balidoy. “Family strengthening services are also provided to children living apart from their biological parents.”
Central to the mission of QLCC is perpetuation of Hawaiian culture and spirituality, and at the Wailuku Center, this means activities such as crafts, music, dance, and site visits to instill a sense of place. Balidoy estimates that QLCC reaches over a thousand children on Maui. “Our staff consists mostly of social workers working in specific communities, and an important aspect of our work is functioning as an effective team”, says Balidoy.
Balidoy is an expert on teamwork – she is a highly-respected competitive outrigger canoe paddler and helped establish Lae`ula O Kai canoe club almost 20 years ago, based at Kanaha Beach Park in Kahului. “Club members have put a lot of work into Park improvements, observes Balidoy. “Participating in community work days and keeping cultural traditions in mind are cornerstones of the club’s activities.”
Over the years, Balidoy has also been intimately involved in hula – she founded the Hālau Hula Alapa`i I Maluuluolele – “another one of my families,” she chuckles. “I studied under my mother, and for my sister and I, hula was a way of life. Now we both teach. The chants and hula are not about competition or seeking perfection. We practice out of respect for our ancestors and to understand their ways and the places they knew and memorialized.” Balidoy leads classes in Lahaina and Paukukalo.
Oct 30, 2010 | Community
Just a reminder to everyone to cast your vote, either at your polling place or by absentee.
Voting is an essential part of our democratic process, by which you choose the representatives in your government who make decisions that affect you, your family and your community.
For more information, visit the State of Hawai`i Office of Elections website.
Oct 8, 2010 | Community
The conversation was polite, if occasionally pointed, as Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona and former U.S. Congressman Neil Abercrombie made clear they agreed on defining issues even as they differed on how state government can respond.
The Republican and Democratic nominees for governor appeared Wednesday, October 6 in “Focus 2010: A Gubernatorial Conversation,” a forum broadcast statewide by Hawaii Public Radio and the state’s community television stations. The forum was sponsored by Maui Economic Development Board and Hawaii Public Radio with support from the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Akaku: Maui Commuity Television and UH Maui College.
“Focus 2010 was a tremendous success in providing an opportunity for the community on Maui to question the candidates for governor on concerns relevant to the Neighbor Islands,” said MEDB President Jeanne Unemori Skog. “Through the Focus Maui Nui initiative, MEDB is fostering community participation in decisions of land use, water use, education and economic growth. We appreciate the cooperation of these candidates in informing the community of their views.”
For all the contentiousness in campaign advertising in the gubernatorial race, the two partisan candidates demonstrated they could agree on key points. Both said they support the counties’ allocation of the state’s hotel room tax, with Abercrombie adding the historical note that he was in the Legislature when the tax was created to have visitors pay a share of the costs of services that they use. Both spoke on the need to deal with the high costs of interisland transportation but neither offered concrete solutions to make traveling between island less costly. Both cited the cost of fuel as a factor in the costs.
Both spoke positively of the benefits of astronomy in Hawaii in spurring creation of science and technology jobs, citing plans for a 30-meter telescope on Mauna Kea. The Hawaii site was selected by TMT Observatory Corp. for what would be the Earth’s largest optical telescope. Both also recognized the observatories on Mauna Kea and Haleakala raise cultural and environmental concerns. Abercrombie took a positive approach, saying the early Polynesians who first populated Hawaii were students of astronomy, and observatories on Mauna Kea are an extension of that traditional knowledge.
“They arrived here because of their knowledge of the skies and because of their faith in their capacity to understand their world. They could be seen as the first Polynesian astronomers,” he said. While saying he supports space research, Aiona was more cautious, noting that economic developments have impacts on Native Hawaiian culture that need to be aired before a project is initiated.
“When it comes to every project, everyone needs to be at the table,” he said. Both support development of alternative energy resources to reduce Hawaii’s dependence on oil. Aiona cited progress by the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative to support renewable energy research and development, set up by Gov. Linda Lingle. “We have set a goal of reducing our use of oil by 50 percent by 2018. With the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, I think we can do it,” he said.
Abercrombie cited the potential for tapping wind, solar, wave and geothermal energy resources in Hawaii, and cited the success of Pacific Biodiesel in converting waste cooking oil into a transportation fuel. But when Abercrombie referred to his plan for an Energy Authority that would support alternative energy development, Aiona rebutted that it would only create another bureaucracy standing in the way of energy development.
There was convergence and contention in their positions on education as well. Aiona spoke of the Lingle-Aiona administration’s support for STEM education programs in Hawaii’s schools, noting that the state’s efforts to promote Robotics competitions has blossomed. Abercrombie in turn spoke in favor of decentralizing school decision-making to allow individual schools to manage their allocations.
But when Aiona cited the Department of Education’s success in winning a federal Race to the Top award, a $75 million competitive grant to school districts to support plans for increasing student achievement, Abercrombie pointed out it was a federal grant, the kind of government spending that Aiona has been criticizing.
When Aiona said he would order an audit of the Department of Education “so we will know how the money is being spent,” Abercrombie said, “The last thing we need is an audit, the last thing we need is another study.”
The 90-minute forum is being rebroadcast by Akaku on cable Channels 53 and 54 through Oct. 11. A schedule of the broadcasts can be found at www.medb.org/video.
Hawaii Public Radio will broadcast another gubernatorial forum on Oct. 18, with HPR Hawaii correspondent Sherry Bracken as moderator. HPR News Director Kayla Rosenfeld was moderator for Focus 2010.
What are your thoughts on the debate? Please leave a comment below or let us know on Facebook or Twitter.
Sep 6, 2010 | Community
Hawaii voters increasingly are taking advantage of early voting by mail or at absentee voting sites. In the 2008 General Election, 35 percent of all Maui voters were early voters—18,229 absentees to 33,810 at the polls. Statewide, 38.5 percent of voters turned in absentee ballots.
Beginning this year, there’s an option for Hawaii voters to receive a mail-in ballot for all elections as long as they maintain their current voting address. Applications for a Permanent Absentee Voter Ballot can be picked up at the Elections Office of the Maui County Clerk, 7th floor, Kalana O Maui, 200 S. High St., or downloaded from the State Elections Office website: http://hawaii.gov/elections/voters
Information and applications for regular mail-in voting also are on the site: http://hawaii.gov/elections/voters/voteabsentee.htm
Applications for mail-in ballots are being accepted through Sept. 11. Mail-in ballots must be delivered to the Maui County Clerk’s office by 6 p.m. on Primary Election Day. County Clerk Jeff Kuwada urged early voters to be that: Get your ballots in early.
Voters who already have decided on their choices can begin walk-in voting on Friday, Sept. 3, through Sept. 11. Walk-in voting will be held:
- Maui County Elections Office, 7th floor/Kalana O Maui, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- On Molokai, Mitchell Pauole Center.
Jul 1, 2010 | Community
In the 1920s a select few well-heeled visitors came to vacation in the two or three grand hotels at Waikiki Beach. Some flew in small amphibian airplanes to see the volcanoes on the Big Island, but Maui was seldom on their itinerary.
Inter-Island Airways, Ltd., (which eventually became Hawaiian Airlines), a subsidiary of Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, landed its first Sikorsky plane on Maui on November 11, 1929. The following year Maui’s first official airport opened at Ma’alaea, and Inter-Island Airways began a daily passenger service to Maui, carrying passengers aboard Sikorsky planes with a 75- minute flight time from Honolulu. In early 1938, construction began on a new Maui airport near Camp 6 in Pu’unene. And during the early 1940’s, the military completed construction of air bases on Maui, including the Pu’unene Naval Air Station. During WWII, as Maui became an important training, staging, and rest area for U. S. military forces in the Pacific, that station was no longer big enough, and the Naval Air Station at Kahului (NASKA) was established in the cane fields and beaches around Kahului. After the war, the site at NASKA was described as the “most potentially ideal commercial airport site,” and in August, 1950, work began on Maui’s new commercial air terminal. The Kahului Airport became Maui’s main commercial and passenger air terminal on June 24, 1952, when Hawaiian Airlines and Trans-Pacific Airlines flights landed. By August, 1959, the year Hawai’i became a state, Maui had committed to developing its own visitor niche and work began at Ka’anapali, Hawaii’s first planned resort. The early 1980’s brought direct service from the mainland to Maui when United Air Lines’ first flight from Los Angeles landed at the Kahului Airport carrying 180 passengers.
Last month, inter-island, domestic, and international flights brought 160,121 visitors to Maui’s expanding Kahului Airport.
Question Of The Week:
How many air flights did you take last year ?
Leave a comment here or post it on the Focus Maui Nui Facebook Page. Mahalo!
Jun 18, 2010 | Community
A telling indicator of economic duress is local residents leaving Hawaii for good.
At the airport, departing family members or friends look no different than other people. There is no way of knowing their reasons for pulling up stakes and leaving Hawaii. The census eventually tells us what happened. During the 1990s, 118,201 more people left Hawaii to reside in the mainland U.S. than all the people who migrated to Hawaii from other states. The most recent exodus of islanders to the mainland began as a trickle in 1990, gaining momentum during 1995 to 2000, when out-migrants totaled 201,293, a number greater than the population of Maui County today.
A Census Bureau report released in 2003 stated that from 1995-2000, “among all states, the highest net out-migration rate was in Hawaii.” The pace of out-migration lessened after 2000 as the economy improved. However, the exodus resumed two years later. In 2006-2007, there was net out-migration of 11,849, and the trend continued the following year with the onset of the current recession.
Today there is evidence of a new population flight from Hawaii. As Hawaii’s annual unemployment rate jumped from 4% to 7% in 2009, Maui County’s climbed to over 9%, and total net out-migration from July, 2008 to July, 2009 was 5,298 people. But the sheer numbers of departing residents do not tell the whole story. Not all departures from Hawaii result from economic hardship.
Many local students leave to attend colleges on the mainland. Seniors are attracted to more affordable retirement locations. Some who leave are not native-born at all, but mainlanders who, after sampling life in Hawaii, return to their homes of origin. For others, leaving home is a consequence of falling in love, or wanderlust. And our transient military population adds to the count of mainland relocations. Population loss is a sensitive social issue, especially with the out-migration of youth and a skilled workforce. Although Americans are notoriously mobile people with an ongoing saga of population movement, a state or county that is aiming for economic stability and Sustainability must address these trends.
Question Of The Week:
Has a family member left Maui Nui for work?
Leave a comment here or post it on the Focus Maui Nui Facebook Page. Mahalo!
Nov 25, 2009 | Community
Na Huihui o Makali’i is a cluster of stars also known as the Pleaides or the Seven Sisters and is much revered in Hawaiian tradition as the place from where the first Hawaiian people came to Earth. In November the appearance of the Makali’i cluster signifies the beginning of Makahiki, the most important season of the year set aside to honor and give thanks to Lono, a fertility and music god who, in agriculture and planting tradition, was identified with rain and food plants. He was one of the four gods (with Kū, Kāne, and his twin brother Kanaloa) who existed before the world was created. It was the celebration of the harvest and a time of personal rest and spiritual and cultural renewal. It was a time when all wars and battles were ceased, tributes and taxes paid by each district to the ruling chief, sporting competitions and contests between villages were organized, and festive events were commenced. Several of the rigid kapu (laws) were eased or temporarily set aside to allow more freedom of activity and easy celebration.
“Here is your nourishment, o gods of Wakea’s descendants. Increase the growth of the land. It is freed, it is freed, it is freed.”
Nov 18, 2009 | Community
There are 3,140 counties in the United States. 21% (673) are classified as coastal. More than half of the U.S. population lives in a coastal county. The entire state of Hawaii is now included in the coastal zone (previously state forest reserve lands were exempt).
Coastal areas are home to a wealth of natural resources, and they also sustain a wealth of economic activity. They are home to some of the most developed areas in the nation. Although population increase and coastal development produce numerous economic benefits, they also may result in the loss of critical habitat, green space, and biodiversity. In 2003, 23 of the 25 most densely populated U.S. counties were coastal.
The nation’s coastal population is expected to increase by more than 12 million by 2015. Coastal population growth is generally the same rate as the entire nation, but in the limited space of coastal counties. This increasing density makes the task of managing coastal resources increasingly difficult. Public policymakers in coastal counties are confronted with the task of finding a balance between benefiting from economic growth while mitigating the effects of this growth on coastal environments. Population Trends Along the Coastal United States: 1980-2008 ~US Department of Commerce, NOAA
All of Hawaii’s counties are coastal counties.
Elections represent the will of citizens and election year 2010 was no different.
