Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 12:50 PM
Subject: Maui News - Honopou Farmers Protect
Water belongs to everyone^Ò ^× farmers protest
East Maui streams center of debate
By CHRIS HAMILTON, Staff Writer
POSTED: May 25, 2008
Article Photos
James Sagawinit of Haiku protests East Maui Irrigation Co.^Òs
long-standing practice of diverting water from streams mauka of Hana
Highway. Sagawinit was among about 50 protesters sign waving near Twin
Falls on Saturday morning. Meanwhile, EMI officials said they would like
to work to find a compromise with taro farmers. The issue is before the
state Commission on Water Resources Management. Its staff is working to
complete a report recommending new in-stream flow standards for five East
Maui streams.
The Maui News / CHRIS HAMILTON photo
HAIKU ^× About 50 taro farmers lined Hana Highway on Saturday morning near
Twin Falls, waving signs and hands in search of community support for
their efforts to get more water placed back into East Maui^Òs streams.
As many passing motorists honked their horns as didn^Òt.
The farmers, led by Lyn Scott and Troy McConnell of the grass-roots
Honopou Stream Association, are readying for an upcoming staff report and
then potential decision by the state Commission on Water Resource
Management. Scott said the farmers want to keep this issue alive in the
public^Òs eye.
The commission could force East Maui Irrigation Co., and its parent
company, Alexander and Baldwin Inc., to release much of the nearly 234
million gallons of water the company collects each day in its 74-mile,
130-year-old system of ditches and tunnels.
^ÓDoes the ditch own the water?^Ô asked protester James Sagawinit, 72, of
Haiku. ^ÓWater belongs to everyone. Not a certain few. They didn^Òt make
it. It comes from the heavens.^Ô
As the farmers and fishermen argued that restoring the streams will bring
back new life, EMI officials said they wanted to find a new balance that
will satisfy all sides.
EMI uses the water for Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.^Òs 35,000-acre
sugar cane operation as well as to supply drinking water to Upcountry
residents. HC&S, which is another subsidiary of A&B, also provides 800
jobs on the island.
Garret Hew, who manages both EMI and HC&S^Òs Paia plantation, issued a
statement Saturday saying company officials have tried to work directly
with the taro farmers in the past and continue to seek their cooperation,
since the company believes there is enough water for both the sugar
plantations and taro farmers.
^ÓUnfortunately, those efforts have been stymied by some of the
representatives of the taro growers, who view this situation as an ^Ñus
versus them,^Ò ^Ñwin-lose,^Ò ^Ñall or nothing^Ò conflict,^Ô Hew said.
^ÓInstead, it our belief that by selecting the right streams, the right
quantities of water and the right improvements to the water delivery
systems, a ^Ñwin-win^Ò result is possible.^Ô
Seven years ago, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. filed a petition on the
farmers^Ò behalf seeking to dramatically increase flows into 27 streams
below Hana Highway. Proponents argued that, by state law, Native Hawaiian
farmers get first dibs on the water since the watershed is made up almost
entirely of ceded Hawaiian royal lands, which are ^× for at least the time
being ^× controlled by the state.
The Maui News was unable to reach an attorney for Native Hawaiian Legal
Corp. on Saturday.
For the first time, the Commission on Water Resource Management staff^Òs
final report, which could be issued as early as next month, will develop
what^Òs called measurable in-stream flow standards for the Honopou,
Hanehoi, Piinaau, Waiokamilo and Wailuanui streams.
In the past, the commission maintained a status quo stance on how water is
diverted from the state^Òs nearly 400 perennial streams. But the new
report is in response to a 2000 Hawaii Supreme Court ruling in favor of
returning water that was diverted from the Waiahole ditch on Oahu since
the 1920s to supply sugar crops.
However, in that case, the ditch was no longer watering crops.
On Saturday, Hew implored taro growers to sit down with the honest
intention of working out a viable solution, one that preserves Hawaiian
culture.
^ÓNo one wants to be involved in protracted and expensive regulatory
proceedings, least of all HC&S and EMI, and we are hopeful that at some
point in the process we will have the opportunity to work with the taro
growers in developing a solution that will keep both taro and sugar alive
on Maui,^Ô Hew said.
The farmers also want the water restored so that the flora and stream
fauna that rely on free-flowing streams will return and flourish.
^ÓWe need to take it back from the corporations that are watering their
grass that they call sugar cane,^Ô said protester Joyclynn Costa, 49, of
Haiku.
Taro farmer Sanford Keka-huna, 52, of Huelo, said he wants to share the
water so farmers have enough water to grow the Hawaiian staple.
^ÓIt^Òs not hard to share,^Ô he said.
^Õ Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@ mauinews.com.
------
Member Comments
poholopu
05-25-08 5:17 PM
It really ******me off to see our Hawaiian farmers on Maui still
struggling for water to water their taro. Back in the 1930s, my own
grandfather had the same kine pilikia with his taro patch along Kanaha
stream in Lahaina. The workers from Pioneer Mill used to come and try to
shut off the flow into his patch. He had to threaten them with a shot gun
to make them stop. No good! Pilau! Same thing for EMI, pilau!!
poholopu
05-25-08 5:11 PM
Easy for you to say, "compromise" eh? The reason why its become a
"Hawaiian" issue is because other non-Hawaiians do not value the concept
of healthy stream flows. They not planting taro, so it doesn't bother
them. It takes a massive amount of water just to make a small amount of
sugar. Surely there are other crops that can be grown in its place that
would demand less water?
Killawiffa
05-25-08 4:42 PM
And as for the comment made by Jocelyn Costa regarding the "grass they
call sugarcane". It surprises me how anyone would even hint at the idea
of HC&S being put out of business as a good thing. The sugar industry has
been around so long, it has become part of our island's lifestyle, it's a
part of Maui...I would much rather see sugarcane, than million dollar
homes....like what happened in Launiopoko on the west side, no more
sugar, but get plenty houses.
Killawiffa
05-25-08 4:36 PM
Making this another "Hawaiian" issue was not the best way to go, this
should have been a "community" issue, because it is. Having a healthy
stream flow benefits the environment, thus it benefits everyone. It
doesn't matter who wins the battle, or who gets credit for the victory,
all that matters in the end is if the water flows or not.....Again, the
word here that will bring victory and satisfaction to both sides is
"compromise".
FreeAgain
05-25-08 2:54 PM
"Proponents argued that, by state law, Native Hawaiian farmers get first
dibs on the water since the watershed is made up almost entirely of ceded
Hawaiian royal lands....?
This position is as wrong as A&B claiming that water belongs to A&B.
[ Part 2, Image/JPEG 21KB. ]
[ Part 3, Image/GIF 62bytes. ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 19:52:34 -1000
From: Lc <palolo@hawaii.rr.com>
Subject: Talking Story - June 5, Thursday @ 6 pm
Resending... I got the date wrong. The Talk Story is Thursday, June 5, 6
pm @ the OHA Boardroom. Parking on the street. Please, those who have
interest, join us on that day. Lynette 284-3460
---------------------------------------------
`Ano `ai me ke Aloha:
Is it a common assessment of our present times that the
Hawaiian movement today is not coalescing as we had hoped? We are
approaching a time in which there will be anniversaries which need to be
addressed, such as the 50th anniversary of Statehood. Is it a time for
celebration? How does one celebrate a theft? Should it be instead a time
of observation, and let each person select one^Òs own style of
acknowledging the event 50 years ago? Or should we simply say it like it
is, and call it a mourning (or mourn-in)!
What other events are coming up for observation in the next
two years? And what are we doing about it? Is there a common calendar
from which we can see the coming years^Ò events? Who^Òs creating such
calendar? Should it be all of us?
Are we speaking enough with one another, or have the years
drawn us apart such that the speaking no longer exists? Are we providing
the proper groundwork for the future of our common aspirations, of the
creation of a new society, a new social order, a new consciousness to
malama `aina, and a new set of political structures to replace our
colonization? If we are addressing those common aspirations, are we doing
it in common? Or are we doing it within our own clusters of sovereignty
or autonomy? Need we be speaking more openly and regularly with one
another?
I believe we are not meeting the challenge of preparing that
common ground. I believe we have become too engrossed in our own
^Ókuleana^Ô such that we take that ^Ókuleana^Ô as our exclusive domain,
that our ^Ósovereignty^Ô kingdom is the ONE (and only). We have become
too self-righteous, too defensive, and too adamant that we are not giving
enough credence to the other voices. For too many of us, it^Òs either
^Ómy way or the highway!^Ô
The victims are not only ourselves, but also all those who
should be able to bask in the promise of a better Hawai`i for tomorrow.
We have a wider public awaiting leadership, but finding the same old rag
being chewed and spat out, time and again, a wider public who is hearing
the use of the word aloha, but having a hard time finding it in the
practice in public life.
Can we come together?
Mel and Lynette (Living Nation) have inquired if I would be
willing to take a more assertive role in these times, having sheltered
myself for the past decade or more in the safe haven of the Wai`anae
mountains. At their behest, I make the following modest proposal:
I would convene a Hawaiian Roundtable, of all the willing, to
sit with one another, to speak, to be heard, to listen, and to begin the
kukakuka to build the framework for our Hawai`i tomorrow. This ^Óround^Ô
table will be one in which we will follow only a few simple protocols; 1-
Respect for Time, 2- Kindness to one another, 3- One thing at a time, 4-
Privacy when called for, 5- Fair and equal treatment to all, 6- A place
for idea exchange and not for position taking or politics, 7- Openness to
allow the broad public access to the discussion. More protocols may
follow as dictated by experience and common sense.
Over the years, I have become more acquainted with the Ka`u
style of Ho`oponopono as written up by Kupuna Puku`i. Although not an
expert, my acquaintance has brought about a higher regard for the value of
orderliness in the conduct of group discussions. I think it has at least
1 up on Roberts Rules of Order. It makes so much more sense, for example,
to have a clearly understood identification of the issue, subject, or
pilikia to be addressed, to have a clearly set up process for managing
discussions, to call for time-outs when necessary, etc. I believe we
could profit from the borrowing of many of those principles which come to
us from our traditional practice of Ho`oponopono, while making appropriate
adjustments given the different context in which we hold our discussions.
In convening this roundtable, I would ask that every participant be given
a limited time to speak (and we actually stay within the limits); that all
speakers address the Haku, Convenor, Chair, Ho`akoakoa, or whatever to be
called without any cross-talking, bantering, etc., that we treat each
topic one at a time and do not let the subject unravel into a myriad of
issues, that we be as inclusive and equal as possible as to who speaks,
when to speak, and the respect given to each speaker. I do not see any
votes being taken but that if decisions are to be reached, they be reached
by consensus or the convenor presents a solution asking for the
gathering^Òs support. The reliance here is not on the popular among the
participants, but on the wisdom of the convenor to preserve the unity,
fairness, and continuity of the roundtable.
We have learned to abuse time by trying to squeeze too many
things into an hour. We are living a rushed lifestyle in which decisions
are not given the chance to mellow, to be chewed upon, and to be thought
out. We have come to expect outcomes and conclusions too quickly, only to
find that another gathering could have produced a far better result, and
that time was not of such great need that a decision had to be made. Of
course there are also those matters for which time will not allow for
delay. We have not been careful enough to know the difference between the
two. I expect to have such Hawaiian Roundtables on a regular on-going
basis so the talking does not stop but becomes a regular opportunity.
This, of course, will call for commitment of preparation, grunt work by a
support team, some funds for meeting places and refreshments, and an
investment by each participant, a commitment in the combined effort to
produce the results of a better Hawai`i.
The Hawai`i public is in search for access to information, to
participation, to inclusion in the spirit of a renewed Hawai`i. The
response I have been receiving to this idea has been nothing but support,
to be able to hear such discussions broadcast, to see participants on
television or in person, to contact individuals or groups for further
inquiry, to contribute, etc. They are anxious to see a calendar of events
stretching over the next two years, planning their own calendars to
coincide with those of Hawaiian actions.
In discussing this idea on my radio program last Sunday, one
caller pleaded for the opportunity to participate at home or in his own
community, such that he could coincide his participation in a rally, not
by having to travel to `Iolani Palace or Thomas Square, but by being able
to fly his Hawaiian flag from his own home, or car or line his road with
flags, and to rally with others in his neighborhood park or shopping mall,
seeing flags, rallies and other activities of support for a principle in a
multitude of places and spaces in Hawai`i. He called for Ka La Ho`iho`i
Ea (Restoration Day) to become our National Holiday in practice throughout
these islands and not limited to a rally at Thomas Square! But these
points of common gatherings are coordinated, he suggested, through the
coming together of a multitude of organizations and leaders, in a common
participation of efforts, broadcast to the wider public.
We could draw the support of producers from the public
television stations to place such shows on a regular basis on all islands.
Some work on guidelines for time limitations, fair editing, cut outs for
those wanting their remarks not to be shown to the public, etc. will
eventually be worked out.
Taking from an old Hawaiian phrase, ^Óyou going find da proof
stay in the pudding^Ô or in other words, ^Ójust try um and see! If work,
work, if no work, no work! But I shua going work.^Ô
A first discussion, to "kick around" this general idea, will
be held on Thursday evening, June 5 @ 6 pm at the Boardroom of the Office
of Hawaiian Affairs. I hope trustees will be in attendance as
individuals. I hope others will attend, as well. All who want to have
dialogue on these important Hawaiian issues are invited. Parking is on
the street. You're welcome to bring refreshments to share.
Aloha a hui hou, kakou.
Poka
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Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 20:31:52 -1000
From: Lc <palolo@hawaii.rr.com>
Subject: Fw: Photos from today's field trip at Palehua
If you can't see the pictures in this email, click here to see it in a
web browser:
http://olympus.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bhucg3l.9y9rxyat&x=0&y=-xu3nrv&localeid=en_US
Lynette has shared photos with you.
Palehua
(1 album)
[invisible.gif] [invisible.gif]
You're invited to view my online photos at the Gallery. Enjoy!
- Lynette
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Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 05:05:20 -0400
From: FeedBlitz <feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com>
Subject: Disappeared News - No more rooftop sunbathing in New York City,
the cops are watching you
"DISAPPEARED NEWS" - 1 NEW ARTICLE
1. No more rooftop sunbathing in New York City, the cops are watching
you
2. More Recent Articles
3. Search Disappeared News
No more rooftop sunbathing in New York City, the cops are watching you
by Larry Geller Some people were upset that Google Earth might snap some
fuzzy pictures of people sunbathing in their own backyards. Imagine if
the pictures weren't fuzzy. New York City cops have a new spy toyâ^À^Ôan
unmarked helicopter with high-powered cameras that can zoom in through
the sunroof of a car, or see into your bedroom window, for example. They
promise they won't do that, but just you....
More Recent Articles
* Followup call received from HPD on Taser video request
* Development Oriented Transit
* Garden Island reports EIS process beginning on Kauai for Superferry
* Hawaii Superferry CEO Fargo gets one more defense role
* Michael Savage celebrates by playing Dead Kennedys
________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 09:29:47 +0000
From: Ana <uriohau@gmail.com>
Subject: [mana_wahine] Neptune Minerals ready to mine gold from ocean
seafloor
Fri, 02 May 2008 05:30a.m.
heres to Tangaroa & Ruamoko kicking your arse on the seabed.
-----
Mining prospector Neptune Minerals Plc says it is ready to start a new
mining boom on the seafloor off New Zealand.
NeptuneMinerals Plc said in a statement in London that a study has
confirmedthe "attractive" economics of seafloor mining of gold and
othervaluable minerals in the Kermadec archipelago, northeast of New
Zealand.
Depositsof gold, silver copper and zinc, worth up to
$US2000/tonne($NZ2610/tonne) -- off the North Island coast -- can be
mined for acombined capital and operating cost of less than $US162/tonne
($NZ211).
Itsaid that "compelling margins" a re possible from seafloor mining on
thesite of former hydrothermal vents, known as a seafloor massive
sulphide(SMS) zones.
These deposits are left on the seafloor overmillions of years as minerals
in the Earth's crust dissolve insuper-heated fluids then drop to the
seafloor when they hit coldseawater.
Metallurgical testing done for the company on acomposite sample from its
initial Kermadec exploration in 2006 showedan average of 11.2 parts per
million of gold, 122ppm of silver, 8.1percent copper, 0.5 percent lead
and 5 percent zinc.
Initialmineral samples dredged up by scientists in 2004 contained a
goldconcentration of 6.1 parts per million, which was a
higherconcentration than some on-shore gold deposits.
The companyalso said today it is also embarking on a long term
advancedexploration program in other New Zealand waters to define
multiple SMSdeposits for which it plans to also seek mining l icences.
It wants to be scooping minerals off the seabed by 2010.
Includingits third prospecting licence (PL39-195), for the southern part
of theKermadec Arc - a chain of seafloor volcanoes and hydrothermal
ventsstretching from White Island 2500km northwest towards Tonga -
Neptunealready has licences to prospect more than 63,000sq/km.
Neptunesaid the final report of a study for the commercial development of
itsNZ deposits, prepared by Genesis, a consultancy affiliated to
majorproject manager Technip, evaluated alternative technologies
forseafloor mining, ore-lifting, de-watering and surface "off-take"
-removing the valuable portion of the ore and dumping the waste back
onthe seafloor.
It plans to use a lot of existing marinetechnology from the oil and gas,
marine diamond and offshore dredgingindustries. Neptune said it was also
looking at contract mining inwhich a contractor would build, own and oper
ate all the miningequipment - reducing its need to raise capital for
production assets.
Technip'srecommended mining system uses a production vessel using
satelliteposition to remain over a deposit, a big hose and an airlift
pumpingsystem connected at the seafloor to an ore-crusher and
seafloorminer.
This could be used on a range of SMS deposits in multiple locations after
pilot mining project.
Fullproduction of 2 million tonnes of ore a year, over 10 years
wouldrequire mining 16.2 million tonnes of ore, at a cost of
$US91/tonne($NZ118/tonne). Estimated total capital spending would be
$US501million including a separate full pilot mining system).
Neptune said its SMS deposits had "in-ground" values ranging from $US500
to $US2000 a tonne "yielding attractive margins".
The estimated costs did not include onshore bulk-handling, metal refining
and processing.
" Genesis-Techniphas provided a realistic, commercially engineered
solution to thechallenge of seafloor mining," said Neptune chief
executive SimonMcDonald. "Neptune is now poised to take the next step
from SMSexplorer to developer.
"That pilot mining phase of commercial development of SMS mining by the
end of 2010 is an achievable goal"
Neptunerecently said it had found further mineral deposits was found in
aformer site of hydrothermal vents, known as a seafloor massive
sulphide(SMS) zone on the Rumble II West seamount northeast of White
Island.
Hedid not specify the composition of the deposit but research
scientistsfound high concentrations of gold on the seamount in 2004.
Neptune's move to seek a mining licence are likely to trigger debateover
whether mining the seabed is less intrusive and
environmentallydestructive than mining on land, or whether it will
destroy potentiallyunique, uncatalogued res ervoirs of biodiversity.
Neptune Minerals is listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative
Investment Market (AIM).
NZPA __._,_.___
-------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 03:36:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Marakita Mehmet <maraki_tanga@yahoo.co.nz>
Subject: [mana_wahine] a disaster
"Indeed it has been a shocker week for the police and very much worse than
having former cops found not guilty of rape or the commissioner found out
at a booze checkpoint or zealously raiding a few tough-talking, Tuhoe
twits."
------
Kahui case was a disaster
By MICHAEL LAWS - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 25 May 2008
"This is not a time to celebrate because the blood of two babies still
cries from the grave for justice." -Kahui family spokesman, 22 May 2008
Not that this will worry too many of the Kahui/King clan for too long.
Because it was their collective and deliberate obfuscation and
obstruction plus the worst police investigation in a decade that ensured
that the blood of innocents will go unavenged for all eternity.
The twins were born into a dysfunctional Maori family, to a mother who
didn't care and to a father who couldn't care less. The only reason that
Chris Kahui's name is not as black as Macsyna King's this morning is
because he did not have to take the witness stand.
But he was doubly lucky. First, he was the defendant. Second, he had
Detective Inspector John Tims and his Manukau murder team handling the
case. Fate was beyond kind: it was perverse.
Indeed it has been a shocker week for the police and very much worse than
having former cops found not guilty of rape or the commissioner found out
at a booze checkpoint or zealously raiding a few tough-talking, Tuhoe
twits.
Detection, prosecution and conviction are the bread and butter of the
police job. The successful apprehension of the big criminals for the big
crimes murder, rape and child molestation.
We already know that the police give low priority to anti-social
offences. That most burglaries and car conversions go unpunished. That
they manage rather than police the gangs. And that, according to the
police minister, they are finding the P trade tough going.
But we contented ourselves with the knowledge that they get the big stuff
right. Yeah, they rorted the Arthur Allan Thomas case but that was
decades ago, man.
Now? Now, I'd be willing to bet that just about every major crim indicted
with a major crime is going to be chancing his odds. Get the legal aid
barrister, deny everything and play your odds with the jury. Forget the
plea bargain: it's suddenly become worth it.
There was already the Peter Ellis case. Then the Scott Watson conviction
that still has an assistant police commissioner under investigation. The
David Bain conviction overturned by the Privy Council. But you could
excuse those. They were difficult cases. Besides, the cops got
convictions in all three.
But not this week. This week changed all the odds.
George Gwaze walked free from the High Court at Christchurch after being
found not guilty of the murder of his 10-year-old niece Charlene Makaza.
An Auckland jury took just 10 minutes to pronounce the police case
against Chris Kahui as crap.
And, boy, do crims catch on quick. The Wanganui-based Mongrel Mobsters
who pleaded guilty to the murder of two-year-old toddler Jhia Te Tua as
part of some pathetic and perverse ethnic gang conflict want to vacate
their guilty pleas and take their chances with a Wellington jury. On the
basis of this week, the jury will probably blow them kisses.
And yet, and yet. And yet the Hamilton police had a great result. They
secured the conviction of a 49-year-old solid citizen, Ian Crutchley, who
euthanised his dying mother. The terminally ill woman was writhing in
agony from the last ravages of stomach cancer and begging for release.
Crutchley's crime was to do what medical professionals do every day
administer sufficient morphine to mercy kill whilst maintaining the
sophistry that it is to relieve pain.
Even in this case, the jury suggested leniency as the only just
conclusion. No man, they said, should ever be placed in such an
intolerable position. I agree: being charged and convicted for compassion
was simply stupid.
That said, you might argue that the police were simply doing their job.
Although the Gwaze and Kahui cases suggest that it was not much a job. In
the Gwaze case, the jury at least went through the rudiments of a
discussion before reaching their verdict. But in the Kahui case, there
was only time to swap phone numbers before heading home.
And the Kahui investigation was botched from day one. The day that the
police decided political correctness had precedence over correct
procedure. That the babies were Maori may actually have militated against
identifying their murderer.
For Tims to now declare that they arrested the right person and the jury
just got it wrong, does not wash. The entire country knew, long ahead of
the trial, that Macsyna King was a suspect. She deserved to be and not
simply because of the absence of any maternal remorse. That her sister
was her alibi and found out at the trial was just so predictable.
In addition, the Kahui twins were seriously abused weeks before the final
blows. It defies credulity to suggest that their primary caregiver would
not have been aware.
Indeed, most of New Zealand naturally assumed that both mother and father
would end up in the dock. Their joint activities, during and after the
injuries to their children, were callous, calculated and cold-hearted.
Instead Tims and his team took a gamble. Get one of the family to turn
and inform on the others in this case, King on Kahui. It was a strategy
doomed from the start. King had no credibility. And the weird part is
that almost everyone in New Zealand appreciated that fact even before the
trial.
On the day after the arrest was made and it had become clear that King
was going to be the key Crown witness I opened the lines of my talkback
show on the topic. For three hours, callers came to the same conclusion
as the 10-minute jury. The wrong person was in the dock either that or
that wrong person should be standing in the dock with her partner. Female
callers were especially harsh.
The reaction of Tims was also interesting. Hours after Thursday's
verdicts, the police held a press conference saying that the
investigation was over. It was complete. No, it is not. A new
investigation is now required. Chris junior and Cru don't deserve justice
they require it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4560139a1861.html
=======================
Serious Fraud Office (Abolition and Transitional Provisions) Bill
Written by Administrator
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Hone Harawira, Maori Party MP for Te Tai Tokerau
Tuesday 20 May 2008, 8.15pm
Mr Speaker, yesterday the whole context of fraud, corruption and serious
crime took an interesting, and I have to say, a bloody pleasing turn, with
the announcement that victims of South Africaâ^À^Ùs apartheid regime could
finally sue the corporate world for all the help that they gave South
African police and military intelligence squads during the murderous years
of apartheid.
Many of those victims are now represented by an organisation called
Khulumani that is suing the really big boys, like BP, Barclays, Fujitsu,
Daimler-Benz, Deutsche Bank and others â^À^Ó for their corporate
investment of a system of racist domination, a system known the world
over for harassment, intimidation, torture, violence and murder;
corporate investment in the form of finance, oil, weapons and corporate
technology.
So while itâ^À^Ùs sad to be reminded of the horrors of apartheid, it
really is pleasing to see that those big companies who profited from the
oppression and repression of the Blacks of South Africa, are finally
being dragged kicking and screaming before the courts, to answer for
their complicity in the deaths of the thousands of people, whose lives
were destroyed under apartheid.
Meanwhile, back here in good ole Aotearoa, are we going after the big
criminals, the corporate raiders, the big thieves who have blighted the
lives of tens of thousands of ordinary New Zealanders? Like hell we are.
Mr Speaker, while the Serious Fraud Office is supposed to have been going
after the big crooks charged with: defrauding the public of amounts
greater than $500,000, complex fraud, and fraud of major public concern;
in fact theyâ^À^Ùve been spending most of their time chasing the little
boys, like $25,000 worth of improper expenditure by a school in Hamilton.
Yes, theyâ^À^Ùve averaged something like 13,000 fraud investigations a
year, but while theyâ^À^Ùve been doing all that, the Big Bandits like
Bluechip and Bridgecorp, get away scot free.
And just a bit of background on these guys â^À¦ last year property
finance company Bridgecorp went into receivership owing $500 million to
18,000 investors; and this year 22 Blue Chip property investment
companies collapsed, owing 2,000 investors, some $80 million.
And guess what? To no-oneâ^À^Ùs surprise, it seems that although the
Serious Fraud Office is currently investigating Bridgecorp and Blue Chip,
it would appear that a prosecution might not necessarily follow.
The fraud was so bad in fact, that the Serious Fraud Office actually
called it a "deliberate, dishonest presentation of records so as to give
investors a false position of the company's financial position."
And yet for all that, the pathetic conclusions at the end of last week
were that no matter how explicit the corruption appears to be, how
blatant the theft, how improper the activity, apparently the Serious
Fraud Office reckon that a prosecution might not necessarily follow.
Mr Speaker, itâ^À^Ùs this kind of rank hypocrisy, this racist protection
of the corporate world, that really, really â^À¦ upsets me.
$58 million stolen from Mum and Dad investors and weâ^À^Ùre expected to
just sit back and watch while the thieves simply change their jackets and
go back out and do it all over again â^À^Ó while Maori and Pasifika get
thrown into jail for pinching Mumâ^À^Ùs handbag, and stealing Dadâ^À^Ùs
car.
Blue Chip steals millions and millions of dollars of investor money, and
then goes belly up, dragging down 19 other companies, and the UFO â^À^Ó
the "U canâ^À^Ùt be serious" Fraud Office, lets them get away with it.
steals millions and millions of dollars of investor money, and then goes
belly up, dragging down 19 other companies, and the UFO â^À^Ó the "U
canâ^À^Ùt be serious" Fraud Office, lets them get away with it.
Sure, the Commerce Commission is looking into breaches of the Fair
Trading Act, and whether investors have been conned by misleading
representations, but these guys ainâ^À^Ùt going to jail anytime soon.
In fact, when I heard Blue Chip founder Mark Byers, say he wanted to put
some of his own money into a compensation fund, the first thing I thought
of was a Tui ad "honest â^À^Ó Iâ^À^Ùm gonna give it all back â^À¦ yeah
right".
And while the Blue Chip crooks get away with doing far, far more damage,
to far more people, far more often, instead of beefing up the UFO and
giving them some serious grunt, instead theyâ^À^Ùre getting
disestablished, and their functions are going to be transferred to an
Organised Crime Agency, with increased search and surveillance powers,
and targeting money laundering, and large scale drug trafficking money,
with a central focus on countering the billion dollar methamphetamine
market.
And thatâ^À^Ùs cool. Letâ^À^Ùs do everything we can to nail the meth
gangs, cut off their supplies to finance, ingredients, cooks and the dumb
and desperate fools sucked into selling P to their own relations.
But given how quickly the taser got used to zap the wrong people:
*
like how a cop slipped and zapped the wrong person;
*
or how another one ended up zapping himself;
*
or how those lazy buggers zapped that poor guy lying face down on the
footpath with his hands handcuffed behind his back;
letâ^À^Ùs not get so gung-ho, that we donâ^À^Ùt keep a very careful eye
on the new search and surveillance powers, included in this Bill.
The Law Commissionâ^À^Ùs 500 page report on search and surveillance laws
released last year, noted huge inconsistencies in the powers of police
and non-police agencies, and called for a wide ranging review to bring
search and surveillance laws together into one comprehensive statute.
And given that we havenâ^À^Ùt even seen the proposed new Search and
Surveillance Bill yet, weâ^À^Ùre naturally very concerned at the granting
of new powers to police, and how those new powers will be independently
monitored, to guard against excessive use, against Maori communities.
I also note that this new Organised Crime Agency will also be charged
with going after cyber criminals: the crooks of the new age; the internet
fraudsters:
*
and no offence to the officials group stitching this whole thing
together,
*
but given how the IRD lost $60 million recently, and a few other agencies
have just been conned by a fraudster from within;
*
I struggle to see how a hotchpotch of the Ministry of Social Development,
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Internal Affairs, Te Puni
Kokiri, Pacific Island Affairs, Corrections, Customs, Department of
Labour, Inland Revenue, and the Ministries of Health and Fisheries,
*
will be able to put together the infrastructure, the expertise, and the
information technology intelligence to respond to the highly intricate
nature of internet crime.
I mean, it took the FBI and the Dutch police to track down that kid in
Whitianga who crashed the computer network for the entire University of
Pennsylvania, and we now know has earned more than $40,000 as a
professional hacker, making software specifically to crash networks.
And weâ^À^Ùre going to get WINZ to do the investigation here? I can just
see another Tui ad coming on â^À¦
Mr Speaker, organised crime is significant, itâ^À^Ùs pervasive, itâ^À^Ùs
reach is global but the pain is very, very local, and beating it will
take skill and co-operation, and the Maori Party will support this Bill
through to Select Committee, to ensure these issues are given the serious
consideration they deserve.
But we challenge this House to not just focus on the crimes of the poor,
but also target the rampant and criminal activities of the financial
classes, the big boys who donâ^À^Ùt just steal from families, but as the
multi-billion dollar bailout of Bear-Sterns in America proved, can bring
down whole countries.
http://www.maoriparty.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1740&Itemid=28
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 01:08:32 -1000
From: Tane . <Tane_1@msn.com>
Subject: RE: [livingnation] A Bill to Pay for College Educations for
Afghanistan and Iraq Vets - fyi - comment
I6t's interesting to note that the British were highly taxed to finance
the war with the American colonists. It was the British subjects that
raised the objection of the continued war against the colonists because it
was too costly for them and they had to bear the hardship financially.
The British rebelled against the King and he sooner or later had to
acquiesce in the people's demands. The King and nobles and businessmen
maintained their investments in the New World and in essence still own the
USA; now moreso than ever. This is partial reason why the US and UK are
still allies and tied together. It's the same situation with Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand. There is more than meets the eye.
US Americans are hurting in the pocketbooks and want an end to the wars.
The Queen's investments must not be harmed. The military protects and
defends her interests and that of her peers. Domestic spending takes away
from the "royal army" that preverves the Queen's interests. The troops
are expendable and just a piece of property. It's a chess game. Many
can't see that and Congress is trying to overturn something larger than
they are. Benefits for veterans will be severely limited and the red tape
is to help forestall the benefits. They may pass the bill but the vets
will have to jump through hoops to get it. It will discourage many who
want that education. If the bill passes; monitor how many actually get it
and what they must do inspite of being awarded the scholarship.
Tane
________________________________________________________________________________
From: orakwa@paulcomm.ca
Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 06:51:26 -0700
Subject: MNN RCMP evict hereditary chief from B.C. 'band' office
Breaking News on attacks on our people for asserting our rights and
jurisdiction:
RCMP EVICT HEREDITARY CHIEF KIAPILANO AND SUPPORTERS FROM SQUAMISH BAND
OFFICE, VANCOUVER
Squamish Nation territory ("Vancouver, Canada")
May 24, 2008
On Saturday, May 24th, a force of twenty taser-armed RCMP officers and
band council police forced Chief Kiapilano off his own land yesterday
during a peaceful occupation of the Squamish band council office by
Kiapilano and his supporters.
On Friday morning, May 23rd, Hereditary Squamish Chief Kiapilano and a
dozen supporters had swiftly occupied the offices of the state-funded
"Squamish Band Council" in North Vancouver, and ordered the eviction of
the entire band council.
Chief Kiapilano is leading a movement to expel agencies from his land who
are responsible for the genocide of his people. Last March, Kiapilano and
Eagle Strong Voice (Kevin Annett) initiated these actions by posting
eviction notices on the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United churches in
downtown Vancouver, ordering them off Squamish land.
Chief Kiapilano said in a statement from inside the occupied band council
office, "Our people are starving, they're living in dilapidated homes, and
these so-called 'chiefs' [representing the colonial government] are doing
nothing for them. Now 'chief' Bill Williams has signed a deal with the
province [British Columbia] allowing mining and destruction of more of our
land. We're here today to tell these fake leaders to leave, and we're
staying here until they're gone."
Bill Williams left and band council member Byron Joseph stayed. Williams
called in the RCMP and band council police. Chief Kiapilano then advised
Byron Joseph and his staff to leave the premises, and announced his
intention to change the locks on the building.
"We're consulting our [colonial] lawyers" announced Byron Joseph, just
before he and his advisors left the building for lunch.
"Chief Kiapilano declared a common law jurisdiction over this building,
and has reclaimed it for all of his people", said Irene Peace Kiapilano.
"We call on all hereditary chiefs to do likewise, and reclaim their land
and government from a foreign occupying power."
Then on Saturday, May 24th, led by RCMP Inspector Richard Kennedy, [phone
604-985-1311 mvanrcmp@rcmp-grc.gc.ca] sixteen heavily armed mounties
wearing flak jackets surrounded the band council office. Negotiations
were going on between Chief Kiapilano and band council staff. After a
lawyer from the Smythe-Ratcliffe firm [Phone 604-687-1231
info@smytheratcliffe.com] spoke to band councillor Byron Joseph, the talks
were abruptly cancelled. The mounties blocked the doorways and prevented
Kiapilano's supporters from re-entering the office.
"They wouldn't let me back into the building where they had the Chief
trapped, so I got out my drum and start drumming" said Irene Peace
Kiapilano.
"The cops were ready to attack us. They had their tasers out. I told
Inspector Kennedy we had served the eviction notice on Byron Joseph and
the band council, and he had accepted it. Kennedy said the federal
Minister of Justice said they didn't recognize Chief Kiapilano or our
document, even though it had been accepted in their own courts!"
Chief Kiapilano and his supporters were then physically forced from the
building under threat of immediate arrest, and escorted off the band
council land by a line of RCMP vehicles.
Native elders from the Downtown Eastside Womens' Centre showed up to
support Chief Kiapilano. They were verbally threatened, photographed and
ordered to leave by the same RCMP squad.
Before leaving, Chief Kiapilano declared three times to the RCMP and band
councillors that his eviction order remained in effect. He and his people
would return to enforce the order and remove the [illegal] Squamish band
council from office.
"We offered them a hand of peace and they responded with violence" said
Chief Red Jacket of Turtle Island, a participant in the occupation. "In
our law, when that happens, all we have left is to go to war."
Further actions against the agencies responsible for the ongoing genocide
of the Squamish people will continue on Sunday, June 1 at 10 am at the
former "holy rosary catholic church" at Dunsmuir and Richards in downtown
Vancouver. It is now an open community space under the jurisdiction of
Chief Kiapilano.
Issued under the authority of Siem Kiapilano of the Squamish Nation 24
May, 2008
For more information: 1-888-265-1007 (Canada) hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca
www.jointhefederation.org Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada,
past and present, at this website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org Posted by MNN
Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com
________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 08:24:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: bchingkahoola@pol.net
Subject: [kaleimailealii] Kaniakapupu Sunday.
Aloha kakou,
This sunday coming is the first of the month.
Time for Kaniaiapupu cleanup.
Hope to see you all on Sunday.
Spencer, we are still ready to pay for surveying. We also await the
Stabilization & Preservetion final plan.
And if bringing students, please advise how many that we may have tools &
safety gear available.
Malama pono,
Kaho`ola
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 08:49:04 -1000
From: Brad Parsons <mauibrad@hotmail.com>
Subject: Matthew R. Simmons: The 'Peak Oil' Guru
MONDAY, MAY 26, 2008
Matthew R. Simmons: The 'Peak Oil' Guru
'Maybe the enemy is us...Grow food at home.' - Matthew R. Simmons, June
20, 2006, at a Pentagon-sponsored seminar series 'Energy: A Conversation
About Our National Addiction'
'I don^Òt think there is [a solution to the energy shortage]. The solution
is to pray. Pray for mild weather and a mild winter. Pray for no
hurricanes and to stop the erosion of natural gas supplies. Under the best
of circumstances, if all prayers are answered there will be no crisis for
maybe two years. After that it^Òs a certainty.' --Matthew R. Simmons, 2003
Biographical Profile
'He graduated cum laude from the University of Utah and received a Masters
degree with distinction in Business Administration from Harvard Business
School. He then served on the faculty as a research associate for two
years. In 1974, he founded Simmons & Company International. Simmons is the
CEO of the world^Òs largest energy investment bank, Simmons & Company
International...speaks often and knowledgeably about 'peak oil.''
Some links on him:
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/research.aspx?Type=msspeeches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Simmons
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2574
http://www.energybulletin.net/17555.html
http://globalpublicmedia.com/matthew_r_simmonss_13_points_of_light
http://events.caltech.edu/events/event-4681.html
http://www.environment.harvard.edu/navigation2/Simmons.pdf
Check out those links, the gentleman likes to shock,
More on what this guy has to say later, Aloha, Brad
________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 10:41:09 -1000
From: Laurel Douglass <douglassl001@hawaii.rr.com>
Subject: Fwd: Brasscheck TV: How the 2008 election will be stolen by Rove
(again)
this just came in
>
> I wonder how many realize the profound significance of the recent
> subpoena of Karl Rove by the House Judiciary Committee.
>
> Let me lay it out for you.
>
> If what Karl Rove did to the US election rolls is not corrected by
> November, John McCain has already been elected president.
>
> This subpoena is the LAST chance to set things right.
>
> http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/327.html
>
> - Brasscheck
>
> P.S. I can't imagine anything more important than this information being
> added to the public debate.
>
> If a total tool like McCain is elected, he's going to make the
> depredations of Bush administration look like child's play. - Brasscheck
>
> P.S. Please share Brasscheck TV e-mails and videos with friends and
> colleagues.
>
> That's how we grow. Thanks.
>
> Brasscheck TV
> 2380 California St.
> San Francisco, CA 94115
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 22:10:36 +0000
From: Karaka <chooky.clarke@gmail.com>
Subject: [mana_wahine] Fwd: Take a Deep Breath and Relax !
Take a Deep Breath and Relax !
Let these sounds permeate your very soul and feeliing for life !! Glenn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pMCTg2Uj7g&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TqmqDRSHqQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhpoOexjT-M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh-upSoOqTc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clrvcuJR5AQ
more:
http://www.youtube.com/results?
search=related&search_query=%20Amazing%20Grace&v=_pMCTg2Uj7g
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=related&search_query=weather&v=Jh-upSoOqTc
http://www.youtube.com/results?
search=related&search_query=%20Only%20Time&v=clrvcuJR5AQ
http://www.youtube.com/results?
search=related&search_query=el%20condor%20pasa&v=gkftr4fbmMc
Sacred Earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np8whyTfqzY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkftr4fbmMc&feature=related
Native Peoples Speak with the Earth - We are children of the Sun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOruXybapo&feature=related
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 17:18:23 -0700
From: mike reitz <mreitz@pacbell.net>
Subject: The battle to use coconut oil as fuel
Orlando Huaman
"We buy copra by the bag, and make sure it is dried to the right
standard
and then put it through the filtering process to get out the
impurities."
With the price of diesel continuing to climb every month the use of
coconut oil as fuel is being revisited seriously not least by two
companies in Samoa. Orlando Huaman traces efforts, past and present, in
various countries in this area.
Philippines: During World War II the armies fighting in the Philippines
used coconut oil to run diesel engines.
Coconut oil constitutes 7% of the total export income in the
Philippines, the world largest exporter of the product.
In January 2008 a company converted coconut oil into engine oil using
Korean technology.
Rey Mangies unveiled the S-9 lubricant motor oil for gasoline and diesel
engine. Production: 5000 liters of motor oil per month.
Since 2005 more than 400 vehicles (both diesel and gasoline) have tested
the product at a blended rate of 20% of crankcase capacity.
The product reduces fuel consumption by up to 45% and smoke emission by
up to 95%.
Unlike olive oil, there is no world governing body that sets a standard
definition to classify coconut oil as "virgin."
The Philippines has established a governmental standard for coconut oil.
Vanuatu: In September 2005 Tony Deamer an Australian-born auto mechanic
showed that pure coconut oil can be safely used as an alternate to
petroleum in automobile diesel engines with very little modification.
In fact 200 minibuses are running on a coconut oil/diesel mix on a daily
basis.
He himself operates 12 vehicles on pure coconut fuel.
Using coconut oil has several inherent problems, though.
First, it tends to be more viscous than other fuels.
The unprocessed oil also usually contains more water and impurities than
other alternatives.
Deamer has experimented extensively and solved many of the problems.
He has developed a small and inexpensive pre-heater that lower the
viscosity of the oil before it enters the engine.
He also has worked on filtration techniques to remove water and
impurities.
A coconut oil diesel blend is currently used in Vanuatu that mixes 20
part coconut oil and 1 part kerosene.
This blend is then mixed in a 2:1 ration with diesel and it gives an
effective 64 % coconut fuel.
Marshal Islands: 2007 Majuro. Jerry Kramer is using 100% coconut oil to
fuel 1000 HP ships down to 5HP generators using a blend of 10 to 90
coconut oil to diesel.
Tolobar Copra Processing Plant is a company using coconut oil to fuel
heavy equipment and vessels.
Fiji: The Electricity Authority in Fiji is using coconut oil in 3.3 Mw
Cat engines.
200 tones of copra = 1600 tons of coconut oil = 1500 tons of biodiesel.
Solomon Islands: Biofuel in the Solomons is using DME virgin coconut oil
in a 50/50 diesel/VCO in the Toyota Hillux 4WD, a Mitsubishi Truck and
in tractors.
The main thing is to make sure that the oil is well settled and that
there is no sediment.
While 100% VCO can he used, some operator ding that with the cooler
nights it can start to he a hit viscous as below 260C it starts to go
solid. With a blend this has not been an issue for them.
PNG: German-born Mathias Horn has established a village factory to
produce coconut oil fit for running diesel engines.
Two shipping companies based in Rabaul have been buying coconut oil for
the past two years and has largely replaced diesel fuel for their ships.
Horn himself is running his own diesel engine vehicle exclusively on
coconut oil.
He himself has a fuel pump in his company yard and sells the oil to the
other vehicles owners.
He says, "We buy copra by the bag, and make sure it is dried to the
right standard and then put it through the filtering process to get out
the impurities."
It results in oil for engines, house made oil lamps, chain saw gear
lubrication, and cosmetics oils.
It also makes high grade cooking oil.
It was recently announced that all the government cars in Vanuatu are to
be converted to coconut oil fuel.
In PNG where the fuel cost is high, using a mixture of 30% kerosene and
70% coconut oil in hurricane lamps is the best investment to keep lights
longer at nights.
Samoa: In October 2005 SOPAC Cocogen team prepared for EPC.UNDP a
"Feasibility Study into the Use of Coconut oil fuel in EPC Power
Generator"
Excerpts from the Executive Summary's follows:
"Coconut oil can replace diesel using blends, 100% coconut oil or by
converting it into biodiesel (esterificaion).
If blends with less than 10% coconut oil are used, alteration to engines
are required.
"If higher % of coconut oil is used, alteration to engines are required.
The economically most feasible option is using low blends of coconut oil
with no engine adaptation.
"Copra Oil Products of Samoa was unable to produce sufficient supply of
fuel grade oil.
"It is therefore, proposed that EPC produce its own fuel straight from
coconuts by using a highly mechanized production process."
Using GIS technology, a total harvest of 126 million coconut per year
was estimated...The coconut oil fuel plat (COF) will produce on the
first phase 660,000 liters...further expansion will be 1.8 million litre
plant is suggested ... farmers receiving a premium return of at least 13
sene per nut...Economically both phases will be very beneficial for
Samoa as a whole. For EPC (here is the punch line) however the financial
feasibility of phase I is very tight."
That was planned in 2005.
Pacific Oil is a subsidiary company of Petroleum Products Supplies which
is utilizing the latest technology to produce coconut oil to fuel
vehicles and machinery throughout Samoa.
Finally, Paradise Oil, a plant I have visited, is producing coconut oil
of great quality.
A sample given to me by the owner have fried my potatoes with gusto.
Perhaps my old LHD pick up will be in line at the pump... for coconut
oil fuel of course. Indoubtely it has great potential, more to come,
stay tuned.
Let us define some terms here before we get all mixed up. What is
biodiesel and what is biofuel?
First biodiesel.
Biodiesel refers to a non-petroleum based diesel fuel consisting of
short chain alkyl (methyl or ethyl) ester, made by transesterification
of vegetable oil or animal fat, which can be used (alone or blended with
conventional petrodiesel ) in unmodified diesel engine vehicles.
What is transesterification?
Transesterification is a chemical process also known as alcoholysis that
uses vegetable oil (such as coconut oil) using ethanol in order to
separate the fatty acids from the glycerol by replacing the glycerol
with short linear alcohols (Patent to G.Chavame. Belgium. 1937).
If used in pure form, also called B100 or blended (20% diesel with 80%
petroleum diesel) also called B20, but require certain engine
modifications to avoid maintenance and performance problems.
Good news: Biodiesel can be used in pure form (B100) or blended with
petroleum diesel at any concentration in vehicles manufactured after
1992.
(Rubber gaskets and hoses are replaced with FKM (whatever it is) which
is non reactive to biodiesel.
Also it is advisable to replace fuel filters and heaters shortly after
first switching to a biodiesel blend).
To permit the use of biodiesel without mixing and without the
possibility of gelling at low temperature some people modify their
vehicle (this in non-tropical climate) with a second fuel tank for
biodiesel in addition to the standard fuel tank.
The second fuel tank is insulated and a heating coil using engine
coolant is run through the tank.
Biodiesel may contain small but problematic quantities of water.
However, it is possible to measure the water content using water-in-oil
sensors.
Biodiesel has also used in trains and aircraft.
Biodiesel feedstocks:
A variety of oils can be used to produce biodiesel:
Virgin oil feedstock- among them coconut oil, soybean oil (90% in the
U.S.), mustard sunflower, flax, hemp 9first used by Ford in his model
T).
Waste vegetables oil- such as from fast food restaurants, etc.
Chicken fat (Tyson Food in the U.S. is experimenting with this), tallow,
lard, yellow green.
Algae.
A word on algae for biodiesel production. On this read a copy of the New
Zealand Herald of December 5th, 2006; "Algae can be grown using waste
material such as sewage, and produce more gallons of biodiesel than any
other source. Example algae 1800 gpa (gallons per acre), coconut 230
gpa, soybean 100 gpa. Great challenge for the truly thinkers!
Algae has a natural oil content greater than 50%.
Manila University in the Philippines is working on producing biofuel
from algae, using a local species of algae.
*Orlando Huaman is a food technologist, now working as a consultant for
the Research and Development Institute of Samoa.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~---------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 00:42:51 +0000
From: Ana <uriohau@gmail.com>
Subject: [mana_wahine] Making the law up as the go
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2008/05/making-law-up-as-they-go.html
Since the time of Solon, civilised countries have followed theprinciple
that the law should be written and public. This allows peopleto know
whether their behaviour is legal or illegal, and prevents thepowerful from
victimising others by making the law up as they go along.
The Labour government plans to throw that principle out the window.
In a recent Cabinet Paper on Reducing the Level and Impact of Organised
Crime in New Zealand: Recommendations for Legislative Reform,Justice
Minister Annette King floated a number of options to target"'street level'
problems" caused by gangs, such as "incidentalintimidation" caused by the
presence of gang members. The options ofUK-style Anti-Social Behaviour
Orders (ASBOs), or California-stylecivil injunctions on gangs were
rejected due to significant humanrights issues and uncertain
effectiveness. However, Cabinet directedofficials to study a third
alternative: granting a general power topolice to "defuse" "intimidating"
situations:
It is therefore proposed to vest the police with a new power
thatsimply enables police officers to take reasonable and
necessarymeasures to alleviate intimidatory situations ^Ö
without criminalisingany person who may have contributed to
those situations. It would be anoffence, however, to refuse
to comply with a constable's lawfuldirections. For example,
individuals lawfully directed to "move on" orto remove
clothing will be susceptible to arrest only if they refuse
tocooperate.
This is an authoritarian's wet dream. Instead of Parliament having topass
a law to outlaw gang patches or exile people from Rotorua,individual
police officers will be able to make the law up as they goalong, and
anyone who disagrees will be stuck with a $2,000 fine orthree months in
jail. The paper fully acknowledges the potential forabuse and
victimisation - that
members of the community have be known to feel intimidated by
thepresence of persons with facial tattoos or a moko,
homeless peopleliving on the street, people engaged in public
demonstrations, unionmembers on picket lines, or groups of
youth wearing "hoodies" in publicplaces
and so individual police officers might well use their "discretion"(read
as: power to legislate out of their arses) against such people.It also
acknowledges that such powers are likely to face significantlegal
challenges on BORA grounds, and that Crown Law thinks it will beread down
to require a very high threshold before such powers can beused. But none
of that seems to matter: the government wants to be seento be "doing
something" and is quite willing to throw out a 2,500 yearold legal
principle and people's right to liberty in order to be seento be "tough
on crime" (left unstated: most people will simply complyout of fear of
arrest, few will bother to challenge such directions incourt, and the
police will ignore the rulings anyway just as they have Brooker v.
Police.So any judicial oversight and human rights protection will
benon-existent; we'll all be subject to the arbitrary power andprejudices
of the police).
This sort of shit is why I can never vote for Labour. Too many knee-jerk
authoritarians, and no respect for personal liberty.
South Australia's plans to obliterate outlaw bikie gangs.
Under new legislation gang members will be subject to tough control orders
and anyone at all who associates with a gang member could go to jail.
Is this an appropriate way to bust vicious organised crime groups, or an
outrageous attack on innocent individuals, ripping apart tight social
networks on no sound basis?
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2008/2234118.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 06:06:05 -0400
From: FeedBlitz <feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com>
Subject: Disappeared News - 2 new articles
"DISAPPEARED NEWS" - 2 NEW ARTICLES
1. China goes green--bans plastic bags
2. Global Warming, flooding in Mapunapuna and Honolulu's ever-changing
transit plans
3. More Recent Articles
4. Search Disappeared News
China goes green--bans plastic bags
by Larry Geller Only in China could they do this: ban the use of thin
plastic bags for shopping starting June 1. Yes, June 1, 2008. (thanks to
Ira Rohter for pointer to this story from the Scientific American
website) China Sacks Plastic BagsBan could save 37 million barrels of oil
and alleviate "white pollution" SHANGHAIâ^À^ÔThin plastic bags are used
for everything in China and the Chinese use up....
Global Warming, flooding in Mapunapuna and Honolulu's ever-changing
transit plans
by Larry Geller Related article: Development Oriented Transit Ok, Waikiki
will be flooded like Venice, but not any time soon. What will happen
first is that areas that now get flooded occasionally will be under water
more often. Like Mapunapuna, where high tides regularly fill the streets
with water. So how does this affect transit planning? Should we think of
laying track to Waikiki if its....
More Recent Articles
* No more rooftop sunbathing in New York City, the cops are watching
you
* Followup call received from HPD on Taser video request
* Development Oriented Transit
* Garden Island reports EIS process beginning on Kauai for Superferry
* Hawaii Superferry CEO Fargo gets one more defense role
________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 06:50:39 -0700
From: Marc Nasdor <poodlecannon@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: We want you to be in the New York Complaints Choir
[bring 'em here! sounds like fun... g]
OK, poets (at least those in NYC)... the event you've waited your whole
lives to attend.....
------
Got a Gripe? Sing It Out In NYâ^À^Ùs â^À^ØComplaints Choirâ^À^Ù
New Yorkers with complaints from noisy neighbors and inaudible subway
announcements to workaholic spouses and overcrowded elementary schools can
air their grievances as members of the first â^À^ÜNYC Complaints
Choirâ^À^Ý when the international project comes to New York City onSunday,
June 8.
The choir, which is organized by The New Wilderness Foundation in
collaboration with the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and FRAME (Finnish
Fund for Art Exchange), supported by the New York-based Finnish Cultural
Institute, features members of the public who join as a choir under the
leadership of professional composer and musicians to put on performance in
public venues.
Complaints Choirs have performed in more than a dozen cities around the
world. The first one in the United States was in Chicago in November 2007
where more than 50 choir members griped about their city and annoyances in
their own lives.
Other Complaints Choirs have performed in Helsinki, Budapest, St.
Petersburg, Jerusalem, Singapore and Birmingham, England, among other
locales.
New Yorkers who want to participate in performing in the Complaints Choir
are invited to meet at 4 p.m., Sunday June 8 at the Mehanata Bulgarian
Bar, 113 Ludlow St (off Delancey St.), where organizers of the Complaints
Choir from Finland and New York will explain the project, show videos of
previous choirs, and begin creating lyrics for the NYC choir in an
interactive workshop activity. Admission is free to registered
participants, and complimentary food and beverages will be provided.
Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, the Finnish artists who
created the Complaints Choir concept, which became a world-wide
phenomenon, invite everyoone to take part. To participate, individuals
must submit their complaints in order to register. Complaints may range
from small daily irritations to global issues.
Composer and conductor of the project in New York is Alan Licht., an
American guitarist and composer, whose work combines elements of pop, free
jazz and minimalism.
Videos of Complaints Choirs in six countries are being shown as part of
â^À^ÜArctic Hysteria: new Art from Finlandâ^À^Ý exhibition at P.S. 1 from
June 1 through September 15. (www.PS1.org)
To register for the initial meeting of the Complaints Choir-New York,
complainers should send their complaints by June 5 to:
complaintschoir@newwilderness.org.
Complaints Choirs of the world may be seen on www.complaintschoir.org.
New Wilderness Foundation www.newwilderness.org New old explorations of
sound and oral poetry through public events, broadcasts, installations and
publications
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 15:15:29 -0400
From: Tara Mack <tara@edliberation.org>
Subject: [edliberation] Upcoming SF Conference for Educators
The International Conference and Forum for Educators will be held from
July 5 through 9, 2008 at the five-star Westin Saint Francis Hotel in San
Francisco, CA.
San Francisco has often been described as "a city without an equal." This
academic happening has been designed to provide a conference experience
without equal for educators from around the globe.
The Conference will bring educators from all over the world together in a
highly interactive, stimulating environment that by design will optimize
learning, understanding, and communication. It is a one of a kind
opportunity to join a grass roots movement for positive change in
education all over the world.
The Forum will provide educators a rare opportunity to voice their
perspectives regarding issues of concern in education in 2008, and express
practical solutions based on experience and subject matter expertise. The
opinions, strategies, and ideas developed by participants will be
organized, published, and distributed to all attendees and broader,
relevant and influential audiences.
One Voice is an opportunity for the true experts in education, the
educators themselves, to raise their voices together as one voice,
empowered by their dedication, experience, and sincere desire to
facilitate positive change. This objective is greatly fostered by the
design, philosophy, and special characteristics of the event particularly
the emphasis placed on interactivity and bonding.
Global Networking will be facilitated among the educators from parts far
and wide including Namibia, Philippines, China, Taiwan, United Kingdom,
Canada, Puerto Rico, Turkmenistan, Central Asia, the U.S., and more as
they raise their voices in an effort for change. The diversity of the
speakers is reflected in the unique scope of topics they will present.
The mixture of cultures, subjects, perspectives, and experience will help
to build the tremendous scaffold of ideas and recommendations needed to
achieve needed positive change.
Subjects in numerous categories will be represented which include a
unique scope of topics about which they will be speaking. The mixture of
cultures, subjects, perspectives, and experience will help to build the
tremendous scaffold of ideas and recommendations needed to achieve needed
positive change.
REGISTER NOW: http://www.elementalethics.com
Call for Papers is open through may 30th, 2008
____________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 15:38:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: megavote@mailmanager.net
Subject: MegaVote: HI 2nd, 5/27/2008
Congress.org presents: M E G A V O T E
May 27, 2008
In this MegaVote for Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District:
Recent Congressional Votes -
* Senate: Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008
* Senate: Overriding the Veto of the Food and Energy Security Act of 2007
* House: Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act
* House: Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act
* House: Overriding the Veto of the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act
* House: To provide for the continuation of Department of Agriculture programs through FY2012
* House: Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for FY2009
=================
Editor's Note: The Senate and House are in recess until June 2.
==========
Recent Senate Votes:
Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=137&chamber=S&congress=1102
Vote Agreed to (75-22, 3 Not Voting)
With this vote, the Senate attached more than $10 billion in domestic
spending to the $165 billion supplemental spending bill funding military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sen. Daniel Inouye voted YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/mail/?id=201&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/bio/?id=201)
Sen. Daniel Akaka voted
YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/mail/?id=202&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/bio/?id=202)
----------------
Overriding the Veto of the Food and Energy Security Act of 2007
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=140&chamber=S&congress=1102
Vote Passed (82-13, 1 Present, 4 Not Voting)
The Senate voted to override the PresidentÂ^Òs veto of the farm bill, but
a clerical error will require the vote to be taken again.
Sen. Daniel Inouye voted
YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/mail/?id=201&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/bio/?id=201)
Sen. Daniel Akaka voted
YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/mail/?id=202&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/bio/?id=202)
=======
Recent House Votes:
Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=332&chamber=H&congress=1102
Vote Passed (324-84, 26 Not Voting)
The House passed a measure authorizing the Justice Department to pursue
energy antitrust and price-fixing cases against members of the OPEC oil
cartel.
Rep. Mazie Hirono voted
YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/mail/?id=31644&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/bio/?id=31644)
-------------
Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=344&chamber=H&congress=1102
Vote Passed (263-160, 12 Not Voting)
The House passed this bill to extend temporary tax provisions that expired
at the end of 2007.
Rep. Mazie Hirono voted
YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/mail/?id=31644&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/bio/?id=31644)
--------------
Overriding the Veto of the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=346&chamber=H&congress=1102
Vote Passed (316-108, 11 Not Voting)
The House voted to override the PresidentÂ^Òs veto of the farm bill, but a
clerical error required that the House vote on the bill again.
Rep. Mazie Hirono voted
YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/mail/?id=31644&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/bio/?id=31644)
-------------
To provide for the continuation of Department of Agriculture programs
through FY2012
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=353&chamber=H&congress=1102
Vote Passed (306-110, 19 Not Voting)
The House voted to suspend the rules and again pass the farm bill, after a
clerical error invalidated a previous vote, the PresidentÂ^Òs veto, and a
veto override.
Rep. Mazie Hirono voted
YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/mail/?id=31644&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/bio/?id=31644)
-------------
Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for FY2009
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=365&chamber=H&congress=1102
Vote Passed (384-23, 27 Not Voting)
The House authorized $600 billion in defense appropriations for fiscal
year 2009.
Rep. Mazie Hirono voted
YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/mail/?id=31644&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/congressorg/bio/?id=31644)
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 08:50:46 -1000
From: Global Media Productions <info@globalmediaproductions.com>
An_Evening_w/_Mike_Dooley_-_"The_Secret"__Luminary_-__Sun._June_8,_Maui_,_7:30pm?=
Maybe it's just me,____, but I kind of thought that to be alive in a world
where every single moment of every single day birds fly, dolphins twirl,
flowers bloom, snow falls, waves wave, rainbows rise, and antelopes... do
whatever antelopes do, would forever silence doubters, inspire dreamers,
and fill one's soul with absolute rapture.
Or am I being "punked"?
The Universe
Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ® © www.tut.com ®
Where every single day dreams come true, Fred, friends are made,
challenges are vanquished, and crème brûlées flame.
TICKETS & INFO AT www.globalmediaproductions. com or calll 808-875-8820
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 10:25:27 -1000
From: Viviane Lerner <vivlerner@gmail.com>
Subject: Too Poor to Parent
It reminds me of an Alvin Toffler's book I read many years ago [either
"Future Shock" or "The Third Wave"], predicting that children upbringing
would end up being switched from the parents to the State....
============
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/86482
Too Poor to Parent
By Jill Filipovic, Feministe
Posted on May 26, 2008, Printed on May 27, 2008
Low-income women ^× and black women in particular ^× have their children
taken away far more often than white women. Black children are twice as
likely as white children to enter foster care.
The reason for this disparity? Study after study reviewed by Stanford
University law professor Dorothy Roberts in her book Shattered Bonds: The
Color of Child Welfare (Basic Books/Perseus, 2002) concludes that poverty
is the leading cause of children landing in foster care. One study, for
example, showed that poor families are up to 22 times more likely to be
involved in the child-welfare system than wealthier families. And
nationwide, blacks are four times more likely than other groups to live
in poverty.
But when state child-welfare workers come to remove children from black
mothers^Ò homes, they rarely cite poverty as the factor putting a child
at risk. Instead, these mothers are told that they neglected their
children by failing to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter,
education or medical care. The failure is always personal, and these
mothers and children are almost always made to suffer individually for
the consequences of one of the United States^Ò most pressing social
problems.
This article originally appeared in Ms. Magazine, and the author is
Gaylynn Burroughs, an attorney at the Bronx Defenders who represents
parents accused of child neglect. The point she makes in the above
paragraph is crucial: These are national social problems, but instead of
addressing them as such, we^Òre turning them in to individual failures
and punishing individual women and children.
The comments at AlterNet are predictable ^× there was even one (now
deleted) saying something to the effect of, ^ÓThese people should be
spayed and neutered.^Ô Lots of commenters make the point that women
shouldn^Òt have children until they^Òre financially stable, and the fact
that a poor woman has a baby is automatic proof that she is a bad mother
^× because a ^Ógood mother^Ô would not have a baby while poor. Others
point out that having a child is poverty-inducing. That is certainly true
^× kids are expensive, and for women, having a child is a major risk
factor for dropping below the poverty level.
But I^Òm not buying the line that being poor makes one unsuitable for
parenthood. What does make one unsuitable is abuse or neglect ^× and
those don^Òt depend on how much money you have.
Of course, it^Òs a problem if there^Òs not enough money to give your kids
three square meals a day. But I^Òd suggest that it would be a whole lot
better to increase welfare benefits or food stamps instead of taking the
kids away. It^Òs a big problem if the kids can^Òt get medical care when
they^Òre sick ^× of course, it^Òs also a problem that Mom and Dad can^Òt
get medical care when they^Òre sick. There^Òs a pretty clear solution to
that one, and again, it would be much better for everyone than to put the
kids in foster care and hope the problem will go away. Obviously it^Òs
problematic that kids from low-income families often have fewer
opportunities when it comes to education and jobs ^× but that^Òs hardly
the fault of their parents. These are structural and systematic problems,
but it^Òs symptomatic of our society^Òs blind spots that we insist on
blaming the mothers.
Family is not a privilege. Yes, in an ideal world every woman would be
able to get out of poverty before she had babies; but not every woman is
going to be able to escape poverty. And yes, in some situations women and
girls have children which keep them in that cycle; but again, I^Òm not
sure the problem is the kids as much as the lack of other options.
In another thread, someone mentioned the book Random Family. If you
haven^Òt read it, check it out. One thing that blew my 20-year-old mind
when I read that book back in a college journalism class was how all of
my white-girl middle-class solutions don^Òt work across the board. Yes,
contraception access is crucial ^× but it^Òs not going to stop a teenage
girl who wants to get pregnant because for her, it^Òs the best option.
Yes, it^Òs better for everyone to have health care, wholesome food, and a
good education with every opportunity in the world available to them ^×
but that isn^Òt reality, and until it is, we can^Òt be blaming
individuals who are doing the best they can with all the odds stacked
against them.
Black motherhood has long been demonized in this country, from slave
owners viewing female slaves as simple cost-effective ways to create more
slaves, to involuntary and coerced sterilizations, to ripping black
children from their mothers under the guise of ^Óprotection.^Ô Yes, it is
abuse to starve your child, to neglect them, to beat them. It is not
abuse if you^Òre too poor to pay to keep the lights on that month. And
children are not objects of privilege that only the rich are entitled to.
Women who are good, loving moms but who can^Òt afford certain luxuries ^×
or even certain basics ^× don^Òt deserve to suffer the burden of our
societal failures.
==================================================================
From: MA`O ORGANIC FARMS <waianaeorganic@hawaii.rr.com>
Date: May 15, 2008 1:33:45 PM HST
Subject: Position available -- organic farm manager apprenticeship
program
ALOHA `AINA...
If you folks hear of any recent graduates wanting to start a career in
organic farming we're again looking for another person. Back in March we
hired a 2007 UH Manoa CTAHR graduate and she seems to have survived the
first few months unscathed, and is living the high life of a Hawai`i
organic farmer!
Information on the apprenticeship can be found on our web site.
http://www.maoorganicfarms.org/index.php/site/farm_apprenticeship/
Interested candidates can also schedule a visit.
We have started development work on the adjoining 11-acres, the next
4-month swill involve clean-up, recycling, infrastructure development,
irrigation system installation, and soil improvements, so the position
will get the full farm experience.
Please contact me directly for more information.
Mahalo nui...
Gary Maunakea-Forth
MA`O ORGANIC FARMS
808-696-5569 (farm)
808-478-0316 (cell)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 23:12:35 +0000
From: hanalei Fergerstrom <warhawaii@hotmail.com>
KAU INOA: Fact and Fiction - comment
E aloha mai,
Regarding Kau Inoa:
There is so little information on the pro's and con's of Kau Inoa
out for the general public. There is a great deal of monies being spent
to promote and absolutely no funds available to counter. While the
promotion of Kau Inoa tickles the fancy of who would support this concept
of "to build a Nation" what is not being tlked about is WHAT NATION. The
promoters will tell you that it is to build a nation of our chosing..,.
that the Hawaiian's will once again be Sovereign. Of course the
sovereignty that the promoters speak about is the same one that the
Native American Indians currently have. That sovereignty is under United
States domestic law. So how does one achive sovereignty under
someone elses Law..? Conflict of terms.
Because of the lack of open equally financed positions regarding a
sovereign entity, the lack of discussion as to the merits of the Apology
Resolution and the fact that we "never directly relinquished our inherent
Sovereignty or our National Lands" we as Na Kupuna Moku O Keawe took the
lead and PUBLISHED a position paper in the Hawaii Island Journal in 2003
against the use of "Proxy voting" in an effort to try in create a legal
buffer to protect against the use of our names from what ever source for
the creation of governent body
for the Hawaiian People without the're expressed permission on every
matter.
This does not say that we are against building a nation... it just
says that our names cannot be used for this process without expressed
permission. Why did we do this... it is because it is the intent to
utilize any and all names of those who have been a particpant in any
Hawaiian program or function by way of registration forms, attendance
list, organization roosters, applcations for services, etc. and use those
names claiming that they support Federal recognition in what everform
weather or not you agree or have even had knowledge of the action.
This PUBLICATION and others that we have created for our mutual
protection is available. We would like to encurage all who want to
safeguard you names from being use without your expressed permission to
contact us so we can make available this information for you and your
family and your Island.
Aloha
Oukou,
Hanalei Fergerstrom
Temple of Lono
Na Kupuna Moku O Keawe
________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 19:46:27 -0700
From: Kathy Roberts <weerkhr@pacbell.net>
Subject: Teen Finds How to Decompose Plastic Bags
http://news.therecord.com/article/354044#=rss
WCI student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags
[cf9f53e6422c825120f2b0625d38.jpeg] DAVID BEBEE, RECORD STAFF
May 22, 2008
Karen Kawawada
RECORD STAFF
WATERLOO
Getting ordinary plastic bags to rot away like banana peels would be an
environmental dream come true.
After all, we produce 500 billion a year worldwide and they take up to
1,000 years to decompose. They take up space in landfills, litter our
streets and parks, pollute the oceans and kill the animals that eat them.
Now a Waterloo teenager has found a way to make plastic bags degrade
faster -- in three months, he figures.
Daniel Burd's project won the top prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair
in Ottawa. He came back with a long list of awards, including a $10,000
prize, a $20,000 scholarship, and recognition that he has found a
practical way to help the environment.
Daniel, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute,
got the idea for his project from everyday life.
"Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I
have this avalanche of plastic bags falling on top of me," he said. "One
day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing
with these plastic bags."
The answer: not much. So he decided to do something himself.
He knew plastic does eventually degrade, and figured microorganisms must
be behind it. His goal was to isolate the microorganisms that can break
down plastic -- not an easy task because they don't exist in high numbers
in nature.
First, he ground plastic bags into a powder. Next, he used ordinary
household chemicals, yeast and tap water to create a solution that would
encourage microbe growth. To that, he added the plastic powder and dirt.
Then the solution sat in a shaker at 30 degrees.
After three months of upping the concentration of plastic-eating
microbes, Burd filtered out the remaining plastic powder and put his
bacterial culture into three flasks with strips of plastic cut from
grocery bags. As a control, he also added plastic to flasks containing
boiled and therefore dead bacterial culture.
Six weeks later, he weighed the strips of plastic. The control strips
were the same. But the ones that had been in the live bacterial culture
weighed an average of 17 per cent less.
That wasn't good enough for Burd. To identify the bacteria in his
culture, he let them grow on agar plates and found he had four types of
microbes. He tested those on more plastic strips and found only the
second was capable of significant plastic degradation.
Next, Burd tried mixing his most effective strain with the others. He
found strains one and two together produced a 32 per cent weight loss in
his plastic strips. His theory is strain one helps strain two reproduce.
Tests to identify the strains found strain two was Sphingomonas bacteria
and the helper was Pseudomonas.
A researcher in Ireland has found Pseudomonas is capable of degrading
polystyrene, but as far as Burd and his teacher Mark Menhennet know --
and they've looked -- Burd's research on polyethelene plastic bags is a
first.
Next, Burd tested his strains' effectiveness at different temperatures,
concentrations and with the addition of sodium acetate as a ready source
of carbon to help bacteria grow.
At 37 degrees and optimal bacterial concentration, with a bit of sodium
acetate thrown in, Burd achieved 43 per cent degradation within six
weeks.
The plastic he fished out then was visibly clearer and more brittle, and
Burd guesses after six more weeks, it would be gone. He hasn't tried that
yet.
To see if his process would work on a larger scale, he tried it with five
or six whole bags in a bucket with the bacterial culture. That worked
too.
Industrial application should be easy, said Burd. "All you need is a
fermenter . . . your growth medium, your microbes and your plastic bags."
The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little
energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs
are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide -- each microbe produces only
0.01 per cent of its own infinitesimal weight in carbon dioxide, said
Burd.
"This is a huge, huge step forward . . . We're using nature to solve a
man-made problem."
Burd would like to take his project further and see it be used. He plans
to study science at university, but in the meantime he's busy with things
such as student council, sports and music.
"Dan is definitely a talented student all around and is poised to be a
leading scientist in our community," said Menhennet, who led the school's
science fair team but says he only helped Burd with paperwork.
Other local students also did well at the national science fair.
Devin Howard of St. John's Kilmarnock School won a gold medal in life
science and several scholarships.
Mackenzie Carter of St. John's Kilmarnock won bronze medals in the
automotive and engineering categories.
Engineers Without Borders awarded Jeff Graansma of Forest Heights
Collegiate a free trip to their national conference in January.
Zach Elgood of Courtland Avenue Public School got honourable mention in
earth and environmental science.
kkawawada@therecord.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 17:17:56 +1200
From: karaka <chooky.clarke@gmail.com>
Subject: [mana_wahine] FW: Herb of the Week....DANDELION
Herb of the Week....DANDELION
Known best in North America as a weed that pops up in freshly cut lawns,
dandelion grows wild in most of the world and is cultivated as an herb in
China, France, and Germany. Young leaves are picked in the spring for
tonic salads. In the early summer, before the plant blooms, leaves are
harvested for the manufacture of medicinal teas, and tinctures. The roots
of two-year-old plants are dug in the fall, when they have their greatest
concentration of the complex carbohydrate inulin, for use in tablets and
tinctures.
Dandelion leaves are a powerful diuretic. The roots act as a blood
purifier that helps both the kidneys and the liver to remove toxins and
poisons from the blood. The roots have been used for centuries to treat
jaundice. Dandelion also acts as a mild laxative and improves appetite and
digestion. It is useful for eczema-like skin problems, boils, and
abscesses, and is believed to help prevent age spots and breast cancer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 18:38:36 +1200
From: karaka <chooky.clarke@gmail.com>
Greens Disgusted over treatment of East Coast
Beneficiaries and Income Gap Questions for Oral Answer
Budget Debate - Tuesday 27 May 2008
Sue Bradford - Green Party
Labour's 2008 Budget Abandons Beneficiaries
Madam Speaker,
As a number of church and community groups, and beneficiaries themselves,
have pointed out repeatedly and poignantly since last Thursday, Michael
Cullen's ninth budget suffers a glaring deficiency in the way it deals
with the most vulnerable people in our society - those dependent on the
benefit system for survival - and their children.
Just a couple of weeks ago one of our Sunday newspapers extracted from
the Ministry of Social Development a remarkable report entitled Pockets
of significant hardship and poverty. Published in June 2007, this
confidential advice from the Government's own people shows what many of
us already suspected, that the gap between the incomes of waged workers
and beneficiaries has got larger and larger, and that in fact
beneficiaries are worse off now than they were in the wake of National's
1991 benefit cuts.
This is a damning indictment of eighteen years of National and Labour
governments. With nine years at the helm each, neither has seen fit to
redraw the acceptable limits of social and economic exclusion. Both
parties have accepted, and in fact Labour has now entrenched, a
philosophy which says the best way of dealing with beneficiaries is to
plunge their incomes so low that they will end up taking on paid work at
almost any cost to their own or their children's health and welfare.
This attitude is exemplified by Labour's `Work First' amendments to the
Social Security Act, which make the fundamental driver of our welfare
system getting people into paid employment, rather than the original
1930s-driven concept of providing an adequate safety net for people who
are out of work.
Dr Cullen's 2008 budget only serves to exacerbate the situation. By
focusing on giving $10.6 billion of tax cuts to those in work, without
any compensatory relief for beneficiaries, the gap pointed out in the MSD
report I just mentioned is just going to get worse.
When challenged by the Maori and Green Parties in the House this
afternoon on this very question, Dr Cullen responded that all
beneficiaries get annual adjustments as a matter of course on the 1 April
each year - something wage workers don't get; that beneficiary children
will benefit from changes in the indexation of child tax credits under
Working for Families; and that single beneficiaries who work part time
will gain from the lower tax thresholds.
In response, I would like to say to the Minister - firstly, that the
annual April adjustment is a pittance which takes place up to a year
after major increases in prices have occurred, and some of which is often
gobbled up by reductions in what people are entitled to by way of
accommodation assistance.
The Green Party believes that until beneficiaries are treated with the
same decency as superannuitants and given annual cost of living increases
linked to a fixed percentage of the average wage, the gap between wages
and super on the one hand, and benefits on the other, will just keep
growing.
Secondly, a small increase in assistance to beneficiaries through Working
for Families goes nowhere near enough to make up for the fact that
families where neither parent is substantially in paid work receive
substantially less support than those who are. This blatant
discrimination against the children of beneficiaries continues, and it is
no wonder that a large percentage of those of our children who live in
poverty in these comparatively well off times are in fact from
beneficiary families.
On top of this, not one cent from this budget goes to those beneficiaries
who do not have children, and who do not engage in even part time paid
work. This group has been ignored by successive Governments for the last
two decades, yet contains some of our most vulnerable citizens.
These are often people with substantial long-term physical or mental
illness or injury, or with major impairments, with no opportunity of
entering the paid workforce - or are people who are caring for someone
else in their family in this situation. People in these circumstances
continue to be condemned to a life of total poverty and increasing social
exclusion in the absence of being able to take up the paid employment
Labour sees as the answer to all their woes.
In justifying his approach in the House this afternoon Dr Cullen made the
point that `Labour clearly stands for labour' - that is, as he said in a
Scoop interview last week, quote, `From its history, the Labour Party has
always been about people in employment.'
Well Dr Cullen certainly has a different understanding of labour history
in this country than I do. I had thought that the first Labour
Government under Michael Joseph Savage swept to power in 1935 as a result
of the mass unemployment and poverty suffered through six years of the
Great Depression. It was unemployed workers together with their comrades
still in work who helped create and drive the great things Labour did in
those early days, including taking the first steps towards getting a
decent welfare system into place, and I see this generation of Labour's
approach to beneficiaries as a real betrayal of that proud history.
Yes, it is critical that everyone in our country should have the right to
a decent job at a decent day's pay. The Green Party stands for full
employment just as Labour does.
But a commitment to full employment does not mean that somehow those
who aren't at a particular time in their lives able to participate in the
paid workforce should be denied the means of sustenance necessary to
support themselves, and their children if they have them, with dignity
and without ever increasing debt,
Saying the Labour Party is only about people in employment is a rejection
of beneficiaries as people worthy of an equal place in society. It is no
wonder Work First is Labour's mantra. It is no wonder the Government had
any scruples about abolishing the Special Benefit which used to be
available to beneficiaries who were receiving all their entitlements but
still didn't have enough to meet their basic needs. It is no wonder that
this budget pays only very limited lip service to this group of citizens
who are now being expected, I guess, to shut up and get on with looking
for a job, no matter what their circumstances.
On Sunday it was reported that Dr Cullen is now planning to move with
alacrity towards making some minor changes to help some beneficiaries,
for example through increasing the maximum amount payable for grants for
additional assistance for food. Now while lifting the level of maximum
food grants would be an overdue and welcome improvement on the current
situation, this does nothing to address the deeper systemic issues facing
beneficiaries right now.
Tinkering around the edges is not enough. At a time when the economic
impacts of climate change and peak oil are starting to hit home through
rising food, fuel, transport and housing prices, we should doing our best
to ensure our country's most vulnerable citizens can eat, house and
clothe themselves, not abandoning them.
What we should have seen in this Budget was not a prioritisation of tax
cuts, including for the very well off, but instead a serious focus on a
number of measures aimed at lifting beneficiaries out of the seemingly
endless slide into deeper poverty.
The Government should be lifting core benefit levels for all
beneficiaries to amounts individuals and families can actually and
realistically live on without constantly going further into debt to both
Work and Income and private lenders.
Failing this hopelessly optimistic goal being achieved, Labour should at
least reintroduce genuine discretion into the benefit system, so that
Work and Income case workers once again have the power they used to have
with the special benefit to top peoples' incomes up so that at least
their most basic needs can be met.
The discriminatory In Work component of the Working for Families package
should be replaced by a Universal Child Benefit, like the old family
benefit, paid in respect of all children regardless of parents employment
status or income, and with the ability for families to capitalize on it
as a deposit for their first home.
And all benefit levels, once raised to a livable amount, should be
protected by annual adjustment linked to a fixed and sufficient
percentage of the average wage.
I find it deeply ironic that I am once again pleading with a Labour
Government to pay attention to the needs of beneficiaries. Labour is
supposed to be the party of workers - well Labour should understand that
unemployed workers and sole parents - for example - are workers too.
Back in 1991 Labour MPs made speeches fighting tooth and nail against
National's Mother of All Budgets benefit cuts. In the 1993 and 1996
election campaigns Labour promised to reverse the cuts. They also railed
against National introducing income status into the tax system. 1999
rolled around and what happened? No sign of any reversal of the benefit
cuts - and subsequently they've also entrenched structural discrimination
against beneficiaries through Working for Families and by reducing gross
benefit rates so that beneficiaries get nothing from the tax cuts.
Every day I hear stories of desperation and anger from people impacted by
both the continuing poverty they are forced to live in, and by the
harassment they receive from Work and Income staff trying to force, for
example, people with long-term serious mental illness or sole parents
with young children into paid work.
This Budget and the attitudes it epitomizes are simply not fair. If this
Government believed in the right of everyone in Aotearoa to a decent
life, we would have seen quite a different budget last Thursday. It is
way past time we had a government which recognized that every child and
every adult in this country deserves a fair chance at life, not just some
of us.
--------
Subject: [Green] Greens Disgusted over treatment of East Coast
Beneficiaries and Income Gap Questions for Oral Answer
28 May 2008
Greens disgusted over treatment of East Coast beneficiaries
Green Party MP Sue Bradford will be asking questions of the Social
Development Minister in Parliament today about Work and Income treatment
of sickness and invalid beneficiaries in the Opotiki-Whakatane district.
"I am shocked by information that people with or recovering from serious
mental illness are being harassed by Work and Income into working in
packhouses on the East Coast under the Work First scheme without
sufficient support or understanding of their health and employment
needs," Ms Bradford says.
"The Government should not be turning `Work First' into a work compulsion
scheme for invalids and beneficiaries.
"I was told that in January this year an organisation with no experience
of working with the employment needs of people with mental illness was
given a $400,000 contract by Rotorua Work and Income to place around 20
such people into packhouse jobs.
"I find it incredible that Work and Income would see it as appropriate to
give such a large contract to an organisation with so little practical
experience of working with the real needs of people in this situation.
"What disturbs me most of all about the situation reported to me was the
lack of any willingness on the part of Work and Income to check with
appropriate health providers as to whether these people were actually
well enough to start working in packhouses.
"I have been informed that one of the people who was pushed into
packhouse work became unwell, and ended up in the psychiatric ward at
Whakatane Hospital as a result.
"The Green Party would be very interested to know whether Work and Income
keeps records of how many people end up back in acute psychiatric units
as a result of the `Work First' strategy which makes getting
beneficiaries into paid work a top priority for case managers.
"We are also concerned about the evident lack of training for Work and
Income industrial advisors and case managers in how to work with people
with mental illness, and would like the Government to come clean on what
its policies are in this area."
_____________________________________________________
11. Budget 2008-Income Gaps
[Uncorrected transcript-subject to correction and further editing.]
11. SUE BRADFORD (Green) to the Minister of Finance: What advice, if any,
has he had as to whether last week's Budget will increase or decrease the
income gap between beneficiaries and waged workers?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Minister of Finance) : I thank the member for her
question and note both the Green Party and the M?ori Party holding the
Government to account for the Budget, unlike the National Party. I
received advice that the general overall measure of inequality is not
worsened by the Budget measures on taxation. If we take the case of a
single person on the equivalent invalids benefit, grossed up to the
equivalent tax levels at present, that person will pay $12 a week less in
tax on 1 October. Obviously, that does not flow through to a person
actually on the invalids benefit. However, a person on the invalids
benefit is guaranteed annual indexation to cover increases in the cost of
living; a person on a low income is not, and often does not receive that
in N ew Zealand in modern times. It should also be noted that, of course,
beneficiaries with children receive the indexation of the family tax
credits, and the reduction in the bottom rate and the big increase in the
threshold means that many single beneficiaries will be able to earn more
at a lower tax rate than was previously the case, particularly those on
unemployment and sickness benefits.
Sue Bradford: Is it not the truth, however, that at a time of very
rapidly rising food, fuel, and housing costs, and despite a recent
Ministry of Social Development report that shows beneficiaries are
actually worse off now than they were after National's 1991 benefit cuts,
the Minister delivered a Budget that is actually guaranteed to make the
gap between beneficiaries overall and wage workers grow?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: I do not think that follows necessarily, because,
as I say, beneficiaries are guaranteed compensation for those price
rises. That does not always apply to those people who are on low earned
incomes. The fact that there is a gap, of course, is part of the
incentive for people to move off benefits if they are able to do so.
There are pressure points for some beneficiary families, and the
Government is looking at ways of effectively addressing those pressure
points.
Su'a William Sio: Has the Minister received any advice of the effect on
inequality of scrapping the cuts for low and modest income earners and
steps 2 and 3 of his tax-cut package in order to give bigger tax cuts to
the highest income earners?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: Yes, indeed. The package in the Budget leads to
the standard measures of inequality, which are the Gini coefficient and,
occasionally, something that is called the 80:20 test-that is, the
comparison of the 80th percentile versus the 20th percentile-are not
effected negatively by the tax package. Any change to that package, by,
for example, as Mr Key seems to be hinting, taking away the further moves
at the bottom-end and transferring those to the top-end, will clearly
worsen inequality.
Sue Bradford: Why does the Minister think that tinkering around the edges
of the benefit system, as he suggested on the weekend, will be enough to
deal with deepening poverty and the gap between wage workers and
beneficiaries, when the annual 1 April CPI increase is so small that it
does not even touch on the depth of the need out there, and when the
system has lost the discretion it used to have through the special
benefit, which allowed Work and Income to top up people enough so that
they could survive from one week to another, but that is all gone?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: If prices are increasing significantly, then the
increase on 1 April is not small. The increase on 1 April is exactly the
measured increase in the Consumer Price Index, and therefore compensates
as best as any average can, because individual circumstances vary, for
those price movements. The member refers to the study, but, of course,
the study ignores the fact that the real incomes have risen for those in
employment and, therefore, if benefits increase by only the cost of
living, then the gap widens. The Labour Party clearly stands for labour;
that is why we are called the Labour Party.
Sue Bradford: Does the Minister accept Treasury's projections that
unemployment numbers will drop significantly over the coming year,
despite the recent job losses and rising oil and food prices, or have
those figures been used just in order to claim that we can afford $10.6
billion in tax cuts?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: I do not generate the Treasury forecasts in any
shape or form; they are generated independently on Treasury's own best
estimate of what happens. Ministers of Finance do not create their own
numbers in that regard. That is one of the big differences between being
a Minister of Finance and being an Opposition spokesperson on finance.
===============================================================================
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 23:51:06 -0700
From: Free Hawai`i <freehawaii@earthlink.net>
Subject: [kaleimailealii] Free Hawai`i TV - "You're Being Used!"
FREEHAWAII.INFO PRESENTS
FREE HAWAI`I TV
THE FREE HAWAI`I BROADCASTING NETWORK
TODAY'S VIDEO COMMENTARY -
"YOU'RE BEING USED!"
What's The Real Purpose Of OHA's Kau Inoa Registry? Are They Using Your
Name For Something Else?
Is It Too Late To Take Your Name Off?
Find Out Here - http://FreeHawaiiTV.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 21:04:32 -1000
From: Viviane Lerner <vivlerner@gmail.com>
Subject: ***Hawaii Natives Are Learning What May Happen with Akaka Bill:
See YA!
http://originalpechanga.blogspot.com/2008/05/hawaii-natives-are-learning-what-may.html
FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2008
Hawaii Natives Are Learning What May Happen with Akaka Bill: See YA!
Akaka Bill Preview: Tribes Boot Members Keep Loot
By Andrew Walden, 5/15/2008 9:39:59 AM
Are you Hawaiian? Perhaps not for long.
California Indian tribes are giving Hawaii a preview of what can be
expected under the Office of Hawaiian Affairs^Ò proposed Akaka Tribe. They
are throwing out members^×and some say it is all about money. OP: It
absolutely IS.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle on April 20: ^ÓFrom San Diego to
Clear Lake, 57 tribes are cashing in on the annual $7.7 billion California
Indian gambling boom, and some are throwing out many of their own members
-(OP: 25% of the Pechanga Tribe, almost 50% of Picayune) all, critics say,
so those remaining can pocket more cash.
In many cases, that amounts to monthly allowances of up to $30,000 per
person. The numbers of those receiving shares were relatively small to
begin with - only an estimated 39,000 of the 350,000 American Indians in
this state, according to studies by the state attorney general, the U.S.
Census Bureau and others.^Ô See it here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/20/MNJNVJC72.DTL
If the Akaka Bill becomes law, Hawaiians will be forced into something
King Kamehameha abolished in creating the Hawaiian Kingdom^×a tribe. And
that tribe will have authority over who is or is not officially allowed to
enroll. At stake will be land and shares in revenues from Akaka Tribe
ownership of thousands of acres of valuable Hawaii real estate.
Nobody explains this better than the Akaka Bill^Òs chief proponent in the
U.S. House Rep. Neil Abercrombie. Speaking to the House Committee on
Natural Resources on May 2, 2007, Abercrombie explained: ^ÓThe bottom line
here is that this is a bill about the control of assets. This is about
land, this is about money, and this is about who has the administrative
authority and responsibility over it.^Ô OP: Pechanga has already taken
land they said they wanted to preserve, hundreds of acres and are now
putting 18 holes into it, and fertilizer... They LIED!
Read the full article HERE
=====----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alan Murakami
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 5:59 PM
Subject: FW: ALERT: Comments to Public Review Drafts of the IFS
Assessment Reports for the East Maui streams due June 10, 2008
I'd appreciate it if you can send this message out to your network, so
people can submit comments in support of East Maui taro farmers. A
collective call to support the traditions of taro farmers and Hawaiian
subsistence gatherers and fishermen would be great!
Alan T. Murakami, Esq.
Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation
1164 Bishop Street
Suite 1205
Honolulu, HI 96813
Tel: 808-521-2302
Fax: 808-537-4268
ALERT
Comments to Public Review Drafts of the IFS Assessment Reports for the
East Maui streams due June 10, 2008
The Commission on Water Resources Management (CWRM) deadline for
submitting comments in support of the petitions filed by Na Moku Aupuni O
Ko`olau Hui, Beatrice Kekahuna, and Marjorie Wallett is coming up June 10,
2008. Please say something in support of these petitioners.
Comments could center around the following points:
1. Petitioners are taro growers and Hawaiian subsistence gatherers and
fishermen,
2. They are engaged in traditional and customary practices and have
water rights protected by the Hawai`i Constitution, statutes and the
common law.
3. A&B/EMI has the ultimate burden of proof to positively show that
diversions are not harming these legally recognized interests.
1. The farmers' do not have the burden to produce evidence of harm
from these diversions;
2. The law requires that A&B/EMI establish the absence of harm - it
has never established this and this alone is reason to stop or
reduce these stream diversions.
3. A&B/EMI is using excessive amounts of water to irrigate its sugar
fields -17,000 gallons per day per acre in wet months, 34,000
gpd/a in wet months (a typical food farmer uses 2,000 gallons per
acre per day (gpad)
4. As a public agency, the CWRM has a public trust duty to
1. Place the burden of proof on A&B/EMI as required by law.
2. Figure out the extent to which the exercise of these rights might
be impacted by any diversions of stream water
3. Provide reasonable protections for them by amending any interim
instream flow standards (IIFS) of the streams involved,
including:
i.
demanding that the diverter (A&B/EMI) show its use of all reasonable
alternative sources of water
ii.
determining the cumulative impact any diversion on the affected stream
environments
If you support the efforts of Na Moku and Aunties Beatrice and Marjorie,
please write the Water Commission before June 10, as instructed below:
Additional comments can be submitted in the following ways:
Submission Method
Note
Mail:
Commission on Water Resource Management
P.O. Box 621
Honolulu, Hawaii 96809
Please use the
Comment Response Form (see our web site) (see, also attached)
Facsimilie: (808) 587-0219
Please use the Comment Response Form (see our web site)
Please include the following information in the Email:
- First and last name
- Affiliation (if any)
- Address
- Phone number
Be sure to include your name, address and any affiliation you might have
with any organization in your email to the Water Commission. Please
include almurak@nhlchi.org as a cc just so we at NHLC can keep track of
comments.
[ Part 1.2, Image/JPEG 38KB. ]
[ Part 2, Application/PDF 24KB. ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Maui Tomorrow List" <aina@maui-tomorrow.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 5:13 PM
Subject: ML&P deal opens spigot for Kula lands
> http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/504266.html
> The Maui News
> Tuesday, May 27, 2008
>
> ML&P deal opens spigot for Kula lands
> But agreement seen as threat to agriculture, unfair to family projects
> By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer
>
> WAILUKU - A well that is being drilled in Piiholo by Maui Land &
> Pineapple Co. in a controversial deal with the county is expected to be
> online with a total capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day by the end
> of 2010.
>
> The county is expected to get 168,750 gallons or more out of the
> agreement signed by former Mayor Alan Arakawa in 2006. That's more than
> the county's gotten out of similar agreements in the past. But some are
> questioning why the agreement allows ML&P to draw some of its water
> allocation from the county's Upper Kula system, bypassing Kula
> landowners who've been waiting for years on the Upcountry water meter
> waiting list.
>
> "That is not fair," said Doug MacCluer, a retired vice president of Maui
> Pineapple Co., who now serves on the county's General Plan Advisory
> Committee and the Central Maui Soil and Water Conservation District.
> "There are a lot of people on that list - family subdivisions - for
> years and years. To jump ahead is just not fair."
>
> ML&P officials contended that the well is a good deal for the county,
> and note that the water the county gets will actually enable it to start
> issuing meters to more Upcountry residents.
>
> "Those who stand to benefit the most from this are the first couple
> hundred people on the Upcountry water meter list," said Senior Vice
> President Ryan Churchill.
>
> Churchill said the well was expected to cost ML&P $4 million to $5
> million to develop.
>
> "We're paying for it, we're taking the risk, and if we're successful it
> gets turned over to the county for a very limited cost," he said.
>
> Under the agreement, the well would be built by ML&P; if pump tests are
> satisfactory, upon completion it would be turned over to the county,
> which would own and operate it.
>
> County standards call for wells to be pumped at 45 percent of maximum
> capacity. Under the agreement, ML&P would receive 75 percent of that
> amount, or 506,250 gallons per day, while the county would get 25
> percent, or 168,750 gallons.
>
> Of ML&P's allocation, as much as 120,000 gallons could be taken from the
> county's Upper Kula water system and used to serve 15 parcels identified
> by tax-map key number, totaling more than 3,300 acres, according to the
> agreement. Also in the deal, the county would give ML&P credits against
> future water development fees and would refund 50 percent of the
> company's cost of installing a transmission line.
>
> Water Director Jeff Eng, who joined the county in January 2007, noted
> that the agreement with ML&P was more favorable for the county than
> similar water-development agreements signed with Maui Lani in 2006 and
> Dowling Co. in 1996. In both those cases, the developer was granted 100
> percent of the net available water, while the county took over and
> operated the well.
>
> "In terms of how much water the community can get out of it, this is
> definitely the best deal," Eng said.
>
> The county can also get more water out of the deal by pumping the well
> above the recommended 45 percent of capacity, Eng added. The county has
> recently been pumping the Dowling well in Kaupakalua at 55 percent of
> capacity, and pocketing the surplus, about 164,000 gallons per day, he
> said.
>
> But Eng agreed the Piiholo well agreement was not ideal for the county.
> "We will get something, but on paper it doesn't look good at all," he
> said. "In the future, I want to get a better deal than this."
>
> Arakawa said the agreement was nothing unusual, and had terms beneficial
> for the county.
>
> "I think the county got better than the standard deal," he said.
>
> He noted that the county could pump the well at maximum capacity if it
> wants to, which would allow it to take two-thirds of the total.
>
> "Sixty-six percent of water is better than zero percent of nothing," he
> said.
>
> Deals with private companies to develop their own wells have been tried in
> recent years "to buy the county some time," while the county seeks new
> water sources of its own, Eng said. He wanted future agreements to have
> terms more favorable to the county, with a 50-50 split of net water.
>
> Eng said he was aware of the concern surrounding the agreement's impact on
> the Upcountry meter list.
>
> "I hear it every day," he said.
>
> But he noted that the county's allocation from the deal would allow it to
> issue meters to people on the waiting list, and that water from Piiholo
> could be pumped to add water to the Upper Kula system from which ML&P
> would be drawing for its Kula parcels.
>
> "We can move water around," he said.
>
> Board of Water Supply Member Michael Howden was disturbed by the
> agreement. Just because the county was "screwed" on previous deals for
> private water development, he said, that didn't make this a good one.
>
> He was distressed that people waiting for meters would be "pushed aside."
>
> "It's just so unfair to the residents, especially people who are on the
> waiting list," he said.
>
> But Howden was also concerned that neither the water board nor the Maui
> County Council was notified of the deal before it was signed.
>
> "We should have been informed that something of this magnitude was being
> negotiated and had been signed," he said.
>
> The council has since passed a law requiring the mayor to get council
> approval before accepting ownership of a private well.
>
> Arakawa noted that the agreement includes a provision for the council to
> approve the handover of the well.
>
> "There's no sneaking anything through," he said.
>
> But MacCluer thought the fact that Arakawa signed the deal after voters
> had turned down his bid for re-election, and six weeks before leaving
> office, "just looks shady."
>
> In addition to his concern about the Upcountry meter list, MacCluer was
> upset that a number of the parcels specified to receive ML&P's water
> allocation in upper Kula are prime agricultural lands. The parcels include
> former pineapple fields located between Pulehu and Omaopio Roads, below
> Pukalani, and adjacent to the Waiakoa Homesteads. Landowners include ML&P,
> Kula 1800 LLC, Haleakala Ranch, Pulehu Farms, Kula Ridge LLC and Kula
> Ridge Mauka LLC.
>
> He feared the lands would become "gentleman's estates."
>
> He also noted that, at 1,500-feet elevation, the Piiholo well water would
> have to be pumped higher than for other wells used by the county. The well
> will require more electricity.
>
> "I think it's a bum deal for the public and for agriculture," he said.
>
> * Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.
> ____________________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 03:31:35 -0400
From: hoonanea@aol.com
Subject: [livingnation] TV shows
Aloha In case you didn't know, Thursday nights at 6:00 is Bill Aila's
show, and at 6:30 Poka Laenui's, on Channel 53. Regina
________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 22:25:05 -1000
From: Kealii Makekau <kealii8@lava.net>
Subject: [livingnation] State vs Henry Noa, RHK
I keep getting asked what is happening with the reinstated case on Maui so
Here is a link to what transpired last month!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5efIU6m4PAw&NR=1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 04:44:16 -1000
From: Tane . <Tane_1@msn.com>
Maui News - East Maui Stream Issue
Coming to a Boil - comment
I remember from my childhood my youth, and adulthood, the freshwater
streams on Maui and Kaua'i when we would gather food. The common practice
was to go inland and work your way down the stream. This way you don't
over-harvest in one area. You only take what you need. There were many
stories my na kupuna would share with us; some spooky, some hilariously
funny, some mystical, some thought-provoking, and all awe-inspiring,
learning experiences.
The best time to catch o'opu was after a big rain when the streams
overflowed and wash the fish down stream. The kupuna would fasten baskets
undr the small rippling cascades to trap the fish. They were always
vigilant not to leave the baskets unattended after the rainfall. Opae
kuahiwi was worth collecting. We would turn over the stream stones along
the banks and scoop with our small nets to collect them. Hihiwai clung to
the rocks and hard surfaces in the water. At the mouth of the stream in
brackish water was limu for condiments to various food we ate. The fries
of the akule need the brackish water to flourish. Things were plentiful
when I was a kid; not anymore. Auwe no ho'i e!
As I reminisce, I feel saddened that my younger siblings, nieces and
nephews never got to experience some of these things. I, myself, miss
those days; it made me feel really alive. We were taught to respect and
appreciate what we have and erase traces of we ever having been there.
Gathering around the table eating or just to pupu on our catch, talking
stories, sharing, laughing, pule in thanksgiving, kanikapila and singing
familiar songs, playing games; a sense of belonging and relaxing in a
wonderful atmosphere was the order of the day. It was a time for bonding
and catching up on the news. These are what I miss when reflecting on
those days. It was the wai that made us feel waiwai. Our richness was in
the water.
By taking our water away from us; one is robbing us of our wealth,
sustenance, and the zest of life. There is more than one way to kapulu
our water. It is our kuleana to preserve it in balance. The enrichment
is not for one; but for all. The fauna and flora need it as much as
humans. They all contribute in enriching our lives through being pono.
There is a balance in using it properly and not being sated in gluttonous
actions to enrich just oneself as there are others in the world that we
need to be concerned about and to consider. There is no price you can put
on water as it belongs to all people, plants and animals as is the air we
breath. We mahalo ke Akua for these gifts; not man.
o wau iho no, he Hawai'i au,
Tane
________________________________________________________________________________
From: Conference@union.unimelb.edu.au
Subject: New Worlds, New Sovereignties: FINAL PROGRAM
RELEASED
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 12:34:20 +1000
Dear friend,
Our conference is looking wonderful. A programme is attached.
We can still do with registrations (to optimise catering,
etc.), so please can you forward the programme as widely as
possible?
We're looking forward to seeing you at the conference.
Best wishes,
Julie and Patrick.
Please visit the conference website to register for the
conference: www.newsovereignties.org
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Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 18:09:40 -0500
From: nimchira <chooky.clarke@gmail.com>
Subject: [mana_wahine] Voices Health/Environment News
News from the Health and Environmental Communities.
Published since Nov, 2005
May 28, 2008
In This Issue:
Recalls today ...
Little Tikes Toy Cell Phones
http://list-manage.com/track/click?u=48290de6249ef2cecba9fe5de&id=11da5160a6&e=0fa96e422d
Adio 'Champ Custom' Hooded Sweatshirts
http://list-manage.com/track/click?u=48290de6249ef2cecba9fe5de&id=f15e3dd3b3&e=0fa96e422d
IntelliSwitch Fireplace Wall Controls
http://list-manage.com/track/click?u=48290de6249ef2cecba9fe5de&id=3751e162fd&e=0fa96e422d
====================
Terminally Ill Patients Want Access to Experimental Drugs
http://www.truthout.org/article/terminally-ill-patients-want-access-experimental-drugs
Kids Exposed To Lead May Show Criminal Behavior Later
> g. w. must have really been exposed. ed
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Kids_Exposed_To_Lead_May_Show_Criminal_Behavior_Later_18179.html
Mild American Bird-Flu Strains Gained Ability to Attack Humans
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aVWZxrgJpeo0
Scientists warn of bird flu epidemic
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2035638/Scientists-warn-of-bird-flu-epidemic.html
FDA Takes Action Against Scientific Laboratories Inc. A permanent
injunction bars Scientific Laboratories from making and distributing drug
products until its manufacturing operations comply with law and its
products are approved.
http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/sciencelabs052808.html
Enforcement Actions for Food Safety Violations. In separate enforcement
actions, FDA shuts down companies for food safety violations. These
actions include a recall of certain smoked seafood products.
http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/foodviolations052808.html
Exposé: Chemicals in food. If not for the work of a muckraking journalist
a century ago, the FDA might never have existed. Now, with information
from investigative journalists, the Senate is challenging the FDA to back
up legislation on bisphenol A.
http://newsletters.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/12798/3057/16261/0/?u=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5wYnMub3JnL21veWVycy9qb3VybmFsLzA1MjMyMDA4L3dhdGNoMi5odG1s&x=4bfd34c0
Children who lived in Katrina trailers may face lifelong ailments. Doctors
fear that tens of thousands of youngsters may face lifelong health
problems because the temporary housing supplied by FEMA contained
formaldehyde fumes up to five times the safe level.
http://newsletters.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/12798/3057/16263/0/?u=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zdGFydHJpYnVuZS5jb20vbGlmZXN0eWxlL2hlYWx0aC8xOTI4NTMwOS5odG1sP2xvY2F0aW9uX3JlZmVyPUhvbWVwYWdl&x=4224225f
Get used to high food costs, water shortages. Shocked by rising food
prices? Get used to it -- and be ready for water shortages, too, says a
sweeping new scientific report on climate change in the United States over
the next half-century.
http://newsletters.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/12798/3057/16264/0/?u=aHR0cDovL3NlYXR0bGVwaS5ud3NvdXJjZS5jb20vbG9jYWwvMzY0ODAwX2NsaW1hdGUyOC5odG1s&x=341e9a45
Indonesia's 'mud volcano' still spewing, two years on. Two years after it
oozed into life, Indonesia's "mud volcano" is still spewing toxic sludge
across the Javanese countryside at the rate of 60 Olympic swimming pools a
day.
http://newsletters.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/12798/3057/16270/0/?u=aHR0cDovL3d3dy50ZXJyYWRhaWx5LmNvbS8yMDA3LzA4MDUyODAyMzcyMC50cHZxYjQwZS5odG1s&x=40ccf7c3
Money dispute threatens toxic tap water study. Continuation of a
long-running government study on whether contaminated water harmed babies
at Camp Lejeune, N.C., hinges on a half-million-dollar payment that is due
Sunday.
http://newsletters.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/12798/3057/16273/0/?u=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5sYXRpbWVzLmNvbS9uZXdzL25hdGlvbndvcmxkL25hdGlvbi93aXJlL2F0cy1hcF9oZWFsdGgxMG1heTI4LDEsNTYzNjQ5MC5zdG9yeQ%3d%3d&x=43c33622
=================
From: Alice Smith alicesmith@amerion.com
Subject: Urgent help request on NAIS
This is time sensitive and I'm hoping you can put this request out on your
list.
Those of us that have been fighting the National Animal Identification
System, have been extremely frustrated by the government's (USDA) continual
lies that most are for this system and there's very little opposition. The
most that they're referring to aren't livestock owners, but Tyson, Monsanto,
Digital Angel, and the rest of the cabal that will benefit by monopolizing
every drop of food source in our country.
Anyway, the following link is to the Federal Register and the USDA's
proposed regulation on NAIS. People have until this Friday (30th) to make
comments. Once those comments are made, the USDA can't lie and say how many
want the program as the comments will be part of the Federal Register and
open to the public.
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2007-0015
I'm begging your list to make comments. Far too few are in this fight for
one of our most basically liberties to own livestock animals and feed
ourselves. The end line goal of NAIS is to drive out any private ownership
of animals and outsource every drop of food available to us in this country.
So, even someone that doesn't own animals, they've still got a dog in this
fight if they eat. If you don't eat, but love liberty, you've got a dog in
this fight. He who controls the food, controls the man.
Making a comment at the above link is easy and took me less than 5 minutes.
The USDA's regulation is the first one on the list and the link for making a
comment for their regulation is on the right.
Alice
===========
The news that is reported is not necessarily the viewpoint of Voices
Health/Environmental News. Nothing within this message should be construed
as endorsing, promoting or abetting any illegal or unethical activity. The
articles in this newsletter are not necessarily the opinion of the editor.
Material appearing here is distributed without profit or monetary gain to
those who have expressed an interest in receiving the material for
research and educational purposes. This is in accordance with Title 17 U.
S. C. section 107. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of International Copyright
Law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
All copyrights belong to original publisher.Under Bill s.1618 TITLE III
passed by the 105th U.S. Congress. This letter cannot be considered spam
as long as we include: Contact information & a Remove Link Reprinted under
the Fair Use Law: Doctrine of international copyright law.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
To send news reports, subscribe or unsubscribe send email to:
nimchira@cox.net Specify Voices, the Peoples News, or Voices
Health/Environmental News.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 17:05:48 -1000
From: Arts <arts@hawaiiartsalliance.org>
Subject: HPR Program Alert - Support the release of arts Grants-in-Aid
Dear Arts Community,
Please tune in to Hawaii Public Radio program "Business of the Arts"
hosted by Bob Sandla and produced by Judy Neale - this Sunday, June 1, at
6pm on KHPR.
This program focuses on the current status (and process) of the arts
community Grants-in-aid appropriated by the 2007 legislature, and still
withheld by the administration.
Bob Sandla interviews Marilyn Cristofori, Alliance CEO; Karen Tiller,
Executive Director, Hawaii Opera Theatre; and Representative Marcus
Oshiro, Chair, House Finance Committee.
While we have no indication that this past appropriation will be released
before the close of the fiscal year, we do feel it necessary that the
community be informed about the impact to our local arts groups, and
continue to be the strong grassroots support these organizations need in
critical economic times.
Mahalo,
Marla Musick
Communications Director
Hawai^Ñi Arts Alliance
808-533-2787 fax: 808-526-9040
arts@hawaiiartsalliance.org www. hawaiiartsalliance.orgP.O. Box 3948,
Honolulu, Hawai^Ñi, 96812-3948
Hawai^Ñi Arts Alliance is a Member of the
Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 16:30:19 -1000
From: Laurel Douglass <seeti@hawaii.rr.com>
Subject: nui
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From: Marilyn Leimomi Khan
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 4:18 PM
Subject: Services for John Keola Lake
Services for John Keolamaka'ainana Lake will be held this Friday at 5:00
p.m., at Mystical Rose Chapel at Chaminade University. Service will
follow at 6:30 p.m. A second visitation will be held at 9:00 a.m. on
Saturday, with Mass following at 11:30 a.m. Burial will be on June 2,
12:30 p.m., at Maui Memorial Park.
Uncle Keola was a master chanter, kumu hula, author, researcher, educator
and lecturer who retired from full-time teaching at Saint Louis School in
1992, and he was a member of the Queen Emma HCC.
He is survived by wife, Barbara; children, John "Kekoa," Naomi "Sissy"
Lake-Farm and Joshua; hanai son, John Molitau; five grandchildren; and
sisters, Joan Kealohaokalani Lake-Farren and Miriam Keawepoepoe Lake.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Gabrielle Welford, Ph.D.
freelance writer, editor, teacher
welford@hawaii.edu
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