Why the protest over TMT and not other development?
We should all try to live in a society where ideas, traditional and religious beliefs are embraced with tolerance and understanding. That said, I am failing to understand what the protesters of the TMT project are trying to accomplish.
I couldn’t agree more in striving to protect and preserve Mother Earth, but why are the protesters putting so much energy and effort in stopping this particular project? Turn around while on top of the mountain and take a look down. I haven’t seen anyone with the same beliefs stand on our beautiful coastline and stopping construction crews or bulldozers. Pono, aloha, aina, ohana and mana do not apply to our oceans? Did it not play a major role in Hawaiian history and traditions? The environmental effects, closed access to popular beaches and sites, change of landscape, encroaching on burial and archeological sites are not that important? The scope of impact on our environment resorts, condos and golf courses are doing is so much greater than what TMT will ever inflict on the land. Resorts are built with financial profit in mind for a few individuals; the TMT will be built to benefit humanity as a whole.
Any entity willing to fund education with millions of dollars and to open the doors of technical and scientific fields for our children should be welcomed. Why do you ask are not enough specialized technical jobs offered to local people, maybe because it is hard to give our keiki the opportunities to get into those fields? How many local graduates do you know have attended MIT or JPL? Science and technology are an inevitable part of progress and we need to move forward with it. Long gone are the days of pristine and unpopulated Hawaiian Islands. We live in the present and must adapt while making decisions for our future, and most importantly how it will affect future generations.
The Thirty Meter Telescope project did not materialize overnight but after long years of careful planning. Location and environmental impact have been studied and analyzed long before proposals and permits were issued. While respecting the protesters belief of what is sacred, I also think they need to accept the idea that TMT will benefit a majority of area people and future generations. Reading interviews and recent events coverages, I can see hints of a political conflict brewing rather than tradition or Earth conservancy concerns using the TMT project as a spearhead — learn to pick your battles wisely if you wish to develop support for your ideals.
I’ll close with a quote from Wallace Ishibashi, who also sits on the Hawaiian Home Lands Commission, that I think best describes the way most of us feel: “I love the science,” he said. “It’s the sacred science of astronomy here on the mountain. … We aren’t human beings having a spiritual experience; we’re spiritual beings having a human experience. So this is just part of our journey of returning back home to Akua.”
I. De Groote
Waikoloa
These are Hawaii’s people, “protectors not protesters”
The media’s recurrent use of the term protesters for those who oppose the commercialization of Mauna Kea, is demeaning and objectifying. History is replete with examples where people of Western cultures dehumanize those it fears and fails to understand. It is divisive, polarizing and perpetuates cultural bigotry.
As a man raised in the West, culture was largely absent. Yet I learned from personal journeys and experiences that many majestic and natural places are steeped in ancient culture.
As people of the Hawaiian culture express their despair over the ongoing desecration of their sacred places and object to the structures of commercialization of Mauna Kea, I respect and honor that choice and their right. What is sacred to a person or culture is a matter of personal belief and choice. No one is entitled to declare for any other what is or is not sacred.
People have commented that what is sacred in Hawaii is meaningless when they say “here every place is sacred.” This fallacious generalization is the dehumanizing sentiment that allowed the West to demonize and destroy Native American, Hawaiian people and culture.
Looking over the landscape of the mainland, most, if not all, of the sacred comes from the traditions of Native Americans. Mt. Hood in Oregon, Mt. Taylor in New Mexico and the Black Hills of the Dakotas are sacred places. That ethic by in large, is absent for Western people, and corporations.
Imagine the uproar should someone want to dam the Grand Canyon or build a telescope on top of Yosemite’s Half Dome. That uproar would come from a sense of violation of belief that places of such grandeur are revered and must be protected. We may not use the word sacred, as it not part of our cultural lexicon.
Aloha means compassion and respect. We may not understand what is meant by sacred in Hawaii. Yet from our belief in freedom of thought and expression, we respect people defending their beliefs and do so with aloha. My Hawaiian brothers and sisters are people in deep belief and faith, with a rich cultural heritage dating thousands of years. These people are protectors not protesters.
Rick Bennett
Honaunau