Our community has important concerns brought forward by the effort to build and oppose the building of TMT on Maunakea. All the issues should be taken seriously and worked out to improve all the relationships and provide opportunity for all the people in our state. These difficulties cry out for people of good will, caring and courageous to think and act beyond selfish interests for resolution.
The bottom line in this case, however, is that China is a full participant and influential member in the TMT partnership. They are an aggressive, hostile competitor with economic and military ambitions toward their immediate neighbors, the world and us.
History plainly revels they’ve stolen billions of dollars’ worth of our intellectual property and operated unfairly with many trade-related issues and can’t be trusted. Their aggressive expansionary behavior toward their neighbors in the South China Sea and their military buildup in the Spratly Islands and along the Silk Road clearly shows a military appetite for expansionism and dominance. They obviously oppress their people as with the recent crackdown on freedom in Hong Kong. They’d love to get a foothold here on Maunakea, the highest point in the state, great for observing everything that goes on in Hawaii and beyond.
You would think that the state and university elites would easily understand that allowing this malevolent communist giant unprecedented access to one of the Native Hawaiians’ treasured sites and one so strategic militarily is a bad idea.
Personally, I’m grateful to the Native Hawaiian community for opposing hostile foreign actors from establishing a presence on Maunakea. Native Hawaiian wisdom in the end seems to have out-shined the so-called intellectuals on Oahu. We can’t let China get this kind of foothold on the mountain.
Just think what allowing China or any other aggressive foreign power a significant presence on the mountain would do to the esteem of the Native Hawaiian community. I believe I understand, in part, having grown up on Mount Shasta, also an extraordinarily beautiful mountain, where my father’s and uncle’s ashes were spread after they passed. Perhaps no one really owns these exceptional treasures of God’s creation and they are for all people of good will to enjoy their natural beauty, but with respect for the people who came before them.
Actually, there’s probably enough technology coming to us at light speed anyway. What we really need, if we’re thoughtful, are exceptional places in nature where we can find peace of mind. Let’s try to make Hawaii a place where our young people can thrive.
Greg Gerard is a resident of Captain Cook.