Adam Bensley
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Op-Ed
by Adam Bensley
Last week, in a period of just over 24 hours, the State Land Use Commission voted to rob us of 45% of the prime Oahu farmland that currently produces food for the local market. With the approval of the Koa Ridge and Hoopili developments, efforts to achieve food security were dealt a perhaps fatal blow. We import 90% of what we eat, have only one week’s supply of food on-island, and will starve if the ships stop arriving. If the decision is not overturned, our highest producing farmlands will be lost forever.
Ua mau ke ea o ka aina I ka pono. The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. Shouldn’t the “state” motto mean something to the commissioners? There is no life left in the land if it is paved over. Where is the righteousness in their decision?
As young Hawaiians and pro-Hawaiians, we look at the history of our leaders coerced by the influence of outsiders to actions that sacrificed Hawaiian lands and people. Kaahumanu allowed the missionaries to change native culture and values, while their diseases killed hundreds of thousands of kanaka. Kamehemeha III agreed to the Great Mahele, through which Hawaiians lost title to their land. And Kalakaua ultimately submitted to the Bayonet Constitution, which paved the way for the overthrow of the Kingdom.
While the Commission should be saving these farms as the breadbasket of the future, they instead have set the course to finally extinguish the Hawaiian Nation entirely. In the decades and centuries to come, there will undoubtedly be a catastrophe that will close off supply lines, leaving our islands destitute for food.
The LUC’s current decision will earn hundreds of millions for a mainland developer whose profits will go out of state. The developments are justified as providing needed jobs for construction workers, even though there are already over 50,000 homes in Leeward and Central Oahu that are approved by the Commission, zoned by the city, and just waiting for a further upturn in the economy to be built.
Although the Land Use Commission was created specifically to protect agricultural lands, almost all of the commissioners are tied to, and make their living from, the housing industry.
What is most disturbing about last week’s vote, is the commissioners who identify with being Hawaiian, and who supposedly care about the Hawaiian people and traditional Hawaiian values, turning their backs on exactly that. For over 25 years, Commissioner Ernest Matsumura served on the Board of Directors for Alu Like, a non-profit that helps Native Hawaiians achieve social and economic self-sufficiency. Commissioner Matsumura voted for development. Commissioner Chad McDonald, current VP for an architecture and construction company, learned, but seemed to have forgotten, the traditional Hawaiian values taught to him at Kamehameha Schools. Commissioner MacDonald voted for development. Thomas Contrades was on the Hawaiian Homes Commission for years. He voted for development. And Commissioner Kyle Chock, former member of the famous H?lau Hula ‘O Kawaili‘ul?, composer of the N? H?k? Hanohano nominated Song of the Year, “My Sweet Pikake Lei,” and overall active practitioner of Hawaiian culture, turned his back on his people and voted for development.
What happened to kuleana? What happened to loving the aina like your kupuna? What happened to practicing what you preach, rather than completely compromising your values? Commissioner Jaye Napua Makua is a kanaka maoli that examined the pono way to proceed, and voted against the development. She understands that by destroying this farmland, the Hawaiian Nation will suffer. These commissioners need to remember their roots, and take a serious look into their naau.
We call upon the Commissioners to malama i ka aina (care for the land) and reconsider your vote at your June 21st meeting. Make a decision that puts ke ea o ka aina (the life of the land) first.
