Category: Unnecessary Developments

April 5th, 2015

A Day After Arrests, Mauna Kea Telescope Protest Grows

A small group of activists start­ed a block­ade against con­struc­tion of the Thir­ty Meter Tele­scope atop Mau­na Kea ten days ago. Now, its a grow­ing encamp­ment.

Orga­niz­ers esti­mate as many as 300 peo­ple lined the sum­mit access road Fri­day, show­ing their oppo­si­tion to the con­tro­ver­sial $1.4 bil­lion tele­scope.

“To see just so many peo­ple gath­ered, it was so uplift­ing,” said orga­niz­er Lanaki­la Man­gauil. “It looked like there was a whole Mau­na Kea fes­ti­val going on.”

There was also added star pow­er, as Hawaii native and Hol­ly­wood actor Jason Momoa flew in and met with pro­test­ers, and also made his way up to the sum­mit to learn more about the sit­u­a­tion.

The protest is now attract­ing Native Hawai­ian lead­ers from all over the state.

“The move­ment of our broth­ers and sis­ters here on Hawaii island had put the call out to all of our islands, and so I came from Oahu to sup­port this,” said cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­er Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu.

“That’s due to this, it’s due to the peo­ple,” said pro­test­er Kahookahi Kanuha. “This is not only a Mau­na Kea thing any­more, this is not only a Hawaii island thing any more. In fact, this is not even a Ko Hawai‘i Pae ‘Aina thing. It’s not an all Hawai­ian islands issue, this is a world­wide issue.”

Kanuha was one of the 31 peo­ple arrest­ed Thurs­day for block­ing con­struc­tion crews head­ing to the sum­mit, dis­obey­ing police orders, or tres­pass­ing at the work site.

“The arrests that are being made is real­ly, in my judg­ment, a kind of an ‘in your face’ provo­ca­tion to Native Hawai­ians, that a con­struc­tion sched­ule is more impor­tant than peo­ple,” said Office of Hawai­ian Affairs Trustee Peter Apo.

Apo is call­ing for con­struc­tion on the tele­scope to be halt­ed for 30 days. If con­struc­tion con­tin­ues, protest orga­niz­ers pre­dict even more peo­ple will join the ral­ly next week, when Hilo fills up with Native Hawai­ians for the Mer­rie Monarch Fes­ti­val.

“You have a whole bunch of natives and peo­ple ral­ly­ing against your con­struc­tion,” said Man­gauil. “It would be sil­ly to do it when you have a gath­er­ing that mass­es the natives. You know, like Mer­rie Monarch.”

Thirty Meter Telescope Crews Blocked by Hawaiian Protestors

31.3.15

Con­struc­tion of the Thir­ty Meter Tele­scope ground to a halt Mon­day as more than 50 pro­test­ers formed a road­block out­side the Mau­na Kea vis­i­tor cen­ter.

Call­ing the $1.4 bil­lion project a des­e­cra­tion of the moun­tain, the activists marched back and forth across the Mau­na Kea Access Road, mak­ing sure to stay with­in the cross­walk.

About 15 vehi­cles trans­port­ing work­ers up the moun­tain were blocked as a result, though the pro­test­ers allowed vis­i­tors and oth­er tele­scope oper­a­tors through.

The mood at the protest was upbeat, with con­tem­po­rary and tra­di­tion­al Hawai­ian songs fill­ing the moun­tain air. More than a dozen police offi­cers looked on but took no action against the demon­stra­tion.

Pro­test­ers, who were most­ly Native Hawai­ian, said their mes­sage was about alo­ha and not anger toward the work­ers.

“Our stance is not against the sci­ence,” said Lanaki­la Man­gauil, 27, of Hon­okaa. “It’s not against the sci­ence. It’s not against the TMT itself. It’s against their choice of place.”

The TMT, sched­uled to achieve first light in 2024, will be the 13th obser­va­to­ry on the moun­tain and one of three next-gen­er­a­tion tele­scopes under devel­op­ment. Two oth­ers will be built in Chile.

Astronomers say the tele­scope will allow them to peer clos­er to the start of the uni­verse and answer more of its great mys­ter­ies.

TMT is expect­ed to cre­ate 300 full-time con­struc­tion jobs and 120 to 140 per­ma­nent jobs, but pro­test­ers said there already has been too much devel­op­ment on Mau­na Kea.

Ruth Aloua, 26, of Kailua-Kona, said they were stand­ing up for their ances­tors and the mountain’s sacred sta­tus.

“We have an ances­tral, a genealog­i­cal rela­tion­ship to this place,” she said. “And that is what we are pro­tect­ing. We are pro­tect­ing our kupuna through alo­ha aina.”

TMT Project Man­ag­er Gary Sanders said work­ers wait­ed for more than eight hours at the road­block before head­ing back down the moun­tain.

“TMT, its con­trac­tors and their union employ­ees have been denied access to our project site by a block­ad­ed road,” he said in a state­ment. “Our access via a pub­lic road has been blocked by pro­test­ers, and we have patient­ly wait­ed for law enforce­ment to allow our work­ers the access to which they are enti­tled.”

He said state offi­cials approved the project after a “lengthy sev­en-year pub­lic process.”

The pro­test­ers said some of them have kept a near­ly 24-hour pres­ence out­side the vis­i­tor cen­ter, locat­ed at about 9,200 feet, since Wednes­day fol­low­ing the arrival of con­struc­tion equip­ment the day before.

Wal­lace Ishibashi, the project’s con­struc­tion mon­i­tor, esti­mat­ed about two days worth of work occurred last week at the site locat­ed at the 13,150-foot ele­va­tion. That work is cur­rent­ly focused on site clear­ing and prepar­ing the loca­tion for the obser­va­to­ry.

Pro­test­ers also dis­rupt­ed a ground­break­ing cer­e­mo­ny at that site last Octo­ber.

Ishibashi, who also sits on the Hawai­ian Home Lands Com­mis­sion, not­ed the project has all of the per­mits and approvals it needs from the state. He said he didn’t see spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and sci­ence as being in con­flict on the moun­tain.

“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.”

TMT won a legal chal­lenge of its con­ser­va­tion dis­trict use per­mit, ini­tial­ly grant­ed after a con­test­ed case hear­ing, last year. Appeals of that deci­sion and the grant­i­ng of a sub­lease remain pend­ing, accord­ing to the plain­tiffs.

A con­struc­tion work­er, who declined to give his name, said they were about four weeks away from mov­ing earth at the site. He esti­mat­ed it would take anoth­er year to begin to build the large struc­ture.

Build­ing per­mits for the obser­va­to­ry are expect­ed to be filed this sum­mer, said Neil Erick­son, Hawaii Coun­ty build­ing divi­sion plans exam­in­ing man­ag­er. He also didn’t expect to see any major con­struc­tion begin until next year.

Since the state Depart­ment of Land and Nat­ur­al Resources approved a sub­lease for the project last June, the TMT Inter­na­tion­al Obser­va­to­ry has made $300,000 in lease pay­ments, said Dan Meisen­zahl, a Uni­ver­si­ty of Hawaii spokesman. UH oper­ates the Mau­na Kea Sci­ence Reserve.

Eighty per­cent of those funds goes to the Office of Mau­na Kea Management’s land man­age­ment spe­cial fund, he said. The oth­er 20 per­cent goes to the Office of Hawai­ian Affairs.

The lease pay­ments will increase grad­u­al­ly until they reach $1.08 mil­lion after 11 years.

TMT also is donat­ing $1 mil­lion a year to ben­e­fit sci­ence, math and tech­nol­o­gy edu­ca­tion on Hawaii Island.

Pro­test­ers said the jobs and fund­ing don’t jus­ti­fy the project.

“It’s not about the instant pay­check,” said Man­gauil. “We are look­ing fur­ther; we are look­ing far­ther than that. We need to get our­selves out of those shack­les in which we are forced to do what we know in our heart is not pono and what is not good for our envi­ron­ment.”

Pro­test­ers said part of their mis­sion was to edu­cate vis­i­tors, who most­ly looked on with curios­i­ty, about the mountain’s sacred­ness and cul­tur­al impor­tance.

“I’m just enjoy­ing their singing,” said Johanne Brideau of Swe­den. “They sing very upbeat.”

A mix­ture of state con­ser­va­tion offi­cers and Hawaii Coun­ty police watched the pro­test­ers.

Capt. Richard Sher­lock, with the Hawaii Police Depart­ment, said its focus was on mak­ing sure peo­ple stayed safe.

Asked if a res­o­lu­tion can be found, he said, “I don’t know. We’ll see. It’s a day-to-day basis. We’re try­ing to make sure things don’t get out of hand and nobody gets hurt.”

Man­gauil said pro­test­ers will try to main­tain the road­block, referred to as an “alo­ha safe­ty check,” as long as they can.

“That is real­ly going to be up to the peo­ple, to all peo­ple,” he said. “If they love this moun­tain, they will come.”