14 comments

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  Karen Chun

  1 year ago

  I'm thankful the Superferry postponed their service. It was clear from the 1000+ angry Kaua'i people at Lingle's meeting, that the situation was going to escalate.
  
  Using homeland security rules to smash peaceful U.S. citizens who are seeking redress from their government is taking us down a dangerous road to losing our freedom and Constitutional rights.
  
  To threaten 20 year sentences, $25,000 fines and using Child Protective Services to remove under-18 protesters from their parent's custody is an unbelievable corruption of our terrorism and family protection laws.
  
  The Superferry can read the Hawaii Laws as well as anyone. They are unambiguous. An EIS is required when using State or Federal money. The Superferry is receiving corporate welfare from both the State and the federal governments.
  
  If you are going to mooch off the taxpayers, you owe it to them to obey the law.
  
  80% of Hawaii's population lives on 'Oahu. The outnumbered neighbor islands have been getting the short end of the stick on Dept. of Transportation projects.
  
  We got stuck with cruise ships which clog our harbors causing our freight ships to have to wait outside 4 days to unload while the cruise ships stay at our limited docks for days at a time.
  
  The cruise ships brought horrendous traffic and other problems.
  
  Oahu-centric Dept of Transportation foisted the cruise ships off on us but has done nothing for our roads or harbors to expand the capacity.
  
  If we don't get an EIS before the Superferry starts service, we lose our bargaining position for getting help with the problems in traffic etc. that the superfery brings.
  
  That's why Maui, Kaua'i and Big Island County Councils all passed resolutions asking for an EIS prior to Superferry commencement. But Lingle ignored them and decided to ram the project through in violation of the law.
  
  And this is the result - angry residents who have to protest to get the Superferry and their own state government to obey the law.
  
  The protesters say that the Superferry, in sailing prior to the EIS was breaking the law and that therefore their presence in the water was entirely legal.
  
  Now Superferry is taking reservations for Oct 1st, 2007. If there is no compromise on the major issues (e.g. no cars, speed less than 13 knots, etc) while the EIS is being prepared, then it is going to get really ugly as Gov. Lingle's "unified command" of Homeland Security, FBI, Police, DLNR, Coast Guard, National Guard try to smash otherwise law-abiding, peaceful residents of the neighbor islands.
  
  Hopefully, the Superferry will see that prolonging and intensifying this confrontation is not in their long term interest and, for once, make a genuine effort at compromise rather than just cranking out more PR misdirection and rah, rah we're so great advertising.
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• 

  Fred Fry

  1 year ago

  Wow, what a rant. Your right to protest does not include the right to infringe on the rights of others to use the service.
  
  Of interest too is that the environmental study you mention does not include the island of Kaua’i where the violent protesters are located. This is why Superferry is permitted to sail to the island.
  
  The behavior of the protesters is shameful. They may have had a valid point but the high ground was lost when they started threatening passengers and crew, damaging property (cars offloaded from the ferry) and threatening to throw their own children into the path of the ferry if it attempted to dock. The Government heavy-handedness was in response to what you called "peaceful U.S. citizens". The angry Kaua’i people validated the need for the measures by vowing to do anything to stop the ferry regardless of any legal settlement.
  
  These protesters are so blind to their anger they don't even see that this is a solution to at least one of the problems you mention above:
  
  "We got stuck with cruise ships which clog our harbors causing our freight ships to have to wait outside 4 days to unload while the cruise ships stay at our limited docks for days at a time."
  
  With the superferry, you can have improved cargo connections. One reason your harbors are clogged is because of the requirement to have the EIS doen to make any harbor changes. The Superferry EIS centers around the addition of a barge to the harbor for the vehicle ramp. There is your impact. Let me ask you, are you for or against enlarging the port facilities to handle more traffic?
  
  I am not sure how the cruise ships can bring traffic problems, since they don't offload cars, only passengers. If that is the case, just go and say that the real reason to stop the ferry is to make it as difficult as possible for anyone to get to your island.
  
  How about the island Government doing something about improving the road infrastructure. It is very convenient to blame the state Government, but it is the island Government that is directly responsible for fixing the problem. Keeping ‘outsiders’ away is not the solution.
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• 

  Karen Chun

  1 year ago

  I don't see how my post constitutes a "rant". However you don't have your facts straight.
  
  The lawsuit was brought by those on Maui. However the law which the Superferry broke applies to the entire state.
  
  You missed the whole point of my post. Yes, the state government should pay for the roads but they don't because they are controlled by 'Oahu.
  
  That's why we want an EIS...if the EIS says the State has to spring for road improvements prior to the Superferry's commencement, then we have leverage to get the money out of them. Otherwise - no leverage - no road improvements.
  
  As for cruise ships, you obviously don't live on either Maui or Kaua'i or you would see the full size buses from the car rental places lined up waiting to pick up the thousands of passengers off the cruise ships..
  
  To put this in perspective: We only have about 120,000 residents on Maui. We are a SMALL island with limited room.
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• 

  Joe

  1 year ago

  I just ask where where these protesters during the approval hearings? How many showed up at their congressman's offices? How many went to Oahu to protest road funding?
  
  Like all other issues this is grey in reality but strictly black and white to protesters who use the environmental hot card to gain support for what boils down to "not in my backyard" reasons.
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  Karen Chun

  1 year ago

  We did go to every meeting including the PUC. As usual, they ignored us which is why the County Councils had to pass resolutions asking for an EIS....which were also ignored.
  
  You can see videos of the various meetings which were packed with people testifying about the problems that needed to be solved before the Superferry started operating.
  
  Tapes of our concerns and testimony at meetings going back to 2004 are at www.akaku.org.
  
  If they had only done the EIS starting in 2004 when we asked them, this whole thing would be over with.
  
  But they kept saying, "we'll lose our funding" if you make us do an EIS. Like all good cons, this required that the marks (the taxpayers) be rushed into investing prior to looking at the whole picture.
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• 

  Fred Fry

  1 year ago

  "I just ask where where these protesters during the approval hearings? How many showed up at their congressman’s offices? How many went to Oahu to protest road funding?" This is why the judge threw out the appeal demanding an EIS for Kauai as they did not appeal within 120 days of the original decision years ago. As reported just today:
  "1000 Friends of Kauai -- the environmental group in state court trying to stop the newly launched interisland Hawaii Superferry from operating until the state Department of Transportation completes an Environmental Assessment -- is expected to withdraw its complaint Thursday morning in Kauai Circuit Court.
  
  This action comes about a week after Kauai Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano dismissed five major portions of the group's lawsuit, including the demand for the completion of the Environmental Assessment before the ferry operations go ahead. The judge says 1000 Friends of Kauai missed the 120-day deadline to file the complaint. "(LINK)
  
  As for the complaint about the additional people and traffic, there is this:
  "According to the 2000 Census, there were 58,303 people living on Kauai. That number increased to 63,004 by 2006.
  
  That's an increase of 4,701 people in only 6 years. And that's without the Superferry. And do you think those people are walking everywhere? "(LINK)
  
  The simple fact is that a very small minority of islanders just don't want anyone coming to their island. Look at all the various reasons the protesters are using why this service should not run. I even saw one claim that Hawaii Superferry was secretly behind the protests so that they could punish Hawaii with debt obligations while taking the ship and operating it under a Government Contract. Many of these people are just plain crazy. The Kauai meeting with the Governor has no shortage of examples of that.
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  Karen Chun

  1 year ago

  Yes, Kaua'i is even smaller in population than Maui. And you are correct that even though on both Maui and Kaua'i people testified at meetings, it was only on Maui that a group actually hired a lawyer to formally file against the finding of no significant impact.
  
  So in answer to your question "where were all the protesters..." they were at the meetings but didn't have the money? knowledge? to take it to the next level and file a lawsuit on Kaua'i 2 years ago, as they did no Maui.
  
  But my question is: Why do the citizens have to spend over $70,000 on legal bills and file various lawsuits to get Lingle to follow the law?
  
  That law (requiring an EIS) is a good one. Instead of spending 140 million in federal loan guarantees and 40 million in state money in a big rush without determining ways to mitigate the impacts (without, for heaven's sake even supplying PARKING) planning the project in a deliberate and careful manner is by far more responsible.
  
  Lingle let herself be pressured into cutting corners. This corner cutting fell heaviest on the neighbor islands.
  
  And I suspect that had a thorough study been done, it would have become immediately clear that the project isn't economically viable.
  
  There are any number of conspiracy theories about what is going on but do the math on the capacity * rates - fuel and I think you'll see it comes out to be a negative number.
  
  In the realm of pure speculation my first guess was that they were going to get the operation up and running on borrowed money, flip it and then let the poor sucker who bought it go bankrupt or apply to Hawaii for subsidies.
  
  They talk now about leaving Hawaii if they don't get operational soon. So I infer from that there is another use for the ferry which could be profitable...perhaps being leased to the Navy as its sister ship WestPac is. Perhaps that was their fallback plan from the beginning...get 180 million in civilian loans and handouts and then say, "gee, we're not profitable and we have to make the payments so either give us a State subsidy or we'll have to lease to the military."
  
  However, I haven't seen the scenario you outline talked about. Particularly since it doesn't make much sense, most people would have ignored anyone who postulated it.
  
  You're post indicates that you feel that (some of) the residents of Kaua'i and Maui just don't want more people coming.
  
  I think what you are seeing is a tremendous culture clash between what has been described as "the American Dream" (e.g. work hard and make a lot of money) and the Hawaiian culture which is embodied in our state motto: "Ua mau ka ea o ka 'aina i ka pono".
  
  As with all Hawaiian sayings this has meaning on many levels but best translated to: "The life of the land continues (is preserved) by doing the right thing (harmony with correct behavior)"
  
  So we have people who see the land as something that they use (up) to create their dream of monetary prosperity coming to a place where the land is seen as something to be preserved in its natural state and where the measure of success is not monetary but how you live your life in harmony with the virtues of ha'aha'a (humbleness), lokahi (unity) and aloha (a VERY misused word that I won't even attempt to explain)
  
  Granted, this is idealized. But you get the basic culture clash and why your statement has truth to it.
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• 

  Capt.Mike

  1 year ago

  Karen, while I understand many of your worries this is a site primarily for Merchant Marine officers. The shipping industry was the very first american job base to be outsourced overseas and today the few remaining mariners sit in overcrowded union halls waiting for an even fewer number of jobs. So while I sympathize it would be nice if you took the potential loss of job opportunities into account as well as the crews currently aboard these ferries.
  
  The reason? If a country like China ever became hostile and blockaded (or attacked) foreign shipping interests how would hawaii be supplied and defended? Without any US mariners or hulls the answer is you would not be.
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  Karen Chun

  1 year ago

  Outsourcing: Yeah, there is a lot of that going around.
  
  Even NCL America which took over the defaulted Maritime Loan Guarantee from American Hawaii Cruises and supposedly hires Americans has mostly hires workers not from the actual states.
  
  Their wages and working conditions are awful...which they can get away with because they have access to nonAmerican workers who are willing to undercut us.
  
  There's a move on now to repeal the Jones Act "to make goods cheaper". This is getting a lot of play by politicians in Hawaii such as Ed Case, former rep and failed senatorial candidate. I'm thinking this is will just open the door to worse wages and conditions and impair our national security. What's your take?
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  Capt.Mike

  1 year ago

  I'm glad we can all agree on something :)
  
  Ed Case is 100% in saying that goods cost more in Hawaii due to Jones Act related restrictions.....but... being 2,300 miles from the mainland do you want to be totally reliant on foreign interests? Let's say our leaders decide to punish China for any number of reasons (environmental, led paint use, worker treatment...) and China decides to pull its products from the market and use some of its $4 trillion in reserves to buy out all the contacts on foreign hulls to redistribute these goods elsewhere in the world? The continental US would enter a recession but Hawaii wold starve unless our "Allies" (England, France, Germany...) could come to the rescue.
  
  If The US can't fight a war in Iraqi without using foreign ships how would they supply Hawaii during a crisis?
  
  The question for you is the same as for the average American only magnified. Do you want to risk national security and future opportunity in exchange for lower prices at Wal-Mart?
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  ricardsala

  1 year ago

  Hello everyone!!
  
  Well I have never written in thsi blog I would like to add my 5 cents worth...I am not in any way in the merchant marine nor do I live in Hawaii. I am a pilot, live in Switzerland but I spent most of my youth in the Canary Islands and that is were my oipinion comes in.
  The canary islands might be the closets geographical thing to the hawaiian islands there are in the world, 7 islands isolated from the mainland and underinvested for many years. We started in late 80's with our own regional airline and years later the sole ferry company(which undeserved the market) was joined by FRed Olsen and their fast ferries. That alone opened up a whole world of possibilties for many people to travel, and we are talking here about people with no or very little money as well as large groups, students, schools on day trips, the daily crossings from Gran Canaria to Tenerife became part of he local scenery, it not only represented a boost to the local economies (from the opening of restaurants, to the hiring of the catering crew) but eventually it ment investement on the roads as well.
  Now, I do not know local politics and as i sais I do not know the in and out, but, it seems to me a case on "not in my backyard" and manipulated people by local interests (probably airlines)...
  If you were today to ask any canarian their opinion about the ferry I think it would be hard to find a single anti-ferry person.
  
  Well that is it, just my opinion folks...
  
  Cheers averyone!!
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  JD

  1 year ago

  I pulled into tenerife for some minor repairs and ended up spending a week. I was able to see quite a lot thanks to the ferries so I'd have to agree with Ricard on this one.
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  Jennifer Cartwright

  1 year ago

  Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts, especially Karen and Capt. Mike. These are all good points.
  
  A few predictions:
  The Hawaii Superferry will get through the EIS with ease. Protesters will fume. And government bullsh%$# will continue to flow. Any ideas on how to bring these problems to the publics attention earlier in the game?
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• 

  John

  1 year ago

  Jennifer,
  
  Thanks for your comments... most people include 10 hyperlinks to their site and post it on 6 different atricles so I appreciate you're adding value to the conversation!
  
  For everyone looking for Superferry tickets be sure to click on Jennifer's name for some great deal!
  
  -gCapat Admin
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