On social media I have been interacting a lot with the supporters and protesters of the Thirty Meter Telescope project, because this one is very important to me.
The TMT project means more than just local jobs and an economic boost over the next 10-12 years.  It also effects the potential for protecting life on this planet by exploring out galaxy, and seeing distance objects that could potentially be heading toward earth.

As I have spoken about on other blog posts and videos, the lass of 5 mass extinctions on earth in our history happened when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and an asteroid impacted earth and wiped out 99% of life on earth.   If the sentient life on earth at the time could have created and used the technology that we have today, such as rockets and telescopes, the last mass extinction would not have happened.  By scoping out the object on the path to impacting the earth, and sending a armed rocket far enough in advance to deflect the object or destroy it, then we can avoid the same fate as the dinosaurs.

Of course there are a lot of cool things that will be discovered by the telescope, and we all know that Hawaiians and other Polynesians are very good with the stars and navigating by the stars and over all just gaining wisdom from the stars.  To me this place seems like the best place for the telescope in both a cultural sense and a logistical placement.

However there are some cultural practices that are being resurrected by a small group of people in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.  These things include Kapu related worship, and altars and idols and such.   These are things that the Hawaiians destroyed and never practiced again ending 200 years ago when Kamehameha’s son Liholiho ended the practice, ordered the temples and altars to be destroyed as well as the idols.   After that there was a small scuffle over the decision to end the Kapu, but for around 200 years those things have not been observed or practiced in Hawaii.  Except until recently, when this sovereignty movement fired up, and like other Native American tribes,  this group wants their piece of the pie.  So they have resurrected cultural practices that have been dead for 200 years.  They have claimed areas that have high investment like Mauna Kea as “Sacred” and they are asking and demanding for free land to be given to them through the OHA (Office of Hawaiian affairs) based on a Hawaiian Homelands legislation that was passed some years ago.

So now we have some jokers like David Sai who got a PHd in Hawaiian studies some how, and he is claiming that the USA forged an illegal overthrow of these Islands and annexed them without a treaty.   However, what David Sai uses as proof, and what he neglects to present makes a world of difference when looking at these claims.

A few of the things that I have pointed out are:

• The Morgan Report
• The Abdication Document
• The Sworn Oath to the Republic of Hawaii by the last/former Monarch Queen Liliuokalani
• The 20+ letters of recognition from countries all over the world, in 4 continents, and in 11 languages
• Then the Republic of Hawaii which was formed by Native Born Hawaiians, asking the USA to annex themThe reason that this makes a difference to Hawaii, is something that I will point out in a response that I left someone today on social media.  Hawaii is impoverished, there is a lack of jobs, and a high cost of living.  Good jobs that the TMT would bring in would be amazing!
• Treaty of Annexation (yes it really does exist)

Someone replied to my statements about the history of war and conquest in Hawaii that dates back 700 years before the whiteman/haole came to these islands.

My points:

The first people in Hawaii were from SE Asia. They are not the people who make up what people call “Native Hawaiians” today.
The people who make up so-called Native Hawaiians today came 200 years after the original settlers got here, the SE Asians.
When the Tahitians came here 700 years ago, and conquered the SE Asians, there was a lot of brutality in their conquest.
These are your people, the Tahitians, the ones that brutally stole this land from the SE Asians 700 years ago.
And for 700 years, even up until King Kamehameha 1 there was war after brutal war where Hawaiians would kill each other for conquest and power, to try to control the neighboring islands.
Hawaii hasn’t had this much peace, since after the Haole took over.
Your ancestors were CERTAINLY not innocent, and CERTAINLY not peaceful

This is a video that I made to document this violent history of Hawaiian/Tahitian conquest

You know that King Kamehameha invited the haole, he gave them titles as chiefs, land, and wives, in exchange for weapons, so that he could kill other Hawaiians. Do you know that part of history?
You know it was Kamehameha’s son Liholiho who ended the kapu, tore down the temples and idols, and completely ended the practice here in Hawaii, before the missionaries ever arrived?
Do you know that the transfer of power was from ex-Queen Liliuokalani to other native born Hawaiians? The provisional government was made up of people born in Hawaii. People that King Kamehameha 1 endorsed by giving their ancestors titles and land?
You know that ex-Queen Liliuokalani signed the abdication document, and then swore an oath to the republic?
You know that more than 20 countries around the world recognized the Republic of Hawaii as the legitimate government of Hawaii before 1895? Its in the state archives.

This was his reply:

Ryan while everything you wrote is spot on it can not refute the fact that Queen Liliuokalani’s government was illegally overthrown by greedy American sugar planters. Unfortunately before this happened the Hawaiians had already lost their right to suffrage due to the western influence and growth in power in Hawaii’s government and loss of land because of the mahele and Kuleana act. Hawaiians should be upset. But, could it be that protesters are misguided? Maybe focus should be on homeland issues such as lack of opened homestead land and blood quantum. Maybe focus on the education of all Hawaiians children by bishop estates rather than only certain elite Hawaiian children. I feel the protesters have a golden opportunity to unify All Hawaiians over these types of issues which would enable them to possibly see some form of sovereignty actually take place (hasn’t because various sovereignty groups do not agree on goals). By focusing on an issue that is a losing cause, they will only undermine these other arguably more important issues, and possibly divide the Hawaiian people further. The protesters say they are acting for the benefit of their keiki and keiki’s keiki, however this a golden opportunity for them to unite against these other issues that can take place that would probably be more beneficial to their keiki

 

This is my follow up.

 I lived in Puerto Rico up until Hurricane Maria took everything I owned, and I have lived all over the world.
I have been a very libertarian, and anti-borders person most of my life. Meaning I do not support Trump’s wall, or his anti-immigration stuff, even though I think he is a good business man, and a better president than most of the USA’s presidents in the past.

But I was all for the Puerto Rican sovereignty movement, and I still am. The PR people welcomed my family as their family, very warm and kind people. We had common goals, like fighting off the imposition of the Jones Act, and high taxation.

When I came to Hawaii, basically as a refugee from Puerto Rico after the storms. I also supported Hawaii’s sovereignty. Naively I must say. But for many of the same reasons. The imposition of the Jones Act, high taxation, and other government impositions.

But when I have researched it more and more, to me it seems like a very fake and selfish movement. Not like the Puerto Rican sovereignty movement.

I mean for instance, resurrecting Kapu practices 200 years after Kamehameha’s son Liholiho destroyed the practice, destroyed the temples, burned the idols, and for nearly 200 years it hasn’t been practiced. But now with David Sai’s incomplete presentation of the Hawaiian history, and the transfer of power that he talks about as “illegal occupation” while ignoring things like the Morgan report, the Abdication Documents, the signed and sworn oath of ex-Queen Liliuokalani to the Republic, and the 20+ letters of recognition from nations all over the world in 4 continents and 11 languages. I mean him skimming out those important details, and making claims such as the Hague case “Larsen vs. The Kingdom of Hawaii” being in a “pending status”, when in all reality the case is NOT pending and has been permanently dismissed.
Dr. Sai and others are stirring up racial tension, based on false premises, and it is hurting Hawaii right now.

For instance. Lets look at TMT. That project is going in, like it or not. It is. No stopping it now, I promise.
But do you think the TMT project is going to hire local workers, if it appears that the local workers HATE the TMT, and may possibly sabotage the job?
No, the TMT likely now, will hire workers from the Mainland, to protect their investment from locals who would like to see the TMT fail.
Otherwise, if there wasn’t all of this fake outrage about a Kapu system and temple that was laid to rest 200 years ago. The TMT project would probably hire local workers.
But I doubt there is any chance of that now. These protesters fucked all of that up. It will be mainland workers coming in now instead of locals.
I understand the struggles of the Hawaiian people. I talk story with everyone, and I have a radio show that I have done here in Hawaii since 2010. I am an advocate of sovereignty for the most part.
But this racist stuff, where everyone (even in this conversation) says “Haole go back to where you came from”. Makes me less and less interested in supporting this. I despise racism.   And most of the stuff I get from these activists is just plain racist.
So I hope people chew on that when they make their next move.
If you don’t support the TMT now. Don’t attempt to benefit from the jobs it will produce later.

I very much support the TMT, even though I do not really offer a service that they would be able to use at the facility.  But I support it on a species beneficiary level.
There are a lot of other local Native Hawaiians that support the TMT as well, see this youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkRLwDfnVqQf-xKIep6sWzQ

More details on the threats and problems that this protest is causing.

All Observatory Staffers Evacuated As TMT Protest Continues

Protesters Cloud TMT Discussion With False Claims, Threats