|
a (badly stitched) panorama
A few days before my return to Maui, a tropical storm lashed the Big Island, dumping three feet or so of rain on the Hilo side, making streams out of roads and ravaging torrents out of mild rivers. Houses threatened to float down to the ocean. Tens of millions of dollars were allocated by the feds, for emergency purposes. Anyway, after I arrived, the tail end of the storm system was still around, making for dramatic sunsets as the skies were roiled with emotional cloudscapes. Or merely just dark gobs of wadded cotton. Like those in the picture above. (Click on it for a larger version, as always.)
Both figures in the picture are of my brother, Peter. I started out the series on the left, and by the time I wheeled around to the right, he had walked over to the other side and got in the same sequence. The panorama shows a view down the slope of the volcano, to the "saddle" between the two mountain ranges of Maui: the West Maui Mountains in the background, and awesome Haleakala, sleeping beneath and towering up behind the photographer.
I was just telling Trev on IM that I liked how the image is a perfect view of my life right now: ...uncluttered, no buildings higher than uh, 5 feet tall... lol... grass and lava fields as far as the eye can see... mountains in the distance and clouds telling shadowy stories... and the endless, beguiling ocean. He bantered back that I should amend the 5-ft. height, but I insisted the "buildings" in the photograph were either cow or goat shacks. *chuckle*
Have my fingers crossed as, later this month, I hope to join my brother on a volunteer clean-up visit to the unpopulated island of Kahoolawe, which you can see off of Maui at the very left side of the picture there. No one lives on Kahoolawe because, until recent years, it was used as a bombing and strafing site by the U.S. Navy. Bill Crockett, a kamaaina (local) friend of ours works with a local group that's clearing the island of unexploded ordnance. It's quite a hair-raising and thankless job, but a necessary one. A more appalling show of cultural disrespect by America is hard to find, given that the native Hawaiians imbued Kahoolawe with religious significance--and the American military certainly knew it but went ahead anyway and subjected the island to bombing and other incendiary tests. In 1993, the U.S. government approved a $400 million cleanup fund for the island and soon after, Kahoolawe was "returned" back to the State of Hawaii to be maintained as a 'cultural preserve.' These days, Hawaiian sovereignty groups are asking for their rightful privilege to use Kahoolawe as they see fit... perhaps in traditional ways, or even visionary new ones.
Living here now in Maui, just a few miles off of this scarred island, I definitely want to be involved in the rejuvenation of it, and in a small way to help rectify the wrongs done the Hawaiian people by this government I now call my own.
p.s. to Laura:
The work of cleaning up Kahoolawe may be dangerous, but it's relatively safe. Substantial training is required to go onto the island, and serious ordnance disposal work is not done by rank amateurs. In addition, thorough precautions are taken in this work... while a few careless workers have been maimed, no one has been killed yet. (It's a LOT more likely to die in a traffic accident even in rural Maui, than doing volunteer clean-up work in Kahoolawe.) But thanks for your words of concern, nevertheless.
Midweek weblogging community notes and housekeeping...
- hey kids (and yes, adults ^_^), we merited mention in a meeting of UC Berkeley's Interactive University (IU). check it out:
"Lloyd Nebres and his summer ADTP high school students have formed an active, intense, ongoing community through the use of weblogs via editthispage.com. Take a look at their writing and interaction."
- several of my friends work for the IU. in fact one of them--Catherine Yoes--has been on my 'adults' list for a couple weeks now. today, i welcome Chris Ashley to the list, as he has a new public weblog. (Chris maintained an Editors Only weblog for a while. i think he still does; but i dunno how often he'll be able to update BOTH weblogs, hehe.)
- i also welcome, with great delight, my brother Peter's weblog, The Perpetual Tourist. "Jovi," as he's fondly known in my family, is as visionary a character as you'll find. In his early 30s, he has retired from running a very successful business and now concentrates full-time on the things that really matter to him, like sustainable living technologies, and being a good steward of the aina (the land). i'm happy i was able to convince him that weblogging is a good a way as any to tell his story to the world at large... welcome, Jov! [Y'all gotta check out the astonishing variety and range of the topics my bro is planning to weblog about, in due time...]
- a list of your responses to the election:
|
Oct
Dec
{ net.casting }
^
|
