Social Mauna Kea Telescope Protests

[Lord Coke]

Can the protectors/protestors last 71 days?

TMT Summary:

Based on law, In 71 days, if the TMT construction has not started at the project site on the Northern Plateau of Mauna Kea, the TMT Conservation District Use Permit (CDUP) is invalid and cannot legally proceed:

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Application (CDUA) HA-3568 For the Thirty Meter Telescope

RECOMMENDED DECISION AND ORDER:
Based on the foregoing findings of fact and conclusions of law, the CDUA (Conservation District Use Application) and the TMT Management Plan is recommended for approval. A CDUP (Conservation District Use Permit) should be issued by the BLNR, subject to the following conditions:

General Condition #4: Any work done or construction to be done on the land shall be initiated within two (2) years of the approval of such use, in accordance with construction plans that have been signed by the Chairperson, and, unless otherwise authorized, shall be completed within twelve (12) years of the approval. The UH Hilo shall notify the Department in writing when construction activity is initiated and when it is completed;

DLNR Response on 5/13/2019:

Referencing General Condition #4

The Board of Land and Natural Resources issued their Decision and Order regarding TMT on September 27, 2017. Based on this date, construction will need to commence by September 26, 2019.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/07/ige-sued-over-mauna-kea-emergency-proclamation/

The nonprofit Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation sued Gov. David Ige on Thursday over an emergency proclamation he enacted to control the protests on Mauna Kea.

The civil suit alleges that the proclamation — which grants law enforcement broad powers to control access to the mountain — could restrict the rights of free speech, assembly and religion for hundreds of people gathered to oppose the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope.

Ige said Wednesday that the mass of protesters, who call themselves “protectors” of Mauna Kea, created a hazardous situation near the intersection of Saddle Road and Mauna Kea Access Road.

Gov. David Ige issued his emergency proclamation Wednesday. He’s seen here at an earlier press conference with, from left, Attorney General Clare Connors; Suzanne Case, director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Ed Sniffen, deputy director of the Department of Transportation, and Henry Yang, chairman of the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory Board of Governors.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

The lawsuit rebuts that.

“At no time has there been a threat of harm to the population of Hawai’i Island or to any member of the public caused by those exercising their constitutionally-protected conduct of free speech, religious worship, and traditional and customary practices,” the complaint says.

Cindy McMillan, the governor’s communications director, said that the office doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

David Kopper, an attorney for the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation who represents Paul Neves, the plaintiff, declined to be interviewed Thursday night.

Neves is a prominent Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner who participated in the contested case hearings involving the TMT.

The lawsuit alleges that Ige’s proclamation could infringe on Neves’ rights, and by extension, the rights of those gathered on Mauna Kea. That could amount to a constitutional violation, the suit states, adding there was no emergency or disaster on Mauna Kea that warranted issuing the proclamation.

The suit asks that the proclamation be voided and that Ige be found in violation of the state constitution and Hawaii’s emergency management law.

It doesn’t ask the state to put a stop to TMT.

How exactly law enforcement might use the broad powers granted by the emergency proclamation is not yet clear.

When asked in a Thursday morning news conference, Dan Dennison, a spokesman for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said those specifics can’t be discussed due to concerns over “operational security.”

Ige said Wednesday that he believed issuing an emergency proclamation was the best option the state had to give state law enforcement more flexibility on Mauna Kea.

“It’s very clear we need to secure access in a better way,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, 34 kupuna were arrested and charged with misdemeanors for refusing to move off the road.

On Thursday, there were no arrests. The state estimated that there were 600 protesters gathered on Mauna Kea on Thursday afternoon.

Read the complaint and the emergency proclamation:

 

[killakoy]

A kupuna is just an honored elder. It isn’t really a position per se. So of course there are still kupuna. We all refer to our grandparents or elder parents as kupuna.

But he’s referring to how in the past the elder community leaders were less likely to want to protest things like this and the majority would accept their position as the position to take.

Like I said in my post, people now are really divided on this, it’s not like everyone is for the protests, but some are. The thing is that there isn’t unification among the more distinguished kupuna like in the past. Now some are judges who look to uphold the law, others are professors and activists. It’s been that way for a while now. I’ll accept any rebuttals to this from @killakoy as he’s better at explaining this than I am.

No, you're right. Kupuna literally translates into elderly person. But context is very important. The kupuna that got arrested for blocking the road weren't there just because they were elderly, but rather because they all were respected members of the local community.

So why is there less revered kupuna now compared to in the past? That's a good question that I'm not sure I know the answer to. A lot of the new generation is fractured and there's too many people that would want to be considered a leader. Another reason I think is the population size in communities are a lot larger than in the past and people don't get together like they once did.

Decades ago in Kalapana, you would go down there and you knew immediately that if anything were to happen, Uncle Robert was the one to solve things. When the lava flow occured, he was the one who really organized community response and made things happen.

Today, someone becomes a revered kupuna by having done something noteworthy - like becoming a kumu hula or getting a doctorate in Hawaiian Studies. It just doesn't seem like today's kupuna have the same clout of the past generations. Perhaps this is just because the population is growing rapidly (at least on the Big Island) and there's less personal contact.

 

[Lord Coke]

 

[killakoy]

Joe Rogan said multiple times the view from Mauna Kea with the naked eye was a life changing experience, and almost seems like you are one with the sky. Really made me want to visit one day.

I'm 99% sure he was high.

That being said, I've been there many times and it's a spectacular view and surreal environment.

 

[Islam Imamate]

No, you're right. Kupuna literally translates into elderly person. But context is very important. The kupuna that got arrested for blocking the road weren't there just because they were elderly, but rather because they all were respected members of the local community.

So why is there less revered kupuna now compared to in the past? That's a good question that I'm not sure I know the answer to. A lot of the new generation is fractured and there's too many people that would want to be considered a leader. Another reason I think is the population size in communities are a lot larger than in the past and people don't get together like they once did.

Decades ago in Kalapana, you would go down there and you knew immediately that if anything were to happen, Uncle Robert was the one to solve things. When the lava flow occured, he was the one who really organized community response and made things happen.

Today, someone becomes a revered kupuna by having done something noteworthy - like becoming a kumu hula or getting a doctorate in Hawaiian Studies. It just doesn't seem like today's kupuna have the same clout of the past generations. Perhaps this is just because the population is growing rapidly (at least on the Big Island) and there's less personal contact.

Do you believe that organic social units, like the extended family, were stronger before and that this might be related to the diminished relevance of the kupuna?

 

[killakoy]

Do you believe that organic social units, like the extended family, were stronger before and that this might be related to the diminished relevance of the kupuna?

So that isn't it. Good or bad, Hawaii has really high housing costs that force families to live with each other. There are a lot of multi-generational families under one roof over here.

 

[Islam Imamate]

So that isn't it. Good or bad, Hawaii has really high housing costs that force families to live with each other. There are a lot of multi-generational families under one roof over here.

I think its good when extended families live together but it sucks that its out of necessity. But swing and a miss on my part with that guess I suppose.

 

[killakoy]

Can the protectors/protestors last 71 days?

TMT Summary:

Based on law, In 71 days, if the TMT construction has not started at the project site on the Northern Plateau of Mauna Kea, the TMT Conservation District Use Permit (CDUP) is invalid and cannot legally proceed:

---------------------

So I don't have any inside information on strategies, but this is what I think is happening.

The protestors are trying to hold out for the next few months to force the permit to expire. If that happens, it's uncharted territory as a project of this magnitude has never failed to start construction. I'm not sure what would happen legally, but I'm sure TMT opponents would say you have to start the process over again (note it's been a 10-year process so far).

In the meantime, they've added further litigation including filing an injunction to stop construction while settling a lawsuit brought against the BLNR (board of land and natural resources) for issuing a permit without requiring a construction bond. Most think this has no merit as it was addressed in a quasi-judicial contested case hearing. But the court will address this on Monday whether or not this proceeds to trial. This might be what the governor is waiting for before deciding to call in the guard. But that's just speculation on my part.

 

[killakoy]

I think its good when extended families live together but it sucks that its out of necessity. But swing and a miss on my part with that guess I suppose.

Nah, it's not a bad guess, but I think Hawaii families are still pretty close-knit. Problems usually come when drugs tear them apart and that's just sad.

 

[woodguyatl]

Thanks for the pointless, and disputed, factoid about the ancient Hawaiians. Any Tahitian conquest is irrelevant as they came to speak Hawaiian, worship Hawaiian gods and thusly became “Hawaiians.” Mind you this is long before the unification of the Hawaiian islands. There was no wholesale genocide of the original Polynesian settlers as far as I know.

Would it make you happier if we were referred to as native Tahitians? That wouldn’t be confusing. It would be like referring to Brits as Germans, or saying there are no British people, because the Anglo-Saxons came from Germany and conquered whoever was there first. In short, you’re being a dipshit as usual.

Actually, we should just call everyone African and keep it simple.

 

[Joe265]

I'm 99% sure he was high.

That being said, I've been there many times and it's a spectacular view and surreal environment.

Being high just removes your social inhibitions so you can actually feel to your potential, the way you did as a kid, when life wasn’t a miserable rat race. You adopted the “D.A.R.E.” definition of being high, which is just governmental propaganda.

 

[Lord Coke]

https://earther.gizmodo.com/hundreds-of-astronomers-denounce-arrest-of-native-hawai-1836497851

Hundreds of Astronomers Denounce Arrest of Native Hawaiians Protesting Thirty Meter Telescope

Yessenia Funes
Thursday 3:05pm
Filed to: DECOLONIZE SCIENCE
84.8K
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Mauna Kea, the contested site for the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Photo: AP
All week, opponents to the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) have been putting their bodies on the line to prevent construction from starting on top of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea. Now these opponents, who are largely Native Hawaiian, are finding allies among an unlikely group: astronomers, including those whose research would benefit from the giant new telescope.

The TMT is a $1.4 billion project that’d allow astronomers to gaze billions of years into the past. The project has faced stiff opposition from Native Hawaiians due to its planned construction site atop the sacred mountain of Mauna Kea, a decision that raises issues of Native Hawaiian sovereignty and who gets to decide what happens on historically indigenous lands. Construction was slated to start this week, but opponents aren’t planning to let that happen. The first arrests of protestors blocking work crews on the mountain occurred Wednesday.




Hundreds of Protestors Block Work Crews Ahead of Thirty Meter Telescope Construction in Hawaii…
Construction preparation for what is supposed to be one of the world’s biggest and most powerful…

Read more
That was the big moment for Sal Wanying Fu, especially when she found out law enforcement officers were arresting Native Hawaiian elders. The 22-year-old is a budding astrophysicist, but that doesn’t mean she’s down for the telescope to be built by any means necessary. And more than 200 other astronomers feel similarly, signing an open letter Fu published Wednesday with Mia de los Reyes, another graduate student of astronomy. Both students are at institutions that comprise the TMT International Observatory, the coalition behind the telescope—Fu at the University of California at Berkeley and de los Reyes at Caltech.

Fu and de los Reyes urged the astronomy community to speak out against the criminalization of TMT opponents protesting on Mauna Kea. The letter doesn’t denounce the project outright, but it does question the methods the coalition and Hawaiian government are using to make it happen.

“We certainly hoped that regardless of astronomers’ opinions on the construction of TMT, we could agree that involving the military and the police in these deliberations was bad,” both students said in an emailed statement to Earther. “And we think the outpouring of support speaks, at least, to the fact that people recognize the importance of that message.”

And their message is clear: “We ask that the community pause and consider what it means that, armed or not, the military and the police have become involved in the project’s deliberations with the protectors of Maunakea,” the letter reads.

The histories of these people and the social issues surrounding the research are just as important as the science itself, said Sara Kahanamoku, a Native Hawaiian biologist at Berkeley who’s been inspired by the actions of her people on Mauna Kea, as well as by the support from the astronomy community.

“Just as we have a responsibility to learn the state-of-the-art in of our respective fields of science, we also have a responsibility to learn the history of our discipline,” she wrote to Earther in an email. “Begin by asking: who has historically benefitted from my field’s practice of science? How is the legacy of inequality manifested in the structure of modern academic institutions?”

This isn’t a moment for scientists to stay silent, said Aurora Kagawa-Viviani, a Native Hawaiian Ph.D. candidate at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Department of Geography and Environment who’s been following the stand-off closely. That would make scientists complicit in oppressing indigenous worldviews, she told Earther via email.

Here’s the kicker, though. This state-of-the-art machine doesn’t have to exist on Mauna Kea. Spain’s Canary Islands offer a prime location for the telescope, too. While not as perfect as Mauna Kea, the site is pretty damn good. However, the researchers aren’t necessarily suggesting this is what needs to be done. What they want to make clear is that arresting elders to construct a telescope where it’s not wanted by some is not the right way to make it happen.

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[Lord Coke]

Its a fing rebellion. This is as close to hearing a subordinate tell his boss to f off as you are going to see

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/07/20/breaking-news/honolulu-council-member-visits-mauna-kea/
The Army’s 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry Regiment “has arrived in Hawaii County,” according to Jason Redulla, chief of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement.
Redulla declined to identify the number of law enforcement officers.

Redulla mostly refused to comment on Gov. David Ige’s comments that the Mauna Kea protests were unsafe and contained drugs and alcohol.

“The governor’s my boss, and the governor’s statements will stand,” he said in a press conference today.

He said he hasn’t witnessed drugs at the protest site first-hand and wouldn’t characterize it as “disorderly.”