In my opinion we need to address food supply of Maui and become more sustainable

Annjulie Vai

In my opinion:

I think that there is so much that our local government and county agencies could do to help improve Maui and the state of our economy.

First of all we should all have tax incentives in some form to get motivated to plant food crops in our yards, and on our properties….even just your small ¼ acre lot you can have huge amounts of food crops that do not take much effort to grow. What if a natural disaster occurs and the runway and the harbor are damaged? We have about 2-7 days of food supply here. We are an island and we need to get more dependent on ourselves and on our neighbors for food especially. If we had a tax break not only would this give us incentive but also provide food sources in the event of a disaster….this is a no brainer and people need to wake up!!!

Also to me like parking lots and roadsides should all be planted with food trees like avocado, mangoes, papaya, banana, ulu,…..and so forth. Oh the mess to clean up??? Are you fricken kidding me??? This is another county job for people to go and care for the trees, harvest the trees and then either sell it or distribute it to the jail, food bank, homeless etcetera…I mean get a brain is what I want to say to people like all the politicians and the donkeys running the show here.

By doing these kinds of small steps we could become more sustainable and solid ourselves instead of importing 95% of our food sources from elsewhere. The motto should be “Shade = food” and start planting.

Another thing to stimulate the economy here and help clean up the island would be to have programs subsidized by the government to help go clean-up invasive species and problem areas like the dead wattle trees upcountry. Have the prisoners be able to go out and work in these zones and in turn they can feel good about themselves as well as be part of the bigger solution instead of the problem. Give them some pride and it is healing to go touch nature and earth and make amends with community and planet.

Anyway I have many ideas….maybe I should become a politician??? Try to create these kinds of concepts within the government sector???? It makes perfect sense to me!!!!

 Mahalo,

Annjulie 

http://mauinow.com/2011/05/24/get-healthy-challenge-eat-local/

http://earthfirst.com/urban-gardening-you-can-grow-food-no-matter-where-you-live/

http://pacommunityforests.org/?q=node/11

Restoration and protection of cultural sites on Maui

Annjulie Vai

Written testimony: Cultural Sites Issue

4-20-11

Aloha Kakou,

I want to speak out about the issue relating to “cultural sites” and the general plan for Maui. We all need to respect the host culture and that is Hawaii no matter what our ethnicity is because once you lose a culture or a cultural site you can never bring it back. We need to practice reverence for all of the Hawaiian cultural sites that are remaining here on Maui.

We need to recognize the value of these sites; not plow them under and pave over them. We generate most of our economic flow through tourism. The tourists come here for our beauty and our beautiful environment as well as the rich culture of Hawaii. We need to place extreme care and protection of whatever cultural sites that are left. The tourists want to see the “true” Hawaii and that lies within the culture and the sites; and for the Hawai’ian this needs to have reverence and protection, it helps to improve self-worth and identity of the people as well as encourage and perpetuate the indigenous culture of Maui and Hawai’i nei, getting Hawai’ian people back to their inherent culture.

We can protect and preserve these special sites for the future generations as well as the tourists who want to view them or participate. Can you imagine having an educational ethic as well as protection of these special places which are located in every zone of the island? Besides being the right and pono thing to do, having this ethic will perpetuate the beauty and culture of Hawaii to the world as well as be a model for others to follow. We can make parks and eco-tourism around these sites to generate revenue and stimulate our economy as well as the identity of the Hawaiian culture. It is a win-win when we have this kind of attitude and reverence. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose by protecting our cultural sites. By not protecting these special sites we have unfathomable loss to Hawaii, Maui, the Hawaiian people and culture as well as the loss to our economy and humanity in my opinion.

In every location and region of Maui we have rich cultural sites that can be protected and generate revenue if properly done. Once it is gone, that is it; there is no going back. Please place care and protection for these sensitive cultural sites…..Look at Ahihi Kina’u as a perfect example of a cultural site that needed protection and is now getting it! Millions of tourist go there and learn, it could be the same all over the island. It would also create jobs for the local people and generate micro businesses all over the island.

Look at Lo’i Loa in Iao, all it took is one ‘eleu student to go and start a revolution in thinking, and restoring an ancient cultural site to get the mana’o moving towards pono consciousness of a cultural site that needs reverence and restoration/protection. It is empowering to be a participant and part of the solution in preserving and restoring our cultural sites on Maui.

Mahalo,

Annjulie Vai

Related articles topics and resources:

http://www.users.muohio.edu/shermarc/p412/team297.shtml

http://www.electluci.org/resources.php

http://mauicoastallandtrust.org/waihee.php

 

Rusty Pundyke:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/07/19/885551/-EcoJustice:-Turning-the-Canoe