What will happen to Maui has already been pre-determined: planned opportunism guaranteed by ongoing and deadly infrastruture incompetence and corruption
We at HON are still reeling from the news about Maui. We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the victims of this horrible disaster. Katherine Lindell, editor
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-opinion-
The perfect storm
When Maui began experiencing 60 to 70 mph wind gusts as a result of the pressure gradient drop between the hurricane to the south and the high pressure above Hawaii, the stage was set, everything was in place, a mere spark would ignite a perfect storm . . . and the perfect opportunity.
At that point, all of Hawaii's foundational bureaucratic incompetence and corruption, corporate greed, and public gullibility and apathy finally resulted in the loss of human life, much human suffering, loss of livelihoods and an entire community.
At the very moment of the deadly flashpoint, the corporate players waiting in the wings had only to sit back and watch the inevitable unfold, as Lahaina's properties disintegrated and the suffering began.
It is difficult to believe that someone deliberately set fire to Lahaina
There was no death ray from outer space and it is difficult to believe that someone deliberately set fire to Lahaina. Instead, and far worse, there was a general knowing in the wealthy predator corporate community, among government players and bureaucrats, and also among the people of Maui (and Hawaii) that our bureaucratic infrastructure has been so incompetent and corrupt for decades that if ever a perfect storm like this were to come along, there would most definitely be a deadly catastrophe . . . and a subsequent opportunistic land grab.
Hawaii Ocean News has been warning about this ticking time bomb for years . . . that our government and its bureaucracy has been so dangerously incompetent that there had to be severe consequences at some point.
Historical precedent predicted this long ago
The history of the management of the public's harbor system here in Hawaii has been the canary in the mine. The in-your-face corrupt collaboration with multinational big money to steal publicly owned harbors with the blessing of people like Hawaii's Senator Sharon Moriwaki and her sexual predator accomplice, the DLNR's Ed Underwood, was on full display. This was the very same Ed Underwood who has been pushing hard, for over a decade, for the privatization of publicly owned properties.
So, it's finally happened. There was no water available when Maui firemen tried to use the fire hydrants. The hiring of police chief Pelletier was, first and foremost, illegal, and second, was indeed rather strange. The idea that the state of Hawaii, under Josh Green, had been seriously contemplating turning Lahaina into a "smart city" without input from the people of Maui and that there were plans in the works to "modernize" Lahaina, without input from the people of Lahaina -- long before the fire -- should have been red flags. All of this and much more suggests that there was something in the works behind the scenes -- as there always is -- partially hidden and without input from the people of Hawaii.
The players were patiently waiting for the inevitable
Larry Fink's Blackrock was already in Maui, and when the city of Lahaina was on fire they quickly came forward and announced that they would be "helping out".
The real estate agents stationed on Maui -- and no doubt with connections to the big players waiting in the wings -- we're poised and ready to make those phone calls to the victims who lost their properties, ready to offer them pennies on the dollar for their now incinerated homes.
Everything was already in place, the stage was set, the opportunity presented itself and the vultures swooped in when the predictable happened.
There was no high energy weapon from outer space; there was no need for one
There was no high energy weapon from outer space. There was no "deliberate" neglect of HECO's first fire, which very likely morphed into the second deadly fire. The police blocked escape routes because they were told to do that by a police chief already fingered as suspicious for his incompetent handling of the Nevada mass shooting atrocity. The fire department was seemingly unprepared for a firestorm of this magnitude, and our expensive early warning system was silenced . . . by ignorance.
But it's not them . . . it's us
But it's not them . . . it's us. We are the victims of our own apathy. We are the victims of our own gullibility thinking that somehow everything would be okay when a major crisis finally arrived, even though we knew full well that our bureaucratic infrastructure was completely and dangerously incompetent and corrupt, that there were very serious big money players waiting in the background for exactly this kind of disaster to happen, and that there were plans in full view to make transformations to our community that the people of Hawaii would never agree to, assuming they were even allowed to participate in the planning process to begin with.
We, the people of Hawaii, need to take responsibility for the selection of pono leadership, the assurance that all planning going forward is with our hand, and that the greed of wealthy interests is put in its place.
We need to stop pointing fingers. It should have been blatantly obvious during the so-called pandemic that our hideous infrastructure had become so dysfunctional and incompetent as to be downright dangerous to the people of Hawaii.
Our finger-pointing, our confused response to this disaster, is exactly what the players were hoping would happen -- they feed on it. Confusion and disagreement among the victims is exactly the smokescreen that they had hoped for. As one onlooker was heard to say: "Wake the f*** up Hawaii . . . wake the f*** up."
This will not be the last atrocity
And so now we've suffered the ultimate consequence . . . but not the last one. There will be more because Hawaii's properties are priceless and the vultures, people like Larry Fink's Blackrock, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Chris Nassetta's Hilton [Hawaiian] Corporation, and David O'Reilly's Howard Hughs Corporation, among other wealthy pretenders and big money interests, want to gobble up large swaths of Hawaii's sacred properties and will try again, and again and again. They will not stop until they get it all.
The Lahaina fire was a call-to-action for every single kamaaina in the Hawaiian islands. We can only hope that the Maui fires will be the last straw: with our backs against the wall, the people of Hawaii will wake up and Hawaii's dangerously incompetent and corrupt bureaucracy and their wealthy puppeteers will be tossed out of our island home . . . hopefully forever.
Our bought-and-paid-for mainstream media presents a curated half-story
Do your research . . . you can't afford not to. Our bought-and-paid-for mainstream media will, by design, not -- and will never -- provide you with the information you need to know to make informed decisions.
References:
"Why Josh Green for Governor is a Terrible Idea" (https://hawaiioceannews.com/index.php/2022/07/25/josh-green-is-a-horrible-choice-for-governor/), written by Hawaii Ocean news staff member Marty Holm, July 25th, 2022, attempted to warn the people of Hawaii about just how dangerous it is to not pay attention to our leadership choices.
On July 5, 20 Hawaii Ocean news editor Katherine Lindell's article "Hawaii residents suffering from past/present leadership failures, and it’s just turned dangerous" (https://hawaiioceannews.com/index.php/2020/07/05/its-all-catching-up-to-hawaii-residents/) attempted to sound the alarm: the state's bureaucracy had become toxic and dangerous.
In a horrible breach of public trust senator Sharon Moriwaki's SB795 (2021) not only violated the state's constitution, it was based on a wholly fraudulent premise. 795 passed unanimously despite the illegalities. It was at that point that we knew that lawmakers had absolutely zero respect for the people of Hawaii or the laws of this state.
("795 Paradise Lost" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LAFrMsPhRBQ)