Saturday Candlelight Vigil for Monkeypods
by Carol Ann Davis-Briant on 28 December 2007
Come hear presentations, music and share your mana`o on an alternate sustainable vision for Koloa. Design around the trees, let them live. Bring pot luck, a candle and yourselves to honor the trees. Please park at the post office, by Dr Murray's, & the neighborhood center. Our merchants need their parking for year end customers so lets honor them.
WHAT:
Candle Light Vigil to "Save the Monkeypod Trees"
WHEN:
Saturday, December 29nd, from 6:00pm - 10:00pm
WHERE:
Koloa across from the Candle Shop on Koloa Road
FOR INFO:
Malama Mahaulepu
Jeri DePietro
email: ofstone@aol.com
phone: 808- 651-1332
REACH OUT TO:
People from the Knudsen estate & developer:
The owner is:
Eric Knudsen
PO BOx 415
Verdi NV 89439
The developer is:
David Nelson
Nelson Development
6960 Orchid Lake Rd suite 200
West Bloomfield MI 48322
dnelson@nelsoncos.com
Up next: Protesting Eco-tourists
by Lee Cataluna on 28 December 2007 in The Honolulu Advertiser
Last Saturday, when the rest of Kaua'i was on the road to Lihu'e to finish Christmas shopping or in the park winding shiny garland around Uncle Skippy's truck for the Waimea town Christmas parade, more than two dozen people spent the day holding signs in Koloa to save monkeypod trees.
What was notable was the diversity of the protesters. When people jumped into Nawiliwili Harbor to protest the arrival of the Superferry earlier this year, they were brushed off by some as "newcomers" mixed with a few "local radicals."
The Koloa tree protesters included longtime Koloa residents, more recent Koloa residents and, interestingly, maybe ironically, a number of tourists who want to make sure Koloa doesn't lose its old plantation-town style.
It's a bit late for that.
Meanwhile, just down the road, two huge developments are going forward that haven't caused much controversy except for billowing dust. The Kukuiula luxury home development will have 123 homes starting at $1.7 million. The Koloa Landing project will turn the coastline near Spouting Horn into an upscale resort with units starting at $900,000.
The Koloa monkeypods, expansive sentinels that have been there since the little plantation town really was a little plantation town, are in jeopardy from a planned shopping center that will go up in the buffalo grass below the Koloa post office. It will include, naturally, upscale boutiques and office space catering to the well-heeled people who can afford to buy units at Koloa Landing and Kukuiula or stay at the nearby Hyatt Po'ipu. Maybe there will be an art gallery
there that sells paintings of the former monkeypod trees so tourists can see where they used to be and admire how beautiful they once were.
Perhaps this signals a new niche in marketing Hawai'i to visitors: protest-tourism. Come to Hawai'i, wave a sign, feel like you're doing something important for this beautiful place. Eco-tourism, which means taking hordes of people tromping through "unspoiled" areas, isn't so eco-friendly. Medical tourism never really got off the ground, as evidenced by the recent announcement that the Hilton medi-spa Holistica can't make a go of it. Cultural tourism gets
hopelessly off-track with "smoke with aloha" campaigns and fake-shaman rituals foisted on unsuspecting outsiders. Protest tourism can give the tourists that feeling of significance. They can point to snapshots of their trip and tell their friends, "See that? I tried to save it!"
[Comment by Carol Ann Davis-Briant: It was nice to see this article by Lee Cataluna, a Koloa girl, in the Honolulu advertiser today. I am glad people can see it is local people speaking up and demonstrating. I guess we won't get a Superferry protesters rap. I feel a little concerned about the bit at the end but it does get the point across loud and clear. Just a little note...we had a good meeting with our
mayor and staff and now hopefully we are all on the same page. We were given the tree plan (JoAnn Yukimura got it from Matt Pyun-the attornery) Now to effect a meeting with the developer. We will be sending out the tree plan today or tomorrow for eveyone to see. Our arborist Maureen Murphy is working on a revisal mostly showing canopy. I think we can make this a win win....lots of prayers and crossed fingers.]
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