An apology for the Mauna Kea protest

This post is tacky. The entire premise of your post is to apologize on behalf of a whole community because you support the development project.

The protest does not reflect my view and understanding of what it means to be Hawaiian. The protesting is misguided aggression towards corporations and an ignorance of ones own culture.

Last Tuesday evening, I personally attended a protest camp at University of Hawaii's Bachman Hall that was called for several reasons -- * to protest a meeting of bureaucrats who are represent the Thirty-Meter-Telescope (TMT) project the following morning * to show solidarity with protestors/protectors atop Mauna Kea * and raise awareness about the project and resistance to it among students and commuters in the UH area

There, I learned a little bit of the history behind the mountain, people's relationship with that place, and how committed some are to unlearning western-euro-centric ways and relearning their culture. [[[[Although I may not completely agree with their methods,]]]] I understand their reasons and respect their will to action.

Where is the protest against Raytheon, Halliburton, BAE and other companies[?] How about local developers like A&B, D.R. Horton or Black Sand [...] who are changing the landscape of Oahu[?]

That's a fair critique of local resistance, which is to say that there is little going on in terms of individual/community self-determination against constant development for the sake of development and military R&D. This is definitely an issue. However, it's much easier to crap on someone else's project than it is to start your own. Resistance is not monolithic, but varied with many different trajectories and intersections as meeting points. More than shooting down community/grassroot projects that we don't like, we ought to be organizing ourselves to create scenes that we do like as examples of how we want to live.

///I agree that these military/civilian development projects require as much if not more resistance than what the TMT has been met with. There are many, many points of harm happening in our islands that aren't getting the attention and resistance that they require. That being said, pointing out the problems that are not being addressed should be a rallying call to more resistance, rather than an fallacious argument against the most vibrant resistance movement going on in our community at this time.

Resistance is not monolithic; resistance is diverse, with many different causes, analysis, and methods coming together to create a rich ecosystem. More than shooting down community/grassroot projects that we don't like, we could be organizing ourselves to create projects that we do like as examples of how we want to live. ///

These problems/projects not being addressed is not a legitimate criticism of problems/projects that are being addressed. If you feel like blaahahhhaha is the most pertinent point of focus I encourage you to do that.

As a Kanaka I understand that solving the mysteries of the Universe supersedes any melodrama from the sophisticated apes.

Yeah, I'm just going to say that "sophisticated apes" sounds really racist. Even if you are who you say you are, it's not an excuse to belittle other people's efforts as a melodrama. It's not poetic - it's just poor tastes.

What's more is that you're implying that the use of underground mining for metals, sweatshop labor overseas, CO2 emissions produced by refining the materials, fossil fuel burned for shipping the final products is all okay because it's "solving the mysteries of the Universe" -- This is a completely uncritical perspective of the situation.

To sum up...

Raytheon, Halliburton, BAE and other companies responsible for decades of damages to the islands? Please keep doing what your doing and thanks for all the awesome science.

/r/Hawaii Thread