Lower Puna: An island and it's future

[terracore]

http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17757&whichpage=2

Posted - 01/19/2014 : 11:52:51 Show Profile Reply with Quote
I'd like to see a lava themed sitcom where seven people near Pahoa are stranded on an island surrounded by lava (a hill) and can't communicate with the outside world because the telephone company won't add enough DSL ports for them to get broadband internet and the cable company argues that there weren't enough potential subscribers for them to string up cable. One of the castaways is a professor who eventually comes up with a brilliant yet somehow comical scheme to divert the lava using a special heat resistant plastic barrier, but when they finally find a way to communicate with the outside world, they discover that the only source to produce the specialized plastic, plastic shopping bags, has been banned. Not daunted, he comes up with another clever idea to dam and divert the lava by spraying it with sea water, but before his plan can be implemented they get sued by the Sierra Club for not conducting an environmental impact study first. When the series finally ends, the last episode shows them getting rescued by the same tourist helicopters that they had been complaining daily about for the last 10 years. Then the actor who played the professor wakes up and everything is in black and white, and he realizes he was just dreaming. And that he lives next door to a geothermal plant but somehow his Helco bill is still four times the national average. But he just shrugs it off, gets up, and drives to work on poorly maintained private roads.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

One of the castaways is a professor

I would definitely watch that show. Especially if you add a lava tour operator and his sidekick, who's GPS unit went haywire so they became stranded with the professor. Along with their tour group, comprised of a millionaire (and his wife), a movie star...

[terracore]

Absolutely! And decades later people will be debating who's the hottest.... the movie star, or the hemp tie-dye wearing, dreadlock sportin', henna tattoo showin', soap despising Puna Mary Anne.

[faroutsider]

Christmas 2015 - http://youtu.be/pxBSQ7sah3I

Imagtek, beautiful!

[pahoated]

Puna is an island? Maybe surrounded by lava flows, it becomes an island on an island. After a long extended flow covers the highway from HPP to Pahoa, the county decides it is in the best interests of the rest of the island to let south Puna become totally independent, no longer part of the county. No taxes, no police, no firemen, no political representatives. Shaman provide all medical aid because everybody knows the old ways were the best ways. Leech farms grow and reading chicken entrails becomes a highly valued skill.

Certain people in south Puna see this as a major opportunity to become the new warlords, modeling themselves after the warlords in Somalia, taking control of food aid distribution, keeping the lions' share for themselves, controlling the food since the remaining people are too lazy or too stupid to grow food for themselves. The remaining fuel is collected and hoarded by the warlords, only to be used for their war wagons. All science education is brought to an end and any foolish intellectuals trying to live in New South Puna are executed. Meth is made legal but not free, only available through barter, of any sort.

Welcome to New South Puna, 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWNWi-ZWL3c

"Mahalo nui Pele, 'ae noho ia moku 'aina" - kakahiaka oli

[snorkle]

I find Ted's description exactly as we would expect from his cynical point of view.

I'm thinking that as an "Island on an Island", the chaos would primarily remain in the enclaves of the more well to do. They already have their fortresses, and siege mentalities. I guess they have the most material possessions to lose, and value that above all.

I live among the poorest people in the state, and I can tell you; we have the lowest crime statistics in Puna. We also watch over each other and work together for the security of the whole neighborhood; rather than just our own little fiefdoms.

Rather than individuals hiding tensely behind walls with guns and dogs, our whole neighborhood works in unison to uphold the quality of life.

Exchange of goods and services, sharing of resources and travel, and a more comforting peace of mind prevail.

This is no fantasy; It is already a reality.

[pbmaise]

Snorkle
That sounds like you live in Hawaii versus California.

Sounds nice.

In the sitcom we need the big, fat, loud-mouthed mainland guy who always thinks he knows best. Perhaps he might be a skipper or captain of a boat.

This character should be socially disfunctional.

Now who could play that role?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Hawaii Public Radio had a story this morning about the latest in vacation trends; The Digital Detox.

People are traveling to distant locations all around the world to get away from their cell phones, computers and other devices.

Slow internet connection, and poor cell reception in Puna? Make that NO internet connection or cell service and you can advertise yourself as a Digital Detox B&B, or I like to call it, a DDB&B.*
And because it's trendy, you can raise your prices.

*Copyright Pending