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reni - I have no idea how kalakoa's comments are relevant or helpful, but the size of the TMT has certainly been brought up by opponents of the project. It was even discussed in last year's contested case hearing because opponents said it would block views of the sun; there were also claims that the TMT would block the view of the sun from Mauna Kea's summit. You won't even be able to see the TMT from the summit. Those discussions even involved a trip to the mountain for interested parties to see for themselves.
It's late so haven't posted any supporting links, but has been discussed here before. I'll be happy to provide relevant links given a little more time.
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"HOTPE might be reading into it a bit but the notion of a western technological monument on the highest point above everyone and everything else has been criticized by some as a symbol of dominance."
Interesting. I haven't heard that argument until your post. Could you provide an example? Not saying you're wrong, I'd just like something I can pass onto others. Thanks in advance.
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Is anyone capable of clearing the road going to show up? Where's Interpol, the UN, the Feds, not even the local Sheriff? Seriously, this is ridiculous and I'm livid!
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You're not the only one, Punatic007.
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macuu222,
"Are the employees that work for the observatories that can't get up to the mountain to do their jobs because of the blockade still getting paid?"
Most staff are still being paid and have been reassigned to other tasks. There are a few hourly-paid workers who cannot do their work and are therefore not being paid. However, Maunakea Observatories use many local companies for contract work and these people cannot do their work and are therefore not being paid. Many local companies employing local people are feeling the strain.
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Kaimana,
"Tomk- yeah because they don't want to telescopes to break down."
Many of the instruments on Mauna Kea require astronomers to be there to help maintain them, they are the experts on how the instruments work. The argument for only allowing access for technicians is weak and uninformed. And how on earth are the protesters going to know if someone going up to the summit is a technician or an astronomer? ID checks by the protesters? That would be utterly unacceptable.
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TomK - Interesting. I haven't heard that argument until your post. Could you provide an example?
Social media commentary isn't indexed well for searching and it hasn't been a major discussion topic, but I'll see if I can dig up a few examples. It tends to be a more generalized commentary on colonialism and parallels other academic framing of the situation such as:
Mountains of Controversy: Narrative and the Making of Contested Landscapes in Postwar American Astronomy (2013)
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/11156816/Swanner_gsas.harvard_0084L_10781.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y
"Strikingly, members of the Tohono O’odham, Native Hawaiian, and San Carlos Apache communities have independently framed the observatories as colonialist projects. For the Native populations considered in this dissertation, telescopes have become a threatening symbol of cultural genocide linked to a colonialist past. The telescopes, perceived as the pet projects of white men, are viewed as instruments of power and conquest."
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taken from another thread...
@vancoverislander...To this day, this disenfranchisement has festered.
DHHL supposedly was created to deal with this issue, but because of underfunding and ineptitude has been almost wholely unable to resolve the problem. This has resulted in a large group of disenfranchised people finally getting to the point where they want to exert some control.
bold by me...there is that
follow the money collected and doled out (at the States discretion I might add) by the State...Fair? does the State give a crap about the Hawaiians plight? Reckoning may be upon the State and Hawaiians will get their fair share...Management of that share is another thread
see entire post @
http://www.punaweb.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26358
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does the State give a crap about the Hawaiians plight?
State's financial ineptitude is not about race or religion.
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I've got plenty of time to read up on the TMT issue and follow it on social media. Airbnb is not advertising our vacation rentals because the county is taking months to approve our new applications to continue in business. Almost 75% of the applications at $500 each are being declined due to really stupid reasons like the subdivision had a revision request post 1976.
So I'm paying out to the county and state to put my business and income on hold for months with a 75% likelihood of being declined after being in economic limbo for months. This comes on the heels of being evacuated from the largest lava flow in hundreds of years after just finishing repairing damages from the gases and earthquakes.
And now the state and county is blatantly pandering to bully's and criminals again disrupting the supreme court approved and sanctioned building of a new telescope, a literal cornucopia of benefits and gifts to Hawaii and the world. The shining light of our island.
A culture on a decline?
