Plantation Disaster Capitalism: Native Hawaiians Organize to Stop Land & Water Grabs After Maui Fire

We Begin Today's Show in Hawaii where the death toll from the Maui fire stands at 111 but as many as a thousand people remain unaccounted for there's a search for bodies continues we look today at what some native Hawaiians are calling Plantation disaster capitalism a growing fear that wealthy interests will seize Land and Water Resources in this time of Crisis the writer Naomi Klein and the Hawaiian law professor kapoala Sprout write about plantation disaster capitalism in a new article in the guardian they write quote it's a name that speaks to contemporary forms of neocolonialism and climate profiteering like the real estate agents who've been cold calling Lahaina residents who've lost everything to the fire and prodding them to sell their ancestral lands rather than wait for compensation but it also places these moves inside the long and ongoing history of settler Colonial resource theft and trickery making clear that while disaster capitalism might have some Modern disguises it's a very old tactic a tactic that native Hawaiians have a great deal of experience resisting those were the words of Naomi Klein and Kapoor Sprout and the guardian well on Thursday night I spoke to Professor Sprout from her home on the island of Kauai she's a professor of law at kahulia native Hawaiian Law Center she also co-directs the native Hawaiian rights clinic at the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Law I asked her to describe what's happening on Maui well Mahalo Amy for this opportunity to be here to be quite honest things are pretty brutal right now in mauiko mohana or in West Maui people are still trying desperately to find ways forward from this disaster of Untold proportions and I'm not on Maui I'm actually on the island of Kauai so a couple Islands over and I have not been there since the fire but that's also absolutely appropriate because people who don't need to be there should stay away but send support from afar regardless of what that looks like whether that means making and sending employee or writing opinion pieces or sending money whatever is the best way people can support from where they are I think is really important but the word from our network of folks on the ground is that people are really struggling I mean our community has rallied in amazing ways and I think that that's part of the message that we want to get out you know that Lahaina strong and Maui strong that those are more than sayings our people are incredibly resilient people aren't waiting on FEMA or even on the state or County relief organizations are springing up in people's homes and their garages and supplies are coming in by boat by plane by vehicle when the roads are open but there are also a lot of uncertainties and people are concerned because what's calling for me as I see in the midst of you know all of this attention and focus on resources being streamed towards Maui that really there's a naked Power grab and really a land and water grab that's also underway there's been talk already about folks getting offers on their homes and I know from friends that that's happening um but as I mentioned there's also water grab in the works and and the discussion around this really makes me fear for the future of Lahaina and whether or not it will be one that includes native Hawaiians and other local people or whether or whether the build back will focus on Outsiders let's talk about each issue first the land grab what exactly does that mean so to be clear again I am not on the ground on Maui but what I understand from people who are there is that there are realtors and there are others who are making offers to people in their most desperate time of need when people are you know desperate for funding and other resources to try to build back their lives people are getting offers on their ancestral homes um lands that here in Hawaii when we talk about ancestral lands and our connection to place we talk in generations and in hundreds of years and so our native Hawaiian rights Clinic has been on the ground in working with community members for several years now and many of our community members have long-standing relationships to place and at some of these community members who are getting offers on their homes at this most difficult time which in my opinion of course is is completely inappropriate you talk about plantation disaster capitalism explain Plantation disaster capitalism I think is unfortunately the perfect term for what's going on in malikomohana or in West Maui right now um the plantations the large landed interests that have had control over not just the land but really much of Hawaii's and Maui KO mohana's resources for the last several centuries are using this opportunity of are using this time of tremendous trauma for the people of Maui to swoop in and to get past the law basically they're using the emergency Proclamation that the governor put into place the day after the fires took you know ravaged Lahaina and they're using this as an opportunity to try to get their way especially with respect to Water Resources something they could not achieve when the law and Hawaii's water code in particular were in place talk more about the water grab so in Hawaii water is life it's one of our most important resources in fact there are many people who would say fresh water is our most important resource and it's what enabled our people to be able to not just survive but really thrive in Hawaii for more than a millennia and in Lahaina in particular this area sure it's special for people who come on vacation and people who know Front Street but for the people of this community Lahaina was really the seat of the Hawaiian Kingdom it was the capital before the island of before Oahu and part of the reason that that was so that Lahaina was such an important place was because of the abundance of resources and the abundance of Water Resources in particular before the arrival of Europeans in Hawaii Lahaina was actually known as the Venice of the Pacific which for folks who have been there recently might seem extraordinary right now Lahaina has been desiccated and is almost like a dry desert area but when it was managed by kanakamoli by native Hawaiians it was abundant with water and other resources so what happened was that with the arrival of Plantation interests those water reefs and especially after the capital was moved to Oahu those resources were grabbed up by landed Plantation interests so for sugar plantations and pineapple plantations and later those resources were diverted to support um other kinds of development including luxury residential development and even to support hotels in some instances and so what happened is that the vivae as we call it the wealth of Lahaina was actually taken by these corporations and so what we also know at least the people from Hawaii is that part of the reason for this extraordinary tragedy or in West Maui is also because there has been more than a century of Plantation water mismanagement in this area it's because of extractive water policies where water hasn't remained on the land invasive grasses have come out that's what created The Tinderbox and this unfortunate situation of the tragic fire that took place earlier this month um you've raised the issue of the governor wasting no time in issuing emergency proclamations as the wildfires continue to burn which suspended a series of laws including Hawaii state water code can you talk about why this is significant foreign part of what's so disappointing in the way the governor and partnership with large landed interests umohana have tried to accomplish this naked Power grab because really it's more than just a water grab it's also a power grab is that they're specifically usurping both the law and more than that they're usurping long-standing and broad-based Community interests and support for more proactive water management and Water Management that's going to ensure that the resources benefit the people so to provide some context for several years now Hawaii state Water Commission has proactively attempted to um create what we call Water Management designation which is really just a fancy term it's an additional layer kind of like zoning that goes over an area where we know water resources are threatened and once that happens there's an additional layer of Permitting that's invoked that allows the Water Commission to revisit allocations and how water is actually used and distributed this is really important because in Hawaii we have a public Doctrine which means that our water resources are managed for present and future generations and cannot be owned by any individual but the problem is that despite what we call the black letter law in many ways in Hawaii and for the last century at least might has made right and in small towns like Lahaina companies with a lot of influence have been able to maintain control of the Water Resources even when there are interests like native Hawaiian families like the streams themselves that have a higher call to write or higher water rates at least according to the black letter law so part of the situation in mauiko mohana is that because of this long history of struggle native Hawaiians and really people across the community came forward participated in public hearings before our state Water Commission and loudly called for more proactive water management and in June 22 2022 they were successful in achieving this water management area designation for Lahaina that means additional permit protections were put into place and many folks native Hawaiians who have Superior rights but who writes whose rights have been ignored were able to come forward and begin a permitting process unfortunately those existing Waters use permanent applications were due on Monday August 7th and the fire ravaged Lahaina on Tuesday August 8th and then on Wednesday August 9th the governor's office issued these emergency proclamations which suspended the water code so despite this huge effort to try and put this additional protection in place which of course was predictably opposed by industry interests and development interest but they were unsuccessful the Water Commission unanimously voted for Water Management Area designation and yet um then what they were unable to accomplish legally they were able to accomplish the support of the governor and the emergency Proclamation and so it's unfortunate that what we see then that's why what's happening right now epitomizes Plantation disaster capitalism because here we have a handful of incredibly privileged large landed interests using this terrible tragedy to displace and to push through laws that they were unable to secure when Hawaii state water quote was in place finally kapua President Biden is coming to Maui on Monday message do you feel he needs to hear and what do you want to see the federal government do right now I understand that President Biden is going to be coming into Maui very shortly and I hope what he will see and what he will learn and what he will support is the resilience of the people who are on the ground in Maui right now um the community members like council member um Tamara paulton who are doing so much with so little I hope he will see the resilient Spirit of our community members and the tremendous need because we need lots of support from the federal government in a whole range of areas I hope he will also um see some of the political shenanigans that are taking place and understand that if we really want to protect the things that make Hawaii truly special we can't just throw out all of the all of the laws and other things that help to protect our resources um when disaster strikes we as a community need to Circle up we need to come together and we need to um lean into each other and really look to and embrace the principles that have innate like Aloha Aina that had have enabled us to thrive here in Hawaii for a millennia

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 483,392

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: ck7kwvi951o

Length: 12min 29sec (749 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 18 2023