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Calmer heads eventually prevail, but Kauai residents won't let the boat back into the harbor. Governor now orders the canvas covers off the Coast Guard patrol boat's decktop 40-cal. Of course, there's a mechanism in place for dealing with the potential for dangers such as these. They detail plans to use the so-called ferry as a prototype for warships in potential military clashes with China. The David-versus-Goliath potency of this image catapulted Kauai (population 63,000) briefly into the international media spotlight. However, the authors point out that this EIS contains a highly unusual provision: nothing in it can prevent the boat from proceeding.
But as The Superferry Chronicles documents, the project's sponsors couldn't allow an EIS because of a clause in their financing agreement specifically prohibiting it. What could possibly have gone so wrong as to lead island-dwellers to rise up and lay down their bodies--in this case, float their bodies--directly in harm's way.In a way that is both thoroughly documented and eminently readable, Paik and Mander suggest that ultimately, Kauai residents came to see the Superferry as the last straw in a long series of top-down, cynical moneymaking schemes that have increasingly privatized Kauai's resources, to the detriment of its residents. It's called an Environmental Impact Study. guns and has the Guard arrest everyone in sight, including a 14-year-old surfer dude. As Paik and Mander meticulously document, deceptive Washington military megacontractors, led by a former Navy Secretary and abetted by a Governor with her eye on a career move to D.C., manipulate their own rules to dodge an otherwise-mandatory Environmental Impact Study (EIS). Paik and Mander remind us that the price of democracy is eternal vigilance. The several counties that make up the state of Hawaii are islands, for goodness sake, and since they are too far apart for bridges, ferries are the obvious candidate for interisland transport. Even among the most vocal opponents of the Superferry, many conceded that if a proper EIS had been done, and its mitigation and protection provisions followed, they'd be happy to welcome ferry service.
Marine mammal experts predicted that the Superferry would maim whales and otherwise harm marine life. Koohan Paik and Jerry Mander's new book The Superferry Chronicles documents the fascinating story of how the little Island of Kauai, known mostly as a lush tropical vacation spot, recently wrestled with some of the weightier issues of our time: the needs of the state versus the rights of the citizen, capitalism versus community and development versus preservation. Alarmed Kauai residents decide to just say no (the Governor, after all, is a Reagan Republican) and literally jump into the water to block the boat as it attempts to enter their island's only harbor. (Remember that the state is the nation's key Pacific military outpost).
If the ferry turned out to be a commercial failure, which so far appears to be the case, its owners wouldn't lose a dime.It becomes clear that the Superferry protests on Kauai in particular were empowering for many island residents, who had the good fortune to be given a delightfully bad common enemy. At the heart of the book is a classic tale of blunder. Meanwhile the Hawaii Supreme Court rules unanimously that the project must do an EIS. Only time will tell if Kauai citizens continue their vigilance, or become weary of the issue and forget what they were so upset about anyway.
In response, the Washington megacontractor picks up the phone, and what do you know, the Governor just happens to convene a special session of the State Legislature to pass a bill solely to exempt the boat from the EIS requirement.No, we're not making this up, as you'll see when The Superferry Chronicles gets turned into a movie. Result: huge boat, obviously designed for Pacific theater military transport rather than interisland ferry service, slices through whale calving grounds way too fast to stop in time. Everyone feared that vehicles from worse-infested islands might bring with them invasive species of plants, animals, insects and other pests, to which Kauai's fragile ecosystem is especially vulnerable. It's hard to see how anyone living in a group of ocean islands could object to an interisland ferry, but the explanation will keep you engrossed in turning the pages. By this point the reader is not surprised to discover that the financing came from the federal government, in the form of guaranteed loans. Paik and Mander are quick to point out that everybody loves ferries, including themselves and the vast majority of island residents.
If the former, we will celebrate the affirmation of the American parable: the triumph of the underdog. Plans to re-start the Ferry to Kauai are already in place, this time after an Environmental Impact Statement. What makes The Superferry Chronicles such an exciting read is that it's a perfect triumph-of-the-little-guy adventure story, which also happens to be true. This twisted tale of a classic end-run around the democratic process remains unresolved. One of the more moving sections of the book presents their transcribed voices--brave, sometimes impulsive, always lively and impassioned--as they confront the Governor in a public meeting she convened on Kauai to announce that the ferry was coming, like it or not, and to outline criminal penalties for those who dared oppose it. Subsistence fishermen and hunters worried that marauders from Oahu, with its far greater population and far more exploited natural resources, would ferry back home pickup loads of Kauai and Maui fish, opihi, coral, taro, lava rock and other pretty things.
If the latter, we will mourn that other, all-too-common American parable: they paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.(Reprinted with permission of article by Emily Lydgate and Tony Lydgate in Pt. To save money for the Pentagon and the Navy, as well as to secure project ownership for its major investor, the former Navy Secretary, the prototype is to be built and launched not as a military ship, but as a civilian ferry.Local residents' main objections to the Superferry, however, were more down-to-earth. Fabulous iconic photograph: a lone surfer sitting on his board, arms raised, confronting a ship so massive the surfer shrinks to insect size. Kauai's citizens certainly rose to the challenge, with acts of civil disobedience of such scope that they permanently transformed the island's conception of what it was capable of. Then comes one of the book's major revelations: the background information on all the major players presented by the authors reveals the Superferry's close involvement in the military, Hawaii's second-largest industry after tourism. Although least evident on the surface, this hidden purpose for the project is the most chilling.
In other words, it provides nothing but lip service. Reyes Light).
Who would have thought that an issue like a ferry between Oahu and Kauai in Hawai'i would have such global, geopolitical ramifications. Jerry Mander ("In the Absence of the Sacred") and Koohan Paik have given us a comprehensive glimpse into one more small slice of the juggernaut that is the American military-industrial-complex, complete with the arrogance of Bush/Cheney-like power politics, bypassing of environmental laws, and steam-rolling of the entire American democratic system for personal gain. This book has it all, and more.
The first part of the book really captures the spirit of Hawai'i and the tragic battle between the indigenous culture and "progress" as large mainland companies seek to exploit both the land and the spirit of Hawai'i. The first photo of the lone surfer sitting on his board as the huge Superferry looms over him is reminiscent of Tienanmen square.The link between the Bush/Cheney military contracting crowd on Hawaii's Republican Governor Linda Lingle is especially eye-opening in how far the Bush corruption extends.It cracks me up that the context ads are touting Superferry tickets on this website.
Facinating read that's hard to set down. Good timeline of events in the book not compiled in any other published source. Thorough coverage of the issue well known to people in Hawaii but with global implications. Excellent coverage of local testimonies not previously transcribed. Excellent contributed pieces throughout the book from various experts on related subject matter. All in all a very good book, look forward to the second printing.
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