I am somewhat dismayed that CBC chose to run an article
without giving the issue some balance based on reality instead of sensational rhetoric.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-students-ask-canadian-universities-to-divest-from-the-thirty-meter-telescope-1.5225229
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-students-ask-canadian-universities-to-divest-from-the-thirty-meter-telescope-1.5225229
Since this article is about students, what about the future
of education on Hawaii?
The collective telescopes provide 95 million dollars
annually that is pumped straight into education. What about the school
initiatives and outreach initiatives that will disappear and deny students of
all ages the opportunity to enrich their own lives through active participation
in STEM education and careers?
Without this clean, environmentally sound industry, Native
Hawaiians will be relegated to being able to work at the Hilton serving rich
tourists on multi-billion dollar resorts that are destroying coastlines and
ecosystems. Perhaps the students of today are looking forward to working for
the military which is the only other option on the island - where sacred land is
being bombed every single night.
The opportunities for the Hawai’ian youth in fixing the global climate crisis, innovating new technologies and staying connected to a global community are all vanishing because protesters have chosen a soft target; hotels have tons of money to hire lawyers, the military carry guns, but astronomers associated with ACURA don't / won't fight back as they neither have the funding or the mandate to do so.
The opportunities for the Hawai’ian youth in fixing the global climate crisis, innovating new technologies and staying connected to a global community are all vanishing because protesters have chosen a soft target; hotels have tons of money to hire lawyers, the military carry guns, but astronomers associated with ACURA don't / won't fight back as they neither have the funding or the mandate to do so.
Beyond the biased pen of the CBC, there was little research
undertaken to show that the Kahuna of Mo`okini - a highly respected indigenous
elder given the birth right to lead, supports the TMT (https://hanahou.com/22.2/the-kahuna-of-mookini).
So many Kupuna (elders) are so vocally supportive of the TMT and they are embarrassed
by those sitting in the road.
It appears that the CBC made little or no effort to research
the other side of the story - found with a single google search: http://www.maunakeaandtmt.org/get-the-facts/
or get the news from a very respected
publication: Hawaii Tribune-Herald, written by Barry K. Taniguchi (Chair and
CEO of KTA Super Stores) https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2019/04/21/opinion/please-support-tmt-astronomy/
@CBC: You can do better than this, can’t you?
