Ban GMO
Ban GMO
Papaya farmers are the most manually skilled workers on this island. They are also the least paid — just 7 cents a pound. Before GMO solved the papaya blemish, it was 70 cents.
On some other island when GMO expanded to thousands of acres — on more than one occasion — the overspray drifted into the school and many students collapsed.
I love learning from experts. Yet when it comes to the GMO ban on this island, I only have to talk to the folks whose kids fell out of their desk chair, vomiting.
It seems to me that GMO should be made the red line for the Big Island.
Patrick Walsh
Hilo
Matson’s mess
So, Matson has this massive spill of molasses that has a devastating effect on our precious environment. And I understand that one of our legislators is asking for the federal government to help pay for the cleanup.
Matson should be required to pay for the entire cleanup. No U.S. taxpayer dollars should be used for this. They made record profits last quarter, and I’m sure they have insurance to help cover things like this. If they refuse to pay for the cleanup or raise rates to cover this, Hawaii should open up the shipping to competition and freeze Matson’s rates. They’re no different than BP or Amoco and should be held totally responsible for this mess.
Don Rudny
Pepeekeo
Capitalism’s victims
Detroit and other rust-belt regions of the country are a scathing example of the ravages of capitalism. While we are brainwashed in believing that each of us could be the top 1 percent or become president of the U.S.A., nothing could be further from the truth.
While unions in their heyday sold out labor by negotiating for unsustainable benefits, the capitalists moved their wealth to the lands of our enemies. General Motors International, among many other multinational corporations, knew this economic time would come and that buying the government and making the laws would protect them.
Recognizable to those of us who have learned about the fate of sovereign Hawaii on the way to becoming a state, the same events have occurred to government by the people of the U.S., we have been usurped by corporate governance. Sovereignty is what the moneymakers (i.e. central bankers) and top 1 percent have; the rest of us have the public debt.
Germany, one of those defeated in the last great war, is a beacon, an example of forging a win-win economic society. Labor and business are partners; each has a place on the board of directors. And while the capitalists squeeze out every penny each day of each quarter of each year, the German ideology is about protecting the next generation.
Long-term thinking is the only hope for the survival of our society as we expect it to be. The concentration of wealth cannot be sustained, as history has repeatedly recorded. What do you suppose is the next black-swan event that will cause the correction, and will you be prepared?
John Begg
Pahoa