Superferry rally #1

Today was the first of the planned protests against the superferry.

For the first time in my life (in Italy we don't really have such a civil way of protesting), at age 44, I was on a sidewalk with a sign in my hands.
It was cool, I met a lot of nice people and it felt good to be out there trying to do something to change things. At least, that's what I thought at the beginning...

Here's a couple of photos.


Ex Kuau Mart owner Liona had her hands full... She's one of the most fun people I know and even though I love her daughters too (who took over the shop) I greatly miss her behind the counter.


More photos on this savekahuluiharbor.com page (I can be spotted in the second photo from the top).
A second, bigger rally will be held this Saturday at 9am.

And now, a couple of thoughts.

The MAIN reason that made me go there was the new rule that you can't surf/paddle a canoe when the super ferry is in the harbor.
Not that I'm happy with the other problems that I believe will arise... more traffic, more drugs, more criminality. But those are problems related to every kind of development.
Every time I drive to Kihei, for example, there's new homes. And none of them look like it's going to be part of an affordable homes program...
As a result, there will be more cars on the island and more wealthy inhabitants that can afford to pay high rents/mortgages. And more poor people will become even poorer and eventually homeless. The only option for them will be criminality and part of that is making/selling drugs.
So it's the whole development that should be stopped, not only the super ferry.

But the development is driven by money, which is the only thing that rules this country (and many others). Who can stop the development?

Nobody. Nobody can. This is not Butan.

And what about the impact on the environment and the whales?
Well, we don't even know for sure how bad the ferry will be for them. Honestly it pisses me off more the fact that plastic bags are still not banned and every single day thousands and thousands of new plastic bags are introduced in the environment. And not by an easy to blame big corporation... they are introduced by us. Or better, by the 99% of us who don't care enough to use a reusable bag when going shopping.

So, it's ok to protest (even though probably useless, seen the amount of money already invested in the project and the strong support of the state government), but let's start doing something ourself.

PS. I got some good shots today at Hoo. Stay tuned for a more "conventional" windsurfing post...