Native Hawaiian Panel Withdraws Support For World's Largest Telescope

sciencehabit writes: Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) – a state agency established to advocate for native Hawaiins — voted Thursday to withdraw their support for construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) on the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano. The vote follows weeks of protests by Native Hawaiians who say the massive structure would desecrate one of their most holy places. The protests have shut down construction of the telescope, which would be the world's largest optical telescope if completed. The vote, which reverses a 2009 decision to endorse the project, strikes a powerful if symbolic blow against a project that, for many native Hawaiians, has come to symbolize more than a century of assaults against their land, culture and sovereignty.

Comments

More religious whackjobs

[lgw]

More religious whackjobs blocking progress. If they own the land, or represent the majority in a democracy, so be it; otherwise a does of "separation of church and state" would be welcome here. No one should get a free pass on being a religious whackjob simply because they aren't a Christian whackjob.

Re:More religious whackjobs

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason why these whackjobs's opinions matter is the US is an invading and occupying colonial power who has given the vote to illegal settlers and who has appropriated this Hawaiian land, manifest destiny and all. I get that all of the native American treaties are void and most of the US should be legally reverted to native control and the illegal settlers expelled; but natives don't have nukes or numbers only casinos at the whim of the occupying power.

Re:More religious whackjobs

[MrBigInThePants]

You are wrong. Having seen this in action first hand in my own country I can predict this has NOTHING to do with religion.

Typically this is more about the gravy not being forthcoming to the local "leaders".

Re:More religious whackjobs

[Anonymous Coward]

And who exactly should the land "revert to"? Are you going to base this on genetic tests? Should it go back to the first wave of polynesian settlers or the second wave? Maybe it should be purged of all humans and revert to its natural state? Or perhaps handed to the British? Or perhaps the Japanese, who would have conquered it?

Settlement and migration are normal parts of human societies. The land I was born in changed hands dozens of times over the past two thousand years. The idea that the people who first landed on some piece of land have special dibs and eternal rights to self-government is dumb in the extreme. Hawaii should be happy that it became part of the US.

On the other hand, on balance, I'm not sure the US is getting much out of it; so perhaps Hawaii should be kicked out of the union altogether. We'd sure save a lot of money in subsidies.

Re:More religious whackjobs

[jmichaelg]

Hard to worry about what happened over a 100 years ago. Had the issue bothered a lot of people, Hawaii wouldn't have voted to join the U.S. in 1959 by 93%.

The "rightful owners" wouldn't stand a chance against whatever power chose to occupy the islands were they to secede from the union.

It's hard to see this as anything more than a routine "pay us off and we'll shut up" shakedown.

Re:More religious whackjobs

[ShanghaiBill]

Native Hawaiians had the misfortune of living on one of the most strategically important pieces of land on the planet.

How is that a "misfortune"? They are better off than anyone else in Polynesia, and have one of the highest standards of living in the world. If they want to stick to the old ways and try to eke out a living by trying to grow taro in volcanic ash, they can still do so. Yet for some strange reason, few choose to do that.

Re:More religious whackjobs

[Anonymous Coward]

How is that a "misfortune"? They are better off than anyone else in Polynesia, and have one of the highest standards of living in the world.

Don't make the mistake of confusing native hawaiians with all residents. Natives as a group have the lowest standard of living in the state.

Re:Certainty

[Crashmarik]

I'm sure the comments here will take into account nuanced perspectives of Hawaiian native history and culture,

You mean the history culture of shaking down any deep pocket involved in a large construction project ?
 

No guilt for you

[Iamthecheese]

Nope, I'm finished feeling guilty for the acts of previous generations. The islands are part of the United States now. They have their votes and councils. They have their local government. And this isn't about religion anyway, it's about declaring as much independence as possible. Fuck that, the war is over. I don't care that they want to make a statement. I do care that they want to make their statement at the cost of science. I'm not sure whether I'm disappointed we're not using eminent domain here but I don't think these objections are valid.