Stop TPP Fast-Track

It’s time to take a stand against Fast Track of the so called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. A bill to give the president Fast Track authority, designed to push through the TPP with little public debate, is about to be introduced in the Senate.

     This is big!  We need to put the emergency brake on Fast Tracking of TPP. TPP will increase the gap between rich and poor, and result in further militarization in the Pacific. All to benefit corporate profits and the super rich 1%. Stopping Fast Track is the single most important contribution people can make to ending corporate trade agreements that threaten to:

• Destroy livelihoods and accelerate the global race to the bottom in wages and working conditions
• Further commodify agriculture, trample food sovereignty, hurt small farmers and contribute to forced migration
• Enable new corporate attacks on democratically-enacted environmental and consumer protections
• Undermine global economic stability by prohibiting effective regulation of financial markets
• Reduce access to life-saving generic medications, increase the cost of prescriptions and restrict freedom on the Internet

Countries involved: U.S. Japan, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

                       For more information see StopFastTrack.com.

Sign the petition to the U.S. Senate against Fast Track

http://act.democracyforamerica.com/sign/sanders_stop_tpp/

All Hawai’i & the Pacific Stand Together!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties.
   4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
   5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world. Contact:
   Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
   Phone (808) 966-7622. Email:ja@malu-aina.org http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (April 17, 2015 – 708th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Malu ‘Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box AB Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i 96760

Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org

www.malu-aina.org

April 16, 2015

Aloha University of Hawaii President, David Lassner, and members of the University Board of Regents

      My name is Jim Albertini. I am the president of Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education and Action. Our non-profit organization in Kurtistown has been growing food to share with people in need and working for justice, peace and aloha ‘aina for the past 35 years. I am also the secretary of Ohana Ho’opakele, an organization seeking to build Pu’uhonua as alternatives to prison which disproportionately lock up Native Hawaiians.

      I am one of the 31 people arrested on Mauna Kea on April 2, 2015 seeking to protect the sacred temple – Mauna Kea, from further desecration by construction of the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

      My background is Catholic Christian. I’ve had 17 years of Catholic education, graduated from a Catholic University and studied and taught theology in Catholic schools.

      The arrests on Mauna Kea took place during what is called Holy Week in the Christian calendar, a week that commemorates Jesus death and resurrection. Also within Holy week is the important biblical story of Jesus entering the Temple in Jerusalem and driving out the moneychangers who were exploiting the people and desecrating the sacred.

      On April 2nd I went to Mauna Kea to stand with others who believe as I do that Mauna Kea is sacred. I went to stand in solidarity with Native Hawaiians who are asking that their spiritual beliefs, religion, culture, and traditional practices be taken seriously. I went to the mauna to add my voice in saying enough desecration. I went to the mauna to say: if we are going to live in a pono way, the sacred must come before dollars, profit, jobs, etc. Mauna Kea is not a commodity. It is time to honor, respect, protect, and aloha Mauna Kea. It is time for aloha ‘aina to be the guiding light for Hawaii and the world and time to cancel TMT. If money has become your false god, then go bulldoze your own temple – Wall St. the big banks, pick a Fortune 500 company Wallmart, McDonalds, Lockheed Martin, but No TMT on the sacred Hawaiian Temple –Mauna Kea.

      Recently, after more than 30 years of geothermal development in Hawaii, the Hawaii County Windward Planning Commission finally agreed to do a study on the social/psychological impacts to Native Hawaiians from geothermal drilling into Pele. Isn’t it time to do a similar study on the social/psychological impacts to Native Hawaiians from telescopes on Hawaii’s most sacred temple – Mauna Kea?

     Mahalo.

     Jim Albertini

PRESS RELEASE

Ohana Ho`opakele files Appeal in the Intermediate Court of Appeals in Opposition to Judgment allowing Kulani to Reopen as a Prison!

President Palikapu Dedman announced, “Ohana Ho`opakele’s appeal will have an impact not only on whether the first modern Pu`uhonua will be built at Kulani but also on the future standards of Environmental Assessments (EAs) related to native Hawaiian issues. Activists for Hawaiian rights and scholars will find this legal brief of interest to them.”

Attorneys for Ohana Ho`opakele led by Mr. James M. Dombroski of Petaluma, CA filed their opening brief in the Intermediate Court of Appeals on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 electronically at 11:27 AM.             (A filed copy of the opening brief can be found online at http://puna.us/pdf/OB.pdf.) A Final Judgment in Favor of State Defendants and Against Ohana Ho`opakele was entered in the Third Circuit Court on November 14, 2014 by Judge Glenn S. Hara. Appealing this verdict Plaintiffs-Appellants were Ohana Ho`opakele, Ralph Palikapu Dedman, Ronald S. Fujiyoshi, James Albertini, Luella Nohea Crutcher, Samuel Kaleleiki Jr. (deceased), Van Keoki Kahumoku and Cedric Ali`i Kai Ah Sing.

The argument summarized in the 80-page appeal is as follows:

In Act 117, the Legislature found that a pu`uhonua would help the community, in particular native Hawaiians, by providing culturally-based substance abuse treatment and intervention, and further found Kulani “would be an ideal site for such a wellness center.”

The Act’s purpose was to “create a wellness center that reestablishes highly recognized native Hawaiian cultural practices….” Act 117 directed PSD to work “in cooperation with Ohana Ho‘opakele and other restorative justice groups to prepare a plan for the creation of a pu`uhonua, or wellness center … provided that the site formerly used as the Kulani correctional facility on the island of Hawaii shall be given preference….”

PSD reactivated the Kulani Correctional Facility without satisfying the substantive legal requirement of Act 117 to prepare a plan for creation of a pu`uhonua in cooperation with Ohana Ho`opakele. The environmental review process (1) did not include the Ohana or its members as consulted parties, (2) did not include consideration of a pu`uhonua as an alternative to the proposed reactivation of Kulani as a minimum security prison and (3) ignored potential impacts on endangered species that are presumed to be significant.

For more information on Ohana Ho`opakele, see www.ohanahoopakele.org or contact ohanahoopakele@gmail.com.             Telephone contact is Mr. Palikapu Dedman at 808-959-4930 or Ronald Fujiyoshi at 808-959-9775.