[ExI] How Corporate Media distorts Hawaiian Protests

[BillK]

Protectors of Mauna Kea Are Fighting Colonialism, Not Science
Julianne Tveten   August 27, 2019

<https://fair.org/home/protectors-of-mauna-kea-are-fighting-colonialism-not-science/>

Some Quotes:
The current demonstrations at Mauna Kea are the culmination of decades
of state land mismanagement and broken promises over the mountain,
dating back to 1968, when the state leased the mountain to the
University of Hawaii.

“In 2014 and 2015,” corporate media outlets “were obsessed with this
idea of science versus culture, as if our kupuna [elders] haven’t
practiced applied science,” Kaniela Ing, a Mauna Kea protector and
Hawaii Community Bail Fund manager, told FAIR.

While proposals to compromise might appear fair, protectors say, they
dismiss the historical context in Hawaii of colonialism and the
usurpation of Indigenous land that continues today. Thus, these
suggestions elide the stark power asymmetry between historically
disenfranchised and marginalized Native Hawaiians and the
billion-dollar, state-backed TMT project.

At the heart of the Mauna Kea action is thus a challenge not only to a
telescope, but to capital and the pursuit of unmitigated industrial
growth at any cost. It’s no wonder, then, that when corporate-owned
media are tasked with examining this movement, their limitations rear
their heads.
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BillK