"How the Maui wildfire devastated Lahaina, hour by hour"
It's a terrible event and the death toll keeps climbing. As of this moment, over 89 dead, from the fires that devoured Lahaina on Maui.
For two days, National Weather Service employees in Honolulu had been sending out ominous alerts about powerful easterly gusts, whipped up by Hurricane Dora passing 500 miles to the south. They hit Maui at a time when much of the tropical island had been parched by severe drought, including the drier leeward side that includes Lahaina.
The next time Vorpahl woke up, she smelled smoke. The power was out.
A fire had started in the dry grass near her home on Lahainaluna Road, on a slope just east of the highway that bypasses downtown. Power poles fell in the neighborhood, and wires had snapped — leading several neighbors to later question whether electrical equipment had started the blaze.
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"'Aunty Edith' is the first Hawaiian woman on a U.S. quarter"
"Through hula and chanting, Edith Kanaka?ole preserved the history, knowledge and heritage of the Native Hawaiian people," said Kristie McNally, U.S. Mint deputy director, speaking at the celebration of the quarter's release in Hilo, Hawaii on May 6. "Her tireless efforts teaching environmental conservation to future generations ... has made her a role model for all Americans."
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The apostrophe in Hawai'i is important
It is called the ‘okina, and it is a consonant in Hawaiian. It represents a glottal stop.
Fascinating to learn!
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Hawaiian Electric was inspired by a King
I saw this post on Mastodon and went to do my own research (as we all should do.) Specifically it was around the electrification of Hawaii prior to the US taking it over:
I found a number of partial articles via IEEE, but this linked one is more of a PR piece about the Hawaiian Electrical company.
Hawaiian Electric may be the only electric utility in the United States - perhaps in the world - inspired to go into business by the vision and enthusiasm of a king.
That king was David Kalakaua, a monarch with a technical and scientific bent and an insatiable curiosity for modern devices. In an era of gas lamps, Kalakaua was shrewd enough to recognize the potential of "electricity," and helped pioneer its introduction in the Hawaiian kingdom. His vision led to the formation of Hawaiian Electric and the services it has since provided for over a century have paralleled the economic growth and modernization of the State of Hawaii.
It was the late 1870s, and "electricity" was the talk of society. The king had heard and read about this revolutionary new form of energy, but he needed further evidence of its practical application. Who better to get this information from than Thomas Edison, inventor of the incandescent lamp? Kalakaua arranged to meet Edison in New York in 1881 during the course of a world tour.
It's important to realize that non-indigenous history doesn't always properly reflect the reality of the conquered people. And, more directly, that often it benefits the narrative to belittle and talk-down the technology and civilization of those people.
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The deeper meaning of the Hawaiian 'Ohana'
A friend's use of the term on Facebook caused me to go looking up the connotations of the word. I was familiar with it from Disney's Lilo and Stitch, but I had a suspicion it might mean more than a simple translation for 'family.'
The concept of 'ohana involves creating loving relationships with more than just blood relatives. Embracing 'ohana means developing a sense of familial care and devotion to all members of the human family.
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