Ka`u News Briefs, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016

NO JOB OFFERED BY DONALD TRUMP YESTERDAY, the Associated Press reported after Kaʻū’s congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard met with President-elect at Trump Tower in New York. Gabbard’s spokesperson Erika Tsuji told the media that Gabbard did not request a position and Trump did not offer one. “She loves the job she has, serving the people of Hawaiʻi in Congress,” Tsuji said.
     However, later in the day Gabbard was said to be “‘under serious consideration’ for various cabinet positions in Trump’s administration, a senior level official within the Trump transition team told ABC News.” The Daily Beast reported that Gabbard “is the first congressional Democrat approached to have a face-to-face meeting with Trump – and the first Bernie Sanders supporter to do so as well.”

Tulsi Gabbard took office in the U.S. Congress in 2013. She was recently re-elected, but may be courted for a Trump cabinet post. Photo from Tulsi Gabbard

    Gabbard took her turn meeting Trump, as numerous candidates for cabinet positions filed in to see him over several days. Her arrival led to speculation that she was being considered for cabinet posts from U.N. Ambassador to Secretary of Veterans Affairs. She said her motivation was to to present Trump with her views, particularly on foreign policy. She serves on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs.
     Former Hawaiʻi Gov. Neil Abercrombie told the AP: “To the degree and extent that the President-elect Mr. Trump is paying attention to what she is saying, to that same degree, I have confidence that he’s closer to adopting a policy that will be in the interest of the United States.”
      Hawai‘i Democratic Party Chair Tim Vandeveer, a Bernnie Sanders supporter like Gabbard, told AP that he supported Gabbard meeting with Trump: “It’s important that we take the opportunity,” Vandeveer said. “The reality is, President Trump is going to be in the Oval Office very soon, and that's very troubling to many Democrats, but the reality is, we’ve still got to have a voice.”
     The Hill reported that Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway said that “Trump and Gabbard have a lot of ‘common ground’ and both understand ‘the country very well.’
     “The top Trump aide pointed out that Gabbard ‘went against her party quite boldly early on,’ by endorsing Sen. Bernie Sanders, leaving her post at the Democratic National Committee to endorse the Vermont independent’s presidential bid earlier this year. ‘There’s a recognition that there’s a big country out there with lots of voters that feel disaffected from their party, the Democrats,’ Conway added,” according to The Hill report by Jessie Hellman.
     Read Gabbard’s statement on her meeting with Trump in yesterday’s Kaʻū News Briefs.
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THE ROUND-THE WORLD HŌKŪLEʻA TEAM, who sailed to Kaʻū before launching their current international journey in the double-hull Polynesian Voyaging Society canoe, is one of National Geographic’sten candidates for 2017 Adventurer of the Year. Hōkūle‘a fans can vote on the National Geographic website until Dec. 16.

Hōkūle‘a crew met wil Miloli`i Hipu`u Virtual Academy teachers and students before embarking on their worldwide voyage. Photo from Polynesian Voyaging Society

   This competition, in its twelfth year, has attracted a diverse and highly adventurous slate of participants in extreme sports – including a cave diver, a kayaker, a paraglider and a mountaineer. Each contestant is described in a feature article, followed by a short question and answer section, on the magazine’s website.   

   Hōkūle‘a is the iconic voyaging canoe that has not only epitomized high adventure, but in the past 40 years has defied naysayers, rewritten history and helped spark cultural revival across the Pacific. The recreated historic Polynesian sailing vessel is 62 feet long, 20 feet wide and its double hulls are held together by six miles of rope. It is navigated only by the stars, the way that ancient Polynesians found their way to Kaʻū where they first landed in Hawaiʻi.

Polynesian Voyaging Society canoe at  Miloliʻi. Photo by Peter Anderson

    Aaron Teasdale, writing a year ago in National Geographic, described a trip aboard the Hōkūle‘a with the navigator, Nainoa Thompson, who learned the ancient art of celestial navigation from a Micronesian sailor, Mau Piailug, in 1976.
    “Nainoa Thompson studies the clouds, birds and smells, and feels the wind’s subtle shifts on his bare skin. The boat has no enclosed cabin, and as crew members crawl into tiny, canvas-covered compartments to sleep, Thompson stays awake, studying the cosmos as he guides his craft through a world of sea and stars.
   “Initially, scholars, sailors, and even some fellow Polynesians didn’t believe Hōkūle‘a’s crew could successfully navigate the open ocean,” says the National Georgraphic writer. Over the years, however, the crew has made many trips from Hawaiʻi to to Polynesia and the legs of it current Worldwide Voyage have sailed to the East Coast of the U.S., the Caribbean, Brazil, South Africa, Mauritius, Bali and Australia. See more in upcoming Kaʻū News Briefs.
      To cast a vote to name Hōkūle‘a the 2017 Adventurer of the Year, go to the National Geographic web site