Ka`u News Briefs Monday, Oct. 19, 2015

HAWAI`I’S MARSHALLESE COMMUNITY is the topic of a series of articles in Civil Beat. Today, reporter Chad Blair focused on Jonithen Jackson and the community he leads in Ocean View. Blair, who visited with Jackson and Ka`u state Rep. Richard Creagan, a physician who served in the Peace Corps in the Marshall Islands,  reported that about 300 Marshallese “live in the houses at Jackson’s makeshift commune or frequent the worship hall and recreational area that he has built there.” Jackson also starred in The Land of Eb, a film about the plight of Marshallese in Ocean View. 

      According to Blair, Jackson’s hope is to return to the Marshall Islands as mayor of Enewetak, a series of atolls where he has not lived for nearly 25 years.

      The United States contaminated the area by testing nuclear devices at Enewetak nearly 60 years ago. Hawai`i’s Marshallese community consists of what Blair refers to as “nuclear nomads,” people exiled due to unsafe radiation levels found in people, fish and coconut crabs.
      Jackson first went to Majuro, then Washington state before arriving in Ka`u. He was an auto mechanic here before electronic systems replaced his skills. He now “works with the Big Island coffee industry, which has frequently hired Marshallese to pick coffee beans,” Blair reported.
      Blair explained that land “is at the very core of identity for Marshallese and all Micronesians, a primordial bond that cannot be broken even by nuclear devastation and removal from their ancestral lands. The Enewetakese, for example, organize their society based on land ownership, and traditional rituals involve the land.”
      “What you have, in my home, on my island, when I sit and look around, I feel like … comfortable,” Jackson told Blair. “You feel like you are not in Hawai`i. I live here and worry what people are going to say. But in home, back home, well, it’s nothing like that. I am just relaxed. We bring everybody; we talk story. It’s nothing like here.”
      See civilbeat.com.
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HURRICANE OLAF HAS CONTINUED to rapidly intensify into a category-four storm. At 11 a.m., Olaf was 1,280 miles east-southeast of Hilo. It is expected to cross longitude 140 west into the Central Pacific basin tonight, but is still forecast to turn north and pass several hundred miles to the east of Hawai`i on Saturday.
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RISING TEMPERATURES COULD SPREAD MOSQUITOS and avian malaria, which has devastated native bird populations. However, some species are apparently developing a resistance to the disease. A story by Ivy Ashe in Hawai`i Tribune-Herald said that some populations of amakihi are increasing despite the birds being infected by malaria.
      “Apapane and amakihi are the two that seem to adapt,” USGS research biologist Carter Atkinson told Ashe. However, birds with chronic avian malaria hold the disease.
      Research to be published next month compares disease prevalence between 2011 and 2013 with that done at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge in the 1990s. According to Ashe, bird populations have increased in the refuge, while disease prevalence has fallen.
      See hawaiitribune-herald.com.
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U.S. SEN. BRIAN SCHATZ has introduced legislation to explore the viability of creating a National Museum of the American People in Washington, D.C. The proposed museum would be the first of its kind to tell the immigration stories of every American and celebrate the contributions of every ethnic and cultural group in the country. It would provide a venue to unite the diverse stories that connect us as Americans. The museum will offer a unique narrative regarding the people and communities that have helped forge who we are today and highlight the links that bind together past, present and future generations.
      “The story of America is a story about immigration,” Schatz said. “ For generations, people from around the world and from all walks of life have come to the United States to build better lives for themselves and for their families. From the sugar cane plantations on Maui to the shipping ports in Maine, immigrants throughout our history have made tremendous contributions to America. But many of their stories are left untold. Building the National Museum of the American People would help tell the story of every immigrant of every ethnic group and would be a great way to celebrate the patriotism, contributions and achievements of all Americans.”

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Ka`u High Trojan wahine won their Senior Night match. Photo from KHPES