MEDIA RELEASE
The authors of a new book on the Superferry have three appearances on the Big Island slated next week.
Koohan Paik and Jerry Mander will read from their new book “Superferry Chronicles”
* Kona Outdoor Circle, Monday, Jan. 12 at 6:30 p.m.
* Kahuina Gallery, 128 Kiauea, Hilo Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 6:00 p.m.
* UH-Hilo Student Center, 301 Wednesday Jan. 14 at 1:00 p.m.
The 320-page book is the first complete investigative report of the tortured history and introduction of the Hawaii Superferry project, its founders and current owners, questionable legal processes and approvals, and the government officials who were complicit in support of a fatally flawed project.
Published by Koa Books, “The Superferry Chronicles: Hawaii’s Uprising Against Militarism, Commercialism, and the Desecration of the Earth†is authored by Kauai activist, educator, and filmmaker Koohan Paik, and Jerry Mander, bestselling author and director of the International Forum on Globalization.
The authors particularly target Gov. Linda Lingle for serving the interests of a single corporation by manipulating state and federal agencies toward doubtful approvals of an unsustainable commercial project. ‘The Superferry Chronicles’ sings the praises of activists and surfers on the island of Kauai for launching a successful resistance to the vessel, succeeding in blocking its entry to Kauai, and exposing major flaws in the project and the governor’s support of it.
The report also charges the project’s absentee owner, J. F. Lehman and Co., has been exploring military possibilities for the Superferry itself, and for its manufacturer, Austal USA. All the while, the company has consistently denied any military connections or interests, despite the fact its initial application to the Public Utilities Commission touts its potential transporting Stryker tanks between islands, and its board of directors and top management now are comprised of former high-up military leaders.
High among the key issues and questions the book raises are these:
* If ferry service within Hawaii is desirable, why didn’t the governor or state agencies explore options other than a single, huge commercial ferry operation, controlled by absentee owners in New York, and which required huge state infrastructure investments and loan guarantees, and which put profit over environmental protection? Was a smaller, environmentally friendly, community-oriented, slower, state-operated service considered? Was an agreement on environmental standards ever demanded of the ferry operator in advance?
* Though Lingle’s special legislative session resulted in the passage of Act 2 — a new law enabling the Superferry to sail while an EIS was being conducted — why have they gone to such pains to hide the fact is that Act 2 actually specifies that no findings, no matter how disastrous, shall be reason for the ship to stop sailing?
* If it was Lingle who pulled the strings to get an exemption from environmental review on the state level, as widely reported, who was responsible at the federal level for the MARAD exemption and how did it happen? And, if Superferry was nothing more than the community service it purported to be, what gave it the clout to command such a high degree of special treatment?
* As the Hawaii Superferry sold itself as so “green,†why does it consume 15 times the fuel as an inter-island Hawaiian Airlines jet, enough to power 16,000 Hawaii households for the duration of each trip? And why does it continue to refuse to follow authoritative guidelines from ocean biologists that it is mandatory that it must slow down in the many whale-filled waters around the Hawaiian islands?
Koohan Paik is a journalist, media-literacy educator, and award-winning filmmaker based on Kauai. Recently, she has delved into the agitprop potential of YouTube, as seen in Greensumption, a send-up of ecomarketing campaigns, and Discover Kauai, widely credited for galvanizing Kauai’s current wave of antidevelopment activism.
Jerry Mander is director of the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), a San Francisco “think tank†focused since 1994 on exposing the negative impacts of economic globalization, and author or editor of several bestselling books.
— Find out more:
Koa Books: www.koabooks.com