Hawaii State Senator Kalani English 2008

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distinguished and uh a friend Kalani Kalani English hello Jason how are you Jay Kalani English is the sitting State Senate um I guess state senate representative for district 6 right which is um which is a lot of you guys well district 6 is Hana up country Maui mokai Lai and even kah it’s everything all the way from P all the way to ulala it’s a huge huge District it’s a large district and it’s a rural I want to say rural rural industry it’s you know like I live in downtown muu you know the City but um

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you have a group that has water problems in one way and water problems in another way and and uh different things with little cultures and private things and things running over when people think of Hawaii they think of your area they think that’s it think of Maui you’re right they think of Maui well you know Maui Maui County spend a lot of money making sure that when people think of Hawaii the first thing they think of is Maui um and we’ve done that marketing for oh probably 20 30 years so you know it’s it’s paying

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off for us now because you know if you travel around the world you say Hawaii the first thing they’ll say is Maui and then when they come to Maui where do they want to go Hana right so we have a lot of people going out to Hana and um there’s you know a lot of traffic on that little road going out there uh I’ve encouraged the tourism industry and the Renta car industry to please let their people know that if there’s somebody in the back of you you know you want to enjoy the waterfalls enjoy their way we

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don’t mind it but just pull over and let us pass you know it’s really simple so um you know and that uh we try to get that message out uh that please pull over um but we do have a lot of issues you know water you said water water is a big issue in East Mai and it’s a big issue on mokai and it’s an issue on laai fact it’s an issue in our country as well so it’s an issue water not a surprise and you know we’re so what are you doing yeah exactly drinking glass there are many things that we can

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do but um you have any long-term Solutions you’ve seen that are yeah get are getting we’ve put into motion uh in partnership with the federal government and the County government we put in motion um the funding mechanisms to build reservoirs up country I mean finally you know it’s about storing some of this water when we have it and so we’ve partnered with the federal government the state and the county to begin putting in the Big Res it’s been taking a long time maybe this uh have

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you heard there’s a financial crisis depends who you talk to personally some people I know are making more money than they have in their entire life because they have opportunity others are sitting there and seeing the stock market and the mortgage thing and they’re going oh my God oh my God my finances and there others that are going look at all these opportunities well you know that’s what happens in a in a financial crisis is there’s there’s fear and there’s opportunity and people

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react to both um you know there’s good reason to be uh apprehensive um our I mean I call it a meltdown you know it’s we created this bubble that uh well that deflated you think about it when we start basing our value on mortgages on a stated income mortgage yeah yeah you know so I mean we we s of had this coming for a while um and now is a good time for us to take stock of what we have and to really examine the abundance that we have in this District we have you know we have a lot of food a lot of food in this

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district and people still grow food and people still produce food um I was reading a a write up in one of the Hulu dailies about mokai and somebody was outlining all of the you know high unemployment all of the things that are are bad for mokai and being the senator for molai you know I read this and I said well I think they need some fair play here some Fair exposure because they have a lot going for them you know if you ask people on M um what are you producing I mean they’ll tell you we’re

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raising sweet potato we’re raising Caro we’re hunting we’re fishing we’re they’re producing food they are productive the measurement that is used by the state is uh is a how many hours of of work you have in a week you know so they consider unemployment less than 20 hours a week so if you ask that question on mokai people are will say well you know no I don’t work then they come up with a real high 35% unemployment number if you ask another question are you productive what are you producing they’ll come back

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and say oh yeah I raiseed two acres of terot I rais sweet potato I raise uh corn I rais lettuce I I you know we pick Limu we go fishing we go up to the mountains let’s let’s you know look at let’s look at another scenario that we the shipping Lane stopped for a week we’ll be out of food here people on mikai the people in this District in up country in East Maui laai we have an abundance of food and so you know we’ll be all right well that reminds me you gave me a nice present

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here some seeds from my salad you know I think it seeds to plant a salad you don’t sprinkle it on the salad right that’s a very important distinction so these are uh organic non GMO lettuce from Maui Nee I tell you so I’m taking these out and I’m making a real Point each you know every election year we go out and we give out all sorts of goodies this year I wanted to give out something that encourages people to food and so I give them enough this is enough seed to plant a nice siiz Garden

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to feed a nice family um it’s I’m a nice family I mean I can do this in small area you can do this in a little pot about one one foot wide by maybe 3 foot 3 ft long put it on a window sill and just plant a little bit you know it comes in in 3 weeks you can start harvesting right after 3 weeks and it’ll regrow and because comes in in 3 weeks it’s almost election time yes inde you can have Kalani lettuce Senator Super Salad Senator super saly that’s what it says so we’re we’re Distributing these

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house to house and giving them away to people and I’ve had a lot of people come back and say wow you know I haven’t put anything in the ground for a long time and we have some salad yeah now we got to do bread right you guys want some bread as I’ve heard that well you know actually they’re taking um tarot and they’re making flour out of tarot and they’re looking at ULU bread fruit and making flour out of bread fruit so you know in a real real way we can reduce the carbon footprint of

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bringing in all this things that we don’t necessarily think of as um locally produced like flour and if we produce bread fruit flour think about this you know we’re we’re using something that a lot of people don’t eat anymore putting it into modern context and creating flow for bread well you know it’s uh interesting when I sit and speak with Representatives like yourself we’re in a really uh different time I had conversation yesterday with uh Joe Suki you know who’s reflecting

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over a long career and still aware of things that have to be done and feel comfortable with the leadership and what’s happening self- sustainability we’ve been a broken record as long as you’ve been running even right we say and before you know some of us that are political adversaries we uh working together and have common causes and all the fine-tuned reasons that people running in politics we’ve been all running and getting closer to the things that we were talking about long ago and it

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wasn’t fashionable to be an environmentalist well you know we’ve been talking when I when I I mean I’ve been in uh in elected office since 1997 so you know over 10 years and I remember when I came back from the UN you know I was just coming back from my second career my first career was an academic my second career was as a diplomat and this is my third career as a as a Statesman and politician um but when I first came back I remember sitting and talking with you and running for counseling we were talking about all

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of these things and people thought we were so far left and now it’s become the center you know so we have to measure the Delta we have to measure the degrees of change over time and I think that Maui has come a long way and actually and actually doing the practice you know actually putting into action things we’ve been talking about I’m really excited because I see a lot lot of it especially in this District well then when you were talking about um infrastructure stuff and Manpower here we are we’re talking about

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shifting in our economy to be able to use the Manpower and get the assistance and that the bailout really Finds Its way into productive action to finally create the world that we could have done 20 years ago there but maybe I say God’s perfect timing I hope this is all God’s perfect timing and we take what looks like a seed on the side of the road and turn it into a forest because we’ve got great opportunity that happens what is it they say to uh have anything happen that needs to be changed so and and you know

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change has been a mantra in in all the elections I mean from my you know enter into local politics in 1997 I talked about change I’ve always stood for change you know and it’s you don’t get change the good kind of change because change can be bad and it can be good and we always have to build on the foundations that we have make it stronger make sure that we don’t change something that topples what we what we value you know like change happens let’s take a look at kahulu you know I

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remember uh remember where where the borders is and where that are when it was kingfields and you know I was on a council when we did the things with oh kimana um Alan AR AWA salaah Hala Charmaine Taris Wayne mishiki seen these people they are still and we tried to do uh put in um Urban boundaries and we said that Dairy Road should be the natural boundary nothing on the hona side of Dairy Road is there yet we said that should be the natural boundary have Urban infill and not let development go on that side that that kind of changed

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did it make our lives better in Hawaii in Maui did it increase the quality of our life did it make us um more content and more happy I don’t know did you live up to that line no well we couldn’t get that we couldn’t get that too and now we’re talking about his F Urban bounders in the county level so I really hope that the you know this review of the the county plans and the the general plan actually put some of those things into draw a line in the sand and make it happen well you know because I think

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that’s what our our people want that’s what I’m hearing from the guys of country from the guys of mokai laai and inana that you know we need to Define what the cities are so that we can Define what the rural areas are well we will uh do you enjoy your uh role as a a representative Senator um I enjoy the Senate very much and I enjoy the work that I do very much um over the 10 years in the Senate you know I’ve been able to see the results of projects and things that we we put into motion you know that

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went from a concept an idea in someone’s mind then to the paper and then into implementation then you go by and you see it it’s like wow it’s here whoo you know I remember um they had a really they had a problem they needed some help and uh they missed some deadlines but we found a way to help them uh to ensure that they have that land there and that whoo stays open as a as an art center and you know I go by there and I see they’re doing and I hear people saying how grateful they are that we knowa is

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there for them uh and I feel good about them you know it’s things that we’ve been able to help with montari school we help them and mon you know the walar schools and other private schools in the area and the public schools King Kik and P school so these are the things yeah these are the things look at all those faces out there you know you can’t hide we know you’re there the fact is a lot of people watch akaku and a lot of people have been watching all that’s going on uh you

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have any U assuring words for anyone well you know I’ve been a strong advocate for for akaku and to keep uh Public Access TV going in Maui County because and it’s for you it’s for the people at home it’s for me it’s for you and this is the great equalizer this is the thing that it doesn’t matter how much money you have it doesn’t matter what you own um the only thing that really matters is if you have something to say and you put it in this media and put it out take it down to akaku they’ll

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air it they don’t edit they don’t edit for Content they’ll anything you want to say they’ll let us say anything we want you know what that’s a freedom that I’m really happy to enjoy something that you can do too you know we don’t have to be just us doing it you can do it anything that’s important to you you can share and be part part of the community so you know there’s the across the United States there’s these Public Access uh Networks TV stations and there are forces that want to shut

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these down because you know they’re very fearful of the idea that um well Free Speech you know the people are actually saying something and a lot of people watch these channels so this is hide this is the this is the protector of our democracy and for me it’s it’s Paramount it’s important that we keep these public channels going because it’s it allows it it’s the check in our system what do you think about this RFP process well okay the request for proposal process yeah but that I guess you guys probably have

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heard but akaku has felt challenged because uh their domain now has a new bidding process where the lowest bidder will will get to run the show and every however often it’ll be reviewed and um so their fear is that there’ll be less services available well yeah that’s things like training you and Equipment all kinds of stuff that’s part of the the issue and and we have to be very diligent and very um watchful because you know the the funding for akaku and these Public Access channels

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it’s paid for by all the cable viewers there’s a percentage that’s taken off of that and put into a fund just three it’s a lot of money but you know what’s interesting about this uh Jason is that if you look at the distribution of the monies out of this fund everybody gets a chunk off of it before the public access channel gets the least amount of money from the fund even though the fund is set up for specifically for Public Access so public education and government uhuh you

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know a Consortium in Honolulu gets a huge shot public PBS Public Broadcasting Corporation TV they get a million dollars more off the top and then another Consortium gets a huge amount and then what’s left a very small amount actually goes to Public Access so you know I’m I’m disturbed by that and how that was set up but it also does so very much the people that are doing it down there are so dedicated on on that minimal amount of money imagine if they got the full amount that they’re

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supposed to get that’s right and it’s things like this you know where we do independent things outside of the station and all contribute so in this new age of computer you too can put television shows on akaku up on the web in fact this is on the web also so I mean that’s an exciting thing and I wonder why we’re not seeing more upclose shows I think people are somehow afraid that when um when the announcers or whatever we call us interviewers will come on that will ask hard questions you

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know like we’re going to shoot bullets what in fact it’s fine to ask hard questions well you know but hard questions are you know like why uh those kind of questions like when I was sitting someone said to me why didn’t you ask juki about the Super Fairy why didn’t you ask uh gladus bisa about well a 670 well what about this what those kind of public airings have their place but I think this is where you get to really see it someone that’s a representative is someone that you can

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speak to an approach and um try to accomplish things that um can move forward so I like the Diplomatic approach interesting that’s you know it’s my my training and it’s my background and so you know I mean I I was told many years ago um actually by an ambassador uh mine alright who was ambassador to the UN who then became this the Secretary of State for the United States and I work for the Federated States of mesia another country and she came over to me one day and she says you know uh we have to work

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hard at what we do because our words here decide whether or not countries go to war or not um and that really stopped with me she was absolutely correct I think that we can we can settle everything if we just sit down and talk and honestly talk about um so you know I learned a lot about diplomacy and how to um how to be creative in thinking and Innovative you know for example um often we say okay well we have to divide some and people go okay right down the middle that’s the the the common thought on how

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to do it but sometimes a little bit of questioning a little bit of discussion you say okay well we have to split this uh this lemon you know and uh instead of cutting in half and here’s your half and here’s my half I said what do you want to do and they’ll say well I want to make lemon I said you know I want to make lemon peels we divide this lemon differently based on a little little bit of more questioning get the inside I get the outside we’re both happy see so that’s what I think a senator has to do

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and that’s what a representative has to do uh is that we have to do the probing questions and the inquiry and the um the creative thinking to say what is it exactly that we want to do do you find that you get uh other Representatives that are uh open and willing to get into this kind of a dialogue and come out with things or you find it no actually you know you’d be surprised um vast majority of the elected them people are very open to this kind of discussion because they want to do the best for for

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their constituents you know every elected person that I have met and I’ve met a lot of elected people around the world I find one commonality the commonality is that deep down they really care about the people you know so they always feel that what they’re doing is in the best interest of their constituency this is what I found and it may be completely out of sync with what is happening it may it may be um a minority view but from their standpoint it’s they feel they’re doing the right

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thing for their that’s a really big point you know sometimes people think that they taken the minority View and that they’re being paid and all kinds of things that you hear but when you look back and through it all someone has to come from they really feel is right and for the best of everyone based on the knowledge and information that they have so many times we see um different views being you know coming through the media with limited knowledge and awareness of all the the things going on well we’re in a really a

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changing time where we’re we’re seeing a new president for sure thank you God yes we’re all praying that Obama wins and we’re asking everybody out there to please go out and vote and you know from me to you please vote for Obama as our next president I would say that in in this region I I uh don’t know how bush is doing we have lots of bushes it’s plenty you know let let me just share some numbers with you in the in the um Democratic caucuses remember that we in the early when we Democratic caucuses so

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in the Democratic caucuses uh you know beginning part of this year this area Hau Maka area had an 8 7% turnout for Obama it was the highest in Hawai wow 87% of the votes that went to the caucuses we’re voting for Obama and you know so my district I’m really proud to say that my district has a very very strong um support for the ideals that Obama stands for and for the person um same goes for mokai and for laai and for up country very very strong uh turnout for Obama and I’m sure that you would

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want to add that these are also very independent thinkers and you’d say besides President and Vice President they’re probably all over the political map you know individual thinkers but you know really as a country we can all get behind the positive direction and all be part of making what do they say how do you make the future become a reality more quickly you envision it and you walk into it and do your part to bring it here you know you know like when we do with with uh raising money in a

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nonprofit to uh aggressively go at some new technology like you know we’re doing like zet Tropa have you explored zet Tropa and vof fuels oh the and algae to be able to have 1800 gallons of a biofuel per acre amazing where we can create Solutions and replace diesel naturally and turn ourselves into a complete self- sustainable model you know the other thing you have to consider is and this is where you know the creative thinking comes in we’re looking at biofuel crops we also have to look at their how much

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water it takes to to feed those CRS oh sure and then we have to think about the nutrients in the soil and does it deplete the soil or does it replenish the soil um you know the so these are the things that I have to look at I said yes we have to support biofuels but we also have to make sure that it helps us to conserve water and it helps us to replenish the soils and it helps us to you know there positive and positive and positive So speaking of water in that way have you looked at the desalination programs in

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conjunction with when I think of bofs I think of desalination because we’re sitting here with all this salt around salinization is very expensive sure um it’s a process that’s the the technolog is perfected they use it in uh Middle East they use it in Caribbean islands and some other places in the world yes it’s been looked at in Hawaii in fact the City and County of Honolulu is um you know few years out of being short of water so they’re they’re actively pursuing desalinization um and Maui we’ve looked

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at it at different times uh you know but again it’s a very expensive process have you uh seen that there’s some you’ll see too there’s some decentralized Solutions in desalination that you know I don’t think any technology is going to be the one flat answer but you know decentralized solutions that people can do M desalination I’ve seen some they seem like kits it’s almost like when you go camping you get a great filter and suddenly they have things that are just amazing well you know in Israel for

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example they they have some of the best technology for desalinization in the world and uh you’re exactly right they’re looking at these portable units that can go uh move around um you take the water right there and desalinated take what you need and uh it’s a small little kit there’s also so you know some of the international Aid agencies have developed um water purifiers very cheap water purifiers you can uh basically pass enough water through purify it so that it becomes drinkable and this has

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saved millions of lives in Africa Sav millions of gallons of water you know some of these Technologies make us be uh conserving and we’d have more more water for the plant and all the things that we want just by better using the resources we have I hope you guys are um doing all that right I think most of well and Ma Mau is ahead of the game we you know we actually practice a lot of what we talk about uh I see it in this district and I you know I go as I go around I see people doing solar and

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photovoltaic people looking at wind and water and looking at how they can conserve and how they can make it better and this is the Innovation we need and our our district does it this so Maui’s ahe of the game and we we always have to know that um you know sometimes we’re going to look at some technologies that we think are great up front and then we look at it more and we say okay it doesn’t work for us we have to do that experimentation if we don’t do that we don’t find out what

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works um I’m changing the subject a little I don’t know if you can tell when you’re looking at me I look like either I have a cold or I was up all night um I I’ve never been affected by the vog people tell me that’s what’s going on with me are you aware what’s going on actually yes it is U the vog is the vog is you know it’s it’s nature I mean uh there’s a new vent on the big island and the wind is blowing a certain way and that’s why we’re getting is that

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what’s going on but it’s it’s very toxic um chemicals and heavy metals that are in the air so you have it feels like you have the flu you have watery eyes um coughing uh very lethargic very tired um and it’s because you’re basically in this in the air is filled with these heavy metals and mercury and cadmium and all these other what can I do not very much keep breathing keep breathing keep breathing and it’ll go and for the trade WIS that blows it off so if I were to say what issues

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would you like to talk about that are enough controversial that you think that they’re um significant as Leaders of either things that you are doing or want to do or have been challenged and would like to defend any things that you’d like to really share with our audience because a lot of you out there probably want to know what’s on Kalani’s mind you know what’s been going on well you know again the overarching issue is the economy we started with that and that’s where that’s where the big debate is

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but we’re in a time of great structural Readjustment in our economy and I see a lot of opportunity for us because you know we’ve entered into a globalized economy and um we’ve we’ve been able to see the ups and the Downs of that and I think it’s some time for us to reflect and to take stock again of what we have what’s available to us here looking at um the abundance that we have uh so from my point of view yes we have to look at the economy it’s the overarching issue

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we have to make sure the jobs are are sustained and created uh but then leads to the question well okay what are the jobs that we want what do we envision as you say what do how do we put this out and how do we ensure that people go into jobs that are sustainable and help us to create a better Maui I know that one right then um let’s take a look at uh I’m going to name these these issues right arching the economy is overarching but right under that is food security people are very very concerned

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about food security um you look at the tainted Foods coming out of China um all of the the additives and the precursers that are in that and I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg yeah so you know people are now very concerned about where the food comes from what’s in it and it’s caused them to re-evaluate how they value food for example you know let’s say a year ago people would go to a supermarket and they look at a bag of organic lettuce and it’ll be $3 $5 and then they look at the commercially

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grown lettuce and it’s $150 they would buy the commercial one now people are going in and saying we’re not sure what’s in the commercial the organic with the certified organic ones are the they say that we ensure that we’re not using these fertilizers so not only are these organic but uh you know probably have hundreds of dollars in here I’m just I’m laughing when I’m saying it you know that’s what you’re talking about it’s like a really new world yeah so you know the idea is that we

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we’re worried about our food security and then it’s causing people to Value food differently so we now look at we now look at what we consume in a different way and it’s good we’re it helps it’ll in the long run help us to ensure Better Health um energy depend it and um we’ve been talking about this for years but we’re finally at the stage I think where people are um doing the simple things changing out their lights um unplugging appliances uh turning off things and then they’re getting even deeper because

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they’re it’s hitting where it hurts they get an electric bill and they say okay look at this bill solar water heating look at this bill my my consumption actually went down but my bill goes went up because of the fuel surcharge so people are are getting it they’re saying okay it’s not we are not only reducing our consumption but actually doing heat reductions solar water heaters is a classic example we have enough sun and the way they measure energy in the sun is term called calories like we measure

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energy that we eat there’s enough calories in the sun in Hawaii to really power our solar water heaters and our photovoltaic system there prod electricity there how about solar thermal Acoustics use the sun to create movement in a closed chamber and create Cooling so that we don’t need more electricity there’s so many solutions that we’re going to have that in small units that’s a solar refrigerator we have so many exciting things how kind of clean Technologies that’s the kind of

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stuff that we can do here all of you you know you can encourage that we’ve got laws that are on the books to encourage that kind of industry development don’t we absolutely and that’s that’s part of you know one of my passions has always been energy and you know for many years I ched the energy and uh environmental committees in the county and then in the the Senate um in 2006 we did the energy reform though which set the stage for all of the alternative energies to become active players in Hawaii so you

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know wind wave um solar uh all of these Technologies now have the regulatory framework to compete in Hawaii and to become an Act player so we’re seeing the results of that and I think the next legislative session we’re going to see a very aggressive um bill for for more Renewables and creating clearer pathway for these Technologies to come in we have the we have the political will now we have the um public will people out there are now apply and saying let’s do this and the circumstances are there so

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I think the next session of the legislature we’re going to see a lot of movement in energy next issue is transportation you know look at my particular District getting from mokai Maui to mokai or laai laai to Maui it it’s very very difficult and my constituents have a you know are spending a lot of money and a lot of resources a lot of time just getting to place just getting somewhere so Transportation um and I and I I now chair of the transportation and international Affairs committee and

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we’re looking at making sure that the transportation quarters are are solid so that um you know people can concentrate on living as opposed to okay we have to spend all this time getting to Maui for something um you know so that’s part of the reason why I chose Transportation as my next um Endeavor I was very concerned you know cpool we just opened the cpool road um a few weeks ago and that road was closed for two years so you couldn’t go around the I remember someone just asked me flying in a plane and I thought

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I wonder if it’s finally open just open just open wow yeah and that took us 2 years okay and and a lot of effort um but that meant the world to the communities in kipulu and Kao and Hana to be able to get through again now all these Bridges coming out on this side you know I have over 70 Bridges coming around this side and they’re over 100 years old structurally they’re very unsound so you know any one of those bridges if it goes I could have Hana completely isolated and there other areas in the state on

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the big island on Hawaii that have the same type of situation I see so I’m really pushing that we do we look at infrastructure renewal we look at you know in an economic downturn like this we can put a lot the government can put a lot of resources into repair and maintenance that we need to do so fantastic I mean that’s what I’m talking about taking a lemon and making a lemonade and getting the peel too so uh you know that’s very encouraging I hope you guys are hearing the significance of

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this how what seems like a a challenge can become an absolute isn’t that what do they say the the caterpillar becomes a butterfly and uh and may you live the Chinese T may you live in interesting times and aren’t these interesting times aren’t these interesting times you know when you said Transportation I keep thinking about what goes in is transportation Corridor are we going to be able to buy land for a mass Transportation Maui it’s it’s really up to Maui you know um Maui Maui is pretty

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Advanced uh we we were the last to have a train system for example you know the trains went out in 1962 in Maui so I was born in 1966 it was a few years before I was born let me say one out you mean they stop running stop running right but they used to be from um Hamakua to Kahului in fact if you go to Kahului they still call it the old railroad uh station you know are those railroad things in or are they built over same that was you know that was again uh hindsight is 2020 but back in that Council that I referred to earlier with

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you know in 1997 we talked about taking the old rights of ways and preserving those rights of ways um we were the minority voice at the time any of that left there’s some of it left but most of it is is gone all right but you know the main question is how do we deal with Rapid Transit on the island now here’s some some here’s some of the parameters on it the federal government usually picks up 80% of the cost of a local transit system so the bus in Hulu is paid 80% is paid for by the

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federal government but what triggers the federal um Federal monies and the federal rules that come with that is you need to have a population base in one town of 50,000 or more in a town we don’t have that population concentration in any one town do we call Maui a town no no so the the federal government looks at Kahului and says no you don’t have the popular whyu you don’t have the population but Maui being as Innovative as it is says okay let’s try to put in a bus system on our own and you know what

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congratulations to the MA county of Maui Council members and to the mayor went ahead and put in a system without fedal assistance and this has been highly successful system it’s not a great thing the buses are really a very good thing well I would like to think that um the larger vision of Transportation corridors we can think of and maybe we don’t have federal dollars maybe that’ll be a pet project of the people of our Island here to see what they want to do well the the bus was the

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the bus was the clearest example of that because the people of Maui said we need this we need this we need this and so the council and the County Administration said fine we’re going to go ahead this do this without the federal dollars and I’m sure that the Federal Transportation authorities are looking at this in amazement because very few municipalities have been able to put in a transportation system without their help so is it because they uh pick good routes and doing things in an economic way it’s a combination of

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everything everything the high price of fuel has forced a lot of people to rethink how and when they go so you know now with um price of gas over $4 a gallon here on Maui and sometimes $5 a gallon on laai and mokai and Hana um people really consider their Journeys and they consider okay I’m going to I’m in High cool I’m going to Kahului but I can do five things along the way instead of going back and forth then with the bus you know uh the the the idea of riding a bus for some people

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is like oh you know I don’t want to ride the bus I know people that have gone on that bus and they come back and said my God this is the best thing we’ve done they get on the bus you know like for us sometimes we have to go to laai and mokai and um we’ve talked about we should take the bus to La cuz you know you can’t find parking and then who rugs the bus system Robert haai right uh yeah well these are the guys that do the tour buses so hey for those of you you to check the schedule you know we could

42:26

still th the roads that’s okay and the buses are full if you look at them it’s a great thing and it’s all full of U you know local people riding the bus to and from work a lot of people from this side that work in Lina you know take the bus every day so it’s helped in a lot of ways it’s a great thing in the future you know I think that the I mean the rail debate is on Wahu you know this whole thing about should they do Rail and should they not do Rail and there’s some people on Maui that have said you

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know we should be looking at rail I agree I think we should be looking at it but also know that um you know it’s it’s a very expensive proposition it’s one that takes um a huge amount of effort to put in and with our population base where we are now um it may not be the best solution for us now but I agree that we should be looking at it for the future that’s why I was talking about the corridors because there are certain key spots here that if we don’t secure them they’ll be so out of range that

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we’ll never be able to so I hope we’ll have a chance to review that but that is the local thing right so those are the council people right so you’ve gone through the processes in local Council you’re going through things at a state level um do you have a I mean you talk about politics I’m sure it’s a new career what’s your feeling I mean are you I know we always say I’m in this seat I’ll be here forever and then you change you know like when Hillary Clinton says I’m in the Senate don’t

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take me to be on a cabinet you know we don’t want to thin out the the uh rankings of the did you um have directions and interest you know you know Jason I can tell you this that I’ve always kept it in perspective you know being a senator is this much of a very large and rich and full life for so you know I’m I’m very appreciative of being a senator I’m very honored and humbled by being it by being your Senator I also know that that it’s you know it’s not my entire life oh

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that’s and um you know so for me um I’m you know I’m a a conduit for a lot of people to help them realize their visions and realize their goals and objectives and for me personally um I always have to keep it in perspective that I’m just like you just like you just like anybody else out there um and you know in time uh I may not be a senator and um that would be okay as well you know that it’s it’s a part of my life um but I don’t make it my entire being what do you do when you’re not

45:02

well I plant a lot of things you know okay I mean I I have a lot of gardens going and I I I have my flowers going I have my my food going and um you know I I’m I enjoy watching things grow and I enjoy seeing plants grow and watching as as something that was uh Barren becomes fruitful and abundant it’s it’s it’s a wonderful feeling so I really enjoy growing things and during the campaign you know when we go house to house um I’m like any other PL collector so you know I’m along the way and I always keep

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my little shears in the car or somewhere close by cuz I’m seeing something that I like somebody you wonder who took that no yeah no you know with plants this is what my grandmother taught me she says you know with plants they’re they’re living beings and you always got to get permission so I never go and snip somebody’s plants without their permission because the you carry your SHO with you well yeah because you talk to the owners and you know then you’re talking about it and any of you that

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want to come up with some exciting plans for Pani they can get in touch right that’s right but you know we talked star and they said okay well you know take a cutting and I’ve taken other cuting of plants back to people well here where we’re sitting is such a beautiful place isn’t it yeah so we we’re we’re fortunate you know we’re fortunate and we have such abundance so in my spare time I plan um I’m also very involved in the Pacific in the Pacific Islands and I spent a lot of time uh in the region um

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I have family in Tahiti and I spend a lot of time in Tahiti uh because uh you know it’s a whole another branch of my family um and it keeps it in perspective because those islands are still very Polynesian they’re very um there’s still a strong magic there and I come back from TI with a lot of good ideas for example you know they have been dealing with the energy crisis for many years down in in those islands they have five archipelagos we’re one archipel and their government kept on

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trying to get the people in pet and the capital to use solar and it didn’t quite catch on so they went to the most remote parts of the country the most remote Islands which had no power put in the the small solar systems to help um Power the village and you know the ask the villages what why do you want power in this it so our kids can study so our kids can have a light bulb at night so they can read and they could have communications it started in the outer islands and it took off and it started coming in and then before you

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know it the city people were saying wait a minute how come they got it and we don’t see so the I came home with this concept when you know we have to start on the on the most remote areas first with some of the most um modern Technologies the idea is leak frogging the te so I go out to the region in my spare time um look for ideas exchange ideas and bring those home and put them into practice here well I’m a a proponent for financial literacy MH so uh entrepreneurism and financial literacy

48:15

and getting people up to speed with education both in school formal and out of school how are we doing on uh monies what do you think is going to happen here as the budgets kind of shift how are we going to allocate money what you think going on our budgeting process our constitution first of all says that we cannot have deficit spending It’s a Wonderful we’re one of the few states that says we have to have a balance budget and think about this you know we cannot we cannot spend money unless we

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actually have it so that keeps Hawai out of out of huge amounts to get we have to also balance a budget for 6 years out so it’s not simply saying that okay we’re going to make the B the budget balance for this year we have to make sure it balance is 6 years old and that means right that’s because we have to ensure that we have a sound stable Financial base for the government to operate with that strong base it means that the rest of society is has a cushion you know when we talk about the

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full faith and credit of the state of Hawaii it means that when we guarantee it it is guaranteed and that’s very very very significant and so that’s why we we don’t have any deficit going on but we also don’t have any money which means all of you the Deep Pockets in the private sector now is your time to uh really be entrepreneurs and lead us into I keep thinking the self- sustainability Revolution more barter in trade bring private sector to supplement what we we don’t have enough money education and

49:53

otherwise well you know let me let me maybe say it in these terms yeah that we we need to make sure that Capital moves in the society that the money is circulating and what’s happened is money’s dried up so how do you do that well the entrepreneurial idea is is the the way to go I mean you need people to figure out how to um keep things going how to make sure that people are buying and selling things I mean you’re seeing prices adjust all over the place um rents are dropping you know that rents

50:26

are dropping in in you guys that are uh landlords you’re very slow because you’re if you will look at the value of your property and see where it’s going you’ll see you can lead this Revolution and drop rents even quicker just giving you a hint okay next there are people here who are struggling even through the dropping rents because they’re dropping jobs because and and and that’s and that’s the other role that government has to play a very serious role in that you know when an economic downturn

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happens like we’re in right now or the the Meltdown whatever you whatever term you want to use um macroeconomic Theory Keynesian macroeconomic Theory says that government should spend a lot of money in capital Improvement projects okay to first of all put money into circulation but secondly it creates jobs and it provides that stabilization in the freef fall people are losing jobs losing homes losing um property and by us doing these big projects we keep people working we help we stop the the

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rapid down downfall and stabilize and then it starts to slowly bring it out so that’s why I’m advocating for you know let’s do this the capital Improvement projects that we have in the oute let’s move them up so you be able to pay those rents stabilize the rents keep keep the money and and the state of Hawaii um you know we’re we’re one of the largest employers in the state we are and we’re also one of the largest Spenders in the state so when for instance you know we

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just opened the halaka highway four lanes on halaka Highway 30 38 million something like that to put that in um that kept a lot of people working you know those work construction workers those blue collar workers came up to me at the blessing and the opening and said what’s the next job we got to feed our families I said we’re working on it it’s coming so we have to look at the things that we need infrastructure renewal I mean talking about the bridges coming out from Hana so is this bailout going to be part of

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that you think is that what we’re talking well the bailout is a I I don’t quite understand exactly what they did so the the 750 bailout for the banking I’m not thinking that I’m thinking about the new vision of our new president to infuse dollars exactly means put out dollars to Hawaii who doesn’t have them to create Capital Improvement projects and well what what President Obama is looking at is um the again the same macroeconomic theory on on a very large level and actually where this where

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where this really works is on the federal level because they can move quite literally billions and billions take a look at what FDR Franklin Roosevelt did after the Depression he created make work programs he and in the process put in the in the modern infrastructure that allowed could enter to the greatest um period of prosperity the country has ever seen see so there is a rose in there and that’s looks like a little butt that’s what we’re looking at now it’s okay you know yes we’re in the downturn yes things are

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stopping but maybe now’s the time to put in the infrastructure that we need and learn what we’re doing so we don’t repeat the process and and educate everyone across the board so that we can all have abundance cuz there’s plenty so you know I think that’s the the RO role that um our government can play in this economic downturn and crisis and um by doing that we will help people to maintain their homes keep their jobs feed their families and pay their rents how do that sound to you guys are

54:12

there any subjects that you know you would like to um cover or address with an audience CU I don’t know how often you have opportunity to sit with a I don’t think of myself as the Press commentator sit well sit with someone and be able to share with all of you guys well you know for for me um I read a lot and I go through you know four or five books in a week and um I I I read a lot and I’m always looking for new Concepts and new ideas and I’m always looking for old Concepts and old ideas

54:48

because you know sometimes we tend to be so forward-looking that we forget about what’s right behind us you know and so I read a lot of history I read a lot of um um about ancient societies and how they lived and What happens and um I think you know I’ve read a couple of times maybe three times this book called collapse um which takes four Societies in the world and looks at how they Rose and then why they collapsed you know the Romans the people in rafan Easter Island um uh Society in in um Greenland and you

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know other areas what was the commonality you know it’s stunning because the commonality was the processing of sewage the the waste that was a trigger for most of these societies to to collapse was they could no longer deal with their waste so for me you know I’m always monitoring how we deal with our waste it’s it’s one of those metric that that I use to to see how we’re doing someone we’re sharing with me about how I’m they’re shocked when they come here how little

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how little we do here when we’re on an island for managing of all these waist streams when on the mainland and in Europe and other places of the world nothing goes unrecycled you know different colored glass I mean Exotica and the reason it’s a natural part of life go ahead the reason though is that you set it up front run an Island so you know in in the big continent they have all these interconnected systems where you could separate the glass and then it goes down over there to those guys that process it here we’re

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dealing with the shipping and there’s a cost involved with that so we have to everything comes in and it stays in a continent it comes in but it it it gets distributed a little bit differently so really you know um we have to be more conscious of how we do things and we have some really innovative sinkers that have I mean you know said let’s let’s Crush glass and mix it as part of our Asphalt in the pavement so that took let’s use it for filtration of water it’s let’s use it for all of these

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different things because we cannot ship it back out somewhere else there’s a zero emissions Research Institute I don’t know if you um there’s self- sustained community in South America called Gaviotas and I met this guy named Paulo lugari and G poly from the zero emissions Research Institute they have experts that go around to communities and governments and talk about and look to discover what their waste streams are and had how to have them be the fuel for other Industries so that there is no waste

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that concept globally is I mean you know we’re talking about what are some of the terms that for a second use you know and um and third use and third use well and there’s companies um here would for example is a wonderful company in this regard because they you know they are very conscious when they create a copier or xerox machine or a any type of machine they always look at the contents and they say do we need does it need to be made from this type of plastic can it be made from this which is recyclable

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then they would take back their machine you can send it to them in the mainland and I’ve been to these plants where they crush the machines up they separate all of the metals out and they reuse it all again M it’s a it’s a corporate philosophy that you fact decided to do and you know I mean for me I buy their product because I know they do this um and it cost me a little bit when at the end of the life cycle of whatever product it is to send it to them but it’s worth it for me to send it to them

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because alternative it’s it’s in our rubbish file here I remember when I was in New York which is before I came to Hawaii at all and I remember there’s this little book of companies you know these they distill or have these books now they have more formal names companies that are doing things that are sustainable and are supporting us a sustainable renewable world I hope all of us are getting more and more uh mainstream about that and do I think we are in fact um you know we were at a

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restaurant earlier for breakfast and um the waitress brought over we added some coffee and chai and L and stuff and brought it over in paper cups with the cover and I said you know can don’t you have a ceramic cup oh we do why did you you’re going to throw this away I mean I don’t we didn’t need to do this and then I went to a store and somebody started wrapping something up I bought a shirt and started wrapping it up in tissue paper and I said I don’t need all the wrapping right you know I

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mean it’s just a real small Consciousness change and saying I don’t need that and you know she was like oh I said yeah just save it you know just give me the shirt I don’t need the bag I don’t need this that’s all I want is a shirt and if everybody out there started doing this I mean we just cut our consumption quite a bit right and if you buy from someone that made that shirt here on the island oh these are these are bamboo Bamboo um clo it’s so soft and wonderful see the whole self-

01:00:09

sustainability model has many facets you know it’s uh it’s a great concept I think we’re going to hear more about it especially if we have Representatives like uh Kalani English around you know when I was uh talking to Joe Suki and he was talking about Future Leaders he mentioned you and um he talked you know something about style and how you deliver a message um I’m sure sometimes people don’t agree with you but they like your style and then you know it’s an interesting thing I have a there such

01:00:44

you have a district but I hear everything coming out of the walls you know you say I’m talking to Kalani English everyone has questions all kinds of things good bad them you know it’s always an interesting thing I think that all of you out there should make it a point to get to talk to this guy CU he is not only a wealth of information and uh you’re good you’re a good listener and uh it’s nice to see that you know in the years that I know you you’ve grown at this and that you have

01:01:19

other facets of your life and you know they really support what you do you know you have to represent such a a rural district and have to help preserve it in a such challenging times my my most favorite part of this job is that is when out and talking sorry with people I mean that’s part I love you know I love I’m a people person so I love going out I love hearing their stories I I love seeing their yards you know I love seeing their plants and cuttings forever um trading you know we trade a lot of

01:01:51

stuff um and you know we just have such a wealth of of diversity here this district is so diverse that you know I mean you cannot aim to please everyone but I do make myself available to people so that they can uh you know I’ve had people come up say we don’t understand why you voted this way I said well here’s my reasons here’s what happened and at the end said well we still don’t don’t like the vote but we understand why you vote that way um you know and that’s all I ask is sometimes you know

01:02:22

what we have before us is two bad options and I have as a senator I have no choice I must vote on everything that’s put before me I cannot I choose not to walk away from it I mean some some Representatives use that as a strategy that’s a little magic it’s called we’ve been talking so much we ran out of tape you know let’s let’s pick up the conversation you know it’s a well it’s an important a lesser of two Evil’s Choice yeah you know how it feels to be there and have to make a decision when

01:02:59

no decision is an easy decision right and a lot of times we have to I have to choose the lesser of of two evils um and vote and you know a lot of times I vote no on it because of it um sometimes I have to vote Yes because it’s um you know it’s there’s something in it that’s that I don’t agree with but the vast majority what it does is good so you know I’ve had people say why did you vote on this it has this in it I said yes but it also did all these other things so you know it’s it’s

01:03:31

uh it’s something that the public really doesn’t um understand about our process and that is that as a senator I’m obliged to vote that is I’m obliged to vote on the bills and issues that come before me and um some of them you know if I could walk away from it uh it’s the easiest way out but I choose not to I choose to make the hard decision and um I’ve explained to a lot of people that this is our process you know and uh I vote no on things as well you know like the important egine bill um a lot of

01:04:06

good things in there but I voted no because of one section that was uh pretty offensive to to me and to the the ideal ideals of a rural District so it doesn’t mean doesn’t mean for those people that like the import EGS Bill I said yes I liked all those other parts of it just this one part and it was it was so bad for me that I voted no and what it did was it allowed for um if you put your lands into this important egg lands category then you get 15% of that land can be reclassified into another zoning

01:04:40

category so it’s like well we do all this process to protect lands and then you get this way to reclassify 15% so if you take 100 acres you can move a lot of landage urban a lot of land there’s no way to get around it huh right so once it’s in that bill there it is so that’s why I voted no I think that it was it was enough for me to say no even though I like the other parts of it I see and I worked for for two years to construct a chance to explain that to the public like this um not not often so that’s why

01:05:10

I talk about it here yeah I mean that’s a isn’t that an important thing for you to realize and understand you know this process is uh is one where it takes someone who has a lot of sensitivity and range to be able to deal with things I don’t even know how to call it you know like you say it’s Global now our little local rural self-sufficient uh place you know we’re in a global picture I for one have been really thrilled to see you in in action and I hope that you have great success

01:05:46

of what you’re do and I’m really very appreciative that you took the time to do this kind of show this kind of thing is really important I wish more would do others would come out you know and do this I don’t want to feel in any way be like a a spokesman I think I’m sort of known now if I ever ran in a race I put in my advertising dollars over 15 years you know it’s a very interesting thing and people have asked me about running I think I’m probably better off here I would agree with you Jason because you

01:06:18

know I think I think first of all um we have to the home call it K you know you have to find what’s your what you’re good at and what your kuliana is and what your role is because I want believe that everybody has a role has a value and has something to add and so it’s a matter of finding that and bles are very good at recognizing what somebody’s Pana is and letting them do it you know you know when I was really when I was growing up in Hana you know people like John L and T L Mike Min uh people that

01:06:52

were close to my my Tut my grandmother my grandfather you know I mean they would they would call me Governor they would call me senator they would you know and here I am five or six years old I had no idea what this was um and know even today when I go home you know they joke with me says you know we knew when you were a kid so you know um I I would say well God I never thought I would be doing this it wasn’t something I consciously uh went after you know it was something that when I came home I decided to do

01:07:23

but wi have a way of recognizing in fulana and I think our greater Society if we can learn from that that wisdom of the Hawaiian um to to help everybody find their their role and then help them excel at it um I think we would have a much more harmonious Society I know people that are really unhappy in what they’re doing and yet they have something that they do they call their hobby or their sideline they’re they’re just the best at it I like why why don’t you do that as your you know make that your ation um

01:07:58

so if we do that I think we’ll find maybe a lot more contentment a lot more fulfillment a lot more happiness and really that’s what it comes down to for me the bottom line of everything is are we content are we happy um my job as a senator is to create hope bottom line create hope for people and create the venue for them to Blossom and to be the best that they can be to find their fre and as a senator I’ve been able to deliver on that in many levels and I’ve I’ve helped scores of people

01:08:35

um find find their path and I’ve had a lot of people along my way in my life that have been those guiding courses for me so [Music] we you know it’s the whole idea of um giving back and um creating that opportunity for the next person and help helping the Next Generation find their way and creating hope for them giving back paying forward all that good stuff pleasure thank joining me here Jason thank you very much really a pleasure thank you for staying with us here the hour that’s good uh over the we went over the

01:09:13

hour that’s good you see that’s what’s so fun about this you know Public Access television didn’t do that on regular TV we chop chop chop so um it really is a pleasure to have this kind of Forum I hope more of you will choose to lead this kind of a thing give some of the people that we’re we have in our world more chance to be seen and sharing so we can get more going on because we appreciate each other a little bit more yeah you know I have a lot of stuff online now so go to my website at kalani

01:09:46

english.com um and I have a whole lot of information there um we also have a YouTube channel Kalani English Channel and you can go there and you go see interviews like this and other um other things that we we’re going to give Kalani the link so we can have this I us been using Google video because I can do longer does YouTube have a longer time I think YouTube goes up to to 15 minutes or 10 minutes 15 minutes I’ve been using Google so we can see this whole show you can watch it again if you want you say

01:10:15

so again Kalani english.com Kalani english.com okay good thank you thank you for joining us Aloha hope you come see us again aloha