Please LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE & SUBSCRIBE… It Really Helps My Our Channel.
TNZ- Maui Neutral Zone – 4-22-24 Jason Schwartz – Earth Day Rant – Are We Involved in Solutions?
Summary & Transcript
Jason reflects : Earth Day Reflections and Environmental Challenges on Maui
(Timestamped and structured according to the original transcript flow)
- [00:00 → 01:06] Introduction to Earth Day
The speaker opens by reflecting on the significance of April 22nd, now known worldwide as Earth Day. Initially just a date on the calendar, Earth Day evolved into a dedicated time to honor and care for the planet. The speaker emphasizes that Earth Day is not just symbolic piling up of dirt but a call to awareness about environmental degradation—particularly air and water pollution, overpopulation, and the reckless use of petrochemicals and toxins in food production. The goal of Earth Day was to awaken people to the necessity of protecting the Earth before it becomes too late. - [01:06 → 03:20] Historical Perspective and Environmental Concerns
Recalling past Earth Day events from 30 years ago in West Maui, the speaker reminisces about community gatherings featuring local musicians. Despite these past efforts, the speaker laments that society largely seems to have forgotten the urgency of environmental stewardship. There is concern about plastic pollution, specifically the irony of making clothing from recycled plastic bottles while oceans continue to fill with plastic waste. The speaker mentions a series of shows they have done about the Olalo temporary disposal site, a toxic waste dump, highlighting ongoing issues with dioxin contamination. - [03:20 → 05:31] Toxic Waste and Community Impact
Recent news suggests that a fire at the Olalo site reached temperatures sufficient to supposedly destroy toxins, yet the lingering smell and ash on Maui’s west side indicate ongoing environmental and health concerns. The speaker expresses sadness about the handling of this crisis, recognizing the challenges faced by displaced renters and landowners. Additionally, the speaker references a news article naming Makaha on Oahu as Hawaii’s worst city to live due to poverty and housing issues, drawing wider attention to systemic housing affordability and poverty challenges both locally and nationally. - [05:31 → 07:08] Hope for the Future and Generational Change
The speaker reflects on their 73 years of life and the hope that younger generations, burdened with environmental waste and challenges, will become conservationists. They express optimism that technology and innovation might outpace environmental destruction, enabling solutions for sustainability. A personal aspiration is shared about living to 100, underscoring the long-term nature of environmental recovery and stewardship. - [07:08 → 10:08] Political Commentary and Economic Realities
The discussion shifts to current political dynamics, expressing frustration with entrenched politicians and polarized politics. The speaker recalls historical political figures and contrasts past liberal and conservative ideologies with today’s complex landscape. Economic challenges are highlighted, especially the decline of local retail businesses in favor of Amazon and other large corporations, which impacts community sustainability and job availability. - [10:08 → 13:07] Housing Crisis and Economic Disparities
An analysis of minimum wage, rent prices, and housing affordability on Maui reveals a dire situation: wages cannot keep pace with skyrocketing rents, especially post-pandemic rent moratoriums. The speaker notes the scarcity of affordable housing and the role of tourism and service economies in creating economic disparities. They draw attention to the broader consequences of globalization, outsourcing labor, and the decline of domestic manufacturing on local communities. - [13:07 → 15:57] Revitalization Efforts and Historical Neglect
The speaker shares anecdotes about friends investing in revitalizing economically depressed areas in Ohio and Wyoming through arts and culture. They lament the loss of significant local industries such as pottery manufacturing due to globalization and trade policies, which favored cheaper labor abroad. This shift has had a profound impact on American communities, jobs, and economic health. The speaker wrestles with their own political identity, emphasizing a desire for equal opportunity rather than strict ideological labels. - [15:57 → 19:40] Social Issues, Legalization of Marijuana, and Environmental Neglect
The speaker notes recent political events, including Robert Kennedy’s push for marijuana legalization and the uncertainty around Donald Trump’s political future. They reflect on historic precedents of political leadership and the ongoing influence of money in politics. Returning to environmental topics, the speaker expresses skepticism about the claims that toxic waste at Olalo was fully neutralized, pointing to persistent odors and contamination concerns. The speaker questions why environmental truths are obscured or ignored amid overwhelming media noise. - [19:40 → 24:12] Maui’s Environmental and Economic Transformation
The speaker recounts arriving in Maui in 1988 and hearing long-standing complaints about environmental degradation. They critique past political decisions, such as the introduction and eventual departure of Kmart, and express ambivalence toward figures like Jeff Bezos and Amazon. The speaker notes that despite some agricultural improvements on Maui, such as the development of Mahi Pono farms, issues persist with the use of pesticides and GMO products driven by profit motives tied to foreign pension funds. - [24:12 → 27:17] Personal Experiences and Challenges in Community Organizing
Reflecting on their own experiences, the speaker shares stories of eviction and political interference when trying to promote cultural events. They discuss the difficulties of sustaining volunteer-driven organizations without adequate funding, emphasizing that even passionate volunteers often need to be paid to maintain momentum. The speaker critiques the disconnect between ideas and financial realities in creating sustainable community solutions. - [27:17 → 31:51] Economic Systems, Poverty, and Wealth Inequality
The speaker critiques the current economic system, highlighting the creation of money without gold backing and the growing wealth inequality. They discuss the challenge of supporting seniors and immigrants on limited social safety nets and reflect on poverty statistics across the US. The phenomenon of wealthy outsiders buying cheap homes in poor areas is seen as a double-edged sword that may not benefit local communities. - [31:51 → 37:38] National and Global Issues: Immigration, War, and Environmental Ethics
The speaker touches on immigration, government spending abroad, and the absence of wars fought on US soil since the Civil War. They reflect on the complexities of global conflicts, including Israeli-Palestinian tensions, and the pervasive anger and selfishness fueling violence worldwide. A recent Maui Coral Arts performance is described as hopeful but also indicative of the ongoing struggle to envision a better world. - [37:38 → 40:14] Environmental Responsibility and Global Comparisons
Germany’s environmental efforts are praised as a model, though the speaker notes that surrounding countries are slower to adopt responsible policies. The United States is criticized for its inconsistent environmental leadership and for “burying the problem” rather than addressing it directly—exemplified by the decision to locate toxic waste on Olalo without consulting native Hawaiian communities or considering long-term consequences. - [40:14 → 42:28] Earth Day Event Announcement
The speaker promotes an Earth Day event at Maui College from 3 to 6 PM, featuring speeches, musical performances, and environmental advocates. The event aims to raise awareness and inspire action on sustainability issues. Sponsors and community partners are acknowledged, and the speaker encourages audience participation. - [42:28 → 45:43] Media, Community Coordination, and Local Leadership
The speaker discusses media changes from print to digital and the fragmentation of environmental groups due to funding challenges and lack of coordination. They mention ongoing efforts by local government and community leaders, including a Hawaiian mayor, to promote sustainability. The role of arts and music in economic development and environmental awareness is highlighted as a potential source of new funding and community engagement. - [45:43 → 50:39] Economic Potential of Arts and Music and Toxic Waste Challenges
The speaker highlights the enormous revenue generated by major concert tours as an example of untapped economic potential that could be channeled into environmental solutions. Personal anecdotes about housing equity and financial challenges illustrate the complex relationship between wealth and social responsibility. The toxic waste crisis remains a focal concern, with skepticism about official assurances and frustration over the lack of a permanent, safe disposal site. - [50:39 → 54:34] Reflection on Maui Life and Environmental Stagnation
Having lived in Maui for 36 years, the speaker reflects on the unfulfilled promise of environmental progress. Despite decades of effort, the island and broader society seem to be “spinning in place,” trapped by systemic problems that exacerbate division and extremism. The speaker expresses a desire to shift focus toward proposing tangible solutions and engaging new voices in future conversations. - [54:34 → 55:07] Closing Remarks and Call to Action
The show concludes with a call to embrace Earth Day sincerely—not just as a symbolic gesture but as a catalyst for ongoing environmental stewardship. The speaker invites listeners to explore the Maui Neutral Zone website for more content and encourages everyone to contribute to making the planet and community better for current and future generations.
Key Themes and Insights:
- Earth Day is a symbol and a call for urgent environmental action, not mere ritual.
- Maui’s environmental challenges, especially toxic waste and housing affordability, reflect broader global issues.
- Political and economic systems often hinder rather than help environmental sustainability.
- Generational shifts and technology offer hope but require collective will and resources.
- Arts, culture, and community leadership can be powerful drivers of economic and environmental regeneration.
- Transparency, coordination, and genuine commitment are needed to move beyond “spinning in place” toward real solutions.
Timestamped Full Transcript
00:00
[Music] wow now I can tell you today is April 22nd used to be that April 22nd was just April 22nd 422 and then 422 uh 22nd day of April became Earth Day and later I’m going to tell you about um an event happening 3 to six at the college for Earth Day it’s nice to know I I thought what does Earth Day mean do we pile dirt up higher and higher and we honor the Earth no no no we we decided we were going to create a day to honor the Earth and start to really get it that we have to take care of our Earth before we run off the cliff
01:06
and have no healthy air and no healthy water and we have too many people well that’s sort of Earth um we would start uh start we would stop using all kinds of petrochemicals and toxins on the creation of food supply and we would be more conscious is in a totally um I want to say woke way well we’re now awake and it’s my God a lot of years later 30 years ago I was the sponsor of Earth day and we had an event in West Maui at the U Back of the Lina Civic Center I was reminded the other day I
01:53
was looking through pictures and so saw a picture of Willie K playing with Jerry buyers and Hector Serrano way back way back and um I thought how far we’ve come many of the people have come and gone but we still pile Earth on Earth Day and say hey young people rally around get all your groups talking about the Earth meanwhile I don’t know if I was going to say uh out loud but I guess I’m saying it um I think most of the Earth has forgotten how important it is to take care of this place and
02:37
um daily I see stories people with oh we’re going to make clothing out of the plastic bottles we found processes now and we’re going to do well at this rate that we’re dumping into the ocean all the plastic bottles and all the waste that we have will all be clothed smed in plastic maybe the fish will find Value in eating the plastic and all these micro I don’t even know what to say anymore things are out of control I was looking at my website and I saw that I’ve done nine9 shows about the
03:20
olalo temporary disposal site the toxic waste dump dioxin you know I hear now the biggest and most important news is that they’ve letting the public know that the fire could have been hot enough getting to 2500 degrees that it would destroy those toxins and and now everything is safe well I I’m afraid that the smell of fire and burning and Ash is uh still very prevalent on the west side and I mean if I was a tourist I would just race to Lina so I could see what it looks like before they rebuild
04:09
it well I you know whatever is going on there I’m very sad to say I don’t feel that we’re handling it right and I know there’s lots of people on it that are doing their very best and I commend them and they all want to get people back on their land and they want to get some kind of Creation in in L we know so many people were renters as well I mean I don’t know where those people are going to go or what they’re going to do or how they’re going to survive I I looked at an article this
04:43
morning on the the web you know news the 27 no it wasn’t 27 it was the worst city to live in in every state why would they put that kind of stuff up there anyway but here we go the worst city they say in Hawaii is Makaha over on aahu way out there on the west side and they say that um if you don’t own now and you’re a renter your chances of renting of buying in that place are very low well forever they talk about places you can go in Arkansas and Alabama it’s almost like they’re saying
05:31
hey maybe you can go there and make it better or become part of a Rejuvenation of our country the levels poverty levels in different cities around the country St Louis I mean big names Baltimore um I could go on but enough of that cuz the fact is I’m getting a little tired and um I remember when I was trying to evaluate what is important is it important that I put this message out so Earth Day April 22nd memorializes at least 30 years that I’ve been conscious of Earth day and I’m glad
06:26
there are people celebrating it and still Fanning the Flames for Environmental Solutions and I hope that we start to get the point I think the biggest thing is going to happen is the old people will die and these young people that are suddenly up to their ears in the trash will start to be conservationists and I hope that somewhere in there technology and use of technology to be able to eliminate some of these problems through how much we’ve progressed will uh work at a greater rate than the destruction of our planet
07:08
and that’ll be a good thing I’m sure that I’ll be buried I was going to say long before that I just turned 73 so I’m going to think that I’m going to live unless unforeseen who knows what happens I’m going for a 100 at least I think that 100 is a nice round and full age both of my my parents were born in uh 2024 excuse me 1924 so this is 100 years they’d be and my father died well just as I turned 21 1974 22 I don’t remember uh 1974 wow I see it gets vague after a
07:55
while a lot of years have passed and I was a a young upstart when I pictures of myself I think I look like all these people that I see now the hippie movement the woke people what what woke I’m I’m so tired of the political scene someone just put in the paper today do you know that if Ted Cruz in Texas wins this election he’ll be in the Senate until at least 2030 another six years that’s very sad sorry Ted I’m not a big fan and um when I look around the political scene and I see margerie Taylor
08:37
green I used to remember when the name Cheney to uh people that were liberal meant Dick Cheney and he was uh considered a real problem you know uh halberton and and um all the military and and industrial complex and the spending on the outside and the directing toward Warfare and and all those things and well he was but now Liz Cheney who stood up against Donald Trump is sort of like a a hero to people that don’t like Donald Trump but think there’s something still left in the Republican
09:21
party I I when I was a kid I didn’t really look too much but I think my father um put down that he was a republican although he was pretty liberal when I think back maybe not to me but he was had very liberal policies he managed a um retail store WT Grant company sort of like I’d say Kmart but it was kesy at the time smaller local um multi-product stores sort of like every small local product stores that have now gotten together and become when they don’t know it but Amazon Amazon gets an extraordinary
10:08
amount of the business that used to be in little retail shops and little um multi-product stores and all that kind of thing you all these retailers have to kind of rebuild and come up with something new and unique oh I would say affordable but affordable is sort of a a moving Target um moving Target you know when we say below the poverty line oh when they talk about that you say well what is the poverty line $10,000 a year below that is it 15,000 20,000 and it’s like when you look at jobs well let’s see minimum wage if it’s
10:56
$10 or $11 or 15 it’s going to go up to not there yet but going up to $15 15 time 40 let’s see that’s somewhere like $600 a week let’s say after taxes that’s 400 500 2,000 a month how much is rent 2,000 wait wait what what 1500 here on Maui I don’t know I haven’t been out there in the in the uh rental Market but the numbers sound huge and the inventory is scarce and um many people who even were paying those High rates have been bumped after the moratorium created by the
11:47
governor so that people couldn’t raise their rents to bump their tenants out and just take these high amounts that FEMA is offering to landlords and own owners for their property for uh to have people living in their places but the rents if they weren’t high enough before are even higher now when I see the numbers and I I said to some wow it’s sort of like kind of like LA or San Francisco or New York but rents are going high everywhere but they are super high here especially for the
12:27
rates that most of the I want to say slave economy let’s say we serve the tourist economy and we have lots of service businesses around here and maybe that’s the way the world in America has become after we opened all the borders and changed our trade policies all those years ago and the import of products just came in here and manufacturers here keep going away I have a friend that he’s an artist you’ve met him years years ago here named Elan vital and Elan is opening up a place in
13:07
new new something I see I forgot already in Ohio Ohio near West Virginia very poor area in fact um he bought a church he bought a whole church my brother bought a church in Wyoming so that I can’t say my brother lives in it Ben a is turning it into an art gallery and hoping to attract and restimulate that area in art and if anyone’s going to do it it’s him he’s a guy that knows how to add color to a black and white World he’s a colorful guy I hope that all that happens in that town There’s a post
13:50
that’s covered with all kinds of garbage and near the side of the road and when they were first beginning to measure and create private ownership of properties Thomas Jefferson chose an architect and uh designer I don’t know what they were called then and that was the first spot and that’s the spot that they go out from to measure and Mark distances and everything for the beginning of private ownership of property so I thought isn’t that interesting well that’s all covered up and they were the
14:35
largest and most significant Pottery location that we making Pottery in our country there were dozens of pottery manufacturers and that whole thing obviously went to other countries as soon as we opened our borders and said let’s see what happens if we take our simple system here that’s somehow making it work you know we make things and then we mark them up a little and then we wholesaler marks them and then they sell them now we added in whole other level called hey we can go to another country and get labor and
15:15
materials so inexpensively that we can make more profit and still charge these high prices we can also eliminate all those jobs wow let’s do that and we’ve seen what that done to America and when I hear myself talk I say are you you sound conservative conservative I don’t know I’m just living and talking my talk uh conservative to me means that you take care of yourself but others good luck they have to be you know making their stride in the world and we all had equal opportunity we have well that’s been
15:57
challenged as we all know not only by different races and and not only by different genders um but it what a challenge if you think there’s equal opportunity in America you have to take off your glasses and I’d say stop smoking but many of you are smoking to cope with what’s going on and I think that uh I watch as America is going through these interesting transitions on on 420 which was Saturday you know that 420 2024 is a paland Drome that means backward and forwards the same so that was 420 on 420
16:42
Robert Kennedy came out talking about legalizing marijuana and um it’s interesting to see how it’s all received I also think he’s going to be interesting in this election um I still wonder whether Donald Trump is going to be on the ballot I don’t know how that works but I don’t know we are in for a road that is Uncharted is it possible to have another president who had someone in the middle of their two terms and when they came back I never looked closely at what happened way back when in the uh mid
17:27
1800s but I do know that uh William Howard Taft and Grover Cleveland and all these guys Tyler Harrison one of those guys died in the first six months but we seem to have the same things going on then and we have a public that you know on paper we hear a lot of talk about making changes but somehow money drives the answers look about here how is it possible that on an island Community when the world has already been extremely have many examples of environmental challenges that have gotten buried and boxed and then those
18:20
boxes leak can you imagine that we took uh toxic soil some people think the toxic soil isn’t toxic anymore because the fire was so hot that it completely disintegrated the dioxins and the other biotoxins and the problems well I don’t know about you but if you go and take a deep breath on the west side of Maui if that feels healthy to you then I must say uh then the idea that we want to depopulate this planet so that we can make things work it’s going in that direction it’s like why is it that the common
19:03
people that are just trying to live simply and do some basic right things like take the garbage and box it and move it somewhere else and then process it to be sure that you don’t put it back into the Earth on top of water tables that will affect the reef the sea life the people you know why are we hiding all the truth I don’t know if we even hide it or it’s just h hidden in plain sight cuz there’s so much garbage out there in this media you know why would I want to know the 27 worst this or that’s
19:40
not fair they had 27 Bond girls and where they are now and how and how they are doing in their lives and careers but then they had 50 you I I guess people like lists where are the worst places to live in America what about good places to live well is a beautiful place it’s starting to get tarnished it is definitely more than started I it reminds me of that when I got here in 1988 and I I was living in the and one of the I’d say oldtimers but I don’t know where they are people come and they
20:17
go they said you should have seen Maui before it got destroyed that was 1988 so you can well imagine here we are 35 35 six seven years later and um I can say that you should have seen Maui before it got destroyed I remember when one of our Council women she shall remain nameless but it was years ago and uh she said I’m so glad we’re going to get our first box store Kmart is coming here it’s going to be powerful ful and positive for our Island Kmart is come and gone thank you Jeff Bezos I don’t want to it’s not really a
21:08
blame you are very clever and ahead of your time and you’re getting big dividends that’s great and you even are giving back that’s great I’d like to have a little more transparency I’d like to have a little of your money and see what I could do to do positive things well if you’re listening to this show you’re most welcome I I could give you my bank account number but you don’t need that I’m sure that if you give a big check to First Hawaiian Bank and say it’s for the Maui Arts and Music
21:37
Association Mama they’ll they’ll know what to do with it you know anyway I’m boy I’m talking a lot I’m very glad that I don’t have a guest today I’m sort of resting I had invited Ellie Cochran I made a call because I thought her wanting to Rally people on the West Side to accelerate help in housing for people on the west side was very important and current and then when I didn’t hear back from her I thought well where’s my area of interest and I contacted Brian con Brian con became the
22:19
new film commissioner for Maui congratulations Brian but he’s teaching a class now over at the college because I have lots of ideas that I’d like to share with him and the people of Maui but there no butt about it that’s going to be part of my week going over and hopefully talking to Brian because I need to have access to some of the movers and shakers who are the big influencers in the I want to say political world but really it’s small entertainment world that could be bigger of people
22:57
that already have had success people that don’t know they know the name Maui they’ve been coming here for years and um I have thoughts and ideas how to increase our economic base and create lots of jobs in entertainment in education in tourism in farming and I don’t do anything all I do is move the blocks around sort of like uh chess I’d say MAA but I’m not to play maang I’ve had people that want to teach me and could happen but it’s um really interesting because we keep talking
23:40
about this stuff like I said 30 years ago I was sponsoring Earth Day and I thought wow this is great and I remember when they said you should have seen Maui before you got here and it just keeps growing and doing and you mean Mahi Pono growing all that lot stuff in the middle of the island that’s fantastic it’s great that the Island’s not having it’s not blowing dirt and that we’re not doing sugar can and laying down pesticides but they have their own pesticides going on they’re not doing
24:12
this organically gang and the kind of things that they’re growing is that going to sustain Maui is that what’s going to happen if it does it’s only because Mau is going to pay the price because they have you know a profit motive to be able to keep their pension fund in Canada going remembering that part of their base is um you know I guess just because you’re uh running a company that uh studies and produces um GMO products and toxins and you’re on the board of a pension plan that has invested in
24:55
farms that there’s obviously no conflict of interests here you would of course want to be going for the highest good but that includes you and what you’re doing I imagine and if not how many of us are aware and how many of us would have had a different opinion about what’s going to be going on in the middle of the Maui or do we even have anything to say about it not much um it’s been an interesting life here in Maui I’ve I’ve been evicted vitim of although you only say a victim
25:32
if you think yourself a victim but I’ll never forget when I booked the cultural center New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and when I went to the general manager of the Weston and he told me that there were people in the week before that were Hawking this thing and they were sponsored by the uh through the mayor’s office I’d already paid for the deposit these people who are these people you know but things were going on and then when go to the visitors bureau and have been poisoned at the board
26:07
meeting and have me neutralized by people that had influence over the new head of the Maui visitors bureau who is going to run my organization which could be ours anytime I’m looking for the right General I think the the biggest General is money because the ideas are here here and the people to do all the parts of the program are here but they need to know that there’s money that they’re actually going to get paid and that’s what I think I think the the world the best volunteers
26:41
are paid volunteers the most passionate volunteers recruiting others to do often times it’s difficult to find others to do unless they pay them even the people that are in these organizations they get diluted to what they want to do or can do because because they need to be paid they need to get grants and it’s where’s our free market system or is our private Enterprise helping make all these things happen because of their right and uh money doesn’t drive them that just isn’t
27:17
the reality just isn’t the reality well you know I’m going to take a breath I’m sure you could stand that too we’re at Kaku 88.5 FM the voice of Maui simcast on akaku Maui Community media TV at Channel 55 on cable and of course we’re found Maui neutral zone.com you’ll see all our shows for both this show and our past shows and ones that are coming back again Mama presents is coming back again we’re going to present art and music and project past the borders of Maui so I
27:56
guess it’s going to be helping tourism the way we’ve set it up so that this economic engine called tourism through what we can create employing our people will create money to implement Environmental Solutions before they’re in large scale and economically uh sustainable we want to supplement them so we can Implement them here show that they’re right and then scale up and continue to create jobs and create more self- sustainability for our Island also educate people around the world and open
28:37
their eyes to what’s happening and maybe take Earth Day and turn it into Earth month maybe Earth year maybe Earth lifetime would be nice but maybe just maybe through our leaders the artists the musicians you think it’s the politicians they’re just the ones that tell us what they’ll do with a little bit of money we begrudgingly give them in our taxes which we’re always trying to minimize right give the government less and keep more in your own pocket well what many people don’t have
29:15
too much in their own pocket they’re scraping just to pay those taxes because they don’t have any more pocket and you know we watch it the seniors turn into we knew it years ago but the seniors are gigantically needy and they all need supplement and we make of course they’re living longer so we’re going to supplement the seniors and others how would you like to be an immigrant and go on social security or get some kind of help from this country that would be good you always wonder
29:51
where this money comes from oh it doesn’t matter we’ll just create more of it we have a Federal Reserve what we’re not doing a thing backed by gold no no no no that’s out half a century ago 1972 we went off the gold standard gold mean gold may not be a standard but way more than $2,000 an ounce you remember $35 an ounce for gold some people laugh and say oh that was high now we have to keep equalizing it keep putting more money into gold so you equalize you know but doing so when
30:29
you’re investing you can’t really think of it as $35 because you’ve been paying more all those years but then you compare it to other things like the dollar itself what are we all doing we’re pulling money out of the economy out of the useful working economy and we’re storing it because we’re worried about a rainy day wait um is there going to be a rainy day oh an acid rainy day is that what you know it’s like we have a system that is botched and I think the botching is that
31:04
people’s selfishness and thinking that they’re protecting themselves and those around them their world um shouldn’t be forced forced to put out money to help other people and save uh themselves for that day when they can turn their money that they’ve accumulated and uh invested in and now have because they were clever to uh keep them living at a very high level while we found cities 20% below the 20% below the poverty rate 10% of the people there are below the poverty rate 50% are below the
31:51
poverty rate you should look up that article it would shock you just reading it through and wow you can move to XYZ Arkansas and get a house for $71,000 of course to the people there when you come in with 71,000 cuz you just sold your house for 700,000 you can go in and buy it cash so now you’re going into an area and you’re buying it cash how did that help those local people did it help the local people what are they doing we can’t just keep supporting people as they keep com coming from everywhere and what are we
32:30
going to do it’s a big mess and um people get really involved you’ve seen it gets to be where these issues become the central issues of a national election the immigration over the Border dollars being spent somewhere else in other countries while here in America we suffer well I don’t know what to say we have problems that we need to address somewhere else and never mind the cause of it we have to be present to stop whatever is happening there from coming here I think America’s just been at least in my
33:10
lifetime and maybe going back we haven’t had a war maybe since the Civil War fought on our own ground here and so the idea of war and all this killing and destruction destruction that really can’t be rebuilt those lives have already been decimated you know it’s a tough thing it’s tough being Jewish and when you think about just of all the Prejudice that’s around in the world about Jewish but then when you realize that Israel you say Israel everyone thinks ah you support what Israel is
33:43
doing I surely support that if someone were to attack me I’m going to go and and equalize them but they’re hiding amongst civilians young Palestinians when the they’ve over a generation polluted with their poison and hate it’s a confusing world we don’t want to see anyone killed we don’t want to see places destroyed but we s can’t seem to stop the vicious anger and and selfishness that is prevalent in the world yesterday there was a Maui Coral Arts performance at St Anthony’s uh on I guess it’s a school at
34:28
and the church on Lower Main Street here in wuku and um they are dreaming of a world that’s better uh the first half was blue grass and the choir which was very different and interesting and I I was just it was interesting I I didn’t particularly appreciate it dissonance was part of the plan I think but it was pretty well received then the second half was about it was all written in the program all the words that they sang about a dream of a world that’s better I want to say on the heels of We
35:09
Are the World we’re the ones you know and uh I’ll play you a song of Louise Lambert peace in our hearts we are the ones that are going to make a difference and I’m glad that people are still talking about it but old people who are still talking about it are tired of just talking about it and not seeing it actualized in any meaningful way sure hasn’t for the most part you know those that have created success I take my hat off to you I recognize that uh some of its luck some of it’s just breathing in
35:45
and out and living in a house and watching the world around you go up and now you have equity in your house that’s good but again I I question the way we reinvest there should be more reinvesting by people into the world we’re living now and less need to be saving for a rainy day because there may not be another rainy day if we don’t save the world now you know maybe if we kill off a few billion people maybe there’ll be more in balance and give us a nice reset button but that’s a
36:22
ridiculous thing to even say except wait it’s sure we don’t identif identify it as that maybe but aren’t we doing the kind of things and making the kind of decisions that are creating war and killing thousands millions of people aren’t we creating our own war with our own environment by allowing petrochemicals to do things to our food supply that we’re allowing things to pollute our air we we all learned about this years ago no one can say we didn’t know these problems before I
37:05
remember remember zero population bomb that book by uh Dr erck years ago or well we had lots of things that were telling us what was going to happen and how we needed to manage the number of people that we create remember that one maybe some people still have that one you shouldn’t have more than one child that’s what they say in China because they got too many people but if you’re Muslim and you want to go in and suddenly have a voice in the government you have as many children as you can you
37:38
know all these 12 and 14 kids in the family and what it does how many countries right now have this surge of their own people right generational uh that are changing the politics and the decisions but wait no one’s really addressing the problems in a big way well that’s not true Germany has been doing great things for years and years they can show their track record of responsible handling of environmental things well actually I remember when I I first got here there’s a guy from Germany and he was talking about how the
38:19
the blighted forests there were waking up the German people and they’ve made tremendous strides and they are you know should be proud of all they’ve done and it’s literally a drop in the bucket how many of all the countries around them are starting to starting to they 30 years what do you mean starting to starting to be responsible for environmental things well that’s great what about us us the good old United States why are we becoming a continual laughing stock well we’re laughing stock
38:58
until we give them money then we’re praised but what are we the laughing stock of the world because we don’t realize and see our own Hunchback do we not see that we are not doing what we could do and we have the resources to do and we’re trying we’re making attempts at it but look at that here we are in paradise and those attempts are Guided by A system that desires to bury the ashes and bury the toxins and choose the place that makes the most sense who thought olalo makes the most
39:39
sense no no they didn’t talk to the Hawaiian people they didn’t look at the experience of of um local cultures they also didn’t realize that the world is already known you don’t leave the toxin where you create it you have to clean that area and you have to clean it directly and completely not over months and months and months where it gets into the air and it just keeps going we’ve seen these things happen you know we can’t help deny it we’re living in it instead of changing the air
40:14
quality into a better we change the rules so better air quality is is it’s more acceptable now you know we change the the ceiling of what we have to be doing because we’re just not handling things in a responsible way and I am I’m aware I’m just talking a lot today I’m going to give you and me a moment break and that moment break is I’m going to let you know if you have time today and it is still April 22nd 2024 at the uh Maui College which is over here on K Mano Avenue at waa there’s a great Great Lawn
40:58
in front of the college and from 3: to 6 is going to be a a program of speakers and music it’s really interesting here we go they welcome people at 3:00 at 15minute speech by Rob welman from Maui Nei Electric Vehicle Association and ret treeing Hawaii and then 350 to 405 another 15 minute speech by Josh Cooper used to be teaching at the school I don’t know if he is even now and he’s also chief of Maui County Office of innovation and sustainability well he hasn’t gotten back to me but you know I’m literally I
41:45
invited him to the show I will again Dwayne Sparkman talking about tree covery 410 to 425 and then a performance ukulele by James Kelly and then climate change lobbyists and then Lina strong and then another singer Remy Romo Valdez 5:30 5:45 and then they clean up and end it all and there are sponsors lot that means they bought booths I think probably and helped in many ways and I could read these you could find this article of Course on Maui now.com Maui now is also um affiliated with radio stations we have have here we
42:28
know and they’ve they’ve let people get the news and I think it’s great they usually is where I go to if my Maui News free articles are gone because now you can subscribe to the Maui News online and Maui News is becoming so thin it the world has changed you know it’s like there was something called paper and there was something called a personal signature there were things like um you know we I feel old already but so many of the things that were much more down to earth oh there’s the Earth again
43:10
happy Earth Day Earth down to earth have gone into this cyber world I mean since the the mid 90s I remember when I was so thankful I got Maui dream maui.net that we were going to have all kinds of people being aware of Maui and wow that was great and be aware in a way that we can create a self- sustainability model and then it’s blocked and then it’s groups wanting their own little thing to be promoted why because they need money to run their operations and they’re not working together there’s no
43:48
General coordinated oh and now we got Josh Cooper and the the mayor’s office are coordinating well we’ll see if they get back to me and see and see if the economic people I remember when I went in to talk to the economic people 25 years ago and they patted me on my head and sent me out the door I just think it’s so funny years keep going by and um all of us think that things are getting better but it depends on how you evaluate better the fact that more people are aware of things we have more
44:24
people and that means there definitely are more people aware of these things and that um it’s affecting the quality of our life and so how could you not be aware of these things oh yeah that’s true too and so because they’re affecting the quality of your life what kind of control do you have well you might become part of a movement to wake up people your own age about conservation um by the way um Tran’s daughter Hoku became y Team USA Crown congratulations people like tranette Fado people that are Hawaiian that have
45:06
been talking about things there’s so many great Hawaiians and leaders that have been talking about them and things they’ve been doing for years as Hawaiians and we watch they’re not really seeing much change now we have a mayor who’s Hawaiian I’m glad I’m sure that he many groups feel he’s doing what’s needed and I hope that’s happening I am very aware of many people I know that are working now with our mayor and uh talking toward making changes that make this a better and more sustainable place
45:43
I take my hat off to the mall I would like to think that it’s going to take money from somewhere other than here to start some of these Solutions and that’s why I want to pick on the music industry in the way that I intend to because the money yeah look at that one concert tour by Taylor Swift being a billion dooll concert tour yeah that’s a the highest ever but why do these numbers get so big well when’s the last time you went to a concert and it was $7 to see the Almond Brothers I remember going to the fil Mar
46:22
E and I think it was $14 mckendry spring Elton John and Leon Russell Leon Russell was the lead act Elton John was just coming on and mckendry spring some people know them but they probably remember ma vishu John McLaughlin he was playing in that group well it was a great show $14 or oh we saw this morning Warren Buffett’s house that he bought for 31,000 is now worth 1.3 million he still says renting was probably better he could have invested in stock market and made more well that’s interesting cuz
47:00
what does that mean that means what I said earlier a lot of people are accidentally quote defined as wealthy because they have equity in their house can they take that money out and um accelerate growth in the quality of their life and the things they need to want and do some but then you have to pay it back unless maybe you don’t want to sell things and you do a reverse mortgage that’s renamed for I guess social reasons so that you don’t get that implication that they’re it’s a
47:35
reverse mortgage that means you don’t have to make the payments you’re making the payments as part of the borrowing and they’re investing the money and you don’t have to make payments and someday you’ll turn over the house to someone wait your kids aren’t going to like that too much well oh well see this whole thing needs to be reorganized on a basic way so maybe at some point I’m going to change uh from what I do sitting here and go out and start doing some of these
48:06
things but um there are people in lots of niches here in lots of niches and hopefully the office on economic sustainability will integrate them all maybe fund them all but also they have to employ people so we need to find that money I told you we have a way to find that money art and music but needs a bit of a coaxing so that’s why I hope to uh start talking more out there and try to get some of these thing implemented um I haven’t had a guest host here in a while Scott Bushnell um has been doing things in his personal
48:46
life and I’ve been on a tear talking about Olu wallo and this toxic waste and bringing on guests and bringing on pieces of the people’s Council of mou Maui people’s Council of Maui show that one Saturday has turned into a number of shows that we broke into pieces for your that’s you the audience your ability to look at something that isn’t four or five hours long we broke it down into hour segments and we talked about the things as we went I have tried to send it to council people sent it to the
49:23
mayor’s office and send it to politicians send it to newspapers to let people know I try to put social posts up there to let people know that but then still no change we still don’t have a permanent site to dump all this toxic Ash I’m not ready to give up the toxic label you you might try to convince me that the temperature went so high that all that toxic stuff has been disintegrated but I I would like to say that I I don’t believe you or you aren’t really testing the right things in the
50:03
right spots I don’t believe that that smell and all that you have over there going on wanting to get people back to their own places in the middle of a toxic land is a tough call it’s a tough call and how are these people going to survive well we’ll see how long the supplementary money is available I mean people that weren’t in the burn Zone some of them are feeling really burnt and that they didn’t get their lives supplemented in that big way and they’re struggling to survive some of
50:39
them even after they got bumped out of where they live so they could get the high FEMA money to their landlord I mean you know I I can keep tying all these things that don’t make sense together but they make sense to someone that’s a Band-Aid over this problem problem and a Band-Aid over this problem and we can handle things here while things over there are getting worse you know that one right we push the problem back in here but it comes up over here it’s been an interesting life living on Maui now
51:13
I’ve been here 1988 well that’s so long ago 36 years ago literally half of my life and um it’s really been interesting because I am still convinced that way back when all the the thoughts that we had of making this a better world better world were really in place and we were the baby boomer generation and we were the ones that were going to lead this charge toward turning things around I bet without having to even do the research you see that things didn’t get turned around unless you want to call about turning
51:59
around and turning around and turning around I call that spinning in place that’s no turnaround that’s a spinning in place and even burying yourself deeper in more problems and accelerating more problems and creating things that pit people against each other because the problems are so bad both the left and the right are extreme everything’s extreme because our world has gotten extreme wow I can see that I’ve been yapping so long we got 3 minutes left in the show I bet you’re happy to hear that because
52:36
you won’t have to hear more of this today next week I hope to be in a whole different Arena of conversation I want to start proposing Solutions and I have a few guests in mind to help sculpt maybe through talking to them and sharing with them or maybe them contributing who and what they are and how they might be able to contribute like some of the guests you’ve seen on my show over these years now I’m interested in bringing out good people and things that will make things better I don’t like spending time on
53:11
talking about toxic waste I don’t like spending time on talking about problems with immigration or rents but the things that I was doing talking about Over the Horizon to accelerate important Progressive things to make this a better world make things think make things better for us to be able to co-operate and be self sustainable once you’re self sustainable you’ll find you have excess then you can help more but not if we continue on what we’re doing well we’re going to change the subject next
53:46
week I am going to be um thinking exactly who’s going to be here got a couple of really interesting possibilities and um I may have to do do some environmental things as well over time because I think we still need to pose Solutions but unless we have people tuning in in great numbers and were able to raise money and do things in a bigger and more integrated way which I have in mind uh this show will just be sort of like a uh I want to say oh just sort of a trinket something to remember and hold on to to recall those
54:34
good moments you know again taking things out of circulation well now you’re going to take me out of circulation here in 45 seconds CU this show is going to be ending for the day and we’ve been happy to be here with you we meaning me Maui neutral zone.com you can see this show and other shows we got a zillion shows up there and I think think the subjects are all worthwhile and uh please support your Earth Day take Earth Day into your heart and let’s see if we can start doing things even
55:07
more to make this a better planet and to save our people and to save the world
