Change of focus...

Well, a couple of days away turned into almost a week without posting here. I've just been so busy I haven't had time to post anything, much less catch up with all the Akaka bill post mortems and other stuff happening.

I've been thinking about this for a while, but this break has been a good opportunity to reflect, and I want to let you all know that I'm going to (try to) change my blogging patterns.

I just have so many projects that I'm working on that I don't have time to keep up with the blog as I have in the past. I plan to continue posting, but with less frequency. I want to focus on those things that are especially relevant and important, or things that I feel especially moved to add my commentary on, plus other projects that I'm working on, but I'm going to stop trying to keep up with being a clearinghouse for all the articles and items related to Hawaiian issues. It's just too much.

I will have more to say about the Akaka bill when I have a chance, but one reflection is that it has largely been a big distraction. Both the bill itself and the conservative opposition to it have had the unintended consequence of providing exposure for Hawaiian independence, and that is good, but otherwise it has been a distraction of OHA's money, a distraction of time and resources for all those working both for and against it. For me, while all the reaction to the bill's failure was in the news, I was at a grassroots gathering of Hawaiians talking about traditional community-based fisheries management, and the bill was barely mentioned, and then only with a sense of mild relief.

So anyway, like I said, I will continue posting, but I am going to shift my priority to spend my time working on practical projects to perpetuate the culture and protect the resources, like getting more lo'i opened, getting our certified kitchen going and putting poi on the tables of our kupuna, developing a community marine resources management plan, getting a community boat refurbished and operational, putting up some fencing to protect endangered and culturally important plant species in the wao akua, etc, etc. Actually, if I shared all the different projects I'm working on, I think you guys would probably wonder how I ever had time to blog in the first place. But I will also try to blog more about these projects, to share what we're doing here in East Maui that can hopefully be inspiring.

So that's all for now. I can't tell exactly how I'll feel in the future, but at the moment that is my intended direction here.

Of course, feel free to carry on with your discussions in the comments! Just try to be kind to each other.

And mahalo nui to everyone who reads and posts here and makes it worth my while to do.

Posted: Wed - June 14, 2006 at 09:32 AM

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Change of focus...

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