maui travel guide
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles (1883.5 km²) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest island in Maui County. Three other islands, Lanai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai, also belong to Maui County. Together, the four islands are known as Maui Nui . In 2000, Maui had a population of 117,644, the third-largest of the Hawaiian islands, behind that of Oahu and Hawaii. Kahului is the largest town on the island with a population of 20,146. Wailuku is the seat of Maui County.
Name
Native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the island's name in the legend of Hawai ʻ iloa, the Polynesian navigator attributed with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. The story relates how he named the island of Maui after his son who in turn was named for the demigod Māui. According to legend, the demigod Māui raised all the Hawaiian Islands from the sea. The Island of Maui is also called the "Valley Isle" for the large fertile isthmus between its two volcanoes.
History
Polynesians, from Tahiti and the Marquesas, were the original peoples to populate Maui. The Tahitians introduced the kapu system, a strict social order that affected all aspects of life and became the core of Hawaiian culture. Modern Hawaiian history began in the mid-1700s. King Kamehameha I took up residence (and later made his capital) in Lāhainā after conquering Maui in 1790, during the bloody Battle of Kepaniwai.
On November 26, 1778, Captain James Cook became the first European explorer to see Maui. Cook never set foot on the island because he was unable to find a suitable landing. The first European to visit Maui was the French admiral Jean François de Galaup de La Pérouse, who landed on the shores of what is now known as La Perouse Bay on May 29, 1786. More Europeans followed: traders, whalers, loggers (e.g., of sandalwood) and missionaries. The missionaries began to arrive from New England in 1823, choosing Lāhainā because it was the capital. They clothed the natives, banned them from dancing hula, and greatly altered the culture. They tried to keep whalers and sailors out of the bawdy houses. The missionaries taught reading and writing, created the 12-letter Hawaiian alphabet, started a printing press in Lāhainā, and began writing the islands' history, which until then existed only as oral accounts. Ironically, the work of the missionaries both altered and preserved the native culture. The religious work altered the culture while the literacy efforts preserved native history and language for posterity. They started the first school in Lāhainā, which still exists today: Lāhaināluna Mission School. The Mission school opened in 1831 and was the first secondary school to open west of the Rocky Mountains.
At the height of the whaling era (1840-1865), Lāhainā was a major whaling center with anchorage in Lāhainā Roads; in one season over 400 ships visited Lāhainā and the greatest number of ships berthed at one time was about 100. A given ship tended to stay months rather than days which explains the drinking and prostitution in the town at that time. Whaling declined steeply at the end of the 19th century as crude oil (petroleum) replaced whale oil.
Kamehameha's descendants reigned in the islands until 1872. They were followed by rulers from another ancient family of chiefs, including Queen Liliuokalani who ruled in 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown. One year later, the Republic of Hawaii was founded. The island was annexed by the United States in 1898 and made a territory in 1900. Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state in 1959.
Maui was centrally involved in the Pacific Theatre of World War II as a staging center, training base, and for rest and relaxation. At the peak in 1943-44, the number of troops stationed on Maui exceeded 100,000. The main base of the 4th Marines was in Haiku. Beaches (e.g., in Kīhei ) were used for practice landings and training in marine demolition and sabotage.
The Vibora Luviminda trades union conducted the last labor strike of an ethnic nature in the Hawaiian Islands against four Maui sugar plantations in 1937, demanding higher wages and dismissal of five foremen. Manuel Fagel and nine other strike leaders were arrested, charged with kidnapping a worker. Fagel spent four months in jail while the strike continued. Eventually, Vibora Luviminda made its point and the workers won a 15% increase in wages after 85 days on strike, but there was no written contract signed.
Modern development
The island has experienced rapid population growth in recent years with Kīhei one of the most rapidly growing towns in the United States (see chart, below). The growth is occurring because many people, having visited Maui, decide to move or retire to the island.
Population growth is producing strains, including growing traffic congestion on many of the major roads. There is concern about the availability of affordable housing and access to water. Property prices have risen to levels such that families on average incomes find it difficult to afford renting or buying a home. Property developers have insufficient regulatory or financial incentive to build less expensive (affordable) homes. The Maui County Council seeks ways of amending this situation.
There have been long-standing concerns about the reliability of Maui's potable water supply; droughts have been declared in most recent years and the Ī ʻ ao aquifer is being drawn from at what some believe are unsustainable rates of above 18 million U.S. gallons (68,000 m³) per day. While the long-term situation remains unclear and reliable supply has not been secured, recent estimates indicate that the total potential supply of potable water on Maui is around 476 million U.S. gallons (1,800,000 m³) per day, many times greater than any foreseeable demand.
Sugar cane cultivation once used over 80% of the island's water supply (The Water Development Plan of Maui, 1992 – Present?). One pound of refined sugar requires a ton of water to produce. The water used for sugar cultivation is taken mostly from the streams of East Maui, routed though a network of tunnels and ditches hand dug by Chinese labor over a century ago. Controversy exists as to whether the sugar companies have a right to monopolize water from ditches dug on leased public land transporting public water. In 2006, the town of Paia successfully petitioned the County against mixing in treated water from wells known to be contaminated with both EDB and DBCP from former pineapple cultivation in the area ( Environment Hawaii , 1996). Agricultural companies have been released from all future liability for these chemicals (County of Maui, 1999).
There is a great deal of discussion about the meaning of —and the way to achieve— smart development. There clearly exists a tension between economic growth and urbanization on the one hand, and the wish to preserve the beauty of Maui and a relaxed way of life on the other.
Sister Cities
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Dublin, Ireland
Economy
In August 2006, Fitch Ratings assigned a "AA" (double-A) rating to US$29.2 million of the County of Maui's General Obligation (GO) Bonds (2006 Series A). It also affirmed the US$217.6 million in outstanding GO bonds. The bonds will sell via negotiation by UBS Investment Bank during the week of August 7. The Rating Outlook is Stable. According to Fitch, the double-A rating "...reflects Maui's solid financial results, healthy economic activity, low debt burden, and conservative management policies." For two years running, revenue growth has exceeded the growth of expenditures, keeping the balances of the county's General Fund in the positive column. Earlier draw-downs of the GF's balance in 2002 and 2003 were used to soften the effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the economy. Fitch views these prudent fiscal actions as "instrumental in maintaining the county's strong credit standing." The county's debt burden, relatively speaking, is very low, which is typical of all the Hawaiian counties, considering the state's broad functions. (Read the entire article about Maui's 2006 Fitch Rating.) (See also "Fitch Ratings")
Unemployment Rate – The 2005 unemployment rate fell to 2.6 percent, lower than the 2.8 percent rate for Hawaii as a whole and 5.1 percent for the nation.
Major Industries - Traditionally, the two major industries on Maui are agriculture and tourism. However, government research groups and high technology companies have discovered that Maui has a business environment favorable for growth in those sectors. Agriculture value-added enterprises are growing rapidly.
Agriculture – Coffee, macadamia nuts, papaya, tropical flowers, sugar
georgia travel guide
The Georgia Guidestones are a huge granite artifact located on a hilltop in Elbert County, Georgia, USA. It is sometimes referred to as the "American Stonehenge", a title which has been applied at times to a number of other structures. A message comprising ten guides is inscribed on the structure in eight modern languages, and a shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient scripts: Babylonian, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
The artifact is almost twenty feet (6m) tall, and made from six granite slabs weighing more than 100 tons in all. One slab stands in the center, with four arranged around it. A capstone lies on top of the five slabs, which are astronomically aligned. An additional stone tablet, which is set in the ground a short distance to the west of the structure, provides some clarifying notes on the history and purpose of the Guidestones.
History
In June 1979, an unknown party under the pseudonym R.C. Christian hired Elberton Granite Finishing Company to build the structure.
The Message of the Georgia Guidestones
A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Ancient Chinese, and Russian. The message in English reads:
- Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature
- Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
- Unite humanity with a living new language.
- Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
- Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
- Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a one world court
- Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
- Balance personal rights with social duties.
- Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
- Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.
A shorter message appears on the four vertical surfaces of the capstone, again in a different language and script on each face. The explanatory tablet near the Guidestones identifies these languages/scripts as Babylonian Cuneiform (north), Classical Greek (east), Sanskrit (south), and Egyptian Hieroglyphs (west), and provides what is presumably an English translation: "Let these be guidestones to an age of reason." This last may be a reference to the book, The Age of Reason , by Thomas Paine and is no doubt a nod to Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus.
The content of the message bears a remarkable resemblance to the so called Earth Charter, a statement of vision of the Earth Charter Initiative of Mikhail Gorbachev (Green Cross International) and Maurice Strong (Earth Summit).
The Message in Russian
The message in Russian is facing North-East. The message is a loose translation of the message in English, sometimes to the point of being completely incorrect or meaningless. The text contains a total 11 punctuational, grammatical and spelling errors. It is also shorter than the English equivalent - the last words "Leave room for nature" are stated only once, because the makers ran out of space on the stone.
The full text of message is as follows (literally), with reverse Russian-to-English translation in parentheses:
Explanatory Tablet
A few feet to the west of the artifact, an additional granite ledger has been set level with the ground. This tablet identifies the structure and the languages used on it, lists various facts about the size, weight, and astronomical features of the stones, the date it was installed, and the sponsors of the project. It also speaks of a time capsule buried under the tablet, but the positions on the stone reserved for filling in the dates on which the capsule was buried and is to be opened are missing, so it is not clear whether the time capsule was ever put in place. The tablet is with one edge to each of the cardinal directions, and is inscribed such that the northern edge is the "top" of the inscription.
The complete text of the explanatory tablet is detailed below. The accompanying image shows the overall layout. The tablet is somewhat inconsistent with respect to punctuation, and also misspells "pseudonym". The original spelling, punctuation, and line breaks in the text have been preserved in the transcription which follows.
The text of the tablet is as follows:
-At the center of each tablet edge is a letter representing the appropriate compass direction (N, S, E, W), contained within a small circle.
-At the top center of the tablet is written:
-Immediately below this is the outline of a square, inside which is written:
Around the edges of the square are written the names of four ancient scripts/languages, one per edge. Starting from the top and proceeding clockwise, they are:
"Egyptian Hieroglyphics" is not properly the name of a script; a better name would be "Demotic."
-On the left side of the tablet is the following column of text:
-The word "pseudonym" is misspelled on the stone.
-The words appear as shown under the time capsule heading; no dates are engraved.
-On the right side of the tablet is the following column of text:
-Below the two columns of text is written the caption:
Below this is a schematic diagram of the upright stones of the structure, consisting of a small rectangle surrounded by four longer rectangles projecting to the northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast. The names of eight modern languages are inscribed along the long edges of the projecting rectangles, one per edge. Starting from due north and moving clockwise around the diagram (so that the upper edge of the northeast rectangle is listed first), they are:
-At the bottom center of the tablet is the following text:
Location
The Georgia Guidestones are located in Elbert County, Georgia, approximately 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Atlanta, 45 miles from Athens (precise distance is 44.3322 miles), GA and 9 miles (15 kilometers) north of the center of Elberton. The stones are standing on a rise a short distance to the east of Georgia Highway 77 (Hartwell Highway), and are visible from that road. Small signs beside the highway indicate the turnoff for the Guidestones, which is identified by a street sign as "Guidestones Rd."
- Georgia Guidestones is at 34°13′55″N 82°53′40″W / 34.2320 , -82.8945
References
- ^ The Earth Charter Initiative.
2. Thomas Carlyle Sartor Resartus
External links
- America Unhenged at RoadsideAmerica.com
- Roadside Georgia
- Geocaching at the Guidestones
- Elberton Star 'The Georgia Guidestones: tourist attraction or cult message?'
- Guidestones into the Age of Reason at DamnInteresting.com
- Dismantling R.C. Christian's Monument (Canada Free Press) by Judi McLeod
- Georgia Guidestones: The American Stonehenge at Radio Liberty