Letters 1-13

Kona coffee

Protect your interests

I am a Christmas tree farmer from rural northwestern New Jersey.

A few years ago, I vacationed on the Big Island. While traveling, I often enjoy visiting different types of farms. So while on your island, I toured some coffee plantations. I was introduced to your wonderful Kona coffee.

I have since ordered 100 percent Kona delivered to my home several times. It’s a real treat.

This is my concern: I often see packaging in local stores and online that claims to be Kona coffee. Upon reading the fine-print, I realize it is just 10 percent Kona and is “blended” with 90 percent of “who knows what?”

I’ve tried these blends and, quite frankly, they bear no resemblance to real 100 percent Kona. If this is the first taste of Kona that someone experiences, I very much doubt they would ever bother purchasing Kona coffee (of any kind) ever again.

I respect the hard work that Kona growers do in producing one of the world’s best coffees. I find it disheartening any Kona grower would jeopardize the future of your industry by willingly selling to any company that intends to blend Kona with an inferior product.

It is reprehensible they would then use your valued Kona name on their packaging. It is deceptive advertising at the very least.

I’m sure that your organization already understands the seriousness of this threat to Kona coffee growers.

I hope that there are legal avenues that you can pursue to protect your interests.

As for me, I’ll just continue to enjoy 100 percent Kona coffee.

Mike Garrett

Sussex, N.J.

A treatment issue

Stereotypes still exist

Recently, my partner and I were back home visiting relatives on the Big Island. While staying there, we were in need of a physician and since our Hawaii-based doctor was not available, we made a choice to go to a “no appointment necessary” medical clinic. My partner (both of us are native to the islands) needed attention for his high blood pressure. He had run short of blood pressure medication and did not realize it would seriously jeopardize his health; he had migraine-like symptoms and shortness of breath, which were signs of a potential stroke or heart attack.

When we both proceeded into the office of the practicing physician eventually we were made to realize that in her own words she suggested that she liked taking care of local people. Which would have been honorable and fair except that she then proceeded to point out that, “I was just like one haole” when I asked a question about habits which may contribute to his high blood pressure. I was concerned and I wanted to understand what we as a team needed to do to help with his health issues.

First and foremost, all people deserve to be treated with respect when they go to a doctor for professional services. The color of one’s skin should not indicate a judgment about who is local and who is not. The myth that a fair-skinned person is not local is a sign of ignorance and insensitivity to the fact that everyone has feelings and we are each co-habitants of the same planet. This doctor’s assumptions about who was local and who was not is an unfortunate reminder of my youth and that a few still hold onto old beliefs in regard to race relations in Hawaii.

As a professional medical doctor if she would have investigated closer to our situation — it is due to my recommendation that my partner (appearance is local) actually is in her office for treatment. He tends to avoid going to the doctor whenever possible. I encourage and support him in this way by making appointments and by making sure he follows up on his medical issues. If this is considered “haole,” then so be it. He is still alive because if it.

With further investigation, she would have discovered that I am a fair-skinned Native Hawaiian. She would have then held her tongue and not have said to me, “just like a haole” when I made a statement about my partner’s inability to take responsibility for his own health, therefore that his health was also of my concern since we live together.

If you decide to seek medical attention please make sure to don your “native color” face paint, wear rubbah slippahs, speak pidgin English and continue to perpetuate the myth that Hawaiians and native people in the islands act and look a certain way — according to this medical professional’s personal belief system.

If not illegal, may we suggest that she open a Native People’s Only Clinic? Perhaps we can return to the days of the American South, when ignorance (don’t confuse with intelligence) was perpetuated by whites who insisted people of color could not sit on the bus with the whites, or were not allowed into establishments because of the color of their skin.

Do we want to stay in that era or do we want to begin a new dialogue, people? Otherwise, continue to seek medical attention elsewhere like the emergency room when visiting the islands.

Elizabeth Kuakine Nahoopii

Waimea

Cat shooting

Illegal cruelty

Our family cat was shot multiple times by a pellet gun and I am very concerned about the safety of other family pets in our neighborhood.

On Dec. 28, at approximately 4 in the afternoon, I heard my cat cry in pain and a commotion in the side yard of our house on Puu Nui Place in Waikoloa Village. When we took our sweet Coco to the vet, it was shockingly discovered through X-rays she had been hit multiple times by a pellet gun, one which shattered her back right leg (femur bone). We could see the pellets inside the lower half of her body.

We were horrified and could not believe that anyone would do this inhumane act to an innocent animal, a member of our family. The Police Department, Humane Society and the Waikoloa Village Association have been notified of this serious crime of animal cruelty in our neighborhood.

My concern is for the safety of all family pets in our neighborhood and would like others to be aware that this has happened. If anyone is a witness to animal cruelty, please contact the local authorities immediately. Our families and pets should feel safe in our community.

Jeannie McMullan

Waikoloa