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Maui%20County
The Maui 10
Who’s the county’s most powerful player?

by By Anthony Pignataro

January 11, 2007

RANK   PREVIOUS   COMPANY



  

1           

1           Dowling

Co.

   2            3           Monsanto Hawai`i



  

3           

2           Weinberg

Foundation

  

4           

4           Maui

Electric Co.

  

5           

5           Makena

Resort

  

6           

6           Maui Land

& Pineapple Co.

  

7           

8           Alexander

& Baldwin

  

8            9

          Tesoro Hawai`i

  

9          

10          Wailuku Water

Co.

 

10          

7           Hawaiian Telcom







IRAQ GOES TO SEED



In this country companies like Monsanto that manufacture genetically

modified crops zealously guard their seed patents, often forbidding

farmers from sharing or even reusing seeds unless they go through

strict licensing agreements. This isn’t surprising, considering the

patents are worth many millions of dollars to the companies. Why do you

think Monsanto goes through such efforts to keep its Maui seed farms

safe and secure? But what many people don’t know is that this is also

the law in Iraq. A Jan. 4 article in Onlinejournal.com spells it out

how our vaunted Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) instituted Order

81 while it was still running Baghdad, giving GM crop makers everything

they could hope for in that war-torn hellhole of a nation. “What that

order means is that seeds from those ‘new’ varieties cannot be saved

for reuse, at least not without paying a royalty to its ‘manufacturer,’

whether it’s Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, or any of the genetically-modifying

[sic] seed giants,” wrote Jerry Mazza in the article. “This could

easily bankrupt farmers and contribute vastly to massive food shortages

and starvation.” Like Iraqis don’t already have enough to worry about.





HT ON HOLD



So much for Hawaiian Telcom’s week in the sun—this week it’s back to

the dreary dungeon for the troubled phone company. See, if you’re a big

corporation—whether you’re owned by the Carlyle Group, one of the

nation’s richest and most powerful private equity firms or not—you

never want to see your name in a story in which the headline contains

the phrase “Long probe.” But that’s what happened to Hawaiian Telcom on

Dec. 28, 2006. “The state Public Utilities Commission said yesterday

its investigation into problems with Hawaiian Telcom’s customer service

will last until at least September,” reported the Honolulu Advertiser.

Now this sounds awful, except when you realize that there’s poetic

justice in the state taking its time with the phone company accused of

taking its time dealing with customer problems. MTW