Larry Ellison
Ka Pae Aina
In 2012 Larry Ellison purchased the island of Lanai, of Ka Pae Aina, including most businesses and housing for 300 million dollars.[1] The purchase of the island included:
... 98 percent of the island, including the two Four Seasons resorts and their championship golf courses, the more modest Hotel Lānaʻi, the majority of the luxury homes, and all of the employee cottages. In essence, most of the accommodations on the island are under his control, along with the gas station, the car rental agency, the supermarket, Lānaʻi City Grille, a solar farm, and all the buildings that house the small shops and cafes in Lānaʻi City. He owns 88,000 acres of former pineapple fields and 50 miles of beaches—but technically, in Hawai‘i, no one, with the exception of the U.S. military, is supposed to own beaches or control beach access....[2]
Ellison claims that his motives for purchasing the island and the majority of its businesses/ housing are rooted in creating a sustainable island. What this means for the Native Peoples of Ka Pae Aina and Ellison are likely not the same thing.
It is one thing to own an uninhabited island; it is a different thing altogether to purchase an island, as Ellison has, on which lives a sizable group of permanent residents with far longer connections (including genealogical ones, for many) to the land than the landlord has. For over a century, the lives and livelihoods of the residents of Lana'i have been tied to the destinies of a succession of white landowners with the resources to change not just the economy but also the geographical terrain of the island in the hope of achieving their singular vision of making the island "profitable."...[3]
Sally Kaye, a long time resident, wrote an open letter to Ellison pertaining to the sale, as reported in 'Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawaii:[4]
First, don’t be intimidated by all the angst over how it could even be possible for a single really, really rich guy to buy an entire island in the state of Hawaii, United States of Amer i ca, from another rich guy, in this day and age. You have to understand that since the 1850’s [sic] and Walter Murray Gibson and all those Mormons, this island has been owned and exploited by one really rich guy or another. There are generations here who don’t know any other way to live but under some sort of feudal-serf system. I know this is bizarre, that such a medieval lord- of-the-manor system of control could still be functioning in the Land of the Free, but there you have it.[5]
Island Transportation
After the purchase of Lanai, Ellis also purchased Island Air (one of two airlines that serviced Lanai,) and considered buying the ferry, but never did. In 2016 Ellis would sell controlling interest in the airline and the company would go on to end service to the island of Lanai.
This series of sales point to the difficult position that island residents are put in when access to transportation is connected with ownership of the island. While restricting access to the island makes Lānaʻi a more exclusive destination, that same control over movement onto and off the island affects its residents’ ability to see family on other islands and its high school students’ ability to participate in statewide competition. Residents’ access to medical care is largely restricted to what they can receive on the island.[6]
Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos
https://theorg.com/iterate/the-people-who-invested-in-theranos
https://news.crunchbase.com/health-wellness-biotech/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-trial-investors-board/
Sources
- ↑ https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/hawaii-island-sex-drinks-insurrection/larry-ellison-lanai
- ↑ AIKAU, H. K., & GONZALEZ, V. V. (Eds.). (2019). Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai’i. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smvvj; Page, 87
- ↑ AIKAU, H. K., & GONZALEZ, V. V. (Eds.). (2019). Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai’i. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smvvj; Page, 87
- ↑ https://www.dukeupress.edu/detours
- ↑ AIKAU, H. K., & GONZALEZ, V. V. (Eds.). (2019). Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai’i. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smvvj; Page, 88
- ↑ AIKAU, H. K., & GONZALEZ, V. V. (Eds.). (2019). Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai’i. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11smvvj; Page, 88