Neil Abercrombie

When there wasn't any money involved, for all intents and purposes, nobody gave a damn. But now the land, supposedly worthless, is seen for what it really is: an incredibly valuable asset. ↗

— Neil Abercrombie

#asset #damn #gave #incredibly #intents

A good portion of the airport is on ceded lands, and lease money was paid for that. So the state's collecting lease money because all of a sudden "worthless" land now has an airport on it. ↗

— Neil Abercrombie

#because #ceded #collecting #good #land

I remember saying to the chairman after serving the first year, "Why are we doing this? Why don't the Hawaiians have control?" "Well, we have no mechanism to do it," I was told. ↗

— Neil Abercrombie

#chairman #control #doing #first #i

Land in Hawaii is money. What I'm talking about here is ceded land - land that belonged to the kingdom and was ceded to the republic and then to the state when we achieved statehood. ↗

— Neil Abercrombie

#achieved #belonged #ceded #hawaii #here

So as soon as the land was worth something and there was money in the bank, all of a sudden everybody got interested in non-discrimination, in who's really going to administer this stuff. ↗

— Neil Abercrombie

#bank #everybody #going #got #interested

So there's always been this clash between what is the public good - that which belongs to all of us in common - and what can be exploited for a private interest. ↗

— Neil Abercrombie

#been #belongs #between #clash #common

There was a queen that was overthrown here. So I was affected by all of that and felt profoundly grateful for the opportunity to live in Hawaii, and I set out at once to try to fit in. ↗

— Neil Abercrombie

#felt #fit #grateful #hawaii #here

Western concepts of ownership and privatization came in and clashed with that. So land began to be exchanged. ↗

— Neil Abercrombie

#came #concepts #exchanged #land #ownership

You're talking serious money already in the bank, and millions of dollars coming in every year. ↗

— Neil Abercrombie

#bank #coming #dollars #every #millions