KAPAI'S CORNER: A price to pay if profit is put before our people

ONE of my all time favourite songwriters is Cat Stevens because of his ability to tell stories through the lyrics of his songs.
His album Tea for the Tillerman tells a great song/story called Longer Boats, and it carries a very timely message in light of a resource consent hearing held to discuss the deepening of the harbour channel to accommodate larger ships.
The chorus to the song goes "Longer boats are coming to win us, they are coming to win us, hold on to the shore - they will be taking the key from the door."
The first longer boat I ever boarded as a youngster, when we used to have the port as a playground, was the USS Company vessel Kaituna. It seemed like the hugest ship in the whole world when visiting my Uncle Jerry who was the ship's boson.
But who would have guessed back then that in my lifetime ships ten times bigger than the Kaituna would be berthing at our port as they do today. And they are about to get even bigger if the Port of Tauranga gains resource consent to deepen the channel.
So if Cat Stevens is correct and the longer boats are coming to win us what is the tipping point that will see the key taken from our own back door - in this case our beautiful harbour?
And how do we know when enough is enough when it comes to super-sizing everything including ships?
We already have super cities, super rugby teams, and super churches and within Maoridom we have rapidly expanding super tribes such as Ngai Tahu and Tainui.
Maori need to honestly ask themselves what part they want to play in this global economy because we can't have
it both ways.
Are we the kaitiaki - the caretakers of this harbour that we say we are? Do we take more than we need like we accuse our Caucasian cousins of doing? Do we pour poisons into the puku of papatuanuku and tangaroa with the same blatant disregard for tomorrow's generation as we say tauiwi are doing?
We already participate in propping up the proposal of big and bigger ships by depending on them to bring us passengers for our rapidly expanding Maori Tourism market.
As we do for the many Maori Trusts who farm everything from cows to kiwifruit. And bigger boats equates to more jobs in and around the wharf.
What I didn't hear at the hearing to discuss the deepening of the channel was not so much what we plan to take out of the harbour tomorrow that some say will have devastating consequences for future generations, but what we are pouring into the Moana today that is turning it into a toilet. A toilet it may never recover from - just like the great lakes of Rotorua and the Waikato River.
 When we put profit before people there is always a price to pay and right now we are about to be invoiced a bloody big bill that could already be the tipping point. And all that before a single pipi is dredged from the harbour.
The issue seems to be not so much about Port development but the "unknown" impact this will cause, especially when Western Science tells us one thing and Matauranga Maori (wisdom based on walking with nature for hundreds of years) tells us something different.
The most brilliant of brains built and believed in the Ruahihi Dam and looked what happened when it collapsed. We are still paying the price for this today.
The million dollar surf reef is another shining example of Papatuanuku (Mother Nature) having the final say - as she will always have with our harbour.
So what is the answer? How do we protect our pipi beds and at the same time make sure our cultural credibility in the commercial world isn't eroded away, by being seen to be biting the hand that feeds it?
And how do we hold on to the shore before the commercial key Cat Stevens sang about is taken from the door and it is locked forever?
 Sitting down at the same table with the Ports of Tauranga is a good start. Not to take, as some suggest is the motive behind Maoris objection, but to talk about how we bring back the beauty of our Moana so our children's children will inherit a true taonga to have as their kai basket.
Perhaps the answer can be found in a whakatauki (a proverb) quoted by one of the wise Kaumatua at the hearing.
"Toi te whenua -toi te moana-toi te tangata". If the land and the sea are healthy, then the people will be healthy
tommykapai@gmail.com