Someone not want the tourists and their money to come back to Maui?

There probably isn't a better way to achieve that then by leaving a lot of bombs lying around, disguised as common objects, which is the strange, sinister development in that fire-ravaged part of Hawaii.

According to the Beat of Hawaii, Hawai'i Travel News website:

Cherished Maui, on the first anniversary of the tragic Lahaina fire, is experiencing the report of significant safety concerns due to the discovery of potential explosive devices just reported by the FBI. There have been other suspected incidents reported on Maui since last year.

Update at 11:40 pm. There have been reports of an explosion about two hours ago in Pukalani. We don’t know yet if this is related to the earlier report.

The FBI and Maui Police Department are together investigating several incidents involving Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) found in public areas, and the Kahului and Pukalani regions were specifically mentioned. Although no injuries have occurred, this situation led to a public safety warning being issued this afternoon, which is important to both residents and visitors.

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are homemade bombs that can, by intention, cause harm, disrupt safety, and instill fear. The devices can be made using a wide range of materials, from simple household items to more sophisticated elements. IEDs can vary greatly in appearance, which can be a source of confusion. They might resemble common objects, including baskets or bags, making them difficult to recognize.

Sound like the kind of place you'd like to visit?

The travel website hastens to say that there's nothing for tourists to worry about, but obviously, it's all-in for tourism to Hawaii.

Tourists, though, are likely to have other ideas. After all, they have their choice of Hawaiian islands to visit, all of them wonderful, and if they have the cash and taste for it, other tropical island vacation paradises not that (wildly) far away from Hawaii as such things go, such as Tahiti, Fiji, the Cook Islands, and even Bali. There's plenty of competition.

Which makes this bomb stunt so horrible.

Random bombs in civilian places is the kind of thing Marxist narcoterrorists used to do in cities such as Medellin, Colombia. Terrorists also did that in Belfast, Northern Ireland during its time of troubles, same ones who trained the Colombians.

It took a long time for Medellin to recover its reputation once that nightmare started. People stay away from places like that.

It's hard to guess what the motive for this is, given that it harms the islanders' incomes as it keeps the tourists away. It was obviously someone driven by some kind of hatred.

But the government coverups associated with the fire that destroyed Lahaina, the failure to hold culpable officials accountable, the federal failure to deliver aid beyond the miserable $700 the islanders who lost their homes were given, the failure to rebuild based on the tangled blue-state regulations, the odd exceptions from greenie regulations that the rich get, and the developers moving to scoop up the prime beachfront property from residents burned out, has obviously set the groundwork for angry people and a lot of conspiracy theories. Good luck figuring it out with that.

The fact that the FBI is investigating adds to the atmosphere, too, given that they may as easily cover up the problem as solve it. We've seen that with the Trump assassination attempt, coming on the back of the shenanigans and crimes that came out of that agency directed at President Trump. Could that also happen to Maui? I really hope not.

It's probably too soon to figure out who a suspect might be  - a developer? an angry local? someone from the incompetent government? an angry Native Hawaiian militant?

But what is known is that it's bound to drive the recession hitting the island even deeper, and drive even more residents from the island than the many who have already felt compelled to leave as it is.

That's a terrible thing to do to the islanders who have already been battered enough and who just want to rebuild.

One can only hope that the bureau solves this one well, nabs the culprit, and gets the culprit punished to the fullest extent of the law, without regard to which party he belongs to, or what his ties to the power structure on the island might be. Otherwise, the problem will continue, or may even get worse.

Bombs are the last thing Maui needs. There is some kind of dark cloud over that island as incompetence and coverup builds upon incompetence and coverup and greed is the name of the game.

Image: RawPixel // CC0 public domain