Post #703517 by Phillip Roberts on Wed, Jan 1, 2014 12:28 AM

On 2013-12-31 22:56, martian-tiki wrote:
what is the story of its senseless destruction

From Page 1 of this thread...

By 2008, the statue was un-covered by the groundskeepers and I took great pride in showing it and shooting it with visitors. In 2009, I heard about the renovation of the hotel and wondered if it would survive. It did not.

I DO have a story (heard second hand from an employee who was a witness at the time) about this event to share sometime in the future...

OK, I guess the future is now. I'm still reeling from the loss of the International Market Place. Well, the story I heard second hand went like this...

A day after the hotel reopened in 2010, I went to confirm that it was indeed gone. It was and all that remained was the stump and a foot. There were concrete shards everywhere. I started asking questions of the employees. Most, refused to provide any details. After all, they were still employed. One of the shop ladies told me to ask one of the maintanence workers. He passed me on to one of the grounds keeping crew. Finally, I started talking to one of the construction workers clearing some rubble on the other part of the property.

He told me he'd been there and was witness. The management had ordered the statue removed. They had always considered it an eyesore. The local workers on site refused to touch the statue, afraid of any bad luck that might be associated with it. Days passed and the statue still stood until the day before the grand opening. The powers that be were furious and issued a direct order that it be removed. Finally, a foreman from the construction company declared he was not afraid, wrecked it with a backhoe, and carted the remains to the dumpster.

Kinda what you expected, huh?

Waikiki Tiki; Art, History, and Photographs.
Available now from Bess Press Hawaii.

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2014-01-01 00:34 ]