Tag: Hawaii

Hawai’i’s Future

the most expensive state in the nation

Because of the anniversary of the Lahaina, Maui wildfire, there has been a large media emphasis on Hawai’i’s future. While some were pretty straightforward – the folks are still recovering – others were more interesting,

CBS Sunday Morning showed a piece about the Hawai’ian people, as celebrated at the Merrie Monarch Festival. “Thousands of miles from Paris, on Hawaii’s Big Island, another elite competition unfolded. The world’s best hula dancers gathered to showcase their skills, competing in both traditional and modern hula categories.” The dance is far more significant than mere entertainment for tourists.

Maui Rising

ABC broadcast a few items on the topic. From the press piece by Jim Donnelly: “ABC News’ reporting initiative ‘Maui Strong 808,’ which has been dedicated to chronicling the impact of the crisis and relief efforts [highlighted] its yearlong commitment with coverage across programs and platforms.”  It began streaming on Aug. 8 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on ABC News Live.

“‘MAUI RISING: The Fight for Hawai’i’s Future,’ a one-hour primetime special marking a year since the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history tore through the picturesque town of Lahaina, Maui, leaving a community reeling and inspiring a new generation of organizers ready to stand up for change. Narrated by actor and Hawai’i resident Jason Scott Lee, the program highlights the strength, determination, and resilience of the people of Lahaina.” It “follows Native Hawaiian community leaders who see the tragedy as an opportunity to re-envision a new town based on ecological restoration, cultural repair, and ultimately a chance to build a stronger, more equitable and more sustainable future for all of Hawai’i.”
The latter news special, which I stumbled upon, aired on Friday, Aug. 9, at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC. It should now be streaming on Hulu and available on the ABC app from your smartphone and tablet (iOS and Android), computer on ABC.com, and connected devices (Roku, AppleTV, and Amazon Fire TV).

It becomes obvious that the disaster was not merely a happenstance but a more than century-long inequity in favor of the sugar growers, the military, and tourism to the detriment of the native Hawai’ians.

 

“‘MAUI RISING: The Fight for Hawai’i’s Future'” spotlights Lahaina leaders who see the catastrophic fire as a pivot point and opportunity to rectify long-standing issues around affordable housing, the tourism-based economy, water rights, and resource exploitation. Interviews include legendary Hawaiian surfer Archie Kalepa; Hawaiian cultural practitioner Ke’eaumoku Kapu; key organizers of the grassroots community group Lahaina Strong, Pā’ele Kiakona, Courtney Lazo, and Jordan Ruidas; ‘American Idol’ winner and Hawaiian-born singer Iam Tongi and more.”

 

Last Week Tonight

John Oliver also tackled the issue of the islands. As the article in The Guardian notes: “Hawai’i is being reshaped by wealthy outsiders.’” Last Week Tonight looked into how billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, wealthy tourists, and the US military have altered the state at the expense of locals.

“There are currently 32,000 short-term rentals in the state, meaning one out of 18 houses is a vacation rental, and nearly a quarter of Hawaiian homes were purchased by buyers outside the state. Hawaii is now the most expensive state in the nation for housing, and because the state imports about 90% of its food, residents also pay some of the highest prices in the nation for groceries.” See the Oliver piece here. 

Also, check out the Centering Indigenous Leadership in Maui’s Fire Recovery interview. “Kaniela Ing, national director of the Green New Deal Network, co-founder of Our Hawai‘i, and a former elected official to the Hawai‘i House of Representatives, spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on Rising Up With Sonali about the devastation on Maui and the coming recovery efforts. Ing, who is a 7th-generation Native Hawaiian, emphasizes the importance of centering Indigenous voices and leadership in rebuilding an island struggling with the ongoing impacts of tourism and colonization.”

These stories got me thinking about inequity, wealth, and the need for restitution.

Finally, 60 Minutes reran this story: “Thousands of gallons of jet fuel contaminated the Navy’s drinking water system for Pearl Harbor. Families dealing with health issues are suing, alleging they were harmed by negligence at Red Hill.” So even military families have felt neglected.

H is for the Kingdom of Hawaii

Love, Peace, and Compassion

Hawaii.NASA earth observatory
NASA earth observatory
In a Travel Trvia post called 5 Countries That No Longer Exist, I read about the Kingdom of Hawaii. It was “founded by King Kamehameha I in 1810, about 40 years after first contact with Europeans…

“Remarkably, the political structure of the kingdom was close to a feudal European system, though its religion and customs followed the ancient Polynesian ways. The kingdom was an internationally recognized independent state, securing most of their assurances (including one from the United States) in the early 1840s.” But then it gets interesting.

“The U.S. annexed the islands as a result of the Spanish–American War in 1898 to better fight the Spanish in the Philippines, which is a whole other can of international-sovereignty-violating-worms… There’s a serious case to be made that the U.S. violated a whole bunch of international laws during the annexation, meaning we may never have had the authority to do literally any of the things we did on the island.

“Hawaiian independence is a very real possibility and there are a lot of people fighting hard for it.” While I don’t expect the state will actually secede, I find this bit of history quite fascinating.

Incidentally, “most people think that “Aloha” is a word that means both hello and goodbye” That is not true. “In Hawaiian we say ‘Aloha’ both when greeting someone and also saying goodbye. But that is not to be taken literally. The real meaning of Aloha in Hawaiian is that of Love, Peace, and Compassion.”

HI Hawaii. I DO , though, like the fact that the two-letter postal code says, “Hi!” Capital and largest city: Honolulu.

The Hawaiian Islands are “an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Formerly the group was known to Europeans and Americans as the Sandwich Islands, a name chosen by James Cook in honor of the then First Lord of the Admiralty John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.”

One last thing: is it Hawaii or Hawai’i? The state website has a bar that reads “Search all Hawai’i government.” Other sources suggests that the large island is Hawai’i but that the state is Hawaii. It’s still engendering great debate on the islands.

30 Day Challenge – Day 29: Somewhere You Want To Visit

Now the Girlfriend said, if I’m not going to New Orleans, which I had pitched and was rejected, why not try to go to Hawai’i with her?

I always wanted to go to Paris, and after seeing these pictures from Luxembourg daily, I’m practically packed. Ah, but what am I to make of the travel alert to Europe over terrorism? At least it’s not a travel warning, such as what exists in Mexico.

Domestically, the place I most want to go is Hawai’i. There’s a story about that. Back in 1995, when I was going out with The Girlfriend, who eventually became The Wife, she was working for an insurance company. She had achieved some significant designation in the industry and had won a free trip for two to the 50th state. Did I want to go? Well, of course, I did, except…

At the very same time, there was a work trip to New Orleans. Now my job in the organization at the time was to do liaison work with other SBDCs and going to the ASBDC conference fit in with that. I SHOULD be going on this trip. Unfortunately, we had gotten a new boss about a year earlier, and she was prone to pick her favorites to travel. I was not one of her favorites; none of the three men were, and only about half the women she liked. So she decided that only she and her most favorite would go to New Orleans because the office would otherwise be short-staffed.

Now the Girlfriend said, if I’m not going to New Orleans, which I had pitched and was rejected, why not try to go to Hawai’i with her? Because I knew she’d reject that too since the office would still be shorthanded.

Then, at the last minute, the boss decided that I COULD go to New Orleans. This was not her being magnanimous. It was her realizing that they had heavy equipment to schlep on and off the plane and that they needed someone strong to do that, and I was elected.

Knowing that boss as I did, I firmly believed that if I had pitched going to Hawai’i, I would have likely have gone neither there OR to New Orleans.

I don’t think The Girlfriend truly understood this as not a rejection of her, but a realization of what was possible. I believe this incident played into us breaking up about six months later. Obviously, we’ve overcome it, but going to Hawai’i with her now would be splendid.

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