02-04-2015, 07:39 PM
All those nice people of the American persuasian on the Kona side have no influence on politics?
I have never been treated like a crop to be harvested.....okay, well, maybe I have, but now I know better and I prefer to do the harvesting although occasionally I do let someone take a whack at me. It's only fair.
This whole us vs. them thing is as American as apple pie. It is not very local. The locals ---who are American in name only-- are very accepting and very polite. I have rarely been treated more kindly as a stranger in a strange land. And I don't just think it because I happen to tan really really well. I think part of it is because I am a senior and for some mysterious reason, seniors are respected here. They see gray hair and they fling doors open for you and MAKE you cut in front in the grocery store line (as if you have someplace to be). But being a senior isn't all of it. People are just nicer here. There are very nice people in America, too, but they often look like they are wincing while trying to be nice....as if it is taking a little bit of effort. Here, it seems pretty effortless. It's an island. Be nice or leave.
Locals are absolutely guileless except when doing work on your house. The idea that they have a "hammerlock" on anything here is flabbergasting. They are outnumbered and, unless Hualalai splatters all over Kailua-Kona, will be. Forever. But their influence on local culture is greater than their numbers.
It's simple. No Hawaiians, no aloha. As for Kenoi speaking "pidgin" to select audiences, I speak French to French people unless they want to speak my language. And I am quite sure that if I were born in Bordeaux, I would feel even more comfortable about doing just that. When I am with my Southern relatives, I also like to show them I can speak their language. That isn't my normal form of locution, but it comes naturally to me because it is my mother tongue -- or more accurately, my mother's tongue. That's how she talked. Kenoi is just "speaking their language". When he talks to Americans he is doing the same. He is bilingual in that he speaks two distinct dialects of English (Pidgin should not be confused with Hawaiian -- pidgin is NOT FRIGGIN' HAWAIIAN PEOPLE anymore than English is French because many French words appear in our vocabulary or should I say <<vocabulaire>>? THEY ARE SPEAKING ENGLISH.
Which brings us back to who has a hammerlock on whom. Get real. THEY SPEAK ENGLISH HERE. THEY HAVE A FRIGGIN' BRITISH FLAG.
I don't get the resentment. I really don't. Have you been to Kahalui or Kihei? OMG. Americans all over the place. THEY WILL RUN YOU DOWN in their DETERMINATION to have a good time in the time alloted.
For me this is all explained in an anecdote. I was visiting Kauai, driving to Ke'e Beach and I didn't quite understand who had he right of way on a one lane bridge. I gently went ahead and when I reached the other side, there was a haole in a giant black Mercedes (practical color for Hawaii, doncha think). When I get across, she rolled down her window (all on her own!) and shook her head and said that I was supposed to wait on the other side. She was fuming and her face turned red. Then she actually said something like "My psychiatrist told me I need to be more flexible in these kinds of situations". And then she shook her head and with great effort said "So,aloha!". I wasn't alone. A friend witnessed this. It actually happened. We still laugh about it.
The article cited is nearly indecipherable. If she has a point it is purely by accident. With every word I was asking, "Where is she going with this?" I agree with her accidental point though-- Americans do need to make a tiny effort to promote and preserve cultures that are not their own, unless they are Chinese. That culture can take care of itself. For them, I say send Justin Bieber and make them fall in love with him. And then have Justin Bieber tell them to stop eating dogs. It's disgusting.
In the meantime my psychologist or whatever the hell he is(he wears gold lame hot pants so I am not sure)says I need to remain calmer in these situations. So, aloha!
I have never been treated like a crop to be harvested.....okay, well, maybe I have, but now I know better and I prefer to do the harvesting although occasionally I do let someone take a whack at me. It's only fair.
This whole us vs. them thing is as American as apple pie. It is not very local. The locals ---who are American in name only-- are very accepting and very polite. I have rarely been treated more kindly as a stranger in a strange land. And I don't just think it because I happen to tan really really well. I think part of it is because I am a senior and for some mysterious reason, seniors are respected here. They see gray hair and they fling doors open for you and MAKE you cut in front in the grocery store line (as if you have someplace to be). But being a senior isn't all of it. People are just nicer here. There are very nice people in America, too, but they often look like they are wincing while trying to be nice....as if it is taking a little bit of effort. Here, it seems pretty effortless. It's an island. Be nice or leave.
Locals are absolutely guileless except when doing work on your house. The idea that they have a "hammerlock" on anything here is flabbergasting. They are outnumbered and, unless Hualalai splatters all over Kailua-Kona, will be. Forever. But their influence on local culture is greater than their numbers.
It's simple. No Hawaiians, no aloha. As for Kenoi speaking "pidgin" to select audiences, I speak French to French people unless they want to speak my language. And I am quite sure that if I were born in Bordeaux, I would feel even more comfortable about doing just that. When I am with my Southern relatives, I also like to show them I can speak their language. That isn't my normal form of locution, but it comes naturally to me because it is my mother tongue -- or more accurately, my mother's tongue. That's how she talked. Kenoi is just "speaking their language". When he talks to Americans he is doing the same. He is bilingual in that he speaks two distinct dialects of English (Pidgin should not be confused with Hawaiian -- pidgin is NOT FRIGGIN' HAWAIIAN PEOPLE anymore than English is French because many French words appear in our vocabulary or should I say <<vocabulaire>>? THEY ARE SPEAKING ENGLISH.
Which brings us back to who has a hammerlock on whom. Get real. THEY SPEAK ENGLISH HERE. THEY HAVE A FRIGGIN' BRITISH FLAG.
I don't get the resentment. I really don't. Have you been to Kahalui or Kihei? OMG. Americans all over the place. THEY WILL RUN YOU DOWN in their DETERMINATION to have a good time in the time alloted.
For me this is all explained in an anecdote. I was visiting Kauai, driving to Ke'e Beach and I didn't quite understand who had he right of way on a one lane bridge. I gently went ahead and when I reached the other side, there was a haole in a giant black Mercedes (practical color for Hawaii, doncha think). When I get across, she rolled down her window (all on her own!) and shook her head and said that I was supposed to wait on the other side. She was fuming and her face turned red. Then she actually said something like "My psychiatrist told me I need to be more flexible in these kinds of situations". And then she shook her head and with great effort said "So,aloha!". I wasn't alone. A friend witnessed this. It actually happened. We still laugh about it.
The article cited is nearly indecipherable. If she has a point it is purely by accident. With every word I was asking, "Where is she going with this?" I agree with her accidental point though-- Americans do need to make a tiny effort to promote and preserve cultures that are not their own, unless they are Chinese. That culture can take care of itself. For them, I say send Justin Bieber and make them fall in love with him. And then have Justin Bieber tell them to stop eating dogs. It's disgusting.
In the meantime my psychologist or whatever the hell he is(he wears gold lame hot pants so I am not sure)says I need to remain calmer in these situations. So, aloha!