12-30-2007, 07:38 AM
I'm glad that Pohaku and others are giving a counterpoint on this.
I myself, like everyone else posting about this, don't litter or dump ...
but that is MY and OUR cultural background. Yes, it is a small planet so we can support our point of view with lots of "right" and "shoulds" BUT as malihini we need to be very aware when we are imposing our own beliefs and background on the people who were here first.
The idea that people came here to experience nature in all its beauty is simply not true of the earlier group migrations to this island. People came for business, opportunity, as indentured workers, for agriculture, for industry, and of course the missionaries came to spread their concept of right and civilization.
Do you think the sugar cane camps centered on mill life were concerned with preserving the `aina? Instead, in a climate where rust never sleeps and the jungle grows quick, without disposal for large items, things went into gulches and got pushed into corners ... I have a dead car on my land I didn't even know was here until after escrow closed; it is covered in vines ... (and I am on Hamakua; it's not a Puna specific practice).
Next door to me, the house and yard are full of what I would call junk, and lots of yards around here are like that. Guess what, my neighbors feel COMFORTABLE with their environment and my neat little enclave I'm sure doesn't seem like a good thing, but rather a foreign look to the neighborhood.
Yes, it made me mad when we lived in Hilo to have kids throw beer bottles out of the car at our rock walls and to have to pick up fast food wrappings, sure. I hope the education kicks in for the upcoming generation, because it sure didn't take with the current youth, at least not all of them. But it isn't going to stop overnight, and I really see no point in ranting about other people or patting ourselves on the back. Just try to have good habits ...
Glen, lol about the Swiss. OK, I've been to Switzerland and stayed with Swiss hosts for extended non-vacation purposes, and hands down they are the most anal-retentive people I've ever encountered. Yes, they keep things beautiful, but there's a price to pay of living around people who make so many rules and are constantly enforcing them on others ... no one dares to step outside the box. (I remember riding on the train there, enjoying the fresh air in MY seat, when a Swiss man got up, leaned over me, shut my window and informed me "we will have the windows closed here." Um, OK, that is not my idea of utopia being around people who believe that they and only they know what is right.
I went to Japan and was shocked to see the public trash cans overflowing on the streets of Kyoto in front of national treasures. Different culture, different standards. This neatness that we think is RIGHT and BEST comes from European backgrounds, (The official language in Singapore is English). Many people here hail from rural Asian cultures. Native Hawaiian practices are honored by a small percentage of the people. If you visit other Polynesian-settled islands, you will see the same attitude about junk and trash as here though.
By the way, I'm old enough to remember a California that had bottles, cans and trash along all the roadsides. I used to count on finding a dollar's worth of deposit Coke bottles when I walked a block or two (back in the early 60's). Ladybird Johnson's campaign to Keep America Beautiful had a huge impact on our culture. I know I saw the changes take place between the early 60's and the end of the decade. Americans, unlike Europeans who have been living on the same small pieces of land for over a milennium, were not so kind to the new land they spread out on. We too had to learn.
Sorry, don't mean to rant, but let's remember people have different ways and other cultural norms than us, and let's not feel superior because we grew up with a different set of values. As Pohaku said, don't assume you are admired for your values ... especially when you come in and try to make sweeping changes.
I myself, like everyone else posting about this, don't litter or dump ...
but that is MY and OUR cultural background. Yes, it is a small planet so we can support our point of view with lots of "right" and "shoulds" BUT as malihini we need to be very aware when we are imposing our own beliefs and background on the people who were here first.
The idea that people came here to experience nature in all its beauty is simply not true of the earlier group migrations to this island. People came for business, opportunity, as indentured workers, for agriculture, for industry, and of course the missionaries came to spread their concept of right and civilization.
Do you think the sugar cane camps centered on mill life were concerned with preserving the `aina? Instead, in a climate where rust never sleeps and the jungle grows quick, without disposal for large items, things went into gulches and got pushed into corners ... I have a dead car on my land I didn't even know was here until after escrow closed; it is covered in vines ... (and I am on Hamakua; it's not a Puna specific practice).
Next door to me, the house and yard are full of what I would call junk, and lots of yards around here are like that. Guess what, my neighbors feel COMFORTABLE with their environment and my neat little enclave I'm sure doesn't seem like a good thing, but rather a foreign look to the neighborhood.
Yes, it made me mad when we lived in Hilo to have kids throw beer bottles out of the car at our rock walls and to have to pick up fast food wrappings, sure. I hope the education kicks in for the upcoming generation, because it sure didn't take with the current youth, at least not all of them. But it isn't going to stop overnight, and I really see no point in ranting about other people or patting ourselves on the back. Just try to have good habits ...
Glen, lol about the Swiss. OK, I've been to Switzerland and stayed with Swiss hosts for extended non-vacation purposes, and hands down they are the most anal-retentive people I've ever encountered. Yes, they keep things beautiful, but there's a price to pay of living around people who make so many rules and are constantly enforcing them on others ... no one dares to step outside the box. (I remember riding on the train there, enjoying the fresh air in MY seat, when a Swiss man got up, leaned over me, shut my window and informed me "we will have the windows closed here." Um, OK, that is not my idea of utopia being around people who believe that they and only they know what is right.
I went to Japan and was shocked to see the public trash cans overflowing on the streets of Kyoto in front of national treasures. Different culture, different standards. This neatness that we think is RIGHT and BEST comes from European backgrounds, (The official language in Singapore is English). Many people here hail from rural Asian cultures. Native Hawaiian practices are honored by a small percentage of the people. If you visit other Polynesian-settled islands, you will see the same attitude about junk and trash as here though.
By the way, I'm old enough to remember a California that had bottles, cans and trash along all the roadsides. I used to count on finding a dollar's worth of deposit Coke bottles when I walked a block or two (back in the early 60's). Ladybird Johnson's campaign to Keep America Beautiful had a huge impact on our culture. I know I saw the changes take place between the early 60's and the end of the decade. Americans, unlike Europeans who have been living on the same small pieces of land for over a milennium, were not so kind to the new land they spread out on. We too had to learn.
Sorry, don't mean to rant, but let's remember people have different ways and other cultural norms than us, and let's not feel superior because we grew up with a different set of values. As Pohaku said, don't assume you are admired for your values ... especially when you come in and try to make sweeping changes.