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Mixing pot
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02-03-2015, 12:42 PM
I don't want Puna to ever resemble the DC metropolitan area, and should it even come close, I'll be on the first plane out.
I love our substandard roads, rediculous politics and "unwashed masses." Would'nt have considered it otherwise...
02-03-2015, 02:34 PM
That article is a meandering mess. By the way, when you post links to articles like this, why not provide a brief summary so people will know what you thought was so interesting?
To be fair, it is almost impossible to summarize the article because it doesn't appear to make any point. It is a very poorly written article from a virtual rag that has no idea what it wants to say. If I had to extract a point from it with forceps I would say that she thinks haoles should put their toes in the local culture and....learn a hula or two and, mingle with Hawaiians and you know. maybe play the ukulele. Okay, done. With gusto. It's hard to know where to start with what the article fails to say. For one thing, it fails to explore the etymology of "haole", which means "no breath". It is derived, I read somewhere, from the fact that Hawaiians would greet each other with a nose pressed against the nose of the person they were greeting. When that was done to "ha'ole"'s, they would hold their breath lest they, I don't know, catch some germs. I am not sure if the etymology I read is accurate, but it rings true. One difference between locals and some mainlanders is that the locals take time to breath, and they breath deeply. For me though I think the term "ha'ole" is entirely contextual. If you fly in and want everything to be like West Covina, but prettier --and insist on it loudly-- you are probably a haole. If you fly in and get seduced by the poi balls at Uncle Robert's and are willing to wait for them, you are probably not a haole. Did some flip call you a haole in hula class claiming to be more local than though (ha!), and you just felt like you had to write about it? Probably a haole at heart. Did some flip call you a haole in hula class and you ended up in bed together? Probably not a haole. Did you go to Merrie Monarch and complain loudly about the cold, hard, concrete seats even though beautiful women and man pranced past you redolent of maile and pikake? Touch of the haole goin' on. Did you fly here and then four montbs later PERFORM at Merrie Monarch, never having been there before? -- the Goddess, to the extent there is one left on the island--- loves you. You get a friggin' pass. Haole is not a race. It is a state of mind. I tend to avoid haoles, especially those in my minority. But that's kind of a haole thing to do. The island is very accepting, in a way, including of haoles, although with them it is a grumbling acceptance at times. I mean, they come and then if you challenge them in a burger joint, they just take out a gun and shoot you dead. Nobody's perfect though. And the island way is generally to always cleave to the middle way, the tolerant way, the patient way and the kind and generous way. Try THAT in West Covina.
02-04-2015, 11:49 AM
quote: Shockwave Rider, why did you not include the very next sentence I listed where it said "make no mistake about it...." I guess I might have hit a nerve. The mayor may speak pidgin, but look at the makeup of these meetings. Look at the makeup of these community groups. Look at the makeup of who is in these forums...in areas like Puna. I rest my case.
02-04-2015, 01:27 PM
quote:Shows you just how "small" the local culture/society is. Pathetic is too nice a term for them. All they know is blood-line etc. Small, very small. But remember this, Hawaii joined the US, the US didn't join Hawaii. Ono - So Fast - So Tasty!
Ono - So Fast - So Tasty!
02-04-2015, 01:50 PM
quote: No nerve was struck, but I have sat through entirely too many public hearings and read too much sensible testimony dealing with public decisions, where ALL the testimony of the "mainland transplants" ended up being dismissed out of hand by the hearings officials who were in fact NOT majority AJA, to think that group still has a hammerlock on power. Also, I have never heard one of the AJA power block use pidgin in a public hearing, but I have heard the mayor and other pols of his generation use it to connect with a very specific part of the audience. Large families who vote as a block based on what the elders of their families tell them are almost as important as the churches for someone who wants to get elected on the Big Island, and most of the church's congregations contain those same large local families. Mainland transplants are considered a crop to be harvested of their mainland money before they go back, not part of the community to be listened to as far as the political system here goes. Those of us who stay are just quietly ignored as we attend meetings and hearings and join committees without ever actually getting anywhere, because all the deals are made in back rooms.
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!
02-05-2015, 01:25 AM
Kelena,
I was referring to power within the political system, not personal interactions. Big difference. The claim was made that mainland transplants have ever increasing influence on things like CDPs and I just don't see that. The local political structure is very aware of the fact that many transplants often leave within 2 years, or will leave in a second wave at around 10 years when the possible combinations of health care access, grandchildren, aging parents or the cost of living eating away at retirement funds send a sizable number of transplants packing. Why should the local power structure pay any attention to a group they view as temporary? |
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