I say this because, unlike in the mainland, where the notion of ethnic inclusion will fluctuate between the Melting Pot and the Salad Bowl concepts, Hawaii seems to have something completely different. I'm still looking for a name for it, although I think that, in deference to native Hawaiians I'll call it the Poi Gourd.

Why do I say this? Just as an outside observer, it became very apparent that as much as political rhetoric in the islands can be very divisive, what with the Japanese, native Hawaiian, Korean, Chinese (mainland, Taiwanese and Cantonese) and Anglo communities duking it out for power and influence over everything from the state legislature to the Bishop Estate (and in so doing taking very explicit steps to exclude people from certain groups from the process), everyday life in Hawaii seems to incorporate fundamental parts of multiple cultures without as much as a second thought to it.

Food, I think, is usually a good indicator of how far a culture's traditions have permeated another's. I mean, aside from looking at the streets in LA to know that there's a very significant Mexican population in California, all one has to do is notice the popularity of the tortilla chip to realize that Mexican people are beginning to significant cultural strength in the US. Likewise, in Hawaii, one could taste the Japanese influence in everyday food, what with very rare tuna steaks, the naming of soy sauce as shoyu in everyday functioning, or the use of dried seaweed furikake in one of Hawaii's pieces of foody goodness, Poke. I'll talk about food at more length elsewhere.

Traditional Hawaiian music, likewise, demonstrates how much of this mixing of cultures has become a uniquely Hawaiian way of living. I was amazed at how much Hawaiian popular music sounds like Latin American boleros (minus the maracas). Hear it for yourself. No doubt the Portuguese, French and Spanish presence in the islands has much to do with the adoption of the Ukulele, which is very much like the Cuban cuatro, the Colombian tiple, the Andean charango, the Spanish viguela--a smaller variation of the guitar with a particularly acute sound.

Street and road names follow no particular ethnic origin, and as such one can find street names in Hawaiian and English, or of Chinese, Japanese and Iberian origin.

I can't, of course, argue that I understand modern-day Hawaiian culture merely by virtue of having been there three weeks and haven eaten food there and seen the occasional news broadcast. I even think I've done a very poor job of explaining any of what I have, by and large, concluded about the place. bell hooks would have a field day with me if I argued anything even close to that. But I can say that the vibe surrounding ethnic and cultural relations was completely different to what I have become accustomed to in my last 6 years living in the US. Dylan, Jason and Erica will laugh when they read this, but even the air of ethnic and cultural relations in Hawaii reminds me of home.

Labels: Hawaii

I've never found a shortage of people willing to remind me about the evils of ethnocentrism and the need to be very, very careful when discussing issues of ethnicity and race and culture, lest one possibly offend someone. Our visit to the Bishop museum in Honolulu showed me that 1) either those people never made it to Hawaii to spread their gospel or 2) they made it over and pissed someone off big time.

The Bishop Museum houses an impressive collection of artifacts describing the cultural and political history of the Hawaiian archipelago. It also plays host to a museum of Polynesian culture, and, as its third personality, also plays the role of general-purpose children's exploratorium.

The Bishop Museum

The Hawaiiana and Polynesiana (Polyanna?) collections were informative in the best tourist-museum style. However, it was the children's exploratorium section that held the most delightful of their exhibits:

Illegal Aliens in Your Suitcase!

Did you know that thousands of illegal aliens travel across the Pacific in assorted carry-on weekenders and garment bags? How many do you think really belong in Hawaii?

It's true! Thousands upon thousands of wetback lizards and gabacho kudzu spores are flooding the Hawaiian islands, bringing along the political instability, crime, and assorted plagues to which they play host in their own, godless lands! Invading Bananas from Central America, Black Market Rice from Southeast Asia, and Illiterate Snakes from the Phillippines! These are Dangerous Aliens! They're coming along, stealing jobs from hard-working Hawaiian farmers and depressing the standard of living throughout the land! We must contain them!

They lengthen the welfare lines! They are immoral and destructive! They show no respect for time-honored traditions Hawaiian families have cultivated for centuries! There is even evidence to suggest that their presence also leads to despicable social plights like homosexual tour groups and Starbucks!

They hold no respect for the Things That Make These Islands Great! They are truly destroying The Way We Live! They don't bother to learn the language or adopt local customs! Under the guise of decorative flowers, aromatic ornamental plants and other salad ingredients, they blend and toss cultural norms together with complete disregard and insensitivity for Our Traditions! Invading Illegal Aliens represent a source of cultural confusion and unprecedented intermingling!

Do your part to hald this flood of Illegal Aliens: fill out the Agricultural Declarations every time you fly into the islands; don't bring in any of the heathenous, impure foods available in the mainland; and, most importantly, report any suspicious vegetable or plant activity to your Neighborhood Coordinating Committee for Biological Integrity!

Only YOU can put a halt to this invasion!

Labels: Hawaii

ENDOFSTRING; $node['date']=strtotime('12/26/1999 12:23:00 PM'); $node['number']='4670827451361354362'; $node['permalink']='http://www.saddlesores.org/new/1999/12/hawaii-goofy-mixed-up-people.html'; echo "INSERT INTO node (nid, vid, type, title, uid, created, changed) VALUES(".$nid.",".$nid.", 'story', '".addslashes($node['title'])."', 1, ".$node['date'].", ".$node['date'].");\n\n"; echo "INSERT INTO node_revisions (nid, vid, uid, title, body, format) VALUES(".$nid.", ".$nid.", 1, '".addslashes($node['title'])."', '".addslashes($node['body'])."', 3);\n\n"; echo "INSERT INTO term_node (nid, tid) VALUES(".$nid.", 6);\n\n"; $iid = '1635932971600926886'; $nid++; $node=array(); $node['title']=<<After a 13-hour day of traveling, I made it to Honolulu.

I left home at 4AM, having been given a ride to the airport by the ever-generous Scott, who volunteered to wake up early and drive me to Baltimore Washington International Airport, which is so far away from DC it might as well be an international destination. Travel was uneventful-- so much so that it was eerie. Flights left on time, landed early, and gave me just enough time to walk to the next gate and take my seat on the subsequent plane.

I did get to see my share of airports. I think that hanging out with my brother, who plans airports for a living, has made me look at them with a new, and somewhat unusual, appreciation. From the tarmac, Denver International Airport looked just like it did in all the still shots I had seen on Colorado news, taken back when they were building the thing and I still lived in Peru (go figure why we got Colorado broadcast news on Lima cable tv). The tilted turrets of tented space-age polymer do evoke the image of snow-capped peaks and roadside drifts of the cold, white stuff. LA International airport was as congested as any of the city's highways during rush hour. The approach into the airport reminded me of flying over the rocky piles of soil and dirt that make up Lima's mountains. The thick cloud of brown crud that lingered over the whole city (I hear Angelinos call it smog)

Grime and wing in dry repose Kodacolor 200 1999

ruled out LA as a potential place to live if I ever choose to move across the country. Honolulu's airport is stubbornly tropical, with a driveway that extends all the way to the gates and lots of open corridors--reminds me of where my dad teaches in Costa Rica.

Dylan, my college friend, fraternity brother and personal purveyor of all-purpose insensitivity, was waiting for me outside the gate. Faithful to his disregard for touristy things, he did not have a lei for me. I appreciated the gesture, as once I got a look at the Dalton family flying in from Carson City I realized that it could quickly escalate into a demonstration of distasteful floral carnage.

Making our way through amnesty bins for all forms of mainland-originated produce, the "Mahalo for your attention"s, and the overloaded baggage conveyors surrounded by assorted families, we eventually made it to the car. Dylan and I cought up on details and general pleasantries and such as Dylan's dad drove the car down H3, Hawaii's newest Interstate Highway.

Labels: Hawaii

ENDOFSTRING; $node['date']=strtotime('12/21/1999 10:51:00 PM'); $node['number']='1635932971600926886'; $node['permalink']='http://www.saddlesores.org/new/1999/12/hawaii-semo-arrivati-or-how-to-avoid.html'; echo "INSERT INTO node (nid, vid, type, title, uid, created, changed) VALUES(".$nid.",".$nid.", 'story', '".addslashes($node['title'])."', 1, ".$node['date'].", ".$node['date'].");\n\n"; echo "INSERT INTO node_revisions (nid, vid, uid, title, body, format) VALUES(".$nid.", ".$nid.", 1, '".addslashes($node['title'])."', '".addslashes($node['body'])."', 3);\n\n"; echo "INSERT INTO term_node (nid, tid) VALUES(".$nid.", 6);\n\n"; $iid = '4637510412053786133'; $nid++; $node=array(); $node['title']=<<As far as Interstates go, H3 is the most memorable I've seen so far. It follows its way up a lush, verdant valley until it reaches the eastern range of Oahu, point at which it juts into a tunnel with an entryway worthy of a 1960s science fiction movie. The other side of the interstate hangs onto the side of the range that separates the windward side of the island from the rest of Oahu and gives it a completely different climate. It ends in and area of the island called Kailua. Dylan describes it as a commuter suburb, but it is unlike any suburb I've ever seen. It looks very much like the small towns that dot the countryside in Costa Rica and Colombia. In fact, all that I saw of the state reminds me a lot of the places in which I grew up. More on that later.

Southish of Kailua lies Waimanalo, inspiration for a semi-famous Hawaiian melody, Waimanalo Blues. The town lies along an expansive stretch of a white sandy beach, lapped, sometimes angrily, by the cold Pacific ocean. Local ordinances, which require that people be half-Hawaiian in order to own property in

Waimanalo

Waimanalo, seem to have prevented the building of the hotels and resorts that the authors of Waimanalo Blues feared would destroy its unique charm. Amongst other sources of fame, it also boasts of the McDonald's where Clinton stopped twice on two different Hawaii tours. Waimanalo is, without a question, my favorite part of Oahu.

Dylan grew up, and his parents live, in the southeasternmost corner of the island, in a section called Hawaii Kai. They own a very cozy, chalet-style house on the side of the southermost hill of Kalama Valley, with a view of the ocean where it meets Sandy Beach, a wave-intensive piece of waterfront frequented mostly by locals and daredevil tourists. On clear days, we could see Moloka'i and Maui from the Williams' second-story balcony.

Labels: Hawaii

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