Opinion/Editorial
WE ARE ALL TOURISTS
When we leave home, all of us, yes, all of us, we immediately become tourists in another place, area, or jurisdiction not our own. If tourists are seen as an evil force because there are too many of them at popular places, some of them act out or imbibe alcohol or marijuana too much, and so on, it is us, you, and me, doing that. We are simply not doing it at home or around our home. What’s happening in the Hawaiian Islands, the fire on Maui, is being picked up by the national media as some sort of applied distaste by the ‘locals’ toward the visiting tourist population swirling around them. When those very same ‘locals’ being interviewed with such uncomplimentary terms toward the visitors, they are talking about themselves without having any clue that they are. Those locals who have lost homes have to temporarily move away for quite a period of time, either on different parts of the island of Maui or to the other islands, or quite possibly back to the continental United States. Once relocated, these people will be seen as tourists unless they want to wear new tattoos or “T” Shirts that read ‘locals only,’ and so on, the local population around them where they are put will see them as tourists. They may even be kept up in local or distant hotels, which will make them resemble tourists even more.
But the Hawaii thing, the blaming of the tourists, is mostly a racial ownership thing. Almost anyone that moves to Hawaii, who is of color (not black) it assumed to be an ‘island’ upon arrival. Anyone who is a Caucasian, no matter how long having lived in the islands or even for generations is considered a Haole. That’s what the islanders refer to as the “H” word, instead of the “N” word. It’s valuable to live in Hawaii as a Caucasian simply to get a feel for how black people back on the mainland (and in Hawaii) are prejudiced against. The application of prejudice out there is subtle but deeply painful, just as it can be back on the mainland for the black and Mexican populations. The ‘islanders’ consider themselves to be the owners of the land out there, no matter how new they are.
Native Hawaiians have all but disappeared into the gene pool so they are not really an issue, and nobody can prove lineage because records were kept of such things before the second world war. On network and cable television shows it’s also interesting to see Haole’s talk, who have assumed Hawaiian names! They were the special gold bracelets and necklaces to indicate that they are from distantly related (by obscure genealogy) real Hawaiian relatives. This paradise of islands, set in the middle of the Pacific Ocean sets the scene for revealing the inbred and internal necessity of establishing racial makeup for money. The Hawaiian Islands are made up of beaches and inland areas that are among the most pleasing, and therefore valuable, places on the entire planet. The mid-ocean waters are pristine and pure, the beaches consisting of clean rich sand of the highest quality, while insect life and other sometimes obnoxious animal presence is at an almost unnoticeable minimum. It’s not paradise but it’s the closest thing to being so that the planet has to offer. A single visit to Hawaii is a life changing event but please don’t go there and think of the ‘native’ population, however they have defined that word to allow themselves to exist there and deny you that opportunity is going to accept you or take you in.
They are not. The ‘locals’ want money to rebuild the nearly uninhabitable residences they had when the fire started, and they want it from big money companies (Hawaiian Electric) or the governmental authorities (national and state). They don’t want it from any inflow or existing presence of tourists. Service to tourists takes labor and nobody out there in the burned areas is very capable of working at all until some time has gone by to allow them to accommodate the effects that post traumatic stress induces. These people, who have lost jobs, income, and shelter, deserved consideration, and helped but don’t ever forget that their grief process includes significant levels of pure anger and misplaced blame. The job of Haole tourists is to support them through their pain and understand that money is vital to their very survival. We are all Hawaii. We are all the United States of America. We must all act like it, even when it doesn’t seem entirely rational to think so.
Sidenote:
One of Arch Patton’s CIA assignments, years ago, involved the Hawaiian Native Movement. You may enjoy the details.
