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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
 Posted - 10/01/2007 : 03:06:32 AM
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You might be interested in reading this:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/travel/30HAWAII.html
It contains lots of disturbing information along with description, but much I knew or suspected. But it is still startling. One such (in a caption of the associated slide show, as well as the article text) is:
"With some 750,000 visitors flocking to the series of pools and waterfalls known as the Seven Sacred Pools, the area has sadly become the Jersey Shore of Hana."
One thing I didn't know is:
"Ms. Ark moved to Hawaii 35 years ago with her first husband after living in Paris. Her neighbor on Oahu was Marvin Nogelmeier, “a hippie jeweler from Minnesota.” He is now Puakea Nogelmeier, a celebrated authority on Hawaiian language and culture."
As the World Turns, I guess.
...Reid
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NANI
Lokahi
USA
292 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2007 : 04:40:23 AM
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| But isn't it rather odd that a story about how the tourists are ruining an area ends with How to get there and where to eat ect.? Great articlae though really points out the changes that are happening so rapidly in ALL disirable locals. Seems anywhere people go to vacation they tend to leave there maners (if they have any) at home. |
"A hui hou kakou, malama pono".
Nancy |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2007 : 06:42:19 AM
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Puakea has said that he became interested in the language when he was asked to accompany a friend to hula lessons and enjoyed it very much. Then he said he decided he had better learn the language so he could understand about that to which he was dancing. I guess he has learned the language, all right. He is a shining example of malihini doing the right thing...respecting the culture, respecting the people and respecting the `aina. He lives Manoa Valley and does not even own a TV. Keali`i Reichel said that when Puakea coomes to visit him, he is like mesmerized by the TV and becomes so engrossed in it that you cannot get his attention away from it.
The Road to Hana is one of the most memorable parts of our visit to Maui. The beauty was amazing. To me, it felt almost like a cathedral. You cannot help but feel the glory of creation and awe of the beauty. On the way we stopped Keanae and bought some hot out of the oven banana nut bread from a little stand by the beach and some fresh bananas. While walking along the road, we saw a skull of a pua`a, complete with tusks. I thought that was pretty cool. I took pictures of it, but we did not touch it or move it or call attention to it.
It is correct that plenty of tourists line that road. It is also true, however, that plenty locals depend on those tourists for a way to make their living. We went to a nursery where beautiful orchids, plumeria, ti and so many other plants were going grown. The whole idea of the tour stop there, obviously, was to purchase something. It seems to me that there obviously was a mutual understanding between the nursery and the tour operator that our business was wanted there. The hard part is coming up with a balance that is good for the kama`aina as well as for the `aina itself.
Bad tourists are everywhere and those who wish to capitalize off those bad tourists are ready and waiting. We just got back from Washington, D.C., where we saw one of those "duck" boat/car thingies taking folds onto the Potomac River. That sort of thing is no worse in Hawai`i than it is in Washington. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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noeau
Ha`aha`a
USA
1105 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2007 : 08:08:26 AM
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Wow ! I left Hawai'i for one of many things. It is becoming unrecognizable to the native Kanaka. There is too much anger and commercial exploitation of land and natural resources. People are not as friendly as they used to be and I grew saddened by the changes. This is true everywhere the entrepreneurial spirit has gone haywire. Is there an unorganic Taro Farm? The guy who eats off the land from plants not native to Hawai'i. Bringing in foreign plants started long time ago with Don Francisco Marin. It is difficult to imagine what the native forest was like after the sandal wood exploitation ruined the uplands. And this one was the work of our own ali'i lusting for western economic gains. It is not a good thing, but some plants we grew up with like Guava, Mango, pineapple ,etc. Some we picked and ate to pass time on a lazy summer day others for more commercial exploitation and the extension of plantation economy. Rich exploiters who want to buy up a place for their own ego building. George Harrison was an A-hole when he lived in Hana. He didn't like people passing by his house to go to the beach and he tried to stop it. I'm talking about locals who have used the beach for generations. I just have to add that no one in Hawai'i owns a beach privately. Did you see the hotel room rates advertised as deals? Do you know that most of the money, at least the profits do not stay in Hawai'i. 90% of hotels are owned by corporations whose headquarters are somewhere else. I have to say good or bad visitors and locals alike, population pressures cause a hardship on any pristine environment. Its like having people leave their left over food and trash on a table at a self serve restaurant when the trash can is placed on the way out of the restaurant. The whole world is exploited by the travel industry. Hotel room rates are the same everywhere. People who write books do so for money and the writers don't give a hoot about the damage their books do. And the people read them and they come . The books rarely warn that the reader will be tramping into someone's yard etc. But even locals tend to do that, if you reference any articles about the stairway to heaven in Kane'ohe you'll see what I mean.
Any way I know there are people who care about the world and the environment. We do attempt to leave a place in better condition than what it was when we arrived. But the other side of it just seems to treat the world like it was one Disneyland after another. Has anyone ever thought why locals have come to depend on the tourist for sustenance? Has any one ever gave it thought that native girls become prostitutes because their original method of making a living has been destroyed by the influx of foreign ideas and economic systems? It is not easy unless one has grown up with two feet spanning the various cultures that came to exist in Hawai'i. Travel writers from San Francisco writing about a sacred place in another part of the world must be faced with a similar moral dilemma. To write about how a place has been ruined and to encourage others to continue along this vein must be paid very well to write something like that. A visit of a few days does not qualify one to write of things that seem to contradict itself.
Organic Taro Farm indeed! |
No'eau, eia au he mea pa'ani wale nō. |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2007 : 08:57:20 AM
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I think all the pilikia started with iron. Swell stuff that iron. Nails. Pots to cook in. Weapons. Knives. Bands to hold barrels together. Shields. Dast I even say, guns? Why the fight against Cook? Because someone stole some nails or something like that? Took nails out of the ship? Then the trading began and the ali`i saw that you could get swell stuff in trading. Then there was money, not just trade or bartering. Could sell trees to get money to get big ships not just outrigger canoes. Could go to other lands. See stuff Hawai`i no has. Can think, hey that is swell, I need that in Hawai`i. I need palace. I need English style clothes. I need a German guy to lead a band like the westerners. Why did the ali`i want to be like the westerners? Surely the missionaries were not people they wanted to emulate. They didn't have any riches, any luxuries. Someone somehow convinced the King to sell land..the great mahele. The common folk did not thinkup that one. Obviously the ali`i profited. Still to this day...Bishop estate owns plenty land and has plenty investments.
What is a good way to make a living? My folks and their folks and on backwards were farmers. Not just subsistence farming, but also had to raise cash crops to get money to buy stuff. Then farming not enough. Move to Ohio to work in the factories. Get money to buy more stuff. Move away but always with the dream of going back home, of at least being buried in the mountains.
How do we shut Pandora's box? Should we shut Pandora's box? People everywhere are getting crabbier and grumpier and rude and greedy. Not just Hawai`i. Also, when we were younger the world seemed better because we knew no different. Young people make their paradise wherever and whenever they are. Only as we age do we see that the emperor really didn't have any clothes after all. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Ginny
Aloha
43 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2007 : 9:06:13 PM
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Noeau I agree I don't talk online about hiking trails I love for fear tour buses will start showing up. It is sad what is happening to Hawaii but I think the government has to do more to keep Hawaiians in Hawaii, limit commercial development and monitor the flow of traffic in precious areas. There also has to be a greater activist effort holding legislators accountable. I am not sure what needs to happen culturally so that people feel empowered to speak up in a louder voice. There appears to me to be a culuture of complacency here...but I was living in NYC before so I might have higher expectations. I am not just talking about a Hawaiian voice speaking up but anyone living here who wants to secure the health of the land for future generations. We don't even have mandatory recyceling and this is an island. Just my two cents at 9pm at night.
Hey Reid I grew up going to the Jersey Shore WATCH YOUR MOUTH!
Just kidding. I think about how polluted the east coast is and its not hard to draw comparisons with the closings of Waikiki beach that happened this year, the alawai etc... |
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