Wrapping Up In Hawaii

I want to start off this blog by giving you some information about my situation. I am finishing out my first semester at the University of Hawaii At Hilo. Being here in Hawaii has taught me many things about life. One of the most important things I learned from being here was the importance of tolerance. I never realized that Hawaii is going through major globalization and hundreds of cultures, religions and ideologies are clashing. I came to Hawaii with stereotypes. I did not get lei'd when I got off the plane. I realized that Hawaii is struggling to find its identity. I read an article recently written by a Hawaiin nationalist who feels that tourism propaganda down plays actual Hawaiian culture. An example of this are postcars with skinny dark skinned Hawaiian women. In reality, traditional Hawaiian culture view thin women as unhealthy. After learning more and more about Hawaiian culture, I realized how brain washed I was by the tourism industry. But my experiance here was much more than that realization. I found true friendship and a connection to the Eastern part of the world. Hawaii's unique location in the middle of the Pacific allows Westerners and Easterners to meet, not to mention Hawaii's amazing physical landscape. I was the first to arrive at my apartment at the beginning of the semester. The airline had lost my luggage and I truly never felt more excited or scared in my life. As my roommates arrived, I realized for the first time in my life I would be a minority. One of my roommates was Korean, one was Japanese from Japan and one was Japanese from the Island of Maui. Here are some portions of an essay I wrote to help you understand why the mix of roommates is so interesting:


"As Hawaii undergoes globalization, many people are experiencing the good and bad outcomes of culture clashing. In the past 150 years settlers from Asia, Europe and the United States have found their way to Hawaii. Many things have resulted in the mixture of cultures in Hawaii. A blend of all these languages lead to Pidgin English, a widely used language developed when plantation workers came to Hawaii. Pidgin formed when English vocabulary was blended with Melanesian grammar. Tourism also had a major impact on Hawaii. Traditional Hawaiian workers and fishermen found careers in the tourism industry, working at hotels and golf courses. A major reason for European colonialism was the fact that King Kamehameha steadily encouraged Christian missionaries, traders and whalers from Europe to come to Hawaii in the mid-nineteenth century. A traditional Hawaiian word that is still prominent today for the light skinned Europeans and Americans is haole. Europeans and American settlers saw the opportunities that Hawaii had to offer. A booming sugarcane industry resulted from the creation of plantations. The import and export of sugarcane brought many new people to see amazing landscape of Hawaii. After the boom cooled down, the sugarcane industry experienced major labor shortages. Japanese, Portuguese and Chinese workers were imported to Hawaii. By the early 1900s, thousands of these workers called Hawaii home. In 1898, Hawaii had one it’s most defining moments in history when it was annexed by the United States. Modern Hawaiian nationalists are prompting for Hawaii to be its own nation. The Hawaiian census in the early 1900s showed that %55 of Hawaii’s population was Asian, % 20 percent were native Hawaiian and %15 percent were European. This major culture change has brought both good and bad outcomes to modern day Hawaii.
Today many native Hawaiians are finding ways to fight cultural globalization. Many native Hawaiians are encouraging indigenous peoples to create movements that support returning the islands to Polynesian control. This is a major attempt to preserve Hawaiian culture and heritage. This ideology has created separation among cultures and races. Two outcomes of this ideology are lost identities among non native Hawaiians and racist attitudes among many indigenous Hawaiian nationalists. Many influential indigenous peoples of Hawaii are attempting to define Hawaiian’s political and cultural landscape. Sovereignty is a major issue in Hawaii today among many people, both native and non native. The question of also defining who is native and who isn’t is also a major issue. Many Japanese, Portuguese and Chinese people feel they are native because their ancestors lived here in past generations. While many indigenous Hawaiian people feel different. Many Hawaiian nationalists feel that Hawaiian literature and orature is being replaced by literature and orature brought from tourism and globalization. A Culture shift in Hawaii due to tourism is a difficult concept for many native and non-native Hawaiian people to relate to because tourism is Hawaii’s leading economic income producer. Tourism seems to glorify certain aspects of Hawaiian culture and adapt it to pop-culture. This happens when the travel industry produces market goods that falsify Hawaiian culture. An example of this is postcards that show thin Hawaiian women, when in reality traditional Hawaiian culture views thin women as unhealthy. There are also many good things resulting from globalization. Stereotypes about Hawaii are being broken by travelers who come to the islands. Many people are beginning to find the distinction of Hawaii’s exhibited culture and its present culture. For many people this isn’t an easy thing to do. Growth, cultural change and tradition seem to conflict during Hawaii’s globalization. People are asking themselves whether or not diversity and tradition is worth the price of oppression and racism. Hawaii’s diversity, both physically and culturally are having an impact all over the world.
Hawaii’s beautiful landscape brings millions of visitors to the state of Hawaii each year. The Hawaii Tourism Authority says that approximately, 7.5 million people visited Hawaii in 2005. The average number of visitors in a day according to census was 185,445 in 2005. Visitor expenditures reached $11.9 billion dollars. The interconnections of people from all over the world are bringing vast changes to all of Hawaii. You may see Japanese architecture or you may see authentic Korean Gardens. As visitors come to Hawaii they are learning what Hawaii is based on experience and not tourist propaganda. Mark Twain’s Letters from the Sandwich Islands published in 1866 was used as a basis for many Westerners to define their image of what Hawaii is. The image and stereotypes of Hawaii created by tourist literature and the travel industry is gradually changing as travelers who visit Hawaii return home and explain their experience. Their stories most likely consist of real Hawaiian culture, maybe even racism and oppression, rather than hula dancers and lei’s.
The future of Hawaii’s political and cultural landscape is uncertain, but what is certain is that Hawaii will undergo globalization. According to census, the total population of the world will increase 4 billion people in the next 50 years. Many of these people will find their way to Hawaii sometime during their life. Globalization is changing the need for political boundaries throughout the world. Technology is dramatically changing the travel industry. Globalization is making people realize that Hawaii can be inhibited by both native and non-native people and still preserve its traditional culture through practice. Questions of identity are being fizzled out by the education system mixing cultures in the classroom. Hawaii’s major universities are encouraging programs like the National Student Exchange to bring students to Hawaii. Racism in Hawaii is a real epidemic but it is slowly fading away behind the sheets of true Hawaiian culture based on love and knowledge. In short Hawaii is learning about the world and the world is learning about Hawaii."