reflection
on the eve of my last day in Hawai'i, i reflect that a month, depending on the circumstances, is usually not sufficient time to know a place. this can be compared to a person, i suppose. can you get to know somebody in a month's time? hardly. the complexity of a human soul makes this impossible. thus it is with places, and even more so, since usually places have a history longer than the span of a single human life.
the last 3 places i have traveled to i have spent at least 2.5 months there. i left sad. but this time not only do i leave sad but also with the feeling that i only have a taste of Hawai'i. a taste is okay. but i'm the kind of person who likes to have mouthfuls. other cultures are entire worlds. i like to explore the history, language, geography, and customs of this world. so one month: not enough to satiate my curiosity.
this is not to say i'm not grateful. i, for some unkown reason, have been granted incredible privileges in my life, and traveling is one of them. whenever i reflect on this, i thank God, the universe, fortune, luck, parents, everything, that conveys me across this vast earth. because i am so appreciative for the love that has been shown me.
i have more to share about Hawai'i, including pictures. this will come in the near future.
my Christmas (/Hanukah/Kwanza/New Year/holiday) wish is that you would be at peace with yourself. because it is only when the individual is at peace, that the world will be at peace. merry christmas to all and to all a good night.
a convert
i am sold on blogging. yesterday i accidentally discovered a blogger who lives in spain and became enraptured with her blog, and then with the blogs that she reads, posted on her site. i read blogs from different parts of spain, chile, and argentina.
today i watched a video of a village market in Togo, posted a peace corps volunteer's site.
technology is a paradox. we all hate it and love it. it's terrible and great at the same time. what i think we need to do, inspired from a recent conversation with my best friend, is use technology for good-like...well anything really. we have the technology to make technology better. you see yet another paradox. but love of money, the root of all evil, is why technology is exploited and why we are wasteful. people want to make a profit, not do good. people are not conscious of their actions...
back to blogging, i am discovering that it is a wonderful thing-a monstruous web that connects the entire world-or at least those who are literate and have access to a computer. well, that hardly makes up even half the world...but still. we can learn things.
this picture, if you can see past the glare, is an example of bad, wasteful technology. one of islands in the hawai'i chain has been devastated because of its use as a test site for the U.S. military. sigh...
the city
i promised to keep this up and i've been quite lazy about it.
recent activites in Honolulu:
Chinatown: a bustling hub of sights, smells, and sounds and an eclectic blend of every asian culture: korean, vietnamese, thai, chinese, japanese, not to mention south pacific. a little bit like SoHo-fattened pidgeons included. it was all of my weaknesses: colorful markets, good food, and chinese milk tea.
honolulu's chinatown is the oldest in the nation, probably started by immigrants after their contracts on the plantations were up, and twice devastated by fire. in 1899 bubonic plague broke out and the Board of Health quarantined the 7000 chinese and japanese residents. the plague continued to spread however, and the Board decided to burn infected houses. wind caught the fire and eventually leveled all 40 acres of Chinatown. since then the atmosphere has been evolving, from a sailor's pleasure to the unique, historic attraction that it is today.
Foster Botanical Garden: which houses rare trees from all over the world: central and south america, the caribbean, africa, southeast asia... it also has the only native Hawaiian palm, yes, there's only one, the loulu, and the Bo tree, the sacred tree of the Buddhists.
Hawai'i State Art Museum: with an interesting exhibit "the land and the sea," which focuses on the connection between the people and the land, and the terrible destruction that has occured to hawai'i's native forests and animal species. also has contemporary hawaiian artists.
Honolulu Academy of Arts: beginning with ancient mediterrenean art all the way through modern art. includes exhibits of chinese, korean, indian, japanese, southeast asian, etc. my favorite was the temporary exhibit of Indonesian artist Sudjana Kerton, a true creator. see www.kertonart.com.
hawai'i offers much to see and explore, sorry if this sounds like a bad tourist plug for hawai'i but it really is amazing that this tiny set of isolated islands has become host to such a blend of history and culture.
a little of hawai'i
a quick thought on the power of our minds: i was convinced that i was in possession of the movie Amelie for several months now...until last night when i tried to watch it. after ejecting and putting it back into my computer several times, and telling itunes that no, i did not want to import "Amelie" into my music library, i realized my fatal mistake: i had the soundtrack, not the movie. it scares me that i went for so many month believing that i had the movie when i really have the soundtrack. this is the problem with the world: we convince ourselves of things that simple aren't true.
anyway, the other day i learned how to surf. it was difficult. it takes an enormous amount of arm strength and stamina and there is just no room for reluctance. but, though i am obviously not an expert after one try, it was great to try something new and if i could actually stay on the board, i'm sure it would exhilarating and fun. it looks fun. i hope to go again.
hawai'i has a fascinating history. the united states may have claimed melting pot status but hawai'i is a real fusion of cultures from all over. there is no ethnic majority here, 42% claim "mixed ethnicity" and Caucasians, Japanese, Filipino, and Chinese follow. full-blooded Hawaiians sadly make up less than 1% of the population (according to 2003 stats). the native population was mainly destroyed through diseases introduced by foreigners to which it had no immunity. much of hawai'i's fusion of cultures comes from migrants who were brought in to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations in the 1800's. before the annexation to the u.s in 1898, sugar plantation owners brought in 70,000 Japanese immigrants, for fear of soon-to-be migration restrictions. immigrants have come from everywhere: china, korea, japan, the philipines, puerto rico, as well as germany, russia, scotland, etc. thus, i love it.
the situation of native hawaiians is sad, being a small minority in their own land. land laws are supposed to allow for natives to gain possesion of it but to begin with, private owenership of land was a foreign concept to islanders when it was introduced and the land was soon swallowed up by Western investors. the government (aka, the u.s. military) also owns a significant portion of land that should belong to the hawaiians.
and thus is the situation in many areas of the world. at any rate, it is a colorful and fascinating history.
