somewhere under the sky

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.

posted by leah v @ 10:50 PM