Archive for the 'life in hawaii' Category

Philadelphia and Orlando, now back to School

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Late April, and the finals crunch is here again. Been MIA from this journal for almost two months total now this year, its been hard to keep up with the posts with everything going on. Aside from getting flooded this past weekend, I also got to do some work travel, headed up to Philadelphia and Orlando for a few days. Had a chance to have dinner with my cousin and her husband at a place called Monk’s in downtown Philly, they had a variety of belgian beers, pretty tasty burgers, and a bunch of steamed mussel pots. Have to say that I was pretty impressed with how vibrant the downtown area was even on a weeknight, it kind of seemed like a scene in between NY and DC.

Being that this is the first time I travelled for work in almost 3 years, it was kind of a change of pace, the immediate challenge was figuring out how to keep up with my readings for class and even debating whether to ride the train back to DC for a few classes. As it turned out I only missed one class since the other two were cancelled due to the Pope visiting the school. I ended up doing some online research and reading law review articles from my hotel room. I think there’s truth to familiar surroundings as being conducive to studying, maybe it’s just my nature to need some clutter on my desk otherwise I feel out of place. I had loaded electronic versions of a lot of my research articles on my laptop, but it was hard to read them on a tiny laptop screen. I also noticed that despite being someone that is relatively wired, I definitely preferred reading articles in hard copy.

The trip to Orlando was for a conference, not too bad except it was held on a Saturday, so that means that I was essentially working through the weekend. The plane down was filled with kids going to Epcot Center and Disney World. I had gone straight to the airport from a meeting, so I was still dressed in business attire, something I’ve never done before, that is fly dressed up. Traveling down south you can definitely see the diversity of the country, even along the eastern seaboard. Although I didn’t really see much else from the airport, the hotel and the conference, you get a sense and feel for the place. The humidity and landscape actually reminded me of home.

When I was on break from the conference I walked around the mall that was adjacent to the hotel. During lunch I got a good cuban plate at the food court, it was a no brainer to go there instead of the McDonalds, Panda Express and all the other standard food court fare. Happened to check out a surf shop that had a lot of brands from Hawaii, the kind that I used to check out a lot growing up. After a few minutes walking around I happened to glance at my reflection in one of the mirrors of myself wearing a coat and tie with the surfboards and racks of boardshorts behind me.

Posted in food, life in general, life in hawaii, random | No Comments »

Home for a week or two

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007

Back home in Honolulu for a few weeks on a belated vacation and chance to not worry about work and school and what not. It’s been a little short of a year and a half since I’ve been in Honolulu, a lot of things have changed by way of the local businesses, it almost feels like I’ve visiting an entirely new city. Went to the Mai Tai Bar at Ala Moana, it had been several years since I had been there, I remember back in 2000, 2001 it was a brand new hang out and ended up becoming a sleeper success of sorts. I imagine that they originally thought it would be a place for shoppers and tourists to relax during the day, but instead it became a total local hangout pretty much 7 days a week. Natural Vibes was playing last night, I was reminded that they played at our Senior prom way back when they were still mostly a local reggae band.

Monday after fliying in we went with my folks to this Japanese izakaya in Mo’ili’ili that used to be this old drive in dinner next to a cemetary. The place had a very authentic Japanese feel to it right from when you walked in the door, and a whole bunch of interesting menu items, some traditional, some more modern. Dad wanted to sample some shouchu, since they had a special anniversary price. Its a lot like Awamori, but usually made from potatoes or brown sugar instead of rice. Not quite as strong either.

It has taken a few days to get used to the time difference, and get familiar with home again. I’ve been reminded that this gap in time has been the longest I’ve been away from home, during college and grad school I at least made it back 1, 2 times a year either for the holidays, or to take a class at UH. The professional career life and legal training in DC is another animal all together. Of course there is the perspective that living away from Hawaii provides you. I am constantly reminded how crazy and intense DC, such a concentrated amount of federal and commercial power in a tiny corner of the country, yet the far reaching affects of which can be felt here in the middle of the Pacific ocean.

Walking around my house late one night after my parents were asleep on the first night back brought back a lot of memories from my childhood, pictures on the shelves, my mom’s pottery, dad’s cluttered medical journals, the wild and living jungle in the backyard, the creaking floor in the living room. for the most part it seemed like a dream digging through old things in my old room it was almost like a different person used to live here a long time ago. Most notably are all of the books that I had accumulated through my years after I got back from Madison, when I was taking night classes at UH-Manoa and Kapiolani Community College and frequenting the few used bookstores in Honolulu. There was an old book I came accross written on the price of paradise, namely, the economic price of living in Hawaii. It was written almost 15 years ago, but some of the lessons I think are very relevant to this day.

Linkes 8/8/2007 Summer Vacation Edition
Bottle Cap O Rama
Demographic shifts in Hawaii
Tsukiji Fish Market (the restaurant)

Posted in food, hawaii, life in hawaii, random | 1 Comment »

Colonial mentality, USA Today and Continuing Discussion on Hate Crimes in Hawaii

Thursday, March 22nd, 2007

I came across this article today about the sentencing hearing for one of the six crimes that occurred in Hawaii in 2006 that were classified as hate crimes. This time it involved a good intentioned bystander coming to the rescue of what he thought was animal abuse. The dreaded H-word was thrown about while the local defendant, his nephew and his son beat up the victim. It reminded me to follow up on my earlier post on the assault and battery that occurred in a Waikele parking lot back home, that was characterized as “racially motivated” by USA today article, and a continued conversation with my wingnut, self-proclaimed “conservative” friend about race relations in Hawaii. After reading what I had sent to him, I realized that it might be worth posting the gist of our exchange below. A few observations I had on this case that I forwarded to my friend along with the article:

1) “Given the limited facts presented, doesn’t this sound similar to the parking lot incident? Why is this a hate crime and the parking lot incident is not?”
2) “I still don’t think this should be a hate crime either just because of the added use of racially charged words, this is an open and shut assault and battery case.”
3) “Doesn’t this inconsistency of applying the hate crime statute highlight my earlier point about the difficulties of applying hate crimes legislation based on words alone?”
4) “Isn’t 1 year kind of short sentence for a “hate crime” that we are seem to be going out of our way in punishing?”

I found his responses to the article typically short, oversimplified, but interesting nonetheless. First he declined to address the crux of my argument that hate crimes based on words alone are very problematic to characterize, and really classify, especially in a multi-ethnic setting such as Hawaii. Then he went on to comment that only minorities gang-jump victims, and are without honor or respect, and that this epidemic of hate crimes (6 out of 8,000 nationally for 2006) back home as an example of how Hawaii needs a dose of their own “Aloha Spirit” instead of imposing their brand of multiculturalism to the mainland.

His statements overall I wasn’t too surprised with, but I think illustrate the misconceptions and downright ignorance that Americans have with Hawaii in general, especially my immediate reactions which were captured in my responses to him:

“I think it is totally elitist to associate gang jumping as somehow characteristic of minority communities only. It’s not like minorities are the only ones that roam in packs, think about all the times we’ve seen all those fights down state street at bar time. Gang-jumping is really a standard tactic used by military and law enforcement to subdue an enemy/suspect. Don’t forget the history (and definition) of lynching in America.”

“I agree with you that respect and honor seems to be lacking in our present society, but I think I disagree with you on the root cause, which I think you’re implying that minorities lack respect and honor due to their culture or values. I think your point (and general admission of holding elitist points of view) actually raises another very good question: To what extent do you think that elitism or polarization of groups that individuals identify with is contributing to the lack of respect and honor in our society?”

“do the math. 6 hate crimes is a tiny share of the national hate crime statistic even with the state with a population of 1.5M. Lets just estimate, saying that there are 260M people in the US, and 8,000 hate crimes in 2006, that would mean that a state with 1.5M should have about 46 hate crimes. 6 is a lot less than 46.”

“I’ll agree with you about the aloha spirit if you mean being more open and respectful of people of different cultures, and resolving conflicts non-violently. But again, your statement still demonstrates a limited understanding of race relations in Hawaii. A few isolated assaults where racially charged words were exchanged does not indicate a culture’s failure at race relations - take the statutory application of the hate crime, for all of 2006, Hawaii has only 6 of the 8,000+ hate crimes reported/charged nationally. I think the rest of the U.S. could use more “aloha spirit” as a whole as opposed to Hawaii. These types of crimes are being committed all the time out here, and with more extreme racial overtones and more serious outcomes. What is getting all the attention is the fact that the races of the victims are reversed - in these two cases the victims Haole, and the aggressors are “minorities” by U.S. classifications of race - usually on the mainland its the other way around.”

In trying to end on a lighter side I also shared a link to a related cartoon in the Honolulu Weekly resident cartoonist and provided this sidebar:

“This raises an important nuance abut the term “Haole” by the way the USA today article used it, a cold reader might think that it is a derogatory word, like the N-word or something. In reality it is used in the newspaper all the time, in fact most people will use the word to describe themselves in ethnic terms. Language, meaning and culture in Hawaii is especially contextual - a big guy charging down the beach yelling “F-ing Haole” is obviously a different context than someone writing a newspaper article about the governor or Captain Cook, or Father Damien.”

Linkes for 3/22/2007
VA hospitals deteriorating
Medical research on herbal treatments
Why Conservatives Can’t Govern or just aren’t cut out for it
Be on the lookout for predators in School
One incident the kid gets shot in the head
Casey Serin in a nutshell

Posted in ethnic studies, hawaii, life in hawaii, politics, shibai | 3 Comments »

Colonial mentality boiling over at USA today

Tuesday, March 6th, 2007

Shared an article with a friend on the recent disclosed discovery of a huge oil field 70 miles off shore of American territory, smirking at the irony that we won’t be getting any of it anytime soon, mostly due to our foreign policy blunders. In typical wing-nut fashion, instead of getting a logical and thoughtful response I ended up getting a totally off-point article (but interesting) about the Hawaiian melting pot boiling over. After reading it and noting that it was referring to pretty current events back home I shot back a quick response that in retrospect had a lot more depth than I had initially intended - I thought it would be worth posting.

It’s not surprising that the most vocal observers cited in this article of anti-haole sentiment in Hawaii comes from the military. I think this is probably true in most overseas stations where you have mostly young, single men in a foreign unfamiliar surroundings immersed in a culture to which they are largely ignorant of. However I see this incident as more of an example of road rage crime, I’m pretty sure I read that the assailant has prior convictions for assault and battery. Interesting twist on that story was that there was talk about classifying the attack as a hate crime because the assailants used the word Haole.

Racial tensions back home have definitely been on a rise in the past few years, I think it has most to do with the shift of demographics, a lot of Hawaiians are moving to the mainland for jobs, a lot of rich haoles are buying land and moving to hawaii. In addition to the recent supreme court challenges on admissions of non-Hawaiians into Hawaiian education trusts, also there have been a lot of heated debate on the presence of the military on native Hawaiian land, as well as weapons research at the University of Hawaii.

Still things are still not as bad as they were during the 1932 Massie trial - again another clash between local Hawaiians and military personnel - a time in Hawaii’s history when the racial melting pot got very close to boiling over. I still think Carlisle’s quote at the end sums it up quite well: “The race thing isn’t perfect here,” he adds. “But there is a lot that people can learn about race relationships from Hawaii.”

As with any other conversation about Hawaii I’m a little lost for words when talking to people who lack the context or understanding of history and the nuances of an island culture, I’m constantly reminded that the mainland mentality is more of a barrier of colonial ignorance than anything else. I think this small mindedness is what is driving a lot of problems in the way Americans in general are perceived internationally.

Linkes 3/6/07
Pushim: Anything for you
Antiwar film from an American producer, actor, and former Mayor
Perverted Justice - literally….
Guardian’s take on direction the economy is heading….
Peddlers as foundation for American Economy
article on zipcar from 3 years ago

Posted in hawaii, life in hawaii, random | 2 Comments »