Hawaii arrival stories

[Glen Miyashiro]

Being born and raised in Hawaii, and never having seriously considered living (permanently) anywhere else, I am always curious about the stories behind people who have made the decision to move to Hawaii from elsewhere. What made you decide to move? Why did you pick Hawaii? Once you got here, what did you find out about the islands, good or bad, that you hadn't expected? And why did you decide to stay, when so many other would-be migrants have turned tail and headed back home?

[Albert]

Well, I had a ticket from Bangkok to San Diego. I'd made that trip before a year earlier and knew what a very long one it is, so I thought to myself, why not break it this time, no hurry, so have a look at Hawaii, where I'd never been.

I thought I'd maybe spend two weeks in Honolulu. That was about fifteen years ago. I just didn't see any reason to continue on to San Diego.

[Taran]

Hi Glen!

I don't live in Hawai`i at the moment, but I expect to return before the end of this year. There is some irony in my story. Before my first visit, I never had an interest in going to Hawai`i. The image of Hawai`i in my head was of stuff like the dashboard hula girl, Don Ho and aloha shirts. I knew of a couple of people from the same university program I had graduated from who were working there, but it just never seemed a place that appealed to me. Then I started chatting online with a guy from Maui. I ended up going to visit him. Things didn't work out between us, but I had an awesome time during my visit to Maui. Maybe it was due to my being on holidays, but I experienced this sense of peace and tranquility I hadn't known before. It felt "right" to be there. I didn't want to leave! But I'm not an American citizen, so staying wasn't an option. I started looking into job possibilities. (I work in the health care field.) Unfortunately at that time there were hiring freezes, so it seemed my desire to relocate was going to be unfulfilled. There were hiring freezes in my country too and for the next 3 years I worked in a position beneath my qualifications. I was just about to give up on working in health care when I decided to give it one last ditch effort. To make a long story short, I was hired on at a hospital on the Big Island. There were some adjustments to make because I'm a city girl and the Big Island isn't city! But I didn't really view it as a culture shock. It wasn't this big adjustment that I couldn't handle. I got used to the fact that people who have never met you will say hello as they pass you by on the street. (Being a city girl, I was used to just minding my own business.) I think the biggest surprise was the difference in geography between the Big Island and Maui! (That and getting used to having chickens in the yard next door. ;) ) I expected the islands to be more similar than they are, but they are all so different! I was already familiar with pidgin english, so that wasn't a big surprise. There is definitely more of it on the Big Island than on O`ahu though.

For reasons that were partly work-related and partly to improve my social life, I transferred to O`ahu after being on the Big Island for a couple of years. Honolulu is definitely different than the community I lived in on the Big Island. Having "The Bus" was a big advantage, even if it isn't always on time. *heh* I made some mistakes though, such as in my choice of places to live and not getting a car right away. Fast forward a year and I left Hawai`i to come back home. I hated to leave, but the job and some personal problems contributed to my decision to leave.

Now I have a job offer to go back to the Big Island. There's some red tape, due to this being the post 9-11 era, but hopefully once that's all taken care of the job will still be there and I'll be returning. I have some reservations because I'm not looking forward to the big move and I expect that the start-up costs are going to be quite big. I know from looking at various realtors and classified ads online that real estate has had a significant jump in the last few years. Rentals in the area I am looking at are obscenely priced -- and this is the Big Island!

To answer your questions, the good I found in Hawai`i was many-fold. The weather (of course! *smile*), the friendly helpful people (more so on the Big Island, but not absent on O`ahu), being so close to the ocean, the breathtaking beauty, sweet smelling plumeria, shopping...I'm sure I've missed stuff, but those are the basics.

For the bad...well...at the top of my list are the bugs! I hate the cockroaches and termites!!! I learned to deal with some of the smaller bugs and spiders. I'm too superstitious to say more. ;) Also on the bad list is real estate, especially in Honolulu. A lot of landlords do little, if anything to maintain their properties. Probably because they know they can rent it no matter what. The cost of renting is a bit of a shocker. I also have a gripe about bread. I could never find bread I liked for a reasonable cost. I once splurged on a whole grain loaf from a mainland company (at over $4 a loaf!) and it was dry, dry, dry, dry! I've noticed that there isn't the variety with some groceries that I'm used to, but it's all pretty minor. There are other choices that make up for it. Some things cost more than back home, some things cost less. It all seems to even out, except for real estate and bread. ;)

Although this is a complete generalization and not always true, I found that locals were more sincere than "imports". Most problems I encountered were with the latter. It's funny because there are people I met who had moved to Hawai`i and had lived there for years and they told me that no matter how long you live there, you will always be seen and viewed as an outsider. That sometimes you will encounter that "attitude" with locals. I never encountered any negative attitudes myself. Maybe because I never tried to be anything other than what I knew I was -- I am an outsider, but I respect the way things are in Hawai`i and don't expect it to be some sort of island version of life on the mainland. (Except where the cockroaches, termites and other bugs are concerned. ;) )

[memorylane]

I havent been there since 81 and didnt drive anything but a bicycle but i would there for what I hope will be more patient drivers, the close knit feel of the island, and the weather. Now if i could just win that 96 grand a local radio is giving away, i could come set up house! LOL........will have to settle with visiting in Nov for a few days instead. :D

[dana934]

I moved to the Big Island because back then it had cheap land; i paid $25k for 20 ac. I wish to heaven i had never in my life heard of Hawai`i. I've never lived in any other place that absolutely shredded my life, as did living there. I found the men generally to be a bunch of very large babies, and i don't mean just Native Hawaiian men; it seems to me a lot of men have come over from the mainland, spent a couple of weeks, seen how much bs the women are used to putting up with and decided, at some level, it would be easier to move to Hawai`i than to grow up. Both of my very beloved cat sisters died in agony there, as a result of the infantile self-centeredness of three Hawaiian men--one a crook, one i consider a kidnapper and one who let a pair of vicious dogs roam at will over miles of territory, knowing there were cats, smaller dogs, mongooses, et al. Every day the kidnapper ripped off my flier offering a $500 reward for Malkin. I.e., he had her, wouldn't let her come home and wanted to make sure no one else would tell me where she was. What kind of monster could do a thing like that to a person, let alone two sapients?

[SouthKona]

Wow, Dana, I'm .... speechless! :eek:

[1stwahine]

Aloha Dana! I hope things are better. You survived. I'd like to hear more of your story. Interesting stuff. Wow!!!!!!

Auntie Lynn

[Queenolu]

I think she just found an outlet to let out her Frustration. She just came in to post this one message and left.

Well, for her sake, I hope she find help and way of addressing her issues.

[Glen Miyashiro]

"Cat sisters"?

[Leo Lakio]

That's rough, Dana, and a real shame. I'll wager you've made a lot of changes in your life and your surroundings since then, and I hope that things are working out better for you now. Are you still on Hawai`i Island?

[WindwardOahuRN]

Being born and raised in Hawaii, and never having seriously considered living (permanently) anywhere else, I am always curious about the stories behind people who have made the decision to move to Hawaii from elsewhere. What made you decide to move? Why did you pick Hawaii? Once you got here, what did you find out about the islands, good or bad, that you hadn't expected? And why did you decide to stay, when so many other would-be migrants have turned tail and headed back home?

We were ready for a change. Investigated going further Northeast (too cold), checked out the Southeast (uhhhh....no no no), West Coast (property taxes were way too high in any area we were interested in), and Hawaii.

The middle of the country was out from the beginning---neither of us could stand being away from an ocean. And no, the Great Lakes do not count, even though you can't see the opposite shores.

Loved the weather here, the physical beauty of the land and sea.

I don't know about that "Hawaii is calling me wooohooooo can you feel the aloha" stuff. I cringe when I hear people prattling on about that. IME, those folks are in for a very rude awakening after being here a while. They've created a romanticized environment which no actual place full of human beings can possibly live up to.

"Hawaii is calling me..." Sheesh.

Do they really believe the great Gods of Hawaii are calling to waitresses from Fort Lauderdale?

Don't get me wrong---there are undoubtedly powerful spiritual forces here. I just have a hard time believing that they're spending a heckuva lot of time whispering invitations to mainland haoles. :)

That "all the people here are sooooo wonderful" stuff irks me too. Yes, there are nice people here, but there are some pretty damn awful ones too.

The people here are PEOPLE, for heavens sake. With all the faults, foibles, bad and good inherent in being human. They are not cartoon characters or ever-smiling creations of the HVCB. It is incredible to me that some newcomers here don't seem to realize that and are horrified when their illusions are inevitably shattered.

So we are here going on seven years. Rented for about six months, checked out different areas. Bought a house in Kailua then, when the buying was good. Re-financed when the rates went down. Fifteen-year mortgage, so the house will be paid for when we retire. :D

Nice neighbors, nice very mixed neighborhood, decent jobs, and my husband is just a few years away from being able to pull from his retirement funds and pensions. Low property taxes when compared with many areas of the nation (about one-quarter what we would be paying on a house of similar size in our neighborhood in NY), no heating oil costs. Utility costs are high but we're not heavy consumers.

What do I dislike about the islands? The damn BUGS. Jeezus, you just never get rid of them. Ants, termites, roaches.

The distance from the kids and grandkids. When we moved here we only had one grandchild in California. Six more born since we relocated! One group in Califonia, one in New York. My kids have lived in Arizona, Washington, Alaska, California, and of course New York. They could pick up and re-locate at any time. So we are here, and we visit as much as we can, and so do they.

Some of the ethnic and racial silliness. I just ignore it, for the most part. I don't see much of it in my field of work. People just aren't all that concerned with the color/race/ethnicity of the person helping them when they are critically ill. There will always be the baboozes who will make remarks but those are very few and far between. Those who do it are most likely idiots outside of the hospital too. Not worth even thinking about.

My haole-ness and NY-ness are fodder for humor, sometimes, but I laugh along with it. I really don't think it is done with a mean spirit. Trust me---I would know. And the jokes are on EVERYONE---many ethnic groups are represented where I work, and we all get hit at one time or another.

I don't think there have been any huge surprises or disappointments since we've been here but then again, I wasn't terribly delusional to begin with. :p

[Bard]

"Hawaii is calling me..." Sheesh.

Do they really believe the great Gods of Hawaii are calling to waitresses from Fort Lauderdale?

Do you believe that God (or whoever) can "call" someone to their service? If so then there are a whole world of religions out there that would certainly encompass that "calling", and I don't just mean "the great Gods of Hawaii". If you don't believe any of that, I can understand, all of it seems fluffy. But as one of my good friends once said, "if you allow that there is anything in the universe you don't understand then it's tough to laugh at someone else's gods". :D

Gotta agree with you on the other stuff though. Ain't nowhere in the world a total paradise :)

[WindwardOahuRN]

Do you believe that God (or whoever) can "call" someone to their service? If so then there are a whole world of religions out there that would certainly encompass that "calling", and I don't just mean "the great Gods of Hawaii". If you don't believe any of that, I can understand, all of it seems fluffy. But as one of my good friends once said, "if you allow that there is anything in the universe you don't understand then it's tough to laugh at someone else's gods". :D

Gotta agree with you on the other stuff though. Ain't nowhere in the world a total paradise :)


Well, what gets me is that, on an average of two years later, the majority of those who had this magical "calling" are hauling butt back to the mainland. Disgruntled, disillusioned, disenchanted. That, IMHO, is not a true "religious calling."

They find out that the "give aloha and you'll get aloha" thing doesn't always fly. They watch a few "First Friday" programs and realize that some people here really despise them, despite the fact that they came her with the best of intentions regarding the Hawaiian culture. Due to the fact that these folks came here with more than a touch of delusional thinking, they fall hard when they finally do fall.

I have never in my life heard more stink spoken about a place than when a majorly disillusioned mainland transplant is on their way back to the mainland. Never do I hear "hey, it just didn't work out." There is a litany of complaints. Nothing that is new, mind you, nothing that didn't exist before they arrived here. Just things that they wouldn't have believed even if someone had told them. For that matter, maybe people had told them about such things but they brushed them off. Whatever.

Hawaii is a physically beautiful place full of powerful spiritual and cultural influences. Fairly easy to come under its spell, I guess, and imagine that one has finally found a kind of nirvana.

I am most certainly NOT "laughing at someone's Gods." Definitely not the Gods of Hawaii. I most certainly do NOT think of the true spiritual aspects of Hawaii as "fluff." But (sorry if it offends you) I don't see the claim by some that "the aloha spirit is calling me" as an example of being called into religious service. Not even close. :rolleyes:

Honestly, people who want to come here just should go and do it if they feel they really want to. You won't know if i's going to work unless you try.

But please, if it doesn't work out, just say "hey, it didn't work out."

[WindwardOahuRN]

I think she just found an outlet to let out her Frustration. She just came in to post this one message and left.



Just curious---how do you know she's not coming back?

I mean, most people do leave after posting a message. :confused:

[Queenolu]

Just curious---how do you know she's not coming back?

I mean, most people do leave after posting a message. :confused:

Nothing I said was meant as an attack to her or anything like that.

No need to explain myself. I stand by what I said. End of conversation.

Mahalo.

[Bard]

Well, what gets me is that, on an average of two years later, the majority of those who had this magical "calling" are hauling butt back to the mainland. Disgruntled, disillusioned, disenchanted. That, IMHO, is not a true "religious calling."

Hah, I can't really argue with you on that last point. :) How many of those people go back though, vs how many go, ones you don't even know about? Those "locals" who weren't born there had to come from somewhere. There's a little more to it than that too, depending on what your philosophical bent is. Maybe that person really needed to go to Hawai'i to get a spoonful of humility, and if they left totally disgruntled they probably didn't get it. I dunno. Could also be (I think this is what you're saying) that feeling was just their mind applying some fun confirmation bias.

If you believe that anyone can be "called" anywhere, for any purpose, though, it stands to reason they could be called to Hawai'i too. Just sayin'. :)

I am most certainly NOT "laughing at someone's Gods." Definitely not the Gods of Hawaii. I most certainly do NOT think of the true spiritual aspects of Hawaii as "fluff." But (sorry if it offends you) I don't see the claim by some that "the aloha spirit is calling me" as an example of being called into religious service. Not even close. :rolleyes:

Heh, as usual, nothing personal meant. I'm not laughing at the Gods of Hawai'i either nor do I mean to imply that you are. My friend was talking about me. I was talking with him about believing in experiences people say they have.

But what's a "true" spiritual aspect of Hawai'i anyway? The traditional religion is one way you could define that. Feeling God (in the Christian sense) is another. You say tomato, I say potato. There are folks like TimKona who seem to think it's all total hooey (from reading his posts earlier), and I can respect that belief. I just don't think you can apply it selectively because maybe some of them really do feel something. There are active religions now where the land itself is a sentient actor in the world. More than one probably. However you look at it though:

But please, if it doesn't work out, just say "hey, it didn't work out."

Definitely can't argue with you there. =D

Sorry for going off topic on your thread Glen. =)

[dana934]

1stwahine--Mahalo nui. Most things i tried to do in Hawai`i were pretty frustrating, to an enormously lesser degree. I tried to start a Sudbury Valley kind of elementary school, but the Sudbury-style school already chartered in Hawai`i wouldn't share any of its information about its proposal. I offered each woman in the Big Island Substance Abuse Coalition program, as soon as she was released, the use of up to one acre of my land to grow either her own food or a cash crop (um...one that wouldn't get the land confiscated by the government) or to just get away from it all, but the woman in charge of the BISAC expedition wouldn't allow her prisoners to speak to me or accept my card. I had to be hospitalized once, when a doctor gave me too big a dose of sedative for a procedure, and when i got out, the hospital staff had stolen my 7 then-new gold colored dollars, my watch and some other things that were in their safe.
That last is another example of the babyishness i'm talking about. Probably someone didn't steal my things to be mean--it's just that it would have taken normal adult human self-restraint to keep his hands off anything that happened to catch his fancy. Likewise, i doubt the guy who ripped me off did it maliciously--it's just that when the truck he rented me broke down, he didn't have the normal adult sense of responsibility to use the rental money to fix it, or to refund my money, so i could neither salvage nor buy building materials and the cats and i were still living in a tent when the 2000 storm hit, so i couldn't keep them inside and Malkin ran from the thunder. The guy who wouldn't let Malkin come home, and who didn't get her the support she needed to minimize the pain as her kidneys failed, i'm sure didn't grab Malkin after the storm and say, "This little cat will never see her family again-- WHAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!" He just didn't act like an adult and phone the number on her tag when he found her, and by the time he finally noticed one of my dozens of fliers, probably he had a child who'd become attached to her, and he wasn't adult enough to be a good father and say, "I'm sorry, i ought to have called when we first found her. Now we need to let her go home. Maybe her human friend will let us visit her." About him, though, i still have to say: What kind of sludge could get himself to do such a thing to someone?
Glen--Right, my late adoptive sisters, who were cats, as distinct from my living birth sister, who is--no surprise--human.
Leo--Again, mahalo nui. True; the infantile men in the nearby environment were only the small fry--the reason i couldn't afford decent housing for my family just because some punk ripped me off for $250 is poverty. It's really poverty that murdered my cat sisters, and for that i'm going to kill the *#%!
I've made the first priority for the rest of my life ending poverty; as a minor example, my checks are now printed with the message: Read Sachs's The End of Poverty. Then write your US Senators & Representatives.

[WindwardOahuRN]

How many of those people go back though, vs how many go, ones you don't even know about? Those "locals" who weren't born there had to come from somewhere.

If you believe that anyone can be "called" anywhere, for any purpose, though, it stands to reason they could be called to Hawai'i too. Just sayin'. :)



Of course I don't know why every single person who comes here and subsequently leaves does what they do. That would be ridiculous. And of course people stay.

But the fact remains that most people who DO come here end up not staying. And many people who come here do so claiming reasons that are far more esoteric and ethereal than those who may move to, say, Chicago.

And yes, when you see it over and over and over again one may be tempted to say upon the departure of the disillusioned "don't let the revolving door hit you in the butt on the way out." It just gets tiresome, sometimes.

Are there those who truly feel a bond with Hawaii and will come here, do well, and stay here until they die? Of course.

So when are you heading over? :)

[WindwardOahuRN]

Nothing I said was meant as an attack to her or anything like that.

No need to explain myself. I stand by what I said. End of conversation.

Mahalo.

Well. Harrrrumph to you too.

And lookie---seems Dana has returned to post again. :-D

[1stwahine]

dana934, Mahalo for coming back and telling more. I believe everyone has a story to tell and I love to read. I uderstand your frustration about setting something up for the woman. I am going through something similiar with a Website fro Recovering Drug Addicts myself. :(

Although it is FREE and would be an asset to the Recovering Agencies in State...I am being met with unopen arms. I guess when anything is New...especially, FREE dey tink something is crooked. Dey don't know me.

Therefore, I'm taking it to the Recovering Drug Addicts themselves at AA and NA Meetings State Wide. Nothing is gonna stop me. I am a fighter.

I am truly sorry what happened to you in Hawai'i.

God Bless you Dear and Good Luck.;)

Auntie Lynn

[Bard]

But the fact remains that most people who DO come here end up not staying. And many people who come here do so claiming reasons that are far more esoteric and ethereal than those who may move to, say, Chicago.

I'd be interested to see some real statistics on that but probably no one's done the right surveys to gather them. I know a lot do move and then leave in a year or two, enough to make for some great garage sale bargains for everyone else. ;)

I've heard more than a few about Portland too. They had an article about it in one of the papers here once. People doing crazy things like moving to Portland, buying a "cheap" $300-400K condo, then commuting to California! As in buying plane tickets to San Fran and staying in their new condo on weekends. Because they felt the vibe and just had to be here. Kinda funny. (It was probably cheaper still!) I can understand though, despite all of the problems here it's a fun place to live. Hawai'i seems to attract more than most places though.

So when are you heading over?

TBD, maybe some time next year. I'll probably have some stories for this thread then. ;) I'm looking forward to meeting who I can from here. :) If I get there and it just doesn't work out for me one way or another, I'm planning to say cool, didn't work out, I had an experience. You guys can hold me to that if you want!

[WindwardOahuRN]

I'd be interested to see some real statistics on that but probably no one's done the right surveys to gather them. I know a lot do move and then leave in a year or two, enough to make for some great garage sale bargains for everyone else.

I've heard more than a few about Portland too. They had an article about it in one of the papers here once. People doing crazy things like moving to Portland, buying a "cheap" $300-400K condo, then commuting to California! As in buying plane tickets to San Fran and staying in their new condo on weekends. Because they felt the vibe and just had to be here. Kinda funny. (It was probably cheaper still!) I can understand though, despite all of the problems here it's a fun place to live. Hawai'i seems to attract more than most places though.

TBD, maybe some time next year. I'll probably have some stories for this thread then. ;) I'm looking forward to meeting who I can from here. :) If I get there and it just doesn't work out for me one way or another, I'm planning to say cool, didn't work out, I had an experience. You guys can hold me to that if you want!

Like I said, you'll never know if you don't give it a try.

There's another thread about quotes. Here's a nice one that you might like, from Mark Twain (who also loved Hawaii):

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Addendum to quote: Keep enough money in the bank to bail if you have to. :D

[manoasurfer123]

Being born and raised in Hawaii, and never having seriously considered living (permanently) anywhere else, I am always curious about the stories behind people who have made the decision to move to Hawaii from elsewhere. What made you decide to move? Why did you pick Hawaii? Once you got here, what did you find out about the islands, good or bad, that you hadn't expected? And why did you decide to stay, when so many other would-be migrants have turned tail and headed back home?
I never saw this thread until recently. I will answer the questions as asked.

1. I decided to follow my mom to Hawaii when I was given an opportunity to go back to college after living on the mainlnad. My grandpa was a doctor that moved to the Big Island for a time in the 60's...
2. My mom just wanted to return to where she grew up for a majority of her life... (I just wanted to stay close to my mom.... know matter where she chose to live)
3. I found out that everyone thought I looked local until I opened my mouth and sounded like I was from the Mainland. What I found out about the islands.... is that mosquitos loved me.
4. I stayed because I met my beautiful "local" wife and I have already discussed with her that there is no job paying no matter how much that would make us leave Hawaii.

[tutusue]

[...]"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."[...]
I love this quote! It reminds me of my daughter who, as I type, is beginning her ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. When I asked her why she would choose such an adventure (she's my 5 star hotel kid!) she said, "It's so far out of my comfort zone I figured why not."!! I give her so much credit for sailing away from her safe harbor.

[tikiyaki]

My haole-ness and NY-ness are fodder for humor, sometimes, but I laugh along with it. I really don't think it is done with a mean spirit. Trust me---I would know. And the jokes are on EVERYONE---many ethnic groups are represented where I work, and we all get hit at one time or another.


I can't tell you how many times I get the "Hey are you from NY ?" question from people here in LA, or even worse, "are you from Jersey?", and then some folks who try to do a NY accent. I never take offense to it. As a matter of fact, I use it to be humorous.

Cos' if you're not from NY, you CAN'T fake a NY accent, and sound silly trying....same as faking Pidgin I suppose.
Still, turning it on thick has made me much more of a funny guy out here in Cali than I ever was in NY...I use it to make people laugh, and it works....especially my godawful Robert DiNiro impersonations...always get a laugh.

I say use it if it helps make people laugh. People can always use a good laugh, and they can't really hurt you if you are making fun of yourself.:eek:


BTW...that Mark Twain quote is beautiful.

[Leo Lakio]

What I found out about the islands.... is that mosquitos loved me.I'm with you there, Manoa. I swear, when I'm in Kane`ohe, I can hear their buzzing as saying "Yes! Fresh white meat, just in from the mainland!" before their feast begins.

[sinjin]

"Cat sisters"?Living in a tent with her "cat sisters". Has to be Puna.

[dana934]

Although it is FREE and would be an asset to the Recovering Agencies in State...I am being met with unopen arms. I guess when anything is New...especially, FREE dey tink something is crooked. Dey don't know me.

What a pity they won't just meet you and get a sense of your genuine compassion. And i wonder whether some of them are projecting--maybe they'd never give anything away, including their time. If you're on the Big Island, you could sure talk to Global HOPE, Global Hawai`i Organization for Peace and the Environment, at UHH. They're don't focus specifically on recovery, but they do understand that the war on the poor includes, e.g., cracking (to use an apt expression) down on pakalolo so people wind up using much more addictive drugs; there are some terrific people in that group.

In case you're interested, i'll tell you more about how a middle-aged womon with an IQ of 160 and a Texas A&M education comes to be living
in poverty. (And if you're not interested, you can always just scroll past the rest of this entry.) I've lived all my adult life on a non-taxable income because i don't want to go to prison and i WON'T give the Pentagon a dime. Yes, i know there are people who have had a decent income for many years without paying taxes on it and haven't gotten busted, but MOST pacifist tax resisters leave money in a bank account for the IRS to pillage so they don't get locked up. I absolutely won't give anyone anything to use to buy bombs, guns, tanks, &c., to chew up soldiers & civie men, womyn and little bitty keiki, so if the IRS ever came after me, i'd make my financial assets unavailable and end up in the hoosegow. Sometimes when i tell people about my years of hell in Hawai`i, they say, "So i bet now you're ready to go get a straight job and let the IRS take their blood money out of your check, just to be able to live in greater safety." To which i say, "Yeah, right." Now that i know first-hand exactly how it feels to have one's beloved dependents die untimely, i'm--if possible--even more determined not to put someone else through this kind of anguish. Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, &c., can and have used poverty to wreck my back, starve me and kill my family; if i tried to make more money and still not pay taxes, they could have me put in a federal penitentiary; if the ol' doggie-doo ever really hits the fan politically here, they might kill me; but if they think they can intimidate me into giving them the money to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent people, they can all line up and kiss my little pink `okole. And my thanks to Ehren Watada for reminding me that `aloha is alive and well in Hawai`i.

I have this completely half-baked hypothesis that the reason American men are more nearly reasonable toward womyn is the influence of the way Euro-American expansion into the western states took place. Here i'm talking not about the genocide but about the very long period of gender imbalance. When whites first started moving past the Mississippi, almost only men could get away from their parents to brave deserts, grizzlies and some enraged survivors of the mass murders whites had carried out against them. Extremely few womyn moved west for a long time--just the handful whose lives had had some complete disaster, whose parents were dead or would let them go and who would dare to live in a camp all of whose other residents were men. So if a man wanted to marry, he had lots of competition, and i think white men in the American New West had to learn to behave somewhat better toward womyn than their ancestors had in millenia, to have any chance at all. Womyn in Hawai`i could consciously construct that kind of situation by getting together and agreeing among themselves which signs of normal adult psycho-social development to call for first from men.

I have a somewhat firmer basis for believing that it was the Holocaust perpetrated on the Hawaiian people by the first several waves of Europeans to arrive there that started the trend to puerility among men in Hawai`i. When one or more particular age group in a society is killed, the society is disrupted much worse than if the same number of deaths is even distributed among ages, and disease heavily targets the elderly and the very young. And (something the first-contact Hawaiians couldn't have known) sailors of that era were the very sweepings of European society. If a young man couldn't get along with anyone well enough to run a farm or a business, he had to "shape up or ship out." So the first many Europeans the early Hawaiians met were the dregs of Europe and accordingly brought with them the very worst social attitudes and behaviors from their homelands. I've read a journal entry by one of Cook's crew in which the sailor brags about having given syphillis to a young Hawaiian womon--along the lines of, "Serves her right, the slut."

No wonder Hawaiians figured whites had no souls--we're just lucky Hawaiian didn't have a word for demon.
Living in a tent with her "cat sisters". Has to be Puna.
Yep, you pegged it.

[timkona]

I guess when anything is New...especially, FREE dey tink something is crooked.

That speaks directly to the xenophobia that is a pillar of the modern culture in Hawaii. New ideas, or better ideas, are frowned upon heavily in Hawaii. Of course, this is a modern development in the culture of the Islands, cuz everybody knows that Kamehameha was eager to learn about cannons, and tall ships, and many other items of "modern worldly knowledge" in the late 1700's.

I been here 14 years. I came on the recommendation of a good friend who knew how much I love ocean sports. It's rather cold in the SF Bay Area when fishing, diving, sailing, or surfing. Out of the 4 of us who came, I'm the only one who stayed. Employment was easy, even in 93, when the economy was tanked. All you had to do was arrive on time, everyday, sober, and do what you say you gonna do, and you stand out instantly.

I've said it before. It's the ocean for me.

[Whitepoint3rchum]

Gotta agree with you on the other stuff though. Ain't nowhere in the world a total paradise :)

Absolutely there is, you just gotta be in the right state of mind.

[Whitepoint3rchum]

Those "locals" who weren't born there had to come from somewhere.



Just for some clarification, what is the word local being used for these days? I thought it was exclusively for someone born in Hawai'i who wasn't haole. Sorry for the tangent Glen, but I'd get a bit peeved if I heard a malihini refer to themself as local.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

haole and local are synonymous.

haole and malihini are not.

Even though today people act as if the opposite is true, if you ask the kupuna, they would agree with what I wrote. And that would also agree that haole/local and "good" are not synonymous. Each must earn his/her own.

[Bard]

haole and local are synonymous.

So for example Japanese immigrants who came a few generations back are not "locals"? Or are they considered haole? :confused:

[Glen Miyashiro]

Sigh. Go get your own thread, why don't you. But since that's probably not going to happen, I might as well respond...

There are several overlapping and conflicting definitions. Much heat can be caused by disagreements over them. Take your pick.

Malihini.
A recent newcomer to the islands, someone who came from elsewhere. There are differing opinions on how long one remains a malihini:
(1) You're a malihini until you learn the ways of the islands.
(2) Once a malihini, always a malihini. And that might even go for your kids too.

Haole.
(1) 18th century meaning: Stranger; outsider. Anyone who wasn't Native Hawaiian, with different modifiers depending on place of origin: Haole Pelekania (British), Haole Kepanī (Japanese), etc. Maybe even Haole Kahiki (Tahitian).
(2) 19th century meaning: Residents of Hawaiʻi of white descent. A term adopted by the children of the missionaries to refer to themselves. Does not include Portuguese field lunas.
(3) 20th century meaning: White people.

Local.
(1) Someone who is from the place you are at.
(2) Someone who identifies with the culture of the present-day residents of Hawaiʻi.
(3) A Hawaiʻi resident who is not a malihini.
(4) A Hawaiʻi resident who is not haole.
(5) A Hawaiʻi resident who is not haole, and who is not Native Hawaiian either.

[Bard]

Apologies for responding to the sub-thread Glen :) Didn't mean to help push it OT. I personally find the original topic interesting and hope it continues rather than devolving into another racial flame-war...

[Glen Miyashiro]

Uh huh.

I am still interested in hearing people's Hawaiʻi arrival stories. What brought you to the islands, and what made you stay?