my trip to hawaii!!

[kimo55]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

I know a lot of my comments may have sat wrong with the vocal minority, but trust me it comes from a combination of my sarcastic writing style and my amazement of the whole experience, not bigotry, hatred, or...communism? Someone called me a communist?

...when islanders go to the mainland and encounter haole's racist, communistic sarcasm, here's their reaction:


http://www.myspace.com/hawaiicircle
http://www.myspace.com/boto_x

[LikaNui]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

I also think it's amazing that a lot of people take racial traits as racism.

No worries, Carl. Almost every single comedian here in Hawai`i uses lots of "racial" material and everyone is in on the joke and enjoys it. Ditto for a lot of our music.
Glad to see you're still here and participating...

[EnjoyDaRideTRD]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

I no longer want to put my thoughts into this thread, I did and I feel like I did something wrong, so I'll just Shut my mouth and agree that most Japanesse are short, loves to take pictures and amongst other put downs. Don't go into talking bad about my race cause that will cause me to get banned from this Forum. I got a lot of rant from my posts so I'm gonna avoid commenting on this thread. I do hope that you enjoyed your trip to Oahu, I was there when u were, and I stayed over at the secret place you stayed most likely. It was Bellows Air Foce base, nearby Waimanalo, yes civilians cannot access the cabin areas but they can access the beach area on the weekend. I do represent the military on this forum also. Yes most military folks who gets stationed on Oahu calls it a rock and can't wait till they leave. There's more to Hawaii than the tourist attractions.

[CranBeree]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

...when islanders go to the mainland and encounter haole's racist, communistic sarcasm, here's their reaction:


http://www.myspace.com/hawaiicircle
http://www.myspace.com/boto_x

how come the keikis sticking middle finga?

[cezanne]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

I agree completely with Maddie and Leo. There was absolutely no call for the vicious and mean-spirited responses to Carl, to whom I would say that the attacks he saw here were the opinions of just two people and absolutely do not represent the feelings and attitude of most of the rest of 2,000+ members of HawaiiThreads.
I'm very disappointed in the way this has developed...

Me too. The aloha spirit thrives in HT don't it?! Glad you had a great time Carl.

[kimo55]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

Cezanne, you alter a persons meaning, intent and inflection and basically, their message when you add your own bold or italic to their post.

also, the aloha spirit only goes so far. When someone comes over here and disses us, you better be ready to see people defend their home, people and culture.
That is one of the things I like about these islands. it does NOT resemble the east coast, and hopefully, that mentality will stay there. No matter how much they continue to add insult to injury by further judging us and saying we are reacting wrong.

[cezanne]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

Cezanne, you alter a persons meaning, intent and inflection and basically, their message when you add your own bold or italic to their post.

Done.

also, the aloha spirit only goes so far. When someone comes over here and disses us, you better be ready to see people defend their home, people and culture.
That is one of the things I like about these islands. it does NOT resemble the east coast, and hopefully, that mentality will stay there. No matter how much they continue to add insult to injury by further judging us and saying we are reacting wrong.

I just got excerpts from what was copied and pasted because the link doesn't work for me. Seems that some peeps were kinda over-reacting... I don't think he meant any harm... from the "juicy" tidbits that were c and p'd anyway.

[cezanne]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

how come the keikis sticking middle finga?

I think that's the point Kimo's trying to get across.

[1stwahine]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

Done.


I just got excerpts from what was copied and pasted because the link doesn't work for me. Seems that some peeps were kinda over-reacting... I don't think he meant any harm... from the "juicy" tidbits that were c and p'd anyway.

Cezanne, The reason I got pee'd is my Love for Chinatown. I didn't over-react. I reacted because I was born and raised in the area. Nuff said.

Auntie Lynn

[cezanne]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

Cezanne, The reason I got pee'd is my Love for Chinatown. I didn't over-react. I reacted because I was born and raised in the area. Nuff said.

Auntie Lynn

K Auntie... no leek me!

[1stwahine]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

K Auntie... no leek me!

...no can leek you! you wen help me with my car! it's all good. i just wanted to clarify why i wuz pee'd.

<group hug>
Auntie Lynn

[kimo55]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

I don't think he meant any harm...

No one but that mainlander is in any position to know what was going on inside his mind. All I know was what I saw and read. And it wasn't a pretty sight.

[CranBeree]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

I think that's the point Kimo's trying to get across.

oh doh...that totally flew over my head!

[AbsolutChaos]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

Sigh…ok, after all the broo-ha-ha surrounding this guy’s blog or whatever it is, I had to see for myself what the deal was. I didn’t find it offensive or insulting. His type of humor is very familiar to people of my generation (gen Y if you will), not just gen Xers. I enjoyed his sarcastic style. Carlhuber’s sarcastic humor didn’t strike me as trying to insult Hawaii at all—I suspect you’d find him making similar comments, whether he was in California or in New Jersey. Furthermore, the sarcasm throughout Carlhuber’s descriptions reminds me a lot of certain members’ uses of sarcasm on HT. I can certainly recall times when members of HT used sarcasm, only to have it mistakenly taken literally or as a personal insult by other HT members. Sound familiar to some of you maybe?

As to all this stereotype business…if he had written that he had come across a bunch of Indians talking about how reluctant they were to leave their 7-11s/motels unattended while they were visiting Hawaii, I wouldn’t have been offended, and I AM Indian. All it would indicate to me was that he didn't know a lot of Indian people or know much about them. If he had said something about how Indian people are turban-wearing terrorists, then I would have gotten upset. Carlhuber didn’t appear to be dissin’ anything if you read his WHOLE travelogue and don’t selectively single out sentences. If anything, I thought he was just milking the stereotype for humor the way comedians here in Hawaii attempt to do the same with varying degrees of success. The way everybody was criticizing Carlhuber on HT, I was expecting his travel adventure to contain horrific pro-neoNazi skinhead or pro-KKK statements or talk about how all “Hawaiians” were fat, stupid, and lazy or something like that all throughout!. Geesh. He spent equal energy making fun of tourists, it seemed to me.

While he had the typical superficial first-time HI visitor’s experience, Carlhuber made his experiences amusing to read. He recognized the crass commercialism rampant in many of his tourist experiences. At least he recognized the commercialism and didn’t think his experience was the “real Hawaii.” I always tell all my first-time visiting friends that they need to return to Hawaii now that they’ve gotten all the “touristy things” out of the way on their first visit—with their second visit I can get a chance to show them more of the “real” Hawaii and not the tourist version.

Carlhuber didn’t paint a very positive picture of Chinatown, but he admitted TWICE that he only visited the edge of Chinatown. Of course there is more to Chinatown than pig heads and Indigo. But if you don’t live here and don’t have a Hawaii insider with you to reveal to you that these “creepy dark” shops that l"ook like they’ve seen better times" actually harbor lovely, interesting treasures and lovely, interesting people, wouldn’t you, as the AVERAGE American tourist, be less inclined to stop inside or venture further? If you’re afraid to get lost on a maze of streets, wouldn’t you be less inclined, as the AVERAGE American tourist without an insider guide, to explore the depths of Chinatown? Wouldn’t you probably stick to the “safer” places like Indigo on the EDGE of Chinatown as this guy and his family did?

I think we can all admit that the Chinatown area, especially after night falls, can seem (and can be) a more dangerous place, especially if you don’t know what you are doing and are a stranger to the area—“creepy and dark,” is perhaps how Chinatown will appear to be, if you will, at that point. Any new place can seem a bit intimidating/scary if it’s a new experience. Meanwhile, daytime is harsh—for instance, in the light of day you can see all the lines and wrinkles on a woman’s face, no matter how much makeup she may use, whereas nighttime and darkness can conceal such things. Dim lighting can make people look a lot more attractive a lot of the time. (Stay with me here…I do have a point!) The same applies to Chinatown. In the full light of day you can see all the age, all the disrepair on the outsides of the buildings. To me this indicates character and the uniqueness of Chinatown, especially when compared to the modernized, soul-less buildings sucking up all the beauty that used to be Waikiki. At the same time, I can also understand how people on the Mainland, who are surrounded by modernized, soul-less, new buildings A LOT of the time, can view Honolulu’s Chinatown as run-down and ramshackle in comparison. It’s a matter of what you are used to seeing and how much travel you’ve done in your life and how much you are used to appreciating other cultures. All his description of Chinatown indicated to me was that he probably isn’t as well-travelled or as exposed to other cultures as he could be. (Sorry, Carlhuber, perhaps you are well-travelled, but I honestly can’t tell that from your travel descriptions in this case.)

Ya know what else? The first time I visited Chinatown here (having never been to any Chinatowns before in my life), the thing I remembered most was ALSO the pig heads. Ya know why? Because on the Mainland, despite growing up surrounded by cows (and some pigs), MOST of us Midwesterners/Southerners (and other part of the US too, I bet!) see meat in two forms—either completely alive, grazing in a field or in a zoo, OR in a sanitary, unrecognizable little beheaded package in some supermarket/restaurant, which in no way reminds you that yes, this piece of meat was once part of a living, breathing animal. The head is quite an identifying feature, and when you usually only see your meat on a plate in a little square form or between two pieces of bread, it IS a bit disconcerting to be reminded that the meat once had a head and eyes and other such parts that make it an animal and no longer “just” a piece of meat to us. To see a bunch of pig heads then becomes something that lingers in the brain. Chinatown is one of the few places where one can see such things in America anymore, and it can be a shock to the system for the uninitiated and unwary. He didn’t say that pig heads were bad—it appeared to me that he found it interesting and amusing and different in his sarcastic way.

Someone asked why he didn’t talk about visiting the “out of the way” places and only talked about the typical touristy stuff. “Out of the way” is a relative term when applied to places. People here in town consider other parts of the island sometimes to be “out of the way” and vice versa Hawaii residents sometimes consider the Mainland to be “out of the way” and vice versa. In general, though, "out of the way" is often used to describe scenic, unspoiled, quiet, places. A city person, while politely appreciating an “out of the way” place for five minutes, might prefer to go back to the city. “Out of the way” just isn’t the city person’s cup of tea sometimes. As such, if it isn’t his or her thing, then it makes sense that the person chooses to spend more time describing the city in his/her blog and might describe “out of the way” places rather naively, if at all, no? To each their own.

Okay, speaking of naïve, now we come to the “ignorant surfers” comment. Carlhuber, dude, that was just plain bad writing. Ignorant was the wrong choice of words. I think perhaps you would have been better off using “innocent” or “easygoing” or “relaxed” or something. I know what you MEANT, but what you actually WROTE came out wrong and insulting. I’d re-write that part if I were you. I’m not sure seals can be described as “ignorant” anyway… it’s actually kinda funny when you think about it. Obviously you aren’t a surfer yourself, or your description of surfers on the North Shore would have been very different.

[kimo55]

Re: my trip to hawaii!!

wow. Absolut.
I NEED to know your brand of coffee!