Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Lingle talks a good line, but how much did she really do for the people of Maui when she was Mayor? During her tenure, Mainlanders really started moving to Maui in droves.

Miulang

Come on Miulang, for someone with such a mainland prejudice, funny you choose to live on the mainland.

Lots of Vietnamese moved to Oahu when Ariyoshi was Governor.
Lots of Hawaiians moved to the mainland when Waihee was Governor.
Lots of Koreans moved to Oahu when Cayetano was Governor.

Are they all cause and effect?

Please tell us how Governor Lingle personally attracted new "mainland" residents to Maui?

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

No, I'm saying that she didn't exactly encourage sticking with the Maui County master plan for growth. Alan Arakawa, another Republican by the way, has a whole different take on what it's going to take to keep Maui liveable, and it means moderating growth, not encouraging it, because the island's infrastructure cannot support all the growth that is being proposed by money grubbing developers.

Restricting growth alone will double or triple the cost of living. Then we will see who can afford to live on Maui.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

P.S. If you ever visit Moloka'i, there's a sign posted at the intersection that leads from MKK to K'Kai that basically says, "Welcome to Moloka'i. Spend your money and leave." The people of Moloka'i were able to keep the cruise boats from making K'kai a port of call. How were they able to do that? They kept McAfee from buying and subdividing the ahupua'a that contains Iliiliopae heiau, even though the owners of the land were willing to sell it. And they are very staunchly Democratic on Moloka'i. When we visited during the last election cycle, "Dan for US Senate" placards were placed all along the main road and in many people's front yards.

At least 5 years ago, 50% of Molokai was on welfare. Don't know what it is now after Bill Clintons welfare reform. Not exactly the ideal self sufficient community that some would like to believe.

[1stwahine]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

...and let not us forget ~ Lingle brought in the Micronesians!

Auntie pUpUle

P.S. eh, da thread is about Case challenge Akaka for da Senate Seat!

[Miulang]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

At least 5 years ago, 50% of Molokai was on welfare. Don't know what it is now after Bill Clintons welfare reform. Not exactly the ideal self sufficient community that some would like to believe.

There's some very interesting small cottage industries that are now taking hold on Moloka'i. There's a woman (Mainlander originally) who owns a gourmet salt company on Moloka'i (right next to the K'kai wharf) who is teaching some of the people there how to harvest salt which she then buys and resells to people like Emeril la Gasse for ukapila kala (she sells black salt, red salt and traditional Hawaiian salt). Her philosophy is that since many Molokai'ans are land rich but money poor, this was one way they could work the land and make a decent living instead of having to sell out or stay on welfare. There are places like the Purdy macadamia nut farm, which is turning to agritourism (it ain't much compared to MaunaLoa, but the guy who owns the company actually is the tour guide) and it's a real, working farm.

Most of the rich folk who move to Moloka'i don't employ the people who live there...they import their own hired help. What good is that doing for the people of Moloka'i?

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Restricting growth alone will double or triple the cost of living. Then we will see who can afford to live on Maui.

We already know who can afford to live on Maui: those wealthy Mainlanders and the homeless and the middle class segment who are willing to work 2 or 3 jobs just to survive, or retired people who own their own homes.

Why did I leave in the first place? Because when I was young, the only thing I could think of was to leave the island as fast as I could, come up here to the Mainland, go to school, become a professional, make lots of money. I never had any intention of returning. But something happened to me as I grew older, and as I became more aware of my responsibilities as a citizen of the world.

Hawai'i is where I was born. Maui is where I spent my formative years. My koko would not allow me to turn my back on the place where I grew up. Having the internet is wonderful, because I can now keep up with what's going on in the 'aina. This is important to me. If I can afford to move back, I will (that's why I want to make as much money as I can up here). I will also be able to hit the ground running because I am aware of the issues that are confronting the islands. Would I return to Hawai'i just to sit back and enjoy the ocean? No. I would work hard to keep Hawai'i from becoming another LA.

People in Hawai'i get upset with those of us expats who, having experienced the life that is LA or Seattle or NYC, try to tell those of you who live in Hawai'i that Mainland life is not all that it's cracked up to be. As expats, we've experienced racial discrimination, we've seen the effects of unchecked growth.

Ohana means a lot to me (it never used to, but it does now). I don't have any relatives up here in the immediate area. That makes it tough. It would be nice to be in a place where there are lots of people who look like me instead of always being the object of speculation (what is she? Is she Mexican? Eskimo? Native American? Hawaiian?). Lots of expats have similar experiences and would flock back to Hawai'i if they could maintain a good quality of life without always having to worry about where the money for the rent was coming from.

Miulang

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Small kine. Lingle is an exception.

Cayetano was hated by many.
Hawaii was coming out of the depths of a recession
Political Scandals were everywhere.

Lingle was not the typical Kahala Republican. She was a woman for one. Single. Lived on Molokai and befriended Hawaiians and others. Worked with all types and sides on Maui. I think she was a one time exception. She also has done little to change Hawaii's high tax, high cost of living, poor business climate that I can tell.

Funny how it took a renegade democrat governor like Ben Cayatano and a republican female governor to give Hawaii consecutive tax surpluses. Hmmm maybe the machine isn't so well-oiled as some democrats seem.

With the democratic party entrenched for over 20-something years in Hawaii ruling everything from subsidies to education, it will take more than one 4-year term for any governor to undo decades of mistrust. Hey if a democrat can do it then fine, but they have been given two generations...no three, to affect change and every election year they indicate their platform will be education reform. Reform from what, themselves? Sorry time to pull the plug on that machine and give the new democrats or republicrats as you say a chance to prove their worth for the next 20 years.

Case is like a republicrat and I think as a republican that's a fair compromise in order to bridge the two extremist party agendas and into one streamlined moderate viewpoint. This is why I feel Case must win.

[Miulang]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Getting back on topic: Lingle encouraged the growth of the tourist industry on Maui. It created a lot of jobs which actually pay people more than comparable jobs up here on the Mainland. But the large numbers of tourists also created a desire by a large percentage of tourists (Canadians in the 60s started it all) to decide to move to the island paradise. When they moved to paradise, did they blend in? No, they wanted to change Maui to become what they left behind on the Mainland.

Case, with his pro environment record, would actually be a good thing for Hawai'i. But how much clout can he have in a Republican majority Senate?

If nothing else, Case's snubbing of the "rituals" of seniority will shake up the Democrats and maybe force them to think about how their plantation rule on the island's politics either has to change, or be diluted to the point where they can no longer say with certainty that they have a lock on Hawai'i.

Miulang

[1stwahine]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Yeah, I hope Case Shakes them up real good! SnubS ~ tink dey all dat!

Shake, shake, shake! Shake ya BOOTIE!

aUNTIE pUpULE
Independent Democrat
(I think foa myself)

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Getting back on topic: Lingle encouraged the growth of the tourist industry on Maui. It created a lot of jobs which actually pay people more than comparable jobs up here on the Mainland. But the large numbers of tourists also created a desire by a large percentage of tourists (Canadians in the 60s started it all) to decide to move to the island paradise. When they moved to paradise, did they blend in? No, they wanted to change Maui to become what they left behind on the Mainland. Miulang

Your historical memory is short and/or filtered.

Hawaii's plantation immigrants lived in isolated "camps" when they first lived in Hawaii. And before all you public school graduates claim that it was the Haole slave owners that imprisoned them, let me just stop your embellishment before you get too creative. Yes, the plantation set up camps but the various ethnic groups were happy to live together. Not surprising.

The vast majority of Hawaii's plantation immigrants came to Hawaii to earn money, save some, send some home, and then return home when the work was pau. According to what I've read, 50% of the Japanese who came to Hawaii to work the plantation went home to Japan and never returned to Hawaii.

Japanese set up Japanese schools all over the state. There were dozens of them. Set up to teach the first generation Japanese language, culture so that when they all went home to Japan the kids would blend in.

They set up Japanese Temples so that they could continue to worship the way of their ancestors. Go to Moilili. Even today, it doesn't look like a Hawaiian villiage to me. It looks like a Japanese town, or at least did up until a few years ago as the structures from the early 1900s are replaced.

They continued to eat their own food, wear their own clothes and marry amongst themselves.

I know of many of my AJA friends grandmothers who did not (or refused to) speak English. That was up to the 1990s. They were still refusing or never bothered to learn English or Hawaiian and died like that. Talk about refusing to assimilate.

Now what is the difference between this huge immigrant population and a few Canadians who also chose to immigrate to Hawaii? My purpose is NOT to bash AJAs. Similar events describe most other immigrants to Hawaii. Its just funny how people like you never complain about some groups but always complain about others.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Okay, sorry, back to Case.

Um.

I say he loses but if he wins, good for him.

I don't like him personally but he got balls to do what he's doing.

Its nice that he can marry an AJA girl and people actually might support him because of that. Not too long ago, an AJA woman who married a Haole would need to move to the mainland.

Times are definitely changing, even if very slowly.

[Miulang]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Your historical memory is short and/or filtered.

Hawaii's plantation immigrants lived in isolated "camps" when they first lived in Hawaii. And before all you public school graduates claim that it was the Haole slave owners that imprisoned them, let me just stop your embellishment before you get too creative. Yes, the plantation set up camps but the various ethnic groups were happy to live together. Not surprising.

.

I really don't think immigrants at that time had a choice of where to live because they came to Hawai'i as contract workers. The sugar barons set up the camps to give their workers places to live.

My great grandparents lived in the plantation camp at Hamakuapoko. Within H'poko, families were segregated (I don't know if it was by choice or force)into subcamps. My great grandpa was a stable master for the sugar company. His daughter (my grandma) worked for the sugar superintendent so she learned how to cook haole food before she learned how to cook any other kind of food. She was educated up to the 8th grade. I've seen maps of H'poko which show the Japanese families living in a different part of that camp than others.


Miulang

[Konaguy]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Someone I was talking with posed a interesting reason why
Ed Case is doing this. Sen Akaka is getting up there in years.
If he died in office, Lingle would have to appoint someone
to complete his term. Which wouldn't bode well for Ed Case
as he would be still in the House.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

I really don't think immigrants at that time had a choice of where to live because they came to Hawai'i as contract workers. The sugar barons set up the camps to give their workers places to live. My great grandparents lived in the plantation camp at Hamakuapoko. Within H'poko, families were segregated (I don't know if it was by choice or force)into subcamps. Miulang

Baron: one of a class of tenants holding his rights and title by military or other honorable service directly from a feudal superior (as a king)
(C)1997, 1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved


The sugar "barons" vs. the poor "workers" who had no choice.

B4 everybody looses it, I am decendant from many people. Some were plantation workers on Maui. But I don't look at my ancestors as pathetic victims of the big bad Baldwins. They were Ass&(&)_S. Sure. But my ancestors CHOSE to travel to Hawaii and CHOSE to get jobs as employees of the sugar "Barons" as you call them. They have no one to blame but themselves if they didn't like plantation work. I actually say, lucky for them they could get a job from these guys,... even though they were &%$##s as human beings.

As far as segregated by choice. Come on. There was Japanese camp, Filipino Camp, Chinese Camp. Everybody spoke their native language. Of course they would live together, by choice. But 2 groups set up their own ethnic communities after they left the camps. The plantation Haole owners and the Japanese workers. They each set up their own schools, churches, stores etc to serve their own community. Since Chinese men came alone, they tended to marry out faster finding Hawaiian or Portugese wives. Dat ole sex drive is one buggah. But the Japanese and the Haoles continue to live separately. Check out Tantalus - Haoles. Check out Pearl City -Japanese. Resistance to assimilation continues today by many of your so called "locals".

[Miulang]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Baron: one of a class of tenants holding his rights and title by military or other honorable service directly from a feudal superior (as a king)
(C)1997, 1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved


The sugar "barons" vs. the poor "workers" who had no choice.

B4 everybody looses it, I am decendant from many people. Some were plantation workers on Maui. But I don't look at my ancestors as pathetic victims of the big bad Baldwins. They were Ass&(&)_S. Sure. But my ancestors CHOSE to travel to Hawaii and CHOSE to get jobs as employees of the sugar "Barons" as you call them. They have no one to blame but themselves if they didn't like plantation work. I actually say, lucky for them they could get a job from these guys,... even though they were &%$##s as human beings.

As far as segregated by choice. Come on. There was Japanese camp, Filipino Camp, Chinese Camp. Everybody spoke their native language. Of course they would live together, by choice. But 2 groups set up their own ethnic communities after they left the camps. The plantation Haole owners and the Japanese workers. They each set up their own schools, churches, stores etc to serve their own community. Since Chinese men came alone, they tended to marry out faster finding Hawaiian or Portugese wives. Dat ole sex drive is one buggah. But the Japanese and the Haoles continue to live separately. Check out Tantalus - Haoles. Check out Pearl City -Japanese. Resistance to assimilation continues today by many of your so called "locals".

So what's your point again? Did the kanaka maoli choose to live mostly on HHL in Nanakuli too? I never said the sugar barons treated my ancestors badly. It was a different time in history. I wouldn't choose to live in a place just because it was filled with people of my own color.

Miulang