Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

[1stwahine]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

...and the question still remains as to why Ed Case decided to run against Dan Akaka?

Auntie Lynn

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

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

My point has always been the same. Everyone who is not HAWAIIAN, even one drop, is an immigrant. There aren't good immigrant groups and bad immigrant groups, there are good an bad people. My point is that Hawaiian history did not begin when sugar workers set foot on the islands. My point is that even though everyone can try to create groups that are large enough to feel like a majority, ie Asians, Japanese, Locals, kama'aina, etc, if they aren't Hawaiian, they are immigrants. My point is that there is nothing wrong with being an immigrant from whereever. In fact there is probably much to be proud of. But there is something wrong with people who try to redefine what it is to be Hawaiian. Unique culture, unique physical features, unique language. No sense ack. You not Hawaiian, no problem. Just be a happy resident of the state of Hawaii. But don't try to pretend like you belong any more than the immigrant before you or the immigrant after you.

That's my point.

Aloha

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

...and the question still remains as to why Ed Case decided to run against Dan Akaka?

Auntie Lynn

Because he secretly does not want the Akaka bill to pass and believes many of Hawaii's immigrants feel the same way. Ed case believes that because he is Ed Case and because he married an AJA, he is now the definition of a Hawaiian. No need special Hawaiians like the Akaka Bill.

He wants to stop the Akaka Bill and believes the AKaka bill gives him the opportunity to be a Senator right now. Nothing to do with age or transition. That is all SHIBAI as they say in Hawaiian. It's about killing Hawaiian Recognition.


Aloha

[Miulang]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Because he secretly does not want the Akaka bill to pass and believes many of Hawaii's immigrants feel the same way. Ed case believes that because he is Ed Case and because he married an AJA, he is now the definition of a Hawaiian. No need special Hawaiians like the Akaka Bill.

He wants to stop the Akaka Bill and believes the AKaka bill gives him the opportunity to be a Senator right now. Nothing to do with age or transition. That is all SHIBAI as they say in Hawaiian. It's about killing Hawaiian Recognition.


Aloha

Then I take it that you are pro-Akaka bill. That's fine. But the word "Shibai" is Japanese, not Hawaiian, if you want to be picky about immigrants. And I personally have never referred to myself as "Hawaiian". I have always referred to myself as either an expatriate from Hawaii or a local. I respect the kanaka maoli. I also get very uncomfortable when people up here call me Hawaiian. I always try to correct them.

Miulang

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Then I take it that you are pro-Akaka bill. That's fine. But the word "Shibai" is Japanese, not Hawaiian, if you want to be picky about immigrants.

Miulang

I know Shibai is Japanese. Hard for joke on email, eh? It was irony, you know?

Anyway, I'm not pro Akaka, I'm just fricken pro something. Hawaiians have been screwed just about out of existence by one thing after another. Disease, immigration, revolution, statehood and now "localism".

I have my own ideas but I'm not da king. I just hope whatever can pass, passes so that things like Kamehameha Schools and Queen Liliuolakalani Trust and whatevers left of Lunalilo Trust can be preserved.

[Miulang]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

The more I read about Hawaiian history, the angrier I get. I'm with you, Kamuelakea. Something has to be done, but what? The UN Committee on Indigenous People (or something like that) recognizes the sovereignty of the kanaka maoli, but as an international body, they have no power to change things. They have recognized an ali'i nui (from Maui), but many kanaka maoli think he's a farce.

What Dan Akaka first proposed all those years ago in Congress has been so diluted by the US Justice Dept and the politicos, would passage of it really mean anything? Would it really give the kanaka maoli back the respect and rights they deserve?

If I lived in Hawai'i, and Hawai'i became a sovereign nation again, I wouldn't mind needing a passport to live there. I wouldn't mind being under the leadership of the kanaka maoli. I wouldn't mind being called a "foreigner". The kanaka maoli couldn't mess up Hawai'i any more than it already has been messed up by "immigrants". And if they governed so that stewardship of the land was one of the most important things on the agenda, then they would save Hawai'i. There would be a Hawai'i filled with loi and taro for generations to come.

Miulang

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

The more I read about Hawaiian history, the angrier I get. I'm with you, Kamuelakea. Something has to be done, but what? The UN Committee on Indigenous People (or something like that) recognizes the sovereignty of the kanaka maoli, but as an international body, they have no power to change things. They have recognized an ali'i nui (from Maui), but many kanaka maoli think he's a farce.Miulang

I get angry, but really I get sad. Hawaiians were weak. Not weak in a Hawaiian sense. By Hawaiian standards they were strong. But they were weak in a western sense. So weak that they were easy to conquer. No similar value for land. No idea how ideal their existence realy was. Some would say, survival of the fitess, tough luck. Maybe they're right. But I feel sad that a culture that was so welcoming, so generous, so kind to outsiders has been so destroyed.

If 150 (or more?) Indian Tribes have been recognized, and if Dan Inouye is the greatest single individual behind Indian Independence in all of American history, then Hawaiians should be recognized.

Why is Dan Inouye's Washington office filled with Indian artifacts?? Not Japanese. Not Hawaiian. Indian?? I have been there. Why?

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

It's not so much ethnicity but human nature to congregate around familiar people and culture when abroad. When I was in Idaho whether you were haole from Kahala or Kanaka Maoli from Pearl City we all hung out together and formed our little "Hawaii Clubs" everywhere in the mainland. We brought in our local foods and spices and had ono kine kau kau at one braddahs house one week then at another sistahs home another week. We sat in a circle with our guitars and sang Hawaiian songs because we missed our homes. We talked about going to Kam Bowl for the ox tail soup and check out da chics at Waiks.

But there's no difference between the plantation camps at Amaolu in Hilo or today's modern ethnic communities around Hawaii and even Bumpy's compound in Waimanalo. We gather around to share our heritage we grew up in and want to preserve. It's not an intentional spiting of the Kanaka Maoli but more of a mutual gathering of souls who only want to remember what they left behind when they came here.

Japanese are industrious people who toil and toil until they can't cram anymore transistors into a pocket radio, then they toil some more until they can get it into a thimble. As plantation workers they felt the need to rise above the Luna and be in control instead of being controlled. It had nothing to do with overpowering the Kanaka Maoli, it was all about networking because of the language barrier.

It just happened in Hawaii. My dad was a nisei born in the camps above Hilo, my grandfather told him to get educated so he could escape the plantation lifestyle and honor their name (typical Japanese...all about honoring the family name). The Nisei kept their loyalty to their parents and became the civic and business leaders of the Hawaii we know today. One of those rose high above the others and that person was Daniel Inouye and he became the poster child for the Nisei. If it wasn't for Inouye I believe the power would have tilted dramatically towards the Chinese or the Filipinos who were just as capable then to drive Hawaii's economic engine.

While all this power positioning was going on, what was the Kanaka Maoli doing? I don't know but they sure weren't doing anything to regain power. Repressed people? The Japanese were plantation workers out of their familiar country in a land where very little Japanese was spoken outside their camps. They came with basically nothing, lived in small cramped plantation homes, worked hard everyday, and they raised a generation of kids that forever changed the face of Hawaii.

The fact that the Haole's left Hawaii ripe for the picking when it came to power seats and that the Japanese took advantage of that void tells me the Kanaka Maoli had that same opportunity as well but was so fragmented in it's ideology that they couldn't network their people and take the seats of government and business into their own and restablish their rightful place as leaders in this mixed community.

It's ironic that it took a Haole judge (Ezra) to force the Hawaiians to work together to iron out their differences in the Forbes Cave debacle. Is this a turning point for all Hawaiians and Kanaka Maoli alike? I hope so because if this ancient race of proud people cannot put their differences aside for the sake of their ancestor's artifacts now, then they may as well chuck their culture and accept the modern "local" ways and forever shame their beloved Queen Liliokalani.

And in the case of Case, I believe his multi-cultural ways will help bring all cultures foreign and Hawaiian together in ways Dan Akaka couldn't. Because he is a local boy (a rich one but none the less local) from a part of Hawaii that was the roots of AJA power, Hilo.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

It's not so much ethnicity but human nature to congregate around familiar people and culture when abroad.

But there's no difference between the plantation camps at Amaolu in Hilo or today's modern ethnic communities around Hawaii and even Bumpy's compound in Waimanalo. We gather around to share our heritage we grew up in and want to preserve. It's not an intentional spiting of the Kanaka Maoli but more of a mutual gathering of souls who only want to remember what they left behind when they came here.

I agree. But what is the difference between that and a bunch of Haoles on Maui who want to "live together" or a bunch of Haoles who wanted to go to Punahou together. You can read it on the other thread or you're surely heard it all of your life, the Haoles are coming, the Haoles are coming, they are going to "change the fabric" of Hawaii. Well maybe, but they are no different then the plantation asian immigrants.

Its amazing again (and this is my pet peeve) that we can write a heart warming excuse for why certain races congregate together but chastize others who are doing the exact same thing.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Japanese are industrious people who toil and toil until they can't cram anymore transistors into a pocket radio, then they toil some more until they can get it into a thimble. As plantation workers they felt the need to rise above the Luna and be in control instead of being controlled. It had nothing to do with overpowering the Kanaka Maoli, it was all about networking because of the language barrier.

While everything you say is probably absolutely true, I think this is a bit of a sugar coating as well. Yes, Japanese were industrious people, and so were the original haole whalers, and the chinese, and the portuguese and every other race. There were some races that were obviously going to be faster learners. This was a clash of Hawaiians versus other cultures. Hawaiian culture was a feudal one. Hawaiians lived in a kind environment. Food was plentiful. Climate was forgiving. For thousans of years, generation after generation, there was no drive to survive like the environments of most of the rest of the world. Chinese and Japanese cultures had been exposed to the written language for thousands of years. Hawaiians none. Chineses and Japanese and Haole cultures had been exposed to organized farming for hundreds of years. Hawaiians merely farmed what already was growing.

So it was a clash between unequals. Hawaiians had lived successfully for thousands of years doing what they were doing. Why would they suffer on the sugar plantation all day long? Why would they learn English? This was Hawaii where people spoke Hawaiian for god sake.

Japanese are industrious people but Hawaiians were just stepping stones for other races to step on and over as they took control of Hawaii Nei. They weren't doing it to hurt Hawaiians, but they were doing it.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

While all this power positioning was going on, what was the Kanaka Maoli doing? I don't know but they sure weren't doing anything to regain power. Repressed people?

Excuse me, but Hawaiians were doing what they had been doing for thousands of years. Minding their own business and feeding their families in the ways they thought best.

Self Repressed in this situation? Maybe, but that doesn't make it any less unfortuate for mankind or painful for Hawaiians today.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

The Japanese were plantation workers out of their familiar country in a land where very little Japanese was spoken outside their camps. They came with basically nothing, lived in small cramped plantation homes, worked hard everyday, and they raised a generation of kids that forever changed the face of Hawaii.

50% did and the other 50% went back to Japan as originally planned. The ones here have done much good for Hawaii and deserve all of the credit that goes with that hard work.

But that does not make them Hawaiians. They, like many immigrants to Hawaii, are full of nice hard working individuals, but they are not Hawaiian.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

While all this power positioning was going on, what was the Kanaka Maoli doing? I don't know but they sure weren't doing anything to regain power. Repressed people? The Japanese were plantation workers out of their familiar country in a land where very little Japanese was spoken outside their camps. They came with basically nothing, lived in small cramped plantation homes, worked hard everyday, and they raised a generation of kids that forever changed the face of Hawaii.

This reminds me of UH president Mortimer a few years back who got into trouble because he suggested Asian kids should look him in the eye when they talk to him. Or other times I've heard Haoles ask Asians why they "let their parents control them so much" or "why don't you Asians just say what you think, why are you always beating around the bush to be so damn polite?"

These are examples of how many Haoles view many Asians. Basically, the Haoles opinion of what is obviosly the right way to do things is, in his/her mind, the right way to do things.

Well craigwatanabe, you're doing the exact same thing. How can you possible expect a native group of people to look out the grass shack window that they've been looking out of for all of their life and recognize that their future was being stolen.

Hawaiians had plenty of food, enough shelter and no exposure to formal education for thousands of years. And immigrants show up and say, why can't these Hawaiians snap to attention and be like us?

It's the same obnoxious egocentric judgementalism that we hear Asians complianing about Haoles all the time, and since it involves loss of a people, not just hurt feelings, I think its far worse.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

The fact that the Haole's left Hawaii ripe for the picking when it came to power seats and that the Japanese took advantage of that void tells me the Kanaka Maoli had that same opportunity as well but was so fragmented in it's ideology that they couldn't network their people and take the seats of government and business into their own and restablish their rightful place as leaders in this mixed community.

This is not the reason Japanese took control of Hawaii after statehood. There was no VOID left by Haoles. There was only 1 Haole for every 50 (I'm guestimating this) Asians and 1 Haole for every 25 Japanese.

Japanese gained the bulk of power after statehood for 2 simple reasons that Japanese had going for them and no other race or group did.

1) There were enough of them to make the largest single bloc of voters if they would simply vote together.

2) They voted together.

It's all about numbers. There were very few chinese, last I checked only 5% of Hawaii is Chinese. There are 250,000 Japanese. There are about the same who call themselves part-Hawaiian. These percentages have surely changed over the last 100 years, but suffice to say Japanese had the numbers to win in a democracy. That's why they fought for statehood. They knew they would win at the ballot box.

Hawaiians originally failed, not because they had a fragmented (broken) ideology. They failed because they had their own ideology and it didn't involve working in sugar plantations and learning to read and write English etc. It involved doing what they were doing for 2000 years. Living.

Now do they deserve blame for failing to adapt to their country and culture and existence being destroyed. Absolutely. Hawaiians and their/our ancestors are to blame. They failed to adapt to a situation that became inevitable and irreversable.

Nows the time to fix it or shut up and go on.

[kamuelakea]

Re: Case to challenge Akaka for Senate Seat

Is this a turning point for all Hawaiians and Kanaka Maoli alike? I hope so because if this ancient race of proud people cannot put their differences aside for the sake of their ancestor's artifacts now, then they may as well chuck their culture and accept the modern "local" ways and forever shame their beloved Queen Liliokalani.

This is a reference to "localism", what I view as the final and biggest ripoff of Hawaiians.