Thanksgiving, California, and Consumerism

Wednesday of last week I flew to San Jose, CA to see my big sister Lacy, her husband Cliff, my little sister Kallie, and my Mom. Even though it's not where I grew up and I am in no way familiar with the area, it felt like home. I realized that its not about where you come together or even how you come together, but instead simply that you do come together. I miss my family often; they are the only thing missing in paradise.

Anyway, I have never considered my family "consumeristic". By that I mean I never really thought that we were rooted in consumerism or normal Western ideas surrounding the holidays; I'm beginning to realize I was wrong.

I'm not saying it's terrible to splurge, go all out, and have one weekend that you treat yourself to something nice; instead I'm realizing that this desire to spend lots of money because it is a holiday (as if its a necessity, or justification at the very least) is engrained in us, so much so that I have always overlooked it. Maybe I'm just growing up; maybe I'm beginning to open my eyes. Either way it is becoming very clear to me that we, as modern people and especially Americans, have made consumerism a part of our culture, and this practice of spending ridiculous amounts of money around the holidays is a tradition or custom. It's kind of like those people who only go to church on Easter and Christmas. Instead, my family only goes all out on Christmas and Birthdays.

I think this says a lot about our culture. Why is it that people feel the need to spend money to mark a significant occasion? I am certain that my family and I still would have had an incredible time, even if we only had Spam. Instead, though, we felt it necessary to spend lots of money on food, as if to guarantee fellowship and togetherness.

I dont' mean to sound unappreciative here; I appreciate the food and time I had greatly (I'm lucky to get it once a year). Still, I don't think that it is necessary and I'm beginning to realize that most people, without even knowing it, do.

Kukaniloko and the Hawaiian Religion

This weekend I went on the Kukaniloko field trip. So much stood out to me from this experience it's almost overwhelming; I don't know where to begin.

Initially I was shocked by our surroundings. As we weaved through the newly built upscale offices and businesses I couldn't imagine where we were going. I thought this was supposed to be a sacred place, one of unsurpassed historical and cultural significance. While this is still true, I personally just assumed (in my naiivity) that the environment and surroundings would match traditionally; basically all I'm saying is I never thought a sacred place like that would be on the other side of some overgrown fence behind a park in the back of a business district. It's as if the State is trying to hide it; out of sight out of mind. Luckily they're not succeeding.

It wasn't until this outing that I began to understand the depth of Hawaiian culture, not only in tradition, customs, or food but also in religion. While it may not be a unified "religion" with a church and priest I feel it is deeper and bigger than that. The aina is the church, the pohaku and trees the priests. Still, Hawaiian culture contains everything from a creation story to rules on how to live a pure life; how is this not religion? I'm not saying that as a bad thing, I understand the connotations associated with "religion" vs. spirituality. Overall, from what I can tell, it is definitely more of a spiritual practice than a religious one, however I think it is important to note that this practice which may seem foreign and unbelievable to many is really no more far-fetched or crazy than our culturally accepted relgious myths and values (Christianity for many).

I could go on forever about the things that stuck with me from Kukaniloko. So much information and wisdom was shared, I only hope I am able to retain a piece of it. It was educational and inspirational, opening my mind and my soul. In these places of such cultural significance you can feel the mana. If you couldn't maybe you just needed to take off your shoes :)


Oh, and one last thing; even if you don't believe it, even if you don't understand, even if you don't give a shit - please respect the aina and the fact that some people hold these places/traditions/beliefs very close. I don't understand why considering others is such a difficult task for some people in today's society...

Forget saving the environment, save yourself.

Let me just start off by saying that, mentally, this book was intense. I'm not really one to just skim over things while reading, half-comprehending and not absorbing them. Instead I take my time with books and absorb all that is really being expressed by the author and the story being told. More often than not, especially in college, this is a bad thing and really slows me down. However, with this book I think it was necessary.

The shear amount of philosophical, spiritual, and physical ideas presented in Ishmael is overwhelming. The scope of the book is so broad, so vast, that when reading you understand that he's commenting on the entire world, almost all people, and the current concept of civilization. With every conversation between Ismael and the narrator traditional accepted norms are challenged and thrown aside. By analyzing every piece of the culture of mankind deeply, Ismael is able to point out the hypocrisy, environmental injustice, and complete idiocracy of the world we all live in. Throughout the course of the book these lessons are not only taught to the narrator but also to the reader.

At first I was kind of turned away from this book simply by the premise; telepathic guerrilla serves as philosopher and teacher, revealing to man his destructive ways that are engrained and no longer questioned. You have to admit this sounds a little crazy. So, I began doing what Ishmael would do; I questioned. I asked myself "Why?". Why is a guerrilla teaching these lessons? Why is the guerrilla portrayed as kapuna? And then I realized this was actually very key to the book. You see, genetically we are not that different than guerrillas; everyone knows that. Still, culturally we are incredibly different, largely due to the seperation created by civilization. In some tiny way guerrillas are almost us, just left to remain in the trees where we began. It is through our conquer of the environment (and thus destruction of it) that we have risen above guerrillas, and also, that in time, we will fall below.

This book, no matter how outrageous or impractical, emphasizes the notion that is beginning to be more and more evident; if we don't do something to save ourselves we will perish. As far as biodiversity goes man is no greater than the black bear (or any other specific top level predator); we are all simply one species. In the last 40 years the Earth's biodiversity has already fallen by 30% with thousands of species going extinct worldwide; who's to say that we won't be one of them? The Earth can no longer support civilization the way it is being enacted. People need to stop claiming the "green revolution" is one for Mother Earth, and the oceans, and the birds, and bullshit bullshit bullshit. Living environmentally sensitive is about saving ourselves! The Earth was here before humans showed up and as long as we don't literally blow it up in some nuclear warfare, will be here long after. It doesn't need us; actually, it would probably love it if we were gone. Then, for the first time in about ten thousand years, there would no longer be war waged against it, but instead life growing within it.

The Power of Poi

I have always been interested in taro. Ever since reading and hearing ancient Hawaiian stories of the creation of man and his connection to the kalo it's really kind of fascinated me. I will not claim to know these stories fully or even understand them, but the huge amount of emphasis put on it alone raises taro up above the mere status of food. At the very least it makes me reevaluate what food actually is. I think the modern concept of food is rather simple - it is what we eat. Anything and everything is food, from organic vegetables to preserved mass-produced chemically infused TV dinners. Taro and the food that comes from it goes beyond all of that. From it comes strength, life, ability; without it, it can be argued, that the Hawaiian civilization would have existed entirely differently, and probably with less success. When considering this the importance of taro begins to make more sense (to some haole boy from Texas at least).

For all of these reasons I could not believe it when Daniel walked in and said he had the real kine, the illegal kine. Illegal and poi in the same sentence? What? This is Hawaii for god's sake; how could something so historically significant, so rooted in tradition be outlawed? I just didn't (and still don't) understand.

Still, this doesn't stop Daniel, and for that I respect him greatly. I feel like in life everyone has to find their own way, their own balance, their own focus. Without this passionate focus there is simply to much to handle; I can not fight every battle, but I can dedicate myself to one with so much commitment and passion that I am unstoppable. This is what Daniel has done with Poi. While this may not be my focus I admire that he has found, and committed himself to, his. This I feel is the greatest battle that one can fight, the battle for justice, ending oppression of that which you believe in. This may come at great cost to yourself and others, however what is more worth it than that which you stand behind.

Waimanalo, V-Land, and Beyond

This weekend I camped at V-Land on the North Shore. The only thing that really made it camping was the fact that we slept on the beach. Other than that it was really just cruising and enjoying the unbelievable beauty and power of the land, surf, and sea. The full moon was brighter than I've ever seen it and the entire scene just had a surreal peace to it. I woke up before 6 with the sun rising in front of me and perfect surf; what could be better?

"If only there was more of this left" I thought to myself. And then I realized; there is.

With this I thought back to Waimanalo and the serenity and coexistence I felt there. Everything on the farm working together in harmony with everything else in a sustainable, reusable, wasteless system; again I ask, what could be better?

You see, it has become extremely easy to lose sight of these natural beauties and natural processes. Honestly there is nothing "spectacular" about a sunrise with waves, it happens every morning on this island. Likewise there is nothing "spectacular" about a self-sustaining efficient system, that is the way nature created all systems. Look at the carbon or nitrogen cycle, even the life cycle of plants and animals; all of these things work on a continual loop and everything is recycled, in some way or another, back into the system. Still, this seems revolutionary and unbelievable to us. No waste? Believe it.

What I'm really trying to say here isn't that sunrises and sustainable gardens aren't amazing; they most definitely are and I will be the first to say it. I'm just trying to point out the fact that these are processes originally created and controlled by our Mother Earth. If we had never interferred with these things they would not be spectacular, they would be normal. We would see every sun rise and every nutrient recycled so, I believe, we wouldn't stop in awe at these things. No one here stops in awe today when someone flips on the light switch or throws away a piece of paper or scrap of food; it seems quite ordinary to us, though many still today would find this extraordinary.

Continuing on with the idea of reconnection to nature - maybe that reconnection is key. It seems to me that Mother Earth's natural processes work better than anything we have engineered so why not let her do the designing. Maybe it is in the few untouched places left where the answers can be found to the world's current problems; the only thing is you have to be looking for them, and through the right lense.

180 Degrees South

Maybe it's because I surf, maybe it's because I've always been fascinated with climbing, maybe it's the fact that I too have dreams of exploring the Pacific coast of South America, either way I love this movie. I had seen it a few times before class however this viewing really resinated with me. Simple statements and scenes that can easily be overlooked just seemed to stick with me. One in particular that was really significant, for me, was the old Chilean man who said "I am just an old deer from the mountains.". This quote, combined with the discussion topic of who needs to reconnect to nature really impacted me; this man, like so many who live in and off the and, has no concept of reconnection to nature, he never left. If you asked this man what it meant to him to reconnect with nature he would probably stare at you funny and say "Que?"

How ironic is it that these hard-working, "uneducated" (in the academic sense of course) laborers who live more simply than most of the world today are really who we should look to for guidance. For some reason we "civilized" people feel the need to run to politicians, business executives, academics, and scientists everytime we run into a problem, desperate for answers. I just can't buy into this idea any longer. I do not believe that having set in a classroom, on a Board of Representatives, or in a lab makes you any more knowledgable than the rest of us; if anything I would say it makes you more distant.

Most people today no longer see the connections associated with everything they buy, sell, and choose. Our purchases, just like our decisions, are having global effects that we can not see. We have become blind to our own destruction. Sometimes you have to paddle out into the middle of the sea and climb to the top of the mountain to finally gain some perspective. Obviously these things can be done mentally and spiritually and don't always require physically overcoming challenges, however sometimes it takes that physical push to get your mind to follow.

Maybe one day it'll work the other way and people will actually mentally overcome obstacles and dilemnas, enabling them to change their ways. For now, however, there's a lot of us that could benefit profoundly from a trip to the top of the mountain.

Taking Waikiki Back

Last Tuesday was, historically, incredibly eye opening for me. While the speakers were super educational and provided tons of information I had never heard or even thought about before, my real jaw-dropping moment was a few hours earlier in my ANTH 2000 class with Topher.

We watched a short film titled "Taking Waikiki". It was about the first American businessman and missionaries who came to the Hawaiian islands in the late 1800's and how those few people shaped the place forever, responsible for many of the issues faced today (massive sewage leakage and contamination from the Ala Wai for example). As depressing as this film is, everyone needs to see it. I never understood the power that so few people held. This centralization of power, not unlike a dictatorship, is key to the injustice and abuse that occured. As a result of the self-interest of Dillingham, McCarthy, Dole, Frear, Pinkham and a few others Hawaiians were literally displaced and moved off the land that they had farmed for centuries. This land was extremely productive, full of taro fields and aquaculture setups. This, supplemented with ducks, chickens, and their eggs allowed many Hawaiians in this area to be sustainable, supporting their families with some still left over. However, the Americans had a different plan for this land, Waikiki.

Today when I think about Waikiki there is only one redeeming quality, the surf. I'm now realizing this is only because it is the least touched aspect of this area (although still definitely and largely affected by human action). Beyond the unbelievable long boarding perfection, in my mind, is nothing but concrete jungle, sewage, and crowds. It's hard for me to imagine a day when the area was characterized by an extraordinarily complex drainage system, productive farms, and clean unpolluted air, earth, and water. It seems unreal that in so little time so few people could literally pave the way for centuries of destruction.

"Taking Waikiki" infuriated me, and I'm just some haole boy who's been here less than two years! Although there is no way for me to understand the pain endured by the native peoples during this time, the film exposed me to it so that now at least I know the truth behind one of the world's greatest tourist destinations. I wish we could just go in, tear everything out, and make things how they used to be. Still, we all know this is not possible and even if it was, that nature and society could not go back to way it used to be; too much damage has already been done. I guess all we can do is fight it from getting worse and maintain the natural beauty, though scarce in Town, that is still left.

I believe one day Mother Nature and Mother Ocean will have their revenge and Waikiki will be taken back.