Why should I change my name?

A hotel owner in New Mexico is telling his Latino employees to adopt English names becuase he has hard time pronouncing their real names!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33479833/ns/us_news-race_and_ethnicity?GT1=43001

The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names.

No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark.

(skip paragraphs)

Then Whitten told some employees he was changing their Spanish first names. Whitten says it's a routine practice at his hotels to change first names of employees who work the front desk phones or deal directly with guests if their names are difficult to understand or pronounce.

THIS IS STUPID!

Look, I am a substitute teacher! Sometimes, I got to memorize a 100 new names a day!

Some are hard to pronounce!
Some have creatively spelled names!
Some are foreign names!

I NEVER tell anyone to change their names!

I just learn how to pronounce them!

If you're easily overwhelmed by having to pronounce new names, you need some serious psychological help!

And this "I don't want people speaking other languages around me"?

I don't care what languages others around me are speaking!

Even if they're mocking me ..... if they're not saying it in a way I can understand, it's probably not that important anyways!

Mr. Whitten claims his decisions are not racially motivated, just business motivated!

Well, it's not good business! He got boycotted!

Taos Mayor Darren Cordova says Whitten wasn't doing anything illegal. But he says Whitten failed to better familiarize himself with the town and its culture before deciding to buy the hotel for $2 million. "Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that you would do elsewhere," he says.

Whitten grew subdued as a two-hour interview with The Associated Press progressed. He said he was sorry for the misunderstanding and insisted he has never been against any culture.

"What kind of fool or idiot or poor businessman would I be to orchestrate this whole crazy thing that's costed me a lot of time, money and aggravation?" Whitten said.

Welcome to the 21st century Mr Whitten!

29 years old

It's that time of year again. I'm 29 years old today!



And it's time for my annual birthday blog post!



Here's some thoughts!



1) My biggest event of the past 12 months would be my 10-year high school reunion!



I've already wrote about it at http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html#8556000882361532709



A few more thoughts on it



These days, many people reconnect with each other through myspace or facebook! While I've been able to reconnect with many people who I haven't seen in ages through those sites, it's nothing like a face-to-face conversation!



That's why, even in this Age of Facebook, reunions are still special!



What better place to have those face-to-face conversations with so many former classmates than at the reunion?



Plus, at the reunion, the old cliques don't even matter! There was none of this "only jocks hang out here, only computer nerds hang out here, only this ethnic group hang out here" nonsense at the reunion! We're adults already, most of us got over that a long-time ago! Plus, we were all curious about what our classmates were doing in life, even those who we didn't hang out with much!

Plus, I even got to talk to people I didn't get a chance to talk to in high school!



So to those who didn't show up or are nervous to show up at their reunion --- Lighten Up, Take A Deep Breath and Chill! You'll have a great time!



2) I started using myspace in 2005! It already was popular among teens, but it was one year before it became a subject for so many news stories!



I was too lazy to start using facebook until June 2009! I've heard it about it before, even knew that it was outpacing myspace for # of users! But I kept delaying until some friends kept encouraging me to get facebook!


Now, with facebook, I've been able to find way more people in 4 moths than I did with 4 years of myspace!



So facebook's advantage is the # of people you can find on it! Also, it's easier to see status updates from those on the "friends list". I can also promote my blog to more people through those status updates!



Myspace's advantage is you can make web-designs and add music to your webpage!

Some people like to play video games on facebook. Some even try to invite me to play them! I don't have time for video games and even if I did, I have other things I prefer to do. So please, don't take it personal if I don't join you for Mafia Wars, Farmville, White Castle, etc.!

As for Twitter? Not interested! 2 social networking sites is enough, I can put out short messages on facebook, and I already got a blog!

3) one year before being 30? Now I'm really getting old! My 20's is almost over!

4) 10 years of adulthood already? OK, adulthood officially start @ 18, but I was still in high school so I didn't feel like a young adult until I graduated!

Adjusting to adulthood has it's challenges. You gotta pay your own bills! Things that used to get you an "F" or suspended in school can now get you Fired!

But eventually, you are grateful for feeling more control of your own life, and more wisdom about life itself!
-----------


To learn more about dealing with obnoxious people (and stop yourself from being one) check out
http://www.takethebullybythehorns.com/ and the book with the same title! It teaches you things a lot of parents and teachers never got around to teach you!

---------

Having trouble dealing with the opposite gender? Your parents and teachers thought you'd learn these things automatically? Whining about it will only make it worse? It only feeds a cycle of victimhood!

Check out

http://www.johnalanis.com/

http://www.makingherhappy.com/

http://firstinhermind.com/ (from a woman's perspective)

They got some interesting perspectives! However, don't take them as "word of God". Learn from them, but use your common sense in real life dealings with people!

More immigrants, LESS crime

Anti-immigration fanatics love to tell horror stories of Mexican illegal aliens causing havoc! But the reality is that border cities like El Paso and San Diego have LOW Crime rates! Check out the following article

PART ONE

http://reason.com/archives/2009/07/06/the-el-paso-miracle

El Paso is among the safest big cities in America. For the better part of the last decade, only Honolulu has had a lower violent crime rate (El Paso slipped to third last year, behind New York). Men's Health magazine recently ranked El Paso the second "happiest" city in America, right after Laredo, Texas—another border town, where the Hispanic population is approaching 95 percent.

So how has this city of poor immigrants become such an anomaly? Actually, it may not be an anomaly at all. Many criminologists say El Paso isn't safe despite its high proportion of immigrants, it's safe because of them.

"If you want to find a safe city, first determine the size of the immigrant population," says Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Massachusetts. "If the immigrant community represents a large proportion of the population, you're likely in one of the country's safer cities. San Diego, Laredo, El Paso—these cities are teeming with immigrants, and they're some of the safest places in the country."

If you regularly listen to talk radio, or get your crime news from anti-immigration pundits, all of this may come as a surprise. But it's not to many of those who study crime for a living. As the national immigration debate heated up in 2007, dozens of academics who specialize in the issue sent a letter (pdf) to then President George W. Bush and congressional leaders with the following point:

Numerous studies by independent researchers and government commissions over the past 100 years repeatedly and consistently have found that, in fact, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or to be behind bars than are the native-born. This is true for the nation as a whole, as well as for cities with large immigrant populations such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Miami, and cities along the U.S.-Mexico border such as San Diego and El Paso.

And what about those so-scary stats on illegal aliens in US prison?

Here's the reality

Opponents of illegal immigration usually do little more than cite andecdotes attempting to link illegal immigration to violent crime. When they do try to use statistics, they come up short. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), for example, has perpetuated the popular myth that illegal immigrants murder 12 Americans per day, and kill another 13 by driving drunk. King says his figures come from a Government Accountability Office study he requested, which found that about 27 percent of inmates in the federal prison system are non-citizens. Colorado Media Matters looked into King's claim, and found his methodology lacking. King appears to have conjured his talking point by simply multiplying the annual number of murders and DWI fatalities in America by 27 percent. Of course, the GAO report only looked at federal prisons, not the state prisons and local jails where most convicted murderers and DWI offenders are kept. The Bureau of Justice Statistics puts the number of non-citizens (including legal immigrants) in state, local, and federal prisons and jails at about 6.4 percent (pdf). Of course, even that doesn't mean that non-citizens account for 6.4 percent of murders and DWI fatalities, only 6.4 percent of the overall inmate population.

---
Anti-immigration fanatics blame immigrants for crime! But maybe it's the anti-immigration fanatics who are the ones to blame for immigrant crime! They indirectly encourage native-borns to pick on immigrants, which then make immigrants feel that they need to team up into a gang to defend themselves! And being in a gang ends up bringing in more drama then the members expected before they joined!

----------

Despite the high profile of polemicists such as Lou Dobbs and Michael Savage, America has been mostly welcoming to this latest immigration wave. You don't see "Latinos Need Not Apply" or "No Mexicans" signs posted on public buildings the way you did with the Italians and the Irish, two groups who actually were disproportionately likely to turn to crime. The implication makes sense: An immigrant group's propensity for criminality may be partly determined by how they're received in their new country.

"Look at Arab-Americans in the Midwest, especially in the Detroit area," Levin says. "The U.S. and Canada have traditionally been very willing to welcome and integrate them. They're a success story, with high average incomes and very little crime. That's not the case in Europe. Countries like France and Germany are openly hostile to Arabs. They marginalize them. And they've seen waves of crime and rioting."

------

PART TWO



And what about those Mexican gangs in LA? Most of them are born in the US! Mexican-American gangs been in LA since the 1930's. That means the grandkids and great-grandkids of the 1930's era- Chicano gangstaz are US BORN! DUH!

Here's what University of Southern California researcher Alex Alonso wrote

http://www.streetgangs.com/lies/illegal_090909/

As a gang researcher the issue of illegal immigration comes up often when being interviewed or asked to opine on the subject of Los Angeles gangs. For some, illegal immigration is a major reason why street gangs exisit, but the reality is that most gang members, including Hispanics, are US citizens. Ironically, in over 150 court cases and probably close to 200 (I have never kept a precise count but my assistant is helping organize all my previous cases) that I have consulted on in court, the issue of illegal immigration has never come up. In all my criminal cases, I have had only 12 defendants that were not born in the United States (I still have to look over some older cases), and of those 12, they all immigrated to the US as children before the age of 7 with either a parent or a family member.

--

In other words, they came in when they were too young to be recruited into a gang. And most of the people I knew who immigrated to the US as little children are so Americanized that by the time they started high school, that they don't even associated with newly arrived immigrants from the same country! This is common sense to anyone attending schools with large immigrant populations!
--------

I asked Sheriff Lee Baca, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, what was the percent of the incarcerated gang member population and his response was that it was less than 10 percent. At an event for the slain high school football star, Jamiel Shaw Jr., attendees where extremely unhappy that the alleged assailant, Pedro Espinoza, was not a US citizen and that he should have been deported on his previous arrest in 2007. One disgruntled attendee falsely believed that 90 percent of gang members were illegal citizens. I wondered how many others actually believed the rhetoric and propaganda from anti immigrant (or anti illegal immigrant) representatives. It is this misinformation that inspired, Hector Tobar, writer from the Los Angeles Times, to challenge some of the most ridiculous claims made against illegal immigrants being circulated in an email. Last year I traced down a quote that falsely stated 80 percent of the 18th Street gang membership in Los Angeles was in the US illegally, but after tracing the source of this quote, I found a dead end, suggesting that it was completely fabricated and Tobar found the same in his research.

----

In the same article Alex Alonso and Hector Tobar then exposed more lies promoted by the anti-immigration fanatics, they concluded

Obviously, the ability to speak a language other than English, or the desire to listen to Spanish music, doesn’t make you an illegal immigrant or a threat to U.S. democracy. It’s a slur against Los Angeles, really, to find these items on a list of “problems” caused by illegal immigration.

The authors of the chain e-mail and the phony government report fear what Los Angeles has become — a multilingual, multiethnic city with multicultural tastes.

They search for information to persuade others to be afraid, but the actual numbers don’t quite add up to the big monster they think is out there.

So they make the numbers bigger. Or they just make them up. And they spread them around until all that fear and anger turns into a big hate.

--

Sept 2009 rants

A few comments on the current events

1) 8 years and a week ago today, the USA was under attack by Al Qaida!

For my thoughts on 9/11 check out the following blog posts from the past


http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_archive.html#109497530808413160


Take a moment of silence to remember the innocent victims of the attack, to remember those who attempted to rescue those stuck in the buildings, and all those whose loved ones passed away!

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html#112667000764509312 (discussed how I found out about the 9/11 attacks)

http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html#115801887630379524 ( my evolving thoughts on 9/11, foreign policy and the following wars)


2) 2pac passed away 13 years ago this past Sunday! 2pac once said "America isn't ready for a black president". Unfortunately, he died 13 years too early to see it happen in real life!



3) Kanye West is at it again! Hip-Hop's biggest sore loser thinks he's so tough by interrupting Taylor Swift's speech at the VMAs! If he tried that to G-Unit, Three 6 Mafia, The Game or Suge Knight, he wouldn't come out alive! Kanye West is just another punk who only causes trouble to people who can't fight back!

4) Lets' say you have always opposed racism. But you are also skeptical about Obama's health-care plans! You worry it could make things worse.

Guess what? A lot of left-wing pundits think you don't exist! They keep saying "those who protest Obama's plans are racists"

Look, I'm not naive. There are racist people out there who still can't get over Obama being president!

But the idea that "only racists can oppose Obama's plans" is BULL-NONSENSE!

Reality is that even some African-Americans have publicly criticized Obama's policies. They include Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and Star Parker. And let's not forget that the current chair of the Republican Party is an African-American male named Micheal Steele!

Here's what Thomas Sowell said on Obama's plan

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell091509.php3

What did we do, back during the years when most Americans had no medical insurance? I did what most people did. I depended on a "single payer" — myself. When I didn't have the money, I paid off my medical bills in installments.

The birth of my first child was not covered by medical insurance. I paid off the bill, month by month, until the time finally came when I could tell my wife that the baby was now ours, free and clear.

In a country where everything imaginable is bought and paid for on credit, why is it suddenly a national crisis if some people cannot pay cash up front for medical treatment?

That is not the best way to do things for all people and all medical treatments, which is why most Americans today choose to have medical insurance. But millions of other people choose not to — often young and healthy people, sometimes deadbeats who use emergency rooms and don't pay at all.
--------

I choose to have health insurance and hope I can continue to afford it! I can pay now or pay later. I prefer to pay now so I can be covered!

The US systems has flaws! Those who can't afford medical procedures can be in deadly situations. Check out http://www.truthout.org/article/bob-herbert-the-divide-caring-our-kids


But that has also happened in so-called single-payer (more accurate word is GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY paid by 300 million taxpayers) health-care nations like Canada.

Check out http://jewishworldreview.com/0709/tracinski.php3


5) Magic Johnson visited McKinley High School (my alma mater) earlier this week!

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090917_mckinleys_magic_moment.html

All heads turned as one to the entrance of the gym as the magic moment came at 1:15 p.m. When a big man a foot taller than everyone around him neared the door, the screaming started and burst into a roar as Hall of Fame basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson stepped inside.

No formal introduction was made for 10 minutes -- there was no need -- because the 1,800 kids recognized the smile that has always lit up a room and a basketball court, said emcee Stacie Tamaru, student body president. When Tamaru was told Johnson would appear minutes before the assembly, "I started jumping up and down. I was amazed and shocked. Words cannot describe how it felt to give a lei and hug to Mr. Magic Johnson."


He generated excitement, even though he retired from the NBA just as the current-day high school seniors were about to be born!

What's even more amazing was that when I learned about Johnson having HIV, I was in 5th grade. I thought Johnson wouldn't make it to 2000! It's 2009 and he still exciting crowds in the present!

6) Gangsta rap pioneer EAZY-E once said 1999 was going to be the end of the world. It's 10 years later! EAZY-E died of AIDS in 1995! He never got to see 1999!

I remember learning of Eazy-E's death after returning from a middle-school sponsored field trip to the Big Island!

Ironic, as me & a few other male students were in a car driving into the Volcanoes National Park, a classmate suggested playing a rap CD. The driver told the student he'll have to pay for every swear word being heard. One of those CDs was from Eazy-E. At the time, we didn't know Eazy-E might've just died!

We were sequestered from the outside world! This was a few years before the Internet, text-messaging, etc became popular!

We had to wait before coming back to Oahu before finding out! We were late in hearing the news!

Natives and Non-Natives

PART ONE

Some Native Hawaiian sovereignty activists love to say that non-native residents "have a place to go back to, Hawaiians don't"

Excuse me?

I responded to it by writing the following for the Honolulu Star Bulletin.

http://www.starbulletin.com/editorials/20090906_Lifelong_Hawaii_resident_has_no_other_place_to_call_home.html

The above link is the edited version. Below is what I actually sent to the editors!

Here we go again, another letter writer claimed that a non-Native Hawaiian "has a place to return to; Hawaiians do not." (8/31/09 edition of the Star Bulletin)!

I have a "place to return to"? I never lived anywhere else! So where am I supposed to "return to"? Am I supposed to return to Mexico? Puerto Rico? Spain? Portugal? Germany?

What about those who are part-Japanese/part-Filipino? Or those who are part-Tongan/part-Irish? Where do they "return to"?
This "non-natives have a place to return to" rhetoric is ridiculous! The reality is that many who grew up away from their ancestral lands would have extreme difficulty fitting in their ancestral lands.

For example, some Japanese moved to Latin America about a century ago. When their Latin-American born descendants moved to Japan, they faced major issues! Though their DNA was Japanese, they were too culturally Latin-American to be accepted by the mainstream Japanese society!
This was also true of those who migrated to the US as children, joined a gang, comitted a felony and deported to their birthplace. They included Cambodian and Salvadoran ex-cons who had a hard time fitting into their birthplace after spending a decade or two in the U.S.

This idea of "non-natives have a place to return to" is a part of a larger mentality of "this is our land, the rest are intruders"!

This mentality isn't limited to the vocal minority here in Hawaii. It was also present in the land where my last name came from - Germany! The Nazis felt Germany was the land of their ethnic group and others are intruders. This led to a mass murder of Jews, Gypsies and other groups. Some modern Europeans still have that "this is our land, others are intruders" attitude, leading to hate crimes against immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia!

Now, let's talk about another of my ancestral lands - Latin Americans. The natives were conquered by the Spanish. But the descendants of the conquerors are there to stay. The descdendants of the conquered, conquerors, imported slaves and settlers are accepted as a part of the modern Latin American social fabric.

Most people in Hawaii, Native Hawaiians and non-native, have accepted that the descendants of the conquered, conquerors and other settlers are part of the modern Hawaii social fabric

Those without Native Hawaiian ancestry need to respect Native Hawaiian culture! And the xenophobic minority who say "non-natives have a place to return to" need to accept that non-natives aren't going to go away!

As Rodney King has said "can we all just get along?"

--

You can check out people's comments to the editorial at

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/honolulu-star-bulletin/TEK0F40EBF5J0BAPO

some called my editorial "idiotic whining", others pointed out that the ancestors of Native Hawaiians came from Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.

Here's what I wrote in response to some comments

Thanks to everyone who read so far!

What I also should've added in the editorial is - it wouldn't be right for Native Hawaiians living in Nevada or Utah to be told by the local Native American tribes "you don't belong, go back to Hawaii". It wouldn't be right for Native Hawaiians to be told "go back to Tahiti".

As for the comment by "arm", my Latin American ancestors are a mix of the Native Americans and Europeans. In fact, my dad's mother is pure Zapotec, no Spanish! Zapotec is one of the native tribes of Oaxaca, Mexico! That's where I got my brown skin,and probably why I wouldn't be accepted in Germany (where my last name came from, and one of my mom's ancestral lands)

An ironic thing, Sonia Sotomayor is known to be Puerto Rican, and got controversy over the "wise Latina coming to a better conclusion than a white man". But look at Sotomayor's skin. It's WHITE! Though most of her DNA would probably trace to Spain, she's still called Puerto Rican, because her family has been there for generations!

As for WaimeaWilliams, you said "Just get along? Yes, if it were only that simple." What's wrong with getting along? What's wrong with just judging people based on character!

----------

So far, no letters appeared on today's edition of the Star Bulletin responded to my editorial. If some come up, and if they're lame, I'll post it here on my blog.
---

PART TWO

a few months back, on the Honolulu Weekly, there was an interview with UH English professor Cynthia Fujikane.

Fujikane is one of those Asian-Americans who feel guilty about living in Hawaii. She feels Asian-Americans in Hawaii should feel un-earned guilt for living in lands that European-Americans stole from Native Hawaiians!

Here's what I wrote to Dr Fujikane

=================================


Ms. Cynthia Fujikane,

First off, like you, I am a descendant of a "settler"!

I skimmed through the Asian Settler Colonialism book and read the interview in the Honolulu Weekly!

I do agree that the descendants of "settlers" need to respect the Native Hawaiian culture! We need to learn as much as we can!

However, I do see some holes in the rhetoric!

From the interview:

Some people don’t want to give up the word ‘local.

Most people I know use "local" in the context of "this guy's a local Japanese, instead of an immigrant Japanese"

So I don't see a problem with saying who's local!

---------------

If you’re not Hawaiian, you’re a settler and part of the colonial problem.

The neo-Nazis in Europe feel the same way about African & Arab immigrants in Europe! Their attitude "we (Germans, French, Russians, etc) are here first, those non-whites aren't from here, they're the problem!"

This is the attitude of "all those not of the same DNA are born-to-be-a-problem". Therefore, the neo-Nazi comparison!

-----------

The word hapa has also recently been used more in Asian American Studies. Wei-Ming Dariotis of San Francisco State recently wrote that when she discovered that using the term is a settler appropriation of a Hawaiian word, she stopped using it. She is encouraging hapa clubs in California to rename themselves.

I heard it before, using the word "hapa" is a mis-appropriation of the Hawaiian language!

Words of EVERY language has been mis-appropriated!
For example, look at English, the native language of England!

People all over the world (including these islands) use English words VERY DIFFERENTLY from the way they were originally used by the native English!
Same is true of other languages!

People of Latin America & the Phillipines use Spanish words VERY DIFFERENTLY from way those words are used in Spain!

People of Tahiti & Haiti use French words VERY DIFFERENTLY from the way those words are used in France!

And obviously, we in Hawaii use English words very differently than the way those words are used in England. Here, we call proudly call it pidgin!

As an English professors, you probably know even more examples than I do about how languages evolve!

Not only that, English has so many words from other languages, like Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German,etc, etc.

So back to the word "hapa", while it may be used differently than it was in the pre-Cook era, I'm sure we all use English words very differently from the Germanic, Latin, Greek or Hebrew roots of those same words. And most of us aren't even German, Italian, Greek or Jewish, but we use their words totally differently from their ancestors!

I'm sure you probably got answers to many of the commentary

Though if you're tempted to dismiss it as "just another settler in denial", that wouldn't a response based on logic, it would be a response based on the attitude of "how dare you question me and not sit in silence"

PART THREE

Dr. Fujikane didn't respond to my e-mail.

It's impossible to find the link to Fujikane's lame interview with Honolulu Weekly. I saw it on the print edition.

However, I did find a link to a letter by Ethnic Studies Professor Dr. Davianna Pomaikai McGregor (who is Native Hawaiian) who exposed how lame Cynthia Fujikane's arguments are.

http://honoluluweekly.com/letters/2009/05/settling-the-record-straight/

Letters
Settling the record straight
May 13, 2009

I write as a founding member of the UH Manoa Ethnic Studies Department to correct an inaccurate statement by English Professor Candace Fujikane (“Critical transformations,” 4/22).

Dr. Fujikane mistakenly attributed our department’s slogan, “Our History, Our Way” to local Asians who she called colonial with “no perception that Hawaiians have their own struggle.”

First of all, myself and other Kanaka ‘Oiwi (Pete Thompson, Kehau Lee, Terrilee Kekoolani, Soli Niheu) were at the forefront of the struggle and the formulation of our slogan.

Second, the slogan is inclusive of Kanaka ‘Oiwi history. Our ethnic studies courses on Hawaiians and land tenure were the first to challenge the dominant historical narrative, which characterized Native Hawaiians as compliant, childlike natives who embraced Christianity and American settler civilization.

We empowered our students with a history of resistance, from the makaainana of Kau who killed abusive chiefs; to the killing of Captain Cook; the taking of the Fair American; the rebellion of Chief Kekuaokalani and Chiefess Manono; the 1845 petitions against Ka Mahele; the Wilcox Rebellion; the Hui Aloha ‘Aina; the 1895 Restoration; and Hawaiian longshoremen who founded the I.L.W.U. Moreover, we got involved, with our students, in Kalama Valley, Waiahole-Waikane, Heʻeia Kea, Waimanalo, Niumalu Nawiliwili and Kahoolawe community struggles.

Sadly, Fujikane’s statement is yet another example of how labeling Asian immigrant workers and their descendants as colonial “settlers” is ahistorical, narrow-minded, lacking in class analysis, and too simplistic to explain our complicated islands’ society.

Dr. Davianna Pomaikai McGregor

Professor, Ethnic Studies Department UHM

statehood vs independence

Yesterday, it was official : the 50th state was a state for 50 years!

1) Back in 1959, the overwhelming majority of those who voted chose statehood for Hawaii.

However, some Hawaiian sovereignty activists said that that election was illegitimate because independence wasn't listed as an option on the ballot!

So now what?

The obvious is that we should have another election for the status: statehood, territory, independence, none of the above!

Whichever side looses will need to accept the results!

According to a recent poll, most Hawaii residents prefer statehood!

Read on it at
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090821/STATEHOOD01/908210362


Whatever happened in 1893, everyone from that era is dead! Only the living can vote!

Let's put it this way - Northern Ireland was conquered by the British! The Irish could claim that was their stolen land. But that conquest happened centuries ago. But if the people living in Northern Ireland want to remain a part of the United Kingdom, then that's what it will be! You can only go by those who live there today!

If the people of Leeward Oahu, Hana, Pahoa or Waimanalo want to start their own separate nation, that's fine! They just need to keep their economies sustainable, because the US taxpayers aren't going to bail them out all the time!


2) Independence will NOT guarantee things will get better or worse.

Let's look at North Korea and South Korea. Both were conquered by Japan!

However, after the Japanese left, the 2 Koreas went in totally opposite directions.

South Korea became one of the most prosperous democracies in the world. North Korea became one of the poorest and most oppressive dictatorships in the world!

One country became better off after the Japanese left, the other got worse!

Now let's look at Botswana and Zimbabwe. Both are African nations that are next to each other. Both were former British territories.

After the British left, Botswana and Zimbabwe went totally opposite directions.

Botswana is now one of the most economically stable, peaceful, democratic nations in Africa. It doesn't fit the negative stereotypes of Africa!

Zimbabwe is now one of the most poorest, violent and oppressive dictatorships in Africa. It fits the worst stereotypes of Africa!

One country became better off after the British left, the other got worse!

So will Hawaii become worse or better if it became independent? NOTHING IS GUARANTEED!

3) why were there no massive celebrations of statehood yesterday?

Only one government official admitted the obvious : riot prevention!

Here's what Don Cataluna, a trustee of the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said!

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090821/STATEHOOD01/908210363&template=statehood/Iolani+Palace+to+remain+quiet+as+Hawaii+observes+50th

"And many, many Hawaiians — many Hawaiians — would be very, very upset," Cataluna said. "It would not be a good idea to have an event at the site of the overthrow of their queen. It would be a horrible mess there. I had visions of blood spilling and I didn't want that."

Based on everything I read in the papers today, all statehood events and protests were peaceful. Sure, there might've been shouting, but as long as no one got hit, then that's democracy in action!

4) What if the US didn't take over Hawaii?

Someone else would've!

Other nations looking to conquer were Germany, Russia and Japan!

Judging by the history of the 20th century, does anyone think Hawaii would've been better off being taken over by Germany, Russia or Japan?

US control of Hawaii wasn't perfect. In the early half of the 20th century, Native Hawaiian children were humiliated by their school-teachers if they spoke Hawaiian! This has contributed to the anger felt by many Native Hawaiians!

But the freedoms of the US Constitution allowed for the freedom of speech, assembly and religion. These things made the Hawaiian Renaissance movement much easier. These freedoms allowed the Native Hawaiians to revive lost traditions and their culture to grow again!

Now, we have charter schools and immersion schools that emphasize the Hawaiian language and Native Hawaiian culture!

Things are very different now from the early territorial days!

5) What's going to happen in the future?

Most likely, Hawaii will remain a state for a very long time. Though I think that areas like Leeward Oahu, Hana, Waimanalo, Pahoa and the islands of Niihau, Molokai and Kaho'olawe could eventually break off from the US and be a separate Hawaiian nation, just like how certain parts of the continental US are separate Native American nations!

Hawaii and the USA are connected in so many ways, it's unlikely that Hawaii would totally separate from the USA! Even many Native Hawaiians don't want to totally separate from the USA! The farthest it would go is nation-within-a-nation status!



6) The total-independence crowd will continue to be a minority. Their rhetoric has alienated too many people!

Let's put it this way. My Zapotec ancestors of Oaxaca, Mexico were conquered by the Spanish! But the descendants of the Spanish settlers are there to stay! So while Mexico is independent, the descendants of the conquerors, conquered and other settlers are accepted as part of the modern Mexican social fabric!

The same for Hawaii. Whether Hawaii is a state or independent, the sovereignty activists need to accept that the descendants of the conquerors, conquered and other settlers are part of the modern Hawaiian social fabric!

Those without Native Hawaiian ancestry need to respect Native Hawaiian culture! And the independence advocates need to accept that non-natives aren't going away and that integration is the way to go!

As Rodney King has said "can we all just get along"

Coming soon

My thoughts on statehood! Today is the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming a state!

So many thoughts, so little time to blog it all out!

Hopefully, I'll be able to have something tommorrow night!