Fight the Shadows

We fight too often among ourselves, without progress.

And not accidentally: we must struggle to recognize the enemy ain't simply the fool delivering bad news, or the person nearby with a different strategy. The true enemy profits from our confusion. That fucker deliberately sows trouble among us.

Squatting on Our Land?

The wider community in Hawai'i has a huge range of opinion about Native Hawaiians. The indigenous people had a robust society & ancient culture. Our Kingdom, internationally-recognized, militarily-neutral, was illegally overthrown by Yankee-backed businessmen. The nation is now occupied by the USA and U.S. military, who still wish to suppress Hawaiian self-determination through misinformation, intimidation, and a full range of dirty tricks. Damn Yankees!

I'm Native Hawaiian. I'm not a lawyer, so can't comment properly on law, and even less on Yankee Law. But it seems we should have legal standing based upon the fact our inheritance was stolen. That an aggrieved group / injured party of Native Hawaiians combine to seek relief is not "racial discrimination" or "based solely upon race!" any more than if a family combined to seek justice. Yes, the family share a racial dimension, but is that license to steal from them?

Storm in Fiji

American media dishes us up many hours of grim anticipation on severe US East Coast snowfalls where they've built infrastructure to handle storms.

Our Pacific cousins in Fiji are suffering a monster storm almost ignored by media. Even if we only send them a prayer -- they don't suffer alone.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35620649

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/20/us/tropical-cyclone-winston-fiji/

http://tinyurl.com/zc2vaxc

----------------------------------
UPDATE: 
Cyclone Winston battered Fiji from 20 - 22 February,
killing 44 people & leaving 112,800 homeless.

Is Aloha Threatened?

Today's Hawai'i must face a strategic question:

Is Aloha Threatened? 

We Native Hawaiians brought Aloha to the wider world, and now Our Aloha is a key part of the visitor & hospitality industries. But during this long foreign Occupation of Hawaii, Yankee has grabbed far more than any contribution. Aloha has become systematically incommensurate, and rudely commodified. Loss of Our Aloha could have serious & negative repercussions for business and investors. Loss of aloha forces reconsideration of many social relations. Too many injustices have been heaped upon us. The wider community should be returning key Hawaiian lands.

Is our aloha forcibly & permanently appropriated along with our lands? Should Oahu have a dozen military golf courses, or six, or zero? Close down all military golf courses, especially those on stolen Hawaiian lands. I further believe the extensive military installation on Waikiki Beach & Hale Koa Hotel are horrible symbols of Yankee occupation.

[ quote from http://halekoa.com ]

Aloha! Overlooking the turquoise waters of world famous Waikiki beach, the Hale Koa Hotel is nestled on a 72-acre tropical oasis fronting the finest stretch of beach in Waikiki.

[ http://halekoa.com/accommodations/the-hotel/history.html ]

HISTORY   Fort DeRussy has evolved immensely from 1906, when it was sold as a 72-acre parcel of “undesirable” land ...

Sure ---
-- 72 "undesirable" acres on world-famous Waikiki Beach?

Such lies bring seven words to mind:  
Return Our Land, you thieving Yankee fuckers. 

We must beware of getting overly soft, technical, or conciliatory. We must also focus on CRIMES and continuing marginalization of Native Hawaiians on OUR islands.

Imua !     ( Forward ! )

Why this 'Aha ? (Native Hawaiian Congress)

Why are we meeting?  In my case:

We are responding to the systematic destruction of the Native Hawaiian people and our homeland & habitat, including the aggressive seizure of our indigenous lands by outsiders such as U.S. military forces. We demand return of our lands wherever possible. We also require ongoing consultation on issues of Hawaiian heritage, and compensation for continuing misuse of our inheritance. We are drafting a proposed governing document that will protect our ancestral lands, to help provide the Native Hawaiian people and our families with better lives, and to cultivate continuing Aloha in the wider community and throughout the world.

'Aha 2016 participant

14 Feb 2016

On the Road to 'Aha 2016

This summarizes my view of our condition, generally good-natured but impatient. Among our group we are discussing many solid steps and great designs. I hope our meetings can generate substantive future development proposals. Our role is to propose & suggest -- not to impose or rule.

We gather at the 'Aha to discuss suggestions & concerns for the future of Native Hawaiians.

We are each Native Hawaiian, each nominated by ten Native Hawaiians, part of a peaceful effort where tens of thousands of Native Hawaiian people actively participated -- until our voting process was imperiously blocked in a 5-4 injunction by the U.S. Supreme Court. Subjugation of Native Hawaiians in Hawaii is continuing.

Our combined voices are nonetheless heard worldwide: do not expect continuing silence about colonial suppression and the American militarization of our peaceful homeland. Our legacy is the beautiful Hawaiian archipelago, cherished, farmed and protected by Native Hawaiians over many centuries.

Native Hawaiians speak of struggle. We struggle against genocide; naturally we seek to avoid further destruction of our people. We've withstood deadly infections brought from overseas. We've survived occupation by hostile settlers. But we've also learned new techniques and technology, and we have welcomed many newcomers into our community with love & aloha.

We are descended from Native Hawaiians, the indigenous people of Hawaii. But we Native Hawaiians are now multiracial and multi ethnic, a peaceful community still delivering our world-famous Aloha.

We welcome visitors and non-Native friends, sharing blessings between families and the wider community. Some arrive seeking to steal from us, taking criminal advantage of Hawaiian hospitality. Sadly, some in America encourage bad behavior. We do not accept the occupation & theft of our common & Crown lands and surrounding seas.

Hawaii's indigenous & aboriginal people seek peaceful reconciliation, but we will not give up our legal claim to the lands of our ancestors we inherit as descendants. Yankee tries to block many paths with race-based claims of exclusivity. Yet most American grandchildren & great-grandkids are not kept from their inheritance simply because a qualification to inherit is greatly exclusive (e.g., descended from grandma Bush or great-grandfather Rockefeller); these others inherit through their mix of great-grandparents, only indigenous peoples in America face such prejudice and property pilferage.

We inherit responsibilities from ancestors as well as benefits. Native Hawaiians perpetuate the righteousness of our lands, protecting and nurturing wider life and the natural world. WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER. We are determined to greatly improve the pervasive health problems and substandard living conditions hobbling many Native Hawaiians.

The 150+ Native Hawaiians meeting for 'Aha 2016 are eager to help improve the lives of our families, cousins, and community. We are not empowered to institute new treaties, or to impose our decisions on anyone. Nothing we do is intended to relinquish any past, present, or future claims of sovereignty by Native Hawaiians.

Native Hawaiians belong to a family and community association stretching back many centuries, and have welcomed all races and religions.   Aloha.

Kanaka Māoli: I Support Native Hawaiian Inheritance

I'm involved in a process for Hawaiian rights, where I mean Native Hawaiian -- descendants of the indigenous Hawaiian people. I feel part of an ancient & sacred inheritance. Welcome support for our effort may be offered & received by temporary visitors, American soldiers billeted in Hawaii, recent immigrants, and the families of naturalized Hawaiian Kingdom citizens, etc. But I'm not working for them.

Sorry to be a naysayer, and appear disrespectful.

I'm tempted to say "the more the merrier" because a larger group might have more success. But I believe the core constituency should define ourselves as the descendants and heirs of Hawaii's indigenous or aboriginal people, Kanaka Māoli.

We can hope many social groups will call for the recovery of Native Hawaiian lands. I hope people in other nations will also care about and work for our welfare. We've been very accommodating, with reason to hope others have noticed. Aloha is a well-known reflection of Hawaiian values.

Native Hawaiians worked for centuries on the islands. Naturalized newcomers to the Hawaiian Kingdom joined at a time of great disturbance and cultural genocide. They brought help and new ideas, and many have been great neighbors. But some worked to destroy the Hawaiian Kingdom:

http://tinyurl.com/jehsfnh

http://hialliance.com/Lambert-Hawaiians-DoleOut-Peace-proof.pdf

The US 1910 Census (at least in Hawaii) intrusively required answers to "Color or race" and "Place of Birth" as well as places of birth for mother and father, and two questions on Citizenship (Year of immigration to Hawaii or other part of United States) (Whether naturalized or alien). A dozen years before, and since 1893, heavily armed paramilitary groups had commandeered all major streets around Honolulu to discourage uppity or defiant natives resisting the overthrow. Should we divisively examine the community at the time of overthrow and make decisions about treason or saintliness, clouded by time and generation gaps? No naturalized citizens of the Hawaiian Kingdom remain alive. We've no possibilities to cross-examine. What are appropriate penalties? Could we be fair?

Many descendants of Hawaiian Kingdom naturalized citizens now have a "place at the table" through intermarriage with da kine. Kindly requesting others to wait seems not terribly cruel when the glaring status quo alternative is we recover nothing of our inheritance. Of course, we can share freely, and show aloha to anyone (or everyone). But that approach has not proven wholly successful...

Our Native Hawaiian constituency has claims as indigenous people that receive separate scrutiny in the global community and at the United Nations. We share solidarity with native peoples elsewhere. We've been robbed of ancestral lands & our inheritance by extravagant military occupation... a resonant story worldwide.

Peaceful Thinking - Don't Race

It's difficult to root-out indoctrination. Powers wielded over us may be unrecognized.

Opponents of our process to assist Native Hawaiian people are arguing (even repeatedly to the U.S. Supreme Court) we're racist and nasty.  I don't see it.

Our activities have a qualifying condition. Sitting at a family breakfast table also has certain requirement(s). Our wider society abounds with prerequisites. Virginia won't issue a driver's license to someone who's never been there. Male golfers aren't allowed to compete in the LPGA Championship. It's not possible everyone becomes a Roman Catholic priest. The Muscular Dystrophy Association only funds certain people. Voting rights are denied to many Americans due to supposedly insufficient age.

Kamehameha Schools have admission requirements. But children of many backgrounds are admitted. We could analyze a class and regroup the members in dozens, perhaps hundreds of ways.

Look around in American society and you'll see many doors closed. Most require money to enter: no money, no entry. Think of $10,000-per-plate political dinners.

Very few doors require Native Hawaiian ancestry. We belong to a family and community association stretching back many centuries, and have welcomed all races and religions. 

Celebrate Our Aloha.

IMUA

IMUA

Da kine puaʻa warriors

Gathered angry for a fight

Some had felt a taste of freedom

They'd been cooped-up very tight...

One wee piglet cursed another

Causing pushes, pokes & bite

Hid by pounding waves & jet wash

Master sniggers in the night...

"You are giving up our kingdom!"

Screamed one captive at his kin

In the brawl he gored their cousin

Disregarding who would win.

"Keep on holding-out forever!"

Counseled military swine...

As they gated off our country

Forcing total redesign.

Fruitful common lands, so long our own

Paved anew with Yankee trash

Native woes; whole families drowning

Kept afloat with drabs of cash.

Let's ask ourselves: Who's got my Land?

Who's actually our foe?

It is not Kanaka Māoli

It's Commander G.I. Joe

Weep for grunts & front-line sailors

Who face danger everyday

Heavy global fighting forces

Serving Corporate USA

Angry factions; much infighting

Battle on abusively

Goaded grossly by deceptions

Hatched in Washington, D.C.

Wave your protest signs at Nimitz

Or the Pentagon's front gate!

Ain't your cousin who's the problem

WE must make our country great.

We inherit much around us

But it's started now to rot

Celebrate all things Hawaiian

Or we'll die an afterthought.

We'll wake up one lovely morning

Just poor pigs, and mighty glum

And we'll sniff a tasty breakfast

Of the sausage we'll become.

With our blood of mighty warriors 

And consensus we can share

We are heirs Aloha ʻĀina

We must steadily prepare.

Let's push back from Occupation.

Native land & worldwide seeds

As a fresh Hawaiian Nation

Making good our local needs.

by Genki

2016-Jan-15

Crushing Native Hawaiians?

What might grow from stifling peaceful Native Hawaiian efforts?

Native Hawaiians are seeking to hold a convention to discuss their future. They've been hampered by a pending lawsuit, AKINA, KELI’I, ET AL. V. HAWAII, ET AL., and intervention by the USA. The Akina troop continues to solicit aid from distant forces. Militarist-controlled Hawaii remains on alert for dictates by the U.S. Supreme Court in far-off Washington, D.C.

What's their goal?  To aggressively cutoff peaceful discussions will force Native Hawaiian people to crisis: to forget high crimes against the Hawaiian nation; to forget felony theft of sacred lands, whole districts, entire islands --- often to serve an externally-imposed military; to forget Queen, culture, heritage and inheritance; and to accept life as standard-issue dark Americans... or to struggle & fight in other ways, perhaps less peaceably.

We who hope to gather are friendly, hopeful Hawaiians seeking peaceful solutions to deep-rooted problems. We're forbidden from counting the ballots cast in our recent election by edict of the U.S. Supreme Court (2 Dec 2015 by 5-4 split), which hides the legitimacy stemming from many many thousands of Native Hawaiians exercising freedom to vote & select spokespersons.

A key question is obscured by Anti-Hawaiian rhetoric: who should participate in choosing Native Hawaiian spokespersons?

The seriousness of the fight to silence us signifies fear. The clamor indicates we've many active enemies. But we continue to search for peaceful solutions and to spread aloha. Is it wise at this stage to crush our efforts? 

Aloha. 

 

Coalitions & Common Dreams of Freedom

Hawaiian struggles against military occupation have taken many decades.

I just watched a film tonight on TV ("Pride" 2014) about how gay activists assisted Welsh coalminers & their families during the 1984-85 UK miners strike. If we Hawaiians truly expect success, we'll need help & alliances.

The Native Hawaiian fight may last long; best we share experience & successes amongst many groups.

Can we form a headquarters for global outreach & collaboration? Or shall we continue to reach out less effectively in smaller groups & individually? If we've representative people to visit other indigenous peoples elsewhere, and are able to receive similar visitors, there's much to be learned. When Hawaiians are visited by a delegation of Macuxi indians or Nordic Sami people (and vice versa) it's a great, positive international media story with focus on collaboration rather than exclusiveness. Whether or not we create an application path for official delegations, we still must get word out more widely: Native Hawaiians are not dead.

I've brought-up the annexation experience many times in Korea when teaching place marketing. Most people there wholeheartedly condemn Japan's many decades of occupation, and celebrate restoration as a recognized nation. But when I've criticized Koreans for now turning their backs on other occupied peoples, they're generally surprised. "We thought Hawaiians were very happy within the USA..." Mmm - happy as y'all were under rule from Japan!

Too many decisions on Hawaiian people & Hawaiian lands are formulated half-a-world away in Washington D.C. by people who know little about local needs and care nothing of our history or for making things right. Peaceful change will require sustained, strategic & concerted efforts. Coalition-building is a key to success.

THEFT in Hawaii

Other peoples in the USA can peacefully assemble, inherit, and enjoy living in stable communities. But the Hawaiian experience is fractured by confiscation of land for military bases and unrestricted non-resident real estate speculation -- all controlled from far-away Washington, D.C. (Justice John-Boy Roberts & the Supremes; Big Daddy Warbucks) and filtered through corporate media (Oceanic Time Warner Cable, Black Press, Hearst).

Due to election demographics our State of Hawaii elected leaders cannot peacefully declare an ANTI MILITARIST position (even if they felt that way)...

Hawaii has far too many mammoth U.S. military bases. Hawaii houses many tens of thousands of U.S. Armed Forces. They & their dependents are a potent voting force (one of many criticisms against the illegal statehood vote). Militarism is of course also an important source of State revenue, and business with the military seems essential to many local enterprises.

Let me add mandatory disclaimers of not personally heaping blame on individual soldiers, or even on military preparedness. But I'd prefer the US military were cut 60% or more, and withdrawn from overseas to the U.S. mainland. Arms dealers contrarily insist America is weak and needs upward of three to five times the present military budget.

The fortified violence of U.S. militarism in Hawaii balances precariously with marketing Vacationland Paradise.

When we threaten to rock the boat, however peacefully, entrenched powers can be expected to criticize (or worse). Big corporate media may take the worst possible perspective on our dilemma.

There's no need for community polarization. The USA should stop blocking Native Hawaiian inheritance. We're seeking redress from THEFT -- how is that racial?

Miaow - Donnie Trump

I'm home for the holidays; my father-in-law listens to Fox News fools at the other end of his home, but the noise goes everywhere.

Fox News just announced: blue-collar male voters, real men, rely on Trump to resist feminization.

Let's face it: Don Trump is a pussy.
Look at him: a made-up sad dolly boy. Let's imagine a fight with Schwarzenegger -- Trump shitting his diaper. Trump's a twat.

Any blue-collar worker who relies on Donnie Trump for manliness is surely what Trump would label him: Loser!

Quiet Clinton

Hillary Clinton has not been much in the news; nor has George W. Bush.

Neither has much to say. Each is little more than a hired lapdog, trained to bark on command of his or her corporate master. American politicians are trained pets, shown-off when necessary, otherwise shut-up; controlled by hidden oligarchs.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is shunned by corporate media. He has substantial public support, but Sanders is much less obedient than all other candidates for the U.S. Presidency.

Future Theft

I live in a supposed democracy, but many people are unreasonably deprived of choice & voice.

I speak of disenfranchised youth. In many nations, people under 21 (or 20, or 18) are not allowed to vote. They cannot choose the people who govern their lives, young people cannot adjust laws through democratic means.

Our rules are wholly unreasonable as regards climate change. The major problems of climate change are not short-term, but troubles of accumulated decades.

Some geezer in his seventies has little life ahead, and naturally is averse to investing in the distant future. I would allow only those with 50+ years life expectancy to make the key choices: people aged 10 to 30 should be decisionmakers for climate change.

Youth must live long with future-oriented decisions. We need democratic change now!

Cold-Hearted Capitalists

Some wealthy people, and wannabe rich, believe capitalism is a reasonable & viable system.

Capitalism is cruel. Face the facts. Can you handle the truth?

Many children are homeless all across the wealthy USA. No fault of their own, kids are capitalist victims. Terrible childhood suffering leaves irreversible damages.

Some will say parents are bad for not supporting their kids, or for being poor & reproducing. Harsh reality is many American kids this morning are hungry & cold. Big Daddy Warbucks is heavily at fault. Militarism. Cold-hearted Capitalism ... God Bless America.

Accountability for American Torture?

This week Human Right Watch (link) published a study severely criticizing torture and enhanced interrogation methods (being now?) used by agents and officials of the United States of America.

Despite substantial pressure, American public outcry, and worldwide condemnation, U.S. Government torture and the perpetrators have largely evaded the criminal justice system. Lack of accountability may be the biggest crime.

Each branch of the U.S. Government, in both former & present administrations, thus share guilt for repeated and severe human rights violations extending to murder. The Bush gang, and the Obama crowd, each pose before a US flag smeared with blood; each tramples on his or her solemn oath to uphold the law.

Read the report:

Human Rights Watch (2015) No More Excuses: A Roadmap to Justice for CIA Torture. (1 Dec 2015)

Government torture is Wrong! Speak out against torturers!

Radical Religious Rightists

Jen Sorensen (link) highlights America's inflation of crazy incidents:

Reacting to the attack on Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs

US Military? Wasted Money?

The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction published a shocking quarterly report (30 Oct., link) on American operations in distant Afghanistan.

My main sense of shock comes from:
1) amazement the USA is still entrenched in Afghanistan & elsewhere, wasting lives & money
2) as if uncertain capitalists, the auditors claim surprise & doubt: do contractors cheat Uncle Sam?

US Special Inspector General John Sopko, seems almost to parrot Louis Renault - the opportunist officer of film Casablanca - when interviewed by the BBC:
"It's an outrageous waste of money that raises suspicions that there is something more there than just stupidity. There may be fraud. There may be corruption"

Similar suggestions of corruption arose against Halliburton in Iraq (link). But the company's still going strong. Militarism is Big Business!

Are regular Americans fleeced like sheep? Sure. Already in 2011 a government audit found US contractor fraud in Afghanistan & Iraq cost US$31 billion up to to perhaps $60 billion (report p.68; news comment here). But overt fraud is only part of our wasted spending. I'm happy to argue all spending was not only wasted, but worse: counterproductive. We arrogantly waste money building hatred & continuing enmity, in which untold thousands of innocents are killed or maimed: their people, our people, most are simply people.

Japan ink ?

Perhaps Japan's greatest tourist attractions are the many hot springs, especially open-air baths in the mountains, beautiful countryside, or overlooking the ocean.

Sadly, for many visitors the public baths & hot springs are forbidden. Not because the Japanese officially dislike foreigners, but because hot spring spas, public bathing facilities and even beaches are often off-limits to anyone tattooed.

This means U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy cannot try these delights (with a butterfly tattoo on her right arm). Japan can't use their onsen for international summit meetings, as Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with his Haida raven tattoo will be excluded (along with British PM David Cameron's wife Samantha and her dolphin)

Many Olympic sports stars will disappointingly be shut-out from using hot springs if Japan is allowed to host the 2020 Olympics. (Hosting remains in doubt due to public opposition, lax construction, and atomic radiation hazards).

Some say tattoos are criminal symbols, but often criminals have no tattoo, while many non-criminals are inked. More to blame is Japan's forced homogeneity, prohibiting variation. Why else would supposedly populist Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto victimize all tattooed municipal employees? (link) Hashimoto sought to push such people from public sector work - perhaps over a tiny sea turtle. By condemning slight differences, Japanese authorities create both irrational fears and a non-innovative society raised solely to labor and die.