tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post7917700723184135117..comments2023-10-17T04:51:08.765-10:00Comments on KauaiEclectic: Musings: Local KnowledgeJoan Conrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172330100788007499noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post-89361611690978846312009-05-11T20:17:00.000-10:002009-05-11T20:17:00.000-10:00Joan, you know more about Hawaiian culture and loc...Joan, you know more about Hawaiian culture and local customs than most locals, Hawaiian or otherwise.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post-35710775178486148222009-05-11T13:02:00.000-10:002009-05-11T13:02:00.000-10:00Did Katy & Andy read the same thing I did? I w...Did Katy & Andy read the same thing I did? I was laughing and your seeing conspiracy theories. Lighten up you guys. Life is not always so serious.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post-53122557659203531742009-05-11T12:07:00.000-10:002009-05-11T12:07:00.000-10:00"I think it's just a guy thing."
-- oh nice one! ..."I think it's just a guy thing."<br /><br />-- oh nice one! funny. thanks for the wise reply<br /><br /><br /><br />very interesting take on things May 10, 2009 3:30 PM and May 10, 2009 4:12 PM, ty<br /><br /><br />"And distractions like "chem trails" and 9/11 conspiracies feed into a general sense of helplessness. "<br /><br />--- so true, and "helplessness" is putting it lightly<br /><br /><br />May 10, 2009 10:16 AMAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post-78764294342171161382009-05-11T06:25:00.000-10:002009-05-11T06:25:00.000-10:00"Plantation mentality," as Andy describes it, seem..."Plantation mentality," as Andy describes it, seems to be a worldwide phenomenon.<br /><br />It's damn hard work for people who are being screwed to organize collectively, and the great myths about our own powerlessness are the biggest obstacles. <br /><br />But that's why we have to organize collectively, instead of trying to seek justice individually. As the old folk song says "The boss won't listen when one guy squawks, but he's got to listen when the union talks."<br /><br />It's no small thing that our class solidarity has been consistently undermined by racism, misogyny and homophobia. And distractions like "chem trails" and 9/11 conspiracies feed into a general sense of helplessness. <br /><br />Andy's example of people afraid to speak out because of the fear of being evicted or fired reminds me of the stories I heard as a union organizer, when frightened workers were more swayed by the "once upon a time" stories that had circulated about firings and reprisals than by the daily experience of being underpaid, overworked and disrespected. Plantation mentality, in other words, is alive and well in the rural West and elsewhere.<br /><br />In many ways, it's LESS alive here, though I hear about it constantly. Progressives reinforce its mythic power, it seems to me, by willingly engaging in major acts of forgetting. There is an admirable history in Hawai'i of militant organizing and resistance to draw upon, but in my experience, you'd never know it from listening to recent activist arrivals (like me) who assume that nobody ever resisted injustice and exploitation before we got here to show the locals how to do it.<br /><br />Joan shares in her post about the value of the things she's learned from her local friends. I guess the biggest eye-opener for me has been learning about the history of radical resistance in Hawai'i. I'm impressed as hell by what folks did to keep the Superferry from Kaua'i, of course, but most of us recent settlers knew nothing about the Niumalu-Nawiliwili Tenants' Association struggle when we went down to the pier.<br /><br />It's up to all of us to keep our peoples' histories alive, so the myths of powerlessness don't win out.Katyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09145011324294730195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post-85105034552459206982009-05-10T16:12:00.000-10:002009-05-10T16:12:00.000-10:00For every instance where some luna actually succes...For every instance where some luna actually successfully pressures a landlord or a boss to punish someone who spoke out or stepped out of line, there’s a hundreds where people just think it might have happened but it really didn’t. <br /><br />“It could happen”... but usually it didn’t.<br /><br />The problem is that this illusion of power is at the core of the clout of plantation mentality. When people “no like say nahting” to protect themselves or family members, that enables those who don’t really have that kind of power to actually have it simply because people believe they do. <br /><br />It seems like the “story” is always “someone told me that someone told them that they heard that maybe 20 years ago” something happened- .<br /><br />That’s what’s so dangerous about giving a lot of these “conspiracy theories” so much credence.” They”- whomever they may be- don’t really have the brains or wherewithal to pull off these things like the WTC “bombing” or the “old-boy-network guys” getting someone’s landlord evict them or boss to fire them. More than likely the person the luna approaches will say no and maybe even turn them in if it’s something illegal- and they won’t risk that.<br /><br />But if people think they do it, that’s creates hundreds of times more power than they may actually have.Andy Parxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15398587036690312685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post-70821235521744369462009-05-10T15:30:00.000-10:002009-05-10T15:30:00.000-10:00collective-think and the protocol around it is not...collective-think and the protocol around it is not unique to Hawaii, native Hawaiians or Asian settlers who call themselves local. now that I think about, neither is xenophobia either. some stuff I was raised on, now as an adult, I feel is really nothing unique to Hawaii at all just repackaged with the Made with Aloha rubber stamp.<br /><br />some of it is just rural narrow-mindedness cloaked in nineteenth century sentimental romanticism of "south sea" fantasies then repackaged as ethnic, local, or native. localized ideas that have appeared because of a century of globalization syncretized to local conditions. Elizabeth Buck deals with it in her book about Hawaiian music and dance. the danger, of course, is that it freezes culture which is dynamic and turns us into a caricature of ourselves as objects for others.LoFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17790755800889443785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post-78772411467051203242009-05-10T11:06:00.000-10:002009-05-10T11:06:00.000-10:00Aloha....perhaps in some future blog, you could sh...Aloha....perhaps in some future blog, you could share some cultural information, such as......what constitutes disrespect, how to behave around net fishermen, what to bring when visiting someone, how to greet kupuna, and different proper cultural protocols.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post-64102568232984309992009-05-10T10:29:00.000-10:002009-05-10T10:29:00.000-10:00I think it's just a guy thing.I think it's just a guy thing.Joan Conrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00172330100788007499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7875069982976812251.post-37397495054705397782009-05-10T10:16:00.000-10:002009-05-10T10:16:00.000-10:00"locals know a lot of things that we mainland tran..."locals know a lot of things that we mainland transplants don’t"<br /><br />-- is the machismo ethnic hawaiian? or is that from some other group?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com