Peter Young has a fantastic page on Facebook telling a history of Hawaii through words and images. I often share his work with our basketball kids on our educational page (also on Facebook).
Here's a fascinating piece on Hawaiians who migrated to California and intermarried with Native Americans before and during the Gold Rush.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Monday, November 10, 2014
Made In Taiwan
The DNA evidence has been around for some years now, but it's still fresh for a layman like me. Global. People everywhere, though not all people, are interested in these details, of the proof about their origins. If I had Polynesian blood and science told me my ancestors were from Taiwan, I'd be tripping out.
But Taiwan back then and Taiwan today are two different worlds and cultures. Two different gene pools. These guys, Oscar Kightley and Nathan Rarere go on a special voyage.
Documentary: MADE IN TAIWAN
But Taiwan back then and Taiwan today are two different worlds and cultures. Two different gene pools. These guys, Oscar Kightley and Nathan Rarere go on a special voyage.
Documentary: MADE IN TAIWAN
CrashCourse on Capt. Cook
I'm getting old. I know this because when I think of any five or 10 people from history I'd like to talk with — to interview — Captain Cook would be on that list. Definitely. He saw things nobody in the West had seen. His perspective on different islands and continents would've been fascinating to see and hear. Imagine what he'd think of our world today.
First question: "Captain, is there anything you would've done differently?"
Friday, October 17, 2014
Fascination: WW2 era Sakhalin, aka Karafuto
I wondered the other day about a place like Sakhalin, where Siberians/Russians and Japanese/East Asians have a shared history. Not necessarily a harmonious history, but I know so little of it. Maybe some long-time generational fisherman families from Hokkaido consider Sakhalin their adopted home.
But what I found in this piece by Mariya Sevela was intriguing, informative and stirred up my imagination.
Sakhalin: the Japanese Under Soviet Rule
But what I found in this piece by Mariya Sevela was intriguing, informative and stirred up my imagination.
Sakhalin: the Japanese Under Soviet Rule
At the time of the Soviet ‘liberation’ of South Sakhalin, it was inhabited by nearly half a million people: Japanese, Koreans (mostly forced labourers), White Russians, Poles and the island’s indigenous peoples – Ainu, Nivkhi and Ul’ta. From 1942, Karafuto had been incorporated into the Japanese home islands (naichi) and was no longer the responsibility of the Ministry of Colonisation (takumushô). It thus gradually became more and more an integral part of Japan itself.There were 300,000 Japanese on that island?? Ainu, I can see. But who are the Nivkhi and Ul'ta?
A portion of the population, mainly women, children and the elderly, managed to get off the island during August. For some of them, however, the passage across the Soya Strait was a grim one; three refugee ships were torpedoed by a Soviet submarine near Hokkaido with heavy loss of life. Nevertheless, more than 100,000 did escape, reducing Karafuto’s Japanese population to some 300,000 by the time the war was over, though figures vary according to the source.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Asia to Africa
Jared Diamond calls them Austronesians. Previous generations called them Malays. Whatever they were called, they sure got around and around.
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Photo: Alizul.blogspot.com
Most native Madagascar people today, called Malagasy, can trace their ancestry back to the founding 30 mothers, according to an extensive new DNA study published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B,. Researchers focused on mitochondrial DNA, passed down from mothers to their offspring. Scientists assume some men were with the women.
"I'm afraid this wasn't a settlement by Amazon seafarers!" lead author Murray Cox told Discovery News. "We propose settlement by a very small group of Indonesian women, around 30, but we also presume from the genetics that there were at least some Indonesian men with them. At this stage, we don't know how many."
Cox, a senior lecturer at Massey University's Institute of Molecular BioSciences, and his colleagues analyzed genetic samples from 2745 individuals hailing from 12 Indonesian archipelago island groups. They then compared the results with genetic information from 266 individuals from three Malagasy ethnic groups: Mikea hunter-gatherers, semi-nomadic Vezo fishermen and the dominant Andriana Merina ethnic group.
Many Malagasy carry a gene tied to Indonesia. The DNA detective work indicates just 30 Indonesian women founded the Malagasy population, with a much smaller biological contribution from Africa. The women may have mated with their male Indonesian travel companions, or with men from Africa.
Discovery.com
This isn't a strange pill to swallow. Growing up in Hawaii, we learned a lot as children about the currents of the Pacific Ocean, how that affection voyages across Polynesia. What they didn't teach us about Melanesia, Micronesia and any other nesia is stuff like this. Some of it wasn't known, that's for sure. DNA testing? Not when I was a kid.
Friday, July 16, 2010
More Africa to Asia
Any discussion and information about migration from East Africa to India catches my ears, but when the destination stretches as far as Vietnam and the Philippines, even more so.
This video, featuring a speaker I've never heard of, is very interesting. It's the third part of a series.
So, that led me to do a quick search about blacks in Vietnam, and sure enough, some here is research by Runoko Rashidi: the black Vietnamese were known as the Champa, original conquerors of the region. They defeated the Chinese, who referred to them as k'un-lun (a phrase I've come across a few times online) and found their way to the Philippines later, theorizes H. Otley Beyer.
More of Rashidi's work reveals his conviction that the Agta of the Philippines — known more commonly as Negritos and Aeta — are descendants of those early seafarers from Africa by way of South India. (Note that the same South India/Andaman Islands connection is also theorized to be the connection point for the Ainu of Japan, according to DNA comparisons.)
This video, featuring a speaker I've never heard of, is very interesting. It's the third part of a series.
So, that led me to do a quick search about blacks in Vietnam, and sure enough, some here is research by Runoko Rashidi: the black Vietnamese were known as the Champa, original conquerors of the region. They defeated the Chinese, who referred to them as k'un-lun (a phrase I've come across a few times online) and found their way to the Philippines later, theorizes H. Otley Beyer.
More of Rashidi's work reveals his conviction that the Agta of the Philippines — known more commonly as Negritos and Aeta — are descendants of those early seafarers from Africa by way of South India. (Note that the same South India/Andaman Islands connection is also theorized to be the connection point for the Ainu of Japan, according to DNA comparisons.)
"They were the aborigines of the Philippines, and for a long time had been master of Luzon. At a time not very far distant, when the Spaniards conquered the country, the Aetas levied a kind of blackmail from the Tagalog villages situated on the banks of the lake of Bay (Laguna de Bay). At a fixed period they quitted their forests, entered the village, and forced the inhabitants to give them a certain quantity of rice and maize....After the conquest of the Philippines by the Spaniards, the latter took upon themselves the defense of the Tagalogs, and the Aetas, terrified by their firearms, remained in the forests, and did not reappear among the Indians."
—Dr. Pedro A. Gagelonia, a Filipino scholar
Here's an interesting quote from the foreign minister of Papua New Guinea back in 1976:
"Africa is our motherland. All of the Black populations which settled in Asia over the hundreds of thousands of years, came undoubtedly from the African continent. In fact, the entire world was populated from Africa. Hence, we the Blacks in Asia and the Pacific today descend from proto-African peoples. We were linked to Africa in the past. We are linked to Africa in the present. We will be linked to Africa in the future."
—Ben Tanggahma
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Wherefore thou ark?
Going back to movie lore of the 1980s, which seems like a few blinks of the eye now, the Ark of the Covenant has stirred imagination and possibility. Go back a few millennia and it's impossible to discourage the mystery of where the original Ark was taken. How many places was it transported to? Was there really more than one version of the Ark?
There are all kinds of theories, but the one that would make most sense is likely one that took the relic far away from population centers. After all, in Hawaii, we have our mystery about the bones of great King Kamehameha I. Nobody has uncovered the location of his remains, and nobody's talking, either. If his mana, or power, from the bones of his body have remained a secret in such a small place for more than 200 years, imagine how well guarded the Ark is after far more time.
Wherever the ark(s), it's encouraging to know that through time, regardless of culture and religion, there remains a fascination with the 10 Commandments and their origins. My guess is that the Ark is in Ethiopia, a place quite far away from the original site of the Ark, at least in Old Testament times. If it is there, how much longer can it remain a mystery rather than a fact, especially in today's world of instant communication and media?
Maybe there really are copies upon copies of not one, but two versions of the Ark, as the theory goes, and they've been spread about the world, as many other claims go. But I'd say Ethiopia is where it is, if I were to guess. Just a hunch.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Rapa Nui: A warning from history
I don't care for anthropological theories that discount that possibility. Anything is possible with human willpower. Even the extreme theory that it was seafaring Chinese traders who brought sweet potato to Rapa Nui (I don't believe it, but...) is possible.
What's most interesting, though, is how Rapa Nui destroyed itself, prioritizing its behemoth stone structures so high that the land was deforested and society crumbled. Basically, a parallel of modern Western society in the making.
Genographic or xenophobic?
On the surface, it seems odd that anyone would oppose a study of mankind's footprints and paths.
But National Geographic's Genographic Project will probably always face the element fear. There are tribes, particularly in Alaska, who fear potential consequences of the project. My interest is, of course, solely as a very curious individual who has always been interested in origins and migratory routes. Almost all my childhood friends are descendants of immigrants, if not immigrants themselves. Even Native Hawaiians were once new to these islands. We all came from somewhere else. But this New York Times story notes how the concern about discovering DNA denominators that cross oceans and mountains could have political repercussions, inadvertent as they may be in purpose.
There are all kinds of points and counterpoints to be made. It's unfortunate that the project may not proceed without obstruction. But ideals are simply temporary. Reality always kicks the gall out of idealists, and there is red tape — and sensitivity to an issue like health care — to weave through. A more recent word from the project's leader, Spencer Wells:
(See the series here.)
But National Geographic's Genographic Project will probably always face the element fear. There are tribes, particularly in Alaska, who fear potential consequences of the project. My interest is, of course, solely as a very curious individual who has always been interested in origins and migratory routes. Almost all my childhood friends are descendants of immigrants, if not immigrants themselves. Even Native Hawaiians were once new to these islands. We all came from somewhere else. But this New York Times story notes how the concern about discovering DNA denominators that cross oceans and mountains could have political repercussions, inadvertent as they may be in purpose.
"What if it turns out you're really Siberian and then, oops, your health care is gone?" said Dr. David Barrett, a co-chairman of the Alaska Area Institutional Review Board, which is sponsored by the Indian Health Service, a federal agency. "Did anyone explain that to them?"
There are all kinds of points and counterpoints to be made. It's unfortunate that the project may not proceed without obstruction. But ideals are simply temporary. Reality always kicks the gall out of idealists, and there is red tape — and sensitivity to an issue like health care — to weave through. A more recent word from the project's leader, Spencer Wells:
"Many of the crises we see in the 21st century, I would argue, have their roots in the dawn of the Neolithic," he says. "We spent an enormous amount of time as hominids and as primates living as hunter-gatherers. That is the natural way for us to live, and we're suddenly living in this profoundly unnatural way, and we're still in the process of adapting to it and working out how to live with it."
(See the series here.)
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Origins of the Japanese
This is probably one of the most readable and succinct pieces I've seen online about Japanese origins. I write that as plural because there is more than one major group of DNA in Japan.
During the last Ice Age, which ended approximately 15,000 years ago, Japan was connected to the continent through several land bridges, notably one linking the Ryukyu Islands to Taiwan and Kyushu, one linking Kyushu to the Korean peninsula, and another one connecting Hokkaido to Sakhalin and the Siberian mainland. In fact, the Philippines and Indonesia were also connected to the Asian mainland. This allowed migrations from China and Austronesia towards Japan, about 35,000 years ago. These were the ancestors of the modern Ryukyuans (Okinawans), and the first inhabitants of all Japan.
I love how the Ainu dude with the mouth harp is playing along with the Hawaiians (at the 4:15 mark).
Some interesting documentary footage from Japan about the Ainu.
This video is more about the warfare between the Ainu and later settlers of Japan. Lots of cultural information, photos, music.
I can't think of another ethnic group that actually hunts (or used to hunt) bears. Gnarly!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Myth or fact: Giants of Solomon Islands
I'm much more into non-fiction than tall tales (pun intended), but this is too much to ignore.
Myth, legend — whatever you'd like to call it — there is one about giants in the South Pacific. An adventuresome writer named Jonathan Gray pens this story about the 15-foot original inhabitants of Guadalcanal and the Solomons.
There's much, much more to be read, but Gray's piece is just short enough to whet the appetite ... or completely disappoint. Me? I find it intriguing. Where did these legends come from? And why would so many people have so many first-hand accounts of encounters with these giants?
Monday, October 19, 2009
Natural disasters and migration
Yet another typhoon is closing in on the Philippines.
I can't help wondering, with all the horrible typhoons and hurricanes that hit that region of the world -- an area that is widely believed to be launching pad for migration to the Pacific -- if natural disasters were a major reason for exploration.
Maybe the Pacific would've been explored no matter what. That's human nature. But if you're in a place, say 2,000 years ago, that gets hit by natural disasters five times in two years, wouldn't that be impetus to find a safe new home?
Factor in war, battle for fertile land, clean water ... and people would move further and further until they found someplace tolerable. Peaceful.
I can't help wondering, with all the horrible typhoons and hurricanes that hit that region of the world -- an area that is widely believed to be launching pad for migration to the Pacific -- if natural disasters were a major reason for exploration.
Maybe the Pacific would've been explored no matter what. That's human nature. But if you're in a place, say 2,000 years ago, that gets hit by natural disasters five times in two years, wouldn't that be impetus to find a safe new home?
Factor in war, battle for fertile land, clean water ... and people would move further and further until they found someplace tolerable. Peaceful.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Harrowing migration
Friday, July 3, 2009
The history of migration, to me, is about people searching for a better life. The route out of North Korea, though, goes beyond the norm.
The story of Myong Hui Eom puts it into perspective. How else does a teacher go from one extreme to the other, from the "utopia," as she puts it, of her home country to realizing that it's not what she thought.
The history of migration, to me, is about people searching for a better life. The route out of North Korea, though, goes beyond the norm.
The story of Myong Hui Eom puts it into perspective. How else does a teacher go from one extreme to the other, from the "utopia," as she puts it, of her home country to realizing that it's not what she thought.
Breaks the heart again and again
Thursday, July 2, 2009
If it seems odd that one of the most Christianized nations in the world is South Korea, consider the peninsula's crisis.
I used to wonder, how and why did South Korea become so strongly Christian? This goes back to my teens, when I went to church with one of my best friends. The kal bi was excellent! But it was much more than that. It was my first real experience being around Christians young, old and in between.
I always wondered later, how Christ came to be such a focal point in a part of the world that is otherwise Buddhist, Shinto and, further south and southwest, Hindu. The how part isn't on my mind these days. The why part, though, is clear now. The faith required to help North Koreans escape the tumult of Kim Il-Jong's regime is enormously deep. Nobody else but missionaries are willing to risk their lives to help North Koreans get across the Tumen River, then through China, all the way down to Thailand, before they can reach freedom in South Korea.
It's something I'm watching on a recent episode of Wide Angle on PBS. Crossing Heaven's Border is a mirror of the reality, the risk, the sacrifice that continues on. While some people get their kicks watching a bunch of spoiled brats act stupid on programs like The Real World, folks in places like North Korea simply want freedom so bad they'll risk being killed. It's enough to make a cynic want to cheer for the underdogs again.
If it seems odd that one of the most Christianized nations in the world is South Korea, consider the peninsula's crisis.
I used to wonder, how and why did South Korea become so strongly Christian? This goes back to my teens, when I went to church with one of my best friends. The kal bi was excellent! But it was much more than that. It was my first real experience being around Christians young, old and in between.
I always wondered later, how Christ came to be such a focal point in a part of the world that is otherwise Buddhist, Shinto and, further south and southwest, Hindu. The how part isn't on my mind these days. The why part, though, is clear now. The faith required to help North Koreans escape the tumult of Kim Il-Jong's regime is enormously deep. Nobody else but missionaries are willing to risk their lives to help North Koreans get across the Tumen River, then through China, all the way down to Thailand, before they can reach freedom in South Korea.
It's something I'm watching on a recent episode of Wide Angle on PBS. Crossing Heaven's Border is a mirror of the reality, the risk, the sacrifice that continues on. While some people get their kicks watching a bunch of spoiled brats act stupid on programs like The Real World, folks in places like North Korea simply want freedom so bad they'll risk being killed. It's enough to make a cynic want to cheer for the underdogs again.
It's not white and black, never was
Monday, June 22, 2009
It's all a blur these days.
Pretty cool. Some geeks might call it a fusion culture. I think it's a no-B.S. culture. Information is a real currency and it's available cheap or free. If kids like something -- classical, jazz, whatever -- they have access to learn and master it regardless of color lines.
Technology and the Internet have changed a lot of things. Black kids mastering Guitar Hero. Spanish kids becoming NBA stars. Kids in Beijing getting into hip-hop. In the 1980s, academians called it a Global Village. In 2009, it's more like a Global Block Party sometimes. Twitter is abuzz with updates, opinions and information about the uprising in Iran (rigged balloting). The Iran page picks up updated posts from the public constantly, by the second.
For better or worse, information precedes cultural crossover and always has. Trade leads to sharing of goods -- and goodies. That's how the chili pepper made it from South America to Korea. Made it big around the world. Sometimes I miss the age of secrets, but that doesn't matter anymore.
It's all a blur these days.
Pretty cool. Some geeks might call it a fusion culture. I think it's a no-B.S. culture. Information is a real currency and it's available cheap or free. If kids like something -- classical, jazz, whatever -- they have access to learn and master it regardless of color lines.
Technology and the Internet have changed a lot of things. Black kids mastering Guitar Hero. Spanish kids becoming NBA stars. Kids in Beijing getting into hip-hop. In the 1980s, academians called it a Global Village. In 2009, it's more like a Global Block Party sometimes. Twitter is abuzz with updates, opinions and information about the uprising in Iran (rigged balloting). The Iran page picks up updated posts from the public constantly, by the second.
For better or worse, information precedes cultural crossover and always has. Trade leads to sharing of goods -- and goodies. That's how the chili pepper made it from South America to Korea. Made it big around the world. Sometimes I miss the age of secrets, but that doesn't matter anymore.
They wear shirts and pants
Monday, June 15, 2009
Everything I've read and seen about Iran in recent months has been surprising.
Folks there can be rather, um, rebellious? Contrarian. What little I know is that there's a large population of college-educated people there, even Westernized to a large scale. Even in the face of steep religious extremism in the past, Iran has its share of civil unrest today. The photos paint quite a picture. From the New York Times site.
Everything I've read and seen about Iran in recent months has been surprising.
Folks there can be rather, um, rebellious? Contrarian. What little I know is that there's a large population of college-educated people there, even Westernized to a large scale. Even in the face of steep religious extremism in the past, Iran has its share of civil unrest today. The photos paint quite a picture. From the New York Times site.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Do we hate those closest to us?
How else could be explain the border wars and fatalities between people who look so much alike, share so many customs? Who can explain the mostly ridiculous reasons for any civil war? I always think, "When the aliens arrive, they are not going to understand how we can be so freaking violent toward each other as a species." They may want to tinker with us like lab animals, but mostly I think they're trying to prevent us from destroying our planet. Or maybe they just stay the hell away from us and our destructive ways.
Over the centuries, it's always been our own neighbors that we go to war with. Few people on the other side of the world, say Romania, can differentiate between Japanese and Okinawans, or Tongans and Samoans, or Tahitians and Marquesans. Yet there were wars galore between so many cultures and societies from the beginning of time. Really, ask a kindergartener about the physical difference between Jews and Palestinians, and almost all of them will be stumped.
Hawaii is only a bit different. The original settlers, arguably the Menehune (among other tribes) were pushed out by the Tahitians and Marquesans. "Native" religion imported from a Tongan priest. The benefit of Hawaii is that way back then, and today, intermarriage was destined. The place was and still is much to small for a "pure" ethnic group to stay that way. It's harder and harder to find anyone who is of 100% ethnicity in one group.
I'm part Japanese and part Chinese, descending from Kumamoto, Kyushu Island, Japan, and Guangdong (formerly Canton), China. My ancestors arrived in Hawaii not long after the turn of the century, 1910 or so. Yet, by the 1960s, it was still borderline taboo for Chinese- and Japanese-Americans to intermarry. The onslaught of war and violence by the Emperor-era Japanese military had a lot to do with that. Naturally, any family of Chinese, Korean, or even Vietnamese or Filipino descent had problems with the concept of marrying Japanese back then -- even though local Nissei had absolutely nothing to do with the insane emperor and his blood-lusting generals.
Fortunately, we're in the new millennium and mixed blood isn't the exception at all in the islands. In fact, that's one of the many facets of our culture that is beautiful and brilliant. There are definitely problems here, but almost none of them have to do with race wars or loyalties embedded in color. Hawaii is, and always will be, about where you come from -- more so in the past, but still in the present.
I see my nephew play Call of Duty 4 every day and night, addicted beyond help, headset on and directing his fellow "soldiers". He's interacting with people online, mostly other teens, from all over the globe. That's so far out. He has no real sense of his own neighborhood "gang" like I did growing up, playing at the park all summer long. Football, baseball, basketball. It's cool, though. He's a great student and so much more focused than I was at his age. He's going far, and his grasp of a global village isn't just theory. It's a normal part of his life.
As our tiny hub in the middle of the Pacific gets more connected to the world, I hate to see us lose local traditions and flavor. It's a matter of time, though, before most things change or disappear. Maybe that's why I miss Varsity Theater and the old Honolulu Stadium. They weren't, by definition, Hawaiian. But they were part of my roots, my world as a child. It didn't matter if you were Chinese-Japanese or Portuguese-Hawaiian or Samoan-Tongan ... we all went there to enjoy the Hawaii Islanders, the WFL Hawaiians, and long before that, great high school football.
There is, no doubt, still some whispering and murmuring among old-timers -- particularly in somewhat recent arrivals from other cultures -- when it comes to intermarrying. There are Illocanos who say out loud that they're not the ones who eat black dog -- it's the Tagalogs! There are elder Samoans who take issue about the family having a trace of Tongan blood -- that's what centuries of servitude under a conquering kingdom will do, understandably.
But there are folks like the Azoreans, who are a mix of mostly Portuguese with Dutch, French and other European ethnicities, who are proudly distinct from the mainland Portuguese. But there was no military conflict ever. The Azoreans arrived in Hawaii to work the plantations and never left -- unlike other groups (Chinese, particularly) that made their coin and went back to the homeland rich enough to buy land and home.
I hear about older Filipinos working hard here for decades, then retiring and returning to the P.I. to live in luxury. More power to them. Koreans, too -- though that's more of a dream than reality from what I've seen in my friends' parents and grandparents.
What I've noticed more and more over the years is what we all see: Brain Drain. So many talented, educated people settling on the continent for higher wages and lower cost of living. That's one way to curtail the inevitable overpopulation of O'ahu, but it's still sad to be apart from the people we grew up with. I suppose that's one of the glorious things about becoming rich: you can travel anywhere, any time, and see any friends you'd like without concern about costs or missing work.
I wonder, which adventure is grander: Traveling out of necessity -- to find higher pay and make a better life -- or traveling mostly for fun. Pure fun. I'd like to try the latter one day.
Over the centuries, it's always been our own neighbors that we go to war with. Few people on the other side of the world, say Romania, can differentiate between Japanese and Okinawans, or Tongans and Samoans, or Tahitians and Marquesans. Yet there were wars galore between so many cultures and societies from the beginning of time. Really, ask a kindergartener about the physical difference between Jews and Palestinians, and almost all of them will be stumped.
Hawaii is only a bit different. The original settlers, arguably the Menehune (among other tribes) were pushed out by the Tahitians and Marquesans. "Native" religion imported from a Tongan priest. The benefit of Hawaii is that way back then, and today, intermarriage was destined. The place was and still is much to small for a "pure" ethnic group to stay that way. It's harder and harder to find anyone who is of 100% ethnicity in one group.
I'm part Japanese and part Chinese, descending from Kumamoto, Kyushu Island, Japan, and Guangdong (formerly Canton), China. My ancestors arrived in Hawaii not long after the turn of the century, 1910 or so. Yet, by the 1960s, it was still borderline taboo for Chinese- and Japanese-Americans to intermarry. The onslaught of war and violence by the Emperor-era Japanese military had a lot to do with that. Naturally, any family of Chinese, Korean, or even Vietnamese or Filipino descent had problems with the concept of marrying Japanese back then -- even though local Nissei had absolutely nothing to do with the insane emperor and his blood-lusting generals.
Fortunately, we're in the new millennium and mixed blood isn't the exception at all in the islands. In fact, that's one of the many facets of our culture that is beautiful and brilliant. There are definitely problems here, but almost none of them have to do with race wars or loyalties embedded in color. Hawaii is, and always will be, about where you come from -- more so in the past, but still in the present.
I see my nephew play Call of Duty 4 every day and night, addicted beyond help, headset on and directing his fellow "soldiers". He's interacting with people online, mostly other teens, from all over the globe. That's so far out. He has no real sense of his own neighborhood "gang" like I did growing up, playing at the park all summer long. Football, baseball, basketball. It's cool, though. He's a great student and so much more focused than I was at his age. He's going far, and his grasp of a global village isn't just theory. It's a normal part of his life.
As our tiny hub in the middle of the Pacific gets more connected to the world, I hate to see us lose local traditions and flavor. It's a matter of time, though, before most things change or disappear. Maybe that's why I miss Varsity Theater and the old Honolulu Stadium. They weren't, by definition, Hawaiian. But they were part of my roots, my world as a child. It didn't matter if you were Chinese-Japanese or Portuguese-Hawaiian or Samoan-Tongan ... we all went there to enjoy the Hawaii Islanders, the WFL Hawaiians, and long before that, great high school football.
There is, no doubt, still some whispering and murmuring among old-timers -- particularly in somewhat recent arrivals from other cultures -- when it comes to intermarrying. There are Illocanos who say out loud that they're not the ones who eat black dog -- it's the Tagalogs! There are elder Samoans who take issue about the family having a trace of Tongan blood -- that's what centuries of servitude under a conquering kingdom will do, understandably.
But there are folks like the Azoreans, who are a mix of mostly Portuguese with Dutch, French and other European ethnicities, who are proudly distinct from the mainland Portuguese. But there was no military conflict ever. The Azoreans arrived in Hawaii to work the plantations and never left -- unlike other groups (Chinese, particularly) that made their coin and went back to the homeland rich enough to buy land and home.
I hear about older Filipinos working hard here for decades, then retiring and returning to the P.I. to live in luxury. More power to them. Koreans, too -- though that's more of a dream than reality from what I've seen in my friends' parents and grandparents.
What I've noticed more and more over the years is what we all see: Brain Drain. So many talented, educated people settling on the continent for higher wages and lower cost of living. That's one way to curtail the inevitable overpopulation of O'ahu, but it's still sad to be apart from the people we grew up with. I suppose that's one of the glorious things about becoming rich: you can travel anywhere, any time, and see any friends you'd like without concern about costs or missing work.
I wonder, which adventure is grander: Traveling out of necessity -- to find higher pay and make a better life -- or traveling mostly for fun. Pure fun. I'd like to try the latter one day.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
A battle cry against modern technology
It was during the state boys basketball tournament that the war cry, basically the tomahawk chant, of Kahuku fans drew me into conversation with a former player and coach (OIA) about the politics of the whole thing.
It was during the state boys basketball tournament that the war cry, basically the tomahawk chant, of Kahuku fans drew me into conversation with a former player and coach (OIA) about the politics of the whole thing. After all, when fans on the mainland use the same chant, they're decried and ripped for being politically incorrect.
But Kahuku has done it for years. And in more recent years, I've started to wonder more and more about where that line rests between school history and sensitivity to Native American tribes. This is my theory.
Because the Mormon church is entrenched on the North Shore, particularly La'ie, doing the tomahawk chant isn't just something that goes along with Kahuku's longtime nickname, "Red Raiders." Though that name came by chance when 'Iolani donated uniforms to Kahuku decades ago (and has more recently dropped the "Red" from its nickname), I started to realize there's more to it.
See, for those of us (including myself), there's very little knowledge about what the history of the LDS is all about. Like any religion, there's good (lots) and bad (sad but true). When it comes to lineage, though, the Mormon church takes it to a really interesting, some say creative, new level. When I hear talk about a Western culture/faith deriving from a "lost tribe" of Israel, I think of Bob Marley, the Rasafarians and their insistence that former Ethiopian president Hallie Selassie was the descendant and king of that tribe, which eventually found its way to Jamaica, etc.
Well, the Church of Latter-Day Saints has used similar historical rewriting to say that Native Americans are descendants of the lost tribe, and from there, they migrated to Polynesia and South America. I don't hear it directly from friends who are Mormon, but it interests me to know more about migration and history, all the good and bad.
DNA in recent years has proven that South Americans descended from travelers who crossed from Siberia to Alaska -- NOT from Israel. There is no Hebrew DNA in Polynesians, either. For literalists of the LDS church, it has to be a stiff blow. But it doesn't really change my perspective of people and their chosen faith. Why?
I believe there's something within us that transcends the name of our religion and church. Being raised a certain way doesn't necessarily limit us to possibilities and realities. America was born out of religious tyranny, among other things, so the right to follow one's path was well-earned by our forefathers.
But I'm sure there are older Mormons who will never trust the technology that has changed our lives, just as I am content to use a freebie cellphone rather than buy a pricey iPhone, just as there are still some folks who refuse to use a computer, let alone e-mail. DNA has reversed the wrongful convictions of more than 200 people and freed them from prisons.
Trying to explain that Polynesians are not genetically linked to the lost tribe of Israel will fall on some deaf ears.
Does it matter? Depends on who you are. For me, I'm gotten old enough to get over literalism. I don't care if God created the universe in 7 days or 7 millennia or 7 seconds. When I meet someone, especially for the first time, it's that person and me talking and sharing a brief moment. There's an imprint left behind, and all I can hope is that the one I leave is positive.
My curiosity about migration will never cease, I guess. Cultures evolve and change, and so do religions. But those of us who would pound another person, culture or nation just because we "know" we're right and they're wrong ... I would implore you to remember how quickly we are all humbled by life. If the tomahawk chant irritates you, let it be solely for competitive reasons when your school is playing Kahuku.
If it makes you smile, know that I'm smiling along with you. There is a unity and spirit within and around Kahuku's athletic program that is unique. Special. I say chant forever, 'til kingdom come.
It was during the state boys basketball tournament that the war cry, basically the tomahawk chant, of Kahuku fans drew me into conversation with a former player and coach (OIA) about the politics of the whole thing. After all, when fans on the mainland use the same chant, they're decried and ripped for being politically incorrect.
But Kahuku has done it for years. And in more recent years, I've started to wonder more and more about where that line rests between school history and sensitivity to Native American tribes. This is my theory.
Because the Mormon church is entrenched on the North Shore, particularly La'ie, doing the tomahawk chant isn't just something that goes along with Kahuku's longtime nickname, "Red Raiders." Though that name came by chance when 'Iolani donated uniforms to Kahuku decades ago (and has more recently dropped the "Red" from its nickname), I started to realize there's more to it.
See, for those of us (including myself), there's very little knowledge about what the history of the LDS is all about. Like any religion, there's good (lots) and bad (sad but true). When it comes to lineage, though, the Mormon church takes it to a really interesting, some say creative, new level. When I hear talk about a Western culture/faith deriving from a "lost tribe" of Israel, I think of Bob Marley, the Rasafarians and their insistence that former Ethiopian president Hallie Selassie was the descendant and king of that tribe, which eventually found its way to Jamaica, etc.
Well, the Church of Latter-Day Saints has used similar historical rewriting to say that Native Americans are descendants of the lost tribe, and from there, they migrated to Polynesia and South America. I don't hear it directly from friends who are Mormon, but it interests me to know more about migration and history, all the good and bad.
DNA in recent years has proven that South Americans descended from travelers who crossed from Siberia to Alaska -- NOT from Israel. There is no Hebrew DNA in Polynesians, either. For literalists of the LDS church, it has to be a stiff blow. But it doesn't really change my perspective of people and their chosen faith. Why?
I believe there's something within us that transcends the name of our religion and church. Being raised a certain way doesn't necessarily limit us to possibilities and realities. America was born out of religious tyranny, among other things, so the right to follow one's path was well-earned by our forefathers.
But I'm sure there are older Mormons who will never trust the technology that has changed our lives, just as I am content to use a freebie cellphone rather than buy a pricey iPhone, just as there are still some folks who refuse to use a computer, let alone e-mail. DNA has reversed the wrongful convictions of more than 200 people and freed them from prisons.
Trying to explain that Polynesians are not genetically linked to the lost tribe of Israel will fall on some deaf ears.
Does it matter? Depends on who you are. For me, I'm gotten old enough to get over literalism. I don't care if God created the universe in 7 days or 7 millennia or 7 seconds. When I meet someone, especially for the first time, it's that person and me talking and sharing a brief moment. There's an imprint left behind, and all I can hope is that the one I leave is positive.
My curiosity about migration will never cease, I guess. Cultures evolve and change, and so do religions. But those of us who would pound another person, culture or nation just because we "know" we're right and they're wrong ... I would implore you to remember how quickly we are all humbled by life. If the tomahawk chant irritates you, let it be solely for competitive reasons when your school is playing Kahuku.
If it makes you smile, know that I'm smiling along with you. There is a unity and spirit within and around Kahuku's athletic program that is unique. Special. I say chant forever, 'til kingdom come.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Step by step to Guge
Guge? Never heard of it until early this morning.
Michael Wood's documentary (BBC) aired on PBS and caught my attention. Somehow, the sight of solitary people walking through deserts (and mountains) has always captured me (re: Kwai Chang Cain in Kung Fu, circa 1976?).
My understanding of Buddhist history is scant, but in this place tucked away in Western Tibet is a place that once was home to 100,000 people. Almost impossible to imagine. It's in a mountainous desert. Dry. Bone dry. Not a fertile valley in sight.
But the story of Guge's prominence as a key trading post and bridge to India's Buddhist scholars is very intriguing. No, I don't believe in Buddha. But the history and how the Chinese came to both destroy its amazing relics, then go beyond the call to preserve what still remains, is perplexing. Those wacky Chinese and their kooky Cultural Revolution. Talk about a lack of tolerance.
But as for Guge, Michael Buckley has much to say about it in this excerpt from his 2002 book, Heartlands: Travels in the Tibetan World.
The tiny bit of research I've done doesn't satisfy me: 1. Where did the descendants of the Guge people go when they were violently driven from their homes? Who are they today? 2. Was there any lasting impact of the Catholic church built there by Andrade in the 1600s?
To think that the Catholic church drove a wedge between neighbors in that region and caused a war is not shocking. But to think that nobody lives there -- no Buddhists, no Catholics -- is really a mystery.
Michael Wood's documentary (BBC) aired on PBS and caught my attention. Somehow, the sight of solitary people walking through deserts (and mountains) has always captured me (re: Kwai Chang Cain in Kung Fu, circa 1976?).
My understanding of Buddhist history is scant, but in this place tucked away in Western Tibet is a place that once was home to 100,000 people. Almost impossible to imagine. It's in a mountainous desert. Dry. Bone dry. Not a fertile valley in sight.
But the story of Guge's prominence as a key trading post and bridge to India's Buddhist scholars is very intriguing. No, I don't believe in Buddha. But the history and how the Chinese came to both destroy its amazing relics, then go beyond the call to preserve what still remains, is perplexing. Those wacky Chinese and their kooky Cultural Revolution. Talk about a lack of tolerance.
But as for Guge, Michael Buckley has much to say about it in this excerpt from his 2002 book, Heartlands: Travels in the Tibetan World.
The tiny bit of research I've done doesn't satisfy me: 1. Where did the descendants of the Guge people go when they were violently driven from their homes? Who are they today? 2. Was there any lasting impact of the Catholic church built there by Andrade in the 1600s?
To think that the Catholic church drove a wedge between neighbors in that region and caused a war is not shocking. But to think that nobody lives there -- no Buddhists, no Catholics -- is really a mystery.
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