Tribe.net. Local Connections Kelea http://HawaiiAloha.tribe.net/thread/1b0ce670-67f2-4e15-ae84-cc2254b9e56a#a9cafc2b-3094-4547-8e61-1961c3e1b5aa 2008-01-02T21:44:39Z 2008-01-02T21:44:39Z

"The reaction which followed was the recognition of the broken political \ civil \ judicial system which exists in America and by extension in Hawai'i. The bottom line, regardless of racial background or geographical location is that incarceration does nothing to solve social problems. Imprisonment simply hides the problem from the public eye and relocates it to an environment where in which it becomes condensed and is allowed to fester even further." In this comment, you mention that this American legal system can be viewed as not working, regardless of race. I think something that has to be understood is that the American legal system is all about race. Moreover, I think it's possible to be more specific than to say 'race' and to point to the historical influences of race on asset accumulation within these different groups of people to show the true reasons why we imprison people and how for the Hawaiian people, this is genocide. A look at asset accumulation, poverty, and resulting "crime." Fact - people FROM impoverished communities/cultures/groups commit the most "crimes." But look at what has caused people to be impoverished in the Hawaiian society or among groups such as African Americans on the mainland. Blacks had their entire livelihoods taken from them when they were enslaved. The Hawaiian people had every part of their political organization (and therefore political representation and protection) taken away in an instant just a little over 100 years ago. Now Hawaiians make up the majority of those in jails in prisons in Hawaii, just as black people on the mainland make up the majority of those living in prisons in jails and prisons in the United States. Impoverishment in real time: A kid grows up in an impoverished household. He is more likely than less impoverished people to be fatherless and to be abused by his mother in some way or another. He is likely to go to school with other kids living in his impoverished neighborhood who have a life much like his own. This kid just wants to be happy like anyone else. “Anyone else” has been raised in a more prospering environment. Their parent(s) have a running car that gets them to their steady job consistently. In fact, having a running car is sort of a given in their life. This kid's parents had a good education that they received from a good school in their good neighborhood they were raised in and do work that pays well - enough at least. They can offer their kid support and they talk to their children often - enough - about how THEIR world works and how they too can be a part of that world. This kids parents were always a part of this world and so were his grandparents, great grandparents, etc. No massive robbery or shocking damage undergone in THEIR world. The impoverished kid, however, listens to his mother's unceasing worries about how she works more than full time, but that she still can't afford the rent and barely can keep food on the table. This kid hears this often - enough. This kid and his friends hang out every day after school and dream of happiness. But wherever they find it in their minds, the reality of being happy seems to be just out of reach. They start to say "if we only had some money" more often. Many people like to say that these kids could just grab onto all those good ole' American opportunities and pull them selves up by their boot straps. They like to say that people like Oprah came from the worst possible circumstances and were able to make it very well and assume that all people should be able to do that. But there is evidence that such an ability is anomalistic. Even in mainstream American society, you'd be hard pressed to find another Oprah. It is only through anomalistic behavior, therefore, that anyone could be able to rise up beyond the circumstances endured by minorities who have been robbed. Impoverishment and it's link to crime: so the kids growing up in the ghetto are searching for happiness. Forget college. It's outside their reality, and besides, the rest of their education was so poor that they can't imagine that college would be any less a waste of their time. They could work like their mothers, but that doesn't seem to provide any hope either - as they know from experience. What's the next best thing? Get high and sell drugs and rob rich people. Enough money to REALLY survive with a possible chance of moving up and instant happiness. A closer look at asset accumulation: Having a family history of wellbeing provides people with a network that is able to support its individuals to help one another. George Bush, for instance, came into life among a family and network of people that were well-to-do. George is an outright idiot and as we know, given to some illegal activity. Is he in jail today? Of course not. He had direction and funding from his family and their friends in order that he could molded into the person he is today. If George had been raised in the ghetto, he'd probably be in jail right now. The kid in the Ghetto, on the other hand, has little to no support. The only person consciously molding him MIGHT be his mother. If he's lucky he may have some other positive influences who are putting in the TIME and WORK it takes to raise a child. If he tried with all his might to go out into the world and make something of himself, the tiniest thing, like the half working car he was finally able to buy, could stop working and there wouldn't be a single place he could go to in order to find help. So easily, without the long term asset accumulation known to more well off families which acts as their social safety net, this kid could find himself in dire straights - ironically when he more than anyone needs a safety net. So, this is where the Hawaiian people find themselves. They’ve know for generations now the feel of impoverishment and the behavioral outcomes of poverty have taken their toll. Their race alone was an excuse as to why it was alright to take everything away from them. (If they had been just as white as the ‘provisional government’ they wouldn’t have had it all taken). Today, the Hawaiian people are trying with all their might to grapple with poverty and to pull themselves up the best they can. However, the robbery is ALWAYS being felt. I don’t think our people should be in OCCC and ho`oponopono requires that ALL things be put in balance after such a righteous course has been taken and such a reconciliation is currently at work. In the meantime, however, the genocide persists. Our people need our LAND back – not another trip to the local prison. Our people need to have their accumulated assets returned to them so that we can create rehabilitation programs for our people, not to continue to punish them for the human behaviors that are natural to impoverishment.

Kelea 2008-01-02T21:44:39Z PatR aka Naleilehua http://HawaiiAloha.tribe.net/thread/1b0ce670-67f2-4e15-ae84-cc2254b9e56a#78a51f34-9614-4ae8-b100-6f98fd2867a7 2007-12-28T20:11:49Z 2007-12-28T20:11:49Z

"Those evil drug dealers, however, were other Hawaiians and their being sent to prison IS genocide. Why would we be doing this to our own selves? How could the colonization in our minds become so thick that we’ve become unable to see the true process at work against us, that we should offer our own selves up as willing culprits?" Aloha no, e Kelea, I am finding your posts to be rich and thought-provoking, which is something I enjoy about tribe. While the entire focus of your post is worthy of consideration, and I have many opinions on the overall subject, the comment above particularly caught my attention, and for a number of reasons. First off, let me explain that I am not Hawaiian, nor Pacific Islander; but I am a person of color born in the USA. My ancestry stems from from North America and Africa as well as Europe; I was raised in the milieu of otherness that is the existence of black, brown, red and yellow folk in this country. What struck me the most clearly about this comment is the sad reality that the word 'Hawaiian' could be replaced by any of the following descriptives: black, Latino, Vietnamese, etc., etc., especially the point about colonization. Your people are not alone in this predicament; there are many who see this as a calculated process that keeps us divided, and thereby distracted from disrupting the system that allows some to profit so incredibly at the expense of whole communities, whole nations of peoples. My heart breaks for what is happening to Nā Kānaka Maoli -- just as it does for the descendants of the African slaves and the peoples who were on this continent first; and for the sons and daughters of the Aztecs-Mayans-Olmecs; as well as for the youths who are the babies of the "boat people." My heart breaks, too, because of how so many of us are at odds with each other, ready to tear each other because we weren't born into exactly the same tribe, when we are ALL suffering in the same way because of the same evil that sets us ALL apart as different and/or lesser than. If we could overcome that mental colonization and unite with one another in our efforts to reclaim our cultures and our rights, the world would be changed. And if I had any ideas for how do to so, I would share it. I look forward to hearing more from you on this point. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Kelea.

PatR aka Naleilehua 2007-12-28T20:11:49Z Dan http://HawaiiAloha.tribe.net/thread/1b0ce670-67f2-4e15-ae84-cc2254b9e56a#d612f4c2-785a-4a5b-a152-cd6e458f15d7 2007-12-28T16:04:00Z 2007-12-28T16:04:00Z

Aloha oe Kelea, I have enjoyed reading your posts and as a kama'aina I appreciate the perspective you are providing. My initial reaction to the anecdote regarding the locals who had "cleaned up their neighborhood" of the nasty "evil drug dealers" was first off, -good for them-. Hawai'ian or not, there seems to be a steady decline of the notion of civic responsibilities in our communities. Having grown up on O'ahu, I have witnessed first hand the scourge that drug dealers inflict upon the communities they work and hide in. It is up to each and every one of us to improve the environment we live in. The reaction which followed was the recognition of the broken political \ civil \ judicial system which exists in America and by extension in Hawai'i. The bottom line, regardless of racial background or geographical location is that incarceration does nothing to solve social problems. Imprisonment simply hides the problem from the public eye and relocates it to an environment where in which it becomes condensed and is allowed to fester even further. My final reaction was questioning your statement "[t]hose evil drug dealers, however, were other Hawaiians and their being sent to prison IS genocide. Why would we be doing this to our own selves?" If these individuals were truly drug dealers, under the current establishment and system (broken or not) should they be anywhere but OCCC? Hawai'ians, whether by race or by assimilation into the Hawai'ian culture (cultural assimilation can go both ways) need to band together to protect what precious little community is left, so that it can grow and become the healthy balanced community it once was. Having spent significant time in Wai'anae, Kapahulu, Waikiki, Kaimuki and Kahala I have had the opportunity to learn that there are drug dealers in everyone of those communities no matter how rich or poor and regardless of the predominant racial demographic. Never have I seen a neighborhood which is a healthier community because of the presence of a drug dealer. Hawai'ian or not drug dealers need to be removed from the communities either through physical incarceration or by means of social rehabilitation. Personally I would opt for ho'oponopono as a means to begin the process of social rehabilitation. Hawai'ians respect their land, Hawai'ians respect their people, histories and communities. It is beyond sad that the broken down civil system has relegated so many ethnic Hawai'ians to a life of poverty which in turn creates the environment in which many turn to drug use or trade as a means for escape, but regardless drug dealers cannot be allowed to coexist within our communities as their presence will always reduce the over all well being of the people. The topic of substance abuse, be it alcohol or other drugs and its effect on persons and communities hits especially close to home for me. I have lost many people who were once friends to ice and other drugs back home. I have known many families which have been shattered from alcoholism and addiction. Simply put; addiction destroys. Malama pono, Dan

Dan 2007-12-28T16:04:00Z Kelea http://HawaiiAloha.tribe.net/thread/1b0ce670-67f2-4e15-ae84-cc2254b9e56a#09bb00c5-e469-488b-bb07-130c5c21bc9a 2007-12-22T20:34:56Z 2007-12-22T20:34:56Z

Genocide The following is a link to the United Nation’s Convention on Genocide which took place on Dec. 9, 1948: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html It defines genocide as: • (a) Killing members of the group; • (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; • (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; • (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; • (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. The Historical context of this definition is the post genocide of the Jewish people during WWII. While the definition is taken by some to be mean a calculated and conscious annihilation of people of a certain group, there is actually a deeper wisdom as to the true nature of genocide found in this definition. Genocide in this definition is ANY effort made, whether conscious or not, which causes a certain group of people to be destroyed in any manner. One method of genocide which is being experienced by the Hawaiian people is “diaspora,” which is the spreading out of people which causes them to cease to exist by assimilation into other cultures and geographic locations. As we know today (through the US Census), almost half of the Hawaiians in this world are having to live outside of Hawaii. Another form of genocide which is especially egregious is the internment of Hawaiians in the concentrations camps that are better known as “corrections facilities.” These jails and prisons located on the Hawaiian islands consist of around 40% Native Hawaiians, while the Native Hawaiian population in total in Hawaii is only around 12-20% (statistics on Native Hawaiian population in Hawaii differ depending on where you look, although all ranges of statistics are reported by equally legitimate sources.) What is the worst of all regarding these concentration camps is that the Hawaiian people are now being forcibly removed from their land and put in facilities on the mainland because of “overcrowding.” I recently had a conversation with a representative from Kau Inoa because I wanted to get access to the prisons in order to register Native Hawaiians living there. It turned out that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs had already tried to do this and that it was stated that no project could take place in the prisons which would heighten the awareness of racial differences due to an already apparent problem within the prison system over racial tensions. Ironic isn’t it? To look at this situation more abstractly – The Hawaiian people are being forced to undergo an unnatural poverty which has resulted from the robbery of our land. Poverty, no matter which way you look at it, results in certain behavioral outcomes for people. If you rob us – as a group- of our land, thereby forcing us into poverty, and then make laws against the behavioral outcomes which are natural to poverty, and then use those laws to render the “law-breakers” unable to participate in their own government, you have a formula for genocide. I mention all this because it’s important to detect genocide in all its flavors. Last time I was home, a certain group of Hawaiian home owners were bragging to me about how they “cleaned up” their neighborhood and got all those evil drug dealers sent to prison. After they were through, they washed their hands of the whole situation. Those evil drug dealers, however, were other Hawaiians and their being sent to prison IS genocide. Why would we be doing this to our own selves? How could the colonization in our minds become so thick that we’ve become unable to see the true process at work against us, that we should offer our own selves up as willing culprits?

Kelea 2007-12-22T20:34:56Z