I speak and read Hawaiian and have an insight into the history of Hawaii’s literacy - in 1871 whn Queen Emma and King Kamehameha 4th were the sovereigns Hawaiian people had a 90 per cent literacy rate - these days it’s 1% of Hawaiians who speak Hawaiian - which is actually a lot - and a great recovery from the near extinction of the language - however in 1993 - the hundredth year after the overthrow of the sovereignty - Bill Clinton by way of an official apology on behalf of the US Government held out the hand of rescue to the Hawaiian people - the only condition - that they start behaving like good little welfare scum - they took the bait since Clinton slyly suggested the imminent return of sovereignty to the Hawaiian people in the grand proclamation of apology by the United States... and the next day many Hawaiians walked off their jobs... convinced sovereignty packaged as a fee ride - was imminent - and the rest has been downhill all the way...
Queen Emma was a class act - when her husband Kamehameha 4th died she sought to succeed him as sovereign - which was by election I think at the time under the Constitution - instead Kalakaua took the reigns - with his wife Kapiolani (a real piece of work) - and Kalakaua being somewhat stupid set some themes in place for Waikiki and for the tourism industry to a certain extent that continue til today - 1) Hawaii as a party location and 2) saliently, inebriation...
being inebriated much of the time himself allowed a gradual chipping away at the independence til upon his passing, when he was succeeded by his sister - a songwriter and emotional blackmailer - Liliuokalani - became Queen
shortly after some time elapsed, the sovereignty was overthrown on Liliuokalani’s watch... there was armed resistance until she declared a KAPU prohibiting violent resistance by the Hawaiian people, thus unnaturally stopping the process before a decisive conclusion - leaving the question of whether the islands were overthrown or somehow ceded passively to foment forever after...
on Maui the white hippies who moved there wearing love beads - around 1987 took off their love beads and got into the get rich quick in real estate game with cultish fervor and in 20 years what had been an agricultural economy bound together by the force of aloha was been replaced with a way of life dominated by white aggression for real estate... along with public condict that is now uncivil at best... in an environment of no aloha...
on top of this there is now crystal methedrine everywhere
and the racism on the part of the Hawaiian people is edgy and nasty in a way it never was when the aloha spirit was in the air
plus, the sharks are biting
I think that the loss of any true viability of a return of Hawaiian sovereignty to the Hawaiian people began to dissipate with the election of Kalakaua instead of Queen Emma to the throne
it is sad because so few people realize how brilliant the Hawaiian people were - and how fascinatingly brilliant the Hawaiian language is - or can be - more and more Hawaiian people must learn Hawaiian and assert Hawaiianess - then sovereignty will return from the roots
a well written perspective Rust Buster , thanks !
I concur . I wish all locals could read this ;
and no forget Lake Waiau is dried to a mere puddle .....
Question : was the Committee of Public Safety justified in overthrowing Liliuokalani ? Wasn’t everything about to go to total s#it under her continuing reign ?