It was a political and strategic purchase, from which to project our superpower reach, but has far out-lived its usefulness, now.
I spent 2 weeks there — 1 day on the “Magnum, PI” set, filming as an extra in the 1985 episode, “Little Girl Who” — and the natives hate us from the mainland.
Yes they do. They have a special term of endearment for mainlanders "haole". This is similar to the "N" word referring to blacks but without the friendly respectful connotation of the "N" word.