The Pacific Islands

I feel that there is a great need to explain some aspects of the philosophy and attitudes of Pacific Islanders that have probably puzzled some readers. Why was I given the description of Hoali when I was in Hawaii. It is a Hawaiian term meaning a “man without a soul.”

To a Pacific Islander only a man or women who could enter a country without permission from the indigenous peoples is a man without a soul.

Take their land without asking for it, restrict the use of their beaches to them, forbid the teaching of the Hawaiian language to their young, grow sugar cane, a poison to the locals and pineapples a fruit with little or no nutritional value to sell abroad. To expect the Pacific Islanders to work under very cruel conditions in order to profit the Caucasian invaders  was also an aberrance to them.

To the Hawaiians working for profit was an alien concept, one which denied all their teachings and beliefs. Everything was on earth to be shared so that all would have a good life. Pacific Islanders were animists believing that god was everywhere, in the trees, land, fish and all animals including them.

To repeat a bit, to a Pacific Islander only a man or women who could enter a country without permission from the indigenous peoples is a hoali. Take their land without asking for it, restrict the use of their beaches to them, forbid the teaching of the Hawaiian language to their young, grow sugar cane, a poison to the locals and pineapples a fruit with little or no nutritional value to sell abroad. Ban the Hula, the sacred dance.  Dress the women in the Muumuu that long dress that covered them from neck to toes.

To expect the Pacific Islanders to work under very cruel conditions in order to profit the Caucasian invaders was also aberrant to them. When the sugar plantations were planted and pineapple as an additional crop, the Hawaiians would not work the fields. They would only work as overseers on horseback with long whips that they would crack in the air  as an incentive to the workers to redouble their efforts. They resented the Japanese coming to work the plantations, as without cheap labor it would not have been profitable for the colonists to grow sugar cane and pineapple. They never wanted these foreigners who held, to the Hawaiians, totally aberrant beliefs and customs. They were inhibited, insecure and were very cruel.

The sugar cane fields supported large colonies of scorpions, snakes and were incredibly hot and humid. So the British and Americans imported other peoples First were the Japanese, the peasant class who had a terrible time in Japan. When they worked their way up to Governing Hawaii, the plantation owners had to import the Chinese, Costa Rican, Portuguese and whoever was down the economic chain and was willing to put up with the starvation wages and the hostility of the locals.

To the Hawaiians working for profit was an alien concept, one which denied all their teachings and beliefs. Everything was on earth to be shared so that all would have a good life. They had four harvests a year because of ample rain and very well designed irrigation systems. Building materials were freely available, bamboo and banana leaves grew prolifically as did fruit and vegetables. Poverty was unknown and the young and the elderly were cared for.

In Hawaii there was a saying, four hours of work, growing and harvesting vegetables, taro, and fishing. Four hours of play, sliding down the mudslides beloved by the Hawaiians and surfing, and four hours of making love a day. What is the estimated time couples spend making love i n Britain. 2.5 hours a week!