Kahiau Vlog #5
Post a vlog with your overall "feelings, responses and take aways" about the topic of the decolonizing Hawaii & its impacts on your Kahiau topic for this response. My overall feelings towards the fact that Hawaii might be decolonizing is questionable. I’ve never thought that one day the place that I live in could soon turn into nothing. And the fact that one day a place like China or Russia might soon take over is scary. The impacts of Galtung’s predictions on the people in America might bring chaos and might cause people to live in constant fear of the place that they call home. I can see the reasoning of why Galtung would bring such a prediction to us but his thoughts are definitely one that people call pessimistic. Although stated in the article that it’s not pessimistic, some things just are best not said and this is a good example of that. He may have tried to spread the news of this to bring awareness of where our nation is going as some kind of good approach but publicly speaking about this may as well be a farewell to our nation, because people believe what they’re told and if it sounds real then they stick to it. This’ll give companies like Walmart, Target and more the idea to take advantage of this belief and mass produce materials. This kind of selfish act allows companies to make any extra bucks and cause pollution. If we follow the timeline of a customer and the material they bought, it had to have come from a ship and that alone causes enough pollution. The pollution can also be traced back to where it came from, maybe China or Vietnam, it travels across the globe making pollution which in turn kills our ecosystem. So my thought process on this topic definitely makes me question why our world is like this.
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-->What are some examples of how Capitalism & corporate economics (Walmart/Walgreens/Target, etc) is creating challenges in your own island, community, state, nation that relates to this UN Goal / Issue?
The biggest problem with our island and our corporate economics is that they create pollution, they import materials that bring pollution and people leave them on the beach. Instead of making materials that could deplete pollution or materials that dissolve in ocean water, we decide to ruin our economic system by making plastic materials that affect the whole world negatively. Places like these also create ocean pollution with all of their oil use from ships that bring imported goods. -->Why is this something to consider: Do you see a specific (friends or family you know) with a personal connection to these issues that connect with poverty or other social challenges (and please try to find at least one) - what/who is it and why? My biggest connection to poverty and people suffering from the ideology of Capitalism is homelessness. But at a deeper connection would be living in Waianae, people there live on the beaches daily and it’s saddening to find them without jobs and without any money because they aren’t paid enough. So if there any way we could help them out anything would be appreciated. -->What, if anything, are you learning about how economic trends impact your Global issue and how has your understanding of the impacts of it perhaps influenced the way you see your group topic as a worthwhile challenge or problem to be addressed? By looking at these economic trends I’ve found that looking at global pollution and protecting our ecosystem it’ll take a lot more than just cleaning up one beach but more for the whole world to take action and help us out if we even want to make a difference in the world. What are some examples of how COLONIZATION OR GLOBALIZATION is creating challenges in your own island, community, state, nation that relates to this UN Goal / Issue? A good example of colonization shown that creates a big challenge for us is plastic. Plastic affects us greatly because a lot of the pollution in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes here to the Kamilo beach which is known as the dirtiest beach in the world. So plastic is probably our number one problem that we need to fix. Why is this something to consider: Do you see a personal connection to this (and please try to find at least one) - what is it and why? This relates to me because we live in Hawai’i and protecting our beaches connects to me dearly. Plus cleaning and protecting our beaches is something that is known about our island, so keeping our beaches clean is something that everybody should hold to their hearts. What, if anything, are you learning about Colonization or Globalization and how has your understanding of the impacts of Colonization and/or Globalization perhaps influenced the way you see your group topic as a challenge or problem to be addressed? The impact of globalization on our group has definitely made a change in my thinking of this problem. Globalization made me think about plastic and its problems that it causes in our community, so talking about globalization will make me think that this isn’t only a community problem but also a national problem. What are some examples of how COLONIZATION OR GLOBALIZATION is creating challenges in your own island, community, state, nation that relates to this UN Goal / Issue? Some of the problems could be in our tourism, because of the many tourists that come here every day the trash that they produce would be massive and sometimes their careless mistakes can bring trash to the ocean. Which is where we have to come in and pick up their trash, when it shouldn’t be our problem. Why is this something to consider: Do you see a personal connection to this (and please try to find at least one) - what is it and why? Yes, my parents that work at Kaiser Permanente have to deal with this all the time because they work on keeping others healthy. So when we have to face tourists that come here with disease and a sickness we also have to throw our trash away. But where does it go, everything somehow always goes to the ocean. And for some reason people are lazy enough to leave it there. What, if anything, are you learning about Colonization or Globalization and how has your understanding of the impacts of Colonization and/or Globalization perhaps influenced the way you see your group topic as a challenge or problem to be addressed? The effects of globalization has made me realize that sometimes we can’t always blame ourselves for something like this. We’re all part of the problem and if we don’t fix it, then who will? Eventually someone will have to do it and right now it's us. What are some examples of your research topic in your own island, community, state, nation? There are many examples of this topic being shown around the globe. First of all, we have a lot of homeless in our island and community shown because we live in the hardest state to even survive in. Since our homeless population is so large we have a lot of trash to pick up after them and ourselves because of some careless actions. In our state we have Kamilo Beach, the dirtiest beach in the world because of our nation’s problem, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Why was this topic chosen by the group: what is a personal connection to the issue or just because you have to do something :) If a personal connection (and please try to find at least one) - what is it and why? We chose this topic because it was something personal to us. Since we all live on the islands it’s almost a responsibility to go to the beach so when we find trash we think to ourselves and do the selfless action of picking it up, but since others won’t do that; we will. How can this topic change or improve the Hawaii we live in? For who? Does this audience connect with you in any way? If so, how & why.. do you have personal friends of family members that are or possibly could be in this audience? This topic could drastically change the island that we live in because it’ll affect all the people on Hawaii. It’ll create healthier ecosystems for plants and animals while also creating beautiful beaches that we can go to. The people that I’m helping connects to me because they’re my family, my peers, or my community and the action affects them directly. What do you think of your ability to make an impact in the community & possibly make a difference in this issue? Why would that be important? What kinds of lessons do you think you will learn from this Kahiau experience? My ability to impact my community can be very slim, but with others the impact can be very effective and that would help everybody. This would be important because it helps our native Hawaiian plants and animals. From this project I feel I would learn about responsibility and caring for others because they both connect to my cause a lot. Nonprofit Organization The nonprofit organization our group decided to work with for this Kahiau project is the Mālama Learning center. The vision that the Mālama Learning Center had when creating their organization was to educate the West Oʻahu region about art, science, conservation, and weather in order to reconnect with their community and ʻāina. One of the ways that the Mālama Learning Center is able to reach an audience is by partnering with teachers and assisting them in lesson plans to educate their students about their communities and the kuleana that comes with living there. Their inspiration comes from wanting to leave Hawaii as a place that is worthy of future generations to inhabit and, most importantly, enjoy. Although this is a very common thought and goal, it is becoming noticeably more difficult to manifest for Mālama Learning Center, causing them to partner with Mālama Hawaiʻi to become a living laboratory of understanding for ways to care for our island and, in turn, ourselves as Hawaiians. Within the islands of Hawaii, there lies Kamilo Beach, one of the dirtiest beaches in the world. It is sometimes it is referred to as “Plastic Beach” due to the large amounts of debris that gather on the sand and in the water. Things such as hair brushes, fishing nets, cigarette lighters, discarded bottles, and more have been found on the beach. Thanks to the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, over the course of a few months, they were able to gather 15,000 pounds of trash consisting of nets and fishing lines. An estimate of 8 million metric tons of discarded plastics appears in the ocean every year. According to the DLNR, over 20,000 pieces of debris have been found. The Mālama learning center is a non-profit organization that brings art, science, conservation, and culture to promote sustainable living in Hawaiʻi. The Mālama Learning center is located in West Oʻahu in the city of Kapolei. They provide primary service from Waipahu through Waianae. They MLC tries to involve students and adults so that they can promote the idea of sustainable living. They are trying to unify schools, residents, and businesses around them to share the ethic of caring and conservation. The reason the MLC is doing this is that they care about the land that they live on. The MLC believes that Hawaiʻi can be self-sustaining. And they also want where we live to be restored to its natural. They believe that this can be done by educating others and hoping that the message spreads. By educating others information can be spread and used to its fullest potential. Very similar to the quote “You give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime.” (Chinese proverb.) For our project, we got to work with a Kamehameha alumni, Aunty Chelsea, who had a mindset to give back by supporting our ecosystem with the removal of one big problem; trash. Malama Learning Center, our nonprofit organization, connects to what we’re trying to do because their mission is to teach and inspire communities to create healthy living environments. So that is what we strived for, to help others and our ecosystem by removing invasive plants and trash that could potentially cause harm to natural plants or kill off endangered animals like the Hawaiian monk seal. When we learned about MLC, their cause and mission was something that we were looking for because what we saw is the same kind of hope that we want to be put into others. Works Cited Garson. “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.” Quote Investigator, Quote Investigator, quoteinvestigator.com/2015/08/28/fish/. Harvey, Chelsea. “Hawaii's Beloved Beaches Are Covered in Huge Amounts of Plastic, Survey Finds.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 June 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/04/hawaiis-beloved-beaches-are-covered-in-huge-amounts-of-plastic-survey-finds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bd5cec951c6f. Herreria, Carla. “The Islands Of Hawaii Hold One Of The Dirtiest Places In The World.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 12 May 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kamilo-beach-hawaii-dirtiest-beach-america_us_58e99a38e4b05413bfe3792d. “Malama Learning Center.” Malama Learning Center, www.malamalearningcenter.org/. Volunteer Work
On December 1st, 2018 I finished my part in the help for beach pollution at Zablans Beach. I got to travel with the Kaleopapa dorm at Kamehameha and with some other schools like Kapolei. Our instructor's name was Aunty Chelsey and that gave us the chance to help out a local problem on Oahu. We started by grabbing invasive plants from the ecosystem, for example, pickle-weed. We also got the chance to plant native plants to help our native ecosystem and support our culture. At the end we finished with a beach clean-up which helped our cause in the local/global problem of beach pollution. |