Homespun Honolulu

While listening to the tsunami warnings this morning and the boat harbors asking boat owners to move their vessels out into deeper water, I couldn’t help but think about “my boat.”  What happens to the Falls of Clyde when a threat like this one comes over the Civil Defense and other warning systems?

Relatively recently I received an email message about the Falls of Clyde with this YouTube video.  I cried.  Of course.  I almost started again while making sure this link worked.  The video kind of shows what many people wanted to have happen to the Falls before the Friends of the Falls of Clyde stepped up to stop it.

I’ve been thinking about sharing this here but there is nothing like the threat of a tidal wave to get someone to their keyboard.  Still listening to the news and all of the closed City parks, shopping malls, and golf courses, etc., I’m more worried about the sea vessels getting bashed.

Hmmm… a tsunami moves at the speed of a jet.  It’s scheduled to hit the Big Island of Hawai’i at about 11:05 this morning, February 27, 2010, and the rest of the islands in succession after that.  Hilo Bay is going to be the lucky recipient of this “event.”

Standing by and worrying about how it will all pan out.

Updated 03/01/2010 – No impact.  Civil Defense did a good job.  Local media stayed on top of the crisis and kept us informed from start to finish.  No panic.  There was just a lot of people doing what they felt needed to be done.

Now that Hawai’i is in the clear, I can’t help but think about poor Chile.  Google offers some ways to help if you can.

It always comes as such a surprise and I am  always quite moved when a corporation takes steps to assist the community where it does business, and/or takes steps to educate itself about that community.  Respect, preservation, and education is not always something taken on by corporate America’s larger brand names.

In the most unlikely of places, we found a little bit of cultural respect from Wal-Mart.  I’m not one to give a lot of credit to Wal-Mart since most of what we hear about them is anything but good news, but I’ll give them this one.

In Hawai’i, the finding of iwi (bones) is probably one of our most sensitive and touchy subjects.  Honolulu probably suffers from the largest number of incidents because it is constantly growing and there is always something being built.

The discovery of iwi during the construction of the Wal-Mart store on Ke’eaumoku Street was a finding taken very seriously.  The last I heard when this came to light was that there were 64 set of iwi that were about 150 years old.  While things were kept relatively low key, it was not an all-happy or non-confrontational event!  Findings such as these occur much more frequently than we would like them to and the parties involved had no problem sharing their views.

After reading through some of the articles, it seems to me that some of the “experts” hired to do a job were perhaps not the best choice to handle a matter so delicate and/or to handle the treasured bones themselves.  I know we have talked before about the importance of the iwi in Hawaiian culture.  These are not dinosaur bones from an archaeological dig!  They are family members!

Wal-Mart, and any other business for that matter, cannot always control the behavior of the people they hire to perform a service.  It is difficult to be at the mercy of those performing work that is outside one’s own line of business.  That’s why they hire specialists.  All of that aside, I think the completed memorial is actually very attractive and whoever was in charge of that, did a fine and respectful job!

There are, as you can see, “Keep Out” and “Don’t Walk on Grass” signs all around this little monument.  It looks quite a bit like a heiau and it is surrounded by newly-planted indigenous plants, the kind often found in such places.  They originally said it would be landscaped and open to the public so perhaps they’re waiting for the plants to take root.  In case residents haven’t found it yet, the photo above shows you exactly where it is — on the corner of Makaloa and Sheridan Streets on the property shared by Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club.

Cultural preservation is on the upswing in Hawai’i and it’s not all being left only up to us.

Getting ready for work and listening with one ear to the news the other morning, I was stopped in my tracks and had to run to the TV and press rewind on the remote (thanks to Oceanic Time Warner Cable, we can do that!).  As I fumbled for the right button I muttered, “They’re doing what?!?  No way!”

I love this story and I’m sending a shout out to the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel for being a part of the community where they do business and for proactively reinforcing its culture!  KHON2 News did a nice little segment about a family whose son wanted a big tree on their property to be made into a canoe.  I hesitate because links like that one often become dead when the story gets moved so I’ll include the gist of it here just in case.

Their son passed away six years ago but his dream may still become a reality.  The Ka’anapali Beach Hotel asked the family to donate that same tree for them to turn into a canoe!  Based on a quote from the KHON2 News article, the father responded:

“The only thing we like out of this is to have the canoe named after my son cuz for a while he had already seen this being one canoe”

The hotel agreed, and named the canoe “Kaililaau.”

The canoe is being built as part of the hotel’s Pookela program which allows employees to learn aspects of the Hawaiian culture.

Building a canoe is certainly no easy task and for the hotel to have done this with the goal of perpetuating a piece of Hawaiian culture is nothing less than commendable!

Mahalo to KHON2 and kudos to the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel!

See how great it is when big business does the right thing?  🙂

To be specific, let’s talk about soup!

Our food-blogging friend, Valerie, does Four Foods On Friday as a blog meme over at Fun Crafts and Recipes.  Val usually throws four questions out there for us to think about and answer.  More recently, Val has done it a little backwards — she put one question out there, looking for four answers.

Last Friday, Val asked, “What are your four favorite soups?”  I thought about avoiding this one because I’m not much of a soup eater, or a soup maker.  After thinking about it for a while, I realized that there are some that I like.

I came up with these:

1. Cream of just about anything soup (zucchini and celery are good)
2. My own Corn Chowder (Val’s post reminded me about this one.)
3. Zippy’s Portuguese Bean soup (This one is very popular in our State.)
4. Pea soup was my favorite as a child (I think it was Campbell’s.  I don’t remember any ham but I could be wrong.)

There are others I like such as French Onion (if it has a lot of cheese) and Miso soup (when it’s cold outside).

I’m actually talking about this because the lenten season is upon us and I want to see what kind of soup you guys like! So, join in the meme in Val’s Kitchen!  Maybe even provide a soup recipe or two — for those of us with soup-deficient menus.

Welcome to the February 1st Chapter of the Carnival of Aloha! This Chapter we’ll just take a leisurely cruise down stream and visit these stories of interest!

As everyone knows, as we trickle downstream, we’ve got to have something to eat.  That’s usually my first stop and this time will be no exception as we welcome our newest Carnival participant!

Trailblazer Hawaii assures the Pineapple Princess, Maui still loves you posted at Trailblazer Hawaii.com asking that we follow their tracks to Kauai, Maui, Oahu and Hawaii the Big Island, saying, “Maui Gold, wishing you the best, way to go!”  They want to be sure our Carnival trip is a sweet one with the pineapple from Maui.  The sweetness of Maui’s pineapple is hard to beat!  Thanks, Trailblazer, for joining us and providing such sweet sustenance!

Andrew Cooper wrestles with Defining the Sacred posted over on A Darker View.   I was all warm and fuzzy reading his post and then it actually did become a bit of a “darker view” as he was accused at worst of misunderstood at best.  Read it and you’ll see what I mean.  I understand but, in this case, Andrew did not fit the crime.  Sorry Andrew and thank you for sharing information about a heiau that I never knew existed.  I like the “take only photographs and leave only footprints” motto, very much!

We’re all concerned with conservation efforts and, now that we’ve ruffled a few feathers, let’s put some of that energy to use.

Bobbie tells us about the Hawaii Marine Debris Action Plan: Much needed program is the first in the nation posted at The Right Blue, saying, “the Marine Debris Action Plan was a long time coming, and very much needed. (Beach goers/ocean users still need to be mindful about bringing home their trash and disposing of it properly.)”  Andrew’s motto fits here as well — take only photographs and leave only footprints, not your opala!

As we care for and love our islands, one of our Carnival regulars takes it a step further!

Sheila sends A Love Letter To Lanai and shares it with us over at Hawaii Vacation Blog – GoVisitHawaii.com, saying, “As Valentine’s Day is approaching, I thought I’d write a love letter to the island of Lana’i. Though it’s one of the least visited islands, it’s full of beauty and Aloha spirit.”

It’s not hard to see why the islands are loved so much, even our President loves his home.  We can investigate why the President is so comfortable.

Aloha Tony shows us Obama’s $10 million Hawaii vacation home over at Hawaii real estate, saying, “President Obama’s $10 million Hawaii vacation home.”  Wow, Tony, thanks for getting those pictures and sharing them with us so we can get an idea of the comfort we provide.

Of course, with those prices, it’s scary to watch and see where the real estate market will go!

Pua is talking about the Hawaii Real Estate Market 2010 over at Best Hawaii Vacation with Hawaii Vacation Blog, saying, “Hawaii real estate still enjoys a buyer’s market. But who knows for how long.  Not even our Hawaii realtors can predict for certain. Here is an a interesting article from an experienced Hawaii realtor. Will there be a return of the Hawaii seller’s market in 2010?”

What will the commercial real estate market do?  That too remains to be seen.  There are, believe it or not, commercial properties that have had a place in the hearts of many.

Most recently, Evelyn (me), expressed some concern that there will be No Cars or Hearts Racing Anytime Soon as we wait to see what will happen as the property that was once many people’s darling, Hawaii Raceway Park, goes up for foreclosure auction on Tuesday (that’s tomorrow).  Evelyn asks, “is anybody listening?!?”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Aloha using the carnival submission form. Past posts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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