Travel Chapter 26- Hawaii

Pictures for this chapter can be seen at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Hawaii2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCPTRvpjR8sSxPw&feat=directlink


We left Yokohama far behind us as we left Tokyo Bay and headed east to Hawaii. It was an 8 day crossing of over 4000 miles. The Pacific showed us all its facets from almost becalmed seas to very rough stretches of wind and waves. Throughout the passage we were often accompanied by groups of up to 12 albatross following in the slipstream of the ship. They are dark colored birds with amazing abilities to fly with little or no expenditures of energy. They followed in our slip stream riding the wind as the expert fliers they are. For hours on end they would slid in behind the ship then swerve to the left or right and fall back a few hundred yards to once again approach and catch up with the ship by flying high and then low over the waves for no obvious reason as they did no fishing while demonstrating their talents. It was almost as if they were showing off to us or each other. They apparently fish at night and I surmise during the day they just fly around, hundreds and then thousands of miles off the nearest coast or island.
We were also visited by red-footed boobies who preferred flying around the bow of the ship and who would land from time to time on the ship to rest and look around.

Otherwise, we saw very little pelagic life on the crossing. The days got sunnier as we headed away from Japan and the daily routines of classes, meals, afternoons on the decks or in one’s favorite places on the ship became the norm again. After a few weeks of constant ports with only 2 days between stops, it was nice to get a long stretch of sea life again.

I gave my lecture on the World Bank and on the current financial crisis to the assembled students at the daily Global Studies session. I had adapted the presentation to first lay down some definitions of what development really is by using and contrasting what the students had seen in India, Vietnam, Thailand, China and Japan. It is easy to understand what makes development when they had visited these countries and seen the dilapidated situation of the infrastructure of India in contrast to what they had seen done in the other countries. I then followed with a slide show description of the World Bank group which I had picked up from the Bank before I left and finished up with a quick discussion of how we got into the mess we are currently going through. It was well received and some students thanked me later. Later that week, I spoke in the business class which is now studying non profit organizations. I told of the experience I had gained setting up and managing the two projects I managed in my last decade at the Bank. It is so much easier to understand these concepts when they are described in terms of real live experiences. Finally, on one evening we hosted a career advising session for students thinking about going into different professions. 4 of us hosted the business careers but clearly the social sciences and teaching areas were more popular with the students who attended the various break out sessions held in different parts of the ship. What surprised me was the innocence of most students on how they should go about preparing themselves to enter the career world. These are juniors and seniors in college but clearly most had done little to prepare themselves and their CV’s to be able to compete for what will be a diminishing demand for their services given the current downturn. But I think we at least convinced some of them to start thinking about their futures and hopefully they will be better equipped to do what they need to do to get into the market. Several professors have noted how immature so many of these students are and that they will need to get a strong dose of reality as they move forward into the job markets. It would seem that few universities feel it is their duty to prepare students for their entry into the job markets. Perhaps it is because the academic staff of these universities do not feel it is their role to do this preparation or perhaps it is because they are really not equipped themselves to carry out this function. I am not sure whether one is not the cause of the other. But regardless, I believe that universities should then go out and get help in better preparing their students. So many cannot write, speak or present themselves in public. Many cannot seem to learn the basics in science or mathematics. If they do not learn that at college, when will they ever become functioning adults in a business environment which requires them to think, deal and innovate in a changing world which will only be able to use people who can convey and develop improving products, ideas and concepts in a world which will need knowledge and brain power. But, I suppose it will all get sorted out in the medium term but it does concern me how many will need to radically get their heads around the idea that there is real competition for the important and interesting jobs down the road. During my years of hiring young people, I was always struck how many young people do a great job in preparing themselves by gaining experiences which then differentiate them from the rest of the pack. It always strikes me on this ship with 700 students that the norm seems still to put all effort into conforming rather than being different, better and smarter. I am not sure when this changes but I think it had better begin soon for people who are 18 to 20…
After 8 days at sea we arrived early in the morning into Honolulu harbor. The ship tied up at the foot of the Aloha Tower at pier 11. US Immigration insisted on starting the procedures at 6.30 am for some unknown reason. So at 0600 the whole ship was awakened and one was ordered to proceed to the lounge to pick up one’s passport and to present it to Homeland Security officers who had set up shop there. It took about an hour and a half to process the whole shipboard company of passengers and crew so by 8.30 am on that Sunday people were headed ashore. Of course, there was great jubilation for the American citizens to be back on home territory. They were particularly happy that there would be no need to exchange money and that taxi drivers would be able to speak English (but no bargaining with the drivers).
We headed out to attend a church service at the main Hawaiian church where we had been told the service would be in Hawaiian. We found the church which was in front of the palace of the last queen of Hawaii. Sure enough the songs were done in Hawaiian but the service sermon was done in English interspersed with many Hawaiian words by a pastor who stood barefoot between the aisles and spoke as if to friends. It was well attended by a large crowd which was mainly made up of Hawaiian families. It was in this church that the last king of Hawaii had been crowned and it was in the castle across the street that the last queen of Hawaii had been jailed for years by the US businessmen who had run her out of power in order to take over control of the state to better their personal businesses. It is a sad story of how US business interests too often have driven US foreign policy for their benefit to the detriment of the rights of locals. The story tracks the infamy of United Fruit’s support of killing squads in Guatemala to ensure that land reform did not happen as it could have taken back land which United Fruit considered theirs to grow bananas. Or as was the case in Chile, where the US interests supported the barbaric military regime which overthrew the democratically elected government. In Hawaii, the US sugar barons forced the annexation of Hawaii in order to ensure they could sell their Hawaiian sugar to the mainland free of taxes. Hawaiians still regard the abolishing of the monarchy as a travesty, which it truly was. There is still a movement to reverse the process but it has little support today. The language and customs of Hawaii are now in the process of disappearing with very few persons able to speak the language. The mixing of the population has further diluted the historically indigenous population so that despite efforts to maintain the traditions and language, it is now largely a tourist attraction but not in the mainstream. The Mormon Church is strongly supporting the maintenance of the Hawaiian traditions but clearly it is not going to survive in a generation or two. The language is not even taught in the mainstream schools any longer. It is a very sad story of a civilization which had been founded on a communal principle of support and mutual respect faced with the harsh reality of capitalism at it rawest. It is too bad that a country which prides itself to be democratic has such a history of supporting regimes which are antidemocratic over such a long period. I would hope that US foreign policy one day would start to represent the consensus of the American people who are law abiding and respectful of human rights rather than the interests of a few who have influence over their elected officials. It is hardly surprising that many foreigners view Americans as being imperialists. It plays well into the hands of all shades of governments from Africa to Latin America to Asia who point to the many cases of US interventions into local politics to ground the accusations. So often this happens without widespread US popular support and even less consultation. It always surprises me how US foreign policy and practice is the tool of a few or small interests groups rather than reflecting the ethics and interests of the American people. Foreign Service officers seem to be in the employ of these interest groups rather than in the employ of the US population. Perhaps things will change one day. The new US regime under President Obama is already starting to unwind many of the silly positions into which the US forced itself against the general interest, starting with Cuba and reaching out to Iran. One can really be hopeful that one day US foreign policies as well as US immigration policies serve the interest of the country as a whole and not the interests of lobby or other isolated groups.
But that is enough on this subject. I just feel strongly having watched the situation over the last 20 or 30 years and always felt the disconnect described above.
In the afternoon of the first day, we joined a group to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay which is about 15 miles out of Honolulu. It is a lovely round beach belonging to a former volcanic caldera which was invaded by the sea. It was the most heavily used beach of Honolulu after Waikiki to the point that the coral reef and the fish were almost killed out until 1969 when the beach was declared a national park and protected. Today, each visitor is required to see a video on the conservation of the coral reef and fish before even going down to the beach. Then visitors are required to leave the park after 2 hours and the overall number of people is limited by an entry gate. We rented snorkeling equipment and Emmett and I went out beyond the first coral reef to see the main coral growths. Brigitte decided to stay within the first reef area. We spent about and hour and half swimming up and down the width of the bay. The water was clear but a little misty but there was a huge collection fish types. We even followed a sea turtle for about 15 minutes while it gracefully visited various corals. We then went back to the ship to rest and decided to go to Waikiki for sundown and later for dinner. We got to Waikiki by taxi and sat down at a beach side bar for a drink to watch the sundown. The last time I had been there was more than 15 years earlier. Of course, the place has taken off since then. When I last stayed there we lodged at the pink lady, the Royal Hawaiian which was one of the only hotels there. Today, it is wall to wall hotel and it looks even worse than Miami Beach. Masses of people surge up and down the beach in gaudy clothes. Not a nice sight.
We left the hotel and went to a store nearby where Emmett was decked out with Hawaiian shorts and shirt. Coincidently, he had worn a brown shirt like mine which we had both bought in Namibia and he was most embarrassed. In his new garb, he looked like a typical surfer just off his board… And he was happy.
We had dinner at some non descript place and headed back to the ship for the night.
The next morning we picked up a rental car which I had reserved the previous day as it was the easiest and most economical means of seeing the whole island. We headed out up the Pali highway which cuts across to the northern side of the island. We stopped at the outlook at the top of the pass which offers an impressive view of the windward side of the island. This side receives far more rain and the vegetation is much more tropical than the Honolulu side. We then spent the morning driving casually along an excellent road which hugs the coast on which there are few if any beaches. We stopped for the obligatory Starbucks coffee and drove up to the Turtle Beach Hilton and residential development. I checked into the availability of a condo with a view of the ocean and found that a 1600 square feet 3 bedroom box unit costs US$2.5 million so I decided we would not be buying anything that morning. We continued on until we got to Sunset beach which is one of the prime surfer beaches on the north coast. During the period of September through March each year, the storms off the coast of Alaska create huge waves which are what hit these beaches and make all surfers go wild. Now, in April, these same beaches are calm with hardly any waves and of course, no surfers to be seen.

After a nice lunch at a restaurant facing the ocean, we headed south back to Honolulu. In the middle of the island, between the two ridges, there is a huge valley extending 2 or 3 miles from ridge to ridge. It is here that the great sugar and pineapple plantations were set up by the white settlers. It was also along this long valley that the Japanese airstrike came into on the tragic day of the Pearl Harbor bombing. It is a straight line down this long valley extending some 30 miles the length of the island straight into Pearl Harbor.

We stopped at a store to stock up on comfort food for the cabin for the next crossing to Guatemala which will take 8 days. One probably should not do it but everyone does return to the ship on departure date with plastic bags full of goodies to get them through the days at sea. After returning the car to the Enterprise office, we were driven back to our ship to prepare for our departure. At 8 pm on the nose, Captain Jeremy executed his usual excellent maneuvers to move the ship out of the harbor of Honolulu. I stayed on the upper deck to watch our departure from this beautiful island. The lights of Honolulu give no sense that there is any energy shortage as the place is light up as if there is no tomorrow. Nice to look at but one has to wonder who funds this extravagant display in this day and age. Particularly, as all or most of the power on this island is generated from petroleum imported from the mainland, or at least subsidized by federal subsidies. Even gasoline is cheaper in Honolulu than back in Virginia. But I guess there is some rationale for all of this show of wealth.

We sailed into the night and soon were rocking and rolling like in the best of times. We slept like babies although I know many people were feeling wheezy and dizzy. It will take some a day to get their sea legs back while others will suffer as we have 8 days to Guatemala. This is our last long sea journey on this trip and I look forward to the days ahead. Classes will be completed and the kids will be writing some of their exams before we get to Guatemala. So we shall be enjoying our last days.
Cheers