ʻaʻole lawa koʻu ʻike @homaikaike - Tumblr Blog

Climate change is real, even if your government denies it. You know that the summers and winters of your childhood are gone, even if your leaders say otherwise. Keep fighting even when things seem hopeless.

todaysbird

At the end, if the rich choose to let the Earth grow too hot to sustain us and the oceans swallow the coastlines, we can take peace in knowing they have only delayed the inevitable for themselves. The Earth does not care if you came from money.

memento-mariii

starbuck-7

There are solutions to climate change.

I know we probably all know that, but the tone here is very doomsayer and I want people to know we're not out the game just yet.

I genuinely think that climate deniers' main strategy has been "they gave us a deadline, so if we run out the clock people will think it's hopeless and just give up".

Fuck the deadline. Do it anyway.

You can get the biggest bang for your buck by donating to lobby groups who push policy. If you find one you like, maybe they even need volunteers.

Climate-concerned donors should focus on helping to pass climate policy, not offset their emissions, an advisory group says.  

You can also give to charities hoping to address the effects of climate change.

These are 11 of the most high-impact, cost-effective, evidence-based organizations. You may not have heard of them.

In America, I highly recommend giving to Trees, Water & People. TWP is an indigenous charity that funds indigenous-led projects for protection, conservation, and cleanup of natural resources.

At Trees, Water & People, our mission is to improve lives by helping communities to protect, conserve, and manage their natural resources.

You can still contact your representatives. But if you're frustrated by the federal or state level, start local. My city has projects to increase use of solar and public transportation. There are citizen led projects, ballot measures, city council meetings. Work small if you have to, but there are things you can do.

And of course, continue to push hard for an end to wars and US weapons sales, as these are some of the biggest contributors to climate change.

viktor-sbor

Off the coast of Australia Macroctopus caught the shark, wrapped all its tentacles around it and soon released it. Most likely, he scraped all the parasites off her.

alkthash

The octopus

multifandom-fanfic-writer

this is how sharks stay smooth

fantasticwolfpenguin

Bro the cuttlefish and everything else checkin it ou

lavenderlion

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

i've seen enough horror movies starring upper-middle-income white families stuck in spacious haunted mansions. gimme stories about millennials stuck in haunted studio apartments. consider the realism:

why is this protagonist staying in an obviously haunted building despite the glaring warning signs? because a week at a motel would send them spiraling into credit card debt, they'll take their chances with the vengeful spirits. why did they chose this apartment complex to begin with, despite the many many unexplained mysterious deaths that show up on the first page of a google search? hon some of us don't have the credit score to move away from high (paranormal) crime areas. how could i be so careless as to sign a soul-binding contract with a demonic entity? bitch they're called LANDLORDS

inkskinned

okay :)

i had gotten a dog, so the dog was a factor. dogs have to be the right size and shape. under 50 pounds. please see our restricted breeds list. he sleeps most of the time, a well-behaved menace. he's big because i'm single in the city and it gets dark here early - but i've had to trade that sense of safety for scrambling-for-housing.

cheerfully i report that i live in a hole! because humor, like vicks, soothes what-is-horrible. the windows are painted shut. the fridge sometimes just shuts off for no reason. there are only 2 working stove burners and they're not in the front. for some reason, rust is everywhere, no matter whether it makes sense for an area to rust. the door in the bathroom has a very badly-patched hole; white-yellow stark against the bad cherry vinyl.

okay. it's what i can afford. the pamphlet had said new england nepenthes(TM) apartments: a beautiful place to grow up. and yes, it's ground-floor, which isn't ideal. so we (my dog and i) have successfully secured the door with one of those big prybars that are 50 dollars. also i usually balance something heavy near any possible entrances - i want to be awake when they fall. you know, during the break-in.

for the first four months, i didn't notice. there had been so much to do in those four months. okay, our (okay, my, he doesn't pay rent) kitchen is literally four tiles wide and undivided from the other spaces. the dining room and office are also the living room (which is. also the kitchen). my bed is too big for the bedroom; i can either have it weirdly against the wall with a door (horrible) or i have to give up opening my closet all the way.

my mama raised me on martha stewart, so. it's quiet here, i love the location, and even if it's rundown, i can make it work. i buy peel-and-stick reusable wallpaper that has long lines to make it look like everything is taller. i move the plants around, trying to get them into the most sun. i put up shelves and hope that i'll have enough spackle later to cover up the worst mistakes i've made with the nail gun. and hey! the location. like the pamphlet said: a beautiful place to grow up.

it's in the middle of putting up our new wrought iron plant holders. i have adhd, time when i'm focused can pass ephemerally. oh shit, i realize. it's 9:30 in the evening. i am probably keeping people awake with all the drilling. fuck. my bad. i tilt an ear upstairs, waiting. nobody slamming the floor with a broom. nobody shouting. maybe quiet hours are at 10 and they're just waiting.

the holders are real wrought iron because my plants weigh a lot. i press the last one above my head, against the pilot holes. now i feel bad about the time. i should just wrap up this last one i'm attaching and then go to bed. if i wait, i'll forget in the morning. distracted, i look down to where i've left the screws on my desk (which is often also my dining room table and art station), and, as if the wall spat the screws out, the iron slips out of my grasp and cracks me hard against my nose before tumbling down to the floor.

fuck.

one of the worst things about living alone is when you get hurt. sparks jump in front of me. my eyes start tearing. fuck! i've broken my nose before, this feels like that. fuck fuck fuck. maybe it's not broken?

i have to hobble off the stool, trying to hold my nose while also not wanting to touch it. i do the first adult thing i can think of - call a bigger adult.

hey mama. i pant into the phone. no worries but how do i know if i broke my nose?

30 minutes later, we have decided it hurt but if i don't have a black eye, the nose is fine. it was already out of alignment anyway. i say the whole sordid story to her, and then i add i just feel bad i lost track of time, it's weird none of my neighbors complained.

as soon as i hang up, i hear the upstairs neighbors, with their quiet feet and soft, muffled voices. i hear people to the right and left of me. i hear them murmuring to each other. someone watches bad tv, i can hear the reality show music-to-dramatic-shouting.

i put ice on my face. i google nose break again just to be sure. i ask my dog if he thinks i look ugly, he responds by putting his three paws into the air and asking for a tummy rub. as part of our nightly ritual, i examine and worry about his amputation, even though it's completely healed up. i still do the physical therapy exercises with him. just in case. just to keep him warmed up.

later in bed, i am reaching to turn on gentle rain for white noise before i realize - huh. i think this evening is the first time i've ever actually heard anyone.

you ever have a thought that gets inside of you? i mean, yeah. of course you do, i guess all thoughts are inside you. but once in a while, don't you get one of those haha funny! thoughts that turns. bad. you know, when you've watched a scary movie and close the laptop and think it's not likely there's a killer in there, but have i ever really checked that deeply in the kitchen sink?

i was always the type to check. just in case. to put my mind at ease.

the thought is there when i wake up, like i'd had it for a while: i never actually see anyone coming and going.

the apartment complex is 12 buildings, staggered like spokes on a clock. i live in 6, the furthest from the road. we are spaced unevenly, but when i first saw it, i thought huh. what a nice quiet community. the grass is green and there are never any leaves. i've never seen someone come mow it. there are cars here, plenty. when was the last time you counted which cars are in the communal lot?

isn't it weird how you're always able to snag that one last spot?

i keep weird hours, is all. i laugh at the thought of it. there was a post on tumblr once that asked how long would it take you to realize the building was entirely empty. but it can't be empty, right? at night, when i can see into other people's apartments, i catch sight of the thousand ways other people decorate. blue LED lights or tapestries or nice curtains. so it is silly to think about that post, when i know other people are here. this is someone else's home.

i mention it to my sister when she comes over to help me move the couch purposelessly around before we both decide it was better where i'd originally had it. nobody, like, lives here. i say. it's weird. i've been here for five months, and i don't see anyone.

she shrugs. maybe it's too expensive for the area, or not really advertised enough. maybe most people my age keeping my hours don't like to live in apartments. who is to say.

after that, the shadows start. my dog and i go on our nighttime walk, and then i see the apartments come to life. the flickered silhouettes of them. the flash of tvs and laptops. the gauzy shape of others just-far-enough i can't quite make out their form. they walk away from the windows if i get close enough.

they must not know how to do it right. every third day, the animations repeat.

oh, i get it. i think. i'm living in a horror novel.

i'm cuban. my culture can be superstitious, yes. but it also means that i have been taught to keep my head on a swivel. we do not fuck with this shit. we do not oujia board the spirits for fun. we do not make a joke about the killer. we do not ever tempt fate, her ears are open-and-listening.

my lease is for one year. it's been five months, that's not that much longer. i can't afford to break it (or to move) at the moment. and, again, the dog factor. and i do love the location.

but once it is obvious, it is so obvious. i try to pay my rent by check just the once, but when i swing by the rental office, the whole floor of the building is dark. there is no cheerful team of realtors, only a single dark panel over door. due to unexpected circumstances, we are currently operating elsewhere. i go online and pay there instead.

no one here hosts parties. the mail truck never seems to come to any of the other buildings. my dog doesn't like going near certain places. i discover a 5-foot radius where my phone will always hang up on the person i'm talking with, even if i have service.

i watch carefully, while also pretending i am not watching. i check my mail, waiting for the electricity bill that never comes calling. in the front hall, amazon packages come with names too smudged for me to ever quite read. sanchez, maybe. then, to the same apartment a week later: tawny reed. it's different again the third week. i stop looking, feeling like i'm prying.

i mention how quiet it is here during the day to one of my bosses, and then the upstairs neighbor appears. her alarm goes off when mine does, almost like an echo. when i change my song, it takes her a few days to keep up. i had said something offhand about how i'm the only one with a dog. then, upstairs - the little patter of dog paws.

at night, i start seeing people on my dog walking route. they pace, insubstantial, something black at the end of their lead. their waving arms always bent at right angles, like they are figuring out how to navigate being 3D. i always wave back, cheerfully. i keep my headphones in. they are over there in the mist that-does-not-belong, and i am over here in the light-that-flickers-on-and-off. i do not need to make a scene about this. there are many reasons people might dissolve into nothing. it is not any of my business.

the upstairs girl smokes. i see her with her (pomeranian? poodle?) little rat-rabbit-dog (? dog in the loosest sense of the word), her legs up on the stoop. she always goes inside when i show up to our building, after giving me one of those straight side-to-side waves. i can never quite make out her features. she won't be there when i leave for our walk, but she'll be there when we get back, no matter how long my walk takes. she watching me, her eyes dark. she sits there, smoking, wearing galaxy-print leggings. the little dog running near her. (sometimes the dog is not there, until i look again, and it is. i must have just missed it, or maybe it was hiding under one of the trim little bushes. not my concern, whatever it is.)

i know she smokes, i can see the red glow and smell it on the air after. but there are no places to dispose of the butts and she never leaves behind any litter. so she must be careful with them, which i appreciate. cigarettes are bad for the environment. i am in no place to judge someone for their vices anyway. during the day, sometimes i hear her dog (a corgi? a terrier?) whine, this thin, reedy sound, like someone gasping for breath. like someone buried alive. a howl like dread. sometimes it even sounds human; garbled and anxious, bow wow wow warping into help help help.

but i'm sure my dog whines when i'm gone, too. i will not report her for this, because it's not her fault. and i don't want to get her in trouble. after all, we all love our dogs so much.

when i write a request for maintenance to help me with ants, i get a bounce-back error. three days later, we wake up, and a sea of dead ant bodies litter my carpet. an inch deep, they float on each other's backs, a black blanket.

i vacuum them up. i feel bad about their little ant souls. i tell them i am sorry. i will light a candle. i tell myself - this is no different than calling an exterminator. to remove yourself from the process is an act of careful self-duplicity - we would have been killing the ants another way, and just anticipating someone else handle the transaction.

how do i call someone about this? i cannot break the lease because i think the others here are ghosts. or my other theory: maybe the whole thing is a carnivore, and i am in the belly, already beginning to rot.

we cannot afford to move, it's only been six months. the heat and the lights stay on. i never invite others over. it feels wrong. we are alone here, the way we should be alone here. this is our place, for me and my dog and the rest of us. we are supposed to be here. we are supposed to live here, in this little hole-in-the-ground apartment.

we are not under any form of threat, anyway. i light candles and say the prayers our father taught us. we keep our distance from the mist ones, and adopt their way of waving, side-to-side. it is starting to look less like a wave and more like beckoning. come on, come on. something keeps us locking our door. we put up more wrought iron, even after it hit us so hard-on-the-face, which wasn't fun, and was very mean. maybe we should take it down - except i know it was so much effort to put up. oh the tub leaks and the freezer has begin to lock while it's shut. our boss says we look pale these days. we blame insomnia. it's just that it's so quiet here, sometimes. we like to make ourselves go very-quiet too, like a mouse. and then we turn that horrible white-noise machine on. we are so strange; we push salt down the drains and into our doorways, which is a waste and a bad thing to do. we do not look into the electricity problem. we fix the lightbulb without complaint. we do not send in new notices to maintenance, even when the rust on the walls starts running. we get fabulosa and scrub everything. we do not make a fuss. when our neighbors that have-no-jaw open the door for us, we keep our eyes on our dog and say thank you! and make polite small-talk. when they garble their responses let your welcome out, (no throat but the sound's so loud?)-we say haha yeah and scoot by the cold spot. we help others get their groceries out of the car even though the bags smell rotten. we do not use the basement laundry room with the single pale yellow lightbulb, even though it is so friendly and warm and free; we drive elsewhere for that, which might be lazy of me. whenever we leave, we take our dog, even though he would be fine alone, surrounded by the strange creep of rust. we are kind, and not frenzied. isn't that strange? shouldn't we be frenzied? there have been so many odd things here, shouldn't we be reacting? instead we sit in our apartment and say, casually - oh, i'm fine. how fun! how interesting. are we waiting for something? if we're waiting, which of us is hiding and which of us is hunting? we count our days on the lease - six months left! we can grow to enjoy it here. it has its quirks, but hey. sometimes staying for the location is reason-enough.

and we love it here. it's a beautiful place to grow up.

folkblr

Tumblr Folk Story

ffluurrraxz

the Aura of the "okay :)" direactly leading to a read more is astounding.

lets-play-gwent

thank you to every single fucking person on this god forsaken site that has ever posted your own art or writing. You really put a vulnerable, important part of yourself out in the open on the hellscape that is the internet and if that isnt an act of bravery and a labor of love I dont know what one is

bees-with-swords

"Do you ever dream of land?" The whale asks the tuna.

"No." Says the tuna, "Do you?"

"I have never seen it." Says the whale, "but deep in my body, I remember it."

"Why do you care," says the tuna, "if you will never see it."

"There are bones in my body built to walk through the forests and the mountains." Says the whale.

"They will disappear." Says the tuna, "one day, your body will forget the forests and the mountains."

"Maybe I don't want to forget," Says the whale, "The forests were once my home."

"I have seen the forests." Whispers the salmon, almost to itself.

"Tell me what you have seen," says the whale.

"The forests spawned me." Says the salmon. "They sent me to the ocean to grow. When I am fat with the bounty of the ocean, I will bring it home."

"Why would the forests seek the bounty of the oceans?" Asks the whale. "They have bounty of their own."

"You forget," says the salmon, "That the oceans were once their home."

eldritchjackalope

@bees-with-swords decided to do another pass at illustrating this two years later, your writing is so lovely

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

sometimes I forget orchids grow on trees and I’m like. oh.

twosidedcherrytrees

They do what now?

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

in the wild, most orchids grow on tree bark, a fact which will never not bring me a profound sense of delight

interestingly, orchids aren’t parasites–they are just harmless squatters hanging out with their arboreal buddies. it’s a form of commensalism–one organism benefits, the other neither benefits nor is harmed.

paleiobotanicalbackwardslicorice

OK but orchids ARE parasites. They just aren’t parasites on trees. All orchids have this very bizzare lifecycle where they begin life as parasites on fungi. Here’s the rough strategy:

1. There’s a tradeoff between how much nutrients can be in a single seed and how many seeds you can make. On one end is the double coconut, the largest seed in the world weighing as much as a small child but each double coconut palm tree makes relatively few seeds per individual per season. OR. Make a fuckton of seed that individually cost very little to make. A lot of your small nonwoody plants chose this option, grasses, dandelions, any little weeds usually.

2. But there’s a limit to how far you can push this.

3. And by god orchids crossed it.

4. Orchid seeds are so fucking small they don’t have the energy stores to fucking germinate.

5. Orchid seeds are so small that they only consist of a few cells that haven’t decided who’s going to be roots or leaves yet.

6. And this is great! If you preferred habitat is in trees where the ability to disperse from one treetop to the next and find the right little spot on that tree to survive as a seedling for a few years is really hard. Lots of seed that can float on the wind and find just that spot is great for that.

7. But shit for actually, you know, being alive.

8. But orchids are crafty bastards.

9. Most plants try very hard not to be colonized by fungi, thats usually not good.

10. But orchid seeds just let fungi in.

11. And how the turn tables.

12. Because they just start eating the fungi back.

13. And this is where it gets weird.

14. Orchids are easily in the running for most diverse plant family at nearly 30,000 different species

15. And every single fucking one of them is like this.

16. And worse than that most of them are dependent on a single species of fungus to do this for them, so they produce millions of seeds just so that one might find the one right fungus.

17. And then after that anything can happen.

18. Some orchids are nice and start paying back their hosts onve they get big enough to phtotosynthesize with nice sugars.

19. Some orchids move on to as many as 30 other fungal species throughout their lives.

20. Some complete bastards keep being parasites after they are big enough to photosynthesize on their own. That’s right, a plant that can make its own food is stealing from something that lives on dead leaves.

21. Some orchids just never grow out of it, orchids have turned into permanent parasites more often than any other group of plants because they’re all parasites so becoming a full parasite is nbd.

22. And worse, most of these actually parasitize fungi that are symbiotic with forest trees that supply sugar to the fungi in return for better access to mineral nutrients, effectively making the orchids both parasites on the fungi and the trees, in a sense the whole ecosystem.

23. This leads to one more weird phenomenon. Mutant albino orchids unable to photosynthesize, of species that normally can photosynthesize, are often recorded as being able to reach maturity and flower without issue. because they just keep being parasites instead. Orchids can just. become parasites at will.

In conclusion orchids are just the weirdest fucking plants in the world. Technically all the above applies to this obscure group of ferns called the Ophioglossum family too. Same fucked up start out life as parasites and become independent (or not) later thing.

silly-jellyghoty

I saw a yt document about this just yesterday and it’s wild

Turns out, that on a large scale, it’s not cost effective to farm the fungi in order to farm orchids which can then be sold worldwide. So what happens is that flower producers go entirely different route - 100% sterility. Everything bleached. Seed pods washed by 70% alcohol. Seeds being grown in petri dishes. Basically, if there isn’t the fungus to provide, people do. We know to the T what exactly in what amounds orchid seeds need, so we mix that stuff with agar jelly, sprinkle seeds over all of that, then wait several months to years until those bastards start growing. The process then continues in similar fashion until plants are capable of independent life at which point those, we have figured out, are given growth promoting substances in strategic spots in order to make the plant bloom. Adding that hormone to inactive bud on the flower stem makes it grow too and so we get those beautiful branched phalaenopsys orchids which then refuse to grow more flowers for 2+ years because they are close to collapsing from a) lack of fungy support and b)being forced to produce too many flowers. Remember this the next time you get your mom another of those 12+ flowers having beauties because her previous 3 are (half) dead.

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

There is a special spot reserved in my heart for Magnificent Frigatebirds. These fuckos are so regal, and they are also ENORMOUS, with a wingspan of up to 8 FEET.

The first time I saw one in person, my brain did a 10-second-reboot because oh neat a pterodactyl just flew overhead--waitwhatnow?

Again, these aerial monstrosities have a wingspan significantly longer than adult human, and in the wild you'll most encounter them circling high in the air above an ocean coast.

Which is why it was endlessly hilarious to me when I found out what the males look like close up.

My good bitch, I bruised at least three ribs laughing.

hieronymph

Their showing off their tits

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

the inflatable sac is a secondary sex characteristic that the males use specifically to attract mates, so in essence yes! this is the closest avian equivalent to a push-up bra

bluely9

mesogeios

— Kató Lomb, Polyglot

Kūlia i ka Nuʻu: Hawaiian Youth and Language Revitalization Through Competition

I ka ‘ōlelo nō ke ola, i ka ‘ōlelo nō ka make; In language there is life, in language there is death. This is a Hawaiian proverb made popular by King Kalākaua during his reign, when he successfully restored Native Hawaiian cultural practices and traditions that were suppressed by Christian missionaries for decades. In Hawaiʻi in the late 1800s, the Native Hawaiian Language–ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi–was outlawed; the medium of education and church was switched over to English, children were punished for using Hawaiian and it was made illegal to use and teach ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in the classroom. However, in the 1970s, nearly a century later, Hawaiian had begun to make its way back into schools, and back into the Native Hawaiian community. Now, fifty years after that, there are even competition categories where Hawaiʻi students can compete in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, using Hawaiian as their medium for research and presentation. So the question arises, how does competition promote the revitalization of ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi in Hawaiian youth? Through modern ways of practice, competition promotes the revitalization of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in Hawaiian youth by creating spaces for students to interact in Hawaiian across different islands, encouraging culture-based research, and increasing intrinsic motivation by giving youth the opportunity to strive for the highest and celebrate their excellence.

To create spaces for native language to thrive among Hawaiʻi youth, it is needed to first look at the state of language survival, and how it is connected to an indigenous model. In the lecture on Language in Schools/Youth given by Henry S. Fesulua’i at the University of Auckland in 2020, he talks about the concept that if there is no language, there is no culture; and if there is no culture, the people cease to exist. This underlines the value and importance of language knowledge for the individual.

If [Pacific youth] do not know their language, their connection to their culture is not as strong, and if their connection to their culture is not as strong, then you will find that that person is in a “dark place” of uncertainty. By losing your language, you will slowly lose the identity and the essence [of the culture]” (Fesuluaʻi, Pacific Language 2020).

Using this as a framework, the development and practice of language skills becomes increasingly important in a globalized world. As referenced in “TO LET DIE”: The state of the Samoan language in New Zealand, “The higher the number of those who speak an ethnic language, the more likely it is that the language and its attendant values are strong. Language loss suggests a weakening of these values and a questioning of ethnic identity” (Hunkin 2012, 204). Since the 1980s, programs such as immersion schools and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi classes have developed, maintained, and continue to sustain Hawaiian language skills in communities across the Hawaiian islands. Understanding that Hawai‘i’s history is grounded in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian language), therefore makes learning ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i an imperative part of Hawai‘i’s future and the survival of Hawaiian culture.

Hawaiian serves as a carrier of both local and international ideas and concepts. From the 1850s to the 1950s, English and Pidgin replaced Hawaiian in all domains with the exception of Niʻihau, a privatized island protected for the reason of language and cultural survival. The growing imbalance in the status of English and Hawaiian speakers, and the increasing pressure of English-only language ideology were two important factors pushing Hawaiian out of use (Brenzinger 2013, 7). To bring about the value of competition to Hawaiians, Makahiki season is a well-practiced cultural example. In ancient Hawaiʻi, Makaihiki became a time to showcase skills and strategies that were developed during the year. While being an event to show the pride of Native prowess, it was still a tournament of Hawaiʻi’s fittest. In a space such as a competition--especially one that attracts students from different schools and different cities--participants get the opportunity to use their skills with others and compare the differences in dialects, fluency, and find a community in which they can interact academically. It is important for any language learner to find speaking partners, and for Hawaiian youth, networking across islands creates a unique learning experience and can entice further study and participation in similar environments.

In regards to my research and capstone project to wrap up my studies on the Pacific Islands, I had the pleasure of interning with the Hawaiʻi History Day competition, a program of the non-profit organization, Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities. The mission of the council is to connect people with ideas that enrich lives, broaden perspectives, and strengthen communities in a way that creates a brave and safe space for diverse voices and experiences to actively share and listen (hihumanities.org.) They are an organization that creates connections that build up communities’ resilience and ability to change, an aspect most well fit to the growing language community in Hawaiʻi.

As for Hawaiʻi History Day, the focus of the competition is to mālama i ka moʻolelo; to care for history. Hawai‘i History Day, a state affiliate of National History Day (NHD), is a year-long history education program that invigorates the teaching and learning of history in grades 4-12 (hihumanities.org.) At the local level, Hawaiʻi History Day promotes a theme-based, research-centered model for history and civics education. Students present their projects in an exhibit, performance, documentary, essay, or website project. History Day culminates in the presentation and evaluation of these projects at school, district, state and national history days.

In working with the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities and Hawaiʻi History day, I addressed my internship in a number of ways. Hawaiʻi History Day has connected with, and utilized the ʻike (knowledge) of cultural practitioners, Kumu, forever haumāna (students), and past participants of the program to shape their ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi category into the opportunity it is now. Beginning my internship, I knew there were some methods of research and participation I could implement to add to my experience as well as to better support them and my project. Personally, I leaned most on observation, and taking in all the manaʻo (experience) from my supervisors and the language leaders they had to shape their program. Through them, I was granted the opportunity to interview Kumu and judges in a casual talk story fashion true to Hawaiian cultural values. In the scope of Pacific research and the practice of the Talanoa, I focused mostly on Faka'apa'apa, the act of being respectful, humble, and considerate to those with whom we interact. It is “to see, not just look; to hear, not just listen, and to observe; to know the culture and context they are engaged in and then behave accordingly.” (Vaioleti 2006, 30)

In a spoken interview with Kumu ;Ōlelo Hawaiʻi Kalae Akioka of Kailua High School, she explains that opportunities such as Hawaiʻi History Day, allows students as well as teachers to engage with the Native Hawaiian language in a way that cannot always be accessible in school. She says “if we donʻt engage then, you know, not gon’ get. And so, the kids need to see that ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is everywhere, not only in [school]” (December 2021). For young Hawaiian language students, having the opportunity to speak ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi outside of school adds to the longevity of hoʻōla ʻōlelo–the revitalization of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. In education, Hawaiian is no longer seen as a problem, and in the past five decades has become seen as an asset and a resource.

In 1984 the Hawaiian movement followed the Maori example of Kōhanga Reo immersion schooling for young children, and offered an exclusive Hawaiian-speaking environment. At that time, a group of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi scholars had lobbied for the removal of the ban on the use of Hawaiian language as a medium of education, which was in place since the 1890s. When the ban was lifted, the group established the Hawaiian-medium Pūnana Leo pre-schools (Nāmāhoe 2007). Three years later, the State of Hawaiʻi board of education approved the formation of the Papahana Kaiapuni ʻŌlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian Language Immersion Program), and two immersion kindergarten/first grade classes were formed to receive the preschool graduates of the Pūnana Leo Schools (Warschauer & Donaghy, 1997.) Now, second-language speakers of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi who then pass it on to their children as their first language sustain Hawaiian families as they move from one generation to the next. This decision to do with the creation of immersion education has transformed the lives and families of Hawaiians in ways that could not have been expected nearly fifty years ago (Kawaiʻaeʻa 2007).

The higher the number of those who speak an ethnic language, the more likely it is that the language and its attendant values are strong. Language loss suggests a weakening of these values and a questioning of ethnic identity. No Native languages are immune to the effects of globalization, thus the struggle between the utility of a common language (such as the one this author is employing to write this paper) versus the profound nuances found within a mother tongue. Both deserve equal status, today as much as ever. In an interview with Bruce Torres Fischer, a Hawaiʻi History Day judge and Graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, he talks about how the development and practice of language skills becomes increasingly important in a globalized world, and how a program such as Hawaiʻi History Day can expand that potential.

My philosophy is just to do everything we can to get into all the nooks and crannies of society. It's important that ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi students get to go in the mainstream in the sense that they can also have a place to participate in [Hawaiʻi History Day], a program that before was mostly in English. It's really amazing that this is starting to happen, that we have ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi getting into larger programs. I think it's important that immersion students and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi speakers have the chance to enter into these types of competitions and programs that were predominantly in English before. Seeing that Hawaiʻi has two official languages, it's starting to tip the scales a little bit more so that it is more kaulike, more equal. And so the world knows, and makes it feel that we really do have two languages (November 2021.)

In an attempt to refocus, I want to talk about the Hawaiian youth who kūlia i ka nuʻu, who strive for the highest. Bruce had mentioned that Hawaiʻi History Days creates the opportunity for students to fill a previously English-dominant space with ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, and show the world that Hawaiʻi has two languages–English and Hawaiian–and that they can thrive anywhere. If not previously mentioned, Hawaiians–Kanaka Maoli–are the native, indigenous people of the islands of Hawaiʻi. Just three generations above today’s youth, such as the ones who compete in Hawaiʻi History day, were the Kūpuna (elders) who were beaten and punished for using ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in the classroom, and we (Hawaiians) can still see the effects of language suppression in present time. However, through generations of language loss and surviving cultural oppression, Hawaiians today are taking pride in learning and using our native language–particularly the youth. In competitions, such as Hawaiʻi History Day, students from across several Hawaiian Islands are taking the opportunity to take their language skills to the next level, competing in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi categories to showcase linguistic prowess, cultural pride, and advancement of the Hawaiian Nation.With competition, there is intrinsic motivation; young Hawaiians finding pride in their identity and culture.

Competition promotes the revitalization of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in Hawaiian youth by creating spaces for students to interact in Hawaiian across different islands, encouraging culture-based research, and increasing intrinsic motivation by giving youth the opportunity to kūlia i ka nuʻu, to strive for the highest and celebrate their excellence. By finding their own identity in their work and research building up to competition, students are further motivated to do their best, not just to succeed. In the scope of native language, students arenʻt just representing their school or city, they are representing themselves as part of a suppressed people; they represent with them our people and indigenous excellence. In an interview with Kumu Māhealani Lono, she explains how competition pushes students to succeed; not just to win, but to succeed within themselves and motivate them to do better in their language and share that pride with their people.

Competition is really healthy for growth because it pushes them to achieve something, and it gives them that expectation to reach a level that classroom work can't touch at all…I appreciate [Hawaiʻi History Day] so much because there are not a lot of opportunities for students. We don’t have a lot of those things that bring the ʻaukahi ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language Community) together and push them, or bring them together and use each other to bring themselves up and build up the lāhui (Hawaiian Nation) (December 2021.)

Despite all the good things that come from the opportunity that Hawaiʻi History Day offers ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi students, there are still inevitable gaps to consider. First, finding ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi fluency in Kumu, judges, students, and in all parts of the program to create a knowledgeable and well-versed.

Since ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is still an endangered language despite the strides we have made…in regards to the reemergence of the languages into a living language, we still have a long way to go. Despite English and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi having equal legal status in the state, they still aren't equal because we just don't have the resources or speakers in the numbers we need (Bruce Torres Fischer, December 2021).

Another gap, briefly mentioned by Bruce above, is the lack of resources. In the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi community alone, accessing resources, and creating a mutual standard amongst teachers and learners is a big matter to be addressed. Hawaiian courses in public schools have not produced much fluency in Hawaiian, as they were never considered a priority in the curriculum (Brenzinger and Heinrich 2013, 304). At present, there are several thousand students enrolled in Hawaiian language classes in the state public high schools as well as in private multi-ethnic high schools, however Kumu ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi often have to write their own curriculum which can often mean a difference in language skills amongst ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi students.

We just donʻt have the resources in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi that we do in English. Even in schools, and teachers have to make their own curriculum. You can’t buy textbooks on Amazon and have them shipped to you in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, so it's definitely a challenge as far as revitalization goes. We can see that we have a ways to go in providing ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi resources for students so that they don’t have to always find English texts, and English interviews, and English sources (Bruce Torres Fischer, December 2021).

One last final gap worth mentioning, is where the students themselves actually struggle during the preparation phases of Hawaiʻi History Day. When picking a topic for their projects and beginning their hunt for resources, many students realize they do not know how to properly research. Especially for students at the highschool level, there is a gap in the development of “college” level skills, such as researching.

The students' need area is learning how to research. What I see for my ninth graders is that they don't know anything about researching…It's down to the basics, so there's a lot of lack of experience. When they choose their topics I feel like it's deep and meaningful, and they get really connected once they get into the research of it, but it's that initial, “getting them to learn how to research” in the beginning–because it's such a new thing–that’s a struggle (Kalae Akioka, 2021).

Part of my internship with Hawaiʻi history was to learn about and understand these gaps, and find ways to address them.

When looking at areas of struggle in the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi community and the youth within that compete at Hawaiʻi History Day, I had found ways to somewhat aid the filling of these gaps, and develop a stronger foundation for the program. In a way, these solutions became part of my work as well as my reflection of my time supporting Hawaiʻi History Day and the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities. First, everyone as a community needs to encourage the learning of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, and bring the language into every outlet possible. While Hawaiʻi History Day is not necessarily an event for the revitalization community by the revitalization community, it is one of the rare opportunities for students to showcase their language skills outside of school. Without the help of the ʻohana and the local community, the opportunity could disappear, and students may not be able to learn about further opportunities such as this. To encourage a child is to raise their motivation, and push them to kūlia i ka nuʻu.

Next, is to find, create, and make accessible more listening content, web content, school language programs, and mobile apps for language learners. This includes introducing students to Hawaiian language podcasts like Lohe ʻIa, Hawaiian at Home, or Ka ʻAlalā, for second-language speakers, or Ka Leo Hawaiʻi recordings for Native Speakers. Supporting school language clubs, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi community-built programs and extracurriculars like hula or kalo/salt farming can cultivate cultural spaces for students to connect with their heritage as well as the language. Though I am unfamiliar with the Department of Education policies and how private/charter schools function, should teachers find a mutual standard across the state for levels of learning ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (as with other languages taught in schools), increased access to these types of resources could supplement the classroom.

Finally, would be to support the kumu and haumāna as an ʻohana through workshops, and webinars to develop their skills and ready them for opportunities like Hawaiʻi History Day. This is where my personal reflection comes in. Through my internship, I was able to help host a research workshop alongside Na Hawaiʻi ʻImi Loa and Awaiaulu to help students and teachers navigate ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi databases for research. This included learning about Ulukau.org, WeheWehe.org, Papakilo database, Nūpepa.org, among other Hawaiian-serving web programs. I had crafted flyers for the event, conducted outreach for the teachers and judges to participate, and connected with the hosts to build a webinar that would best support the students. As one of the main aspects of my internship, this workshop allowed me to both network with teachers, students, judges and language leaders in the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi community of Hawaiʻi History Day, as well as address one of the biggest stressors for students in the program.

Overall, my internship felt more like supporting a group of friends through a project, rather than working with an office. It was wonderful to meet many ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi speakers, and even see a few students work on their project during the workshop. In the last few weeks of my internship, I was also able to make a second flier promoting Hawaiʻi History Day and calling for ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi volunteers to judge for the competition. As simple as it was, I was asked to create a version of the flyer in both English and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. The work in itself, I feel, addressed a gap in making resources available for ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi speakers; I was the first intern asked to create a bilingual flyer, and having that Hawaiian language version of the document spoke volumes to bringing up ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi as a living language, and having that version as an option for volunteers to view. In all, It occurred to me that I, too, was supporting the language community with this project, and that flyer was even shown to students so that they too could see Hawaiian language in action.

In conclusion (and some reiteration), I want to share another phrase. Inā ʻaʻohe leo, ʻaʻohe ola–if there is no voice, there is no life. Since the 1980s, immersion schools and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi classes have developed, maintained, and sustained Hawaiian language skills in communities across the Hawaiian islands. Understanding that Hawai‘i’s history is grounded in ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian language), therefore makes learning ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i an imperative part of Hawai‘i’s future and the survival of Hawaiian culture. Competition promotes the revitalization of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in Hawaiian youth by creating spaces for students to interact in Hawaiian across different islands, encouraging culture-based research, and increasing intrinsic motivation by giving youth the opportunity to strive for the highest and celebrate their excellence. In addressing these gaps, supporting our students, and pushing the language forward in even the smallest ways, we can holomua and kūlia i ka nuʻu for hoʻōla ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi.

Bibliography

Akioka, Kalae. Interview by author. Audio recording. Honolulu, December 1, 2021.

Brenzinger, Matthias, and Patrick Heinrich. “The Return of Hawaiian: Language Networks of the Revival Movement.” Current issues in language planning 14, no. 2 (2013): 300–316.

Fesuluaʻi, Henry Lemoa. “The State of Language in Pacific Youth.” Lecture, University of Auckland, New Zealand, March 3, 2020.

"Hawai'i Council for the Humanities." Hawaii Council for the Humanities. Accessed December 17, 2021. https://hihumanities.org/.

"Hawaiʻi History Day." Hawaii Council for the Humanities. Accessed December 17, 2021. https://hihumanities.org/what-we-do/hi-history-day/.

Hunkin, G. A. (2012). “To Let Die”: The state of the Samoan language in New Zealand. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 8(2), 203–214.

Kawaiʻaeʻa, K. K., Housman, A. K., & Alencastre, M. (2007). Puʻa i ka ʻŌlelo, Ola ka ʻOhana: Three Generations of Hawaiian Language Revitalization. Online Submission, 4(1), 183-237.

Lono, Māhealani. Interview by author. Audio recording. Honolulu, December 2, 2021.

Nāmāhoe, L. (2007, June 1). 'Aha Pūnana Leo. Retrieved June 7, 2020, from https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/aha-punana-leo

Oliveira, Katrina-Ann R. Kapā‘anaokalāokeola Nākoa. “Aloha ‘Āina-Placed Ho‘omoana ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i: A Path to Language Revitalization.” In Handbook of Indigenous Education, 339–356. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2019.

Torres Fischer, Bruce. Interview by author. Zoom recording. Honolulu, November 30, 2021.

Vaioleti, Timote M. "Talanoa Research Methodology: A Developing Position on Pacific Research." Waikato Journal of Education, 21-34. Vol. 12. 2006.

Warschauer, M., & Donaghy, K. (1997). Leokī: A powerful voice of Hawaiian language revitalization. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 10(4), 349-362. Honolulu, Hawaii.

etudaire

Bujo trackers for getting your shit together

I typed a super long ass post about this and the accidentally deleted it before saving and now I’m lying on the cold hard ground

Yohoo potatoes, I’m back with another *whips out a megaphone out of nowhere* “long ass post” (is that my patent now?) for you guys! This one could help out with your studyjo/bujo (if you don’t know what a studyjo is don’t worry I’ll link it later) and organising that potato life to make the most of it!

Why should I use a bullet journal?

You’s a student

You’s busy

You’s got life you can’t handle sometimes

You will 120% forget about tat assignment deadline unless you’re reminded of it

You get to laugh at your past self after 20 years or so

It’s therapeutic and all that ish

You’ll like it because it’s being productive while actually kinda procrastinating (aren’t we bosses at procrastinating?)

Memories :)

Bolded ones are the trackers I am using and are potato proofed

1. Study related :

SYLLABUS TRACKER : finals can go a little smoothly if you have it all at one place

PROJECT PLANNER/TRACKER : deadlines + road map of how you’re gonna ace that project

STUDY SESSION TRACKER : time, date, subject and rating your session

GOALS TRACKER : realistic ones, like score 75% or more in this test, or master the concept of integration (ughh). Philosophy ones come later ;)

EXAM PLANNER : plan something for each day a week before your exam and see the magic

For solving based subjects :

PROBLEM TRACKER : shade the box every day you solve “x” number of sums

FORMULA QUIZ : the most difficult ones which you’ll never remember unless they’re carved on your ribs

Theory based subjects :

CONCEPT PLANNER : shade the box every day you learn “x” concept nicely

RANDOM CONCEPTS TO REVISE LIST : super helpful when you’re procrastinating and don’t know what to study - refer to this list and do you ish

READINGS LIST : shade the box every day when you read “x” number of paragraphs from textbooks/notes/books

Language based subjects :

WORD OF THE DAY PAGE : one word every day

PASSAGE OF THE MONTH : sort of like a journal but in your target language

FAVOURITE SENTENCES/QUOTES /SONGS/ETC IN *TARGET LANGUAGE* PAGE - similar to a journal thing, make it all aesthetic and cool so you’ll want to fill it in more

2. Entertainment related stuff :

MOVIES WATCHED SO FAR - all the movies, maybe stash a ticket or smthn?

MOVIE OF THE MONTH - can pick any one tbh

APPRECIATION PAGE FOR *FAV ACTOR/ACTRESS* - can you guess who’s appreciated by this potato?

SONG OF THE MONTH - only pick one and trust me that is very difficult

APPRECIATION PAGE FOR *FAV SINGER* - guess mine again?

PLAYLIST OF THE MONTH - best songs only

MIX TAPE FOR *FAV PERSON* - you can actually even make a real one and give it to someone you really like ;)

SERIES TRACKER - episodes/seasons number, shade the box as you finish it

REVIEW PAGE - review some movies/TV show you just saw

FAVOURITE MOVIE QUOTES PAGE - “you’re a wizard, Harry”

3. Mind related stuff :

QUOTES PAGE - motivational, sentimental stuff

MEDITATION TRACKER - this potato might try it

CROSSWORD TRACKER - shade the box every time you successfully solve an entire crossword/puzzle

RIDDLE TRACKER - shade the box every day if you solved 1 riddle

CREATIVITY PAGE - doodles, ugly poetry, cringy picky up limes, whatever floats your goat

BRAIN DUMP PAGE - every single thing on your mind transferred on this page. Suggested before sleeping so that you’re light headed and stress-free

IDEAS ORGANISER PAGE - give form to those abstract plots and connect all ideas to make a bigger one

PERSONAL PROJECT PLANNER - like maybe that book you always wanted to write

LIFE IN PIXELS - mad, sad or smad?

4. Health related stuff :

EXERCISE TRACKER - shade the box every day if you did “x” duration/amount of exercise

FOOD TRACKER - keep record of what junk you munched on today and try to avoid it sometimes

WATER TRACKER - ughh so important

CARBS TRACKER - kill a puppy next time you overeat

MOOD TRACKER - graphs look fancy tbh

ROLE MODEL’S PAGE - everything hermione granger does/says

5. Money related stuff :

BUDGET TRACKER - note down every little thing you spent on, figure out where you can save up

SAVINGS TRACKER - fill that little jar and buy those pens you always wanted to

Aaand that’s about it for now! I’ll be back with another long ass post so have fun bullet journaling till then!

Feel free to hmu if you aren’t clear about how to use a certain tracker!

Etudaire ~

Rise: From One Island to Another

By Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Aka Niviâna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYf4yIYHVws

Sister of ice and snow I’m coming to you from the land of my ancestors, from atolls, sunken volcanoes–undersea descent of sleeping giants

Sister of ocean and sand, I welcome you to the land of my ancestors –to the land where they sacrificed their lives to make mine possible –to the land of survivors.

I’m coming to you from the land my ancestors chose. Aelon Kein Ad, Marshall Islands, a country more sea than land. I welcome you to Kalaallit Nunaat, Greenland, the biggest island on earth.

Sister of ice and snow, I bring with me these shells that I picked from the shores of Bikini atoll and Runit Dome

Sister of ocean and sand, I hold these stones picked from the shores of Nuuk, the foundation of the land I call my home.

With these shells I bring a story of long ago two sisters frozen in time on the island of Ujae, one magically turned into stone the other who chose that life to be rooted by her sister’s side. To this day, the two sisters can be seen by the edge of the reef, a lesson in permanence.

With these rocks I bring a story told countless times a story about Sassuma Arnaa, Mother of the Sea, who lives in a cave at the bottom of the ocean.

This is a story about the guardian of the Sea. She sees the greed in our hearts, the disrespect in our eyes. Every whale, every stream, every iceberg are her children.

When we disrespect them she gives us what we deserve, a lesson in respect.

Do we deserve the melting ice? the hungry polar bears coming to our islands or the colossal icebergs hitting these waters with rage Do we deserve their mother, coming for our homes for our lives?

From one island to another I ask for solutions. From one island to another I ask for your problems

Let me show you the tide that comes for us faster than we’d like to admit. Let me show you airports underwater bulldozed reefs, blasted sands and plans to build new atolls forcing land from an ancient, rising sea, forcing us to imagine turning ourselves to stone.

Sister of ocean and sand, Can you see our glaciers groaning with the weight of the world’s heat? I wait for you, here, on the land of my ancestors, heart heavy with a thirst for solutions as I watch this land change while the World remains silent.

Sister of ice and snow, I come to you now in grief mourning landscapes that are always forced to change

first through wars inflicted on us then through nuclear waste dumped in our waters on our ice and now this.

Sister of ocean and sand, I offer you these rocks, the foundation of my home. On our journey may the same unshakable foundation connect us, make us stronger, than the colonizing monsters that to this day devour our lives for their pleasure. The very same beasts that now decide, who should live who should die.

Sister of ice and snow, I offer you this shell and the story of the two sisters as testament as declaration that despite everything we will not leave. Instead we will choose stone. We will choose to be rooted in this reef forever.

From these islands we ask for solutions. From these islands

we ask we demand that the world see beyond SUV’s, ac’s, their pre-packaged convenience their oil-slicked dreams, beyond the belief that tomorrow will never happen, that this is merely an inconvenient truth. Let me bring my home to yours. Let’s watch as Miami, New York, Shanghai, Amsterdam, London, Rio de Janeiro, and Osaka try to breathe underwater. You think you have decades before your homes fall beneath tides? We have years. We have months before you sacrifice us again before you watch from your tv and computer screens waiting to see if we will still be breathing while you do nothing.

My sister, From one island to another I give to you these rocks as a reminder that our lives matter more than their power that life in all forms demands the same respect we all give to money that these issues affect each and everyone of us None of us is immune And that each and everyone of us has to decide if we will rise

via:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYf4yIYHVws

https://350.org/rise-from-one-island-to-another/#poem

also visit:

https://www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com/

#climate change #poetry #sea level rise #nuclear #indigenous #pacific #pasifika #art #poet #Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner #Aka Niviâna #spoken word #honey blogs

darkmacademia

vaguely academic things to do to keep yourself entertained

go down a wikipedia research hole by clicking the first term you don’t understand

binge a crashcourse series end to end (personal recs: world history, history of science, big history, philosophy)

find free books on project gutenberg

download some western classics for free

borrow books and audiobooks from the libby app or borrowbox

start a commonplace book

take a khan academy course

browse MIT’s free online course materials

teach yourself to code

go on a google scholar essay dive

try the open access button to avoid some paywalls for academic media, or install unpaywall that does a similar thing

research the history of the place you where you live

tempt the wrath of the duolingo owl and learn a language

search for online streams of the local tv in your target language’s country and use as background noise for immersion points

print and scrapbook favourite poetry and literature quotes

improve your handwriting by doing handwriting exercises

learn philosophy with the philosophize this! podcast. actually just check out all the educational spotify podcasts there are many good ones

start a weekly club with friends to share new and interesting things you’ve learnt that week

clean and reorganise your study space, physical or digital

check out online museums

fave educational youtube channels that I adore: vsauce, crashcourse, smarter every day, kurzgesagt, school of life, tom scott, r. c. waldun, vsauce3, primer, mark rober, veritasium, asapSCIENCE, scishow, TED-ed

hopefully you’ll find something to enjoy! happy learning x

Sexualization of the Polynesian Woman

A topic I want to do more research on. Here is part of a discussion I had reading Sites of Desire/Economies of Pleasure: Sexualities in Asia and the Pacific for class.

#HIST 366 #notes #women #feminism #polynesia #pacific

ʻAʻohe nānā i ko lalo ʻai ke pāpaʻa; e nānā i ko luna o ahulu (#193)

Never mind if the food at the bottom burns; see that the food on top is not half-cooked. Never mind the commoners, pay attention to the chiefs.

#olelo noeau #quotes

Ho’omanawanui vs. Ahonui: Defining Patience

This is just my definition, and how I think of these words.

Ho’omanawanui - to be patient, but to me is more to practice perseverance; the stretching of time and outlasting it. Ahonui - also to be patient but in a sense of endurance. awaiting something, or suffering through something. Ahonui I think of as a sigh. Big breath. After being frustrated about something, a product of awaiting something out of your control.

Ho’omanawanui, is persevering in a time that has been stretched. finding things to do in the meantime; understanding the need for waiting. I feel like Ho’omanawanui is waiting for tea to steep, or getting to know someone. Ahonui is to endure, to have endurance, needing to last until something happens. Ahonui is like waiting for an uber when you're late, or the feeling you get when a crying child that won't tell you what is wrong.

#HWST 285 #huaolelo hou #wehewehe #define #vocabulary #words #patience #endurance #perseverence

highlights-of-the-lowlife

Stop vilifying adults that live with their parents.

We’re still deep in one of the worst economic recessions of modern times. For many of us its not a choice but a requirement in order to survive. For many of us we have disabilities that make finding accommodation that suit our needs a lot harder and a lot more expensive.

Many of us pay into the household. Many of us are trapped in abusive households because we don’t have the means to leave. We aren’t moochers or afraid to leave the nest. The world simply isn’t built to support us anymore.

solitarelee

This is actually an incredibly western (and specifically American) thing. In a lot of other countries and cultures it’s NOT AT ALL uncommon for an adult to still live with their parents. As a second generation immigrant, it’s BEWILDERING to me. My cousin still lives with our grandmother; it’s important. She needs someone to watch after her, and she has the space… why wouldn’t he? This obsession with “adults” being “fully independent” of their parents is a fully American, bizarrely capitalist notion and it needs to be stomped into the ground.

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

Reminder that in the U.S., multigenerational households were very common (if not the outright norm) until the 1950s. Young people living at home–and being raised in large households that included grandparents and cousins–was pretty damn normal until around then.

You know what happened in the U.S. in the 1950s?

A HUGE boom in consumerism.

Massive conservative backlash against the progress made by women’s rights, and by progressivism in general

After WWII (which the U.S. managed to make an enormous profit on), suddenly the country was full of people* with credit–which meant it was up to corporations to give them a place to spend it. Throw in the Baby Boom (lots of new couples getting married & having kids), the rise of highways & automobile culture, and the desire that a lot of powerful parties had to see a return to “traditional” gender roles, and you get the uniquely American product:

The Suburban Nuclear Family

It was brilliant, from a marketing and white male conservative perspective. What better way to convince all these newly lucrative consumers to part with their money than by selling them a house–and a complete set of household accoutrements to go inside it? Everything about 1950s media was aimed at convincing young couples to buy a house, buy a car, buy furniture, buy a sewing machine, buy a garage full of tools–and above all, don’t live with your parents & adult siblings, who probably already own many of these things. Don’t share resources–that’s Communism! And worse, it’s unAmerican.

Coincidentally, did Suburban Nuclear Family Culture also reenforce patriarchal power structures within the home, by isolating women in their own families & marriages (which drastically enables abuse), and giving children fewer adults (grandparents, aunts and uncles) to supervise their wellbeing? Did it cut off people who weren’t the “head” of the household from community resources? Did it enable domineering family men to control their families away from prying eyes–or encourage that sort of behavior in men who otherwise could have ended up being decent enough parents & spouses, with better cultural influences? Did it train generations of us to grow up into perfect little consumers, overworked and underpaid and struggling to afford independent households we can’t mantain? Did it permanently alter our definition of family & community in a way that decades later we have not recovered from?

Yes, but it also made a lot of businessmen very very wealthy. What’s more American than that.

alpha-beta

Tags: #not a shitpost#long post#serious post#and when that model didn’t end up being sustainable–guess what?#many of us DID go back to living with other people.#except now it’s often with roommate and even complete strangers#or with parents with who we have an unhealthy relationship#(which is in many ways a direct inheritance of the shift to ‘traditional’ family values)#and now even those of us who of lucky enough to be living with family members we love and get along with#are constantly told to feel guilty about that bc how ‘lazy’. bc you aren’t 'contributing’.#in a society where 'contributing’ is very suspiciously synonymous with consuming andoverworking

bogleech

Things food snobs are wrong about

“Organic” isn’t better for you or for the environment. It actually means nothing of any significance at best and is sometimes even the more wasteful, more hazardous option.

A shitload of “natural” food including a lot of imported produce is grown and harvested through slave labor in inhumane conditions.

Pizza, fried chicken, french fries, fast food, candy bars and chips ARE nutritious. They are loaded with good things. Just because they have an abundance of excess fats and might not be healthy as a staple doesn’t mean they are “nutritionless” or that their calories are “empty.” Those are hokey buzzwords pushed by the people in charge of how much you pay for the alternatives.

Eating healthier costs more. Much more. Looking down on people for their reliance on cheaper food is extremely classist and expecting everyone to be able to live off fresh veggies and cage-free meats is insultingly unrealistic in the modern world.

“Processed” literally only means the food went through some kind of automated process. This can be literally the exact same thing a human being would have done to the food for it to be labeled “unprocessed.” Being processed does not make something less healthy.

Chemicals with long, scary names are part of nature. An apple is full of compounds you probably can’t pronounce. A shorter ingredients label only means they didn’t bother listing all 300 things the product is actually made of and HAS to be made of.

Preservatives, artificial flavors and other additives are not the devil. Most are harmless and in general they are part of the reason you haven’t already starved to death or died of a food borne illness.

MSG is not bad for you at all.

The fact that something might be made of “scrap” meats like pig snouts or chicken necks only means one thing: that we didn’t waste perfectly normal, edible meat.

I DON’T KNOW HOW I FORGOT THIS IN MY FIRST VERSION OF THIS POST BUT GMO’S ARE NOT DANGEROUS TO EAT. GMO’S ARE SAVING LIVES. YOU’VE ALREADY EATEN GMO’S BEFORE YOU EVEN KNEW THE TERM. IT’S FINE. EAT THEM.

bogleech

So I’ve literally done this twice before and so have several other people but here are sources on all of these, most of them fairly recent academic studies or otherwise the most up-to-date I could find:

Organic food isn’t better for you: [1] [2] [3]

Tracing food industry slave labor: [1]

Healthier food is more expensive: [1] [2]

Saturated fats (i.e. “junk food”) still provide needed energy, aren’t as bad as people thought: [1] [2]

“Processed” isn’t synonymous with less healthy, because it means a lot of different things: [1]

“Chemicals” also means a lot of things and many food components are misunderstood by the general public: [1]

MSG is not harmful: [1] [2] [3]

GMO’s are not dangerous to eat: [400 sources collected here]

antique-scarecrow

if you want to eat more ethically, literally the most powerful thing you can do is eat more local foods. eating pork from a pig farm 100 miles away does significantly less harm–to animals, to humans, to the biosphere–than eating quinoa grown on another continent. Eat local foods.

#ike #mea nui #reblog

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