Aloha to the US: Is Hawai'i an occupied nation?

[Newsjock]

Source: BBC News

An upcoming election has highlighted the deep disagreement between native Hawaiians over what the future should look like. For some, it's formal recognition of their community and a changed relationship within the US. Others want to leave the US entirely - or more accurately, want the US to leave Hawai'i.

... The first ballots to elect delegates to a convention, or 'aha, for this purpose have now gone out in Hawai'i. Forty delegates from across the islands will meet in February to discuss whether there should be a Native Hawaiian government and what it should look like in the 21st Century.

But not everyone is happy with the 'aha. Some of those who would be eligible to vote, or become delegates themselves, have said they will boycott it. One delegate candidate has already dropped out, calling the 'aha "not pono" (upright or fair).

... Recognition would define native Hawaiians as a separate political entity - protecting many of the federal programmes currently provided to native Hawaiians, like favourable housing loans, a land trust programme, health care, educational and cultural grants. It would also allow for an element of economic independence, although one industry that has enriched a few Native American tribes - gambling - is banned in Hawai'i.

But all of this is predicated on the idea the US government is the rightful authority in Hawai'i, something a small but increasing number of Hawaiians no longer believe.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34680564

[-none]

1. Hawaii is another area we took over because we could.

We wanted it because of its strategic location in the middle of nowhere, so we took it.

[Javaman]

3. it was taken over due to the military needing a recoaling station.

always the military.

[Nye Bevan]

2. No more than most of the other states (nt)

[Lizzie Poppet]

4. Precisely what I was going to say!

And no more so than many (if not most) other countries, for that matter...

[taught_me_patience]

7. Thanks for displaying your ignorance of Hawaiian history

Hawaii was a unified sovereign nation destined to become part of the British Empire. Hell... look at the Hawaiian flag. Why do you think that there is a British flag embedded in it? Almost all the former British colonies are again sovereign nations.

The queen was illegally overthrown by the U.S. No other state remotely comes close to a legitimate claim of independence as Hawaii.

[KamaAina]

8. Actually, a Canadian named Ashford was poking around the islands in the 1870s

looking to have Hawai'i join the nascent Confederacy.

[geek tragedy]

5. if a majority accept the US government as the rightful authority, that ends the discussion

there are Texans who have the same set of beliefs.

[hunter]

6. Nationalism of any sort is annoying...

...and not much different than religious fundamentalism.

Any religion or nationalism that gets in the way of people living together peacefully is a big shovel of shit.

Those who worship the "invisible" hand of the free market," the economic imperialists, are a big shovel of shit too. This thing we now call "economic productivity" is not productivity at all, it has become a direct measure of the damage we do to our Mother Earth and our own human spirit.

My accidental nation of birth, this U.S.A., still isn't doing right by Native Americans or the descendants of African slaves.

Native Pacific Islanders ought to hope for better.

Maybe we humans will figure it all out before this current world civilization based on crass consumerism and military power collapses. But I'm not optimistic.