Poverty in Paradise

This past spring break, I took my first ever real vacation to Hawaii with some of my best friends. This was an experience I was sure to never forget. Hawaii is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places, with clear blue beaches, perfect weather, and gorgeous local people everywhere. I had a lot of expectations before going on my trip to paradise, but it wasn't everything it's all cracked up to be. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time and there are definitely beautiful places to visit, but besides the occasional tension that happens when you go on trips with friends, I had a lot of misconceptions and ideas of what Hawaii was all about.

I imagined Hawaii to be a place largely untouched by modern day consumerism, tropical trees and wild life everywhere, local people, and maybe a lot of hula shows (of course with the tourism). However, I was quite surprised for some reason when I took my first visit to the city of Honolulu. The city seemed extremely outdated and unmaintained. Infrastructure for the most part was not the best, and most surprisingly for me, poverty was everywhere to be seen. Yet, it is clearly goes largely unnoticed or maybe more accurately ignored. On my first trip to Waikiki (in an old bus with quite uncomfortable seats), one of the most tourist populated area, I saw homeless people everywhere, many bear foot, many with clear mental disabilities yelling or talking to themselves. I talked to my friend Evan (who attends the University of Hawaii) about how this was something I never would have expected. In response she said, "Yea, the poverty here is really bad." On our way up to Waikiki beach she told me and my other friend Basia, that the beach was man made and used to be a swamp. This brings up many questions and points of discussion for me. What is this place trying to represent? In the midst of what surrounds the very touristy Waikiki area exists reality, poverty. There is a front however, to maintain this facade of what Hawaii is, when literally what makes up these ideals are fake. From the beach to the things they sell, none of it is real or authentic.  

In discussion, my GSI Laura has often brought up that at some point she realized she doesn't need to go abroad since there are so many issues here that need to be addressed, even more specifically in her home town. This trip really highlights for me her point. Even in paradise, poverty is a huge issue.  I don't know how to begin fixing this problem, but I think acknowledging it as a problem and addressing it is a place to start.