HAWAI'I - THE DARK SIDE OF PARADISE
IS IT ANY WONDER THAT MORE AND MORE PEOPLE WANT THE ILLEGAL U.S. OCCUPATION OF HAWAI'I TO END?
Native Hawaiians constitute roughly 20 per cent of the state population, but they represent 54 per cent of the prison population.
Not coincidentally, they also have the lowest per capita income, the highest poverty rate and the shortest lifespan of any ethnic group in Hawai'i.
Hawai'i public school students receive a very poor education by any standard of measurement. They consistently rank among the lowest of any state in test scores....
In the 1980s, Hawai'i gained the enviable reputation of providing medical insurance to the highest percentage of residents of any state. A decade after the state ended dental cover, toothless smiles are commonplace among the poor. Tens of thousands of residents have no medical insurance at all.
Despite higher profits for many businesses, jobs are scarce and most of the available work pays minimum wage or close to it... In some cases, the lives of the working poor are worse than the unemployed....
On Kaua'i workers often share apartments or small houses with several other workers because rents are too expensive for one or two individuals to afford. On every island married couples with children often work two jobs each to make ends meet - if they are fortunate enough to find that many jobs, even at minimum wage.
Aside from housing, transportation and food expenses contribute heavily to Hawai'i's staggering cost of living. The prices of gasoline, mandatory auto insurance, used cars and repair work are considerably higher than the mainland. And only the city of Honolulu has reliable public transportation.
On the other islands owning a car is a necessity to be able to work or look for jobs. Hawai'i imports two-thirds of its food from the mainland and locally-grown food is expensive due to high land prices....
In the past, Hawai'i was known for its aloha spirit and laid-back lifestyle... Now aloha is difficult to find as various ethnic groups vie with each other for the last crumbs of the once-large economic pie.
And the pace of life has become frenetic in too many ways.As one long-time resident commented: "Hawai'i is turning into one of those Caribbean tourist islands where you have fancy hotels and a tiny rich neighbourhood and the rest of the island is a shantytown of poverty and crime."
