IS IT ANY WONDER 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.
Education reform has been talked to death by every governor and legislature of the past 30 years, but nothing substantial has been done.
This has led to a "brain drain" in the islands. Most of the bright students who manage to learn something in spite of the handicapped school system leave Hawai`i for foreign colleges and careers.
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.
Among other things, they don't qualify for state financial assistance or full food stamp benefits. Even during the height of the hotel building boom in the 1980s, workers in the upscale South Kohala district of the Big Island were forced to sleep in their cars or public parks because they couldn't afford the high rents on hotel pay.
Today most of the Island of Hawai`i (Big Island) as well as the islands of Molokai, Lana'i and Kaua'i are economic wastelands with little opportunity to make a decent living.
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.
To Be Continued...
