As the band brings the crowd to its feet for the last number of the night, a father bonds with his son over rock and roll and a few mai tais. When visiting from the Mainland the previous year, the
As the band brings the crowd to its feet for the last number of the night, a father bonds with his son over rock and roll and a few mai tais.
When visiting from the Mainland the previous year, the North Shore bar provided the perfect cap to a day spent snorkeling and strolling around Ha‘ena and Hanalei.
But when the father returned a year later to again visit his son on Kaua‘i, an attempt to recreate that magic left a sour taste in their mouths — and not because their drinks were bad or the musicians out of tune.
This time, when the two departed the dive, they were hassled out the door, into the street and even as they sped away.
“Haole tourists!” a would-be hitchhiker yelled after being denied a ride to Kapa‘a. “No forget fo’ go home!”
The father did indeed go back home — in a fiery state of confusion. The lasting effect of this incident, and a growing number of similar tales we have been told over the past year, is will these victims of such senseless abuse ever want to return to the Garden Isle?
Some are chalking such verbal and physical attacks up to incensed idiots simply taking their personal frustrations — with the dire financial outlook or the dilution of Hawaiian culture in a sea of Johnny-come-latelys — out on the nearest target. Others feel they are being wrongfully blamed for the current state of affairs here.
Like it or not, Kaua‘i remains exceedingly dependent on a struggling tourism industry to drive its economy and keep its people off of the unemployment rolls and in their homes. Visitor spending and arrivals continued to drop again last month, according to numbers released Wednesday, and jobs are hard to come by.
We strongly believe the economy must become significantly more diversified and opportunities to accomplish this goal abound. But the reality of today is the visitor industry must be maintained and supported as we make this critical transition. Until we wean ourselves from mother’s milk, we are beholden to it, and we should not bite the hands that feed us.
As the county government launches a $1 million marketing campaign to lure more visitors to the island as part of a broader plan to create work for local families to survive, a minority of residents is undermining that effort by effectively encouraging some tourists to stay away.
We have all heard the stories of locals harassing visitors outside of restaurants and bars, and are all familiar with the adage that rental cars are broken into with higher frequency than local rides.
It may seem like a good idea to take what you can get from these visitors while they are here, but what do we think happens after they go home?
They share with their friends the story of their short time in paradise, and those friends use those accounts to decide if they want to dip into their own savings accounts to come out to Kaua‘i. They go on the Internet and spread the word, good and bad, about what is happening on the Garden Isle. Is our treatment of tourists helping or hurting?
When an embittered or unthinking local takes his or her frustrations out on tourists, or takes money or possessions from their cars or hotel rooms, what they are really doing is taking food off of their own family’s table. Take, take, no give, and suddenly there is nothing left.
Make no mistake. This is not about blindly heaping praise on tourists as the almighty financial resource that provides all our lives require, and it is not about accepting a life of servitude or serfdom. Instead, this boils down to treating others with the respect all of us deserve.
Why can’t we heap aloha on everyone instead of hurling insults at strangers? Why can’t we pick friends instead of fights?
When ‘Iniki struck in 1992, Kaua‘i’s people famously pulled together and provided for each other in the face of tremendous obstacles. The global financial meltdown of today is another disaster beyond our control, but we can again rely on the bonds of ‘ohana and the concept of kokua to lift us out of difficult times.
We don’t have the silver bullet remedy to immediately turn this train around; nobody does. But we can respectfully ask for your help in righting these wrongs.
Reach out to a visitor as you would your neighbor. Offer some useful information without divulging favorite local secrets. When a friend or family member treats another person — any person — harshly or unfairly, step up and tell them to knock it off. That type of regrettable behavior demeans us all.
Kaua‘i, with its storied history and multi-cultural makeup, can make this happen. Consider our visitors just another welcome patch in the island’s fabric and understand that when the seams split, as they are showing signs of doing, everything unravels.
Kaua‘i, do your part to hold this quilt together.
