living in Hawaii
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5/22/2007
I moved to Hawaii in the 80's from the east coast, left with husband and son after 10 yrs and returned 6 years later. No place is perfect but we are happy here. My husband is from Hawaii and is Asian so my son is Hapa - half white.The people in Hawaii are for the most part open, kind and careful if you are white. If you are respectful then they are open and giving. I prefer to live near Honolulu as it is an area where all the races must interact and they seems to be more open to outsiders or differences. There are people from all over the world, all sorts of things to do from the arts to sports, shopping, eating and anything a city anywhere has to offer. The people from Hawaii don't respect where they live enough, in my opinion, and think that outsiders are critical of them. I've seen tourists act like idiots and stare or treat people here with amazing rudness and that could explain it.But everyone needs to be taken on their own merit. Asians have been so rude to me it takes my breath away, but my husband and friends are Asian and so what do you do? My son was so prejudiced against on the mainland by whites, it was awful. Here the majority of people are open and kind and intellegent, it's not a race thing though, it's the mind think. My conplaint is the traffic, cost of living, education in public schools, the gov't is greedy, useless and exploitive to it's own people, the roads are third world as are the homes and areas look like ghettos selling for 7oo,ooo to a mil. Food cost is insane, job opportunity to live well here is very limited. We wish the police would focus on crime and not idiocy like jay walking or walking through parks after ten or walking dogs. The dope and crime rate is going up and they don't do enough about speeding on the highway. You can live well in Hawaii but if I could find a place elsewhere that had a better quality of life for the money with the diversity, and convince friends to come with me, I'd move in a NY minute. Hawaii is getting ready for a massive exodus. I fear the the next wave of people coming in will have even less respect for what is here culturaly then what I have witnessed in the last 20 years. Come for vacation, but go home , it's not worth the price unless you are established with friends here.
rosemary | Honolulu, HI