Int’l Migrants Day 352 of 2007 13 days left in this year

HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY —
“Lahaina is like a large house shaded by breadfruit trees.”

December 18th, 1846: Lahaina is closing its busiest whaling year ever (before or since),  servicing an estimated 600 whaling vessels. The industry had many influences on the Hawaiian  Islands, two being most prevalent.

Whaling captains used Lahaina as a source of labor, hiring local men to load and unload ships, and to become crew. Hawaiians — along with most Pacific Islanders — were known as kanakas when  they became crewmembers. The money these kanakas spent on themselves, as well as the money the  ships spent, became the driving force in the Lahaina economy for more than six decades.

This economic engine brought the second and most damaging influence: the decimation of local  character, culture and beauty. One newspaperman visiting from San Francisco wrote, “The truth is the whole Hawaiian nation is rotten with licentiousness now. Men hire out their wives  and daughters without the least scruple, for the sake of money…. In Lahaina during the whaling  seasons there are upwards of 400 instances of intercourse with sailors daily. One Lahaina  establishment is a perfect sink of iniquity…dancing naked girls for the entertainment of the customers and the whalemen.”

Eighteenth century historian Ernest Dodge wrote of this time that “the whaling element was disastrous for the native population, with sexually transmitted diseases, liquor, and a myriad other foreign influences decimating the local culture with increasing rapidity.” Mr. Dodge should visit today if he wants to see decimation, this time by the hands of developers.