Column 20--Christmas Heat (part 2)

This is the twentieth column in a serialization of PACIFIC FLASH: A Year in FIJI by Gerry Takano. Copies will be available April 1, 2010. Stay tuned for more information.

Throughout my stay comparing Fiji with the drastic social, cultural and political scenes in places like contemporary Hawaii was taboo. It was best not to discuss, in any analytical and potentially cynical detail, my own biases and perspectives of Hawaii’s plunge into commercialism and post-statehood bureaucracy. Fearful that Fiji would opt for a similar path, a comparison of the two vastly different worlds was inappropriate. No one needed to envision Christmas in Hawaii as a shopping frenzy rather than a spiritual celebration as a religious moment. To state that Hawaii’s American self-confidence, individualism and middle class status were universal goals was presumptuous, smug and cocky.

The South Seas, as more worldly and confident writers like Somerset Maugham have proclaimed, was an unattainable utopian fantasy that will always remain elusive and ephemeral. Back home in Honolulu, my privileged experience to penetrate this place called Levuka would be difficult to explain. From the distance a person can also question island self-doubt, political scandals, self-righteous politicians, native sovereignty issues, growth management debates, academic disappointments in the public schools, and perhaps most meaningful, emerging doubts about Hawaii’s economic and social dependence on tourism.

When I did return my position in a Honolulu architectural firm had been terminated as the ongoing recession in Hawaii had deepened its hold on the islands. Articulating the wonders of Levuka would be difficult in the economically depressed atmosphere of Honolulu. Levuka’s understated delight in its antiquity, adherence to the British standards and the ambiance of post-colonial Fiji were of little concern to most persons unfamiliar with places beyond Hawaii.

Like Hawaii’s own past native and mixed race ancestors claimed ownership, rejected second class status and resisted non-local newcomers with dissipated passion. Levuka’s subsistence economy, without the infusion of monetary support and its obligatory remittance, may be Levuka’s fate. The town will redefine itself in its own way. While new pioneers once again arrive with frontier mercantile ideas and altruistic notions, the old timers and hardened Levukans will sit back and wait for the tropical seaport to devour any messengers of change. Another expatriate tomorrow, another dream squashed.

Gerry Takano was reared in Honolulu, Hawaii and received his architectural education and early training in upstate New York and Boston. Gerry served as Hawaii’s National Trust Advisor and State of Hawaii Commissioner of the Historic Sites Review Board.

He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can be reached at gertkno@aol