I have been here for a while now. I have no intention of leaving and am from California. I have made friends with many locals, even the Kanaka ones and yet...I always see so many other haole mahalinis talking about leaving.why? why do they always end up leaving? also..are there any Haoles/Mahalinis who like it here like I do and made local friends?
There are several reasons. One is the cost of living here. It s freakin expensive and jobs don t pay that much, therefore many people struggle. You can live comfortably on a certain amount of income on the mainland, but that same income here will barely get you by. People need to decide if warm weather and beautiful beaches are worth the day-to-day struggles of just living. Another reason is the culture shock. Living in Hawaii is as close to living in a foreign country that you can get without actually living in a foreign country. Lots of mainlander haoles just can t get comfortable with being a minority here or having to put up with the racial tensions between them and the locals. Even wealthy people will leave because of this.Another reason is the so-called rock fever . I never suffered from it but know of many who have. Hawaii has over 2,000 miles of ocean between it and the mainland, so you can t just jump in your car and take a weekend road trip or go visit family. Also traveling to and from the mainland is expensive, so some people will do it less which causes them to miss their families more and more.I guess you could add the tourism issue that another person mentioned. It kind of bugged me at first but I got over it quick. Actually, I like the tourists because hot chicks spend weeks getting into bikini shape and show up looking their best!!
There are different reasons. Sarah Palin, as her daddy implied because of difficulty in adjusting to a multi ethnic others. Others because of the high cost of living and the mistaken impression that they can become millionaires, Others because they see Hawaii as so far away, and have a feeling that they will be too far away from their friends and. relatives. However most likely they are the exception to the rule. You are happy there, Obama and his family were too. Haoles have made it in politics to. Neal Abercrombie is a progressive Congressman. Frank Fasi, although a terrible reactionary was mayor of Honolulu , while Linda Lingle, also a disaster is Governor. In the old days there were many progressive Haoles in the ILWU, together with Harry Bridges, fighting for workers rights. Of course they were red baited and persecuted. So I imagine those that don t like it should leave, better for them and Hawaii. But Lingle should leave with them
Aside from those who are military and rotate out in a few years, many people from the Mainland get tired of living on a tiny island that s terribly expensive. My Dad was in the Navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbor; Mom didn t like it here at first. She had a hard time with the various languages and accents and it was weird to be a minority. After a while, though, it grew on her. Dad was never transferred out of Pearl, lucky for my brother and I who were born and raised here, and now he s retired. They bought the house we grew up in, down in Halawa Valley, and it s been about 35 years since they called Hawaii home. I went through a phase where I wanted to get off of my little rock. I grew out of it but I can see why people who didn t grow up here would feel isolated.
because of all the tourism. imagine living on top of the statue of liberty or in the middle of disneyland. seems like a fun place to live, but eventually you would get tired of all the snobbish tourists.
You simply had no intention - get out of here...
Some good reasons have already been listed. I d like to add that I think the thought of living in Hawaii is kind of like a bucket list for some people. They just have to live there, but they don t really wager for how long. So they get there and it s beautiful and everything is just how it s described (because Hawaii is described as expensive just as much as it is magnificent) and then after about a year, they re completely broke and tired and hot, and they miss some of the conveniences of living mainland. But remember I said they don t think about how long they re going to stay in the first place, so it s not like they only plan on living in paradise for a year or two, they are just as likely to figure that they ll get attached and stay forever. But they still accomplished that goal. It s like this for a lot of places, it happens in New York City all the time. And Europe, people like to pick a spot in Europe to stay, then miss American (or wherever they re from) customs and go home after they feel like they ve gotten their fill of another culture.Plus there are a lot of things mainlanders aren t used to in Hawaii. VOG like I mentioned in another question. Then there s the constant heat (live in a hot place long enough and you d pay a month s rent for a breeze), stepping on sea urchins in the water and other surfing injuries, barely eating because fresh food is so expensive. It s not that they don t like it there, it s just that you can t change where you re from. If a native Hawaiian moved to the mainland I m sure they d quickly understand the feeling.