A Tide that Never Ceases

“Evil is like a shadow. It follows you.” Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing

My family and I are just back from a short trip to Honolulu to visit my mother who has lived on the island since the late 1970’s. The last time I was in Honolulu was 1984. I knew the place would be different, but the number of high-rise buildings that have sprouted up, most of them high-end condos for the global wealthy, shocked me. Local folks sure as hell can’t afford two or three million dollars for a place and exorbitant monthly or annual “association” fees.

The traffic was as bad as I remember; the aloha spirit vanishes when someone gets behind the wheel of a car in Honolulu.

Ala Moana Center, a vast shopping mall, is now full of luxury retail outfits like Gucci, Prada, Kate Spade, Mont Blanc, Jimmy Choo, and even a Tesla automobile showroom. Crazy, but this is the age we live in, a very good time to be wealthy. On Kalakaua Avenue in the heart of Waikiki the same upscale phenomenon has happened; it felt like Vegas or Beverly Hills or any other glamor place that caters to the rich, a mind-numbing sameness, no matter how glitzy.

It takes an army of workers to keep the wheels of the tourist racket going, waitresses, bartenders, front desk clerks, janitors, cooks, maids, tour guides, taxi and bus drivers, musicians, dancers, and all manner of people hawking stuff. But you can bet that few of these soldiers earn enough money to stay in the hotels or eat in the restaurants they toil in.

We stayed in a condo at the Ilikai, a property whose glory days are behind it. Not a dump by any means, but the competition nearby is newer and grander. Our condo was on the 12th floor with a fine view of the marina, Magic Island, and the bay at Ala Moana Park. All day and into the night we could see airplanes lifting off, bound for the mainland, Japan, China, Guam, and the Philippines. Day after day, people arrive on the island and people depart, a tide that never ceases.

Air travel has become tedious and uncomfortable, not to mention expensive. How long will it be before passengers are forced to pay money to use the toilet? I was stopped by the TSA in LA and again in Honolulu, my bag opened. In LA a female TSA worker removed an oversized tube of suntan lotion from my bag, and in Honolulu my MacBook Air was inspected. At least we avoided having to remove our shoes and belts.

Although we had access to TV and the Internet I avoided both for the majority of our trip, giving myself a mini-break from Trump and his heinous band of kleptocrats. Better to sit on the lanai with a bottle of beer, watching the sun dip in the sky, the waves break, and the palm trees sway. The fate of Waikiki in the face of rising sea levels crossed my mind, and the Trump gang’s determination to accelerate the impact of climate change seemed, not just stupid, but insane.

I wholeheartedly recommend the novel, Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi. It’s a brilliant novel that got deep under my skin.