Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 10, 1 October 2011 — Hawaiians, globalization and APEC [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiians, globalization and APEC

Occasionally I am inviting Hawaiian leaders to share their views. Mark Umi Perkins is a scholar and Hawaiian historv teacher at

Kamehameha Schools. His thoughtfid treatise is a weleome message. -Peter Apo By Umi Perkins n 1837 the Hawaiian scholar David Malo wrote, "large fishes will eome from the dark oeean ... they will eat us up, such

has always been the case with large countries, the small ones have been gobbled up." Malo was expressing an awareness of the colonialism of the time and Hawaiians' position in a changing world. Today, what some eall a new colonialism is proving difficult for native peoples to resist. The upcoming conference of the AsiaPacific Eeonomie Cooperation (APEC) provides an opportunity for Native Hawaiians to consider their role in the ongoing processknown as globalization. While globalization is often portrayed positively, the benefits mainly accrue to multinational corporations and large investors. The costs tend to be paid by the poor and by indigenous peoples. Even sovereign states tend to bend to the will of organizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO), whieh forward an agenda of globalization. Powerful countries like the U.S. have been forced to relax environmental and labor standards because they were judged to be barriers to trade. APEC, with 21 member countries in the Pacific and Pacific Rim, is the regional equivalent of the WTO. While it is rarely discussed, the signs of globalization in Hawai'i are all around us. Tourist dollars go to mainland- or foreign-owned companies, while we receive a trickle of this money as employees of tourismrelated businesses. Most of this ineome is spent at businesses owned by major corporations, not by Hawaiians or loeal people. Money travels through Hawai'i, not to it.

While globalization has positive effects such as increased access to information about distant countries, it is primarilv driven bv the needs

of trade. Globalization needs to be seen as an ideology and an agenda rather than an inevitable process. Its assumptions - namely that trade is the single most important factor for nations and communities - often collide with Hawaiian values. For Hawaiians, notions such as pono (righteous halanee), lōkahi (unity), and mālama 'āina (care for land and environment) do not prohibit or even discourage

trade; rather, they view it in a larger context balancing it with social and spiritual forces. So rather than directly oppose APEC and its globalist agenda, Hawaiians should engage in a discourse with policymakers over the possibility of another way of thinking about economics and trade. Thirty years ago, sustainability was not a factor in international trade. Today, it is one of the organization's central focuses. So these concerns - the heahh of our people and communities, the right to maintain traditional eeonomie practices - ean be part of the agenda, but we have to make it happen. An international group of activists, scholars and community leaders will be holding a conference called Moana Nui fromNov. 9 through 1 1 in Honolulu. At this conference some of the alternatives to the globalist agenda will be discussed. Economists like Walden Bello from the Philippines and Lori Wallaeh from the U.S., Hawaiian Studies Professor Jon K. Osorio as well as cultural practitioners from across the Pacific will consider the role of native peoples in shaping our collective eeonomie future. As a nation, Hawaiians must consider whether aspects of the past, such as our former eeonomie self-sufficiency, and our former self-governance, ean be part of this future, or whether we will allow ourselves to be "gobbled up" by the globalist agenda. For more information go to www. moananui2011.org or the Moana Nui 20 1 1 page on Facebook. ■

PetEr Apo TrustEE, O'ahu