Paradise. Waikiki, Oahu.
I’m shut up in my little box here in the sky. The island of Oahu sprawls out down below me, covered in golf courses and high rise buildings. Off in the distance we can see the mountain, with houses even up on top there. It seems nothing is safe from the creeping fingers of humanity. Tourists mill on the streets below in great droves, drinking, buying, swimming, consuming.
But do they ever see the real Hawaii? What is the real Hawaii, does it still exist? Or has it been paved over by the demands of tourism and capitalism and unchecked human growth?
Where do the cockroaches go during the day? And where do the homeless people go at night? These are questions that no tourist to the island has ever stopped to consider. They’re too busy sipping their $16 Mai Tai’s and wondering what part of “Hawaii” to experience next. Maybe they could go drop a couple grand on that killer new bag at Versace? Or stop in to the Hilton for fireworks and a culturally accurate “Luau.” Or maybe they’ll just spend the night bar hopping, because in Waikiki, there’s always a bar to go to.
Tomorrow they’ll go down to Waikiki Beach and enjoy Paradise. Laying in the hot sun that bakes you crisp in 10 minutes, getting sand kicked on their towels by the hundreds of tourists plowing by on the same beach. Or maybe they’ll enjoy forking over some cash to one of the many “umbrella and beach chair” rackets allowed to operate and reserve space on what is ostensibly a public beach. Then they can watch the hundreds of tourists frolicking in the water, most of them Asian and obsessed with nothing so much as capturing the perfect “Instagram-worthy” selfy on their cell phones.
For lunch they’ll head into town, along with thousands of other tourists, and pay too much for mediocre food. But hey, you’re in Paradise, right? This is all Paradise, or at least that’s what the travel brochures tell you. So why not enjoy the beach along with hundreds of strangers, hawkers, and homeless people?
And if you stay out late drinking watery $16 cocktails, don’t forget to watch out for the cockroaches that dine out nightly on the never-ending supply of garbage on Waikiki’s streets. Because hey, this is Paradise.
~This piece is a commentary on the sheep-like attitude of humans to believe and internalize what marketing tells them, no matter the reality.~