Dubai Port. ©Simba Russeau

Are you using your words to kill or heal?

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of discovering a new eBook titled Building An Empire with Words. The author, Paul Jun, offers the reader an opportunity to visualise how we create our daily empire or lives with words.

The power of the spoken word has the potential to change the flow of everything. You possess this voice, this power. You are more than capable of inspiring, motivating and changing the world around you. It comes from within; use the facts, your drive, your love, to fuel your words to stimulate you and those around you. It can happen anywhere.

You have a choice to say something significant, worthwhile, and remarkable. You have a choice to wake up and say that today will be a great day; those words will set forth a chain of favourable energy, it’s your job to follow through with action.

As directors of our own film, every day – whether consciously or subconsciously – we create our own reality. Words can be like a double-edged sword piercing through the heart of an individual. They can also be a way of healing ourselves and those around us.

I highly recommend this book for the life journalist. I’m honoured that he agreed to take some time to speak with me.

In this interview Paul:

• shares his views on human rights
•  gives us a play by play of his daily writing ritual
•  share the concept behind his new ebook
•  talks about the power of words
•  explains his motivation in creating Motivated Mastery
•  tell us about understanding free will

I hope Paul’s insights and words will inspire you. So sit back and enjoy!

Inspiration behind Building An Empire with Words

The title was something I had written down on a post-it — it just came and hit me one day and I fell in love with it. Then the idea manifested when I woke up one day and started typing away on the importance of words and how they possess the ability to reshape our reality — because ultimately, our words matter.

Yes, an empire does sound like a business — like Apple or Google would be an empire — but in this case, the empire can be anything you desire. It can be intangible, something you build within yourself. I felt that making the empire an entity would allow the reader to understand and feel what it is they’re trying to build.

Or, you can physically build an empire where the foundation starts with what you’re saying, as well as how you’re saying it. A business can have a product, but image if there were no words used to promote or market it — even a few words can make all the difference.

Think of anything from advertising to a blog post. It consists of words, and whether they’re the right words or not determines what the person is going to feel. Sure, there are other things to consider, but words are such a fundamental building block that sometimes we forget how powerful they really are.

I wanted to bring that back with this book.

I also felt obligated to write this because I started using different words in my life to alter the outcome, and yes, it worked; I became more mindful of my actions, I developed better habits, I set foot on a path that was unforeseen, and if it wasn’t for staying positive and reminding myself to stay focused, then I would not be here.

How can we harness the power of words?

By being aware of what you’re saying as well as how you’re saying it. If you consistently wake up and say “My life sucks,” well, then, don’t be shocked by the results. What we say out loud and what we say to ourselves in our mind influences many actions and decisions.

We harness it by exercising mindful, positive words. Not squander it and allowing our negative emotions to influence how we speak or how we act. I did this for too long, and it did nothing but yield horrible results.

The moment I became aware of what my words were doing, I steadily developed the habit. Yes, there will be times when you lose awareness, but the point is to catch yourself, breathe, think, and act in a different manner. Don’t treat mistakes as fatal.

Human rights is a choice

The way I would define it would be that everyone, regardless of your strengths and weaknesses, your infirmities or blessings, you always have a choice to do what you want.

Yes, some people live in an environment where they are not able to speak freely or practice what they believe in openly, but it’s every person’s choice to work around that.

Abiding to ruthless power is a choice. Standing up and fighting for what you believe in is a choice. Our lives are filled with choices, and yes they do have consequences and create a result, but as humans that’s something we must live with.

Creating the Motivated Mastery blog

My last blog went through many changes and the title wasn’t clear on my purpose. Creating Motivated Mastery was a fresh start for what I wanted to accomplish, and that is to get people to regain self-awareness, to be a better person, and to be more mindful.

I want to challenge my readers and share with them what I have learned — and continuing to learn — throughout my journey. I want to inspire them to be true to themselves, to achieve their goals or missions, and overall to be a good person — we need more of that in this world.

I’m a writer and in order to get this buzzing out of my head I have to write. Also, by writing about topics that many people don’t, it also attributes to my growth as a human being.

I have this way of thinking where people live their life as if they are on an assembly line in some factory. They watch their life pass them by and they never get to pause and breathe — not for one second. I lived like that my whole life. I had no control because I wasn’t aware of my actions and mindsets. When I finally took back control, in just one year I did things I never could have imagined.

This is, literally, just the beginning for me.

I want to inspire people to get off that assembly line and to be more aware of themselves as well as their surroundings.

Understanding your free will

There will always be extraneous forces that tell you you can’t do something, or that you aren’t good enough. Unfortunately, many people don’t understand the intrinsic power of free will, so they make the choice to accept what they hear, then they act on it, and live it.

This habit continues until one day you realize that you are good enough, and then you are faced with another choice: keep doing what you’re doing or be willing to unlearn what you know.

Of course, the latter is extremely hard to do.

Imagine living your whole life thinking one way, but then one day you’re aware of what’s happening and realize that this isn’t the only game you have to play?

That’s a big shock to some, and unfortunately some people neglect it and see it as crazy, while others dare to push themselves and see life in a whole new perspective.

The art of maintaing an authentic self

Staying focused on what’s most relevant to myself and my goals.

Everyone lives with a innumerable amount of distractions, and some continue to live with these distractions, thinking that it’ll go away some day.

Some steps I had to take were simple: waking up early, developing the habit of writing and reading daily, and not spending so much time out as I used to.

Everyday is progress and that’s how I look at it.

It doesn’t matter if I wrote 5,000 words or 500. It matters that I woke up, I’m breathing and well, and I’m able to pursue my dreams.

For me, it was staying true to myself and what I wanted to get accomplished.

If it meant for me to be a better person, I would always try to catch myself when I acted out of anger or frustration. Also, I look at it as there isn’t any other way; if I don’t write, if I don’t attain knowledge and challenge myself, then I’m hurting myself more than anyone else.

I was sick of how I was living, so I made the choice to do something about it. I was never a writer to begin with, but it always amazed me what storytelling and words could do to people, so I decided to teach myself everything there is about the craft. And now, here I am.

A day in the life of a writer

Yes, I’m living now as a writer. I don’t make a crazy living — not yet, but right now I’m not worried about that, I know it’ll come when it needs to. As long as I have a place to write, some good music, and tea or coffee, then I’m okay; I’m also very blessed to have supportive parents.

It took me a while to get comfortable with my writing. For almost a year my writing was awful, and at times I was ashamed and worried about what others thought. Then I became aware of how that mindset wasn’t doing anything beneficial for me — in fact, it was irrelevant, a mere distraction to make me lose focus on what’s most important.

When I write, it’s because I think of new ideas and blog posts to share with my audience — sometimes I wake up with a blog post flowing through my head.

Here’s my writing process: I wake up and usually go to the gym right away. When I get back I eat, sit in silence for a few minutes to just think, and then I open my laptop and begin my day. I write for as long as I can, with Jazz or Classical on low, and usually tea or coffee by my side. I stop writing when my mind, literally, feels depleted; I start misspelling words, my structure is all jumbled, and I can feel my body punching me, telling me to take a break. After that I spend the rest of the day reading and studying or catching up with people or tasks.

I don’t hit publish right away. I usually spend a day or two editing because I want to be sure that what I’m saying is delivering value and challenging my readers.

I don’t know who said it, but the quote goes, “Most of writing is rewriting.”

That perfectly describes my methodology.

Paul Jun blogs at Motivated Mastery where he delivers daily tips about understanding your free will. Follow him on Twitter or on Google+ And don’t forget to check out his eBook Building An Empire with Words.

Time to build your empire

Harnessing the effectiveness of words will change your life, relationships, attitudes and actions. Start today. Right now. This is your world, your empire, your life. Words are being thrown around everyday without consideration – be the person who uses his or her words wisely, to make a difference, shock and awe, and to build your empire the way you desire. – Paul Jun

So there you are. You’ve just been schooled.

Now take action. We were all sent here for a purpose. Be relentless in your pursuit of investigating and unleashing your authentic self. Be a journalist of life!

What empire will you build today?

Please share this with your community. The tools are below.

Bicycles for Hire. Jakarta, Indonesia. Image credit: moriza

Tomorrow’s a big day. I have to appear in housing court. It’s the last in a series that will hopefully end with me winning my court case.

Right now, it’s about 1 a.m. and I’m riding my bike from downtown to Harlem. Suddenly, all shit hits the fan. Then tragedy strikes.

How relentless are you?

Last night I was reading a compelling post by Paul Jun where he asks the reader, “what excuse will you use today?” In it, he tells an interesting story about a time when Teddy Roosevelt delivered a speech after being popped at close range.

Let me be honest, I don’t know much about who Roosevelt is but the way in which Paul dished it hit a nerve. It brought back memories of how important it is to stay in your zone.

Are you being relentless in your pursuit of claiming your rights as a human on this earth? Is peer pressure more important than being true to your authentic self?

Human rights defenders are my superheroes

As a journalist, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many human rights activists and local journalists from around the world. They remain courageous despite the possibility of facing torture, death, imprisonment or even exile.

What keeps them going is their relentless desire for change.

Here’s the secret, no one can put out your fire. It’s controlled by your free will. Many will try but only you have the captain’s seat when it comes to extinguishing the flames.

Those who wish to stop you will try and control you by putting you in fear. Just as fear keeps you from uncovering your own truths, being that light that shines brighter than any other light or having the guts to say what everyone is afraid to. Better yet, fear keeps you from taking the loners route. On this path, you’re not interested in looking, acting or being like everyone else.

No, you have a unique story to tell and you have made a decision to tell it in your own authentic way. Stay relentless, stay true.

Gracefully intercepting life’s challenges

Now back to the story that I opened this post with.

In my relentless pursuit to empower myself by taking the management company and the landlord to court for failing to maintain the first flat I moved into after seven years of living on the street, life presented me with a test.

That night while riding my bike, I had a head-on collision with a taxi.

The traffic lights changed suddenly as I was making my way through. A line of cars that were, at one moment, part of a still image had abruptly turned into a burst of energy.

I flew two blocks, rolled out and quickly got up. The adrenaline of appearing in court in my relentless pursuit of demanding my rights was more important than pain.

The next day, I was full of bruises and few broken parts. Nevertheless, I hopped to the courthouse. Several months later, I won my case.

“Like water, sparring should be formless. Pour water into a cup, it becomes part of the cup. Pour it into a bottle; it becomes part of the bottle. Try to kick or punch it, it is resilient; clutch it and it will yield without hesitation. In fact, it will escape as pressure is being applied to it. How true it is that nothingness cannot be confined. The softest thing cannot be snapped.” – Bruce Lee

Around the world, there are countless numbers of superheroes who continue to rise in the face of fear. Many languish in prisons for indefinite amounts of time but even that doesn’t stop them.

Some opt to engage in hunger strikes as a last appeal. But what makes them so great is that they know what they were sent to this earth to do. Their purpose was to make ruckus so that others can enjoy freedom.

They’ve become masters in the way of the intercepting fist. Despite being confined to a cell their spirits remain resilient.

Are you willing to make ruckus for your freedom even if it means fighting to the death?

I love that the earth has given me a place to live. 

I love that nature provides without selfishness.

I love that my life can be used as an instrument of change.

I love that the wind decides my next destination.

I love this journey.

The above is a quick collection of my thoughts. As a traveller in the journey of life, I have experimented with various ways of making prayer to the divine.

Unlike traditional routes, I don’t deliver a long list of demands. Instead, I approach each day with an offering to those who continue to clear my path.

For instance, during the times of homelessness whenever I was in a location where mountains existed I set out to make a conscious offering each day. Mountains represented obstacles. And for me, these were obstacles that I would tackle later on as well as the immediate desire of overcoming life on the streets.

This is was my prayer, offering, ritual or whatever you wish to call it. Upon reaching the mountain’s peak, I would sit in silent communication with that mountain to soak in and release my offering into the wind.

Actually, as I think back on those moments I’m able to fully appreciate the time, patience and hard work one has to endure in order to reach one’s goals.

Conquering mountains are a beautiful thing, able to finally see what you’re made of.

The Power of Life’s Symbols

Everyone’s heard the saying: if you build it, they will come. Well, it’s true.

When I was learning photography from my good friend Isak Tiner, we used to do a lot of construction. Another nifty skill I snagged while developing my internal lens.

Anyways, I remember that he used to always say that when we built different elements of his photography studio he was making a conscious prayer of what he wished to manifest in the material world.

Instead of begging, he was doing.

Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din in his Book of Certainty, explains this as an act of remembrance:

It has already been mentioned that the outer world of earthly existence corresponds in all its details to the inner world of man’s soul, and that there is a similar correspondence between the Garden of the Heart and the Garden of the Soul; but these are only two particular instances of the general truth that all the different domains in the Universe correspond to each other in that each is an image of the Universe itself.

The ancient sciences sprung from a knowledge of these correspondences, which was one of man’s original endowments. For example, the sciences of medicine were based on a knowledge of the correspondences or likeness between the domain of the body and other earthly domains such as those of plants and minerals.

Like the relationship between the heart and soul, a symbol is something in a lower known or wanted domain which the traveler considers not only for its own sake but also and above all in order to have an intuitive glimpse of the ‘universal and strange’ reality which corresponds to it in each of the hidden higher domains.

Symbols are in fact none other than the illusory perfection of creation which have already been referred to as being guides and incentives to the traveler upon their journey, and they have power to remind him of their counterparts in higher world in the way that a shadow is related to the object which casts it.

Basically, when we ritualise our daily acts we empower ourselves to become co-creators of our lives rather than waiting or begging. A good example would be when I implemented a feng shui cure for love.

Instead of just moving or placing an object, I also challenged societies stereotypes of what true love is. The act of dating myself became the ritual. Symbolising the relationship that I would ultimately like to manifest. In terms of investigative journalism, this was hard-hitting reporting at its best because I uncovered hidden gems of my authentic self.

However, to find out if this works for you means that you have become a journalist of life and investigate. Step into life’s alchemical lab and experiment.

Try incorporating daily rituals such as these into your daily cycle. At the end of each day, come home and reflect on the day’s activities. Establish your own symbols. Keep a journal. Maintain a running tab of your results. Most importantly, have fun.

Life is your gift, don’t waste it!

By the way, conquering those mountains have definitely served me well.

Image Credit: Eddi van W.

Are you clinging to negative stories of yourself? Have you allowed a single story to dictate your character? Do you feel robbed of your unique story?

We live in a world full of storytellers. For many, the best and most memorable storytellers were our elders. They used stories to convey wisdom.

Today, the world has been invaded by a colonial storyteller known as mainstream media. This storyteller has managed to shape our minds, our hatred and our dreams.

Instead of encountering each new individual as an opportunity to learn and share, we allow our preconceived stereotypes to dictate our conversations or lack there of.

Every individual is like a tree. Unfortunately we’ve become to lazy to take the time and climb. Instead we just rest down below while clinging to our negative stereotypes.

How the single story keeps you hostage

Just as we cling to stereotypes about the other, we also embrace negative stories about ourselves.

At a very early age your fragile mind was brainwashed. You were fed ideas, beliefs and other lies that comprise your present day story.

For instance, I was always told that I was lazy. To this day, I still battle that myth. To the point, that it took me hostage.

A single story that was untrue. Used as a weapon by someone who was robbed of their story.

Their ability to rob me worked for a while, but fortunately I was able to hit the reset button and create a new script.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the courage to become the author.

The dangers of a single story

Several days ago, I stumbled upon this compelling talk by novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her powerful insight made me think about my work as a storyteller.

Although her discussion was about cultural stereotyping, it sparked an internal conversation about how our current character is based upon a single story. Many of these stories are from childhood and are no longer true. However, the brainwashing has forced many into a life of fear.

Here a some of the most important points that I took from the talk:

• How impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, especially as children.
• Show a people as one thing over and over again and that is what they become.
• Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person but to make it the definitive story of that person.
• The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity. It make our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.
• Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign but stories can also be used to empower and humanise. Stories can break and repair dignity.
• When we reject the single story. When we realise that there’s never a single story about any one place we regain a kind of paradise.

Change the game by re-writing your story

Are you serious about your transformation? If so, then it entails taking responsibility for your life and re-writing the story that defines who you are today. Because yesterday has passed.

This is the real work. It’s hard work. At times it can be lonely. Others will not agree with you and will try to dissuade you. Distract from your path. This is because they want to rob you of your dignity. Your right to be human. Your right to regain a kind of paradise.

Every day, survival has forced me to write my story. I started homeless, so the transformation was abrupt. But even after getting off the streets, I kept writing my book. The book of life is never ending.

For example, I once had a crazy idea that I wanted to be a Muay Thai fighter. So I trained. According to traditional standards of when most fighters start, I was too old.

Fuck it. I didn’t care. Sure, I had fear. I have fear every day. Conquering those fears allows me to accomplish small goals on a daily basis.

I worked a couple of part-time jobs on the side to pay for classes. When I didn’t have money, I would offer to do work-study. As for paying the rent for my flat, sometimes I fell short but I was able to compensate by utilizing my construction skills to renovate the building in exchange.

Basically, I created a way.

In the end, I never became a muay thai fighter. However, the training allowed me to release a lot of internal anger and rekindled my spirit’s fire. It also opened my eyes to another part of my life’s story.

That life was training me to be a fighter. There was pain, blood and scars. But I kept stepping into the ring of life. Absorbing the punches and rising up like a warrior. With each blow, I toughened up. With other people’s bricks, I built an even stronger foundation.

Your struggle may be different. Be true to your own process of transformation. Establish your own pace.

Fear allows you to keep telling yourself the wrong story. But the more you persevere, the more you will be able to reject that single story and create many new ones.

I’ve been expanding my horizons in recent months. Checking out different types of content available on the blogosphere.

This is mainly due to having established this blog, initially, as a placeholder for articles published on international news media sites. Several months ago, I started researching pro bloggers and how they’re using their sites and it stirred some ruckus in me.

I’ve always known about blogging but never really attempted to try it. I interviewed many bloggers in Lebanon. These were truly inspirational individuals who literally started blogs that matter. For them, this platform offered a citizen’s journal of life under occupation and war.

Each one had their own special way of conveying their message. But the ripples were definitely felt.

In some ways, I wish that I knew about blogging when I first got off the streets. It might have displayed some interesting memories that remain in my soul’s blog.

Anyways, during my search I have found some interesting and creative individuals who are inspiring me in a different way. One such blog is Brain Pickings.

I love this site! In a recent post, the author introduced author and artist Austin Kleon whose new book Steal Like an Artist has been turning some heads with his advice on unlocking creativity.

Steal from many in true artistic fashion. This reminded me of Jeet Kune Do, which was created by Bruce Lee. He, like a true artist of life, experimented with several different fighting techniques to create his own way.

Here are the ten commandments of the steal like an artist manifesto:

Well in keeping with truth number six, I would like to share more of Austin’s work!

Enjoy the images from the book!

This is Austin’s take on doing what you love:

Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use — do the work you want to see done.

In a nutshell, this concept refers to every aspect of your life. Become the individual, lover or friend that you wish to be around. Our life is a big canvas waiting to be created. Unleash your creativity into the world and be the change that you wish to see!

If you’ve just tuned in and missed part one of this compelling interview with Hawaiian filmmaker, Anne Keala Kelly – then go check it out.

In the second installation of our two-part series Keala:

• shares how Hawaiians have lost their spiritual center
•  talks about desecration of the land
•  offers her opinion of what we can do
•  briefly touches on how poverty kills resistance

Enjoy!

Exploiting natural resources is part of the ongoing genocide

Our natural resources are exploited in every conceivable way. Water is diverted from farming to golf courses and condos and hotels.

Our land is tortured and used to death by the military industry… 60 % of what the military uses right now in Hawai’i is on the most contested land in the archipelago, the Crown and Government land of the Hawaiian Kingdom, referred to as “ceded land.” But it’s land that was never ceded… it’s land that was illegally taken and is illegally and immorally occupied by the U.S. military.

Another issue is with regard to land is desecration.

Our people’s bones are buried throughout this place and our sacred sites are everywhere as well. The practices here is removing our ancestors and bulldoze the sites to make way for foreigners.

It’s part of the ongoing genocide in Hawaii. Cultural genocide and spiritual genocide of Hawaiians, nobody else, just us Hawaiians.

And the GMO industry here… we have the largest concentration of open field genetically modified organism test sites in the world.

While we have more endangered species habitat per square mile than any other place on earth, we have the largest military command on earth to go with it.

So our natural resources are being used to manifest the most unnatural things imaginable: food that cannot be eaten and the practice of murdering people and dominating the world through the U.S. military.

And just a quick note on resources: water and land are finite. To waste it on polluting industries that can’t feed us, and only destroy what we need to survive here is evil.

But it’s business as usual here.

Our land can grow whatever we plant in it. Instead of living off the land, about 98% or more of what people consume here in Hawai’i is shipped in from the continent. So the way natural resources are used here is insane, economically and otherwise.

Poverty has taken its toll on Hawaiians

As the economy gets worse and worse, yes, the homeless population grows. There are lots of people out there who are not Hawaiian, but about 70% or more are Hawaiian.

It’s an ongoing problem because a) our disappearance or assimilation, which is the same thing, is the U.S. agenda here, and b) poverty is a powerful tool for removing a people from their land. It keeps them from political action because they are too busy trying to survive.

The homeless woman you see in the trailer is Annie Pau. She was a friend, and I say was because she died this past August. Poverty probably shortened her life by 20 years or more.

Destroying our roots has caused spiritual damage

This is a tough one for me right now because I see so little resistance these days. I see fear and assimilation and I see Hawaiian gatekeepers, mainly from the academic industrial complex and non-profit industrial complex.

I see Hawaiians selling us all out for their individual middle class lives and personal gain. There is more energy put into containing the movement than there is into growing it.

It’s disappointing and depressing to see how many excuses Hawaiians come up with for not resisting. Whereas just a few years ago when I was reporting regularly and filming “Noho Hewa” resistance was everywhere.

Now there are more Hawaiian gatekeepers than there are gates to go around.

So I don’t know what to say about the status of the movement or resistance. To me, if a movement is co-opted by the academic industrial complex that means it’s not in the streets and if it’s not in the streets it’s reduced to intellectual arguments.

I have come to see the dozens of panel discussions that go on, many of which I have participated in over the past decade, as a way of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Hawaiians these days are far more comfortable not taking on their oppressor in any serious way.

It’s sad to say this to you, Simba, because I did so much reporting on the movement when you were at FSRN. And it was hopeful then.

As I always believe, forcing people of the earth to live in an un-natural concrete jungle destroys roots.

In what ways has militarism, tourism and the influx of Americans (traditionally colonialists from Europe) affected Hawaiian roots?

In every way I’ve mentioned and more.

Of course, it’s easy to talk about the “issues” and point to the evil capitalist empire (!) and say “bad white people” and “bad Asian settler people” and so on.

But the real damage, the most costly and the one that has to be addressed if we are going to survive, is the spiritual damage.

When you destroy a people’s land and force them to assimilate and erase their knowledge, they lose their spiritual center.

Hawaiian world, Hawaii itself… the spirit of the place can still be felt.

Personally, I have had more “spiritual” experiences in Hawai’i than I can number. And I believe every single one of them is ancestral, something genealogical being transmitted.

I can also say there are places I can’t go anymore, like Kona. That’s where my genealogy is from, where most of my relatives still live. But over the past five years the desecration of that place has become so pervasive that I physically, emotionally and psychologically can’t bear to be there.

Until then, Kona… it was my homeland, it was like my true north on a compass.

Now it’s rare that I am in Kona for more than an hour or just to pass through.

This is not an easy thing to say, but it’s true to say that a place can be desecrated to a point where the sacred ceases to exist there. That’s what has happened in Kona, although there are still sacred sites and Hawaiians are still there, such terrible things have happened there for so long that it’s spiritually has taken a huge toll.

I don’t know how to measure that cost. It is generational, this spiritual damage.

Hawai’i… the largest export from the land of “aloha” is death, murder and destruction of nature.

Before the U.S. performs war on other countries it practices it here and destroys our land first, kills our way of life, which makes sustaining life here impossible. As Monsanto and Syngenta and other GMO giants develop their industry of dead food, they kill our land and use our water to do it.

It’s no accident that the Kaneohe Marine Corps Base is in a place called Mokapu. That place was sacred, and it is featured in “Noho Hewa” as the site of the largest ongoing desecration in Hawai’i. Thousands of Hawaiians have been dug up, their bones sitting in boxes in the Bishop Museum.

How’s that for insanity, necrophilia, and genocide?

And in place of those burials, murder is practiced. And those marines get on planes and ships and they take what they learned in this desecrated place to other countries and practice what they learned on the burial grounds of my ancestors.

When Hawaiians are taken out of the ground, when we cannot grow the food that makes us healthy, our roots, and our literal proof of our belonging to this place, of our being of this place is eviscerated.

How can we continue raising awareness about the ongoing indigenous struggle?

That’s the question, what can we do? We can do what we can do… we can do what you do with this blog and your reporting.

We can do what I do with filmmaking and speaking out. There’s no shortage of ways to communicate these days, right?

But the most challenging part of raising awareness is to do it in a way that makes people understand their responsibility and that they have a role to play in life, in history, as part of humanity.

And that everyone’s participation is necessary if we are going to change the direction we are headed in as a species.

I am reminded of something I saw about 6 or 7 years ago when I was at the beginning stages of shooting “Noho Hewa.” I had just gotten back from Maui and while there I had filmed Kaleikoa Kaeo. He is a very powerful speaker and super knowledgeable on Hawaiian history, language, culture and politics.

So a week or so after I shot all this footage of him, I was online checking out a BBC story about how mining is forcing Bushman of the Kalahari out of their homeland, even forcing them out of the reservations they have been forced to live on. Because mining interests are rich and powerful and they want what they want, right? Even if it costs the future of a people.

So I’m watching this program and I see this man in his 30s, and he’s wearing a t-shirt and shorts and sneakers and I’m thinking (with my colonised mind!) wow, so that’s what a Bushman looks like?

I guess I expected he’d be wearing traditional garb, probably the way people expect to see Hawaiian men wearing malo (loin cloth).

And as I was observing my own ridiculous thoughts, acknowledging the degree to which I have been conditioned to expect certain ideas, the man spoke about how his people are being forced out of their homeland.

He talked about how foreign interests are determining their future. He talked about how his people need to have access to their land, their natural resources to survive.

Simba, he literally spoke in a way and about the same issues Kaleikoa had spoken of just the week before. I almost fell out of my chair. He was literally the Bushman equivalent of Kaleikoa, only he was talking about a mining company and Kaleikoa was talking about the military industry.

But other than that, these two men, approximately the same age, were saying the exact same thing, only one was in Africa and one was in Hawai’i.

When it comes to indigenous issues, we may have slightly different variations on the colonial experience, but our issues are identical.

The last thing I’d like to say on this matter of “raising awareness” is that among ourselves as indigenous, we have to be willing to raise our own awareness.

We need to be aware of who among us is selling us out and refuse to go along with it. We need to be brave enough to speak the truth even if the first people we need to speak it to are our own people. It’s hard to accept the betrayal of our own kind, but harder still to bear the oppression those among us are so willing to burden us with.

We don’t stand a chance of surviving if we can’t be honest with each other and ourselves first.

Here’s a little extra that we left out

There’s more of Keala! If you head over to Taste Culture you’ll get more of Keala speaking about how the U.S. occupation impacts Indigenous Hawaiian culture. In this part of the interview she reveals how language and cultural practices were, and continue to be, taken from the people.

Interesting facts you should know about the U.S. military in Hawai’i:

• Hawai’i is one of the most militarized groups of islands in the world.
• The U.S. military controls over 20% of all land in the Hawaiian Island chain.
• The U.S. Army secretly tested chemical, biological and deadly nerve gas agents in forest reserve areas of Hawai’i.
• The U.S. military population makes up over 11% of the state of Hawai’i, as opposed to less than 1% of the U.S. population.
• Currently 7.1 million live rounds of various weapons are fired annually on sacred Hawaiian lands

Noho Hewa: The wrongful occupation of Hawai’i

Hawaiian filmmaker, Anne Keala Kelly’s Noho Hewa (Noho means ‘to occupy’ and Hewa means ‘wrong’) was named best documentary at the Hawai’i International Film Festival and was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Pacific International Documentary Film Festival.

The film offers a contemporary look at Hawaiian people, politics and resistance against U.S. laws and militarism that continues to erase their history.

As a journalist, Keala has used various multimedia platforms to
bring the voice of indigenous peoples and environmental issues to a global audience.

During my time as a news producer for Free Speech Radio News (FSRN), I had the pleasure of working with this amazing spiritual ruckus maker.

This is a rather long interview. So, I have made it into a two-part series. Grab a cup of cafe or tea and sit back as Keala drops the 411!

Keep an open mind. Knowledge is power. Enjoy!

The reality of colonisation

The history of slavery in Jamaica is so contrary to the vacation mentality people have about Jamaica. And that history isn’t so long ago.

People there are still dealing with slavery’s legacy, as are Haitians, right?

I mean the earthquake in Haiti crippled that country but it was crippled by its insane debt to France, right?

For over a hundred years they were forced to pay restitution to the slave masters they liberated themselves from in a “pay or perish” deal they made with France and they’ve never recovered from the forced impoverishment the colonial masters constructed for them. Their poverty, like that of any people that resisted colonisation, has been passed down generation to generation.

The fantasy of Jamaica is grotesque when you think of what’s really gone on there, and that fantasy/vacation industry is modeled after what has been done to Hawai’i.

Hawai’i is ground zero for the American fantasy of paradise. Jamaica is essentially ground zero for slavery in conjunction with genocide in the western hemisphere… the essential tools white people employed to “build America.”

Same thing in Hawai’i, sans the slavery. Our end of the colonial project has manifested differently.

That’s the thing about white supremacy: it doesn’t mind morphing into different forms of genocide to accomplish its goal, or waiting a couple of centuries for the outcome.

The plantation system here in Hawai’i used impoverished Asian immigrants to build the wealth of the handful of white plantation owners, missionary descendants from America. And they did it with Hawaiian land that, like that of the natives on the continent, was stolen and or cheated out of native hands over the course of less than a hundred years.

And then the Asian immigrant population established itself as the middle class settler population alongside the haole (white) settlers and today these two settler groups have all the power in Hawai’i.

Hawaiians have always been here

In brief (!) white anthropologists say Hawaiians have only been here 2,000 years. Some say we’ve only been here 700 years. Some say there were only 400,000 Hawaiians living in Hawai’i when Captain Cook got lost and ended up here; a white scholar named David Stannard wrote an interesting (very short) book called “Before the Horror” that argues that there were more like a million Hawaiians living in Hawaii when Cook showed up.

But this place is so small… it is the most “isolated” archipelago on earth, but I say that in scare quotes because to say it’s isolated is to look at it from the outside in.

Still, even if the number is somewhere between 400,000 and a million Hawaiians, the population of Hawai’i right now is only about 1.3 million if you count the constant flow of tourists and the military people stationed here.

So even if for argument’s sake there were between 400,000 and one million Hawaiians here before whitey showed up, think about it!

That’s a population of incredibly healthy, strong people… Hawaiian men who were seven feet and taller was common, and women were large as well. And they lived here without any of the so-called modern infrastructures we are burdened by today, no roads, no electricity, no cars…. Just living natural, farming the land and the sea… living and sometimes warring amongst themselves, not that different than any of the peoples of the world.

So the reality of Hawai’i before Europeans and Americans showed up was that it was the homeland to countless millions of people throughout the millennia. And as for the 2,000-year mark anthropologists give, my grandmother said Hawaiians have always been here and I believe her! We have our creation stories, referred to as “The Kumulipo.” There is more than one version of this, but The Kumulipo tells the story of the origins of life and accounts for every living thing here.

And our story of Haloa, the first Hawaiian, tells of Hawaiians descending from Haloa, who was still born, and when he was buried he became kalo.

Kalo, also called taro, is the staple food of the Hawaiian people. It is what we make poi from.

Our moolelo (stories) are very different than the ones white people say about Hawai’i and us. And while I know there is much that can be learned from anthropologists, who my ancestors are and where we come from is not on that list.

After Captain Cook, Hawaiian world changed. The modernization of Hawai’i began and has been ongoing since then, although there’s been a steady movement among settlers to “get back to the land” and organic farming, etc… which I find strange and ironic at times given their generational legacy of ruining and stealing from natives.

Hawaiians want the U.S. to de-occupy

The introduction of Christianity was simultaneous to the genocide of the Hawaiian people. History in Hawai’i is very polite to the murderous agenda of the invasion of Hawai’i. I’m not an historian. As mentioned earlier, Cook’s men brought the first diseases. Many others followed through Asian migration to Hawaii. Throughout the 19th century, foreigners who knowingly brought diseases to Hawai’i killed off 90% of the Hawaiian population. It is no different than someone who has AIDS knowingly infecting someone with that disease. But for some sickening reason, murdering Hawaiians with diseases doesn’t register as what it is.

I believe Christianity has a lot to do with this mind numbing glossing over of history.

Also, what followed after the first white people showed up was the unification of Hawai’i by King Kamehameha and the establishment by Kamehameha of the Hawaiian Kingdom. This happened between 1795 and 1810, and there were many bloody battles before it was over, and they were fought with western weaponry.

Kamehameha died in 1819, and after his death came the onslaught of Christianity and the abolition of Hawaiian religion. This was facilitated by Hawaiian alii (chiefs/royalty) that had converted to Christianity. Imagine how horrible the 19th century must have been for Hawaiians. I think about my great grandparents and great, great grandparents watching with their own eyes the disappearance of their own kind and all that had been known for as long as they knew Hawaiians existed.

In 1843 the Hawaiian Kingdom was “recognized” by the French and British. Hawai’i was the first non-white/European country admitted to what was then called the Family of Nations.

The Hawaiian Kingdom entered into treaties with other nations and established 90 consulates and legations throughout the world.

The U.S. recognized Hawai’i as independent in 1849 and signed a Treaty of Perpetual Peace.

There are many sordid details of what happened over the next 50 years, but suffice to say expansion of the American empire was underway by the end of the 19th century.

In 1893, haole sugar plantation interests in Hawai’i and American military interests came together to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani and her government.

Much happened before her reign… the establishment of a U.S. military presence in what is now called Pearl Harbor among them. But she is known as the last Hawaiian monarch. To my knowledge she is the first woman of color to be the head of a nation in the western style of governance. I don’t know that that distinction brought her anything but suffering, but it seems to be worth mentioning.

In 1898, the U.S. took formal control of Hawai’i against the wishes of the Hawaiian people.

THIS IS THE MAIN REASON Hawaiians today speak of independence from the U.S.

The takeover was literally illegal under international law, and under U.S. law. No treaty of annexation took place, so Hawaii was never annexed to the U.S. It has simply been occupied since 1898.

Thus, we have this paper trail, if you will – a strong legal and moral argument for de-occupation and reinstatement of Hawai’i as an independent country. We can say out loud that this is an illegal occupation, but because we are Hawaiian, and America and the rest of the world goes along with the bullshit narrative of this place… American victims of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaiians are so lucky to be American, etc… nobody cares about the truth.

Or rather only a small minority cares about the truth of this place. The United Nations stood by in 1959 and allowed the fraudulent “statehood” vote that made Hawai’i the “50th state” and the U.N. has never done anything to right this wrong… we may be correct to say we have the right to independence, but we are Hawaiian and America sees our country as a sacrifice zone and the nations of the world agree. So our narrative as non-white people means nothing to Americans.

I am reminded as I write this, that Haiti is asking for the money they were forced to pay to France (over the 115 years or so that they paid) to be returned to them. It would make a huge difference in their world to have that money back.

Hawaiians feel the same way about Hawaii – we want the U.S. to de-occupy.

This is why, my dear Simba, the fact that you took so many stories for FSRN about the resistance here was phenomenal. Pro-Hawaiian independence stories have not seen that kind of media space since the 19th century.

Anyways, I hope that helps you get a little bit of knowledge about the U.S. presence here and the fact of occupation.

Occupation, when we are talking about laws, is a very specific thing. The Germans occupied France, but they didn’t annex it.

Americans have this wrong idea of what happened in Hawai’i and it’s so hard to try and break it open with reporting or with a film like “Noho Hewa” because Americans have been lied to for so long that they can’t see the truth, even though America would be better off if it de-occupied Hawai’i because they’d save billions on military expenses and all the rest of what the federal government spends here.

But as they say, America is war; America is all about forcing the world into submission. It’s always been that way, since its inception.