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Hawai'i: capital of the 21st century
By Reynold Feldman and M. Jan Rumi
When we think of capitals, we think of geographical expressions. Honolulu is the capital of Hawai'i, Berlin of Germany, etc.
Yet in the world after Albert Einstein, where space and time form a continuum, why not have places as capitals of eras also? You know: The Age of Rome? Of Paris? Of London?
Those would be the places that epitomized the idea, the thrust, the theme of a particular period.
In this regard, we propose that Hawai'i become the capital of the 21st century. Here's what we mean.
As ethnic cleansing, nuclear saber-rattling, global warming and worldwide terrorism suggest, the challenge of this century will be simply getting to the 22nd. We have the outer technology to deal with most if not all of our problems. We lack the inner technology to live with one another in peace and harmony, let alone to work together effectively for the common good.
Differences of race, ethnicity, religion and ideology seem to obscure our common needs as human beings and global neighbors.
Hawai'i's chief import is visitors. Our chief export should be the aloha spirit. We should become a demonstration community for the world at large that people can live together despite differences.
Our marriage rate across ethnic lines alone exceeds 50 percent. France may have coined the term, but Hawai'i is the place that is really practicing vive la différence!
But we can't let our relative racial harmony be something passive or just for ourselves. We need to create a global training program here for community leaders and organizers who would like to adapt our approach, our aloha spirit, to their situations back home.
More than that, we should consider organizing a kind of Aloha Corps that could send consultants, trained in the application of the aloha spirit to community development and social-justice concerns, to the four corners of the Earth. We might even send our young people (and active retirees) abroad — including to the Mainland — as "missionaries" for the aloha spirit.
Nor should we take our relative social harmony and stage of community development for granted. Anyone who has lived in these Islands for several decades or more will realize that, like anything else, the aloha spirit must be maintained. If we don't use it, we'll lose it.
Some say we have already lost a lot since the end of World War II and the advent of statehood.
We are not Pollyannas. Today's Hawai'i is far from a perfect community. It is a human one, after all. We have high drug abuse, considerable domestic violence, a lack of living-wage jobs, high rates of obesity and diabetes, and widely criticized schools, among other problems. Our economy, moreover, has been in the doldrums for years and is endangered by its over-reliance on tourism.
Even in the area of community harmony, there are occasional breakdowns. And sometimes our aloha spirit seems more passive tolerance — live and let live — than respect or active collaboration.
Our proposal, in the early innings of the new century and at the beginning of Gov. Linda Lingle's administration, is that we build on what we have. That we consciously work together, through the leadership of government, business and the civic sector, to create a community worthy of the Polynesian spirit of aloha. That we share our ha, our spirit, in the interest of our greater good and the good of the world.
As a practical first step, we recommend Lingle appoint a blue-ribbon committee on Hawai'i as capital of the 21st century. Its purpose would be to look at what would be needed for Hawai'i to model itself as an example of aloha in action and to train others in community-development strategies they could take home with them. Just selecting members for such a body would be an interesting exercise for the new governor and her staff.
Where there is no vision, Proverbs 29:18 tells us, the people perish. Let us draw on the wisdom of the people of Hawai'i, on their tolerance, friendliness and good will, to become the rainbow bridge connecting not only East and West but the 20th and the 22nd centuries.
In the past, we have spoken of ourselves as the future Geneva of the Pacific or capital of the Pacific Rim. Instead, let us now strive for a more global role: to become the capital of the 21st century.
Reynold Feldman, a former UH professor and East-West Center staff member, is principal and co-founder of Wisdom Associates, a local educational services firm. He also is completing his third book (co-written with M. Jan Rumi) on wisdom: "Wising Up: A Youth Leadership Manual for the 21st Century." See www.worldwisdomproject.org.
M. Jan Rumi is a consulting manager of Management Advisory Services at Grant Thornton LLP, Honolulu, accountants and business advisers. He also is co-author of a forthcoming book, "Wising Up," and co-founder of Wisdom Associates.
