This scenario is based on the following macro-trends: 1) the growth in power of indigenous ethnic groups in nations around the world; 2) the increasing use of the "rights discourse" in the political arena; and 3) the development of "personal scale" infrastructure (e.g., single dwelling power plants). As the facilitator encouraged these participants to stretch their imaginations fully with regard to possible long-term political and social impacts, this scenario features a fifteen to twenty year time horizon.
Hawai`i seceded from the United States in the very early part of this century. There were three major trends that brought about this secession.
The first was the rise in the power of the native Hawaiian movement. After hundreds of years of waiting for those in power to help them (the ali`is, the Republicans, the Democrats, the federal government), the Hawaiian people finally collectively stood up and demanded increased cultural, economic, and political power. This was made easier by official recognition by the United Nations of the political legitimacy of ethnic and other social movements within nation-states. In fact, the United Nations began seriously to consider having a third assembly composed of social movements. This was made more concrete in the first decade of the 21st century when the UN was reorganized ending the dominance of the superpowers. Demographically, Hawai`i's political transformation was made easier by increased immigration and the rapid realization that the U.S. could no longer be a melting pot but must become a mosaic of different cultures.
The second important trend was the increased legitimacy of using the argument of natural rights to gain access to cultural meanings and economic goods for various social groups. These included labor, ethnic groups, gender groups, computer user groups, and even various businesses. While these two trends themselves were central in Hawai`i reorganizing itself politically, it was the availability of cheap and personalized energy that made localism more than a dream.
However, once the Hawaiian movement gathered steam, other groups also decided that they wanted sovereignty. While they could not claim they were the original settlers, the profusion of rights allowed them to argue that they had the right to form their own political structures and organizations. Soon, Hawai`i's secession led to many Hawai`i's within Hawai`i. However, Kailua, Mililani, and Kahala--all of which opposed attempts of various cultural groups to delink themselves from the United States--immediately reunited with the mainland. Citizens of Hawai`i, however, were allowed entry to Kahala, Mililani, and Kailua with special "white" permits, reminiscent of the "green" cards early twentieth century immigrants to the U.S. had to carry.
The structure of the mosaic--called the tapa print by many--increasingly began to be fraught with obstacles. Fortunately, conflict resolution centers opened up on every street corner. These not only helped navigate the many pitfalls of culturalism and localism but became one of Hawai`i's main exports. These conflict centers helped form a new governmental center based on the ahapua`a model. These new regions or bioregions reshaped voting, representation, and electoral politics. Decision making became increasingly decentralized. And through the new personal-scale technologies work also became decentralized. Individuals worked from their homes and work and homelife became integrated forming an ecology of polity, work, home, play, and religion. Individuals also became intimately connected not only with the family but also with the larger bio-regional or cultural group. Over time, in order to maintain this link, some regions limited in-migration. However, other various social groups. These ins encouraged migration of immigrants thus making attempts to restrict movement difficult. Still, population growth and its claim to physical resources remained a problem. However, educational philosophy shifted from humans as a burden to humans as resources. Moreover, multi-cultural education was one of the most important vehicles in the creation of the new Hawai`i. There was a greater choice of schools students could attend and, at the same time, new technologies and the rise of true cultural pluralism led to a dramatic deschooling of society. Families run some schools, cultural groups run others, and there are special cooperative trade schools. Many simply learned through interactive educational software coupled with wisdom from elders.
Also fundamental to the creation of the new Hawai`is was the ideology of uncommon alliances. Individuals and groups developed high-touch and low-tech trading arrangements with many different partners. This was part ad-hocracy, part realization that economy and culture could grow and prosper from the recognition of differences.
In addition to cultural and political changes, Hawai`i underwent dramatic economic transformations. Instead of continuing to rely on large scale tourism, Hawai`i became self-reliant and self-sufficient. Credit-unions expanded and instead of credit cards a sophisticated bartering system developed. Capital stopped flowing out of the state, remaining within the Islands. The new technologies allowed "tourism with a human face" to develop. Ecotourism and "mom and pop" tourism areas flourished. Soon European businesses and government leaders came to Hawai`i to see how corporate tourism had been transformed to small-scale tourism. At the same time, telecommunications technologies allowed a whole array of "hollow" corporations to thrive in Hawai`i. They provided knowledge services, virtual reality tours of the islands, and other services that were not hindered by Hawai`i's great distance from East Asia and United Europe.
The paradox of 21st Century Hawai`i was the simultaneous alliance between local and global. At some levels, Hawai`i's culture was incredibly area-specific as governance and economy were based on ethnic history and local geography. However, because technologies were personal--allowing a great deal of self-reliance even for neighborhoods--global communications and regional alliances flourished. To some this was the tension in Hawai`i between the local and global; between ethnicity and universal humanity. Detractors felt that Hawai`i had lost its claim to be a truly multi-cultural society since the Hawaiian movement was so powerful. Others believed that for the first time a truly multi-cultural society had been created, as now all ideas and cultures had equal standing and equal representation. Hawai`i, in this view, was no longer dominated by the outside but was authentically itself. The elusive rainbow was in sight ("insight" and "in site").
Looking back, it was human creativity that opened up new possibilities and transformed a two-hundred-year-old structure; it was this creativity that the demand for sovereignty, the rights discourse, and the new personal-scale technologies unleashed.
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Announcing the GRAND OPENING of the
Manoa Conflict Resolution Center
You choose the conflict resolution style--
we provide the expertise
Choose from the following available styles:
New Age -- Peace and Harmony or Mediation and Meditation
Hawaiian -- Ho`oponopono
Samoan -- Ifoga
High Tech -- Computerized Conflict Resolution
Technology
(also accessible through your home computer)
American -- Talk until you resolve
Traditional --Sue, Sue Sue
Our center is the first multiple perspective conflict resolution
center in Hawaii.
We have experts trained in New Age, Hawaiian, Samoan, High Tech,
American
and Traditional Resolution Techniques.
Call today for more information.
Additional Centers opening up throughout the islands.
The Center is also available for franchise.