Honolulu City Lights

by Samuel Sukaton

I have to concede that I have never seen anything as glorious as twilight over the Honolulu skyline – steel and glass spread like flames from Diamond Head, moving until they meet green again. Turn around and you see houses nestled in Manoa beyond the UH campus, all covered in the looming rain clouds that mist the valley from here to Waikiki. Look at it once, and you see the modern age peacefully nestled with a land that is beyond ancient. Look at it twice, and you’ll see a true-blue American paradise – diverse, sustainable, exotic. Look at it as many times as you want to, and you’ll still miss the most beautiful thing about this place – the fact that people are able to live with the world’s illusions foisted on them. Let’s not forget that Diamond Head is part of a volcano, people.

6S

Samuel Sukaton is studying Hawaii more as a place victimized by tourism, where American images are imposed on Native Hawaiians.