Hawaii

Wednesday

Mike Pitts

Dazzling: Hawaii, at the British Museum, reviewed

From our UK edition

Climb the Reading Room steps to reach the British Museum’s dazzling Hawaii exhibition, and you perform an obeisance. At the top is a representation of Ku, a larger-than-human god of war and chiefly power, carved in stylish fury from the trunk of a breadfruit tree. He once commanded a flight of stairs at the Museum of Mankind in Burlington Gardens. In Hawaii he would have looked down with royal authority from a stone temple mound. We pass below him into the show, it feels, only with his consent. This is a landmark event that tells of moving encounters with stunning exhibits For that we should offer thanks. At an important time for the museum (on which more below), this is a landmark event that tells of moving encounters with stunning exhibits.

Thursday

Robin Hanbury-Tenison

All that was bravest and best: William Miller, forgotten Victorian hero of South American independence

From our UK edition

John Hemming is the doyen of historians of South America. In his previous books he has revealed the tragic history of the Incan empire (The Conquest of the Incas); the impact of the arrival of Europeans on the Brazilian Indians (Red Gold); and the story of the Amazon (Tree of Rivers). Now he has produced a biography of a modest baker’s son from Kent who became one of the greatest figures in the liberation of Spanish South America. William Miller was born in 1795, and fought as a teenager in the Peninsular War against Napoleon. Then, like many other Englishmen, he travelled to South America to fight alongside some of the greatest commanders battling the Spanish and striving for independence.

Thursday

James Delingpole

Worth watching for Momoa’s gibbous-moon buttocks alone

From our UK edition

If you enjoyed Apocalypto – that long but exciting Mel Gibson movie about natives being chased through the jungle with (supposedly) ancient Mayan dialogue – then you’ll probably like Chief of War, which is much the same, only in Hawaiian. Like Apocalypto, it even has sailing ships appearing mysteriously from Europe with crews that serve the role of dei ex machina, rescuing endangered native protagonists at key moments. This time our based-on-a-true-story hero is Ka’iana, the 18th-century Maui chieftain who succeeded in uniting the four warring island kingdoms (Oahu, Maui, Molokai and Lanai) and turned them into the kingdom of Hawaii.

Wednesday

Lara Brown

Tsunami hits Hawaii and US mainland

Tsunami alerts were triggered this morning across the Pacific after an earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The quake, one of the most powerful ever recorded with a magnitude of 8.8, prompted evacuations from Hawaii, California, Japan and Russia. Initial waves, however, have so far proved less destructive than originally feared.Waves up to 4ft high were recorded in Oahu and Maui. Flights to and from Maui were canceled and commercial harbors closed as a precaution. "God willing, these waves will not hurt us," said Hawaii’s Governor Josh Green. "But you have to assume they will be life-threatening." Hawaii’s tsunami alert was later downgraded to an advisory, with officials warning of unusually strong currents and urging residents to avoid the coast.

Earthquake tsunami

Monday

James Walton

A return to the White Lotus

The White Lotus, now back for a third series, could perhaps be best described as Death in Paradise for elegant people. Most obviously, this is because its plots revolve around murders in an idyllic location — only with a far bigger budget, a much starrier cast and several episodes per story. But there’s also the fact that it follows the same pattern every time. So it was that season three began this week, rather like its predecessors, with some lovely scenery, a dead body and a caption reading "One week earlier." After that, we duly watched a bunch of rich, good-looking folks arriving at a luxury White Lotus resort where they were welcomed by the resolutely smiling staff and a nervous manager, before gazing round and marveling at the beauty of it all.

Lotus

Tuesday

Scott Bradfield

A marriage of radical minds: the creative partnership of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson

From our UK edition

It is hard to imagine any Victorian man living a fuller life in a flimsier body than Robert Louis Stevenson – and he certainly wouldn’t have managed it without the support of his partner and wife of several decades, Fanny Van de Grift. Born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850, Louis suffered from countless childhood illnesses that limited his activity to reading books, writing stories and staging ‘pasteboard theatre’ productions with his nanny, or else travelling to health spas in Marseille, Genoa and Naples. He strongly resisted his father’s efforts to enlist him in his own career as a lighthouse designer, and at Edinburgh University the only thing he excelled at was truancy.

Thursday

Wynn Wheldon

Alone and defenceless: the tragic death of Captain Cook

From our UK edition

The principal purpose of Captain James Cook’s last voyage, which began in Plymouth on 12 July 1776, was to discover the elusive Northwest Passage. Attempts had been made before, in vain, from the Atlantic, but this time it would be from the west, from the Pacific.  On the way, Cook was to return an Anglicised Polynesian named Mai to Raiatea, ‘a ragged volcanic island’ about 130 miles north west of Tahiti. Mai takes up much of Hampton Sides’s narrative, offering ‘a poignant allegory of first contact’, before being deposited home with his cargo of English domestic farm animals and his suits.  Prior to that, Cook had investigated, in New Zealand, the massacre of ten crew members of the Adventure, the Resolution’s sister ship on his previous voyage.

Friday

Tulsi Gabbard

After the Maui fires

Maui, Hawaii It’s been almost eight weeks since the wildfires devastated Lahaina. Within a few days of the fire, I went to West Maui, visiting the community, friends and people I’ve known and worked with for years. Lahaina was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. It was a lush wetland, a destination that everyone wanted to go and visit. But thanks to a long history of plantation owners and corporations diverting water and streams away from their natural course to benefit their business interests, it’s now a community that is dry, arid, struggling with drought and brush fires every year. People around the world have seen the devastation, but the images don’t do it justice.

maui

Friday

Cockburn

The Democratic Party goes alpha

Is the Democratic Party trying to be more masculine? An eagle-eyed political observer pointed out recently that the DNC’s official logo has mysteriously changed color without any public fanfare. The logo, which features a “D” inside of a circle, used to be a sky blue. At some point in 2022, the “D” went quite a few shades darker to a royal blue. You can spot the difference in this side-by-side: A graphic design expert tells Cockburn that the change might have been an attempt to make the party’s colors better match its newfound lip service to the working class under Biden. Alternatively, they may be trying to cash in on those “dark Brandon” memes! A tale of two Naomis There are few things more annoying than being mistaken for someone else.

joe biden
joe biden reactive president
Charles Lipson

Joe Biden isn’t reactive enough to be president

At tragic moments, like the deadly fires in Hawaii, our nation expects the president to speak to all of us and for all of us. The task is not a political one. He is not being asked to speak as the head of a political party or even the head of government. Those moments will come later. During a national tragedy, he needs to speak for the whole nation as its “head of state.”  President Roosevelt famously did that on December 8, 1941, referring to the bombing of Pearl Harbor previous day as a “date which will live in infamy” President Reagan did it after the Challenger disaster, a brilliant and touching memorial to the astronauts who died.

Monday

Cockburn

‘No comment’: Biden’s response to deadly Maui wildfires

Let them eat pineapple? President Joe Biden, who was approached by reporters while leaving the beach on Sunday, declined to comment on the deadly Maui wildfires that have thus far claimed ninety-six American lives. "No comment," Biden told the press as he trudged back over the sand dunes after a few hours catching some rays. Cockburn is shocked he didn't check his watch before bothering to offer those two words. The president's reaction has prompted disdain — even from apparent allies. “Not a great moment for Biden here,” tweeted former CNN political editor and current Substacker Chris Cillizza. Biden’s indifference to the death and utter destruction caused by the fires is quite perplexing, given his only job is beach.

joe biden maui

Wednesday

Lewis M. Andrews

How teachers’ unions could unwittingly usher in school choice

In a surprise development, teachers' unions in eight states recently announced drives to pass legislation that would establish so-called “wealth taxes.” Working with progressive legislators in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, and Washington, the unions have devised what they believe are the best ways to tap, not just the incomes, but the assets of the most successful earners. Under the bill proposed in California, for example, residents with both financial and illiquid assets would be required to file yearly reports on their holdings, obligating those worth more than a certain amount to pay 1 to 1.5 percent of the total to Sacramento, even if they move out.

Wednesday

Ben Domenech

Tulsi Gabbard’s road not taken

Tulsi Gabbard has been a de facto outsider within the Democratic Party for a long time. Now, she's finally made it official, leaving the party she served first in the Hawaii State House and then in Congress for eight years. Tulsi also announced a new Substack and a podcast as her next moves. Gabbard's path to this moment was marked by fascinating developments within the culture wars that came to characterize the Obama-Biden era of the Democratic Party. Once viewed as a rising star within the ranks — she was the first Hindu woman and the first female combat veteran in Congress — she was unanimously elected as vice chair of the party in 2013.

Thursday

Peter Van Buren

Vanity plates and the fight for free speech

If politics makes strange bedfellows, defending free speech sends one down some equally odd paths. The First Amendment and laws protecting speech exist for every thing that can be said, but end up being tested at the margins of what society tolerates in the name of free speech. A recent case in Hawaii, involving a car license plate, is a perfect example. Like most states, Hawaii issues specialty/vanity license plates where the owner can chose his own letters or numbers. The only restrictions are that the letters/numbers not be "misleading" or "publicly objectionable." Otherwise pick your combination, pay the fee, and you have your unique license plate, such as LUV YOU. That was the plan of Edward Odquina, who runs a web site named www.fckblm.

Tuesday

Addison Del Mastro

Maybe Hawaii should be independent

When you’re a writer, there’s no such thing as a vacation — there’s just visiting a new place with the potential to gather more material. Lucky for me, my most recent destination happened to be Hawaii. It’s a fascinating place, and if you didn’t already know it was a US state, it would be easy to mistake it for a distinct English-speaking country, albeit one with obvious and deep American influences. Oahu, the most urbanized island and home of the capital city of Honolulu, is shaped by an idiosyncratic mix of native Hawaiian, East Asian and midcentury American culture. Hawaii resembles a Pacific Island nation at least as much as it does the American mainland.

Thursday

Mick Fleetwood

Mick Fleetwood: Why Peter Green was the greatest guitarist

From our UK edition

In a normal week, I would jam with local musicians, but that stopped in March and we musicians miss the road and our crews. There have been some good things to come out of this awful year, though. A new world was revealed to me on TikTok, an app that lets people upload clips of themselves lip-syncing or dancing. And out of TikTok came Nathan Apodaca, a man from Idaho who recorded a video of himself skateboarding to work while sipping from a bottle of cranberry juice and singing along to our song ‘Dreams’. More than 70 million people have watched Nathan’s video, and we have since spoken and he is the sweetest man. A lot of people out there are struggling, and Nathan’s ‘Dreams’ video is a great celebration of joyfulness and being in the moment.

Saturday

Michael Tracey

What is the left’s problem with Tulsi Gabbard?

Few contemporary American political figures generate such unique disdain as Tulsi Gabbard, the Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii. The disdain is not unique for its tenacity – plenty of figures are on the receiving end of bitter criticism – but for its political composition. Gabbard straddles an ideological fissure that spans the Democratic and Republican party coalitions in ways that are difficult to pin down. Despite being an avowed progressive on policy issues and a frequent critic of President Trump, her most committed antagonists appear on the left.

tulsi gabbard