Spatiality in Paradise
Honolulu’s spatiality is what make’s it the most unique American city. The geographic relationship between the Hawaiian Islands and the rest of the Pacific Rim tells two stories.
The first is a story of isolation. The native Hawaiians who came originally from eastern Polynesia around the fall of the Roman Empire settled on the Hawaiian archipelago and created a rich culture during a thousand years in isolation. Following the conquest of the Tahitians and then that of the Americans, those that have chosen to live, work, and play in Honolulu do so knowing that it is at a cost. Not only a cost of living, because of the immense amount of energy it takes to import what many Americans perceive to be simple items such as gasoline, milk, and vegetables; but at the cost of being culturally isolated from not only the rest of the nation, but the world in general. However, it should be noted that the amount of cultural isolation experienced in Hawaii has decreased remarkably since the advent of the Internet.
The second story is the flip side of the same coin of isolation. Located in the center of the Pacific Ocean, Honolulu, though flying the American flag is as much affected by the markets and politics of eastern Asian part of the Pacific Rim as it is (and some would say possibly more) by the federal government in Washington DC.