Most folks say they hope for “Peace on Earth” especially at this Christmas season when that message is loud and clear. Most folks also wish for a happy new year. Why then do we have the many conflicts occurring today? It seems the answer is too complicated to ever understand.
Just about the time I gave up in trying to figure out why this is such a crazy world, a teenager walked by wearing a T-shirt that said “One People … One Planet.” Like a prayer answered, it dawned on me the big problem is we constantly see ourselves as separate from others. We are the “Us group” and everyone else a “them.” As long as we create this isolation in our minds, we are susceptible to getting caught up in conflicts, even wars because of this duplicity. The problem is separating ourselves from others by skin shade, eye or hair color, religion, culture, philosophy, sex, geographical origin or whatever. It’s not a matter of saying we are all the same, but recognizing our diversity and appreciating our differences. To really simplify what appears to be complicated, we can take the message of Jesus or for that matter, the Beatles. “All we need is love.”
The world’s great religions place loving our creator and His/Her works. There are those who distort the message for political, economic, power or control purposes in the name of our creator. Some place themselves and their group above others and this creates conflict.
The question is: “Can we have ethnicity without ethnocentricity?”
Can we appreciate that we are unique without putting down someone else? It is so easy to fall into the us and them mode of thinking that it takes constant mental pushups to see all humans as connected. We may even expand that connection to all living things. One way to practice is by noting our attitudes about other inhabitants of our global ecosystem.
For example, let’s take a look at our beautiful Hawaiian gardens. They are composed of plants from all over the world. Some of these plants arrived long ago transported by ocean currents, winds and birds. Hundreds of varieties were brought here by the first human inhabitants. These include kukui, coconut, ti, breadfruit, banana, sweet potato and many others. Later, each group of humans brought the plants associated with their culture.
Unfortunately, all the plants introduced by humans are now being called alien species. Oops, it’s “us and them” again. In the past, they were referred to as canoe plants, non-native or exotic. The term alien is one charged with negative connotations, with visions of pestiferous and otherwise uninvited crawlies. When the term is associated with humans, we almost automatically add “illegal” to create another negative picture. When we describe plants or animals as alien species, we may incorrectly think of aliens only as pest species. However, every life form on our island is alien if one goes back far enough. Even what we call a weed could be referred to as a pioneer species trying to heal the wounds created by mismanagement. In the big picture, all plants are reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and are sequestering carbon.
Of course, it is essential to protect that which is unique to Hawaii, but simply labeling life forms as native versus alien and then to infer that one is good and thus the other must be bad is a disservice to all. Our gardens give us opportunity to do our mental pushups and acknowledge the value of each of the diverse life forms.
When I was about 9 years old, my grandmother told me that a weed is only a plant for which we haven’t found the use. She also used to say that God created everything and that it was all good. It is up to us to figure out what that good is.
Many of the plants and animals introduced to Hawaii over the years are rare and perhaps even near extinction in the wilds from which they came. Some we consider weeds, have been used by older cultures as healing herbs. For example, many plants and birds that we consider common here are no longer found in their place of origin because of destruction of habitat. I have traveled all over South America and never seen a Brazilian cardinal there. Most of the parrots we find in Hawaii are either threatened or endangered in their native lands.
When it comes to plants, the royal poinciana, Delonix regia, also known as the flame tree or flamboyant, may be found in tropical gardens worldwide, but in its own native habitat of Madagascar it is extremely rare in the wild. A palm of considerable popularity in Kona, the Cabada palm, is thought to be extinct in the wild but was also a plant possibly from Madagascar. Australia’s Carpentaria palm was thought to be extinct for more than 100 years and then was rediscovered in a private garden in Darwin. It now graces many Hawaiian landscapes.
So to label plants as native and alien is to oversimplify a very complex global ecosystem.
To infer that plants or animals are good or bad is dangerous. These are moral judgments. These terms are appropriate in relationship to how we manage and interact with the other living things around us. Yes, there have been plants introduced, many accidentally, that have had a negative impact on other life forms in a given environment. But for every negative impact, there are likely many positive ones. Many lifeforms we consider special to Hawaiiana are not from here at all. Our lovable geckos and the popular pikake, hibiscus, anthurium, Kona coffee and plumeria that brighten our lives are aliens if we choose that description.
When the first humans arrived in Hawaii, these islands had a very different ecosystem than in 1790 or today. There were few plants or animals that could help humans survive. The forests were rich with Loulu palms (Pritchardia species). It wasn’t long before introduced pigs and rats devoured their seed so the palms could no longer propagate without the help of humans.
The message for our future is it is time for all members of our island community, including environmental groups, agricultural interests, visitor industry and others to work together on plans that focus on good management of our resources. It is not a time to be confrontational. We can learn to manage our polarities if we can shift out of the “us and them” patterns of thinking. There is a lesson to be learned in how we treat all the varied life forms in our island gardens. Maybe if we learn that lesson, we will treat one another better. It is the essence of aloha.