Looking at the website set up for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings here in November is like viewing an aspirational illustration of Hawaii, kind of like those pretty artist renderings handed out when a housing development or shopping mall project comes up for discussion.
Accentuated are all the positives of the islands, eliminated are the negatives, which is what you would fully expect as the state attempts to put its best foot forward for the assemblage of international business, economic and political leaders.
Frenzied activity to tame an unruly population of homeless people, beautify the disheveled stretch of Nimitz Highway APEC participants are sure to see, and cleaning up Waikiki and other parts of Oahu they might encounter fold into the general staging plan.
This is well and good since the people who will continue to live and work here after the big conference ends will benefit, at least from the trimmings.
We should acknowledge, however, that nobody’s really going to be fooled.
APEC delegates aren’t credulous “Oh, gosh, we’re in paradise” tourists, but worldly, sophisticated and well informed about the Asian-Pacific region. I’m betting they know that the “Featured Industries” the website shows off aren’t flourishing as made out to be, that most of them move in small-scale fits and starts interdependent with the national and global economy.
Delegates may not be intimately familiar with the details of the cultural and political conflicts involved in further expansion of astronomical research on Haleakala and Mauna Kea, or of the unrelenting tug-of-war for land, wrenched between an appetite for profit in suburban housing construction and the increasing, long-range need for a more reliable source of foods and agriculture-based fuels. But they surely are aware of the issues.
Delegates won’t experience the scope and depth of the islands in the few days they are here. They will spend more time inside air-cooled conference rooms and talking with their peers, and few will have chances to become acquainted with anyone other than freshly scrubbed movers and shakers.
Though important to state leaders and the tourism folks, the site for the meeting is secondary to APEC’s mission of encouraging free trade and promoting investment in the region. And if the facade being presented is accepted largely as reality, the potential for tangible gains here falls away.
The issues members of APEC confront in their own countries are ones we struggle with and ground-level ideas and solutions from those without blinders could greatly benefit all.
We should display, even boast, about what’s good in Hawaii, but we also need to show the state warts and all — its sewage, trash, broken roads, litter, educational shortcomings, its conflicts and economic challenges.
These should not be hidden because where there are hardships and needs, there are opportunities for people and businesses — in health and medical research, in renewable energy, aquaculture, finance and agriculture — if strong commitments to common, aspirational goals are made.
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Cynthia Oi can be reached at coi@staradvertiser.com.
