It's not news that Front St. in Lahaina is the place to be for Halloween, but the Maui County Cultural Resources Commission has denied the LahainaTown Action Committee for use of Front St. to celebrate Halloween. The apparent reason for this is because this event gives Lahaina a bad name. "What do you want Lahaina to be remembered for, the host culture's importance as far as the home of the alii or royalty or for the Halloween party," said commission member Kalei Moikeha. "It just seemed like it was very disrespectful for the host culture to allow these stages to be set up in the district." (Sure, lets not disrespect the ancient Missionaries with our Pagan Rituals!!!)
On Sat. June 28, I attended the Flavors of Honolulu, not to be mistaken with the Taste of Honolulu. I had some wonderful things. There were wonderful deserts. I had some Crepes from Le Crepe Cafe, Crystal Chen (who took the picture) had this banana fosters cheesecake (Planet Hollywood) that was awesome, Mr. Lum had some bread pudding and Teramisu with Kona Coffee Anglaise (Bali By The Sea), and all were delicious. In the picture, I have a Sceared Kona Kampachi from Bali By The Sea. I thought it was awesome. Mr. Chang and Alana had a Sceared Garlic Ahi with Sweet Wasabi Sauce on some lettuce from Koi that was totori dirishosu (totally delicious). I recommend going next time around.
So I've become a bit irate at the attention eMoble is getting over their latest commercial that they pulled off the air, because of criticism that this reflects racism. Now, I sympathize that Afro-Americans have had a tough past and every minority can relate a little in some way or another, but people are so closed minded that the people making the criticism is just as bad as racists.
To summarize, the commercial reflects the campaign of Sen. Obama and has the speaker as a monkey. Westerners around the world have quickly jumped to call Japanese people and eMoble (cell company in Japan) a bunch of racists. On the other hand, Japanese people have not seen any relation to the commercial as racism or anti-black or anti-Obama. The eMoble Masquot is a monkey and in Japanese/Shinto culture, the monkey is praised as a protector against evil and is depicted as many deities.
With a wonderful tool like the internet to provide such information as on the A to Z Photo Dictionary, people like colorfire of YouTube can say "LMAO monkeys are sacred in Japan? Ladies and gentlemen, we've got another politically correct wannabe who knows absolutely nothing" in response to someone in defense of the commercial. israelsprincess07 from YouTube says, "Japanese are such haters!"
stanrob on 2008PresidentialElection.com says, "I know we Obama supporters have enough on our plates trying to disprove Obama smears and the like domestically, but as an American living in Japan, I can't help but be deeply offended by a commercial by a cell phone company (emobile) trying to cash in at Mr. Obama's expense."
On CNN's Political Ticker, many have strong comments like Linda Esen saying, "How can they not have known this was racist????? How would they portray McCain?? No worries; when Obama is President - Japan will bow down to the dominance that is the US of A". Pat Va's reply to eMoble's president's comment of "now we know" had this to say, "This idiot needs to be fired post-haste!!! What century is he living in???" HEINRICH says, "This is really outragous.That phone company and the people behind this are totally idiots." Peter Damoah-Afari says, "How can some Japanese be so stupid?" Nicole in NE says, "DISGUSTING - in so many ways!" Naomi, Texas says, "Appauling!" Obama-Junkie, IL says, "Japanese media is notoriously racist towards people of African descent..." Don says, "And the ugly head of racism persists. Why are some human beings so stupid?" LET IT GO says, "How digusting , times haven't change at all, It 's amazon how many dummies we still have in the world." Jim from IL says, "This is an outrage! I am sure the Hillary or McCain camps have somthing to do with this. Get on board you bunch of racist!!!!! Obama will win wheather you like it or not, so start geting used to respecting him!!!!!!!"
And much much more for each of these sites and all over the blogosphere. Before everyone in this country starts getting irate about Japanese being racist, how about learning more about other people's culture...and since we're on the topic of anti-Japanese, how about we all look up Japanese Concentration Camps?
