Academic meets Artist: Waves of Growth

In his documentation of recent Hawaiian history, Waves of Resistance , Walker explained the circumstances which surrounded the Hui O He’e Nalu “surfing sit-in” protests of the late 1970s. The Hui O He’e Nalu, whom Walker described as a “predominantly Native Hawaiian North Shore [surf] organization,” were disappointed by the increased number of professional surf competitions on the North Shore. These competitions contributed little to the local economy while occupying much of the beach and the surf -- a culturally significant area to the Native Hawaiians. As a result, the Hui members looked for a way to effectively communicate their perspective to the competition organizers. They decided on “surfing sit-ins” which Walker defined as when “members would paddle into the competition zone, sit on their surfboards, and then ride the forbidden waves” (Walker, 2). While these protests were intended to proceed in a peaceful manner, Hawaiian Hui member Moot Ah Quin explained that violence occas...

Beginning on the first page of Dr.Mason’s historic narrative, Beaches, Blood, and Ballots: A Black Doctor’s Civil Rights Struggle , the author outlined the three basic ways/areas in which he fought for equality: (1) social (2) economic and (3) political. Immediately, I drew connections between the views of Dr.Mason and those I read of W.E.B. DuBois’ in his essay collection The Souls of Black Folk. In these essays DuBois challenged the ideas of Booker T. Washington on the best path toward racial equality. Washington argued that it was in the best interest of the African American community to first focus on the fight for equality in an economic sense -- which in Washington’s eyes should be a fight for increased industrial education. DuBois felt as though Washington’s recommendation reinforced white society’s notion that African Americans were inferior for two reasons: (1) Washington’s plan focused only on one area of equality, economic equality, instead of equality as a ...

As an Economics major, and generally as an American citizen interested in the financial sphere, I am relatively familiar with the Great Recession of 2008 and the constant recovery since. Last semester, I actually had the opportunity to research in more depth the recent financial crisis, specifically how it began in the housing market and how this market was continually affected. The information I gained from my prior research proved useful while reading this report because of the strong connection, through investment, between the US economy and Costa Rica’s real estate and tourism markets which Honey describes as “closely tied to the U.S. market,” (Honey, 7). Honey emphasizes the causal relationship between foreign investment (the majority of which comes from the US) and coastal tourism development in Costa Rica. As a result, I gathered that in order to accurately understand why coastal tourism development in Costa Rica has experienced dramatic changes in pace since 2002, it is import...

Laderman drew undeniable similarities between European, Christian settlers conquest to “save” the Native Americans/American Indians, meaning convert them from their native religions to Christianity, and the same which happened to the natives in Hawai’i. Laderman explained that in both what is the continental US now and Hawai’i, the natives “were assumed by the white invaders to be racial inferiors.” As a result, Laderman detailed that “The Americans thus set out to racially uplift the savages in their midst. This meant an effort to eradicate those cultural traditions that were a presumed mark of indigenous barbarism and replace them with Christianity” (Laderman, 11). As Laderman continued to describe the similarities between the forced christianization of the American Indians and the native Hawaiians, I could not help but notice the similarities between these and the current popular Christian missionary trips to various countries in Africa and South America that many of my friends ...

To my friends and family interested in my education opportunity in Nosara, Costa Rica this summer, to my classmates, and to others who stumbled upon this blog, I want to begin by telling you how excited I am for this opportunity. I have never had the opportunity to study outside of the United States before and I am anxiously excited to expand my mind in this new setting. To those who are unaware, this blog will be a documentation of my personal and intellectual progress as I take the course “Surfing Centuries” offered by Guilford College. During this course, I will read texts and watch films created from the perspective of different disciplines about the specific topic of surfing. I will also venture to Nosara with my class where we will learn to surf and where we will connect our academic resources to not only our experience there but the community of Nosara as a whole. In this blog, these connections and many others will be explored. That being said, while I am incredibly exci...