Ke Ole Ko Kakou Mau Uhane

(sos)
By Nigel Derego

Research notes

Tree map

When you think of native people in america that are in need of aid you usually think of Native Americans, but no one thinks of Native Hawaiians. It's like these people just disappeared off the earth and no one knows anything about them. These people are in dire need of aid. In the 1800’s the Americans came and became what the Native Hawaiians thought were allies but in reality the American people just wanted the islands for their own and the Americans got what they wanted. Nowadays Native Hawaiians are some of the poorest people in America. I think that we should give mainly financial aid to these people because we have taken almost everything from them.

The first reason I think we should help Native Hawaiians is because pretty much all Native Hawaiians live in poverty. According to the article (INCOME AND POVERTY AMONG NATIVE HAWAIIANS) “Native Hawaiian families in Hawai‘i have the lowest mean family income of all major ethnic groups in the state”. This really made me sad because you would think that living in hawaii would be quite fun but for these people it’s a big struggle. The article also says “Native Hawaiians are socioeconomically disadvantaged. • The cost of living in the state of Hawai‘i is among the highest in the United States”. This means that Hawaiians live in poverty and they live in a very expensive place. This is why the U.S needs to  help these people because they are very poor and they live in one of the most expensive places in America.

Another reason for why Native Hawaiians need help is because it is very hard for them to maintain a healthy well educated family. According to (INCOME AND POVERTY AMONG NATIVE HAWAIIANS), “Native Hawaiian families tend to be larger than average, meaning that their comparatively low income must support a higher number of individuals.” This means that with poverty hawaiians have larger families meaning they need to spend more money on food and other activities. Also a graph produced by the article Income and poverty among native hawaiians said the average number of people within a hawaiian household in 2000 was 3.4 which is above the average at 2.9. That might not seem like a lot but one extra mouth in long term money will cost much more than a 2 or 3 person family.

The final reason for why I think the united states should give aid to Native Hawaiians is because some native hawaiians live in complete isolation from the outer world and do not have the technology to live like you and I. According to the article (The Forbidden Island Niihau) “Niihau is a private island that has largely remained unburdened by the influences of the outside world. There are no roads, hotels or restaurants; the 250 residents (mostly of Hawaiian descent) live without electricity”. This means that this small amount of people live in complete isolation where no modern technology is present, but with our help we can let these people thrive

You probably think that there are better things that this country could invest its money into. Just for instance that money could go into the military for extra defences against hostile countries but what good would that do if our own people are suffering? If we can spend millions of dollars to buy weapons that kill then why can't we spend a small amount of money on people who need the money? We give them the aid because that's the right thing to do.

You may also think that if we give Native Hawaiians financial aid they might miss use the money and that may be true, but there is always a risk that someone can miss use financial aid also although these people are Hawaiian they are U.S. citizens and it would be wrong to deny our own people aid if they need it

I think the U.S. should give Native Hawaiians financial aid because for all the things weve taken from them we owe them. Imagine if someone came into your house as a friend but slowly they started taking over. Would you be very happy? I wouldn’t be. Hawai’i is currently one of the most expensive places in america,  they have large families than normal, and they are the poorest ethnic group in Hawai’i. I think it wouldn’t be that hard to give this small amount of people some sort of financial aid because they are in desperate need of help.

Work Cited List

Shawn Malia Kana‘iaupuni, PhD Nolan J. Malone, PhD Koren Ishibashi. “INCOME AND POVERTY AMONG NATIVE HAWAIIANS”. Kamehameha schools. Kamehameha schools. September 2006.

18 February 2016

“The forbidden island Niihau”. Aloha Hawaii. Aloha Hawaii. 2011. 18 February 2016.