Followers

Monday, December 12, 2022

Spear fishing


These Hawaiian men have been spear fishing.  The girth on the fellow at left would have been 
somewhat unusual, but by the time this was made, some Hawaiians had adopted elements of 
the Western diet, to the detriment of their health.  The consequences reverberate today.

 

4 comments:

  1. In my early career, I was put in charge of diplomatic accounts because of my languages. I used to do the rounds of the embassies and high commissions on the cocktail circuit to keep everyone sweet. If the downside was dealing with the National Party members from the South African embassy - South Africa at that point had left the Commonwealth - the upside was dealing with the Tongan High Commission. Tongans are also Polynesian - their language is closely related to Hawaiian - and they were utterly delightful people but did they have a problem with their weight. Tonga became a sovereign British protectorate in 1900 giving the kingdom access to the Sterling Zone. In what was effectively an internal market, foodstuffs from Australia and New Zealand flooded in and they ruined the traditional diet. Things got so bad that the King - son of Queen Salote, who earned the abiding affection of the British people at the late Queen's coronation by riding through the rain in an open carriage - was filmed working out in a gym to encourage Tongans to exercise. He was colossal. I imagine that the Hawaiians suffered the same fate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Native Hawaiians suffer to this day from the same set of health issues as Tongans. Fortunately, we have a very active outdoor lifestyle that ameliorates some of the effects and compulsory health insurance to help those who don't follow it. Hawaii has the longest life expectancy of any US state even with the indigenous population pulling the stats down somewhat.

      Delete
  2. The effects of our overly sugar and sodium-based diets and it's becoming a catastrophe. And if you try to eat healthy it will cost you more money which is insane. I guess they'll just wait til everyone has heart-disease and diabetes and then decide something has to be done, too little too late as usual. At least Hawaii is progressive enough to adapt to reality, sadly a lot of other states, particularly the south and mid-west have their heads in the sand among other places.
    When I was in elementary school 68-76 I knew of only 2 kids that had diabetes
    and it was type 1. One of my cousin's kids told me he knows of 10 kids in his classes with diabetes, all type 2 ! Too many, too young or any age for that shitty disease. - Rj

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's possible to reduce the amount of sugar and salt in one's diet without spending a lot of extra money. Simply avoiding highly processed convenience foods does not require buying expensive health food store groceries. I know because I do it.

      Delete