I was pondering this just the other day.

Are Hawaiians essentially "trapped" on the island of Hawaii?

You see, in the continental United States, if you really wanted to, you could get up and drive away from your hometown and start a new life in a city thousands of miles away. You can buy a plane ticket, but tickets can be expensive. The farther, the worse. Then I thought about the people in Hawaii. They are on a tiny island far out in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Is airfare cheap there? I think it should be, considering everyone has the right to "get up and leave" in America, right? Considering that it's quite a way away from any main land, it would be expensive to fuel a plane regularly for that trip. That would naturally make plane tickets to/from Hawaii very expensive, right?

So, with that said, are Hawaiians "trapped" in Hawaii? If you don't have enough money to fly out, there isn't much else you can do. Here on the continent, you can walk/drive/bike/bus/fly away from any place if you try hard enough. But the only way in and out of Hawaii is through air travel. Of course, you can cruise out of there too but let's forget that for argument's sake. People in Hawaii can't just "get up and leave" without any money. We, however, can. (Not comfortably, but still possible.)

What do you think? This goes for other island countries as well. *Poor people on islands are trapped on those islands!

Couldn't say. I'm Canadian.

But I think they could still move to the other side of the island and think of that as "getting up and leaving". And it can't be that hard to earn enough money to buy a plan ticket. Hawaii should logically have many fishing industries, right?

England doesn't feel 'trapped'. That's a little island. But I suppose if it's so close to France that we dug a tunnel to there, it must not be that isolated.

You can get tickets for less than 200 if you buy them in advance. Out of Hawaii that is.

Isn't Albino from Hawaii?

I think so, yes. Although if he's from Hawaii why is he albino? Lots of sun right? Right?..........

So is gas. So is starting a new life in a new city.

Though I don't live there, I'm sure most don't feel any more trapped than anyone else. It's cost-prohibitive for everyone to travel and start anew.

Ticket prices depend more on demand than anything else. A one-way ticket to somewhere not very popular during an off season should be manageable. Not $3 of bus fair manageable, but not awful, either. I paid $335 out of Maiu (a small airport, therefore more expensive) to SF (popular destination, so more expensive) on short notice (more expensive) this past summer (more expensive).

I don't know about trapped, but being able to go to all the way around a landmass in a few hours is freaky.

You could always live in the Rockies, and befriend some nice Indians, who will let you live with them. Be one with nature and all that. Meh, it appeals to some. I'd like it.

There are worse places to be trapped than Hawaii. Like, anywhere else in the world.

Lexicon, you lucky Canadian dog.

Where would they go? They already live in paradise.

I would too, as long as I could bring a laptop.

I don't think that's how it works...

Eh, but who am I to judge?

Oahu (the island that Honolulu is on) is only 600 square miles. Great Britain is 88,700 square miles. Plus Hawaii is 2500 miles from California. A lot smaller than Britain and a lot more isolated. I have cousins who live there and about once or twice a year they get a little "island fever" and have to come back to the mainland for a visit.

I feel trapped in Britain and that's a much larger and less isolated. But then I feel trapped mostly due to politics than anything else...

That actually sounds rather pertinent to the discussion to me.

Man, I wish there was a Canadian emoticon within my knowledge right about now...

As a Military Brat that's lived here for about three and a half years now, I have to say that I sure as hell do feel trapped on this rock. This is coming from the perspective of someone who will be graduating High School during the December of this year, so keep that in mind.

From the moment I set foot here, I was already beginning to notice the differences that a person faces with life on an island when compared to life on the mainland, even though I didn't realize that it was being on an island that caused those differences at the time. The whole "HAWAII IS A PARADISE TO LIVE IN!" nonsense is by far one of the more ignorant things I have heard people say.

Last I checked, most people's idea of a Paradise doesn't include it being very noisy, constantly humid, and over populated. Where I live, you can't turn a single street corner without anyone else being there. There is very little open land or forest to just wander off into, and the pieces that do exist are -always- fenced off as Private Property. I one time described Hawaii to someone, and they asked me a question that I feel could not have been any closer to the truth: "So it's pretty much London in the Pacific?"

I miss not being surrounded by ocean. I miss having places outside my bedroom that I could go to if I needed to be away from people. I miss quiet days. I do feel trapped in this place, yes.

A few months ago, I went off the island for a grand total of three days (including the time I was on planes and sleeping) and felt as if a great burden had been lifted off of me. The irony of this was that the reason I was off the island was to go to my Uncle's funeral. Anyways, as I was flying back into the island, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onp_KzZd2JQ

In my mind, I picture Hawaii to be my own little prison island that I need to survive. Growing up for the past three years here has given me a strength that I probably never would of been able to find anywhere else, but, as you all can clearly see by this post alone, it has left me feeling highly bitter.

Hawaii isn't the only reason behind that bitterness though, what with being a Military Brat and all. I also think that my opinion doesn't fit with the majority of responses you'll get when asking this question, but it sure as hell is what I believe in.



If anyone has any questions about Hawaii, feel free to ask. I'd more than happy to clear up some misconceptions that several people seem to have.

Meh, just find a picture of Wolverine playing hockey.

Do the locals have a pineapple god? Do they sacrifice pineapples to it?

That would be amazing. Wolverine vs. Jack Bauer

You racist [censored].

They sacrifice young Russian children. Ignoramus.

That must be why the air rates are so high.

Obviously.

Yes!