Hawaii

Aloha Dream Vacations - Discounted travel and vacation planning services for all the Hawaiian Islands.

Eurotours Hawaii - Specializing in hotels, bed and breakfasts and vacation rentals throughout the islands. Discounted interisland airfares and rental cars also available.

Hawaii Activity Reseller - Searchable list of activities segregated by island or activity.

Hawaii Health Guide - Hawaii internet health directory listing health resources and services available in the Hawaiian Islands.

Hawaii This Week - Information on Hawaii, take a tour of all the islands.

Hawaii Tours and Activities - Full service travel and tour agency specializing in tour packages, car rentals, vacation accommodations and activities on all the Hawaiian islands.

Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau - Extensive, searchable Hawaii resource. Attractions, activities, accommodations businesses, each island's highlights, calendar of events, and weather information.

Hawaiian-Holiday.com - Hotels, airline tickets, rental cars, limo rentals, discount travel reservations and tourist avtivity guide.

Hello Hawaii - Personal Hawaiian vacation planning.

Pleasant Holidays - Vacation planning services for airfare, hotels, and local transport including online system for accessing rates and making reservations.

Hawaii (spelled Hawai'i in Hawaiian), is the North Pacific Ocean archipelago of the Hawaiian Islands, constituting, since August 21, 1959, the 50th state of the U.S. As of the 2000 Census, the population of Hawaii was 1,211,537. Honolulu is the largest city and the state capital.

Hawaii's distinctions among U.S. states include being

• the one with the southernmost point,
• the only one in the tropical zone,
• one of two outside the contiguous U.S.,
• the only one with no territory on the mainland of any continent,
• the one most recently admitted to statehood, and
• the one whose territory was most recently annexed by the U.S.

It also has all of its permanently inhabited area both in the tropics, and (thus) south of all other states.

State Symbols

The state motto is ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono ("the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness").

The state flag combines elements of the Union Jack, French tricolor, and United States flag in recognition of the great powers in the Pacific at the time of the consolidation of the Hawaiian monarchy. The eight horizontal stripes represent the eight major islands.

The state song is Hawai'i pono'i.

The state flower is the yellow hibiscus (Hibiscus brackenridgei or ma'o hau hele)

The state bird is the nene (Hawaiian goose).

The state fish is the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (Picasso trigger).

USS Hawaii was named in honor of this state.

Language

Hawaii has two official languages, English and Hawaiian. Although one will just as often see place names spelled in English as in Hawaiian, within the State the idea that correct Hawaiian spelling should be used has gained widespread support in the last decade or so. Because the written Hawaiian language was developed by U.S. missionaries in the early part of the 19th century, the spelling of Hawaiian words and their English equivalents are virtually identical, with the exception that Hawaiian uses two diacritical marks. Just as some knowledge of pronunciation is needed to correctly pronounce Hawaiian place names, these marks are necessary to establish both correct pronunciation and meaning of Hawaiian place names. Many people, especially those born and raised in Hawaii, speak and understand Hawaiian Pidgin in everyday conversation. Primarily a spoken language based on English, it includes words from Hawaiian, Chinese, and Japanese, among others.

History

Main article: History of Hawaii The Hawaiian islands were first populated by Polynesians some 1500-2000 years ago. These original settlers were thought to be voyagers from the Marquesas Islands. For most of its early history, the islands of Hawaii were independently governed by locally-based monarchs. In 1795 the islands were, for the first time, united under a single ruler: King Kamehameha I.

Because of its strategic location, the islands became a popular base for the American military, and soon underwent a massive influx of American-born, as well as Asian-born settlers. A ruling elite of Americans, made up mostly of wealthy sugar-plantation owners, soon gained much political control over the country. In 1893, the Hawaiian monarchy was deposed in a revolution representing their interests, assisted by unauthorized actions by American diplomatic and military personnel; Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown and her government replaced by a republic led by President Sanford Dole, an American settler.

On July 7, 1898 the republic's government and the US Congress agreed for Hawaii to be annexed to the United States as a United States territory, with self-government beginning shortly thereafter.

On March 18, 1959, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Statehood Admission Act which allowed Hawaii to join the Union as the 50th state. Hawaii formally became an state on August 21, 1959.

The manner in which Hawaii became a U.S. possession remains today a source of considerable controversy. In January 1993, a resolution was passed by the United States Congress apologizing for participation in the illegal overthrow of the sitting government in 1896. Today, Hawaii is an integrated member of the United States and a popular tourist destination, but discussions of sovereignty for the Hawaiian people continue, and are taken seriously by Hawaiian residents and their politicians.

Geology and Geography

The State of Hawaii is spread over 19 major islands and atolls in the central Pacific. The state government also includes minor offshore islands and individual islets in each atoll in its count of 137 islands; this number is often quoted in visitor literature. The inhabited islands are those from the Big Island to Ni'ihau (see map), but the island chain extends another 1000 miles to the northwest.

The main Hawaiian Islands and the counties of the state are shown on the map to the right.

Law and Government

The Hawaii state government is modeled after that of the U.S. federal government. It has three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch is headed by the Governor of the state, and all state agencies belong to this branch. The legislative body consists of the 25-member Senate and the 51-member House of Representatives. The highest state court is the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Unlike other states, municipal governments in Hawaii operate only at the county level. There are no incorporated cities in Hawaii, other than the consolidated City & County of Honolulu.

Economy

The total gross output for the state in 1999 was $41 billion placing Hawaii 40th compared to the other states. The Per Capita Income for Hawaiian residents was $28,221. Tourism is now the state's largest industry. Industrial product outputs are minimal because of the considerable shipping distance to markets on the U.S. West Coast or Japan, but would include food processing and apparel. The main agricultural outputs are nursery stock and flowers, coffee, macadamia nuts, pineapple, livestock, and sugar cane. Agricultural sales for 2002 (according to Hawaii Agricultural Statistics Service) were $370.9 M from diversified agriculture, $100.6 M from pineapple, and $64.3 M from sugarcane.

Demographics

The population of Hawaii is approximately 1.2 million, while the de facto population is over 1.3 million due to military presence and tourists. O'ahu is the most populous island, with a population of just under one million.

According to the 2000 Census, 41.6% of Hawaii's population identifies themselves as Asian, and 9.4% are Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. 21.4% describe themselves as mixed (two or more races). A large proportion of Hawaii's population is of Asian (especially Japanese) descent, from those early immigrants who came to the islands in the nineteenth century to work on sugar plantations. The first Japanese arrived in Hawaii on February 9, 1885.

The largest city is the capital, Honolulu, located along the southeast coast of the island of O'ahu. Other populous cities include Hilo, Kailua, Pearl City, and Kahului.

Education

Hawaii is currently the only state in the union with a statewide unified school system. Policy decisions are made by the eleven-member state Board of Education, whose members are elected for four-year terms. The Board of Education sets statewide educational policy and hires the state superintendent of schools, who oversees the operations of the state Department of Education. The Department of Education is also divided into seven districts, four on O'ahu and one for each of the other counties.

The structure of the state Department of Education has been a subject of discussion and controversy in recent years. The main rationale for the current centralized model is equity in school funding and distribution of resources: leveling out inequalities that would exist between highly populated O'ahu and the other, more rural main islands. This system of school funding differs from many localities in the United States where schools are funded from local property taxes.

However, policy initiatives have been made in recent years to move more decision-making power to the school level, and current Governor Linda Lingle is a proponent of decentralization, replacing the current Board with seven elected district boards. This discussion is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Famous People From Hawaii

Benny Agbayani, professional baseball player

Akebono (born Chad Rowan), sumo wrestler

George Ariyoshi, first Japanese-American elected governor

Hiram Bingham, missionary, Honolulu

Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Hawaiian princess and philanthropist

Charles R. Bishop, banker, philanthropist

Tia Carrere, singer, actress

Samuel N. Castle, missionary

Amos S. Cooke, missionary, educator

Father Damien, leper-colony worker

Sanford B. Dole, territorial governor, Honolulu

Jean Erdman, dancer, choreographer

Hiram L. Fong, first Chinese-American senator

Don Ho, entertainer

Daniel K. Inouye, senator

Gerrit P. Judd, advisor

Kaahumanu, Hawaiian queen

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, Olympic swimmer

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, entertainer and singer

Kamehameha I, monarch that united the Hawaiian islands

Kamehameha V, last of the dynasty

Konishiki (born Salevaa Atisanoe), sumo wrestler

George Parsons Lathrop, journalist, poet

Liliuokalani, Queen, last Hawaiian monarch

Ellison Onizuka, astronaut

Gabby Pahinui, music legend

Kawaipuna Prejean, Hawaiian activist

Harold Sakata, actor

James Shigeta, actor

Claus Spreckels, developer

Don Stroud, actor

Merlin Tuttle, mammalogist, Honolulu

Michelle Wie, golf prodigy

Miscellaneous Information

Hawaii, being one of the United States, is included in the North American Numbering Plan. Its area code within that plan is 808.

Hawaii Standard Time is UTC-10. Hawaii does not observe a Daylight Saving Time.

Hawaii has the only royal residence in the United States: 'Iolani Palace was once the home of King Kalakaua and Queen Lili`uokalani, the last monarchs of Hawaii. It is open to visitors.

Hanafuda is a popular family card game.

Hawaii has been the setting for many television shows including Hawaii Five-O and Magnum P.I.

Pele is the well-known goddess of Hawaii's volcanoes. Local legends and ghost stories often revolve around her visits, as well as sightings of Menehune and Nightmarchers.

Hawaii is home to two of the largest independent schools in the United States: Punahou School and the Kamehameha Schools.

Local directions in Hawaii are not expressed in terms of compass points (i.e., north-south-east-west) but by a radial system that uses local landmarks. For example, mauka means inland (literally, "towards the mountain"), while makai means the opposite ("towards the sea"). In Honolulu "Diamond Head" is equivalent to "east," because that's the main landmark on the coast east of downtown Honolulu, and "Ewa" is equivalent to "west," because that place is on the coast west of Honolulu. So instead of saying something was on the north-west corner of an intersection in Honolulu, it might be described as the "mauka and ewa" corner of that intersection.

Official state homepage

Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau

Hawai'i - Independent and Sovereign

Satellite image of Hawaiian Islands at NASA's Earth Observatory

Friends of 'Iolani Palace

Source: information here is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Hawaii.