One of the things that bugs me … a lot, is when the media slants news coverage to make other countries seem to be bad places, based on a few instances of bad actions of some bad actors. When I headed to South America, many of my friends warned me to be safe, because the only thing they knew about South America were the stories coming out of Venezuela.
I decided to write a post about Honolulu showing the seamer side of the city. As I headed out one day to see my GP, I kept my eye out for the things about the city that I managed to ignore while I lived there. As I walked away from my friend’s condo, I counted 15 homeless persons in a three block stretch.
My appointment was for 8:30 am, so I was out walking early. The elderly woman living in the bus shelter had been rousted out and was set up in a nearby parking lot, when I came back from my doctor’s office. The man below isn’t dead. I saw his leg move from across the street. I tend to take my photos of the homeless from a distance. Many of them have mental conditions, that makes contact with them problematic. On the way back I saw that there was another man laying on the grass just a little further down, whom I hadn’t seen because of the heavy traffic.
As I walked the rains started. The old rundown buildings in this part of town were serviced by messy jumbled power lines. The roads are riddled by potholes. As a approached the medical center I came to one of the many polluted stream beds.
On the way back the clouds cleared. Crossing over the H-1, I took the shot above. This is considered to be very light traffic in Honolulu.
Honolulu is infamous for the good private schools and poor public schools. I doubt that they are any worse than other public schools in the USA. I was reminded of this when I walked past Central Middle School. (Quite an oxymoron.) As I walked past the old main building I noticed that the school’s historic name was Central Intermediate School. I sourly thought that the name was changed because the word was too long for modern students.
Hawaii is known for its surf culture. As seen above, even one of the numerous bail bondsmen got into the flow. This shop is located handily across the street from the middle school.
Down the block from the public school is a prestigious private school, St. Andrews. On the walk I saw saw three homeless people in the scant half block.
With all the darkness I documented, I decided to have my own happy ending and stopped for a Spam Musubi.
Actually Honolulu is a great place to visit, but stop telling me to be safe when I go abroad. Just tell me bon voyage. The countries I go to are no more dangerous, and in many cases, less dangerous than the US. In the towns I lived in, in both Mexico and Ecuador had no homeless sleeping 0n the streets. In Cuenca there were no beggars, and in Guanajuato there were only two panhandlers; two older gentleman who seemed to have been hurt in work accidents. In both towns I could walk the streets at night with no worries, like I could in certain neighborhoods in Honolulu.