Talk to the hand: Hawaii makes shaka state’s official gesture

Thu 9 May 2024 17.29 EDT

The shaka is poised to become Hawaii’s official hand gesture.

Last week, Hawaiian lawmakers passed a bill that would officially enshrine the gesture in the state’s culture. The shaka, also popular in surf culture and commonly known as “hang loose” is a friendly hand signal made by extending the thumb and little finger while curling the three middle fingers.

“While multiple origin theories exist, all theories have the shaka developing within the state,” the bill states.

“More importantly, while multiple Hawaii ethnic cultures and resident groups have contributed varying layers of meaning to the shaka, there is a shared agreement in the shaka’s positive sentiments and usage toward sharing aloha, fostering connection, and being pono,” or righteous and balanced, the bill adds.

It goes on to describe shaka as a “key brand symbol for the state, offering influential power to build the state’s economy, global brand and resident pride”, adding, “As the shaka is now used around the world, this act ensures that Hawaii retains recognition as the birthplace of the shaka.”

In February, Steve Sue, a filmmaker who documented the roots of the hand gesture in a 2023 documentary, testified at a state house meeting on the bill.

“If California lays claim to it first because they’re hanging loose, easygoing. Not good for us, right? Not good for the meaning of the shaka, not good for the aloha meaning of it. Texas might use it as the Longhorns. I know in Utah, BYU [Brigham Young University] uses that for the “Y,” Sue said.

In Hawaii, the origins of the shaka can be traced back to the early 1900s when Hamana Kalili, a worker at Hawaii’s Kahuku sugar mill, got his right fingers caught in a sugar cane presser.

Following the incident, Kalili was transferred to work as a security guard for a train that ran between Oahu’s Sunset Beach and Kaaawa. As Kalili yelled and gestured at kids to prevent them from sneaking joyrides on the train, he would raise his right hand at them. The kids soon adopted his gesture and would signal to each other whenever Kalili was not around that they were free to jump on the train.

The gesture eventually became popular among other residents and spread across the world over the years. In addition to being featured in movies, the shaka gesture has been widely used by former presidents including Barack Obama, as well as athletes such as Brazilian football player Neymar.

Speaking to the Associated Press earlier this year, Mailani Makaʻīnaʻi, Kalili’s great-great-granddaughter, said, “I love the compassion part of it, you know, where, ‘Oh, okay, he doesn’t have all three fingers so I’m going to say hi the way he’s saying hi … It’s the idea that … I’m like you and you’re like me.”

According to Hawaiian governor Josh Green’s office, Green supports the bill and is expected to sign it into law, “presuming there are no flaws or issues”, the Washington Post reports.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/09/shaka-hawaii-official-hand-gesture

Watch: Former CNN Host Admits to Using Ivermectin After Once Saying Users Should Be 'Shamed'

May 9, 2024 at 7:51am

Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo is now admitting that he is taking Ivermectin, a therapy he once denounced and mocked on air, to treat lingering symptoms from a previous infection.

Back in 2021, when Joe Rogan, host of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” revealed he had taken Ivermectin after contracting COVID-19, Cuomo joined his colleague Don Lemon in ridiculing the use of the anti-parasitic drug, which the liberal media had derisively labeled a “horse dewormer.”

In an Instagram video at the time, the podcast host said he started feeling unwell over the weekend with a fever and sweats before getting diagnosed with COVID-19. He said he “immediately threw the kitchen sink at it,” including taking Ivermectin.

Like good little government soldiers, Cuomo and Lemon mocked Rogan on CNN, admitting they wanted to “shame” him.

“What person — you know, you talk about cancel culture and who to shame. Ivermectin, a dewormer, really?” Cuomo asked as Lemon chucked incredulously.

“They are shaming themselves — no one has to shame them. They’re shaming themselves,” Lemon responded.

“No, they need to be shamed,” Cuomo said. “They need to be called out and shamed, brother.”

At the time, anyone who admitted to taking or considering taking the drug was scorned thanks to the consistent anti-Ivermectin rhetoric parroted by the establishment media.

Well, now, it seems as though Cuomo is shamelessly backtracking from his prior position.

In a surprising turn of events, the NewsNation host revealed Tuesday that he not only has taken Ivermectin but he receives “a regular dose” to deal with the lingering effects of an infection, the symptoms of which include an inflammatory response and “brain fog.”

During an appearance on Patrick Bet-David’s “PBD Podcast,” Cuomo admitted that he was wrong about the information he was disseminating during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ll tell you something else that’s gonna get you a lot of hits,” he said. “I am taking a — what do they call it — like, a regular dose, you know, whatever — they’re trying to build up — of Ivermectin.

“Ivermectin was a boogeyman early on in COVID. That was wrong.

“We were given bad information about Ivermectin. The real question is, why?”

The former CNN host continued, “Everyone’s going to say, ‘Joe Rogan was right.’ No, Joe Rogan was saying –”

Cuomo paused and then admitted, “Yeah, he was right.”

“But that’s not what matters,” he went on flippantly without so much as an apology for the things he said about Rogan and everyone who took the drug.

“What matters is, the entire medical community knew that Ivermectin couldn’t hurt you,” he said. “They knew it … I know they knew it. How do I know? Because now I’m doing nothing but talking to these clinicians, who at the time were overwhelmed by COVID, and they weren’t saying anything.”

“It’s cheap, it’s not owned by anybody, and it’s used as an antimicrobial, antiviral in all of these different ways and has been for a long time,” Cuomo, who is now apparently an expert on the medication, continued.

“My doctor, who is now my doctor, was using it during COVID on her family and on patients, and it was working for them,” he said. “So, they were wrong to play scared on that.

“Didn’t know that at the time. Know it now, admit it now, reporting on it now.”

“The idea that, ‘Well, you were a vaccine proponent.’ Why wouldn’t I have been a vaccine proponent?” Cuomo continued defensively.

“‘No, no, but I knew at a time’ — no you didn’t!” he said, addressing an imaginary critic.

“What you knew was that people were telling you to be resistant to what the government was telling you to do,” Cuomo said.

Exactly.

Isn’t it the job of the media not to take the government’s word as gospel?

Isn’t it the job of the media to ask the hard questions and find the truth?

His reversal exposes how his arrogance and the herd mentality, which should be entirely antithetical to the role of a journalist, might have had grave consequences for which he refuses to accept culpability.

And that is something to feel shame about.

Instead, Cuomo and his cronies mocked and ridiculed anybody who shared a story of the positive effects of Ivermectin, essentially shaming people away from a drug that could have changed their lives.

https://www.westernjournal.com/watch-former-cnn-host-admits-using-ivermectin-saying-users-shamed/