Post #113131 by boutiki on Wed, Sep 8, 2004 4:35 PM

Hey Everyone!

I just got home and saw this thread and since my name was brought into it, I thought I should respond. I did speak with Tiki-Toa last night while I was on my way to Michigan to bury my best friend for the last 15 years (my dog Curly). I have talked with Toa a few times—he contacted Amy and me while he was putting together the event in Wisconsin and more recently with questions regarding his hope to do a book. We also had the pleasure of meeting him and his family when they came down to Chicago for lunch at the Chef Shangri-La over ITD weekend.

Last night Toa mentioned to me that a bunch of folks on Tiki Central were pissed at him, and when I asked "why" he said he had a disagreement with someone in the "Shout" forum but genuinely seemed nonplussed as to why other people were angry.

I can't speak to any of the accusations or grievances being aired in this thread. We have been very busy this summer and have not kept up on Tiki Central as much as we'd like to. I've never used the "Shout" forum (I'm too slow a typist to do any "chatting." Amy will tell you, it takes me forever to write an email or post a reply like this) so I don't know what the problem is. If it's about politics, I thought Hanford (rightly) banned that topic from Tiki Central. I do think it's kinda' weird to troll for feedback about yourself, but people do strange things all the time.

I can speak to what I have been privy to with regards to Toa's intentions with the book idea. He has never given me any indication that he was looking to "cash in" on Tiki Central or its members. While his enthusiasm has been a little over-the-top at times, and his ambitions (in my opinion) very lofty (I mean, the guy tried do a large Tiki event single handedly, and it cost him a fair amount of money out of his pocket) I think the worst thing he could be accused of was some naiveté'. I told him that it is difficult to get a publisher to accept your idea, harder still to put an entire book together in a cohesive manner, and next to impossible to make a dollar or two doing it. We even discussed the fact that perhaps the idea would make a better (free) website than book.

While nobody knows what is in a person's heart, it seemed to me that his passion and exuberance for Tiki (as well as the Tiki community that Tiki Central has created) is genuine. In the end, Tiki-Toa will, as everyone does, have to be accountable for what he says and does and I am not going to defend or justify anyone's behavior here. It does bother me when people feel that they can not express themselves freely here for fear of being group-berated and that sometimes there is a "pile-on" mentality. I had hoped that past instances of ugliness and questions of "what has changed" had sorted this out and that things were getting back to a more positive aloha spirit.

On that note, I know that lots of folks (Amy and I included) are really looking forward to the Hukilau and I hope that perhaps when people have the opportunity to meet face-to-face and to talk about things in more than short posts and emails, that maybe they will see what they have in common rather than their differences, maybe some fences can be mended, and everyone can share a mai-tai and a good time that will carry them through until the next big get-together.

Just my thoughts, take them for whatever they're worth.

-Duke