starrwriter
12-03-2005, 03:49 PM
Scene at a supermarket in Honolulu:
A young Hawaiian boy repeatedly grabs items off the shelf. The 300-pound father, dressed in T-shirt, shorts and rubber flip-flop shower shoes (the "uniform of the day"), glares at his son through bloodshot eyes, snatches each item from the boy's hand and returns it to the shelf. The mother, a young woman with wavy black hair reaching down her muumuu to her waist, finally intervenes.
"Stop it, Kanoa!"
Kanoa takes one more item.
"You want me to broke your face?" the father threatens.
Sheepishly, Kanoa puts the package back on the shelf, looks up at his rotund father and flashes a toothy smile.
My thoughts on the scene:
*Parental disclipline, Hawaiian-style. Family Protective Services seldom gets involved unless bones are actually broken.
*The colorful pidgin English used by Hawaiians often contains an element of violence. "You like beef?" is NOT a question about meat preference (as I discovered one dicey afternoon when I first came to Hawaii.)
*Hawaiians look out of place in a supermarket. A few generations ago they obtained nearly all of their food from the ocean, the rainforest and small family farms where they grew mostly taro to make poi. Now virtually landless with limited access to fishing grounds, they buy fish and poi in stores for exhorbitant prices they can't really afford. Long before contact with white people, a Hawaiian kahuna prophesied: "Some day we will be strangers in our own land." That day has arrived.
A young Hawaiian boy repeatedly grabs items off the shelf. The 300-pound father, dressed in T-shirt, shorts and rubber flip-flop shower shoes (the "uniform of the day"), glares at his son through bloodshot eyes, snatches each item from the boy's hand and returns it to the shelf. The mother, a young woman with wavy black hair reaching down her muumuu to her waist, finally intervenes.
"Stop it, Kanoa!"
Kanoa takes one more item.
"You want me to broke your face?" the father threatens.
Sheepishly, Kanoa puts the package back on the shelf, looks up at his rotund father and flashes a toothy smile.
My thoughts on the scene:
*Parental disclipline, Hawaiian-style. Family Protective Services seldom gets involved unless bones are actually broken.
*The colorful pidgin English used by Hawaiians often contains an element of violence. "You like beef?" is NOT a question about meat preference (as I discovered one dicey afternoon when I first came to Hawaii.)
*Hawaiians look out of place in a supermarket. A few generations ago they obtained nearly all of their food from the ocean, the rainforest and small family farms where they grew mostly taro to make poi. Now virtually landless with limited access to fishing grounds, they buy fish and poi in stores for exhorbitant prices they can't really afford. Long before contact with white people, a Hawaiian kahuna prophesied: "Some day we will be strangers in our own land." That day has arrived.