Learning to Farm on the Side of a Volcano

Oops, that's supposed to be "shared" not "shred" and "foot in
mouth" not "shoe in mouth" (who says that?). Shows what I know
about language! Also, apparently when you submit comments, the left
single open quoatation mark is automatically changed to an
apostrophe. The printed magazine, however, can print the okina
correctly in future issues (there's a clue too, when in doubt,
don't use anything).

The O‘o is a distinctly and genuinely Hawaiian farm implement which
played a central role in ancient agriculture here. It is not
Japanese. Further, the print version of this article incorrectly
displays the ‘okina (glottal stop marker in the Hawaiian language)
as an apostrophe rather than a left single open quotation mark
(anything else is not an ‘okina or "close enough"). While these may
seem trivial points to many, they actually illustrate just one
layer of the social complexity surrounding modern agriculture and
life in Hawaii. While I am entirely glad those in this article that
can afford to purchase land on the Kona coast have kept it in
agriculture (if you count cash crops for export as food) as opposed
to developing it, I would hope they would also promote an accurate
depiction of both Hawaiian and Japanese cultures to their visiting
laborers. When I shred this article with my co-workers (raised here
and of Japanese and Hawaiian descent), I expected a laugh such as
my wife and I shared when we read it. They rather took it quite
seriously and shook their heads. My intent in this comment is not
to make anyone look bad for honest mistakes, but rather to
illustrate the point that Hawaiian culture (define that as broadly
as you wish) is often inaccurately depicted whether through intent,
indifference, or inadvertance. I am sure those in this article fall
under the last category. So for all those non-Hawaiians out there
such as myself (who has put his shoe in his mouth more than once
regarding Hawaiian culture and language), while the Japanese who
came to Hawaii (such as my ancestors) may have used the O‘o
extensively, it is Hawaiian. Further, Japanese does not use glottal
stops and thus the ‘okina is not even part of that language.