Fantasy Cricket

People often ask me:

"Kao guaha fun gi lina'la'-mu? Pat puru ha' che'cho'?"

"Do you have any fun in your life, or is it just work?"

I do admit that I do seem to privilege non-"fun" things in my life, but focusing most of my energies and time on different academic, activist and social justice projects. Right now I've got two big conferences on my plate that I'm helping organize for the Spring. One in March in my department at UCSD titled "Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies." The other will be in May and will be the 3rd Famoksaiyan conference. More info soon on this one, right now we're trying to secure a location and get the date set. I've also been writing some articles for different groups, publications and websties, including a piece for Guampedia I've been working non-stop on since the end of last year, on explaining the blending of cultures which takes place amongst Chamorros following the end of the Chamorro Spanish Wars in the 17th century.

Recently I've also become involved with the struggles against the Federalization of the CNMI. For a lot of people, who simply don't know very much about Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, this issue simply boils down to labor abuses. In the CNMI, foreign workers are being abused, and this needs to stop, because it is taking place "on American soil" and in order to make "American" goods. There is some merit to this, I am not saying that these concerns are not legitimate or important. But because liberals and people in general in the United States know very little about the region and its history to the United States, the rights of the CNMI and its people just simply don't matter.

For instance, in Al Franken's book, The Truth (with Jokes), he has an entire chapter on Saipan and the sweatshops there. Not surprisingly, the people of the CNMI have basically no presence in the chapter, good or bad, but are set aside as the chapter is set up to be a moral battle between impassioned and concerned liberals, despotic and cruel Asians, and corrupt and morally bankrupt Republicans (and their superlobbyists).

So basically, because the labor issue in the CNMI becomes reduced to this simple, moral cause against the abuse of workers, liberals are actually, unknowingly going against what should be their own interests, and that is the further militarization of the world by the United States. On the Federalization issue, liberals who are acting out of narrow humanitarian concern, are actually doing the work of the Pentagon and the military for it. By Federalizing the CNMI, the United States is preparing to realize its fantasy of transforming the entire Marianas Island chain into one "big military camp."

Here, we see people who, by deciding to not learn anything about the cause which they are taking up, are working to free one group, and will potentially recolonize another. I'm sure I'll post more on this later.

Sigh...Guaha nai ti hu komprende este na mundo. I mas "dumb" na toatao, Guiya ni' taitiningo' lao sinembatgo siguru gi hinasso-na yan bida-na. Fihu taiguini i kustumbre-ku. Bai hu tutuhun gi i chalan asta "fun," lao ti apmam bai hu abak, ya hafa estaba "fun," chumo'cho'!

I do have some fun however, whether it be going to movies, watching TV, playing video games, reading manga or other books. Posting on my blog, believe it or not, is a source of fun for me, as is running the different websites I'm in charge of.

One fun thing that I've discovered recently is Fantasy Cricket on Cricinfo.com. On this website, you can sign up and choose your fantasy cricket teams for different tournaments or series that are coming up. Based on how the team that you've chosen performs you'll gain points, and the website even gives out prizes to whoever has the most points. You can even create leagues with your friends, to compete against each other.

Right now, the next big series is beginning in Australia, the Commonwealth Bank Series which will feature 15 ODI matches amongst India, Australia and Sri Lanka. Two of my favorite teams (India and Sri Lanka) and my least favorite (Australia). The team you get to put together isn't ideal, because each player costs a certain amount and you do have a limit to what the entire cost of your team can be. The team I've got, isn't exactly what I wanted, since there are also limits on how many player you can have from a particular team, but I'm still hoping for the best with it. I nobia-hu and I have started a league on the website called "UCSD Cricket" where each of our teams will be dueling, and I've also started a team for i hagga-hu Sumahi. Wish us all luck, here's my roster (annok i chinatli'e-hu nu i Inetnon Austalia, sa' achokka' sina yu' yan gof kapas i taotao-na, taya' giya Siha na hu ayek para i inetnon-hu):

Sachin Tendulkar

Lasith Malinga

Kumar Sangakkara

Mahela Jayawardene

Sreesanth

Ishant Sharma

Virender Sehwag

Tillakaratne Dilsahn

Upul Tharanga

Robin Uthappa

Yuvraj Singh