Tres Sinangan

I'm down to the last few weeks to finish up my dissertation. I'm finishing a year ahead of schedule, so everything is a bit crazy and last minute, but its very important for me that I finish up as soon as I can and move on to other things. I've been in some sort of college for twelve years straight now and its starting to wear down on me, and the need for decent money to pay off loans and support a child and health insurance as I start getting older is also compelling me to finish up.

Obviously, there won't be much blogging for the next few weeks, unless I'm just posting stuff from my dissertation on here. (Gi minagahet, maolek este na hinasso.)

Before returning to writing I did want to share three quotes which have sustained me through the writing process, and are keeping me going as I type. The first is critical, the second is more reflective and the third is a call to action. They represent in a very nice (maninos) way the spirit of my dissertation.
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Sandy Grande, Red Pedagogy

The United States is a nation defined by its original sin: the genocide of American Indians…American Indian tribes are viewed as an inherent threat to the nation, poised to expose the great lies of U.S. democracy: that we are a nation of laws and not random power; that we are guided by reason and not faith; that we are governed by representation and not executive order; and finally, that we stand as a self-determined citizenry and not a kingdom of blood or aristocracy…From the perspective of American Indians, “democracy” has been wielded with impunity as the first and most virulent weapon of mass destruction.

Chief Seattle of the Duwamish

You Europeans did not weave the web of life, you are only a single strand of it. Whatever you do to the web, you do to yourself. Tribe follows tribe, nation follows nation. It is like the waves of the sea, it is the order of nature and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come. For even your god who walks and talks to you as friend to friend cannot escape the common destiny. We may be brothers and sisters after all. We shall see.

Epeli Hau’ofa, “Our Sea of Islands”

Oceania is vast, Oceania is expanding, Oceania is hospitable and generous, Oceania is humanity rising from the depths of brine and regions of fire deeper still, Oceania is us. We are the sea, we are the ocean, we must wake up this ancient truth and together use it to overturn all hegemonic views that aim to ultimately confine us again, physically and psychologically, in the tiny spaces that we have resisted accepting as our sole appointed places and from which we have recently liberated ourselves. We must not allow anyone to belittle us again, and take away our freedom.








Comments

Ms. Hernandez said…
Hafa adai Miget,

I know you're busy with your thesis and all, but going with your interest in biased media outlets, there's a new one called guamnewsfactor.com that is more like a tabloid than the PDN, if that's possible. They print sensationalistic drivel masquerading as news, but their perspectives are an interesting look at what it looks like when the media falls way too far to one side and doesn't bother hiding behind something as archaic as journalistic integrity.

Good luck with your work!

Si Marianna
Hafa Adai Marianna, how have you been? Thanks for the wishes of good luck on my dis. In a few weeks it will either be over and I'll be done, or I'll be dead from my brain exploding.

As for the Guam News Factor, I still don't quite get what that website is supposed to be. Its advertising itself as news, but its all commentary. The writers aren't even named, there's no accountability. Its not even well written commentary, but mainly just takes other sites' news stories and rewrites them. The piece on Jesse Anderson Lujan was really strange to read. How can you be a "news site" when you are basically writing about your news site as being ready and waiting to take down someone?

If you're ever interested, once I'm done with my dissertation, I'm hoping to work with some others to get a good commentary/news site going, from a more liberal perspective. Something similar to Guamology, but much more focused on politics and political matters.
Ms. Hernandez said…
Miget,

That sounds like a great idea. I always find myself at odds and ends with the media outlets we have available. I need news, but what I get is so angled that I have to wade through the bias to get to the truth. Sometimes rumors are more objective, strange as that might sound.

Speaking of writing though, I'm sure you're contributing to the Micronesian Anthology that Flores and Kihleng are putting together, but in case you aren't due to all the work that's bogging you down, I hope you can get to submitting some of your excellent stuff by June 1st.

Si Marianna

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