NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I haven't posted anything for quite a while and there's some very good reasons for that. One, which I'll have more info on soon is that I spent the weekend helping my grandfather sell and display his tools at the Micronesian Island Fair at Ipao Beach. The other reason is that I finished up my first full draft of my second chapter for my dissertation. This chapter focuses on answering two obvious questions for a dissertation tentatively titled "Guam: Where the Production of America's Sovereignty Begins!", and those are, "Why Guam?" and "Why Sovereignty?" This chapter also is meant to discuss my methods for my dissertation, and how I will use Catherine Lutz's article "Empire is in the Details" as a frame for using jokes, off-hand remarks, mistakes, blog comments and anecdotes as evidence for my points on sovereignty. Two weeks ago I posted the extra, unused, and edited out sections from my first chapter under the post Tiempon Ma...

Earlier today Colin Powell formally endorsed Senator Barack Obama as a presidential candidate on Meet the Press. I have long been ambivalent with regards to Colin Powell, appreciating the restraint or intelligence and willingness to inject the effect of race into discussions, but also realizing he has long been a key player in the greed welfare succubus known as the military industrial complex, both in the military and private sector. Finally, although many may not remember, although I wasn't born yet, I tend to always think of Colin Powell as the intelligent articulate African American soldier who helped whitewash atrocities committed by American soldiers in Vietnam in the 1960's. With all that being said, I watched the endorsement on Youtube and part of a press conference he held when the news initially broke, and Colin Powell, despite his role in creating and exporting the machinery of American violence and exceptionalism, is a very smart and well-spoken person. His off-han...

The new Oliver Stone movie will be out tomorrow and I'm very excited about it. For better or for worse, Oliver Stone movies were one of my first very concrete experiences of being masumai or dunked into a historical context, and not hating or loathing it. Despite the creative liberties taken in the films, there is something often more real about them then actual real life, as if through fiction you can actually reach what "really" happened in a way that if you simply video taped the world you couldn't. Films such as JFK, Platoon, Nixon and Born on the Fourth of July, all brought me into American history in such a way that I was both entranced and disgusted. For me, and you may disagree, but JFK and Platoon were riveting stories, and Nixon was a film I thought I would detest or find boring, but like most Oliver Stone films I found myself wrapped up in it, and embodying what was probably the base intent of the film, that more people both understand Nixon and hate him. T...

***Please forward as widely as possible*** Dear UCSD/community member: James Gilchrist, the founder and leader of the Minutemen Project has been invited to speak at UCSD. For those of you that don't know him, Mr. Gilchrist is a high-profile, professional nativist rabble rouser. His job consists of going around the country to spread lies about immigrants and sow fear and hatred towards them. His 'lecture' will be at the UCSD Extension complex, room 129, this Thursday, October 16 at 10am For official event listing, go to: http://extension.ucsd.edu/programs/osher/classes.cfm#series According to the event's description: "Jim will speak about the origins of The Minuteman Project and the uncertain consequences to the United States if immigration policies and laws are not enforced." Please plan to attend the event to speak out against Mr. Gilchrist's presence in our community. We need to loudly and clearly (but peacefully) condemn UCSD's Osher Lifelong Learni...

Whenever I come back to Guam, I find myself closer and closer to death and mortality. When I speak about the state of affairs on Guam both here on the island and elsewhere, one of the shocking statistics that I tend to bring up is the almost unbelievable rates of death for certain cancers on Guam. According to research done by Dr. Lisa Natividad, for some of these cancers, the rates of death are 40 times higher on Guam than they are for the rest of the United States. Another statistic that I often cite is the number of Chamorros from Guam and the CNMI that have been killed fighting in America's "War on Terror." The numbers are appalling considering the small populations of Chamorros. When you combine them with the deaths of soldiers and contractors from other Micronesian islands, you have more than thirty people killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf. I wrote on these deaths several months ago in my post " We Are War Stories ." Anot...

Thought I'd try out something new, because I was having trouble falling asleep because of my brother's trombone playing. Since I was living in the states for so long and often had little space to practice speaking or listening to Chamorro, in order to keep fresh my Chamorro language skills, I often came up with quick and easy practices to help keep building my vocabulary. One of these practices that I've shared regularly through this blog has been the taking of songs in English, Hindi and Japanese and writing lyrics to their tunes. The lyrics are sometimes related to the original words, but not always and sometimes I change the theme completely to accommodate my own interpretation of the mood of the song's music. Some examples are " Hum Aapke Hain Koun " from the film of the same name, " Call Me, Call Me " and the anime Cowboy Bebop/Cowboy Bopeep, and " Wave of Mutilation " by the Pixies. Another practice I sometimes do is when I'm list...

I'm sure its a constant refrain in almost any place, but in Guam, being an island, far away from its colonial center, this refrain seems almost oppressive at times. What I'm referring to is the idea that "nothing is going on" or that there's "nothing to do." When I was an undergraduate on Guam I would hear this all the time, usually as a preface to a rant expressing a desire to move to the states or to leave the island and its smallness behind. I know today a lot of why this urge to leave the island exists, apart from the insularity or isolation of any island, there is a colonial dimension to this desire. At times I may have even felt this, especially when I was first establishing myself as an artist on Guam, and had trouble selling my abstract work or finding places to exhibit my work. I pined for a larger market with a more mature or "modern" buying audience, instead of the Japanese tourists and local population who just wanted beach scenes o...

Este i mensahi ginnen i Maga'lahin i CNMI para i Tetset na Konfrensian Chamorro. Hu po'po'lo i mensahin i ma'gas i CNMI, sa' i mensahin ginnen i Maga'lahin Guahan Si Felix Camacho, gi fino' Ingles! Lana, taisetbe ayu na taotao. Esta hu tungo' na ti sina fumino' Chamorro Si Camacho, lao meggai na taotao manmacho'cho'cho' para Guiya ni' sina! Ti mappot, umbree. Put este yan i guinaiya para i militat muna'ti ya-hu i tiempon-na Maga'lahi. Maninisista hit pa'go "leadership" gi i lenguahin, kutturan yan atte Chamorro na banda siha, lao taigue Si Camacho gi este siha, yan fihu i taotao na ha ayek para u ma'gasi este, ti mangkapas. Annok ta'lo este, gi i mensahi-na para i konfrensia. Ma usa tres ha' na sinangan Chamorro, " Hafa Adai" "Un dangkolo na Si Yu'us Ma'ase" yan "Sinseru yan Magahet." Eiiii, adai. Despensa kontiempo put i dinilitreha, sumahnge taimanu ma dilitreha...

I know the article below is long and I didn't write it, but its frankly one of the most thorough and best written articles I've seen on John McCain's entire life. It takes a look at the maverick credentials of McCain, and the gaping holes in the myth that McCain is a real authentic, independent and presently sinless politician. The appeal of both Barack Obama and John McCain is myths. There is no other way that a human body, with a functioning brain can achieve that sort of appeal or power, the gap between the fact that this is just a regular flesh and blood, falwed person and that this person might rule or govern and dictate my and all of our lives, has to be filled with something. Ideas, stories, images that make it okay, that make it seem fine, acceptable or even good and just. When you reach the general election, these myths get tarnished a bit as the candidates muddle their messages to attempt to "connect" to as many different types of voters as possible, but...