NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Chicago Factory Sit-In: A Symbol of What's Wrong and What's Needed By Peter Drier Huffington Post 12/9/08 Since Friday, 240 members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), a small but feisty union that has always been in the progressive wing of the labor movement, have displayed uncommon courage. They have illegally occupied their Chicago factory after their employer abruptly told them that it was shutting down the plant. Equally impressive, President-elect Barack Obama, by quickly endorsing the workers' protest, showed the kind of bold leadership that progressives have been hoping for, but didn't expect to see so soon. Indeed, Obama's statement puts him ahead of Franklin Roosevelt, who didn't embrace worried workers' escalating demands until after his inauguration in March 1933, when a quarter of the workforce was unemployed. The workers began their sit-in on Friday, after their employer, Republic Windows and Doors, closed the f...

Despite being an emergency substitute teacher for four History of Guam classes at the University of Guam for the entire month of November, I was still able to finish up the first sprawling draft of the third chapter of my dissertation. Yanggen ti macho'cho'cho' yu', siempre mas nina'funhayan as Guahu. When I say sprawling, I am not exaggerating, this thing is was forty something single spaced pages, and could have gone on longer if I hadn't eventually hadn't considered the damage I would be causing my chair if I continued. The inanakko' of this chapter is due primarily to the fact that it is a sort of mainstream lit review of sovereignty, and an explanation about why I cannot use mainstream sovereignty texts or even the concept itself when talking about Guam's political status and talking about sovereignty for the island. Not wanting to produce a traditional or very simple literature review, I instead created a very convoluted but eventually worthwhi...

The recent attacks in Mumbai even has people in Guam whispering about security issues and the threat of terrorism right here on island. This conversation is hardly new, in particular since World War II, after the island was invaded and occupied by the Japanese and later reoccupied by the United States, discussions of this sort, about potential attacks or threats to the island are always feared, always lurking in the backs of our consciousness. In the Cold War, there was always a fear about the Soviet Union and the United States going to war and Guam once again being caught in the middle of an apocalyptic conflagration. Today, the island's proximity to China, North Korea and the Asian continent in general, helps to stimulate even more fears about Guam being erased from the face of the world by an errant nuclear missile, or swallowed up in an all out war. This ongoing discussion is completely understandable, and absolutely necessary. Guam's history, Guam's contemporary realit...

Last Thursday night, I was speaking on a panel at the University of Guam Lecture Hall, as part of a public forum/discussion on the planned military buildup for Guam. I'll be writing more about my thoughts on it later, because there is plenty to consider. I got to listen to and talk to some members of the Government of Guam Civilian Military Task Force, which is in charge of "preparing" Guam to deal with the typhoon of military presence that it will soon be forced to endure. Also, there is the fact that hundreds of people came to attend the forum, and students were even standing lined up along the hall's sides and sitting on the floor. Here's two article from the Marianas Variety and the Pacific Daily News that covered the event. The PDN article in particular is interesting, since it almost completely ignores the spirit of my comments (which could be considered to be controversial, were viciously anti-colonial and pushing for the island's declonization, but w...

Here is my latest Fanslation Chamoru, chapter 171 of Naruto, titled "Tatahgue" or "Replacement." This is the second part of an earlier fanslation that I did, " I Tilu na Maga'gera ," which featured a big fight between the three "Sanin" of Konoha, Juraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade. This chapter continues that story, and also helps build up that very familiar and regularly tiresome, but inevitable story arc, in that Naurto will one day become the Hokage or leader of the Konohagure. Apologies ahead of time for those who would like to read this latest fanslation. There might be one or two errors in this one. I saw them when I was first editing it, but in the time since I've forgotten where they were, and no my brain doesn't pick them up when I read the manga. I hate it when that happens. As an academic when you're brain gets blind spots like that and fixes the mistakes you're reading in order to smooth things over, it makes you look...

On November 29th, the Chamorro creative arts group " Ginen I Hila’ I Maga’taotao Siha " wil be hosting a Stories and Songs Festival, which is free and open to the public and will feature Chamorro/Guam storytelling as well as arts and crafts. The group has been organizing a series of very enjoyable presentations recently, even having on before Halloween, where they told ghost stories on the beach at Ipan. I'll be participating in this festival in a number of ways. First off me and i che'lu-hu Kuri will have a table set up in order to display the tools of our grandfather Tun Jack Lujan. My grandpa has been a Chamorro blacksmith for more than 80 years now, and whereas the island once had several dozen tool makers, he is now the only traditional one, or one who comes from a generational legacy. Put i mafana'guen-na i che'lu-hu, esta gaige gi entre i familia-ku kuatro na henerasion herrero. Yesterday I posted some videos of grandpa, Kuri and me working in the sho...