NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

When teaching about militarism I like to use two poems in order to demonstrate the ways that war, military service and sacrifice become naturalized in societies and also the way they come to be challenged. The first is from Roman poet Horace and one of his Odes, in which he coined the line "Dulce Et Decorum Est, Pro Patria Mori" or "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." In it, the poet calls upon Romans to develop greater fighter skills in order to frighten off the always growing list of enemies of the empire. The second is written in response to Horace and also to the patriotism and militaristic sentiment that it is meant to evoke. Written by British poet Wilfred Owen, who fought in World War I and died during the war, it illustrates a brutish and ugly face to war, ignoring the glorious odes which people may devise to get young people excited and invested in military service. The famous line from Horace, Owens refers to as "th...

I am staying up all night tonight to finish an article on environmental discourses surrounding the US military buildup to Guam as it was proposed in the 2009 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and later formalized in their Record of Decision (ROD). This buildup as it was proposed never happened, as financial problems in both the United States and Japan as well as local resistance efforts, including a lawsuit ended up stalling and delaying the process for years. The buildup looks and sounds so much different today than it did five or six years ago. There is a greater emphasis on environmental stewardship and also constant reminders that the Department of Defense (who currently control 28-29% of Guam) plan to control less total land once the buildup is over. Part of the change in tone is due to the fact that the island of Guam changed in the buildup debate process. This is a key feature of my article. When the buildup was first announced, public opinion on the buildup was op...

It is less than 200 days til Guam hosts FESTPAC or the largest cultural festival in the Pacific. I am involved in FESTPAC in a number of forms and there are some ways that we are clearly ready and on course and others where ai adai it seems like it'll take a miracle for us to make it on time. But with each day, more and more things are decided and more and more groups come together. Hunggan sesso tai'esperansa yu' gi este na kinalamten, lao kada tumekkon yu', mafatto tinanga ta'lo. For those of you who would like to receive regular updates about FESTPAC, its planning and organizing go on Facebook and LIKE the official FESTPAC page. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/guamfestpac2016 Or, each Friday the Pacific Daily News is featuring a different column under the banner of "Saonao yan Eyak" which covers a different aspect of the organizing taking place and also hopes to help prepare the people for what it is like...

 I've been helping with the organizing of UOG's annual Puengen Minagof Nochebuena celebration for several years now. At first, I found myself very awkwardly participating, as much of the traditions involved, whether it be the praying of the nobena or the singing of Chamorro Christmas songs was foreign to me. I grew up in a home where we didn't make a bilen and certainly didn't go out into the jungle to obtain lumot for it. We sometimes sang some Christmas songs, but they were always in English and I was never really exposed to the exciting array of Chamorro Christmas songs, some of which are translations of popular English tunes (like "Similot" which is the Chamorro version of "Silver Bells") or gof katoliko na kanta siha, or Catholic Chamorro songs that feel like they were penned straight from the quill of Pale' San Vitores himself. As I grew up Seventh-Day Adventist, we didn't pray the nobena either.  Boñelos were a part o...

I would love to write up some of my thoughts on this article, lao tailugat yu' pa'go yan gi este na simana. I'm working on applying for promotion this coming week and also have a few deadlines for articles that have been consuming my writing time and energy. It does not help that this is the last week of classes either. ************* "Will Guam Be America's Next Pearl Harbor?" by Peter Navarro December 2, 2015 Real Clear Defense http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/12/02/will_guam_be_americas_next_pearl_harbor_108747.html Mr. Trump and Mr. Carson: Do you believe China would launch a first strike on American forward bases and, if so, will you commit to diversifying and hardening our forward bases to preempt such an attack? Senators Cruz and Sanders: As president, would you be willing to compromise with the opposing party on a budget bill that would restore military spending to a level necessary to defend our strategic and economi...

In 2005 I started a blog titled Decolonize Guam or "Peace and Justice for Guam and the Pacific." I ran it with a few other people for about six years, and posted more than a thousand news pieces related to Guam and Chamorros, but and also wider issues related to war and peace in the US and in the Pacific. For some reason (lao ti sina hu hasso sa' hafa) we stopped updating it in 2011, after things connected to the public comment period for the US military buildup had officially ended. It might have been because I started writing a column in the then Marianas Variety, which became a new focus for me. It could have been because I was now more consumed with my role at the University of Guam, as a professor though and using that venue as a conduit for various types of activism or educational events. I'm really not sure why I stopped posting there and updating it, but looking back I'm glad that we filled the site for a few years worth of content, as I find myself r...

Each semester I try to organize a Dinanna' for our majors and minors. We have grown as a program so much in the past three years, even though I am the gehilo' for it, I have trouble keeping track of things. There are so many things which make Chamorro Studies as a program or discipline different than other academic units at UOG. We are one of the programs which you could argue is most connected to the community, save for those who are explicitly about community service or engagement (such as the cooperative extension). We are also a program which, in the scheme of things at UOG, has to regularly argue for our existence, against all manner of colonial and ignorant nonsense. Many programs exist simply because they are part of an established Western or international canon for education. There is little obligation for the faculty, the students or the program, since their vitality is assumed to be a given because of that relationship between power and knowledge. Women and Gender...

One of the drawbacks to seeing your country as the most powerful in the world, or the greatest in the world, or even worse the greatest country in history, is that it makes changing yourself almost impossible. Your country will change, all countries are changing, often times whether the people want it to or not. But the larger your national ego is, the more difficult  it is to organize the chaotic coalition that is your national innards in order to solve basic problems. A smaller country, a less nationally narcissistic nation, which is less enamored with its own overblown and self-aggrandized image can have difficulties as well. But the "greatness" doesn't get in the way as much. Part of the problem if you think far too highly of yourself in this way is that your problems go from being unsolvable or impossible, to irrelevant, especially from those who may be standing in the way of any change, large or small, that could take place. The "greatness" of the countr...