NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

INDEPENDENT GUÅHAN HOLDS ITS FEBRUARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING Will discuss the importance of environmental stewardship under the theme of “Hu Guaiya iya Guåhan.” Independent Guåhan invites the public to its monthly General Assembly (GA) meeting on Thursday, February 23rd from 6 – 7:30 pm at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. The theme for this GA is “Hu Guaiya Iya Guåhan” and will focus on efforts to encourage environmental stewardship through the revitalization of Chamorro values.   The Inifresi outlines the six core elements that we must protect and defend in order to sustain and prosper as a community. This month’s GA will focus on the importance of tåno’ (land) and how an independent Guåhan can help protect this essential element of life. Over the past century, the Chamorro relationship to land has changed dramatically, primarily because of postwar displacement and changes in Guam’s economy. Land has moved from being some...

On February 16 th the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at UOG will be holding a forum titled “Tip of the Spear? Or Tip of a Nuclear Bomb?” The forum will feature a panel discussion on nuclear issues related to Guam and take place from 6 – 7:30 pm in the CLASS Lecture Hall. The event is free and the public is invited to come and learn more about a topic that is largely under-analyzed in our daily lives on Guam, but is in desperate need of more awareness.    Last year I conducted a study with my colleague at UOG Dr. Isa Kelley Bowman on local perceptions of risk, safety and security. We passed out surveys to 100 UOG undergraduate students in order to get a sense of what they felt the major and likely threats were to life on Guam. The surveys featured a list of 10 natural or manmade disasters that might affect the island. They were asked to rate on a scale of 1 – 10 how likely or unlikely they felt each was occur in our corner of the Western Pacifi...

As a contemporary colony, Guam doesn't get much attention anywhere. In a world where colonialism isn't supposed to exist anymore, being a colony isn't that great. When you try to articulate your colonial existence people tend to respond in a number of different ways. They may dismiss the colonial nature of your situation since it can't be as bad as colonialism was in the past. They may dismiss your complaints because you come from a small island that should be grateful to be colonized, especially by the most powerful country in the world. They may attempt to correct you and say that Guam is really a territory not a colony. Or a dependency and not a colony. Or a protectorate and not a colony. The United Nations is one of the few places where the idea of there being colonies left in the world isn't controversial, although this remains a salient topic in only certain parts of the bureaucracy. For example, a place like Guam doesn't have much represen...

Independent Guåhan organizes Trump Check-In A follow-up to their successful Trump Teach-In from last November. On November 15, 2016, Independent Guåhan organized a teach-in titled “What Does a Trump Presidency Mean for Guam?” The Teach-In, held just a week after the election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States, drew a crowd of more than 70 concerned community members to the University of Guam.   In the months since, Donald Trump has now been sworn in as President of the United States, and the country has been rocked by continuous protests over his proposed policies and already signed executive orders. There is a great cloud of uncertainty hanging over the United States and Guam is not exempted from this. As Trump begins to unravel existing economic and military alliances, and make aggressive moves towards China, the people of Guam are right to worry about how Trump’s term might affect their island. In response to these pu...

It is intriguing the way that so many people assume something to be impossible and frightening in a particularly local or familiar context, but then completely miss the way that they accept such things in other contexts without even a hint of fear or apprehension. In Guam, a colony of the US for more than a century, and a colony of Spain for several centuries prior to that, this is frustratingly true and real in terms of the people of the island, both indigenous and non-indigenous, living in terror of Guam becoming independent. For other nations and other locations, independence is something to celebrate, a key moment in terms of a nation's development or evolution, something to look back on pride, even if your country has serious problems past or present. But it is intriguing how for example, Filipinos, Chinese or Koreans and others on Guam can celebrate the nationhood and the independence of their own nations, whether it be from colonialism, from imperialism or from their own s...

Måkpo' i tiempo-ña si Barack Obama. Gi i hinichom i uttimo na sakkån-ña, meggai na petitions manhuyong put difirentes na taotao ni' mangkinalabobosu, ya kada manggagaggao mina'a'se para un presuneru. Dos na Chamorro ni' mapopongle komo presuneron federåt para u masotta. Mas ki un siento mit na taotao mamfitma petiton para i nina'libre si Leonard Peltier un Natibu na Amerikanu, lao si Obama ti ha ayuda gui'.  Estague na tinige' siha put i masottå-ña si Oscar Lopez Rivera, un independista ginen Puerto Rico.  ***************************** Obama commute sentence for political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera López Rivera, whose commutation was announced with 208 others, has been incarcerated for 35 years for his role in fighting for Puerto Rico’s independence by Sam Levin The Guardian/UK January 17, 2017 Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Oscar López Rivera, a victory for the Puerto Rican independence activist who is considered to be on...

My two PDN columns on the need to protect language learning at UOG. If you aren't familiar with the issue, please head to this website UOG Language Drive , to learn more and sign the petition. If we combine both online and paper signatures, we have collected over 1500 and are still working on getting more! ************************* Protect Language Learning at UOG Michael Lujan Bevacqua Pacific Daily News December 30, 2016 At present at the University of Guam, each undergraduate student is required to take two language classes (eight credits total) as part of their General Education or GE requirements. UOG offers courses regularly for Chamorro, Japanese, Tagalong, Spanish, Mandarin, French and can also offer courses in Chuukese and other Micronesian languages upon request. UOG is also home to the Chamorro Studies Program, of which I am a faculty member and this program is unique in the world in terms of focusing its courses on the history, language and culture of t...

Independent Guåhan Upcoming General Assembly will Honor Former Bank of Guam President Anthony Leon Guerrero and Discuss Jones Act For Immediate Release, January 20, 2017 – Independent Guåhan invites the public to its monthly General Assembly on Thursday, January 26 from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. at the main pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. For this first General Assembly of the year, the focus will be on the Jones Act and how Guam’s economy has been inhibited by this colonial imposition. The Merchant Marine Act, more commonly known as the Jones Act, was passed in 1920 and is designed to protect U.S. shipbuilding and maintain a vibrant American maritime industry. It requires that trade of goods between U.S. ports, including those in the territories be conducted on U.S. built ships, owned by US citizens and crewed by permanent residents or citizens of the U.S. This act has led to an artificial inflation of prices on goods sold in places such as Guam, which cannot take advan...

The petition drive to protect language learning at UOG continues.  If you haven't signed the petition yet, please do so at this link . Here is the website for the UOG Language Drive , which is being spearheaded by myself and other UOG faculty to protect language learning at UOG in the face of GE requirement changes which could drastically affect language programs at UOG, in particular my program, Chamorro Studies.  Below is the petition statement for the UOG Language Drive, in Chamorro, Japanese, Tagalog, French, Spanish, Mandarin and English. ***************************** Kinalamten para Lenguahi Siha gi Unibetsedåt Guahan  I hinangai-ña este para u na’adilåntu yan u chonnek mo’na i fina’nå’guen lengguåhi siha gi Unibetsidåt Guåhan. Manmama’nånå’gue, manmane’eyak yan manmansesetbe i fafa’nå’gue siha yan i estudiånte siha gi UOG para u manteteini i takhilo’ na minetgot-ñiha i kottura-ña siha yan i guinaha-ña iya Micronesia. Ginen este, ...