NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

About six months ago I posted my first video on Youtube, which was a news brief made by the US Air Force about a town hall meeting that they had had with the residents of Guam about the impending military buildup. I've been meaning to put another one up for a while but haven't gotten a chance yet. So since I have a spare moment now I thought I'd put one up real quick. I didn't make this video or the other one, but just stumbled across them while surfing the net for Guam stuff and thought they should be something that Chamorros and others from Guam should be able to check out. This video is an interview with Guam's non-voting delegate to Congress Madeleine Bordallo, after she has just returned from a visit to Iraq and Kuwait. Here is the description that I put for the video, " Kumuekuentos Si Kongresu Madeleine Bordallo put I hinanao-ña giya Iraq. Ai kulang taisensia Si Bordallo. Puru ha’ minagof put i gera. Parehu ha’ todu i mampulitikåt siha. Ma na’fanhanao y...

I'm pasting below the statement of my department on the media coverage and government response to the fires that have been going on down here in San Diego for the past few weeks. Although there were definitely many successes in dealing with the fires to San Diego, in terms of saving lives and preventing property loss, and personally I am grateful that I wasn't evacuated or seriously threatened, there are a number of issues that emerged which we cannot be silent on and cannot dismiss as incidental towards an overall great efforts on behalf of San Diego to protect and save itself. First of all, the the constant comparisions of both media and regular people to this "not being another Katrina" was just far to revealing and defensive to miss. When Governor Arnold went around to evacuation centers speaking to displaced peoples who had lost or might lose homes, he constantly said, "no bad news, just good news." Although one could say that the joy at which media peo...

Its just a few more weeks until this year's National Pacific Islander Education Network conference. Once again I'll be running a life in higher education, college student networking session. I hope to be joined again this year by my friend Madel Ngiraingas and primu-hu Alfred Flores. I enjoy NPIEN in a different way then most conferences mainly because of how small, intimate, sincere and unpretentious it is. There aren't any big names there, any hot-shot academics (amko' pat bihu), no one there is really trying to make a name for yourself, because frankly most of academia doesn't know about these sorts of conferences. If you go to a small grassroots conference like this, its because you want to go. For the past few years its been held at a high school in Long Beach and so the amount of Pacific Islander high school and middle school kids that attend has risen dramatically. I admit that sometimes I have trouble speaking to Pacific Islander kids out here, and to the i...

Fanohge Chamoru The Guam National Anthem Fanohge Chamoru put i tano'-ta Kånta i ma tunå-ña gi todu i lugåt. Para i onra, para i gloria Abiba i isla sen parat. Para i onra, para i gloria Abiba i isla sen parat. U todu i tiempo i pas para hita Yan ginen i langet na bendesion. Kontra i piligru, na'fansåfo' ham Yu'os prutehi i islan Guam. Kontra i piligru, na'fansåfo' ham Yu'os prutehi i islan Guam. -------------------------------- Stand ye Chamorros for our country And sing her praise from shore to shore. For her honor, for her glory Exalt our island forever more. For her honor, for her glory Exalt our island forever more. May everlasting peace reign o'er us, May heaven's blessing to us come. Against all perils, do not forsake us, God protect our Isle of Guam. *********************** Gi Talo Gi Halom Tåsi/Satil Matawal Pasifiko CNMI National Anthem Gi talo gi halom tåsi Nai gaige tano’-hu Ayu nai siempre hu såga Malago-hu Ya un dia bai hu hånåo Bai fåt...

Miget: Ai adai, tinaka’ gof åpmam para ta egga ayu na mubi.   Shae: Hunggan mas ki tres oras i tiempo-ña. Miget: Lao, bai hu sangåni hao, gi todu i tiempon ayu na mubi – Shae: Hafa? Miget: Ti hu hulat bumira i inatan-hu. Shae: Mana’chetton i atadok-mu siha no? Miget: Hunggan, gof na’triste, gof na’bibu yan gof na’gaiesperånsa. Todu este siha na sinieñte manmayalaka gi este na tres oras put i lina’la’ este na gof matåtnga na låhi. Shae: På’go, put i bidå-ña, guaha ma sångan na mas ki taotao este na taotao. Kulang matata’chong gui’ gi i chi-ña i tinataotao. Miget: Interesånte. Shae: Ya put i gaige-ña guihi guatu na lugat, siña ha li’e todu i prubleman yan i kualidåt i taotao. Miget: Hu gof hongge enao lokkue. Gi este na mundo, todu ni’ manhihot, ni’ manggaigaige gi me’ñan i mata’-ta siña, fa’babachet. Este ni’ gaige gi halom i hinago’-ta, hinasso-ta na este ha’ todu i mindo. Lao ti ta li’li’e – Shae: Ya ti ta espipiha – Miget: Hunggan, ti ta li’li’e hafa mas, hafa guaha chago ginnen ...

Japanese activists: Guam will inherent Okinawa problems By Mar-Vic Cagurangan Variety News Staff 10/29/07 Japanese activists warned the people of Guam that they will inherit the problems related to military bases currently being suffered by Okinawans once the 8,000 Marines are relocated to Guam. "The safety of Guam will be at risk. The relocation of the Marines will result in increased crimes on Guam," Hiroshi Goto, head of the Japanese Peace Organization, said through an interpreter. Goto led a group of nine Japanese activist leaders, representing various organizations based in Kobe, Nagoya and Okinawa, who visited Guam over the weekend to meet with leaders and members of Nasion Chamoru and other local activist groups. "We are one with Chamorro activists in fighting for the abolition of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty," Goto said. Former senator, Yasu Take, said that besides an increase in social problems, Guam will also have to deal with environmental issues such ...

I have been out in the states for school for almost five years now. Since being out here I have had alot of time to write, think and research about what life is like for Chamorros out here. At present for a summer fellowship I got from the Cal Cultures Program at UCSD, I am working on a paper which will discuss the presence or absence of "decolonization" and "political action" in Chamorro social organizing in the state. Alot of answers I've gotten over the years as to why Chamorros just don't appear to be political involved in anyways shape or for, deals with how they are comfortable with who or what they are, where they are at, and for those who left Guam, they are glad to finally be "real Americans." Other answers deal with the fact that Chamorro culture is simply food, parties and having fun, and that there's really now room for being politically active or decolonizing there with the busy fiesta schedule. The reasons for Chamorros not being...

I'm posting below a very sobering article titled " Guantánamo's ghosts and the shame of Diego Garcia ," by Andy Worthington, which deals with some of the secret and not so secret military sites around the world which help the United States run its War on Terror. The two sites mentioned, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, are both places with a vaguely similar political status as Guam, meaning ambiguous, and similarly incredible military strategic value. It is important that Guam and those from Guam pay attention to the other political ghostly sites around the world, whose political ambiguities are outweighed only by their strategic military importance. I like to remind people, in order to make clear part of the value of Guam to the United States, that after 9/11, our island was on the list of places where the "enemy combatants" that are now collected in Diego Garcia, Guantanamo Bay and several other "secret" bases around t...

Its unfortunate that because of the fires that are tearing through San Diego right now, we at UCSD (which is closed for the next few days) probably won't be able to celebrate Islmo-Fascism Awareness Week. I was really looking forward to learning about how I by being leftist or critical of the current order of things, is supporting and promoting Islamo-Fascism. This week is being organized primarily by David Horrowitz's conservative college political machine, and their job in this instance, like with most others, is to connect the efforts of ethnic studies scholars, critics of domestic and international American imperialism, colonialism and exploitation, feminist scholars and people who error on the side of the "loony left" with those who are the most recent ultimate evil of the world. So the point of this week, is sure to demonize Islam, Muslims and people in the Middle East, but also to make clear that those of us who want social and economic justice and equality fo...

I've got a busy next couple of days ahead. I'm driving up north to attend Famoksaiyan meeting on Sunday, and I've also got a paper that I'm writing on the presence and absence of decolonization amongst Chamorro organizing in the diaspora, that I've got to finish by the end of the weekend. Don't know when I'll be able to post again for reals, so for now let me sate all of you with some Naruto videoes. I used to hate Naruto, gof taimamahlao na lahi, gof a'gang yan na'estotba. He's so annoying to read, s a' mampos ti kalamya gui', lao todu tiempo manggagana! Todu tiempo ha na'hahasso yu' put Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Ya ayu mampos gof ti ya-hu! What I'm posting below is a battle between Orochimaru and the Third Hokage (from the TV show), and just happens to be the fight from the manga that finally got me hooked into the Naruto universe. Over the summer, my nephew Kinboy left volume 14 in my room on Guam, and over a few weeks I flipped slowly...

På’go na ha’åni bai hu silebra i mina’sais na mes desde tumåta yu’. Esta sais na mes i idat-ña i hagga-hu, ya fihu ti hu “recognize” gui.” Todu tiempo linemlem yu’ as Guiya. Tåya’ propiu na palabra para i sinilebra på’go sa’ ti magåhet “Biba Kumpleaños.” Lao sinembåtgo bai hu alok “Biba Sumåhi!” Nihi ta silebra på’go i binitå-mu! I kinute-mu! I sinieñte na un pega gi halom i korason-måmi kada na in atan hao. Hu guaiya hao nene-hu, sen mahalang yu' nu Hågu, aya hu tutufong yan hu hohokka’ todu i ha’åni siha esta ki umali’e hita ta’lo.

I wrote several weeks ago that I was working on a fanslation Chamoru or a Chamorro fan translated comic book to help with the work of revitalizing our language. The one I was working on was only to be the first, I'm already working on translating several more. This year is looking very busy and very academic for me, so I actually enjoy setting time aside for this, because it allows me to practice my Chamorro and also just write something a bit more relaxing than my usual stuff on decolonization, imperialism, colonialism and the production of sovereignty. The first fanslation that I've completed is titled " I Ettimo na Tinina " or "The Last Praise," and its a chapter from the manga Kekkaishi . The story is a beautiful one in its own simple way which is why I chose it for the first one I would fanslate. So many manga stories drag on for several issues, hundreds of pages, but this one was a quiet, contained, but still in its own way deep little vignette. If yo...

I'm back from New York now and have plenty of things to do and stories to tell. (Doesn't it look that way from my "security" pass I got there?) My testimony at the United Nations on the Question of Guam the day before yesterday dealt with issues of decolonization, sovereignty, American obstructionism and self-strategic self-interest, and how those of us who are indigenous people or contemporary colonial people, struggle behind a wall which the United States and other nations today seem determined to defend. For those of us behind this wall, which I called the "Fourth World Wall" we are condemned to live without independence, without sovereignty, without nationhood and without decolonization. I made connections between case of Guam and the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and noted that those who openly rejected that declaration, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, are those who stand tallest and proudest atop...

Not a lot of time right now to post, my battery is running low and the wireless at the hotel where I'm at sucks. I'm in New York for the next few days, scheduled to testify either tomorrow or the day after before the 4th Committee at the United Nations on the question of Guam. It is an understatement of Mount Lamlam size proportions to say that I am excited and nervous about this. The United Nations as an institution has this incredible reputation for being almost completely useless, and yet at the same time so incredibly inspiring. Chamorros and others from Guam have been testifying before the UN for years seeking its help in pushing the United States to support the decolonization of Guam. As should be obvious to all and expected by all, this has not been very successful. To date the United States' official position on Guam and its other insular "possessions," territories or colonies, mungga' maentaluyi! To be put politely, the political statuses or needs of...

October 5, 2007 Op-Ed Columnist The New York Times Conservatives Are Such Jokers By PAUL KRUGMAN In 1960, John F. Kennedy, who had been shocked by the hunger he saw in West Virginia, made the fight against hunger a theme of his presidential campaign. After his election he created the modern food stamp program, which today helps millions of Americans get enough to eat. But Ronald Reagan thought the issue of hunger in the world’s richest nation was nothing but a big joke. Here’s what Reagan said in his famous 1964 speech “A Time for Choosing,” which made him a national political figure: “We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet.” Today’s leading conservatives are Reagan’s heirs. If you’re poor, if you don’t have health insurance, if you’re sick — well, they don’t think it’s a serious issue. In fact, they think it’s funny. On Wednesday, President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded ...

For a few years now I've been working as a writer for the still be developed but hopefully soon completed website Guampedia , which promises to be an sen maolek na resource for those in Guam and elsewhere who are searching for information on all sorts of aspects of Chamorro history, language and culture. Over the summer I finished an entry on "Religion During I Tiempon Chapones" which I am very proud of, and the year before that I completed several entries about the lifestyles of the Chamorros from several hundred years ago. I am by no means the only writer on the project, several dozen people are working on different parts of who we are as a people, where we have come from, and those who have (for better or worse) come to Guam to take or share our island. At present if you click on the link above, you'll see a skeletal outline of the project, and some demo entries of what the encyclopedia will look like. You can also find a number of easily accessible and sometimes r...