NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Published on Monday, July 27, 2009 by The Telegraph/UK Climate Change to Force 75 Million Pacific Islanders From Their Homes by Bonnie Malkin in Sydney A report by the charity Oxfam said Pacific Islanders were already feeling the effects of global warming, including food and water shortages, rising cases of malaria and more frequent flooding and storms. Some had already been forced from their homes and the number of displaced people was rising, it warned. "The Future is Here: Climate Change in the Pacific" predicted that many Pacific Islanders would not be able to relocate within their own countries and would become international refugees.It urged neighbouring wealthy countries to take urgent action to curb their carbon emissions to prevent a large-scale crisis. Half of the population of the Pacific live less than 1.5km from the coast and are incredibly vulnerable to sea-level rise and extreme weather. But as well as moving out, the report found that some countries had starte...

I attended a meeting on two weeks ago of individuals who are concerned about the Environmental Impact Statement for the impending military buildup of Guam, and who are all interested in working together to read the document and then organize some sort of response to it. The meeting went very well. The EIS , which for those of you who don't know, documents (according to the military, its consultants and certain regulatory agencies) what sort of adverse impacts will take place over the next five years, due to the different projects, activities and populations that the military is proposing to bring to Guam. The meeting went very well, because there are lots of people out there who feel daunted and scared by this document and the future it proposes to describe to us. The idea that it would take anywhere from 8,000 - 11,000 pages in order to chronicle the potential negative impacts that Guam will have to shoulder by 2014 is horrifying. It seems like more and more people are showing co...

"One" ginnen U2 Is it getting better Or do you feel the same Will it make it easier on you now You got someone to blame You say... One love One life When it's one need In the night One love We get to share it Leaves you baby if you Don't care for it Did I disappoint you Or leave a bad taste in your mouth You act like you never had love And you want me to go without Well it's... Too late Tonight To drag the past out into the light We're one, but we're not the same We get to Carry each other Carry each other One... Have you come here for forgiveness Have you come to raise the dead Have you come here to play Jesus To the lepers in your head Did I ask too much More than a lot You gave me nothing Now it's all I got We're one But we're not the same Well we Hurt each other Then we do it again You say Love is a temple Love a higher law Love is a temple Love the higher law You ask me to enter But then you make me crawl And I can't be holding on To w...

This Saturday, December 12th, We the People Inc. is sponsoring The First Guam Music Festival , which in addition to feature some local bands, will include the off-island acts of Ky-Mani Marley and Hawaiian group Ooklah the Moc. Click the link above for more details. I'll be at the festival partially in order to hopefully catch Ky-Mani Marley's live version of my favorite and only known song of his "Warriors" and because I was told that there'll be several bouncy castles there that I can release Sumahi into and watch ricochet around. But the main reason that I'll be there is in order to bring out the "We the People" aspect of the concert. Most will go there in order to hang out, see Bob Marley's son play and also just listen to some good island and reggae music. But one of the main purposes behind this festival is to try and mobilize people to register to vote and to get people active and engaged for next year's election. I'll be manning a...

I thought I'd do something a little different for my fanslation this time. Usually I provide some background on the manga chapter that I've translated into Chamorro and then offer to give the fanslated scans to anyone interested. This time, ( sa' ti gailugat yu') I've decided to paste here for those interested the translation I did. This time around I translated Naruto chapter 338, which is the issue where Shikamaru gets revenge for the killing of his master Asuma. ***************************** #338 – Iyo-ku Korason Faha Page 1: Kakashi: Maolek na ti atrasao hamyo. Ino: Sakura…Sai…yan Si Naruto lokkue’! Choji: Oi! Ta fanagulumi! Yamamoto: Tåya’ nai hu li’e’ hao taiguenao Kakahi, gof direchas kuetdas. Kakashi: Gof fotte este na kontrariu. Page 2: Kazuku: Måtto un otro na udu, yan esta machalapon gui’. Naruto: Mångge Si Shikamåru? Page 3: Choji: Mumumumu gui’ yan un otro na enimigu. Ti chago’ i dos. Kakashi: Sigi’ guatu dos yan ayuda gui’. Un suruhånu yan un dadaggao....

Ever since the EIS came out, the media on Guam has begun to sound more and more like the activists on Guam when it comes to the military buildup. People like myself, have been long saying that the buildup won't bring the jobs people are imagining or the money people are imagining and will most likely be a far bigger burden to Guam, than a fantastic gift. Now that the EIS is out, and the bubble of dreamy prosperity has been burst, all we are left with is the harsh and horrible realities of the next five to six years. 80,000 more people on island, massive infrastructure changes, massive increases of military hardware and personnel and plenty of dangerous to Guam's natural resources. A case in point is the article below from The Marianas Variety. For most people, what this articles covers might be new, it might be shocking, the idea that all of this military money will be coming into Guam in the form of contracts, and very few local vendors will have a chance at them. I'm hopi...

If you asked me right now who my favorite fictional character is, I wouldn't say Kakashi from Naruto, Spock from Star Trek, or even Jacob Black from Twilight. If you asked me right now I would have to answer the antiwar Barack Obama. He is the coolest. He's interested in shrinking the military budget, he's for peace and not war, is not interested in establishing more permanent US bases around the world, and is willing to admit that America is sometimes wrong and is not perfect. He's like the president from a great movie or tv show, one who completely changes the country, who takes a massive risk and decides to turn the most powerful country in the world into a radical new direction. In my favorite episode of the Antiwar Obama show, he tracks Dick Cheney to his secret underground lair, where he hordes away all the billions of dollars lost by war profiteering in Iraq and Afghanistan. There, Antiwar Obama fights off hundreds of Halliburton and Blackwater employees who are...

Although I've spoken about it to some people, I haven't formally weighed in yet on the current Senator Matt Rector scandal (as opposed to all the others the media has attributed to him this year). I'm working on writing up my response to it, but with teaching, parenting and helping take care of my grandfather who was recently released from the hospital, I might not get to it for a few days. Nonetheless I am dying to respond, because the issues at stake in this scandal are not so much about Matt Rector himself, but about the politics and worldview he is pushing for and the reforming of Guam's economy that he is working to bring to Guam, that Guam should take seriously. Finally in reference to the title and the post I've pasted below, this is also an issue about alternative media, something Guam is desperately in need of. But I did want to say a few things though while I'm at my computer and my blogger account is open. If you scan over the news coverage of Senato...

Ti hu gof komprende sa' hafa, lao fihu manuge' yu' put Si Sarah Palin. Annai ma anunsia na inayek gui' as McCain para Vice President gi i bandan Republican, hu tuge' este na post: " Sarah Palin as VP ." Annai tumunok Si Palin ginnen i ofisina-na, hu tuge' este na post: " So is Palin now a community organizers with no actual responsibilities ?" Annai ilek-na Si Palin na mandisidi na para u dingu i ofisina-na, hu tuge' este na post: " Palin resigns ." Hu tuge' este na post: " An Indigenous View on Palin's Alaska " put i estao i Natibu Amerikanu siha gi i Estados Unidos yan i botasion 2008. Este na post, i mas mabisita na post sa' pega i link gi i blog Crooks and Liars . Duranten i botasion 2008, fihu manuge' yu' put gender yan race, sa' ayu na botasion i fine'nina na biahi giya i Estados Unidos na malalagu (yan sina mailihi) un atelong na lahi yan un apa'ka na palao'an. Achokka' gu...