NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

One of the most frustrating things about being a liberal or a progressive person from Guam is that the only people in Washington D.C. who tend to know anything about Guam are "hawks." Although people on Guam may see their struggle for decolonization or demilitarization as being something liberals would see as part of their agenda, as part of their ideological struggle to make the US or the world a better place, this is rarely the case. Guam is primarily to the United States, and by this, I mean nearly all ideological pockets in the United States, defined through its strategic importance and the fact that it has two US military bases there. What this means, is that even though you may want to reach out to the progressive side of the US Government or ideological spectrum when advocating on behalf of Guam, the only ears that tend to hear any of these cries or even have some background in order to understand them are thsoe who are lords of war or lobbyists for militarism and the ...

In December of last year I started a new feature on this blog titled "Learning Chamorro With Sumahi and Youtube," where I would pick a favorite video of i hagga-hu Sumahi from Youtube, and then list the Chamorro words which she usually uses to narrate the video as she watches it. In recent months my time has become very scarce because of work and family obligations and so I don't get to spend as much time with Sumahi as I'd like. There isn't much time to go to the beach or take a walk in a park or do any sort of normal bonding activities, and so often times, late at night, watching Youtube videos as our way of connecting. She usually sits on my lap, bouncing up and down as she gets excited at what she sees on my laptop screen. Its hysterical, because some videos she's already watched probably hundreds of times, and so even whens he watches it time #101, she'll still laugh and scream at the exact same moment. Unfortuantely, Sumahi's love of Youtube mean...

If anyone out there ever wants some quick insight into what I am like as an academic or a teacher, you simply have to remember that before I became an academic, an activist or a professor, I was an artist. So no matter what I am writing, what class I am teaching or what I am researching, there is always this festering, Duchampish, avant garde impulse to either push some boundaries or to infuse some creativity. So for instance, I am currently teaching three English composition classes at the University of Guam. Its something I never imagined teaching, and to tell you the truth, there isn't much about it that I've enjoyed (although the job ( yan i salape) is appreciated), but I still find ways to make my pedagogy or what I'm teaching match my instincts as an artist. Sometimes this has gotten me into trouble, thankfully, no serious trouble yet, but enough irritating little spats to ensure that I never want to teach English at UOG again. But to give you an example of my desire ...

I am almost out of graduate school, and almost an alumni from my Ph.D. program, Ethnic Studies at University of California, San Diego. I say almost, because I'm just waiting on word from my committee to submit the final draft of my dissertation to the graduate school. As I've been waiting for their approval, I've been closely following what's been going on on campus there lately. To say that things have been explosive at my school of UCSD lately would be an understatement. For a campus which I remember for being so large and yet so apathetic, what has been happening there lately has been mind-blowing, in both a positive and negative sense of the word. While I enjoyed my time at UCSD as a graduate student, the school nonetheless had a reputation amongst both undergraduates and faculty for not being very diverse and not being a great place for people who weren't White or Asian. When I was more active in the department it was almost impossible to get African American s...

Ti Guahu fuma'tinas este na pinenta. Hu sodda' gi Mari Kurisato . An American's Cry for Help By Keith Olbermann Anchor, 'Countdown' Special Comment msnbc.com updated 9:31 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2010 Finally tonight, a Special Comment about health care reform and tomorrow's summit at Blair House. If I prove to have trouble getting through this, I apologize in advance. Last Friday Night my father asked me to kill him. We were just shy of six months since he was hospitalized and it was the end of a long day at the end of a longer week. Not to get too clinical or too grotesque on you, but he'd had his colon removed at the end of September and that went so well that it was no more complicated than an appendectomy. But what followed was a series of infections, like storms in the monsoon season, one arriving, blossoming, inundating him, my Dad shaking it off and cheerfully bouncing back, and then within days another one coming in to flatten him once again. Pneumonia, thr...

Last night, I got to watch ( mismo read along with the commentary) as Sachin Tendulkar scored the first ever double century in an ODI match, when he made 200* against South Africa in Gwalior. It was an incredible feat, breaking the previous records of 194 and 194*, but even more so because of the fact that Tendulkar is almost 37 years old and has had a fantastic past year in both ODI and Test cricket. In the past 12 months he's collected 6 Test hundreds and 4 ODI hundreds. With last night's 200 not out, he is just seven shy of completing a century of international centuries (from Tests and ODIs combined). I watched a match a few weeks ago where Chris Coventry a Zimbabwe player challenged to surpass Saeed Anwar's record initial record of 194, but only ended up tying it. Witnessing Tendulkar's feat last night, and this coming when he has been on an incredible streak lately was very exciting to watch. I'm pasting some pictures and articles about this below. ***********...