NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I sent this email out over the weekend. If you are interested in joining the conversation or helping in other ways, please contact me at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com . Please forward the info below to anyone you might think is interested. ****************************** December 17, 2011 Hafa Adai Todus Hamyo, As some of you may or may not heard, I recently became the Chairman of the Independence Task Force on the Decolonization Commission. Over the past year, since the change in Governor, there has been much more debate and discussion about political status, and so it is possible that we will be holding a self-determination plebiscite in the next few years. As the Chair of Independence I'm looking for anyone and everyone who is interested in helping get the message out about decolonization and Chamorro self-determination in general, but also independence as a political status option in particular. Please read below and see if you are interested in helping out. I am looking for...

“The Meaning of Pågat” Michael Lujan Bevacqua 11/23/11 The Marianas Variety The social and political meaning of the word “Pågat” has changed so dramatically over the past two years, it has been truly inspiring to behold. Before the military buildup Pågat was a place for select families to fish and to gather plants for natural remedies, and although it has always been a beautiful hike, it was known to most people as a dumpsite. The first few hundred yards of the hike was littered with all imaginable and some unimaginable forms of human refuse. At one point I remember seeing an entire set of front yard Christmas decorations dumped there. When it first became apparent that Pågat was in the (pun intended) crosshairs of DOD as a site for them to put five live firing ranges, the meaning of Pågat started to change dramatically. When I first began teaching at UOG prior to the whole DEIS comment period, if I had told my students I was taking them on a hike to Pågat, I would have most like...

When the military buildup was first announced, I remember people speaking so positively about the idea that "Guam could be just like Hawai'i." That the buildup would usher in such a period of fantastic ti hongge'on na economic prosperity that we would move to the next level of our island existence, becoming Hawai'i! Guam has long imagined Hawai'i as a greater, better, more American and more prosperous version of itself. People from Guam have long passed through or visited Hawai'i and understood it not through the lens of a fellow Pacific Island, and a fellow occupied island, but rather as that fantasy American space. Hawai'i is rich because America has fantasies about it, and because it has such a large, famous tourist industry. People imagined that Guam becoming like Hawai'i, would mean that all the superficial and largely meaningless things that you see when you visit a place as a tourist, or as a clueless subject of American empire would manif...

Mangguaiya yu' ta'lo. Gof kinenne' yu' as Guiya. Ti apmam para bei in ali'e' gi guinife-hu. Este un betsu para Guiya. ********************* Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (I think I made you up inside my head.) The stars go waltzing out in blue and red, And arbitrary blackness gallops in: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane. (I think I made you up inside my head.) God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade: Exit seraphim and Satan's men: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I fancied you'd return the way you said, But I grow old and I forget your name. (I think I made you up inside my head.) I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes they roar back again. I shut my ...

I've been posting for the past few weeks about my trip to Okinawa last month where I participated in the 2011 Japan Peace Conference. The posts can be found under the tag O Dreams . For the next week I'll be posting pics on my tumblr as well. Head over there to  I Pilan Yanggen Sumahi... in order to check them out.

After attending two international conferences in Japan, the initial luster has faded a little bit. The conferences are still impressive, but I am starting to see their limitations, but also the ways the organizers are attempting to overcome them. When I attended the 2010 World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, I was completely blown away. Nina'manman yu' ni' i lini'e'-hu guihi. Compared to conferences that I have organized in both Guam and California around similar issues, the level of attention and precision at this conference, (which by the way lasted for more than a week) was incomparable. Kalang taiparehu este. There were more than 100 overseas delegates, and in Hiroshima over 7,000 conference attendees (more than 2,000 in Nagasaki). And despite this logistical nightmare, almost everything started on time and finished on time. Compare this to the three Famoksaiyan conferences that I helped organize in San Diego and the Bay Area California in 2006...

Gof ya-na i lahi-hu Si Akli'e' ni' kanton tasi. Estaba ya-na umatan i kanton tasi, ya-na matto gi i kanton tasi, ya-na tumancho i kanton tasi, lao ti ya-na mamokkat gi i kanton tasi. Estaba taiguihi lokkue' i che'lu-na Si Sumahi. Achokka' gof ya-na matto gi i kanton tasi, ya-na mahoggue ha'. Ya-na kumuentos put i inai, lao sen mungga gui' pinacha'. Nigap annai hu konne' i dos famagu'on-hu para i kanton tasi Ypao sen na'chalek. I hagga'-hu esta payon gui' nu i inai gi i tasi. Pues gigon ha ripara i tasin unai gi i kanton tasi, malalalgu gui' ensigidas, ya ti apmam mamatiti'nas gui' kasityun unai. Lao i lahi-hu, ahe'. Ha essalaogue i inai. Ha chatge i inai lokkue'. Lao annai hu kena'tohge gui' ilek, "Mungga!!!!!" "Nooooooo!" Pues mata'chong yu', ya hu na'fata'chong i lahi-hu gi i tiyan-hu. Ya kalang un batko gi hilo' i tasi, ma'u'dai gui' giya Gu...

Not many people on Guam know about Okinawa, with the exception of the major bases involved in the transfer of Marines from Okinawa to Guam. I've discussed it earlier in my posts from Okinawa, the situation in Takae Village in the Yanbaru Forest in Northern Okinawa. I thought that it would be a good idea to post the following below from the website Okinawa Outreach . It gives a very good overview of the stakes involved with the protests in Takae Village. ************************ Save Takae ! Voice your opposition to the resumed US helipad construction ! On November 15, the Okinawa Defense Bureau (ODB) returned to Takae in the Yanbaru forest to resume the construction of six new helipads for US military for the first time in 8 months. According to Yamashiro Hiroji, a sit-in protester, about 70 people including 30 OBD staff members and 30 security guards showed up around 10:18 am in front of the Gate of N-4 Point with heavy machinery, demanding that the local residents and the...

Published on Friday, December 9, 2011 by The Guardian/UK Land of the Free, Home of the Hungry Nowhere is the chasm between America's political class and its working poor more vast than in the demand to cut food stamps by Gary Younge On Monday afternoon this week, Rachelle Grimmer went into a Department of Health and Human Services in Texas with her two children, Timothy, aged 10, and Ramie, aged 12, and asked for a new case worker who could assist her application for food stamps. She had first applied in July but had been told she hadn't provided enough information and, by most accounts, had been struggling to get by and get help since she moved from Ohio.  US food stamps: Republican lawmakers want to cut the Department of Agriculture's budget for food stamps by 20% She was taken to a small room, where she pulled a gun, sparking a seven-hour standoff with police. Shortly before midnight, three shots were heard . Rachelle had shot both herself and her k...

Every once in a while I leaf through The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi to see what sort of pidasun finayi or fragments of wisdom I might find there. When I find myself at a crossroads in terms of activism, or needing a hint of guidance on how to approach some aspect of community engagement, empowerment or consciousness raising, I find that Musashi sometimes has some great, profound, sometimes vague insights. For example, last year after the end of the ideologically turbulent DEIS comment period on the Guam military buildup, I wrote a post titled " Know Your Enemy, Know His Sword ," or in Chamorro, "Tungo’ i enimigu-mu, tungo’ i sapblå-ña." Part of the wisdom of this quote is that in order to defeat your enemy, in order to truly vanquish him, it is not enough to hate him. Ti nahong na un chatli'e' gui' ya ti ya-mu gui'. You have to know him, and his sword, which is another way of referring to his soul, in order to defeat him. That means tha...

I have been writing all week about how we can see similarities or connections between Guam and Okinawa, some of which have nothing to do with the transfer of US Marines from one island to the other. While visiting the protest camp for those opposing the construction of new US helipad facilities in Takae Forest in Northern Okinawa, I found yet another connection. The image above comes from a protest painting that was at the campsite in Takae. Even prior to visiting this area, I had seen this bird all over the place. It was featured in tourist literature, in advertising, and in posters for activist material or protests. For those on Guam, this bird should look somewhat familiar. On Guam we call this type of bird ko'ko , which in English is known as a rail. Ti gekpu este na klasin paluma, ya achokka' estaba meggai na paluma giya Guahan, i trahi-na uniku. Manggekpu i meggaina na klasin paluma guini, lao i ke'ko yan i sasangat i dos mas annok na ti gekpu. In Okinawa they re...

Although our writing is meant to reflect our lives and meant to be an extension of our lives, life regularly has its own agenda and gets in the way of our writing. I still have plenty more to say about my trip to Okinawa last week to attend the 2011 Japan Peace Conference. I have plenty of notes and plenty of pictures. I've uploaded so far 8 sometimes long and sometimes short posts about the trip, but I have much more, I just can't get to finishing them up yet. The semester is winding down now and so the stacks of papers that have been piling up all semester, are close to overwhelming me, and so I might need to take a break from writing about my trip to focus on other things. But don't worry, Okinawa Dreams will be back hopefully next week.

Local Artists Wanted: UOG searching for submissions for Storyboard 12 3:00 PM, Dec. 2, 2011 by Storm Roberts Pacific Daily News Perk up, Pacific island artists, it is time yet again to submit your pieces of art to the University of Guam's division of English and Applied Linguistics to be showcased in the 12th issue of Storyboard, a community literary journal. "Storyboard is a wonderful space to print local literature and art," says Victoria Leon Guerrero, editor of Storyboard. "It's a good place to publish things from discussing personal issues and (tying into this year's theme) describing community crossings encountered on Guam." Theme The theme of this edition of Storyboard is "Crossings" which, according to the contest informational poster, can be any of the following: crossing of water or borders; crossing and intermingling of cultures, stories and beliefs; Guam and its neighbors as historical, political, and social crossroads ...

Kao hoben yu’? Hekkua’. Anggen un kompara ham yan i manestudiante-ku siha, ahe’. Esta bihu yu’. Lao kao hohoben ha’ yu’? Lao yanggen un kompara ham yan i otro na manactivists siha giya Guahan, hunggan hohoben ha’ yu’. The conference in Okinawa is an Asia-Pacific conference, but in the International Forum, 10% of the delegates come from the Pacific. In the general Japan Peace Conference around 0.01% of the delegates come from the Pacific. We were incredibly small in terms of presence, yet we had a huge impact on the proceedings. Part of the reason why the Japanese were impressed and enamored with us is because or our youth. Looking around the conference, you might imagine that the average age of a peace-activist in Japan is somewhere around 50. This conference many many times felt like a Japanese version of the movie Cocoon . It was surreal to see so many friendly old Japanese men, talking about peace and love in such ways that you might expect them to be a hippie girl working ...