NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

People take different approaches the language revitalization and preservation. You can often divide these interventions into either which segment of society they are focusing on, and whether their efforts deal with past, present or future forms of the language. For instance, when designing a language curriculum, which audience are you focusing the structure of your curriculum to satisfy or to appeal to? This is one thing that I have regularly been critical of in terms of how curriculum or language learning materials are created on Guam. As most people creating the curriculum are native speakers for whom Chamorro is their first language, they may struggle in understanding what it is like to learn Chamorro as a second language. Their interests in the language will be very different than someone who does not speak it but wants to learn. Their feel of the language will be drastically different than someone who is very unfamiliar with it. What will appeal to them or make them happy is not...

Guam’s relationship to the United States begins in 1898 when the island is take as part of the Spanish American War. The Spanish had ruled for 230 years and during that time economic development had been nil. The Spanish governor of the island controlled the economy, severely restricting private enterprise, and many used their power to ensure what little money on the island ended up in their hands through their personal ventures. The arrival of the United States represented the chance for new economic openness and so many Chamorros applauded their new colonizers. Although the United States represented itself as a nation of liberty, freedom and democracy, none of these things were allowed to exist on Guam for the first 50 years of American rule. In 1899 a Naval government was established. A single Naval governor held control over both civilians and military on the island, and was tasked with benevolently civilizing the Chamorro population. Chamorros at th...

Deception and Diplomacy: The US, Japan, and Okinawa  For the student of contemporary Japan, these are sad times…because of the growing sense that Japan lacks a truly responsible democratic government to address these issues, and because its people deserve better. By Gavan McCormack ,   June 7, 2011 .  Originally published in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus . Share   The following text makes extensive use of the treasure trove of documents on the US-Japan-Okinawa relationship released by Wikileaks and published in The Asahi Shimbun and Ryukyu Shimpo in May 2001, setting them in the frame of four decades of chicanery. It also discusses the so-called “mitsuyaku” or secret diplomacy between the two countries that has gradually come to light in the past two years without any help from Wiki, the “confession” of former Prime Minister Hatoyama, the strange case of the “Maher affair, and the shock waves of recent shifts in thinking ab...

Fine'nina bai hu na'klaru este, ti hu gogof komprende hafa masusesedi gi i Gima'yu'us Katoliko giya Guahan. Hu tungo' na guaha yinaoyao. Hiningok-hu na meggai na taotao mandesganao nu i Maga'obispo. Ha aguguiguiyi un nuebu na "cult" gi i familian guma'yu'us. Este na cult ha fa'sahnge yan ha fa'takhilo' maisa siha gi un banda. Mannina'layo' i otro siha, sa' este na cult ti para todu i gaihinengge. Kalang para i manakhilo' gi hinegge na i mas fi'et na taotao. Esta mana'suha dos na guaiyayon na pale', sa' ma chanda i Maga'obispo. Estague i tinige'-na Si Peter Onedera put i yinaoyao. Ya-hu i tininge'-na sa' gi fino' Chamoru. ************************ Kao malilingu i respetu tatkumu baluhan kottura? Tinige' Peter Onedera August 5, 2014 Pacific Daily News Piniti yu' na ma huchom i Faninadahen Kosas Katidråt-Basilika. Noskuåntos menhalom taotao siha...

"Disgraceful," "Criminal Act": Israel Condemned as 10 Die in Another Strike on UN Shelter in Gaza Monday, 04 August 2014 11:34   By Amy Goodman , Democracy Now! The United States and the United Nations have condemned Israel after an air strike killed 10 people near the entrance of a United Nations school sheltering Palestinian civilians. The school was reportedly being used as a shelter for about 3,000 people. It was the second attack on a U.N. school in less than a week, and the seventh over the course of Israel's offensive in Gaza. The coordinates of the school were reportedly communicated to the Israel Defense Force no fewer than 33 times, the last time just an hour before the shelling. Shortly after Sunday's attack, the State Department issued a statement saying: "The United States is appalled by today's disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school." U.N. Secretary-Gene...