NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

For those of you who don't me this about me, I've been a die-hard video game fanatic since I was a young kid. For those of you who have a similar disposition or know people like this, you know what the ultimate fantasy for us is. No, its not all the major systems. No its not Electronics Boutique gift certificates. And although having a multi-player arcade game like X-Men in your house comes close, the ultimate fantasy has to be, meeting a someone whom you are attracted to, and is just as much into video games as you are. Normally I would have something psychoanalytical to say here, like "according to Zizek, etc. etc. etc..." But honestly, my mind is still bubbling over the fact that I met a beautiful girl the other day who is just as into video games as I am! It was interesting, seeming to finally find at least the object of so many simple fantasies. How many times has a gamer pined over a girl who understands his addiction when his girlfriend yells for him to turn th...

I was giving this white guy a ride the other day from campus. His roomate is a friend of mine in my department, so that's how we had met and we were on our way to the beach to go kayaking with our mutual friend. I told him that I came from Guam. He asked a few nervous questions, and then admitted to not knowing very much about Guam. I told him that I'm from a colony, and the benefit of that is that you get to feel whatever you want about us, we are supposed to be at the disposal of your desire or disinterest. He asked me how far Guam was from the US. I told him, several thousands miles. "It must be pretty isolated then, huh?" he asked. I told him, not really. West of Hawai'i there are actually lots of islands, Guam is the largest in a chain of volcanic islands in the Marianas, and its surrounded by hundreds of others in Micronesia. He apologized saying, "Well I guess I can always blame this on my geography classes." We both laughed. He continued, "B...

I just turned in an article that will hopefully get published in an anthology next year! The article was 21 pages long, with massive, almost jaw shattering footnotes. In homage to my Zizek influences I made references to the following films throughout the paper, Hitch Monty Python's Life of Brian Cry Freedom The Matrix The Fully Monty Brassed Off Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde In & Out Samurai Champloo The Usual Suspects By the way, the title of my article is "Everything you wanted to know about Guam, but were afraid to ask Zizek." To sum it up in a few words, would go as follows, democracy, leprosy, family and radical resistance. Kao gaiinteres hao? Wondering where and why I discussed those films in this paper?

I just finished listening to the ESPN apology to the people of Guam on Tony Blaz's positively local show. Lana, achokka' maolek yanggen todu ma hungok este, na'ma'ase ha', na'ma'ase sinembatgo. If one wants to know why things don't change very often in Guam, or why Chamorros are such a deeply colonized and proudly coconut people, note the response of Tony Blaz and recall other instances where Guam was scandalized and an apology was tenured and where once loud cries of Biba Chamoru! or MANLALALU HIT MAMPOS! were to be heard, now all is suddenly quiet on the Chamorro front. After the contrite and effortless apology from the skel at ESPN, we hear Tony Blaz attempting to articulate the feelings of the entire island, and whenever someone attempts to do this, one will eventually return to the fundamental trauma of Guam today, "We're Americans too!" Which of course, Tony Blaz did cry out during his statements. Things remain the same precisely beca...

Yet another paper that I'm hoping by ranting about on my blog I'll gain some extra special insight into. Most of us from the Pacific are familiar with the films Whalerider and Terminator. For those of you who aren't, Whalerider is a charming tale of cultural change, perserverence, survival and hope. It takes place in a Maori village where the people aren't doing so well and look for someone to come and lead them out of darkness. In the story, a little girl, Pai is the main character who is the one who will "ride the whales" and lead her people, but no one knows this at the film's beginning and she is constantly misrecognized in this role because of the androcentricity of her culture which prevents her from learning the old ways. By the film's end her grandfather, who was the biggest obstacle in the proper recognition of her role, sees her for what she is and accepts her. But the story ends not with her accepting the role as the savior of her people, ...

Every once in a while I surf around Google, usually seeing what Guam sites are out there. What kind of weird combinations I can type in and find out there. I would regularly type in "Guam" and "blog" to see where my blog lands on the list. Nowadays I end up somewhere near the first listing. Other favorites to type in are Guam and philosophers. So I've typed in Zizek and Guam and Derrida and Guam, and so on. Last week I typed in Derrida and Guam and I came across something pretty cool. A list of someone's favorite Yu-Gi-Oh sites had my blog on it. Now that was one of those wonderful finak'cha'i.

Lacan is famous for his philosophical one liners such as "there is no such thing as a sexual relationship." Zizek's most exciting point is that he connects these "zingers" with pop culture artifacts. The other day I came across one myself. Lacan said, "what does it matter how many lovers you have if none of them gives you the universe?" I was reminded of this while listening to Weezer's blue album. Track two, "No One Else," is a nicely Lacanian love ballad. The chorus goes taiguini, I want a girl who will laugh for no one else When I'm away she puts her makeup on the shelf When I'm away she never leaves the house I want a girl who laughs for no one else The underlying message of course being, I want someone who reveals their laugh, that thing which is unique to them to me alone. Someone who will only lie to me. Someone who will only write for me sections of life most beautiful fiction, love. The makeup is a key term. I want someon...

Everyone on Guam is familiar with the example of the "white doctor." For those of you who aren't or who have forgotten about it, I'll refresh your memory. When people on Guam want to position themselves as being people who are "really" aware of what's going on, or not colonized dupes, they invoke this story. We all do this. If we want to talk about the inferiority complexes of Chamorros or even other brown people on Guam, we bring in to hypothetical doctors, one brown (usually Chamorro) the other white. If a Chamorro patient has the option to see either of these doctors, they will almost always pick the white one. The problem is however, that this story gets told as a sort of token. It gets told precisely so that what the story seems to question does not get questioned. People who tell this story, would probably want a white doctor nonetheless, even armed with the insight this story is supposed to reveal. The dynamic here is stretched to cover nearly eve...

The Nasion Chamoru has come out forcefully recently opposing the privatization of GWA and it is time for other concerned people of Guam and those of us in the diaspora (stateside, but nonetheless concerned and angry) to do the same. For months and years the Chamber of Commerce, the CCU and the majority of Guam's media have pushed hard for the privatiztion of nearly everything on island. Where does this mentality come from? It boils down to neocolonial forms of domination and control. Around the world, other peoples are facing similar struggles as corporations and First World government seeks to plunder and control their natural resources. While some of their situations may be more severe, the basic fight is the same, who shall control the wealth of the land? The Federal government already controls Guam's sea waters and much of our fresh water, now the local colonizing representatives in the government and the media are seeking to ensure that the rest of Guam's water be give...

Un nuebu na tinige' ginnen Si Naomi Klein Published on Tuesday, June 7, 2005 by the Los Angeles Times Torture's Part of the Territory by Naomi Klein Brace yourself for a flood of gruesome new torture snapshots. Last week, a federal judge ordered the Defense Department to release dozens of additional photographs and videotapes depicting prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. The photographs will elicit what has become a predictable response: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will claim to be shocked and will assure us that action is already being taken to prevent such abuses from happening again. But imagine, for a moment, if events followed a different script. Imagine if Rumsfeld responded like Col. Mathieu in "Battle of Algiers," Gillo Pontecorvo's famed 1965 film about the National Liberation Front's attempt to liberate Algeria from French colonial rule. In one of the film's key scenes, Mathieu finds himself in a situation familiar to top officials in the Bush...

I just stumbled across this while searching for articles by Robert Underwood online. I just skimmed through parts of it, I'll have to read it more closely again. http://rlenelive.com/Chamorro%20Related%20Articles/Chamorro%20Language%20&%20Culture/Ana%20Hill%20Thesis.htm

Largely inspired by the post I made here several months ago, I'm working on a paper for next year about Jacques Derrida and Yu-Gi-oh. I've been kicking around the idea for a while, discussing Derrida's ideas about friendship with Yu-Gi-Oh, and its wonderfully memorable characters like Yami-Yugi, Joey, Setu Kaiba, Pegasus, Marik, etc. and incredibly repititous dialogue (yugi "heart of the cards" Kaibi "no! this can't be real!" joey "let me at'em!" tea "c'mon guys." The limits of Yu-Gi-Oh match in strange ways the world that Derrida creates in his texts on friendship such as The Work of Mourning and The Politics of Friendship. It wasn't until this last week that I actually started writing it and there are two reasons for this actualization. First, I saw a call for papers which explicitly stated possible papers could deal with Derrida's ideas about hospitality, and the welcoming of the other who's arrival is not ...

Hu fakcha'i este gi un synopsisi i mina'tres na season Yu-Gi-Oh. Pine'lo-ku na este hafa kumanta-na Si Kaiba despues di inikak gui' gi as Yugi. The dead body lies in a vessel covered by sand and dust— Gold also lies there, and also a sword The body wrapped in a sheath of time— The corpse does not bear the king's name In that time on the battle field of the soul—he cries out A poem of war A poem to a friend Guide him to the place where long ago souls crossed. Bula na ya-hu put Yu-Gi-Oh, hinasso-ku na bei fangge' put Guiya gi un papet confrensia. Pare' siempre. Takfiha hafa kumekeilek-na Yu-Gi-Oh gi fino' Chamorro. Kao un tungo'? Kumekeilek-na "gina'chong" pat "inabok." Pues gigon un tungo' este, mas komprende'yon Yu-Gi-Oh ya sa' hafa todu mangga'kuentuso put i balin yan i fuetsan inabok.

I almost died when I first came across this and checked it out. Its so hysterical. http://www.blogthings.com/starwarshoroscopes/

For those of you who want to support the protection of Guam's water rights, and fight the patriotic privatization agenda, there is one small way you can do it. Guam Water Authority has some car stickers that they are offering to people to show their support for Guam's most beleaugered public institution. (I seriously think that if GWA waved more American flags, no one would hassle them at all) Here's the email I got, check it out if you're on island: "GWA Can Do It! say NO to Privatization." A vehicle bumper sticker with this message is available from GWA (Harmon office, upstairs; see Doris [647-2603]).