NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Published on Sunday, July 30, 2006 by the New York Times A Senate Race in Connecticut Editorial Earlier this year, Senator Joseph Lieberman’s seat seemed so secure that — legend has it — some people at the Republican nominating convention in Connecticut started making bleating noises when the party picked a presumed sacrificial lamb to run against the three-term senator, who has been a fixture in Connecticut politics for more than 35 years. But Mr. Lieberman is now in a tough Democratic primary against a little-known challenger, Ned Lamont. The race has taken on a national character. Mr. Lieberman’s friends see it as an attempt by hysterical antiwar bloggers to oust a giant of the Senate for the crime of bipartisanship. Lamont backers — most of whom seem more passionate about being Lieberman opponents — say that as one of the staunchest supporters of the Iraq war, Mr. Lieberman has betrayed his party by cozying up to President Bush. This primary would never have happened absent Iraq. I...

Achokka' sen magof yu' na gaige yu' giya Guahan (pi'ot sa' pa'go i kumpleanos-hu, ya manggaige yan manhami todu i familia-ku yan mangga'chong-hu), triste yu' didide' sa' gof chago' i nobia-hu. Macho'cho'cho' gui' giya Washington D.C. ya ti apmam pau hanao gui' para Honolulu, sa' pau tutuhon umeskuekuela graduate guihi. Para bei in ali'e naya' gi Augusto, lao despues di ayu, hekkua' esta ki makpo' i eskuelan ano ta'lo. Pues annok siempre esta ginnen este na mahalang yu' para Guiya, i minape-na, i pinacha-na, i chiniku-na, ya todu mas kosas ni' ti bai hu mentra guini. Put i kumpleanos-hu pa'go, meggai na taotao umagang yu', ya sumangani yu' "biba kumpleanos!" I nobia-hu lokkue umagang para u disehayi yu' minaolek gi i ha'anin mafanagu, lao umupus ham, sa' taigue yu' nai ha agang. Hu gof siesiente pa'go i pinitin minahalang, pues malago yu' pumost g...

Another one of my rambling response papers from my social theory class last year. For those of you who haven't read all of them that I've posted on my blog, I was working furiously hard to talk as little about the readings as possible and mention a Hindi movie at least once per response. This is particularly evident from this response which was supposed to cover the Mirror Stage from Lacan, ISA from Althusser, a chapter from the Gundrisse from Marx and chapter from The Interpretation of Dreams from Freud, and ending up being a rambling regurgitation of Zizek's last five books. Michael Lujan Bevacqua Social Theory b Professor Da Silva 4/26/05 Lacan, Freud, Althusser, Marx I’d like to apologize first, I’m behind in all my stuff, so I haven’t gotten around to doing the Marx readings yet. So Marx shall only make an appearance here as the spectre which Derrida has advised me to not yet exorcise. Lacan loved to pick on animals, as evident even in this reading, constantly using th...

TEN THINGS TO THINK ABOUT THIS JULY 1. War Reparations… The US signed a treaty with Japan forbidding anyone whether in the US or in Guam from seeking reparations from Japan for their conduct during World War II. A recent report revealed that Chamorros have not been justly compensated for their suffering in World War II. Will our people ever receive real recognition or compensation for being caught in a war which was not of their own making? 2. The United States abandoned Guam in 1941 to the Japanese: Chamorros were not notified that war was pending, in fact the Navy denied to many Chamorros that anything was wrong, or that anything would happen at all. Chamorros were not prepared, were not warned, and were not aided in any way, and thus sacrificed by the United States. 3. The United States refused to evacuate any Chamorros from Guam in 1941. Several months before the Japanese invasion in December 1941, the US Military evacuated all their dependents from the island. Wives and children o...

I am back on Guam, and this should be obvious since the painful lack of posting. I'm pretty sure I've lost whatever regular readership I had, and am now at the mercy of search engines and the links I place at the bottoms of all my emails. Part of the reason for the lack of attention to my poor, taiga'chong na blog, is because of all the preparations that my family on island is going through for my grandparent's 56th Wedding Anniversary Party coming up this weekend. Its nearly 1 am right now and I'm at the University of Guam struggling to finish a draft for the program to show i prima-hu siha, tiha-hu siha, yan si nana-hu lokkue. The computer I'm making it on is actually really really slow, so while I'm waiting for it to load up, I'm writing this post. The party looks to be alot of fun, meggai na parientes-hu pau fanmatto, meggai na atungo'-hu yan noskunatos na ga'chong-hu. (Guaguan este na gipot nai, sa' in pega gui' gi un hotet. Ya esta ...

Testimony By Robert A. Underwood Before the Guam Legislature On the State of Guam\'s Educational System Monday, July 17, 2006 Good Morning Members of the Guam Legislature. I come before you this morning to testify on an important educational matter- the matter of good governance. Good governance establishes the appropriate balance between community and administrative control over our schools and the future of quality education on our island. I come before you as a concerned citizen and long-time educator as well as former Member of Congress and an elected member of the Territorial School Board from 1978-1982. I am also running for Governor of Guam, and while it is difficult to separate roles here, I come here to express my ideas as a long time educator rather than as candidate for Governor. There is already too much partisan politics in education. In our American system of governance, school systems were founded by communities before there were state governments. Unlike other count...

Put fin, gaige yu’ tåtte giya hafa mismo i islå-ku, Guahan. Yanggen un tungo’ yu’ ya un tungo’ Guahan, siempre esta un tungo’ lokkue na sti bai hu sessuyi pumost guini gi i blog-hu, mientras gaige yu’ guini giya Guahan. Diferentes i tiempo guini (i tiempo relo yan i tiempo uchan yan minaipe), sa’ diferentes lokkue i klasin internet (ai adai, esta payun yu’ nu Wireless yan DSL). Yanggen gaige yu’ gi i gima’n iyo-ku grandparents, ya sumusurf yu’ gi i internet, put i dial-up na modem, ti sina ma usa i tilifon iyo-ku grandparents. Yanggen Si grandpa hinasso-ña na esta gaige yu’ apmam (fihu 15 minutos ha’) gi i internet, pau faisen yu’, “Mike? Kao gaigaige ha’ hao gi i internet? Kao macho’cho’cho’ ha’ i tilifon, sa’ gauha inagang ni’ hu nanangga…” Gof yayas yu’ lokkue desde matto yu’. Ti hu kekesångan na ti yayas yu’ gi i tiempo-ku gi lågu, lao diferentes i patte-ku ni’ yayas guihi. Gi lågu, todu i tiempo i tintanos-hu ni’ yayas, sa’ todu i tiempo, guaha na debi di bai hu tuge’ para eskuela...

I'm working on a proposal right now and so I'm gonna use this blog to try to work out the kinks, about the incredible failures of imagination over the Pacifc. At UCSD, we have a program or department called IRPS, International Relations and Pacific Studies. From what I hear its supposed to be one of the best programs of its kind in the United States. From what I know about the program though and after speaking to some of its students over the past few years, its status as "one of the best" clearly indicates that proficiency in the Pacific in the US is not a prerequisite for claiming to be an authority on it. An example from my time at UOG is the work of Robert Statham, a severely right wing scholar, who, armed with small tidbits of knowledge about the US offshore territories and its formed Trust Territory, called himself "the foremost political scholar of Micronesia" and of "the off-shore territories." His reason for coming into the Pacific and Mic...

Today while you are celebrating "Independence Day," please keep in mind the following points from Hope Cristobal (jr.) Reflections on Independence Day I have often wondered whether American’s understand what they celebrate every year on July 4th “Independence Day.” Perhaps some Americans consider this day as nothing more than a holiday, time for family, “Summer time is here!” Perhaps some Americans do reflect on the true meaning of this day—America’s independence from their mother country, given to them 230 years ago. Every American treasures and values their own independence. American parents raise their children with the hopes that one day they will be independent—their children will be able to make their own decisions and live freely as they choose. Isn’t this every American’s dream? And to have a sense of independence in one’s life is an essential need—that vital and quintessential value that American’s hold from the day they are born till the day they die. Let us re...

I've gotten an incredible amount of requests over the past few years ( desde hu tutuhon este na blog) for the lyrics to the J.D. Crutch song Apo Magi. Tonight, as a public service to all, I've decided to post the lyrics as I know them and understand them, which might differ slightly from the actual lyrics, sa' tanngga yu' didide'. Since I am all about language revitalization, I will not post an English translation to the lyrics. If you want to know what he's singing, please get a dictionary or someone who speaks Chamorro and start translating. A simple and fun task, but nonetheless difficult. The inital attempts can be frustrating, but you should not stop or give up so easily, breaking down the lyrics of a song can be very helpful in picking up pieces of grammar. I can speak to this from personal experience, since forcing my grandmother to help me translate Chamorro songs into English, was one of the activities which really pushed my Chamorro language learning t...

I will be heading back to Guam in less than a week and so the past few weeks have been an unsettling mixture of homesickness, anticipatory excitement, and stress over moving my stuff into storage for the summer to save money. Hunggan gof magof yu' na bai hu fafatto tatte para isla-ku, sen mahalang yu' nu i familia-ku (pi'ot i granparents-hu) yan i mangga'chong-hu siha. Lao ma'a'nao yu' lokkue, ya massa' didide', sa' i lina'la' Guahan tinempla manu na hu gof guaiya (kottura, lenguahi, nenkanno', familia, estoria, etc.) ya manu na gof ti ya-hu (patriotism ni' umoestototba, militarization ni' sina mandestrosa). As I wrote a few days ago, I intend to work this summer towards changing commonsense around the recent slew of current and intended military increases/torrents on Guam. So, in preparation, I am putting together an info sheet on the transfer of the 8,000 Marines from Okinawa. We can do a number of things with the sheet and ...