NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

This came from Sabina Flores Perez, a longtime environmental and economic activist from Guam. Her, myself and other members of Famoksaiyan are working on the Federalization issue of the CNMI right now. Taitai este ya put fabot konsedera umayuyuda ham gi este na che'cho'. **************** Dear Friends of Guam, It breaks my heart to see these changes happen without reprieve to the island that I hold dear to me. We have seen many of our leaders who have not come forward, who have been overwhelmed by the enormous task, or who have buckled under the pressure and the sense of hopelessness which accompanies the long struggle of justice and human rights for Chamorro self-determination, that the US, as the administering power, is legally and morally obligated to fulfill. I want to say to you that this buildup which has been reported to impact the island and her people on so many levels is not inevitable, but we must act fast. How, do you ask? Currently, there is a bill in the Senate, th...

Published on Sunday, January 27, 2008 by The New York Times A President Like My Father by Caroline Kennedy Over the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama. My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals. Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and ...

Hu pega gi pappa’, un mensåhi ginnen Si Dennis Kucinich, put i anten I Ha'anin Martin Luther King Jr. Olaha mohon na lokka'ña hao Dennis! Siempre yanggen lokka'ña hao siña manggana hao gi i botasion Amerikånu!!! Giya Guahan, in tingo' na yanggen umachånda Si Juan Malimanga yan Si Nano gi un botasion, siempre manggana' Si Juan. Lao ti manggana' gui' put suette, bininitu, minalate' pat pao'fresko. Manggana' gui solo put i etigo'-na Si Nano'. Gi i Comedy Shows guini (gi lågu) todu tiempo ma sångan na ginnen "The Lord of the Rings" Si Kucinich, kulang Elf pat Dwarf. Lao giya Guahån, guaha otro na fina'na'an para este na taotao: Duendes . Humanao yu' nigap para un dinaña' nai ma gof honora Si MLK, lao bai hu post mas put este agupa' pat agupa’ña. Para på'go, taitai este na palåbras, sa' kumekuentos Si Kucinich put i umababåk-ña i Intenon Demokratik giya i United States. Lao kontat ki ma gof dalalaki i ante...

A few days ago i presisu na haggå-hu Sumåhi turned 9 months! Ha silebra i mina'nuebe na kumplemeses-ña gi i kanton tasi. Gi este na mubi, ti siguru yu' kao ya-ña pat ti ya-ña munangu Si Sumåhi. Lao gof paire gui' gi ayu na magågu!

The Federalization issue in the CNMI continues to heat up, and as usual the politics that are taking place at the Pentagon and in Congress that has to do with the territories such as the CNMI or Guam, have little to do with the interests of these islands. The Federalization issue, from the perspective of the Feds is purely an issue of national security and also making it possible for the Department of Defense to take advantage of the labor pool of the CNMI as they look to build up Guam. Here we see a sort of unholy union of liberal activism which seeks to get fair treatment for alien workers in the CNMI, being used as a cover in order to recolonize the Mariana Islands, and prepare them for levels of militarization not seen in two generations. I am still regularly awed by how people, from Guam and not from Guam, can say with straight faces and without blood leaking from their eye sockets, that there is nothing wrong with the way Guam exists politically in relation to the United States, ...

Wexler Wants Hearings A website everyone interested in justice and a new direction for the United States of America, should check out, and become involved in. For those in Guam and the other territories who don't vote for President, don't have a vote that counts in Congress, yet get sent in huge numbers to the frontlines every American war, the issue of impeachment is still very important. We may not be "full" members of the American family , but the abuses of power that take place at the White House, Congress, the Pentagon all very much affect us. I wrote last week about the ways in which Guam has been brought into the War on Terror. When Donald Rumsfeld and Company were looking for a place to detain their freshly captured enemy combatants, Guam was one option. This is just one instance where we on Guam could have been made accesories to the abuses and excesses of power and authority that the Bush Administration has wrought. Thankfully the island was spared this, b...

There is little doubt that this world is presently an unfriendly place for the Chamorro language, since although there is in Guam an acceptance of people's right to speak Chamorro, there is still very little effort to revitalize the language, ensuring its survival and making it the language of general instruction and communication. For school and college age Chamorros who have grown up speaking English only, this environment can be surprisingly impossible and hostile as well, as you seem at times to be pushing against the flow of history, since many who do speak Chamorro seem indifferent to passing it on, don't see any value in passing it on, or would rather spend their team teasing you instead of teaching you. I've compiled below, for those interested in learning Chamorro, a series of basic tips to help you cope with this unfriendly or indifferent environment. But first, let me quote a little bit from the draft philosophy I wrote for Famoksaiyan last year, to stress the i...

At present I'm trying to extend the scope of my blog and its readership beyond just Chamorros who stumble across my blog because they are googling around trying to find the lyrics to the song Apo Magi or Japanese businessmen and American military who are searching for massage parlors on Guam. This shift was prompted when I received a new visitor to my blog, Carbondate, a progressive military blogger who is currently stationed on Guam. The name of his blog is the command post , and he has some very good commentary there, on the presidental races in the US and New Orleans, which everyone should check out. Last month he wrote a post about my blog titled " Chamorro Blogger: Remnants of Colonialism " which not only linked people to this blog, but also informed people in the United States in a very straightforward and clear way about Guam's status as a contemporary American colony. It is rare to see people from the United States on the internet speak so frankly about this w...

Desde hu taitai i lepblo-na "The Audacity of Hope" dumidide dumidide muya-hu Si Barack Obama. Hunggan, esta hu tungo' na ti mismo gaige gui' gi i bandan inakague' (Lefist), lao ti puniyon na sen maolek na pa'pagat gui'. Gof kapas kumuentos gi me'nan linahayan. Atan este na pinagat ginnen annai ti manggana' gui' giya New Hampshire. Achokka' ti manggana' gui', annok ginnen i fuetsa gi i sinangan-na, na tumutugon gui' mo'na taiatkagueti gi este na karera. Hunggan, hu konfotme i mensahi este na pinagat. "Hunggan Sina Hit!!!"

Umesgen este ginnen i inetnon World Can't Wait . Para hamyo ni' esta maleffa, gi i tinituhun, annai ma arresta i fine'nina na "enemy combatants" siha, mama'tinas i Pentagon "list." Gi este na lista ma pega todu i lugat ni' sina inos para u pinengle siha. Ma pega gi esta na lista, lao ti ma ayek, i na'ån i bunita na islå-ta, Guahån. Ai, guaha nai ti hu hongge i binachet i taotao Guahån. Atan i kustumbren i Amerikånu siha yan i militat-ñiha! Ma chule' magi i geran-ñiha gi i Tiempon Chapoñes, ya ma kechule' magi ta'lo i geran-ñiha gi este na "War on Terror." Ya ai adai ta'lo, ti Hita la'mon. Ti Hita la'mon. Todu tiempo, hu faifaisen maisa yu' este. "Ngai'an nai para ta atotga tumulaika este na estao-ta?” *************** The WORLD CAN'T WAIT is joining with the ACLU, Amnesty International and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and others in actions around the country, with the key p...

The deadline for abstracts for the conference I am helping organize on March 5-7 of this year, " Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies ," passed yesterday. We received alot of exciting abstracts, but are still considering extending the deadline until January 16th to solict a couple more. I've posted over the past few months some of the reasons why I think this conference is important and timely. In December for instance I wrote " Indigenous Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World ," which discusses some of the theoretical needs in the academic world, that make this conference necessary. I passed by another reason last week, at the Morongo Native American reservation , east of Riverside. Across the United States, there are literally hundreds of points like this. For most people in the United States they appear to be little more than casinos run by poor destitute Native Amer...

Julian Aguon will have a book reading and a book signing for his third book, "What we Bury at Night: Disposable Humanity", on Jan. 8 at The Venue in Hagåtña. The book documents the present day realities surrounding the United States' current relationship with Micronesia. The book is the result of his work from his time as a Sam Cohen International Human Rights Fellowship, which Aguon was awarded last year. For more information, contact Aguon at 472-4062.

As I've written regularly about over the past few weeks, in March of next year at UCSD, my department of Ethnic Studies we'll be hosting a conference titled " Postcolonial Futures in a Not Yet Postcolonial World: Locating the Intersections of Ethnic, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies ." To say a little bit about the goals behind the conference, we are hoping to take each of the three previously mentioned academic disciplines as well as the political realities they mean to study, and bring them not just into conversation with each other, but also bring them in conversation with the idea and the force that is the global. For those who don't know what I mean by global, since it is kind of an utguyosu na academic term, its not anything too abstract, but is simply anything which can appear or is asserted to stand in for, represent or touch the entire world. Indigenous, ethnic and postcolonial studies, are all academic domains which are directed towards particular pe...

I've just finished setting up my conference schedule for the rest of the school year, and it looks pretty exciting. In addition to the two conferences that I am organizing (click here for info on one, and I'll have more info on the other very soon), I've got four academic papers that I'll be presenting at conferences all around the country. The most exciting panel that I'll be on will be at the 2008 Indigenous Studies Conference at the University of Georgia. I'll be joined on this panel by three of my friends, to discuss in different ways the concept or spirit of "sovereignty" in the lives of Native Americans and Pacific Islanders. The title of our panel is Sovereignty and the Problem of Recognition. I'll post the panel description and abstracts below, since it'll explain where we are coming from better than I will. I've got a lot on my plate right now in terms of preparing for the new school quarter and then all the other writing and act...