NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Ti Guahu fuma'tinas este na pinenta. Hu sodda' gi Mari Kurisato . An American's Cry for Help By Keith Olbermann Anchor, 'Countdown' Special Comment msnbc.com updated 9:31 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2010 Finally tonight, a Special Comment about health care reform and tomorrow's summit at Blair House. If I prove to have trouble getting through this, I apologize in advance. Last Friday Night my father asked me to kill him. We were just shy of six months since he was hospitalized and it was the end of a long day at the end of a longer week. Not to get too clinical or too grotesque on you, but he'd had his colon removed at the end of September and that went so well that it was no more complicated than an appendectomy. But what followed was a series of infections, like storms in the monsoon season, one arriving, blossoming, inundating him, my Dad shaking it off and cheerfully bouncing back, and then within days another one coming in to flatten him once again. Pneumonia, thr...

Last night, I got to watch ( mismo read along with the commentary) as Sachin Tendulkar scored the first ever double century in an ODI match, when he made 200* against South Africa in Gwalior. It was an incredible feat, breaking the previous records of 194 and 194*, but even more so because of the fact that Tendulkar is almost 37 years old and has had a fantastic past year in both ODI and Test cricket. In the past 12 months he's collected 6 Test hundreds and 4 ODI hundreds. With last night's 200 not out, he is just seven shy of completing a century of international centuries (from Tests and ODIs combined). I watched a match a few weeks ago where Chris Coventry a Zimbabwe player challenged to surpass Saeed Anwar's record initial record of 194, but only ended up tying it. Witnessing Tendulkar's feat last night, and this coming when he has been on an incredible streak lately was very exciting to watch. I'm pasting some pictures and articles about this below. ***********...

"Demand, don't ask." This is something that people have been telling Guam's leaders for years now about the military buildup, that being assertive is a far better strategy than being coy or meek. A group of Japanese Diet members who came to Guam last week, helped remind Guam's leaders of that simple fact. Given the magnitude of what the US military is planning for Guam, there is no room to be shy or whimpy about this. There is really no point in that, sen taibali ayu na hinasso. For years, Camacho's approach to the military buildup was filtered through that stupid idea that emerged after the closures of US bases on Guam in the early 1990's and the activism of the same period: that Guam might be pathetic and powerless most of the time, but it somehow has this strange, bewildering ability to hurt the military's feelings and chase them away. Although Camacho and others who supported the buildup since it was first announced, would always speak of the buil...

Hegel once said that every great thing, whether it be a person, event or thing, will appear not just once, but twice. Karl Marx later added on to this notion, that every potentially revolution moment or figure, must emerge and then be exorcised, by agreeing with Hegel’s thesis, but augmenting it as follows: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” As Guam winds down to the end of the second term of Felix Camacho as governor, this philosophical notion has for some reason been heavily on my mind. In the United States last year, when George W. Bush was officially no longer the President of the United States, it signified the end of an era, since for close to an entire decade, the great ship of the American state, had him at its helm. You would have to be a fool not to look back at such a length of time, and either blur things to where they weren’t...

The dreaded DEIS public comment period is finally over. I made the blog banner above (at the top of the page) to help highlight the importance of the past three months. For those of you who can't tell, the image is a drawing of Sumahi, while she is struggling to read through the many volumes of the DEIS, and sitting next to her is a timebomb, whose clock indicates that the amount of time left during which Sumahi has to defuse to bomb is simply "not enough." Annok na ti magof i mata-na, ya gi este na halacha na tiempo, dipotsi todu i manmata-ta (giya Guahan) taiguihi. The past few weeks and months have been crazy, literally too many things happening for me to keep up. As I've been writing about in my " Buildup/Breakdown " posts, the island has changed significantly since last November. The urgency of the deadlines for DEIS comments, generic fears over what sort of negative impacts the buildup would bring to Guam, and the everyday sentiments of colonial frust...

Last Friday while I was opening my grandfather's shop at the Chamorro Village, I took a break to head over to Chief Kephua's circle where a wave was being held to bring awareness to Bill 185 which the Guam Legislature will soon debate. The bill has been very controversial since it was first proposed as it would provide for civil partnerships and therefore legal couple rights/benefits for gay couples. I've included below some pictures and a press release written by Guam Youth Congress speaker Derek Baza Hills about the wave. If you are interested in learning more about these issues you can follow the GALA Guam Twitter feed . Proponents of Civil Rights and Bill 185 “Civil Partnership” to hold Thank You wave (Hagåtña, Guam – Thursday; February 4, 2010) As the Guam Legislature counts down until the expected February 22 scheduled session date, Bill 185 will appear before Senators and debate on the merits of the bill. As over thousands of families, friends and prop...

My car was broken into over the weekend and my laptop (and the car stereo) were stolen. My laptop was like a literal part of me, with my thoughts, works and photos of more than 12 years there. I have an external hard-drive, but its not working and so I had to take it in to get it fixed. Even if they fix it though I still won't have anything that didn't email to myself over the past year, since that's the last time I backed up my hard drive. But if they can at least give me that I'll feel much better. I feel so incredibly stupid about this because I accidentally took it with me when I took my class hiking. I had meant to drop it home, but in the rush of trying to prepare for the hike I had left it in the car. When I realized what I had done, I hid the laptop in the back of the car, so no one looking in could see it. Unfortunately for me, the thieves who stole it got lucky. They broke the window to my car to get the stereo and while searching around, stumbled upon the lap...

Desde i fine’nina na ma mentona este na “buildup” unu ha’ na sinangån-ña Si Maga’låhi Felix Camacho. “Tunas mo’na.” Achokka’ mampos dongkålu este na “buildup” ya meggai na na annok na manera na mannina’dåñu hit ni’ este, tåya’ nai na Si Camacho na guaha sinangån-ña kontra i “buildup.” Kada na Tåya’ nai ha sångan na ti siña ta cho’gue este. Tåya’ nai ha sångan na ti debi di ta cho’gue este. Tåya’ nai ha sångan na båba pat ti possipble este. Tåya’ nai ha sångan todu este na klasi siha…esta ki på’go. Para Hamyo ni’ mangkokontra este na “buildup,” hunggan hu tungo’ na achokka’ matulaika i hinasso-ña i Maga’låhi, ti gof matulaika, sa’ ha sapopotte ha’, lao malago gui’ na mana’parañaihon. Lao gi i mas kabåles na litråtu, este na matulaika gof impottånte . Todu maigi’on, kontodu ayu na kalang mampos dongkålu ya kalang ti fuyong’on, siña maikak. Ya kontudu este na “buildup” maskeseha i pinetpot-ña, siña mana’påra. Ya i mas dikike’ na patte, i mas etigo’ na detail siña tumutuhun i pineddong. Ko...

For those who don't know, the word "chumilong" is Chamorro for "to become equal." One of the most interesting things to come out of the DEIS comment period and the flurry of activist activity that has taken place, is that after four long and frustrating years, the media does actually start to treat the buildup is an issue which has more than one side. For years, the Pacific Daily News set the tone making primary any positive information related to the buildup and generally minimizing any possible negative issues. The Marianas Variety to its credit often has problems talking about an issue in a very full or complete way. They tend to give one side of the story in most of their pieces, and then another completely different story in another piece. Part of this comes from their regular printing of press releases. In general though, the buildup, even if it has "some questions or concerns" there was still this impression that it was nearly all good, and tha...