NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Kada puengge kalang umafulo' este na dos gi i katren-mami. Fihu i dos gumalilek, bumira, yan gumaddon taiguini gi este na litratu. Lao ai adai, guaha na biahi, annai fine'nina makmata' i lahi-hu, ayu na fine'nina na noskuantos na minutos, i mas mangge'. Put hemplo gi i mubi guini gi pappa'.

Even though I wish I was at the Rallies for Sanity and Fear today in Washington D.C., that desire to be there is more for the fact that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are funny shows and I enjoy watching them, and so a rally based on them, will most likely be ridiculous and hysterical. My desire to go isn't much of a political desire, after all, even though The Daily Show is about politics, it is not really supposed to be about politics, but about making jokes. Jon Stewart has shown regularly over the years, that he is a comedian and he has no political loyalties. Even though it is obvious he is more liberal than conservative, more Democrative than Republican, the worst thing you can do is approach him as if he should be on one side of the issue or the other, because then the comedian in him will want to irk you by completely bashing the things you thought he should respect. I can understand Jon Stewart not wanting to be reduced to a liberal fire-thrower or water-carrier, ...

Since I started teaching at UOG, I've noticed a lot more students who come from the CNMI, than I can recall from when I was an undergraduate ten years ago. Perhaps I just never noticed them before, or nothing ever came up in discussions in class which would help reveal their identities, but I'm often amazed at how many people I'll have from Saipan, Rota and Tinian in my Guam History, World History and English Composition classes. I guess it might be part of the decline of the CNMI's economy, that families up there can no longer afford to send their kids straight to the states for college, but have to go to the best, cheapest, nearby option which is Guam. This new mix can make things interesting, just as having people from the other Micronesian Islands can. It can help challenge the dominance that local, Guam students feel, being the biggest and most American island in Micronesia. It can either help show them that there is another side or two to how islands can exist a...

For those interested, check out this call for papers below. It's for Storyboard 11, which is a irregularly published creative journal from the English Department of the University of Guam. I was in the last issue for some poems, and also in an issue ten years ago, where I had a poem and a woodcut featured. Here's the info: Guam and the Mariana Islands are bracing themselves for a tidal wave of change. As the tide rises, we must use our stories as sails and navigate the ocean of our destiny. Storyboard, the University of Guam’s literary journal, is seeking stories, essays, art and photography, which address the theme, “Navigating the Future.” Some topic areas to consider include: The Past • Silence • Militarization • Change • Leadership • Power • Violence • Colonization • Self-Determination • Family • Culture • Language • Knowledge • Transition • The Sky • The Ocean • Island Life • Diaspora • Imagination • Love For more information or to submit to Storyboard 11 please ema...

This past week I hit a big milestone in terms of my Youtube account. I finally got to 100,000 total views for all my videos. I currently have about 360 videos, and get a couple of hundred hits a day. For someone who has no editing program and has used for four years a series of pretty crappy cameras, it is a big deal to have reached this many hits. I thought to celebrate this occasion, I'd paste below my top 18 most watched videos. Now keep in mind that these videos are the most watched and not necessarily the highest-rated or my favorites. Some of them, are simply high up on the list because they were given names which people who know nothing about Guam or care nothing about myself or Chamorros would look up and end up accidentally watching a few seconds of. Some of them are several years old, from when my video cameras had very limited memory and so they are pretty short and quick. Right now I use bigger memory cards which can hold longer files, but I'm still limite...

Sen magof hu na sumasaga' yu' pa'go giya Guahan. Estaba, annai sumasaga' gi lagu, fihu mampos mahalang para este na isla. Lao desde hu "move" hu tatte para Guahan, hassan nai na nina'mahalang yu' ni' i lina'la' gi lagu. Hunggan, guaha na biahi, mandiseha yu' na este giya Guahan, pat este giya Guahan, lao ti presisu este na siniente. Mas ki nahong i lina'la'-hu guini, guaha na biahi, mas ki bula'. Mismo machuchuda' i tasa-hu. Lao desde hiningok-hu put i dos na rallies ni' manmaplaneha ni' i fumati'tinas i Daily Show yan i Colbert Report, fihu mandiseseha yu' na gaige yu' gi lagu ta'lo. Ti para mo'na ya ti para apmam, lao para un simana ha' buente, kosaki sina hu saonao ayu na linahayan gi ayu na dinana'. For those interested, I've got the rally and march messages below. ************************ "RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY" Jon Stewart National Mall, Washington D.C...

Earlier tonight we finished, the second of four Fino' Chamoru na Inadaggao or Chamorro Language Forums which are being held at the University of Guam this week and next for those who are running this year for Senator and Governor on Guam.There is still another tomorrow for Senatorial Candidates and the final next Monday, the 25th for the Gubernatorial teams of Calvo/Tenorio and Gutierrez/Aguon. All of the forums start at 7 pm and end hopefully by 9, but more realistically by 9:30. The forums so far have been interesting to say the least. I have been surprised at the Chamorro-speaking abilities of some candidates and appalled at the abilities and lack of trying of others. One of the biggest problems with the health of the Chamorro language today is the fact that so many people understand it or at least claim to understand it, but can't translate or transform that into actually using the language. There is such a strong social barrier which prevents people from even trying. I h...

Tomorrow (Thursday) from 4:30 - 6:30 PM, there will be a wave in support of Trini Torres in her run for the Legislature. The wave will be held at Chief Kepuha Loop in Hagatna. I've attached the flyer below which has more information. Guaha giya Guahan, ma sangan na gof taffo' Si Trini ya sesso Guiya i mas a'gang gi i kuatto, achokka' taya' otro ume'essalao. Lao ti puniyon na gaige gi i sinangan-na siha i minagahet, achokka' buente i meggaina na taotao guini gi isla-ta, ti manmalago' lumi'e'.

One of the strangest things about this blog, is the people who read it or pass through each day. Although the focus of this blog is Chamorro and Guam issues, people searching for those topics and end up in my blog, count for only half of the people who read my blog. The rest arrive at my blog looking for random pop culture related images or posts, the most common of which is people who end up on my blog while searching for images and information on the character Kakashi Hatake from the ninja manga Naruto. Yesterday alone, people from Indonesia, Dennmark, Mexico and the US ended up on my blog looking for pictures and poems about Kakashi. As I've written about before on my blog, Kakashi is one of my favorite manga characters, and so I do have several posts about him, and for a while my profile picture was an image of him reading his favorite Make-Out Violence book. Last year, there was a major scare for Kakashi fans, as he (and many others) came close to dying during the "...

A great post below from The Drowning Mermaid , titled " Desiree, Be a Lady ." My favorite line is this one: "The "melting pot," the "my land is your land, from California to blah blah blah blah" (I never bothered to learn that song) is only fun, positive, or happy when you are not the one losing yourself, or if you are not the one acting as the gracious host for someone rich and powerful enough to hit you over the head for not being enthusiastic about "sharing." It's not fun or easy to accept if the brand of "unity" they are pushing always forces you to "accept," while they "come together." The problem with decolonization in today's "multicultural" world is that there is so much pressure to give in, to let the prevailing powers, prevail. To give in and let the way things are continue as they are, since to challenge things or try to change things would mean making people feel uncomfortable, ...