NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Inetnon Gefpago is proud to present three special screenings of Guahan: Fanhasso, Fanhita, Fanachu at the University of Guam this week. April 27 - 11 am  and 6:30 pm April 29 - 11 am At the CLASS Lecture Hall The duration of each screening is 2 1/2 hours. Admission is $10. If you are a student of mine at UOG (and there are close to 200 of you) then you can get extra credit for attending. Gof magof hu na ma fa'nu'nu'i este giya UOG. Hu ayuda fuma'tinas este, yan Hami yan i male'-ku as Victoria tumuge' gui'.

Political status has been such a huge issue lately, even to the point of bringing the infamous Dave Davis out of his temporary hiatus from writing columns for the Marianas Variety back to the forefront of racist denigrating rhetoric on Guam. There are bills flying around the Legislature, the Governor is not only having meetings but also make soft promises about a vote taking place in 2012. As a staffer from the Legislature noted last week, the next few years may be the most significant chance that our generation gets at resolving an issue which has been stewing for centuries, that of Guam's colonial status. I'm someone who is very willing to take on that challenge, but we'll see how serious Guam's leaders are. Political status is something great for rhetoric and for giving the illusion of having a political ideology, but action on it has been historically minute. The recent snub by 15 US Senators who visited Guam on their way to Asia has even gotten embroiled in this

As someone who hikes every weekend and is interested in making sure people are informed about the possible negative impacts of the military buildup to Guam, I was particularly interested in the most recent edition of We Are Guahan's Grey Papers. These papers are just tidbits of information about the military buildup from the documents created by the military buildup. They are not opinion pieces, but simple bullet points, stark statements the majority of which come from documents that the Department of Defense itself creates. They are filled with things they have to say, have to write down and admit to, but would rather no one knew about, and that no one would put in the proper context. For example, in the most recent Grey Paper, which deals with the amount of jungle which will be lost because of the proposed buildup, we see that the number is estimated at 2,000 acres. If you don't know the context, this might seem like either a lot or a little, but when you consider that thi

The Marianas Variety has a habit lately of putting huge images of people talking on their front page. A few months back, when there was some back and forth debating between JGPO and We Are Guahan at the Rotary Club. The front page of the Variety first had a large, almost poster size image of i matan WAG and my Starcraft 2 bromance buddy Leevin Camacho, in the middle of a word. The week after, they had an image of Colonel Jackson from JGPO, also mid-word. The images weren't that interesting, since it was just people speaking, but the size of them caught me and others off guard. In today's Marianas Variety there was another tall and large frontpage image, yet this time rather than merely representing the act of someone speaking, it was meant to convey deep and serious emotions. The Governor of Guam, Eddie Calvo is standing tall, his hands folded below his waist before him. Rather than the usual images of politicians that we find in the media, which show them staged as happy, bl

I used to get alot more hate mail through this blog. I would get random people, sending me angry comments or emails about random things which they felt I was somehow responsible for. It is intriguing how people paradoxically see activist or dissidents as being both powerful and powerless at the same time. On the one hand they see them as having so much authority and power in terms of tearing things apart and ruining things, but in precisely the same sentence or moment event, they can see them as having no power or authority or say, belonging to a ridiculous and blind minority or splinter group. Intriguing how stupid the world can be isn't it? That someone can say so passionately that you represent the end of the world and nothing in this world at the same time. For me that doesn't really make sense. If the activists have power because of what they say or do it means they represent something much larger than themselves. It means if you are going to say that they are ruining some

I've been wanting for several years to create a blog for my artwork. I've produced hundreds of pieces over the years the majority of which I don't have any photographic record of, but were sold off at fairs, exhibits or just to people interested in my artwork. Although my work is pretty worthless and will most likely remain worthless even if were to die young from some stereotypical drug overdose or suicide, I still feel proud that my pieces are traveled over the world. People from places such as The Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Japan, the US, France, Russia, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Germany and India have bought my work over the years. For the first year I was an artist I attempted to keep the contact information of people who had purchased my paintings so I could notify them about shows and other events in my "rise" as an artist, but the rise never really happened. It's hard to make money on Guam as an artist, and as I got more involved in academics and acti

From Bruce Gagnon's Organizing Notes : The Peasants Need Pitchforks By Robert Scheer A “working class hero,” John Lennon told us in his song of that title, “is something to be/ Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV/ And you think you’re so clever and classless and free/ But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.” The delusion of a classless America in which opportunity is equally distributed is the most effective deception perpetrated by the moneyed elite that controls all the key levers of power in what passes for our democracy. It is a myth blown away by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz in the current issue of Vanity Fair. In an article titled “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Stiglitz states that the top thin layer of the superwealthy controls 40 percent of all wealth in what is now the most sharply class-divided of all developed nations: “Americans have been watching protests against repressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands

The budget showdown which was "averted" yesterday led to one the most intriguing statements I've ever heard. One of the central fronts in this budget war has been the fate of Planned Parenthood. For those who haven't been paying attention to the current slate of petty politics in Washington D.C. the dynamic is new for those with short memories, but old if you remember the last time the Federal Government was shut down, 16 years ago; A resurgent crop of Republicans flood into Congress with plenty of radical rhetoric about taking the country back and playing chicken with a Democratic president over the budget, spending, taxes and so on. Planned Parenthood is an organization which provides a great number of health care services for low-income women, but in the minds of Republicans and in particular it's most extreme kaduku wing, it is synonymous with abortions. Planned Parenthood is an anathema to their facile defense of "life," a place which they charac

As I wrote about last week in my post Mount Fuji in Red , it is important to remember admist all the outpouring of support and compassion for the people of Japan, that the nuclear danger there cannot be solved or helped by fundraisers. It is something which has largely been forgotten as the usual humanitarian tendencies take over the way you understand or don't understand something. It is serious issue not just in terms of the potential hazard that other places face, as in whether or not the radiation will reach Guam, but it is important because of the question of whether or not nuclear energy is safe. Below is a petition from some progressive groups about the Fukushima meltdown and beneath that is a statement on the tragedy and meltdown from the organization The Global Network. ************************ Fukushima Update This petition is from concerned Japanese citizens, who would appreciate an international show of support. Radiological Impact of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear

Have I told you lately that i hagga-hu Sumahi is the coolest? If not, consider yourself told. Achokka' este na patgon-hu i mas "su'ana" na palao'an, ti este kumekeilek-na na karinosa gui'. Sen bunita, lao esta kalang pussion Supermodel gui', gi i trahi-na, ya buente gi i binanidosa-na lokkue'. Here is a picture of her from my sister Alina.

Barack Obama's re-election campaign has officially begun, with the release of a video through his website . Here is the video below, which features people from around the United States getting geared up to help re-elect the President. Ti siguru yu' hafa siniente-ku put este. Ya-hu Si Barack Obama. Ya-hu gui' desde i fine'nina na humuyong gui' gi i 2004 na DNC giya Boston. Ga'o-ku gui' kinu Si Bush yan kinu todu i otro ni' sina manmalalagu para i ofisina gi 2012. Hunggan desganao yu' na ti gof "liberal" gui'. Ya ha na'desganao yu' meggai gi i ma'pos na dos na sakkan annai ti ha tachuyi hit kontra i manriku yan i Manrepublicans. Gof lalalu yu' na ti ha huchom GTMO. Ayu i mas fa'set na prublema. Huchom ha'. Sotta todu i mampinengle guihi. Manmapopongle todu kontra i lai internationale. Pues sotta ha' todu. Hunggan, sina na gigon manmasotta siha, ma hatme i US, lao maolekna ennao kinu i gagaige ha' i &quo

In my Guam History classes this last month we read the poem below written by my pare' Julian Aguon, titled "The Mango Trees Already Know." The poem is written in the shadow of the impending military buildup to Guam, and is about how the warning signs, the possible dangers to our island and to the Chamorro people are all around us, but we seem to be incapable of doing anything to protect ourselves. Julian even discusses the death of his father to cancer, and forces an important connection between how Guam has become modernized and militarized since World War II and the alarming rates of cancer and disease. I asked my students this past week "What is it that the mango trees know, that we don't?" or "What is it that they know, that we refuse to recognize?" For me, in answering that questions, my mind quickly turns to the film The Happening, by M. Night Shamalayan. For those unfamiliar with the movie, people in the East Coast of the United States s