NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Bill Maher on Masturbation and National Security The comedian has just launched the twelfth season of  Real Time  and is about to hit the road for a tour of stand-up dates in red states. Scott Stossel Jan 24 2014, 7:00 AM ET 1 in Share Phil McCarten/Reuters As his HBO show Real Time begins its twelfth season with higher ratings than ever—4.1 million viewers, high for a premium-cable talk show—the iconoclastic comedian and political commentator Bill Maher spoke to The Atlantic about why he likes doing comedy shows in red states, how his show is different from Jon Stewart's, why the God of the Old Testament is "the most psychopathic character in fiction," and why he believes most opposition to President Obama is racist. Let me start by asking the question you're probably most sick of answering, so we can get it out of the way. The infamous episode of your ABC show Politically Incorrect , on September...

Living by the Light of the Moon by Lacee Martinez GUAM PDN 1/24/14 Beyond illuminating the night sky, the moon synchronizes the life cycles of the flora and fauna of the islands and ocean. Guam's ancient seafaring people also relied on moon phases to guide their lives, says John Calvo, a local fishing advocate. "Modern Chamorro traditions and cultural values have evolved from these practices that encourage living in respect and harmony with the island environment," he says. Celebrate the continuing connection between life and the moon on Sunday at the 6th annual Gupot Fanha'aniyan Pulan CHamoru, or the Chamorro Lunar Calendar Festival. The Guam Fishermen's Cooperative Association, with support of various agencies and groups, will hold a celebration at the cooperative's grounds beside the Chamorro Village and Greg D. Perez Marina in Hagåtña on Sunday. Expect a day packed with cultural activities, local crafts, fruits and vegetab...

Vicente Garrido Blaz passed away recently. Although he spent most of his life outside of Guam he was for the past few decades a major force in Chamorro history and the telling of the Chamorro story. For so many the history of Chamorros has been intimately linked with the US military, first as Guam was their colony, later a battleground and now as a strategic military location. Chamorros were used to being objects, fodder, extras in the background in that story. Someone like Ben Blaz changed the way that story was told because it helped to form the Chamorro as a potential subject, someone who had reached a certain pinnacle within that infrastructure that always dictated the meaning of Guam. Now this is still tokenism. This does not mean that Chamorros achieved an ability to see themselves in a decolonized way, but within a colonized framework Blaz through his service as a soldier and his service in Congress was empowering. This is one that that people often miss when the...

Don't forget that this Sunday at the Fishermen's Coop there will be the Gupot Fanha'aniyan Pulan Chamorro or Chamorro Lunar Calendar Festival. There will be arts, crafts and food. Here's an interview with John Calvo who helps organize it each year.

One poem that had a big impact on my while I was in graduate school and cobbling together the first generations of the critical consciousness that I sport today was "Thieves" by Anne Perez Hattori. I took several courses with Anne when I was an undergrad and graduate student at UOG. She was by far the best professor I had, and the one who was most direct in terms of cutting through layers of colonial bullshit and ignorance when dealing with Guam and Chamorro history. When Anne speaks publicly, whether in an interview or on a panel she always has a way of taking something academic and shifting it to be something that a non-academic can engage with and feel that they should engage with. That is the key to someone who wants their work to have an impact beyond just academia. It is not about creating something that people will just understand, but about creating something that people will feel they need to respond to. This is only true if you accept the Marxist axiom about the n...

This is the of Cetti Bay from the river. Cetti Bay and Sella Bay are both spots in Southern Guam that are favorites for people with boats and hikers to visit. People known them as beautiful secluded places. In truth their history goes much deeper than that. Sella in particular was notorious in the 1970s as a site of protest against US militarization. The US Navy had wanted to build an ammuniation wharf there. Chamorro rights activists, Senators and environmentalists came out to protest this and were able in delaying the process so much the Navy eventually gave up. Before there was Pagat or even Pott's Junction, there was Sella Bay. But even beyond this, if we look at these two villages in ancient times, we can see a tragic lesson they embody. In ancient times these bays were actually villages. Cetti was known as Atte and Sella was known as Sidya. They were on different sides of the Chamorro Spanish Wars. Sidya sided with the Spanish, while Atte sided with rebel Chamorros. A...

Sesso mangguife yu' put North Korea. Ti parehu este na klasin guinife yan i guinife-hu siha put i otro tano' taiguhi iya Okinawa yan iya Pagan. Para ayu na tano' siha yan ayu na guinife siha, hu guiguife siha put i ginefpago yan taimanu na debi di ta prutehi ayu na lugat kontra fina'militat. Gi i guinife-hu siha hu keketachuyi pat ayuda i taotao guihi gi un mimo ni chumilong yan iyo-ku pat iyo-ta guini giya Guahan. Lao sahnge i guinife-hu put North Korea. Gi i guinife-hu siha kalang puma'ya'ya gi hilo' i tano'. Hu ripapara todu gi oriya-hu, lao ti hu gogof komprende hafa hu li'e'e'. Tano' estrana este. Na'aburidu este na tano', ya gi guinife-hu siha ti hu hulat muna'klaru hafa este na lugat. Sumasaga' yu' giya Guahan. Fihu hiningok-hu put North Korea, lao sesso nina'manman yu' ni taimanu to gof chumilong i tiningo'-hu put Guiya yan i hiningok-hu put Guiya. Kada simana, kalang kada diha hu hungok...

Published on Sunday, January 12, 2014 by Common Dreams Toll of U.S. Sailors Devastated by Fukushima Radiation Continues to Climb by Harvey Wasserman The roll call of U.S. sailors who say their health was devastated when they were  irradiated while delivering humanitarian help  near the stricken  Fukushima  nuke is continuing to soar. So many have come forward that the progress of their federal class action lawsuit has been delayed.   U.S. sailors irradiated while delivering humanitarian help near the stricken Fukushima nuke say their health has been devastated. Bay area lawyer Charles Bonner says a re-filing will wait until early February to accommodate a constant influx of sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and other American ships. Within a day of Fukushima One’s March 11, 2011, melt-down, American “first responders” were drenched in radioactive fa...