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Showing posts from October, 2019

Borders and Buildups

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The issue of wall funding in the United States for President Trump is another point at which we can see ideological lines become distorted and distinct when moving from the community of the colonizer to the community of the colonized. Left and right, liberal and conservative have particular meanings within a community and within groups within a community. Part of the colonizing process is not solely those things which the colonizer does to forcibly integrate the colonized peoples, but also the ways in which the colonized peoples may accept a particular framework for understanding themselves and their issues. This is a key point people often miss. Colonialism isn't inherently conservative and therefore decolonization is liberal. Colonialism can be both faces and many more. There can be liberal forms of colonization and conservative ones. Movements or conversations that are liberal or progressive in the US can still be colonial.  We are reminded about this every once in a whil

Independent Guåhan October 2019 General Assembly

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Independent GuÃ¥han October General Assembly will commemorate the history of Chamoru petitions for self-determination For Immediate Release, October 21, 2019-  Independent GuÃ¥han (IG) invites the public to attend their upcoming General Assembly (GA) to take place on Thursday, October 24 th from 6:00-7:30 pm at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in HagÃ¥tña. This month’s GA will commemorate the more than a century of petitions by the Chamoru people for improvements in their political status. In this spirit, the group will honor as  Maga’taotao  the late Senator Francisco R. Santos, a long-serving local leader. Within months of the US takeover of Guam in 1898, the Chamoru people were already politely requesting improvements in their political status. Dozens of petitions were sent to the US Congress and the US Navy prior to World War II, some bearing thousands of signatures asking that the US improve the political status of the Chamoru people, whether by granting US citize

The Organic Act Explained

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Independent GuÃ¥han to offer Teach-In on The Organic Act, its past, present and future For Immediate Release, October 13, 2019-  Independent GuÃ¥han (IG) invites the public to attend a Teach-In titled “The Organic Act Explained” on Thursday, October 17 th from 6 pm – 7:30 pm at University of Guam, Humanities and Social Sciences Building Room 106. This event is free and open to the public and will also be live streamed on the Independent GuÃ¥han Facebook page ( www.facebook.com/independentgu ) Recently, Guam’s non-voting delegate to the US Congress Michael San Nicolas introduced a bill in Washington D.C. to amend the Organic Act for Guam, which would require that a public referendum be held prior to any tax increase for the island. The delegate also has plans to introduce future amendments, in order to compel prompt payment of tax refunds for local residents. Discussion on these proposed reforms has been unfortunately limited, in part by a general lack of knowledge and underst