NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

  In June of last year, the Marianas lost one of its most influential musical pioneers with the passing of Tun Candido “Candy” Babauta Taman. Over the years, I had the honor and privilege of working with Tun Candy on several projects, conduct interviews of him and sometimes just sit and chat and listen to him tell stories. Each year, I usually got a call from him in late November or December, checking in with me and letting me know how he is doing. If he had some of his music or CDs to sell, he would also let me know that they would make great Christmas gifts. When he called in late 2022, I eagerly bought a copy of everything he was selling and gave them as gifts to different friends. Tun Candy was born to a CHamoru mother from Sumay, Guam and a Carolinian father from Saipan with roots in Chuuk. Across his life he worked to promote and develop a Marianas musical sound as well as cultural consciousness. Because of the way his roots, his heritage represented ...

My Pacific Daily News columns from the past two weeks focused on Chamorro music and how to determine what makes a great Chamorro song. It didn't pick any favorite Chamorro song, but it was fun thinking about the issues and how one might go about it. Here are the two columns. ******************* The decades since World War II have brought a great number of changes to Chamorro culture and Chamorro life. Practices and trades once considered essential to life have disappeared or been adapted to societal and technological changes. The decline of the Chamorro language is one of the clearest ways you can perceive these changes. But there is one way in which the Chamorro language, even as it was banned in schools and not taught to children in many homes, remained alive and well, and that was in Chamorro music. During a time of rapid Americanization, where Chamorros were actively giving up and tossing away things that had once defined them proudly as Chamorro...

Protecting Paradise on Pagan Island by Jerome Kaipat Aldan Earthjustice June 14, 2016 http://earthjustice.org/blog/2016-june/protecting-paradise-on-pagan-island I was eight years old when Mt. Pagan, one of two volcanoes that created Pagan Island, erupted. I have many precious childhood memories of that beautiful island. I remember going for swims in the ocean. Small houses made of wood and tin blended in with the natural beauty. To this day, Pagan remains a paradise, a place to go and be close to nature. The water is clean and uncorrupted. It is a pristine place, a natural wonder. The U.S. military wants to destroy that paradise, turning it into a live-fire training ground for sailors, pilots and Marines. In 2013, the Navy and Marines proposed expanding training activities in the Mariana Islands. In addition to expanding existing facilities on the island of Tinian, the Marines have set their sights on taking over the entirety of Pagan, displacin...

Ya-hu i titilu-ña este na tinige' gaseta. Put fabot, kao siña ma sotta i islan Pagan? Sen gefpå'go ayu na lugåt. Esta meggai na lugåt gi hilo' tåno' mandinestrosa ni' fina'militåt. Kontodu meggai na lugåt giya Guahan yan gi otro isla siha gi kadenå–ta. Atan i isla mafa'na'an FDM. Esta i meggaiña na Chamorro manmaleffa nu ayu na lugåt. I mañasaga guihi på'go i bomba yan i paluma siha. **************** “Leave Pagan Alone” by Cherri Anne E. Villahermosa Marianas Variety April 8. 2015 NORTHERN Islands Mayor Jerome Aldan’s message to the military is to “pack up and leave Pagan alone.”  Aldan was among the public officials who were in the House chamber yesterday to hear what the representatives of the Marine Corps Forces Pacific had to say during a meeting that lasted for more than three hours. Aldan in an interview said he has not changed his position and is still opposed to the proposed use of Paga...

When the US Department of Defense released their Draft Environmental Impact Statement for their proposed military buildup to Guam, you could see both the potential danger involved and the community's reaction in simple numbers. The size of the DEIS in terms of page numbers was close to unbelievable. At 11,000 or so pages, you could not help but wonder about the potential impacts the plans would represent to Guam. If it took 11,000 pages to describe it and discuss it, how could it be good? Shouldn't the massive volume of pages required to articulate it be a sign of danger? The community responded with more than 10,000 comments, many of which were critical of the buildup. A significant response, close to one for each page of that infernal document. When I recall that a JGPO representative said to me that they were anticipating just "500 on the high side" I feel that through a variety of activists means, people began to question the buildup and how much it might bene...

In 2005 I started a blog titled Decolonize Guam or "Peace and Justice for Guam and the Pacific." I ran it with a few other people for about six years, and posted more than a thousand news pieces related to Guam and Chamorros, but and also wider issues related to war and peace in the US and in the Pacific. For some reason (lao ti sina hu hasso sa' hafa) we stopped updating it in 2011, after things connected to the public comment period for the US military buildup had officially ended. It might have been because I started writing a column in the then Marianas Variety, which became a new focus for me. It could have been because I was now more consumed with my role at the University of Guam, as a professor though and using that venue as a conduit for various types of activism or educational events. I'm really not sure why I stopped posting there and updating it, but looking back I'm glad that we filled the site for a few years worth of content, as I find myself r...

Some of the Guam Mentions that can be found on the website Common Dreams .  They cover an interesting spectrum of political possibilities. The list of Guam Mentions is so oddly diverse, it was collections like this which made my dissertation such a strange trip to write. Guam is a military base, an independent country, a territory within just a few hundreds words of text. It is quintessentially American in one article, a foreign country in another, the edges of its empire in one and then the breakdown of its soul and its morality in the next. To see what I mean, check out the articles below: ********************* World Watches North Korea, But No Missiles Yet Deadline came and went, but US intel believes chances of test launch remain 'very high' by Jon Queally, staff writer Common Dreams April 10, 2013 Following weeks of growing tensions, Wednesday April 10 was the day officials in Pyongyang had threatened to test one or more of its Musudan ...

--> The island of Pagan, in the northern Marianas has made international news as it might soon become yet another beautiful island to be destroyed by the US military for its testing and training purposes. Although now I regularly hear news about Pagan, in years past I scarcely heard about it in a Chamorro context, but rather always in either a strict environmental context or in a Japanese historical context. Environmentalists are the first line of defense in some ways against militarization, although history has shown they often have trouble working cooperatively with the locals and natives who claim those lands. For them Pagan is an ecological paradise and needs to be protected. I would hear random tidbits about Pagan in this regard, as being a place with exciting species (including snails) that should be researched and explored.  I also heard about it in the context of Japanese, as settlers lived there during the Japanese colonial period in the CNMI. In fact in histori...

I have been writing about a "military buildup" to Guam for more than 10 years now. In 2004, there were hints of a buildup to Guam and in 2005 the first formal parts of a buildup to Guam were announced. There were constant discussions for years as numbers shifted and plans were released and later changed or scrapped. There was a period of intense debate for about two years when formal plans were released and public comment began. Despite quite a bit of resistance to the Department of Defense's plans, they went through with their Record of Decision. The rhetoric of the DOD was that these plans were set and things needed to be pushed forward at record pace. Things slowed down considerable however, due to funding restrictions, economic downturns, a change in administration and military priorities shifting elsewhere. But the funny thing about the "buildup" is that while we can focus it around certain particular projects or acts, the military importance of not just...