NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

In my life I have attended a number of events, whether in person or virtually, where representatives were gathered in solidarity from each of the current US territories. But in these spaces, there was usually just a single representative from different territories, owing to the distances or difficulties in physically bringing together people Guam, the CNMI, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and American Samoa. One thing that made the recent Right to Democracy summit different for me, was the amount of people in attendance representing each of the territories, and how each community wasn’t reduced to a single voice, a single soundbite or a short presentation. The experiences of those in the current US territories was not on the fringes or the margins, which is the norm, but instead we were all centered. This summit focused on developing a network across the territories, with the aim of helping to dismantle US colonialism, created a lot more possibilities than usual and that was exc...

The Festival of Pacific Arts and Cultures takes place in a different island in the Pacific every four years. This is considered to be the most important event in the Pacific in terms of culture and regional solidarity. It is a chance for each island to showcase their own culture and artistic expression, while meeting with others across the Pacific.  Recently there has been some negativity in Guam around FESTPAC 2020 and the idea of the Government of Guam funding 100 delegates to travel there. There is a significant amount of misinformation floating around, which is unfortunate, since it threatens to tar this important event.  To learn more about the value of FESTPAC and its role in Guam’s cultural renaissance and movement for decolonization, Independent Guåhan is holding a Teach-In on the topic on Thursday, January 16th at 6 pm at UOG HSS 106.

As Guam is making international headlines once again, it is imperative that we use this moment in order to try to change the minute media frame that is used to give Guam meaning in moments like this. Guam is more than a military base and more than an island with a snake crisis. It is a contemporary colony in need of assistance in decolonizing and encouraging the United States to fulfill its obligation as a UN member to help make decolonization a reality. My last two columns for The Pacific Daily News focused on a letter that Governor Calvo, as the head of the Guam Commission on Decolonization sent recently to the Committee of 24 at the United Nations. The letter provided some small details on the situation in Guam, in particular impediments that have been put in place by the United States and its courts. But more than anything it represented a request for the UN to send a visiting mission to Guam to help bring attention to our quest for decolonization. It remains to be seen if th...

For places like Guam that lack a formal place within the international system and to an extent the national system of the US, solidarity is of critical importance. Without a formal place, you are invisible or you direct power over the structure around you. There was ways that you can fight for power, that you can seize it, but solidarity is an important part of changing your invisibility or your lack of visibility and therefore lack of relevance of standing, into something different, something more strategic. As the movement for decolonization and independence grows in Guam, it is important that we find ways to connect it to other potentially similar movements, which can offer lessons or inspirations on the way forward. This was the case in the past, where members of Nasion Chamoru achieved a greater sense of their place in the world through interacting with people who were members of Black and Brown Power movements in the US, and also from postwar elite Chamorros who felt affinity w...

For those attached to the United States, whether as eager patriotic citizens or uncomfortable colonial subjects, the past week was filled with an unbelievable amount of revelations and insinuations about Donald Trump’s campaign, Donald Trump’s administration and Russia. The relationship between the US and Russia is at a point that would be almost unrecognizable to someone just a few years ago. There is a Republican president of the US, repeatedly praising the leader of Russia Vladimir Putin. And rather than align his statements with the underlying adversarial relationship between the two countries, he goes to any extent to not back down, even to the point of maligning the US rhetorically in order to maintain his praise for Russia and its leader. Early on, you could argue that this was due to Trump’s blind neophyte level of political acumen, but now it just looks suspicious.  This was even compounded to a degree that basically brutalized any possible commonsense u...

Connections between colonies are intriguing. They come most naturally from the gaze or the perspective of the colonizer. So colonies tend to be linked together as sites of corruption, incompetence, primitivity and overall negative binary possibility. We see this in terms of how the US looks at its colonies, describes them, produces them as objects of the law, and assume so much in the way of their nature without an ounce of self-reflection. As a continuation of the Obama Administration, the Trump Administration is now holding up foreign worker visas to Guam. They claim to be doing so because of corruption and abuse in the past. Whatever abuses have taken place are a sliver of a drop in the ocean that is American political or economic corruption. Often times people assume that the corruption begins in the colonies, but it is just as feasible that the corruption was imported or taught to the natives by the colonizer. For those of you with fancy literature backgrounds think Heart of Dar...

I hinasso-ku put håfa ma susedi nigap gi sanlagu gi botasion: Cha'-ta Tatanges, Nit ta Fanachu! This is my version of the old activist creed "Don't Mourn, Organize!" If the United States has chosen Donald Trump as its president, this might be the perfect time to think about independence for Guam.  ****************** Dear Michael, Today we grieve. Some of us even weep. We know the weeks, months and years ahead will not be easy, but we will get through them together and we will come out stronger together, as we always have. Today, we rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists of principle and conscience. Today, we recommit to mobilizing against hatred, bigotry, misogyny, and economic pain. And as we have at other times of crisis in our nation, we will move forward in solidarity and in the belief that stronger communities arise in times of crisis. We rededicate ourselves to thinking anew, to putting forth a compelling vision of f...

2016 World Conference against A & H Bombs Declaration of the International Meeting Seventy one years ago, the USA used nuclear bombs for the first time against humanity by releasing atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With tremendous destructive power and radiation, the two bombs burned out the cities and claimed the lives of about 210,000 people by the end of the year. It was a hell on earth. The Hibakusha who survived then had to suffer from latent effects and social discrimination for many subsequent years. Such inhumane weapons should not be used again in any circumstances whatsoever. The nuclear powers still maintain more than 15,000 nuclear warheads. Not a small number of them are on alert for launch. The concern for the outbreak of nuclear war due to deteriorating regional tensions is real. A recent study shows that even if only a small percentage of existing nuclear weapons are used, it would cause serious climate change and would bring the huma...

Everytime Dr. Carlyle Corbin from the US Virgin Islands visit Guam I love listening to his stories of the times when Guam's governors were passionate about political status and decolonization and, at least at the governmental level, there was alot more collaboration and communication. I say this now because Guam's current Governor Eddie Calvo speaks every once in a while on the issue of political status, but doesn't seem to have a real interest or passion for the issue the way some of his predecessors did. Previous Governors invested heavily in the idea of educating people on the issue and working towards making decolonization a reality. This Governor, even now in his second-term where he is no longer running for election or re-election, still doesn't seem to really care about the issue and isn't investing in the process. It is unfortunate, as the longer we wait, the more difficult it becomes.  One reason I really enjoy seeing Carlyle is because he brings me up t...

--> Mamfeminista ham. Hami i hagan i mambruha ni’ ti en sehnge, ya in singon gi estoria ya in sisingon ha’ gi pa’og na tiempo i hineksen lalahi. Manmalago’ ham humatme i lugåt publiko ni’ i menhalom feminist ya ta usa gui’ para ta analisa i minagahet gi oriyå-ta. Gi i lugåt publiko nai ma kekesakke’ i direcho-ta yan makekedesponi i tahtaotao-ta siha. Para i kada diha na biolensia, i hinekse put i sexualidat, i fina’domestic, chinemma’ put minagof, fina’isao pinekka’ yan i manespipiha pinekka’, todu este siha pulitikåt na asunto, ya para ta kontra este siha yan i chi-ta ni’ ma nå’na’i hit ya humuyongña manlå’la’la’ hit på’go sin minalulok. Nina’fanhuyong este na sichu’asion ni’ i hinasson låhi, rasan apå’ka, Katoliko, heterosexual, bourgeois, ableist, cisgender yan monogamous. Debi di ta yamak este na sistema, debi di ta na’suha i naturåt-ña i hinasson taklåhi ya deskribiyi i mundo i pinadesin-måmi komo famalao’an. In hengge na un mumon linahyan debi di u feminista, osino ti...

I've been lost in Power Point presentations for the past few days. I'll be teaching for the next month at Kobe University in Japan. My course is an accelerated one and so I'm teaching a month-long course in just a week. I don't normally prepare Power Points for any of my lectures in Guam, but since my students here in Japan will be primarily those who did not learn English as a first language, the visuals and potential outline skeleton it provides will help keep them engaged. My course focuses on US militarization in the Asia-Pacific Region, and it will link together US strategic interests from Okinawa, to the Philippines, to Guam, to the Marshall Islands and Hawai'i, while also linking together the popular movements for demilitarization or decolonization against those bases. For me, este kalang un guinife-hu mumagahet. I am been working on this issue as an activist and an academic for many years. In 2011 I published my article "The Gift of Imagination: Sol...