NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

For those of you who may not already know it, I'm a big fan of manga and anime. This doesn't mean I'm an otaku or anything (although normals sometimes call me one), but just that there are a handful of titles or franchises which I really read carefully and follow closely. For instance, in July I wrote a long post about how two of my favorite mangas to read, Gantz and Berserk were going on hiatus for a few months. My geek guts started showing when a simple post about how much I'll miss them ended up being a discussion about the aspects of killing God or Gods in the mangas, or the way in which the main characters seemed to be challenging the very order of things, and how exciting it was to try and see an author make that possible. (Este mina'hasso yu' na hu nisisita umespiha kao esta mana'fanhuyong i nuebu na issue Berserk. Esta maloffan dos meses gi iyo-na hiatus, pues sina esta makpo'.) For a few years now I've been translating manga, most notably N...

Ai adai , there are so many useless and stubborn people in this world. They suck the life out of you, waste your time, and somehow have enough ego and energy left over to make it seem like you are the problem with the world. As you grow older, and time become more precious and energy becomes harder to come by, they are all the more deadly and all the more irritating. Everyday as I encounter people like this, I wish I could just close my eyes, fall asleep and when I awake they'd be gone. Here is a poem, in honor of these such people. *********************************** Gi painge Gi maigo'-hu Mangguife yu' Na ti sina mumaigo' yu' Ayugue i chi-na I yinafai-hu ********************* Last night In my sleep I dreamt That I couldn't sleep That is the nature Of my exhaustion

Japan to revisit base plan, SOFA By David Allen, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Friday, September 11, 2009 CHATAN, Okinawa — Bowing to its two minority party partners in the ruling coalition, the Democratic Party of Japan announced late Wednesday that Japan’s new government will re-examine the 2006 bilateral agreement to realign U.S. troops in Japan — specifically plans to build a new helicopter base in northeast Okinawa. It also will seek a revision of the status of forces agreement between the two countries, party officials said. Just a little more than a week after it won a decisive victory over the party that ran Japan for more than 50 years, the infant DPJ hit a speed bump in forming a new government. It took three days of negotiations to reach an agreement with the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party on how to approach issues concerning the U.S. military. The holdup became apparent Monday when the two minority coalition partners announced they wanted the new go...

Mungga en fanmaleffa! Don't forget! Next week at UOG is the conference "CHinemma’, Nina’maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao" which translates to "RESISTANCE, RESILIENCE, AND RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS" and is the 7th Meeting of the International Network of Women Against Militarism. A small image of the poster is on the left. If you would like to download the poster click here . If you would like to register for the conference click here . If you just want to know more, head to the conference blog . If you are a UOG student who is interested in possibly getting some extra credit for your classes, contact me at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com . Here's some articles from the Marianas Variety and The Pacific Daily News about the conference. I'll be posting the draft schedule soon. ************************** Family, human rights issues top forum agenda Monday, 07 September 2009 03:09 by Jude Lizama Marianas Variety News Staff HUMAN rights and family issues as t...

Hu tutufong i ha'ani siha esta ki mana'huyong este gi i fanegga'an guini... Capitalism, A Love Story ************************************** Sunday, September 6th, 2009 This Is It! World Premiere of 'Capitalism: A Love Story' Tonight ...a message from Michael Moore Friends, Well, this is it! Tonight, at the Venice Film Festival, I will premiere my new movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story." After 16 months of production, I am proud to present this work of mine to you. It is unlike anything you'll see on the silver screen this year. Twenty years ago this week I premiered my first film, "Roger & Me." Tonight, my new film will premiere at the oldest film festival in the world, the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. It is an incredible honor they've bestowed on us, and we feel very privileged to be able to present "Capitalism: A Love Story" tonight in Venice. The director of the festival said that our movie was "i...

Continuing off the discussion from last week's post Sota i Manmapongle , the column below is from the blog The Western Confucian , and asks a simple but very relevant question, that any colony, which is serious about itself, should consider very carefully. What would you do without the colonizer? And when I say consider carefully, I mean really actually think about it, and really analyze and hopefully free yourself from the everyday dependencies which you take for granted and sometimes treat as if they are God's will. The Western Confucian deals with the question, What Would Asia Do Without America? and critically reverses it, to as What Would America Do Without Asia? It is easy to live in commonsense, it is even easier to stew in colonial commonsense, because it comes with extra comfort and illusions. That is the space of decolonization, once you get past the desolate wasteland of dependency, which intimates to anything that doesn't have the United States' stamp, band...

Click this link and check out below the lyrics for a beautiful song titled "Isla Para Ladrones" by the band J.R. Jones . Its a contemporary sound, but with a curious ancient feel as well. Its a rock song about Chamorros and their long-standing struggles. The title for those who don't know refers to the name that Guam and Chamorros were given by the Spanish, which called them "thieves" and their land an island full of them. This is a conscious song not just in the sense that it is a rethinking of history and culture and Chamorro identity, but that its also made with the explicit intent that it be used as a tool for the creating of consciousness and the supporting of movements on Guam and amongst Chamorros for their sovereignty and decolonization. According to the band's description this song is "dedicated to our ancestors and to the undying efforts of the Nasion Chamoru. Our intentions with this song is to help promote the spirit of the...

Next month a historic event will take place on Guam. A gathering of women activists from ten different regions, (Guam, Okinawa, Japan, US, Puerto Rico, Philippines, The Marshall Islands, Belau, South Korea and Australia) will take place from September 14-19th at the University of Guam. This gathering will be the 7th of its kind, and brings together activists who are working with each other and within their regions to mitigate existing negative impacts of militarization and decrease its influence in the world. The name of this gathering in Chamorro is "CHinemma’, Nina’maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao" which in English translates to, "Resistance, Resilience, and Respect for Human Rights." The link to the conference blog is here . For those of you who don't know, militarization, as it sounds can refer to a process through which a place becomes inundated with military, power, technology, influence. Guam, since World War II has undergone generational perio...

Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire: And Ten Steps to Take to Do So Thursday 30 July 2009 by: Chalmers Johnson | Visit article original @ TomDispatch.com However ambitious President Barack Obama’s domestic plans, one unacknowledged issue has the potential to destroy any reform efforts he might launch. Think of it as the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room: our longstanding reliance on imperialism and militarism in our relations with other countries and the vast, potentially ruinous global empire of bases that goes with it. The failure to begin to deal with our bloated military establishment and the profligate use of it in missions for which it is hopelessly inappropriate will, sooner rather than later, condemn the United States to a devastating trio of consequences: imperial overstretch, perpetual war, and insolvency, leading to a likely collapse similar to that of the former Soviet Union. According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our mil...