NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Guaha iyo-ku Facebook pa'go. Pues an malago' hao sina un "add" yu' guihi. Estaba guaha iyo-ku Facebook, lao meggai matulaika desde ayu na tiempo. Meggai nuebu na patte, ya siempre bei linemlem ni ayu. Para kuatro anos ilek-hu, "mungga yu' Facebook!" Buente un faisen maimaisa hao, "Hafa tumulaika i hinasso-mu?" Ti siguru yu'. I nobia-hu guaha iyo-na Facebook ya ya-na mampost litratu guihi. I meggaina na atungo'-hu siha esta manggaige siha gi Facebook. Guaha na biahi ti ma na'saonao yu' gi i diniskuti gi i dinana' put i tinaigue-ku guihi. Estaba na'bubu este yan lalalo yu' yan desganao. Lao pa'go na'triste ha' este. Puede ha' mohon na sina manachetton ham ta'lo yan i manatungo'-hu siha. 

In my World History class recently we discussed the Congo Free State. In my Guam History and World History classes I often create strange lists for students in order to understand the ways in which I see the history that I'm teaching. For Guam History I have two main lists, "The Most Heroic Chamorros That You've Never Heard Of" which features figures Chamorros from Guam History who were heroic and brave and accomplished great things, but don't fit into the usual historical narratives and are either accidentally or intentionally erased. I also have a list "The Assholes of Guam History" which has you might guess is a list of all the jerks in Guam's History. The people who have oppressed Chamorros, slaughtered them, held them back and just caused all sorts of problems. Some of them are Chamorro but most of them are non-Chamorros. These lists evolve as my understanding and knowledge evolve. For example many years ago if I was coming up with an Assh...

A great way to end the year, a look back on the political fallacies that dominated discourse for 12 months or so. The article below is from the website Nation of Change .  ****************** The Top 12 Political Fallacies of 2012 Richard Eskow 12/30/12 Our nation was gripped by so many fallacies and delusions in 2012 that the whole Mayan calendar end-of-the-world thing didn’t even make the list. Even those apocalyptic prophecies were more plausible than the idea that cutting Social Security will help the deficit, that government spending cuts will jump-start the economy, there were no crimes on Wall Street, or that we live in a “divided nation” whose “center” wants more business as usual in Washington. Here then, without further ado, are our Top 12 Political Fallacies for 2012. 1. Austerity works. Last year we  said  austerity economics was dead. It is. Unfortunately nobody told the politicians. They’re still trying to force it onto the peopl...

After serving eight terms as one of the most progressive members of the US House of Representatives, Dennis Kucinich is leaving Washington D.C. next month. Kucinich was often the most reasonable voice in very unreasonable and irrational times. He ran for President several times, once I got to see him at a campaign stop in Atascadero, California. He was proud defender of the often time embattled and much maligned label of liberal. He will be missed. Below is the text for one of his most famous speeches given in February 2002. ***************** A Prayer for America by US Rep Dennis Kucinich February 17, 2002 I offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak freely. With the unde...

Celebrating the Prince of Peace in the Land of Guns by Michael Moore http://www.michaelmoore.com 12/24/12 After watching the deranged, delusional National Rifle Association press conference on Friday, it was clear that the Mayan prophecy had come true. Except the only world that was ending was the NRA's. Their bullying power to set gun policy in this country is over. The nation is repulsed by the massacre in Connecticut, and the signs are everywhere: a basketball coach at a post-game press conference ; the Republican Joe Scarborough ; a pawn shop owner in Florida ; a gun buy-back program in New Jersey ; a singing contest show on TV , and the conservative gun-owning judge who sentenced Jared Loughner . So here's my little bit of holiday cheer for you: These gun massacres aren't going to end any time soon. I'm sorry to say this. But deep down we both know it's true. That doesn't mean we shouldn't keep pushing forward -- after all, the mom...

I have been thinking alot lately about decolonization and the University of Guam. This was one of the primary reasons that I decided to leave island and go off and obtain a Ph.D. So that eventually I could return one day and teach at UOG and help transform the university from an institutional that began with a colonial function, but need not continue to perform it. This is something that is not unique to UOG, but rather something that nearly all educational institutions on Guam participated in for the past few centuries. It is a truism of education today that learning takes place through a movement from that which is familiar to that which is unfamiliar. In order for concepts and ideas to take hold you must first associate it with something familiar and then later can associate with things unfamiliar. This is the most efficient way of learning. To skip the familiar stage can create significant gaps of understanding and also feelings of alienation. UOG in recent years has taken more...

I just finished watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I had worried that the film would drag on due to the fact that they were taking a relatively short book and transforming it into 3 films, totaling as much as 9 hours of screen time. The book Breaking Dawn was not worthy of two films, and this was blisteringly apparent when both Part 1 and Part 2 seemed to drag on forever during certain sections. I was worried about a similar fate for the first Hobbit film. While I did cringe during certain parts, I did have to admire the way they extended the film, but still kept it entertaining. I recently reread the Hobbit and found that so much of the richness of it was in my head. The writing is very sparse and not very detailed. Even fact it seems that Tolkien's true passion was writing songs, since the books are littered with ballads from every race in Middle Earth. But this is one of the hallmarks of fantasy writing. The writing itself may not be the most lyrical or ...

If the United States can't push through some reasonable form of gun control then we can assume its tenure at the top of the world is over and it is now beyond saving. It is chilling to think that within the United States more people have died in the last six months because of gun violence than Americans who have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and any act of "terrorism" in the past 25 years. It is interesting to watch the debate and where the nation's priorities are, and what is something where it has the ability to change and what keeps it entrenched. All of this reminds me of Bowling for Columbine. Michael Moore tries to figure out what is it that makes the US a country where guns are so pervasive and so much gun violence is tolerated. He notes that alot of other countries have violent histories of repression and genocide just like the US does, but they have taken action to limit access to guns.  One of the things that has really irritated me this past week is...

I recently took my kids to watch the film “Rise of the Guardians.” It was an entertaining movie, where the mythical beings that accompany some kids throughout their childhood, such as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, are portrayed as guardians who fight to keep the children of the world safe. The movie was strange for me due to the fact that all of these guardians came from Western cultures, but were meant to represent the childhoods of everyone in the world. Every culture always has their own sorts of beliefs that children are told to give some magic to the world or help them respect boundaries or authority, learn certain values. There are always similarities about these beliefs, but there are still very distinct differences. I was surprised that the film didn’t do more to show diversity in these guardians in line with the diversity of beliefs in the world. After watching the film I asked my five-year-old Sumahi if she believed Santa Claus to...

Every Wednesday I'm at the Chamorro Village where I open my grandfather's blacksmith shop. My grandfather is a Chamorro Master Blacksmith and the only remaining pre-World War II blacksmith. Due to my grandmother being ill we haven't made much lately and so the case of tools for sale is fairly empty right now. Above is a picture of the last time that it was truly full and the last time my grandfather was down at the shop. Each of those tools or knives in there is slightly different and has its own story or rationale. It is interesting to know and to feel that story and that complexity even if for more who walk into the shop it is simply a piece of metal. I thought just for education sake I'd list the tools in the showcase above and give some background on each of them. Kamyo: A tool for grating coconut. You attach the metal blade to a wooden stool and then grate halves of coconut over the metal teeth in order to shred the coc...