NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

It is frustrating dealing with the ways that so many people, on Guam, on the internet and in so many places talk about race, or rather talk about it in ways to try to neutralize it as a potential issue to be taken seriously in life today. While we can self-identify as a race, while we can say we are this color or that color, and can take pride in what is culturally or historically or linguistically associated with that race, this doesn't take us very far in terms of understanding how race operates in our lives and therefore how racism persists in life, even when race is not "mentioned." Racism is not so much about difference, or the differences between racism, but at its core it is a dynamic between those who are "raced" or "racialized" and those who are not. Those who carry the stigma of race as they move, entangled in various systems and those who do not. Race is a stain, a mark, something that allows for certain bodies to be treated differently, t...

Kathy Jetnil-Kijner made international headlines for her poems "Tell Them" and "A Poem to My Daughter" giving people around the world an insight into Marshallese culture and also the dangers that global warming represents to people across the Pacific. She has a blog titled Iep Jeltok, where she discusses a wide range of interesting topics, such as Pacific Literature, the lives of Micronesians in Hawai'i and a post that I really enjoyed (and have posted below) on the importance of colleges divesting from fossil fuels. *********************** Why College of the Marshall Islands is divesting from fossil fuels - and why your institution should too November 19, 2015 by Kathy Jetnil-Kijner Iep Jeltok A few weeks ago I was called into the office of the President of the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI) Carl Hacker, to discuss his big announcement: that he would be pushing for CMI to divest from fossil fuels. All we need next is approval from the Board ...

FROM BILL MOYERS Previously published on BillMoyers.com. After my online chat Tuesday , I had more to add to the questions I received about the Oscar-nominated film Selma, President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Voting Rights Act and how government has changed over the past 40-plus years. Read my Q&A below. What did you think of the film  Selma ? Bill:  There are some beautiful and poignant moments in the film that take us closer to the truth than anything I've seen in other movies to date: the cruelty visited upon black people everyday by whites and armed authorities; the humiliation they faced simply trying to register to vote ("Name all the county judges in Alabama!"); the courage and fear of those black people who put themselves on the line for freedom's sake; the ambivalence in Martin Luther King Jr. as he faced the inescapability of leadership and constant threat of death. I cannot imagine the dread one had to subdue to st...

As someone who also went to community college (3 semesters prior to transferring to UOG), I support President Obama's plan to make community college free, and also concur with the message of Tom Hanks in this column from the New York Times.  ********************** I owe it all to community college by Tom Hanks New York Times 1/15/15 IN 1974, I graduated from Skyline High School in Oakland, Calif., an underachieving student with lousy SAT scores. Allowed to send my results to three colleges, I chose M.I.T. and Villanova, knowing such fine schools would never accept a student like me but hoping they’d toss some car stickers my way for taking a shot. I couldn’t afford tuition for college anyway. I sent my final set of stats to Chabot , a community college in nearby Hayward, Calif., which, because it accepted everyone and was free, would be my alma mater. For thousands of commuting students, Chabot was our Columbia, Annapolis, even our Sorbonne, offeri...

Storytelling has long been such a big part of Chamorro culture. When Chamorros were largely shut out of the governing of their islands and their lives during the last few centuries of colonization, often times their stories were their means of fighting back, whether through teasing, through imagining, through remembering. Even when they largely appear to have accepted their colonial realities, the stories persisted, sometimes changing to accommodate new beliefs and new senses of normality, but still the love of storytelling and of using words to create meaning, to incite responses, to give an extra dimension to life did not fade. You can find it in the stories of Juan Mala, where Chamorros expressed their dislike for the Spanish government of the 19th century through a folk hero, who shared their love of joking, laughing and eating. You can find it in the stories of the giant fish who saved Guam, some versions focus on female power, others on explaining the shape of the island and so...

I've been scrounging the internet looking for good articles about the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the public's response. It is such a difficult things to make sense of, because while for some it is very simple, crazed terrorists attacked some cartoonists and police because of cartoons, and the end of the discussion is everyone stand tall claiming "Guahu Si Charlie lokkue'!" from their cellphones, ipads and Facebooks. But in the larger scheme of things, this generally isn't productive. You can focus in on this one instance, but such can be deceptive, it can prevent you from seeing how that may actually change or help little. It is easy to look at the relationship between societies and say this society is bad and this is good. This society allows this while the other does not. In terms of free speech there are definitely key differences between some Western and some Islamic societies. But if you are truly trying to improve things, you also have to acknowledge the...

 A very comprehensive article about the history of the United States focusing on the way in which so many have sought to legitimize its existence even though it is clearly based on violence and lies. While for many attached to the US, this history is unimportant or irritating, for Native peoples it is essential, it cannot and should not be forgotten. It is a story of genocide and stolen sovereignty. It is the formation of a great net of lies which others use to trap you and your existence, to keep you small, to keep you away, to try to neutralize your past, present and potential future. The writer is Mark Charles, a Navajo. Link to his blog is also included below. ********************* "The Doctrine of Discovery: A Buried Apology and an Empty Chair" By Mark Charles Reflections From the Hogan 12/22/14  http://wirelesshogan.blogspot.com/2014/12/doctrine-of-discovery.html Picture a chair, an empty chair. There are dozens, even hundreds, of them sitting on the stage ...

I completely neglected this during the past year, even though I would remember it every once in a while. 2014 was the ten-year anniversary of the starting of this blog, "No Rest for the Awake - Minagahet Chamorro." I first began it in 2004, while I was preparing for graduate school in San Diego, California. At that time I was running several websites with the help of a few other people, some of whom I haven't been in contact with for close to ten years. It was a place for me to vent thoughts, share ideas, get the word out about things. It has been by now something that countless high school, middle school and college students use for their research papers. It is something that even other scholars have used on occasion for theoretical points. I have posted on this blog 2121 times and it has been visited over 900,000 times. Over the course of this blog's life I have had two children, finished a Ph.D., lost both my grandmothers, testified at the United Nation...

For me the idea that Guam is a colonized place is so obvious that I often times have to atan puyitos anyone who is confused by this comment. There is so much evidence around us and even inside of us at any given moment, that it doesn't seem possible that someone could try to argue otherwise. You could try to argue that it being colonized isn't that bad and that it is actually good since Guam is helpless and pathetic without someone else telling it how to live its life, but this is different than simply denying that colonialism exists. This position is one of apologizing or justifying colonization in the name of helping a poor, tiny island that can't survive otherwise. Those who act like Guam isn't or can't be colonized usually don't know much about Guam and the fact that they take this position is usually exhibit A in their class action lawsuit of ignorance. But what is hysterical is the way they don't admit to this lack of knowledge and try to pretend tha...

Gof na'chalek este. Ti hu tungo' hafa bei sangan, esta sen na'chalek sin commentary.    Hu na'chechetton magi un editorial put Si Kirby Delauter. Este muna'chalek yu' mas kinu todu i otro na editorials siha ni hu taitai gi lina'la'-hu.    Taitai mas, ya siempre para un komprende.    ***************  "Kirby Delauter, who didn't want his name in a news story, is now a story" Krishnadev Calamur  NPR.org 1/6/15 Update at 9:21 a.m. ET, Jan. 8 We reported Wednesday evening that Frederick County, Md., Council Member Kirby Delauter has apologized. You can find that story here . Our original post: Frederick County, Md., Council Member Kirby Delauter threatened a local reporter with a lawsuit for using his name in a story without permission. Delauter was mentioned exactly once in that article about parking issues. We could explain what he said in his Facebook post on Monday; instead we'll just point y...