NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I have been wracking my brain for the past few hours and also "tearing apart" at least digitally my computer looking for the source for a quote that I had included in my notes and now need to use in an article I'm completing for The Journal of Okinawan Studies. As of now I have yet to find it unfortunately and I'm hoping that this quote didn't come from a news article that I had photocopied years ago but had yet to scan or transcribe. If that is the case, I may never find the citation for it.

Part of the joy, but also the frustration of searches like this, is the random surprises and nostalgia bombs that end up crossing your path. While searching through more than a decade of research, I came across so many bits and pieces of things, some of which ended up being keystones in my academic cosmology, others I had completely forgotten.

One thing I came across that I wanted to share was these three articles below. They all come from August 2007, at a time when the in…

While most people were spending December with their family or shopping, I spent much of it conducting outreach on Guam's decolonization. The Commission on Decolonization held three public village meetings over the course of one week. Independent Guåhan held its monthly General Assembly, and we also launched our weekly podcast series. Here are some articles below detailing some of our activities.

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Decolonization Meetings Kick Off in Dededo
by Tihu Lujan
Guam Daily Post
December 15, 2016

The Commission on Decolonization held the first of a series of village meetings arranged to discuss Guam’s political status yesterday at the Dededo Community Center.

Revolving around the island’s long-delayed plebiscite that has been in discussions since 1998, the commission has finally launched the village meetings as an educational campaign on the three proposed political options - independence, free association and statehood.

The plebiscite, which would be a …

If you are interested in learning more about decolonization and independence for Guam, please come and join us for Independent Guahan's October General Assembly meeting, this Thursday (10/27) at 6 pm at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagatna. For our educational presentation, we will be discussing what is known as a transition or implementation period. This is a temporary phase whereby a colony that has chosen to become independent, negotiates a gradual reduction in dependency on programs provided by the colonizer, and receives funding in order to develop new revenues and new programs to fill any needed gaps.

For each monthly General Assembly meeting, Independent Guahan chooses a "maga'taotao" or a pioneer/hero which we honor for their role in helping push the island towards decolonization. This Thursday, we will be honoring the late Senator Ben Pangelinan, for his tireless efforts as a Guam lawmaker to protect the rights, lands and heritage of…

This is particularly interesting/na'chalek in the context of current problems in the Government of Guam. As I've often said, politicians are fortunate that peoples' memories are very short for the things that matter and long for those that don't.

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Guam Lawmakers Push Financial Reform
By Gerardo R. Partido
The Marianas Variety
March 21, 2007

With the administration still finalizing its fiscal recovery plan, the Guam Legislature has taken the initiative by passing Bill 15, which contains various measures to reform the way the government of Guam manages its finances.

Sponsored by Vice Speaker Eddie Calvo, R-Maite, the legislation requires the administration to implement revenue tracking report and a fiscal realignment plan that would ensure greater clarity and accountability of Government of Guam’s finances.

Calvo describes the bill, which was passed unanimously, as the culmination of a collaborative effort between majority and minority senators…

Guam's decolonization movement has been stalled at the governmental level for many years, and even decades depending on how you perceive things. During the Gutierrez administration the quest for decolonization was taken seriously in a variety of ways, money was provided for education, the Commonwealth movement was in full swing, although it did eventually end in 1997, and several plebiscites were scheduled. The problem was that the plebiscite was scheduled and postponed multiple times, and no real educational campaign ever took place, although at one point basic materials were distributed on a mass scale. During the next administration, that of Felix Camacho, the issue almost died completely at the government level. Community groups and civil society took up the cause, but during the entire administration of Camacho, not a single meeting of the Commission on Decolonization was held, and the office itself was given little to no support. Part of this was the hesitancy of the admini…

I've been working for a few months on an article for a book on discourses on sustainability. I reached a number of deadends in my writing, but eventually, finally found a breakthrough last month in terms of how I wanted to craft my argument about how we an see discourses on sustainability in terms of discussions and critiques on the US military buildup plans for Guam.

I'll be presenting some components of my draft at the upcoming Academic Research Conference sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) at UOG. I just submitted my abstract for it, which I've pasted below:

"Situating Sustainability: Disrupting Military Buildup Fantasies"
In 2009 the USDOD announced their intention to dramatically increase their military presence on the island of Guam. Although this “military buildup” was predicted to cause severe damage to the island in environmental, social and economic terms, discourse from island leaders and media reports focused primari…

The Chamorro Land Trust was a government program born as an idea and hope during an expansion of Chamorro consciousness and then implemented and given life during a period of heated activism and protest for Guam. When we look back at the work of Chamorro rights pioneers such as Paul Bordallo or Angel Santos, the Chamorro Land Trust is a key, tangible piece of their legacies.

The Chamorro Land Trust's mission is to provide land to landless Chamorros and for the benefit of the Chamorro community, but different administrations have always found ways to blur that or to quietly sneak around or shockingly expand what that might mean, giving away lands meant to be held in trust for the Chamorro people to all sorts of public and private enterprises. The late Senator Ben Pangelinan once said, "anggen ta manteni i tano', ta susteni i taotao." If we hold onto the land, we sustain the people. A very true point that is important to remember as Guam is sold off to foreign compan…

Mafitma i ROD gi i ma'pos na simana. I Maga'lahen Guahan ha silelebra este komo un gefpago na rigalu para i taotao Guahan. Lao anai hu hungok i sinangan-na sigi di hu faisen maisa yu', "hafa magahet na ha taitai ayu na ROD?" Kao ha tungo' hafa ilelek-na? Anggen magahet na ha taitai ayu, ti sina ha sangan ayu. Ti ha konfotme i sinangan-na i ROD, ha chanda gui'.

Gi i dinesganao-hu, muna'hasso yu' put i sinangan-na i difunto na Senadot Ben Pangelinan. Matai gui' gi ma'pos na sakkan, lao hu record gui' gi Mayu, anai tumestigu gui' para i huntan publiko put i SEIS. Estague i video para i tinestigu-na, ya hu pega lokkue' gi papa' unu na tininge'-na ginen i ma'pos na sakkan lokkue'.


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Estague i Mañamoru!
ben’s Pen
Published in Marianas Variety
March 13, 2014

THE month of March signals the start of our celebration of Mes Chamorro. School children around the island begin preparing for Cham…