NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Right now I am struggling with how to respond to something. Since the announcement that Guam may receive only 4,700 instead of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa, there has been a few murmurs of discontent from pro-buildup proponents, who have been using the occasion to attack critics of the buildup. The inference is that the buildup was moving full speed ahead a few years back, everything was going wonderful, Guam was about to get that dreamy golden ticket that the buildup represented, where everyone, no matter where they fit on the socio-economic ladder was going to get what they wanted. Because the Marines were on their way, and with their big bags filled with 50 Caliber machine guns they also were bringing billions and billions of dollars with them, the rich could get richer, the poor could get richer. Riches for everyone was what the fantasies made us feel. But then the nasty DEIS comment period came around. During that 3 month period, all of the activists and malcontents of Guam worm

“The Meaning of Pågat” Michael Lujan Bevacqua 11/23/11 The Marianas Variety The social and political meaning of the word “Pågat” has changed so dramatically over the past two years, it has been truly inspiring to behold. Before the military buildup Pågat was a place for select families to fish and to gather plants for natural remedies, and although it has always been a beautiful hike, it was known to most people as a dumpsite. The first few hundred yards of the hike was littered with all imaginable and some unimaginable forms of human refuse. At one point I remember seeing an entire set of front yard Christmas decorations dumped there. When it first became apparent that Pågat was in the (pun intended) crosshairs of DOD as a site for them to put five live firing ranges, the meaning of Pågat started to change dramatically. When I first began teaching at UOG prior to the whole DEIS comment period, if I had told my students I was taking them on a hike to Pågat, I would have most like

The article below from Common Dreams gives you a hint of what the term "militarism" refers to. The rhetoric in Washington D.C. right now is that the American government and economy are potentially careening towards destruction, and so cuts and sacrifices have to be made. Armageddon in just in a few weeks and so there are both offers of compromises and rhetoric of righteous obstinacy from all sides. In a moment like this, where supposedly everything is being placed upon the table whereby the people aboard the plane which is surely going to crash unless the collective load can be lightened, make the decision as to what is chucked, you can see the ideological blindspots of people based on what they refuse to put out in the open, what they keep hidden behind their backs as they make angry suggestions about what is already on the table and should be thrown away for the good of the many. It is intriguing how the most massive, overbloated, corrupt and inefficient part of the Uni

From now own I'm going to start pasting my Marianas Variety column "When the Moon Waxes" on my blog. Some of the columns will have appeared in some form or another on this blog, but it's still a good way of collecting them all here in a place where they are easily accessible for me. Sometimes newspapers, in particular the PDN tend to cut their links to articles after a certain period of time and so this way they can still be found online. I'll also be tweeting about them, for those who are interested in reading them and follow me on Twitter (all 30 of you). ****************************** "Ideological Chains" Michael Lujan Bevacqua The Marianas Variety June 29, 2011 IN THE drafting of any petition, there is always tension over the language and images you use in order to inspire, frighten or convince people to sign. Whatever your particular fight is, you tend to want as many people as possible to sign, which means you usually make the petition as n

I mentioned I was working on an editorial with Victoria Leon Guerrero the other day and it was published in the Pacific Daily News this morning. We crammed alot of statements about what has been going on lately in terms of attempts to shift the buildup conversation into something of pre-DEIS period mode. We discussed Para Hita Todu and some of their motivations and also why they can't be taken seriously as a group that will lead Guam on this issue. All in all I think it was a pretty good editorial and so I wanted to paste it here as well. ********************** Guam Needs Leadership on Buildup Issue Michael Lujan Bevacqua and Victoria Leon Guerrero Pacific Daily News June 26, 2011 Given last week's Sunday Forum topic, which focused on whether or not people should express their support of the military buildup, we eagerly await a future Sunday Forum that will ask the obvious next question as to whether or not people opposed to the buildup should speak out as well. Last

Fellow activist and instructor at UOG Victoria Leon Guerrero and I just finished our letter to the editor weighing on the emergence of Para Hita Todu and the recently reinvigorated pro-buildup bias of the Pacific Daily News. This past week has had alot of letters in support of the buildup, many of them exceeding the usual limit the paper puts on submissions. All of these letters made similar points and talked about opportunities being missed and the buildup been a once in a lifetime or golden chance for so much more. None of them were particularly helpful for the discussion and were all built upon the hopeful, wishful but pointless premise that good things will happen if we believe in the buildup and support it. Gof na'chalek nu Guahu, that opponents of the buildup were for so long accused of not offering anything but just negativity and critique, whereas those supporting the buildup were somehow offering a real concrete solution to problems despite not even knowing what they wer

Last week the Pacific Daily News, the most powerful and most influential media outlet on Guam which has been a longstanding devout mouthpiece for the military buildup, burying much of the negatives but always careful to blazon in sometimes stupid ways any potential or even mythically positive, provided this in a way far more clearly than ever before. Each week the PDN hosts a Sunday forum where people in the community who are knowledgable about a subject are invited to write in letters to the editor addressing said subject. Last week's topic was about whether or not people who support the military buildup should voice their opinion. Most topics are about issues where there is a pretense to address the subject in a comprehensive way, or at least from two sides. In this instance no such pretense existed and it was merely a ploy to create a space for supporters of the buildup could crame the editorial pages of the PDN with pointless platitudes of how awesome the buildup is and how eve

I've been writing for months that "pro-buildup" groups on Guam have been strangely silent lately. The overtly pro-build side of Guam was for years the richest and most powerful on Guam, and nothing has changed. But for more than a year, those captains of industry and influence appeared to almost live in fear of small, protest and activist groups. They seemed content to sit on the sidelines and not just lick their wounds, but suck every drop of life from them, to keep from getting back into the debate and try to actually argue their side, and try to convince people, beyond the pointless rhetoric that the buildup really is good for Guam. Several weeks ago a new group emerged, Para Hita Todu which is promising to help give voice to the silent majority of Guam people who see the buildup as a good thing. Only time will tell how much they can accomplish, but so far, despite the fact that they represent so much money and power, they are off to a rather silly and almost comical s