NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Chamorros and others from Guam pushing for the island's decolonization first began visiting the United Nations in the early 1980s. This was after witnessing the United Nations and their role in assisting the other islands in Micronesia in their decolonization, and noticing that Guam and the Chamorro people were being left behind. A visiting mission from the United Nations to Guam in 1979 helped connect the local struggles to the larger international community, where such conversations about independence and self-governance were not taboo, but rather normal and more importantly, necessary.  Part of the postwar strategy of the United States was to develop the islands in Micronesia into a buffer zone, to put space between its potential enemies in Asia. This meant prioritizing for two decades the military interests of the US over the interests or desires of the people in the region. This manifested most clearly in the form of security clearance requirements for those coming in and

After the Record of Decision was signed, the Pacific Daily News  collected responses from Senators in the Guam Legislature, detailing their thoughts and concerns on the military buildup finally being officially declared "begun." I have pasted them below for people to read and reflect on. I have heard so many people over the past few months speak with some satisfaction that the rhetoric of so many of our political leaders have changed, that the efforts of so many who were critical of the buildup have helped make it so that no potential political leader who wants to be taken seriously can be 100% supportive of the military buildup, but instead has to hover around 50% - 70% good and the rest bad. This is a very real shift in rhetoric since for the first few years of the buildup, politicians would try to convince people that the buildup was a boon, that it was great and that the problems were minor and not such a big deal. That was how the public was shaped back then, in such a

During the Hiroshima Rally for the 2010 World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen bombs, as an overseas delegate I got to sit in the very front row, with a great view of every speaker who stood at the podium or almost everyone who got on stage. This meant that even with my cheap K-Mart digital camera I could still take “cool” looking shots, which would have been mediocre or impossible to discern if I had been a hundred feet or so back into the crowd. As I saw dozens of speakers cycle across the podium and dozens of activist groups from around Japan come up to present their efforts, I didn’t only take pictures of them, but also found myself taking pictures of the people who were taking pictures. For different speakers, a different, always evolving and morphing throng of people with cell phones, digital cameras and yes even disposable camera would be surging forward to get a better shot at what or who was on stage. For some there would be just a handful of picture-takers, who would l

"Demand, don't ask." This is something that people have been telling Guam's leaders for years now about the military buildup, that being assertive is a far better strategy than being coy or meek. A group of Japanese Diet members who came to Guam last week, helped remind Guam's leaders of that simple fact. Given the magnitude of what the US military is planning for Guam, there is no room to be shy or whimpy about this. There is really no point in that, sen taibali ayu na hinasso. For years, Camacho's approach to the military buildup was filtered through that stupid idea that emerged after the closures of US bases on Guam in the early 1990's and the activism of the same period: that Guam might be pathetic and powerless most of the time, but it somehow has this strange, bewildering ability to hurt the military's feelings and chase them away. Although Camacho and others who supported the buildup since it was first announced, would always speak of the bu