NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I wonder who writes the press releases or the formal statements at the United Nations. Some of them must be easy as you simply include basic pertinent information. You recognize a country, an anniversary, a resolution or something like that. It might also be easy because so many of the press releases and statements, year after year, can be very similar and so you can really just cut and paste something from last year, change the dates and maybe a word or two. Such is possible is any large bureaucracy and so we shouldn't assume the UN is immune from this. But in truth, if you are taking your job seriously you can't do this, you have to give the impression that something is different or that something has changed, even if nothing has. For the issue of decolonization, we are currently in the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism from the world. Over these past 26 years, very little has changed or shifted in terms of ridding the world of colonialis

When talking about decolonization in Guam it is easy to assume that the lack of progress must be due to local problems. It is easy to look at the last three administrations and say in different ways that they weren't focused, or didn't understand the issue, or were afraid to upset the United States by taking it on more aggressively. We can also to certain Government of Guam agencies, such as the Commission on Decolonization, the Guam Election Commission or even the Department of Chamorro Affairs, for not taking the issue more seriously and incorporating it regularly into their outreach and community goals. It is easy to look at the Guam Legislature and see its members as not really understanding the gravity of the issue, or being afraid of taking it on because it may make them seem anti-American to local voters or US Federal officials. All of these things carry some truth to them. But to assume that this is the problem misses the larger structure, the larger limitations by bein

In just 50 days, more than two dozen Pacific Island nations will gather in Guam for the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts or FESTPAC. Although geographically Guam's presence in the Pacific cannot be questioned, culturally and politically due to its history of colonization, the island and its native people, the Chamorros are regularly treated differently. As if they are a part of the Pacific, yet also exist apart from it as well. There’s a great website out there for those who are colonialism and political status geeks such as myself called Overseas Territories Review . It features regular updates on different currently-existing-colonies out there in the world (most of which are small islands like Guam in the Caribbean or the Pacific) and some commentary on what sort of challenges they might face as they try to change their colonial status. The website is run by Dr. Carlyle Corbin, an expert on decolonization and the various remaining colonies in the world, who

The blog Overseas Territories Review is a great resource, this is something I've reiterated numerous times on this blog. One reason why there is little to no momentum globally with regards to decolonization is the fact that most of the remaining colonies in the world are far flung, midget land masses in the middle of vast oceans. They are small and far away and that combined with the overall apathy that the world feels with regards to continuing forms of really existing colonialism, creates an easy recipe for taya'ya'ya.  Knowledge and information can lead to networks of solidarity, ties of political and social imagination that can make the plight of the remaining colonies of the world feel more important, more relevant, more significant than the complaints of islanders who will never be self-sustainable. If you do not already follow this blog, please begin to do so. Here is a sampling of the recent articles you will find posted there: ************************ 1

This would be a great idea to have in the Pacific. A conference that focuses on the remaining official colonies and the near colonies. Amongst the last colonies in the world there is sometimes discussion about solidarity work, but there are so few venues for it to form. So few mechanisms for it to actually be forged and sustained. The United Nations was for a long time one such space. On the internet the Overseas Territories Review run by Carlyle Corbin (featured in the image below) provides a wealth of information on all the world's remaining colonies. Part of the problem, and this is very true for Guam, is that as a colony we are conditioned to see the world through the eyes, the media, the history, the political possibilities of our colonizer. So if the colonizer connects us in some way, we accept and privilege that, but any other way seems outlandish or difficult. For instance, the peoples of Guam and American Samoa are more likely to see each other as American minoritie

The Politics of Thanksgiving Day November 26, 2014 Thanksgiving Day is rooted in a myth of friendly cooperation between Native Americans and European settlers, celebrated a year after the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts and nearly starved. But the reality was more of one-sided generosity and two-faced betrayal, as William Loren Katz explains. By William Loren Katz http://consortiumnews.com/2014/11/26/the-politics-of-thanksgiving-day/ As family excitement builds over Thanksgiving, you would never know November was Native American History Month. President Barack Obama publicly announced the month, but many more Americans will be paying much greater attention to his annual declaration of thanksgiving with the ceremonial pardoning of a turkey. Thanksgiving has a treasured place in the hearts of Americans, established as a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to rouse Northern patriotism for a war that was not going well. Since the

The commentary below is from the Overseas Territories Review. A very good source of information about those of us and our islands who remain formally and per the United Nation's definition, colonized. Most of us are very small and the majority of the world's people could care little about. The Overseas Territories Review is a very good, centralized location for finding out information about all these scattered still colonized lands. Some of our situations today are very similar, some are very unique and distinct. But part of moving towards decolonizing is getting over the fear of being a "colony" still. Since this is something that is no longer supposed to exist, many wish to simply refuse to acknowledge the possibility since it means you are the one who carries the stain and stigma of the inhumanity of the past everyone else seems to have gotten past. Even if it is clearly the moral stain of the colonizer, you still feel like this is your mess, your problem that n

Don't get me started about Israel. Mungga mana'kuentos yu' put Israel. My blood is already boiling just thinking about it. Siempre bai kinahulo'guan anggen kumuentos yu' put este. A ray of hope was spotted recently for Palestinians, but like most things it could be short lived or meaningless since even the notion of "hope" in Palestine, like everything else is something Israel strives to control and quash. Their partial recognition by the United Nations is a big symbolic step, but how will it help stop the daily abuse and daily stranglehold that Israel has over The Occupied Territories? The resolution from the United Nations is pasted below. ***************** Status of Palestine in the United Nations The General Assembly, Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and stressing in this regard the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, Recalling its resolution 2625 (XXV) of 24 October 1970

For the past few weeks I've helped organize two public forums at UOG's CLASS Lecture Hall, both of which were completely packed. A forum held in September featuring David Vine talking about Diego Garcia and Leevin Camacho talking about the Pagat lawsuit was attended by well over 200 people. The same was true for a forum on political decolonization featuring expert on the existing Non-Self-Governing Territories Carlyle Corbin from the Virgin Islands and Guam's own human rights attorney Julian Aguon. In both cases, almost every seat was packed, with some lined up watching along the lecture hall's walls. Granted, a good number of those in attendance were students who were there as part of class, but it was still inspiring to see so many people in a single place to learn about issues such as base displacement and decolonization. While Carlyle Corbin was here last month he mentioned how impressed he was with the level of discourse on Guam in terms of decolonization. Compar

The United Nations is supposed to represent everybody. For countries weak, strong, big and small there is supposed to be a place for each and everyone. But for those who are not nation-states or are nations within nations or colonies, the UN is a very different experience. There is no official, permanent place there. You are literally a ghost which is called into existence and every once in a while given a temporary place from which your story can be told. In the case of Guam, there is an official place for this tiny little island each June and July when petitioners from Guam can speak before two different committees. Below is the summaries of the most recent visit this June. ************************ United Nations Press Release Special Committee on Decolonisation 6th & 7th Meetings (AM & PM) Special Committee on Decolonization Adopts Draft on Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Amid Petitioners’ Concern that Text Ignores Islanders’ Self-Determination Wish ‘Committee of 2