State(Hood) of the Island
I am working tonight on a review of the past year on Guam in terms of decolonization. As a member of the Commission on Decolonization and the Independence for Guam Task Force and a community activist and scholar who has been working on and studying this issue for more than 10 years, I am excited to take up this task. Compared to the 1980s and 1990s when the issue of Commonwealth was prominent and much of the island was united behind it, the past decade and a half has been relatively quiet. Part of the reason for this is that the Commission on Decolonization, which replaced the old Commission on Self-Determination has lacked any real funding for the past two administrations. Staff positions have been paid for, but the Commission has received no funding whatsoever for programming or for educational materials. The previous administration under Felix Camacho almost seemed to shiver in fear at the idea of decolonization and did very little to support or promote it. When Eddie Calvo t