NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

One of my jobs this summer is to run community conversations with Nedine Songeni for Humanities Guåhan at the Department of Corrections. I first started doing these types of conversations or civic reflections many years ago, when the Humanities Council introduced them as a means for talking about the military buildup. I along with several others underwent a training period and held these conversations with diverse groups across the island. Since then I've also helped them a few more times on organizing civic reflections. It is an interesting model, and what I've always found nice about it, is that it requires the use of humanities text, whether it be an article, a text, an essay or a short film, as a means to stimulate conversation. Rather than a debate or a lecture, you build from a text which can be interpreted in many ways to sort of try to unpack many of the things members of the community may be feeling and may or may not be talking about. A few years ago Humanities Guåh

Two poems written by the late Angel L.G. Santos while he was in US federal prison in the year 2000. I will write more on them another time, but for now, let them stand here as a testament to who he was and the times in which he lived, and also, how he helped to affect the course of Chamoru and Guam history up until today. ************************ Who Are We To Uncle Sam – Friend or Foe? (by Angel Leon Guerrero Santos) As I pen this poem, while I sit in prison, For you silence my voice, in the American tradition; Who are we Uncle Sam, are we friend or foe? If we are your friend, then treat us as so; Our land and our water, the air God giveth,  You came to our island, and then you taketh; We have drinking water, at Fena Lake you will find, You want us to pay “Now!”, cause it’s no longer mine; Our language and our culture, is 4,000 years old, You pass your own laws, “No More!” we are told; We live and we learn, you say we are one, You build y

The issue of Governor Calvo "deporting" people (primarily) from the FSM has been one of those issues that I wish I was following more closely, but haven't been able to. I've collected some articles here offering basic timelines and info over the past few months. I look forward at some point in the future writing more about this, as it goes right to the heart of Guam's status as a continuing colony, whereas the other islands in Micronesia have been able to move towards a greater sense of self-government. This exasperates and complexifies the long-standing problem of whether or not Chamorros and others on Guam identify as being Micronesian, being part of Micronesia or being anything other than Pacific Islander Americans. Gaige iya Guahan giya Micronesia. Lao atan i sinangån-ta yan i kustumbre-ta? Kao ta na'magågahet este na ideha? Lao achokka' siña ta sångan na gaige hit gi halom este na hinekkan isla, ti mamparehu hit gi pulitikat na bånda. Manggaipodet s

The Michigan GOP's War on 'A People's History' by Matthew Kovac September 3, 2015 Common Dreams Michigan State Senator Patrick Colbeck is at it again. Back in 2013, Colbeck sponsored a bill calling for schools to institute a  Patriot Week  that would indoctrinate students with nationalist and militarist “history” lessons. Now, in a series of red-baiting  Facebook   posts , Colbeck is railing against late civil rights activist and historian Howard Zinn and the use of his book A People’s History of the United States in Michigan classrooms. First published in 1980, A People’s History popularized “history from below” by emphasizing the struggles of those overlooked by mainstream historical accounts: indigenous people, African Americans, women, and working people. In the decades since its publication, this bottom-up approach to U.S. history has sold more than two million copies. Zinn’s work is hardly a new target for right-wing censors. In an  e

Read the article below about the case of James Leon Guerrero, notorious on Guam for robbing the Bank of Guam. The Federal Government was planning on seeking the death penalty for him and another Chamorro for their role in killing a prison guard. The article recounts how the death penalty has been dropped due to a Federal judge ruling that Leon Guerrero has a history of untreated mental illness. And so while Leon Guerrero will remain in prison for the rest of his life, he is no longer in danger of ending up on death row. For the past few years I have been meeting with Leon Guerrero's defense team to discuss with them aspects of Chamorro history that may be relevant to the case. Through these meetings I learned about mitigation, and the exhaustive amount of research that should take place prior to trying someone in a capital case. I have spoken to them about the impact of World War II on Chamorros and the trauma that gets carried into postwar generations in both visible and invisib

I have only been in South Korea for two days and I have already met dozens of political prisoners, some of whom were imprisoned for a matter of months, others for years. When I say political prisoner I don't mean someone arrested at a protest, but rather people who have been condemned and wrongfully incarcerated by the South Korean government. In fact, within the span of one day, I met three men who were political prisoners longer than Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in South Africa. I didn’t make this connection right away (this connection to Mandela), but it was something that was regularly reiterated throughout the day. I’ll return to this at the end of the post. Most people on Guam or in the United States don’t know anything about South Korea, and certainly not about its government. But that is why nationalism and the imaginary cognitive mapping that it provides is so important when dealing with “the rest of the world.” Most people might know about the Korean War or know that S

Our delegation was given a tour this afternoon of Yongsan Base which is right in the heart of Seoul and the headquarters of the United States military forces in Korea. We climbed into a van provided by the Pan-Korean Alliance Reunification (PKAR) South Korea branch, and drove around the base, marveling at how intertwined the government of South Korea and the US military were. We spent the afternoon visiting the Pan-Korean Alliance Reunification (PKAR) South Korea branch. They took us to their office, gave us a tour of nearby Yongsan Base (which houses the headquarters of the US military in South Korea) and treated us to dinner afterwards. For those interested, we were given a small packet of information on their group and so here is some excerpts: Who are We? Pan Korean Alliance for Reunification (BomMinRyon) was established in 1990 as a non-governmental civil organization conducting the movement for great nation unity and reunification of Korea… BomMinRyon – the movement is based

US-MEXICO: Humanitarian Aid Criminalised at the Border By Valeria Fernández, IPS Transporting a migrant in despair to a hospital could mean a volunteer is charged with human smuggling. A simple act of kindness like leaving water in the desert can be subject to penalties as well. "We’re being intimidated and criminalised as humanitarians," said Walt Staton, a 27-year-old volunteer with No More Deaths, a humanitarian aid group. Staton knows this firsthand. He was convicted on Jun. 3 by a 12-person jury of "knowingly littering" for leaving unopened water jugs on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge southwest of Tucson, Arizona. Arizona, the main gateway for undocumented migration into the U.S., is ground zero to a human rights crisis, according to border activists. In the summer, triple-digit temperatures in the remote Sonoran desert have caused a deadly toll. Over the past decade, it is estimated that at least 5,000 men, women and children have lost their l

Leo Babauta and his blog Zen Habits have made a big splash this year. Babauta published his first book this year The Power of Less , and it is already a best seller. His blog is a huge success, and he is actually living a blogger's dream by being able to live off the revenue that Zen Habits makes. It was even named last year as one of Time Magazine's 25 best blogs of the year. Bai hu admite yan kalang hosguan yu' nu i gof matungo'-na! Zen Habits is a nice website, with alot of harmless, self-helpful, inspirational/motivational life reorganizing content. Reading through some of Babauta's posts on that site however creates a strange contrast for me. I know that Babauta's been a writer for many years, and it was actually through some of his writing from almost a decade ago that I know him best. But compared to the Babauta of today, these pieces seem as if they are from another universe. The show/group Malafunkshun had a website made in 2000, and at that time

I came across a post on my friend Maile's blog the maile vine, where she posted a request for support recently made by South End Press . I'm posting the entire request letter below for you to check out and learn more about their situation. This year, the financial woes of Borders bookstores have hit South End Press especially hard. As a way to deal with its own troubles, Borders returned massive amounts of books. This means fewer copies of classics by South End authors like bell hooks, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Vandana Shiva on the shelf for book browsers to happen upon. And as Borders returns came at the same time as end-of- semester returns it also means that for several months South End Press will receive no payments from our trade distributor–our main source of income. It hurts living paycheck to paycheck, especially when the checks don’t come. Our worry about how to deal with the immediate cash crisis saps time that we would otherwise spend on publishing and promoti