NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Below is an account of the death of Ferdinand Magellan, on the island of Mactan in 1521. I've been reading different historians and their interpretation of the events and where they situate his death in the context of his personality and his behavior. At the conference that I was at in Madrid last month, there was quite a bit of myth-making around Magellan. Some of it is deserved, as he did guide a voyage that was into water unknown to Europeans. But the success of his mission has a tendency to lead historians to make generalizations of greatness. Many historians take the flaws in Magellan's character and then argue that they were actually strengths because of the time that he lived in and because of the obstacles, both geographic and human that he faced. For example, Magellan's tactics in dealing with the concerns or the fears of his men, is argued to be a strength since he was dealing with medieval and pre-modern superstitions about the world that he refused to let ru

Although on Guam, we tend to the see the United Nations as being inefficient and taisetbe because of the way we have waited for decades for decolonization, this issue is actually something that the United Nations has actually been very successful in terms of promoting. Since 1946, more than 80 former colonies, more than 750 million people have decolonized. In looking at the past few centuries of human history, this is a very substantial reversal. At one point a small group of colonizer controlled the maps, planted the flags and draw the lines of the world. We still live with that legacy in so many ways, but one cannot deny the shifts that have taken place. But there are still losers in this game of decolonization. The United Nations recognizes 17 official colonies, which amount to close to 2 million people. If we look beyond this formal level of recognition you could easily add in several dozen more territories or peoples that could be called colonies. We are the ones who are still

I interviewed so many cool people over the last week in Okinawa and Ishigaki Islands. I did so with the help of Okinawan activist Shinako Oyakawa who I first met in 2010 during a demilitarization study tour to South Korea. I was fortunate enough to join her, Bruce Gagnon and Corazon Fabros on on a trip to South Korea where we visited areas affected by US military facilities and training. Later I met Shinako in the context of solidarity activism in connection with Okinawa. She is a member of an academic association which is pushing for Okinawan, Ryukyu or LewChu independence from Japan. Her group has invited me to several conferences in Okinawa over the years and she is usually stuck translating the mindless things I say into Japanese. Another connection I have to Shinako is that she is a language revitalization activist. She is from Okinawa, one of many islands in what most people consider to be "Okinawa" or the Ryukyu Islands. Most people in Okinawa speak Japanese, but t

Published on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 by Common Dreams From Jeju and Afghanistan, an Asia Peace Pivot by Hakim   Mi Ryang, standing with Gangjeong Village Association members and Gangjeong’s mayor, outside the Jeju Courts, to refuse paying fines for protests against the U.S. naval base construction. (Courtesy of the author) “Don’t you touch me!” declared Mi Ryang. South Korean police were clamping down on a villager who was resisting the construction of a Korean/U.S. naval base at her village.  Mi Ryang managed to turn the police away by taking off her blouse and, clad in her bra, walking toward them with her clear warning.  Hands off!  Mi Ryang is fondly referred to as “Gangjeong’s daughter” by villagers who highly regard her as the feisty descendant of legendary women sea divers.  Her mother and grandmother were Haenyo divers who supported their families every day by diving for shellfish.

March 29, 2014 Chamorro Cultural Festival San Diego, CA 10 am - 6 pm DIRECTIONS to the Chamorro Cultural Festival - March 29, 2014: Market Creek Plaza is near the corner of Euclid Avenue and Market Street, near the three corners that situate the Tubman-Chavez Multi-Cultural Center, the Malcolm X Library, an d the Elementary Institute of Science. The Plaza's bright and unique architecture is instantly recognizable. Market Street Plaza 310 Euclid Ave., San Diego, CA 92114 (Corner of Market St. and Euclid Ave.) By Car From Downtown, drive east on Market Street and turn right at Euclid Avenue, or go east on the Martin Luther King Freeway (94) and exit at Euclid Avenue going south. Turn right to get to Market Creek Plaza. From Interstate 5, go east on the Martin Luther King Freeway (94) and exit at Euclid Avenue. Turn right to get to Market Creek Plaza. From East County, go west on the Martin Luther King Freeway (94) and exit at Euclid A

If you were to do a poll of Chamorros either today or even 100 years ago, and ask them to choose who in the entirety of Guam's history is the person who they think is the most important, I can guarantee you that most people would choose or would have chosen the same stupid person. Ferdinand Magellan. For most people this choice seems natural. After all Magellan was the first European to visit Guam, and was credited for a long time with "discovering" it. Snot nosed kids around the world have to learn about him whenever the "Age of Discovery" is discussed in school. So in every corner of the globe students learning history may or may not learn about Guam simply because Magellan stumbled upon it. It is easy to forget that Chamorros have been in Guam and the Marianas in one form or another for close to 4,000 years. Magellan only arrived close to 500 years ago. The period of colonization that we still live in today is only around 350 years old. In all this tim

My son Akli'e' has not quite learned yet how to deal with disappointment. When he says "Malago' yu este" and he doesn't receive it, no matter how small or trivial, he'll often pout and cry. Sumahi and I take alot of joy in scolding him in the weirdest way, by singing a Rolling Stone's lyric to him translated into Chamorro. The song? "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and what we sing to him is "Ti sina un chule' todu i malago'-mu" or sometimes "Ti sina un risibi todu i malago'-mu!" ******************* Everyday when we are driving home, the kids and I pass by the airport. There are plenty of ways to say "airport" in Chamorro if you don't want to just make airport sound Spanish to make it Chamorro. It depends primarily on what aspect of the airport you want to emphasize in how you name it. Chamorro has a circumfix known as "fan...'an." You put the fan at the f

--> Threats, dangers, risks, these are all things that are out there, but each society and each individual will find their own individual and collective ways of organizing them and ranking them. Everything from personal experience, cultural representations, ideological lens, or accumulation of resources comes into play in helping us understand the things that we should be afraid of and the things we don’t “really” need to be afraid of. It is a strange sort of game to watch because it doesn’t really make sense. It is a very human endeavor. The way that a human can truly define themselves in this world, even if it means accepting an obvious fiction instead of a truth and laughing while they sign their own death warrants. Such is the lesson of the Garden of Eden and the choice of Adam and Eve. What makes human beings human beings is their ability to act in aggressive, passionate and unthinking ways against their own interest. They are rife with potential interests and can pi