NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Estague i mayot giya San Juan, i kapitåt para i islan Puerto Rico, un otro na colony gi påpa' i Estådos Unidos. Gi ma'pos na simåna sen hinatme i isla ni' un dångkolo'lo' na påkyo'. Meggai na taotao manmamadedesi guihi på'go. Gof annok gi sinangån–ña si Donald Trump yan gi bidan-ña i Gubetnamenton Federåt na ti manmatratråta i taotao guihi parehu put i estao-ñiha. Anggen un taitai pat un hungok i sinangån-ña gof annok yan oppan na ha apagågayi i minagahet colonial. Anggen ti siña un li'e' pat hungok, put fabot akompåra i tratamento giya Texas yan Florida yan giya Puerto Rico. Gof annok ti manchilong todu gi Estådos Unidos, Giya Guåhan, fihu masångan na mamparehu hit gera, lao åhe' gi pas. Gof annok gi håfa masusesedi giya Puerto Rico na ti mamparehu hit lokkue' gi pakyo' pat otro taiguihi na klasen ira. ************************** Retired Lieutenant General: While Trump Golfs, San Juan's Mayor is 'Living On A Cot." b

I read Murakami as a younger man and enjoyed the first book I read, but disliked the next two and so I, in a way said abayo to Japan literature for a while after that. When I spent a month in mainland Japan over the summer I quickly ran out of English books to read and resorted to picking up some Japanese texts translated into English. I don't think I'll ever give Murakami a try again, but some of them were worth the time. I really enjoyed the book  Confessions of a Yakuza by Junihi Saga. I ended up giving a copy of it to my brother, as research for the Asian gangster books or films he is always dreaming of penning. I read two books by Keigo Higashino Salvation of a Saint and The Devotion of Suspect X, which were interesting and led me to get a copy of the rebooted Millennium series with a new author at the helm. I saw this article on Facebook and became intrigued. I might try to pick up a copy of it. ****************** Natsume Soseki goes to hell and back in "The

I recently watched The Green Inferno from Eli Roth, which is a disturbing film to say the least. It follows in the vein of Cannibal Holocaust and other gore-filled flicks from the past. Many of these films have no real merit to them, as they are simply meant to shock or horrify. But in some rare cases there is the intent to have some real intellectual or political teeth behind them. In some cases films of this genre, which seem to only prey on the poorest instincts of people, end up making remarkably strong appeals to human ethics. They may do so in ways to appall us, but that on its own can be a good reminder about the flexibility of ideology. How one position, which may feel so secure and true in one moment can have the theoretical floor fall from beneath it the next. Eli Roth was heavily criticized for his portrayal of indigenous peoples as savages and evil, mindless cannibals. His response was to say that to worry about a movie and its portrayal of indigenous people while actual

In terms of situating Chamorro pasts and giving a founding meaning to their history and identity, Fu'una and Puntan, the two siblings who created Guam and Chamorros are generally given that great honor. They are thought of more and more as being the founding spirits, whether you see them as Gods, historical figures, metaphors or fantasies. They are taking a key place of meaning in terms of rooting Chamorro identity today, not as a spirit that was created in 1521 or 1668, but as something longer and having its own distinct origin. Even those who refuse to believe in Fu'una and Puntan as being spirits, but see them as possible historical figures, who may have been the ones to lead a voyage to Guam long ago, nonetheless reinforce their primacy. In one of the earliest references that we have to Fu'una and Puntan, Fu'una herself is not even mentioned. Puntan is mentioned and so is his "sister," but she is hardly given a role. In this passag

One of my favorite poems is The Divine Comedy by Dante. It contains three sections, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradisio. They chronicle the tale of someone closely based on the author himself who travels into the bowels of the world, through hell, up to purgatory and finally up into the heavens. He meets a wide range of historical figures along the way and also people from his own time. In one way The Divine Comedy is similar to the "burn book" from the movie Mean Girls. Dante fills his version of hell with all those who hates and can't stand, devising tortures and torments for them. People who wronged him, got in his way, whom he didn't agree with, all end up in one of the suffering circles.  Inferno is generally the most favorite of the three parts because of the vivid and brutal imagery that Dante uses to portray the punishment of sinners. Their is always some irony and some tragedy to where they end up and how they suffer given the sins that put them there. M

When I read the short story, "The Sun, The Moon, the Stars" by Junot Diaz, he had several lovely passages, and on the advice of my male' Victoria Leon Guerrero I used to use it when I would teach composition at the University of Guam. There is one moment towards the end where the narrator talks about when one reaches the end of one relationship it brings you back to the beginning. You see the first moments in a color that was more vivid than when you actually experienced them. That is the sign that a relationship is coming to an end, like when the brain starts to shut down and it is gasping for life, the another moment after the next and it fills the abyss of your mind with a maelstrom of desperate exploding stars. There is an obvious poetry and symmetry to this, but I haven't really felt it to be true. Each time I have come to the end of a relationship, or even like I do now, where I can see the end ahead like a depressing oasis impervious to this r

Three years ago I was fortunate enough to travel to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan to represent Guam at the World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. This meeting is held annually at either of the two cities where atomic bombs fell during World War II. The meetings are attended by thousands of peace and anti-nuclear activists across Japan and across the world. Here is the statement below from this year's conference, held last week.  **************   Declaration of the International Meeting                  Sixty-eight years have passed since Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered the atomic bombings.  The bombs instantly devastated the two cities and took lives of over 200,000 citizens by the end of 1945.  They created a “hell on earth,” which denied humans either to live or die as humans.  The Hibakusha, who survived the days have continued to suffer from wounds in both mind and body.  The tragedy like this should never be repeated anywhere in the world.         Nucl