NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Testimony to the Fourth Committee of the United Nations From Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Ph.D. Co-Chairperson, Independence for Guam Task Force October 3, 2017 Buenas yan håfa adai todus hamyo ko’lo’ña si Maga’taotao Rafael Ramirez Carreño i gehilo’ para i kumuiten Mina’Kuåtro, gi este na gefpå’go na ha’åni. Magof hu na gaige yu’ guini på’go para bai hu kuentusi hamyo yan kuentusiyi i taotao Guåhan put i halacha na sinisedi gi islan-måmi. (Hello to all of you on this beautiful day. I am grateful to be here now so that I can speak to you, in particular H.E. Rafael Ramirez Carreño, Chair of the C24, and speak on behalf of the people of Guam about recent events that transpired in our island home.) My name is Michael Lujan Bevacqua and I am a professor of Chamorro Studies at the University of Guam. I am also the co-chair for the Independence for Guam Task Force, a community outreach organization tasked with educating our island about the possibilities should

The past few days have been quite hectic due to the threat to Guam by North Korea and President Trump's shocking response. I am trying to catch up on my posts on this blog, and so we'll see if I'll be able this month. Here are a few articles on the initial threat from North Korea to Guam.  ******************* --> North Korea Claims It’s Planning to Fire Missiles Near Guam 8/10/17 SEOUL/GUAM (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it was completing plans to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam in an unusually detailed threat that further heightened tensions with the United States. North Korea’s army will complete the plans in mid-August, when they will be ready for leader Kim Jong Un’s order, state-run KCNA news agency reported, citing General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army. The plans called for the missiles to land in the sea only 30-

I would love to write up some of my thoughts on this article, lao tailugat yu' pa'go yan gi este na simana. I'm working on applying for promotion this coming week and also have a few deadlines for articles that have been consuming my writing time and energy. It does not help that this is the last week of classes either. ************* "Will Guam Be America's Next Pearl Harbor?" by Peter Navarro December 2, 2015 Real Clear Defense http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/12/02/will_guam_be_americas_next_pearl_harbor_108747.html Mr. Trump and Mr. Carson: Do you believe China would launch a first strike on American forward bases and, if so, will you commit to diversifying and hardening our forward bases to preempt such an attack? Senators Cruz and Sanders: As president, would you be willing to compromise with the opposing party on a budget bill that would restore military spending to a level necessary to defend our strategic and economi

The issue of Okinawa can provide us an important example in terms of the power of media. The coverage of Okinawa, Guam, Diego Garica, Hawai'i and so many other places where the US has bases within the United States plays a significant role in whether or not the network of bases the US has is accepted or challenged. The media is not objective and not neutral, but always proposes certain accepted frames of reference which make the news easier to digest and create. In most countries in the world there is not an accepted assumption that the nation should have bases in every corner of the globe, but in the US there is. The media's coverage of that base as an accepted fact and acceptable part of American reality legitimizes it and also helps prevent people from understanding the legitimate protest movements build around those bases. In the case of Okinawa, we also see how the media will take on certain angles in order to protect the alleged greater interests of the country. Cho

Guam is on the edge of another large buildup of forces. The political stumbling blocks that existed in Washington D.C. for several years, stalling and slowing the US military buildup are now disappearing. The buildup isn't the psychotic, frenetic, diplomatic-cocaine-fueled nightmare that it was almost ten years ago when it was first announced and proposed. It is somewhat smaller and will take place over a longer period. At that time, the focus was on Pagat. Now, new locations have been mixed in, Fena, Litekyan, Pagan and Tinian. These sites were always there on the map of American militarization in the Marianas. There are maps that link them together. There are study documents that discuss and theorize them in tandem. There are lists of resources or assets in the regions that connect them. In some ways, when the US military and its analysts and its decision-makers look at the region, they do a much better job linking locations together than many activists or even average people

The title of this article still makes me chuckle. How could anyone imagine that World War II would not complicate the Pacific Pivot or in general US foreign policy making in Asia? It was a terrible war in which both sides committed terrible atrocities, both sides then used the events in order to create massive amnesia campaigns, one through self-aggrandizement and liberating potential, the other through victimization and unique suffering, and the most enduring material legacy is a string of bases, like a great wall of Asia, upon which the United States gets to project force and protect its interests. From the US nationalist gaze the events of the war should lead to compliant and subservient allies, to the victor should go all the bases and training areas they want. But this is what happens when nationalisms, both Rightist and Leftist clash, is that ultimately being allies is one thing, but having another nation with its hand in the story of how you organize your collective ideolog

I gave several talks while in Okinawa recently. Below is the text for one of them. I was asked to address the topic of Japan's sovereignty. There were several possible ways to address this question. First and foremost, is Japan even a truly sovereign country? With so many US bases there can they ever truly be sovereign? In the case of Okinawa, is it truly sovereign Japanese territory with so many American forces there? Whose interests are truly dominant? What happens if the interests of the US and Japan diverge? Furthermore there is the question of what type of government a sovereign Japan should have? Should it continue to subordinate to the United States? Should it assert its own interests? For example if the US is pushing for war and Japan wants peace, how well can Japan assert its own sovereign interests when the US can still use its bases as it sees fit? I decided to address the question of Japanese sovereignty with a focus on Okinawa. Is Okinawa just like any other part o