NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

The issue of lockdowns, checkpoints, roadblocks, civil liberties and rights has been prominent lately in Guam (and in other places as well). I was looking at my bookshelf for different books and discussions on this sort of issue, wanting to just put some structure to the ways that people were talking about stricter measures to save lives, but others trying forcefully to argue that their rights wer e more important than the public health concerns. There were alot of ways to approach something like this, since it brings in philosophy, political science/theory, sociology, legal theory, etc. As I was scanning my bookshelf though, I saw a book I hadn't read in a while, but has one passage which I thought of as being relevant in the sort of "looking awry" way I like my critical analysis, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain. In it, there is the passage on the two "Reigns of Terror."  "There were two "Reigns of Terror"

One passage that has long stayed with me in terms of understanding ethics is from one of Slavoj Zizek's books, where he mentions the Egyptians being swallowed up by the Red Sea as they trail the escaping Israelites. According to Jewish tradition he writes, when the Israelites celebrate the death of their long-time enemies, God chastises them. He tells them, how dare they celebrate that which he created. Who are they to celebrate the destruction of something that comes from God. Even if they were opposed in the drama of life on earth, they come from the same source and they have right to celebrate something which is equal to them in its origin. This type of repositioning is the basis for many types of ethical engagement. The idea that there is always some deeper level, some deeper intersection of humanity that we can and should appeal to in order to create something that is more just and more moral. But we can become so comfortable in our identities, so stuck in them, that it

Achokka' matai si Frantz Fanon kana' bente años åntes di mafañågu yu', Guahu un påtgon Fanon. Gof annok taimanu pinacha yu' nu guiya gi meggai na tinige'-hu, ko'lo'lo'ña gi tinige'-hu para "academia" yan put "decolonization." Hu fine'nina tumaitai gui' anai kumolelehu yu' gi UOG. Gi ayu na tiempo mabababa i hinasso-ku put håfa mismo i estorian i taotao Chamorro yan håfa mismo i estao-ta gi halom i Estådos Unidos. Lao ti gof klåru i hinasso-ku, meggai lumelebok, meggai ti hu gof komprende, ko'lo'lo'ña gi entre i taotao-ta ya sa' håfa na ti ma chachanda i ti gof maolek na estao-ta. Annai hu taitai "The Wretched of the Earth" ha ayuda yu' meggai. Ha nå'i yu' siniente, animu, palabras siha, todu enao, ya ma chonnek yu' mo'na gi este na chalån-hu. Estague un article put si Fanon yan i irensia-ña gi mundon på'go. *********************** Frantz Fanon's

There are currently 17 entities on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories that the United Nations keeps track of and is mandated to help see through to self-government and decolonization. Although there was a great deal of activity around decolonization in previous decades, both within the United Nations and without, but lately, especially at the level of the United Nation's, fairly little has happened. The last territory to be de-listed, meaning it went through a legitimate and recognized process of decolonization is Timor Leste or as it was known as a colony, East Timor.  East Timor had been a colony under the Portuguese until 1975. A small civil war followed the Portuguese releasing of their colony, in which the neighboring country of Indonesia helped to instigate the conflict. On December 7, 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor, killing more than a hundred thousand people in just two years. They occupied East Timor for more than two decades despite international efforts t

I was in Okinawa last week, during which time a US Navy sailor was arrested and charged with the raping of a Japanese woman in a hotel in Naha, the capital city of the island. As violence against women has been one of the most significant rallying cries for opposition to the US bases in the island, I expected this issue to dominate most of my discussions as I met with dozens of demilitarization and decolonization activists. My previous trip to Okinawa (gi ma'pos na sakkan) coincided with the anniversary of the most famous rape case in recent Okinawan history, where in 1995 a 12 year old girl was brutalized three US servicemen. That incident spurned on an island-wide protest movement, where close to 100,000 gathered on one occasion. But this most recent case didn't penetrate the conversations I was in, as much as I had anticipated. It was broached, it was invoked, but few expressed rich outrage at it. Few made the broader connections, that I often witnessed in the past. I wond

In Oregon a group of militiamen "peacefully" occupied a federal building at a national wildlife refuge. It has been very strange to see the way in which the media is covering the incident, or not covering it. The possessive investment of whiteness is in clear display today, as media which finds a seemingly endless number of ways to degrade or denigrate people of color protests or social movements, is suddenly being very controlled and very forgiving with their language. Check out the articles below to read more.  ************* A Militia Has Taken Over a Federal Building in Oregon Associated Press 1/2/16 BURNS, Ore. (AP) — A peaceful protest Saturday in support of an eastern Oregon ranching family facing jail time for arson was followed shortly afterward by an occupation of a building at a national wildlife refuge. Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing rights, told The Oregonian  h