NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Måkpo' i tiempo-ña si Barack Obama. Gi i hinichom i uttimo na sakkån-ña, meggai na petitions manhuyong put difirentes na taotao ni' mangkinalabobosu, ya kada manggagaggao mina'a'se para un presuneru. Dos na Chamorro ni' mapopongle komo presuneron federåt para u masotta. Mas ki un siento mit na taotao mamfitma petiton para i nina'libre si Leonard Peltier un Natibu na Amerikanu, lao si Obama ti ha ayuda gui'.  Estague na tinige' siha put i masottå-ña si Oscar Lopez Rivera, un independista ginen Puerto Rico.  ***************************** Obama commute sentence for political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera López Rivera, whose commutation was announced with 208 others, has been incarcerated for 35 years for his role in fighting for Puerto Rico’s independence by Sam Levin The Guardian/UK January 17, 2017 Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of Oscar López Rivera, a victory for the Puerto Rican independence activist who is considered to be on

I recently had to write an article for the website Guampedia on the late Angel Santos, former Guam Senator and Maga’lahi of the Nasion Chamoru. Angel Santos was a very controversial figure during his lifetime. He was considered one of the most hated and most beloved island figures. After he died however, public opinion over his legacy warmed and even those who had publicly condemned him before came to praise some of his statements and accomplishments. While writing my article I went through as many of the public statements and writings of Santos that I could find. He was, like any larger than life figure, incredibly complex and full of contradictions. We may want to reduce the life of a person to things that are simple and inspirational, but they are always more complicated than that. I wanted to share today a list of quotes from his life and writings to give you a better sense of Angel Santos and his own journey in life. As a 10-year-old altar boy in Si

For those of you who have been hearing about Pussy Riot and their being put in prison, here are some English lyrics to the song that got them convicted of "Hooliganism" motivated by religious hatred.  freepussyriot.org ******************** Punk Prayer By Pussy Riot English version by Carol Rumens (Chorus) Virgin Mary, Mother of God, banish Putin, banish Putin, Virgin Mary, Mother of God, banish him, we pray thee! Congregations genuflect, Black robes brag gilt epaulettes, Freedom's phantom's gone to heaven, Gay Pride's chained and in detention. KGB's chief saint descends To guide the punks to prison vans. Don't upset His Saintship, ladies, Stick to making love and babies. Crap, crap, this godliness crap! Crap, crap, this holiness crap! (Chorus) Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Be a feminist, we pray thee, Be a feminist, we pray thee. Bless our festering bastard-boss. Let black cars parade the Cross. The Missionary's in cl

If you have the means, consider donating to this cause below. The Global Network is a very important organization who is doing important work in terms of promoting peace in the world (and the heavens above). ********************** Dear Friends, I hope this letter finds you doing well.  I have just returned from Washington DC where I was part of a trial of those arrested at the White House on March 19 opposing the endless and growing string of U.S. wars.  On that day 113 people (including many veterans) were arrested but only 18 of us went to trial.  We were found guilty by the judge but he chose to impose only a minor fine, which was a victory of sorts. I am writing to ask for your help.  As you may know the Global Network will be 20 years old in 2012.  We’ve been asked by the leaders of the Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea to hold our annual space organizing conference there next year.  Our Board of Directors/Advisers has agreed and we will travel to the villag

From the Huffington Post 9/7/11 In Al Gore's most recent post to "Al's Journal," the former vice president slams President Obama for his recent retreat on smog standards. Last Friday, under pressure from big industries and GOP lawmakers, Obama asked the EPA to withdraw proposed clean air regulations. According to the Associated Press , "The regulation would have reduced concentrations of ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in smog, a powerful lung irritant that can cause asthma and other lung ailments." Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of the American Lung Association, told The Huffington Post that she was "outraged," given that "the current standard used was based on the science as of 14 years ago -- before we knew that ozone killed people." In Gore's Wednesday post , he writes: Instead of relying on science, President Obama appears to have bowed to pressure from polluters who did not want to bear the

NOTE: Sung Hee-Choi was arrested in May for protesting the construction of a Navy base in Gangjeong, Jeju Island, South Korea. She was released last month. Here is a link to an interview David Vine conducted with her in July. Below is a statement from her on the struggle from: Ten Thousand Things : The pictures are from my trip to South Korea last summer, for which Sung Hee was my guide. ******************* [Translated by John Cha, Jinsoo An, Jun-Hyung Kim] Final Testimony Case: 2011 고단/Kodan 318 Obstruction of Business (2011 Kodan 511, Combined) The Accused: Choi Sung-hee Your Honor, I, Choi Sung-hee, am a visual artist. I have been drawn to the beauty of Jeju Island, the pearl of Korea, and to the beautiful ecological preservation of Gangjeong village, which has been called the diamond of Jeju Island. I have also been drawn to the friendly spirit of the Gangjeong villagers who live peacefully with nature. Their will to protect and love the natural environment has move

Recently my friend Sung Hee Choi was released from being imprisoned for holding a banner in front of a construction site for a Naval facility in Gangjeong that she was protesting. The banner stated "Touch not one stone. Not one flower." She was imprisoned for 3 months. I have written several posts about the struggle of the people of Gangjeong against the construction of a base in their small town in Southern Jeju which would destroy much of their beautiful ecosystem. If you'd like to learn more Save Jeju is a great website to start looking at. Earlier today the police entered the village and arrested 5 people including Mayor Kang as construction began of the facility there. The Navy base there is being built by the South Korean Government but will also be used by US forces and the ships that dock there will be purchased from the United States (Aegis Destroyers). When I spoke to Mayor Kang last year when I visited Jeju he had much to say about how he did not approve w

My friend in South Korea Sung Hee Choice has been put in prison for the past two months for peacefully obstructing the construction of a Navy base in the tiny village of Gangjeong in Southen Jeju. She used to run the blog No Base Korea Stories , but after being arrested her friends have taken over the task of updating it on the fight against militarism in South Korea. David Vine, an anthropologist who is most famous for his excellent book on the secret history of Diego Garcia, had a chance to visit Sung Hee recently and wrote up his interview for the website Foreign Policy in Focus. ***************************** Jeju Island Activist Sung-Hee Choi Interviewed in Prison Foreign Policy in Focus By David Vine, July 26, 2011 Last week, I had the honor of going to prison. I was conducting research on South Korea’s beautiful Jeju Island, off the country’s southern coast, and was lucky enough to be one of the two people per day allowed to speak with the renowned imprisoned activist S

From Ten Thousand Things : On May 23rd, Art teacher and peace blogger Sung-Hee Choi was arrested and detained with seven other people at Jeju Island for nonviolently protesting the South Korean government seizure of property belonging to 1,500 villagers in Gangjeong, Jeju Island, South Korea. The Lee administration wants to destroy this beautiful region of tangerine groves and greenhouses on the Gangjeong coast to make way for a navy base intended to house destroyers equipped with missile systems. At the time of her arrest, Sung-Hee Choi was holding a banner with the message printed on it: Do not touch even one stone, even one flower! She was arrested for simply holding the banner. She did not do anything to obstruct the South Korean government's destruction of the Gangjeong villagers' property. ************************ Below is a poem that was written by Sung Hee-Choi while she has been in prison. The revolution comes in time we do not know. It comes suddenly w

This came via Bruce Gagnon at Organizing Notes and The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. ************************* Dear Friends: This morning I received an urgent message (see below) from Jeju Island, South Korea saying that yesterday eight leaders of the protest effort against construction of a Navy base had been arrested. Global Network board member Sung-Hee Choi was one of those arrested - her second time in recent months. Gangjeong village resident Professor Yang Yoon-Mo is now in his 45th day of his hunger strike while in jail for trying to block a construction truck. He has vowed to die in jail unless base construction is halted. We need your help. We must show the South Korean and U.S. governments that people all over the world are following the story on Jeju very closely and care what happens. You can write to the South Korean Defense Attaché assigned to Washington DC. at this email and demand an end of the Navy base construction. defenattache

My column this week for the Marianas Variety will be on Gangjeong, South Korea and the resistance there to the construction of a joint-US-ROK-Naval Facility there. My column will focus on a speech I gave while I was there in June of last year, but things have changed much since then. When I visited the village in Southern Jeju the start of construction was several months away, and there was still hope that their protests and a lawsuit they had filed would stop it. Since the start of the new year, there were protests, crackdowns and construction has begun and so I am always on the lookout for any information that I can find about what is going on in Gangjeong. I came across this article below which is a great update about what is happening now from Bruce Gagnon's Organizing Notes blog. When I visited Gangjeong, I traveled as part of a delegation which included Bruce, who was representing the United States, Shinako, an activist from Okinawa, and Corazon Fabros from the Philippines

More updates and information on the situation in Gangjeong on Jeju Island, South Korea. The first comes from Sung Hee Choi who runs the very informative blog No Base Stories Korea . She is currently in Jeju and working with the villagers of Gangjeong. According to her most recent update, protestors were forcibly prevented from setting up a vigil outside of the Jeju Assembly building, two of the protestors were injured by police. According to Sung-Hee: Yesterday, while I was in the village, the Pan Island Committeee Against the Military Base confronted the Jeju City authorities and police as the city did not allow the activists' tent vigil in front of the Island assembly. One member was arrested and two women - of whom one was greatly wounded in her face - were carried to the hospital. The second comes from the blog Ten Thousand Things , which gives more information on the ecological importance of Jeju and Gangjeong, and why it is a travesty for a Navy base for US and South Korean