NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

In the United States and its territories, it is common to look at other places, in particular Europe and lament the way racist and xenophobic political parties have emerged, which sometimes achieve a relatively significant amount of power and legitimacy. When viewing them from a distance, it is easy to critique them as being out of touch in a world with nice things such as tolerance, diversity, multiculturalism. But such positioning too often allows the exact same problems, the same contradictions, the same nasty hatred and evil to go unanalyzed or unexamined. In Chamorro there are a variety of ways of calling this out and challenging such simple forgetfulness. Cha'-mu tumoto'la hulo'. Saosao i mata-mu antes di un sangan put i inaplacha' i otro. Trump's presidential primary insurgency has kicked things that have been developing for decades into hyper-drive. The Republican party has been feeding off of white anger and loathing for quite a while now, Fox News , wi

I don’t have cable anymore, but I was able to watch live President Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance lecture the other day. Like most things about Obama, my reactions were very mixed. There were parts I was impressed with, parts I agreed with and enjoyed, but also plenty which I disagreed with and thought was foolish. The speech was very long and so since its final’s week and I have plenty of grading to do, I can’t go in depth into my thoughts or critiques about it, but I can write about some major points from the speech. Fine’nina, gof ya-hu na put fin i Presidenten i Estådos Unidos, malate’. Esta mampos o’sun yu’ nu i chatlenguahin Si President George W. Bush. Guaha nai ti hu komprende taimanu tumaiguihi, na ayu na taihinasso na låhi, inilihi ni’ i taotao Amerikånu (Lao annai hu hasso put i hinasson i taotao Amerikånu, siña hu lakomprende). Having an intelligent US President is not something to dismiss, but something to (even if just a little bit) cherish. When George W. Bush was in