NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

This year's regional seminar for the UN Committee of 24 was different than the three previous ones that I attended in a handful of ways. There was always some debate and some rhetorical conflict at previous seminars, but this one extended to a level I had never seen before. Other participants who have been involved far longer than I have, also acknowledged the conflict and tension reached new heights in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I’ll be writing about this later, but the conflict created a lot of wasted time and also of waiting around for events to unfold or drama to be sorted out. This led to a lot of conversations that you wouldn’t normally take place, as people anxiously waited for the work of the seminar to move ahead. A lot of these conversations ended up being humorous as people sought ways to ease the tension and also pass the time. I heard a lot of funny stories from across Latin America, to the Caribbean, the Pacific. In this mix there were stories of parliamentary

As I wrote a few months ago, the last colony to be formally removed from the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories that is monitored by the United Nations was Timor Leste, formerly known as East Timor. Timor Leste isn't very far away from Guam, only a little more than 2,000 miles away gi minagahet. Our political fates were intertwined for a while, although the history of East Timor was far more violent. The Portuguese left the colony in 1975 and it moved to become independent. With United States backing and weapons the Indonesian government moved in to forcibly seize the island. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the invasion and occupation that lasted more than 20 years. In 1999 the people there, with the eyes of the world finally paying attention, voted to become independent and were renamed Timor Leste as a result. The image is from the year 2000, when INTERFET, a UN-authorized force made up of primarily Australian troops had

When I teach World History 2 (as I am this summer), we deal quite a bit with America's secret wars. I don't just teach students about them for the facts of it, but also to show them the way in which they are tied to the imperial consciousness of the United States and to a further extent, its imperial expectations. If a nation has an imperial consciousness, then there is an understanding that its influence, its realm extends far beyond its normal and recognized borders. The greater the consciousness, more there is acceptance of every potential corner of the globe being part of the interests of your particular corner or country. That what you expect or desire out of the world is paramount and you receiving it is what makes the world safe or ordered or prosperous. All other national borders are meant to fall beneath your expectations, and those who resist or get in the way, should be stopped. It is only when you have a consciousness like this, that articles such as the one below

Since I can't speak Japanese, I have to rely on translators and interpreters to learn more about recent protests in the country. I'm grateful for a growing group of people who have been helping me understand more and more about continuing and recently developing protests. Videos on Youtube, some thankfully subtitled with English have also helped. I wanted to share some of them below, to help others understand more about life in Japan in terms of peace and protest.

Someone once told me that Nicaragua is a land of wounds. If Latin America is a land of open veins, Nicaragua is a land of wounding after wounding. Since becoming independent from Spain in the early 19th century, it has gone through regular periods of social upheaval and repression, generally with the United States playing some form of oppressor. In the 1850's a US mercenary and would be monarch William Walker took over the country and re-instituted slavery. Although the US government didn't necessarily fund and organize his private imperial venture, they recognized his facade of a government, as it would be one where they were certain it would follow their interests. Walker was expelled by a coalition of local Central American leaders who all detested the power that the United States and its economic and military emissaries tended to wield over their local affairs. As the United States saw Latin America as their sphere of influence, they closely monitored any potential inte

Ideology is one of those things about life that can feel so secure and clear. It can provide you a clear position from which you can see the world and assign value to certain idea, places and even bodies. But at the same time ideology is something that is so pervasive and massive, it cannot help but also be unforgivingly contradictory and sometimes appear to make absolutely no sense. There is a feeling that things should be black and white, but there is also a feeling that things are really actually gray. We move between these two positions in a strategic way. When things being black and white works in our favor, we take that position in order to argue that our position is in line with the clear nature of reality. There is no wiggle room, what we stand for and believe in is so completely clear. But when the ideological black and white world is not in our favor, we tend to take the position that the exceptions matter and that in between those two binary oppos

A reception was held on the first day of the conference to welcome the activists from Okinawa and Japan and also celebrate the presence of the overseas delegates from the Pacific. As part of this reception, there was food, music, and gifts were exchanged. During one particularly touching exchange, we all received beautiful Article 9 folders. The gift came from the daughter of a very famous communist community leader in Okinawa. He had been the Naha city mayor in the 1950's and later a member of the Diet. He was imprisoned for two years prior to becoming a politician for hiding two suspected communists who were supposed to leave Okinawa. He came to prominence at a time when the island was part of Japan, but governed by the US military after World War II. He had been instrumental in getting the island returned to Japanese control in 1972. I apologize for not posting an image of the folder now, I'll be sure to take one later. After receiving these gifts we all joined hands and

During the Hiroshima Rally for the 2010 World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen bombs, as an overseas delegate I got to sit in the very front row, with a great view of every speaker who stood at the podium or almost everyone who got on stage. This meant that even with my cheap K-Mart digital camera I could still take “cool” looking shots, which would have been mediocre or impossible to discern if I had been a hundred feet or so back into the crowd. As I saw dozens of speakers cycle across the podium and dozens of activist groups from around Japan come up to present their efforts, I didn’t only take pictures of them, but also found myself taking pictures of the people who were taking pictures. For different speakers, a different, always evolving and morphing throng of people with cell phones, digital cameras and yes even disposable camera would be surging forward to get a better shot at what or who was on stage. For some there would be just a handful of picture-takers, who would l