NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

A few times each year I testify publicly on Guam about something.  Usually it is at the Guam Legislature over a bill or a resolution or as part of a hearing.  Regardless of what the topic is, I try to do it in Chamoru, especially if I have time to prepare my written comments ahead of time, so they go into the public record.  Chamoru is a national language for Guam, which means that it can be used regularly for public activities and public representations.  Official documents can be in both Chamoru and English. Signage around the island can be bilingual.  The fact that Chamoru is an official and national language of Guam is something that many indigenous groups around the world might be envious of, since it provides for a far amount of existing legitimacy and social/political power.  You don't have to fight for recognition, since the law already accepts it. But sadly we don't do more to build off to this.  It could begin in simple ways, such as public signage and go from there. 

Since 2003 I have had a number of uneven traditions associated with this blog. Many of these have dissipated as I have used this blog less and less, but a few I have continued to hold on to. One of the longest held traditions is "Happy US Imperialism Day!" It started as a thinking piece while I was working on my Master's Thesis in Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam. I had spent a few years reading as much as I could about Guam History. I had interviewed hundreds of elders born prior to World War II, who had experienced Japanese occupation. I had even begun working for Puerto Rican filmmaker Frances Negron-Muntaner on a documentary that would later become War for Guam. I was also spending time with activists of every stripe on Guam, trying to talk to anyone who I could find who had long been critical of the things I was just starting to learn about the historical and contemporary realities of the Chamoru people.  I was encountering the history and the present of

I first wrote an article "Happy US Imperialism Day Guam!" about 16 years ago. It was published in Minagahet Zine and later on this blog when I began it soon after. The writing of this article originally was a very formative experience. Part of it eventually became my Masters Thesis in Micronesian Studies. But I also wrote it at a time when I was first trying to find a way to become more public about my critiques and writing letters to the editor of the Pacific Daily News and creating websites/blogs were some of the obvious choices. This article was written when the second Iraq War was only eight months old and the War in Afghanistan was over two years old. It was written at a time when I was feeling frustrated over the deaths of the first few Chamorros in Iraq, Christopher Rivera Wesley being the first. As I said, it was also written at a time when I was first working on developing a critical consciousness and a public voice in terms of writing and philosophy. I had been

  I first wrote an article "Happy US Imperialism Day Guam!" about 13 years ago. It was published in Minagahet Zine and later on this blog when I began it soon after. The writing of this article originally was a very formative experience. Part of it eventually became my Masters Thesis in Micronesian Studies. But I also wrote it at a time when I was first trying to find a way to become more public about my critiques and writing letters to the editor of the Pacific Daily News and creating websites/blogs were some of the obvious choices.  This article was written when the second Iraq War was only eight months old and the War in Afghanistan was over two years old. It was written at a time when I was feeling frustrated over the deaths of the first few Chamorros in Iraq, Christopher Rivera Wesley being the first.  As I said, it was also written at a time when I was first working on developing a critical consciousness and a public voice in terms of writing a

What a strange world it is, where lately I find myself agreeing regularly with neo-conservatives, hawkish Democrats and former heads of the CIA. One thing that I am struggling to figure out, is why I find Donald Trump's foreign policy positions so repulsive. In a way, his lack of knowledge about the structure of American power in the world, makes it so that he is occasionally or randomly likely to take a position closer to my own. When he discusses withdrawing US support or participation from various alliances, he is talking about reducing America's imperial bootprint over the globe, something that local activists in communities forced to shoulder the burden of America's more than a 100 overseas bases have been demanding for years. Hillary Clinton on the other hand will no doubt maintain, albeit with reasonable imperial justifications, the vast and ridiculously expensive global network of American power. She is after all, the voice that reaffirmed the US commitment to m

Liberation Day is always proposed as being a day of remembering, but it is the ultimate day when Chamorros forget. When all the realities of militarism, imperialism, colonialism all around them become even more muted and dull and obscured than usual. When so many of the problems that exist around us, about our place or non-place in the world, are drowned out, engulfed within a cascade of red, white and bull. The critiques are choked out of our mouths, as the patriotism deluge fills us up, meant to shut up those who feel like asking questions. This article provides some good reminders. **************** Colonialism and America's Imperial Agenda in the Pacific: US to 'Rebalance" Military in Guam to Counter China and North Korea http://silentcrownews.com/wordpress/?p=3303 Silent Crow News by Timothy Alexander Guzman Guam, an Island nation of 160,000 people has been a victim of Imperialism dating back to the 16th century.  More than 65,000 of the population are