NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I took this picture of the Hong Kong skyline while atop Victoria Peak, while I was there last week.  Being in Hong Kong I was reminded of Carlton Skinner, who was the first civilian governor of Guam during the time of the passage of the Organic Act.  Skinner is an interesting figure in Guam history, someone who was of critical importance, but who has received little to no attention from the island (save for a plaza that was named for him, that was demolished to make way for the Guam Museum).  He had been a progressive person for his time, helping to racially integrate units for the US Navy during World War II.  He sometimes joked that he must have gotten the job as Governor of Guam because it was an island filled with brown people and he had captained ships fill with black people.  He is known for helping set up the local government, but also facilitating the legalization of the illegal land-takings by the US mili tary during the immediate postwar years.    While se

I'm working on an exhibit for Humanities Guåhan, and its put me back into researcher/scholar mode. I've been pouring through books and reports for the past week looking for various bits and pieces of information. Part of this meant re-reading some books and archival documents I hadn't touched in over a decade. Given the way in which conversations over decolonization and self-government have begun to take on a new character lately, I was particularly attracted to passages that can help me or others reflect on our development over time, how far Chamorros and Guam may have come, or haven't, especially in the context of their political connection to the US. There are many ways that we can say that Guam has changed over the past 500 years or over the past 100 years. As we remain in the era of American colonialism, I am mostly concerned with the impact of the US and its policies. As I have written about in a variety of ways, these changes are tangible and very real, but a

Connections between colonies are intriguing. They come most naturally from the gaze or the perspective of the colonizer. So colonies tend to be linked together as sites of corruption, incompetence, primitivity and overall negative binary possibility. We see this in terms of how the US looks at its colonies, describes them, produces them as objects of the law, and assume so much in the way of their nature without an ounce of self-reflection. As a continuation of the Obama Administration, the Trump Administration is now holding up foreign worker visas to Guam. They claim to be doing so because of corruption and abuse in the past. Whatever abuses have taken place are a sliver of a drop in the ocean that is American political or economic corruption. Often times people assume that the corruption begins in the colonies, but it is just as feasible that the corruption was imported or taught to the natives by the colonizer. For those of you with fancy literature backgrounds think Heart of Dar

I spent some time recently with former Governor of Guam Joseph Ada. It was a very enlightening experience and one that I will most definitely be writing about or incorporating into my research and activism with regards to Guam's decolonization. There was one thing that stood out though, especially when comparing the time when Joseph Ada was Governor (1986-1994) to the current moment under the leadership of Governor Eddie Calvo. In both eras Guam's political status remains a fundamental unresolved issue that leaks out and affects so many other aspects of life, even if the general population doesn't understand it or accept the connections. During the term of Governor Ada, the Government of Guam was well organized and focused on negotiating with the US Congress and Feds over the proposed Commonwealth status. These negotiations eventually failed under the term of his successor Governor Carl Gutierrez, but the negotiation of a new, transitional political status for Guam that w

This is particularly interesting/na'chalek in the context of current problems in the Government of Guam. As I've often said, politicians are fortunate that peoples' memories are very short for the things that matter and long for those that don't. *************** Guam Lawmakers Push Financial Reform By Gerardo R. Partido The Marianas Variety March 21, 2007 With the administration still finalizing its fiscal recovery plan, the Guam Legislature has taken the initiative by passing Bill 15, which contains various measures to reform the way the government of Guam manages its finances. Sponsored by Vice Speaker Eddie Calvo, R-Maite, the legislation requires the administration to implement revenue tracking report and a fiscal realignment plan that would ensure greater clarity and accountability of Government of Guam’s finances. Calvo describes the bill, which was passed unanimously, as the culmination of a collaborative effort between majority and mino

At the funeral for Maga'låhi Ed Benavente today, I got a chance to talk to former Governor of Guam Felix Camacho. When Felix Camacho was first elected the group Nasion Chamoru was in decline in terms of its political power. Angel Santos had been elected into the Guam Legislature years earlier and formally left the group. Nasion itself had continued to fight and gotten a number of reforms implemented around land for the landless and for families that had lost land after World War II to the US military. Felix Camacho, seeking to make a sort of peace with Nasion Chamoru, which had been a notorious thorn in the side of the previous administration, reached out to Ed Benavente and offered him a position in his cabinet. I remember that time well, as I had already started hanging out with members of the Colonized Chamoru Coalition and so I got to listen in while members of Nasion Chamoru discussed whether or not Ed should join with Camacho. I won't describe the deliberations in detai

I wrote yesterday about the case Tuaua v. the United States , which deals with the issue of birthright citizenship, American Samoans and whether the US Constitution automatically follows wherever the American flag is flown. This case, which was recently declined by the US Supreme Court and won't be heard this year, has been casting an anxious shadow over Guam, as it could have serious ramifications for how the Government of Guam decides to forge ahead with its plans for decolonization. I mentioned briefly another case that has cast an even larger shadow over the decolonization movement in Guam for the past few years and that is Davis v. The Government of Guam, which was filed by Dave Davis, who argues that the planned decolonization plebiscite and the Chamorro registry that will determine who can vote in it, violates his constitutional rights as a US citizen. The case has been going around in circles and so many have come to believe it is already over. It was initially dismisse

I haven't been following this issue closely enough, and so I thought I would post some articles about it as a means of forcing myself to get up to date. Tailugat yu' pa'go na puenge, pues bai hu go'go'te ha' i fino'-hu yan hinasso-ku siha put este para un otro na diha. ****************** Enact the Payraise Rollback Editorial The Guam Daily Post 2/3/16 We encourage Gov. Eddie Calvo to sign Bill 204 and roll back the hefty, retroactive pay raises elected officials gave themselves in November 2014. We are aware that the governor supports the raises – as he has consistently stated – and that his signature on the bill is unlikely, but we are hopeful that position will be reconsidered, particularly in light of the government’s “cash crunch.” We have opposed the raises and supported the rollback efforts since the raises were enacted. They were enacted less than three weeks after the 2014 election in order to avoid any reaction from voters – whi