NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Guam is on the edge of another large buildup of forces. The political stumbling blocks that existed in Washington D.C. for several years, stalling and slowing the US military buildup are now disappearing. The buildup isn't the psychotic, frenetic, diplomatic-cocaine-fueled nightmare that it was almost ten years ago when it was first announced and proposed. It is somewhat smaller and will take place over a longer period. At that time, the focus was on Pagat. Now, new locations have been mixed in, Fena, Litekyan, Pagan and Tinian. These sites were always there on the map of American militarization in the Marianas. There are maps that link them together. There are study documents that discuss and theorize them in tandem. There are lists of resources or assets in the regions that connect them. In some ways, when the US military and its analysts and its decision-makers look at the region, they do a much better job linking locations together than many activists or even average people

Things do you should know about: The " suicide " of PFC Lavena Johnson To act go to Color of Change.org On July 13, Minutemen in San Diego protest the 40th National Council of La Raza meeting. Israeli military shoot at protesters and kill a 9 year old Palestinian boy in the occupied West Bank. Senator John Mccain takes another step towards war with Iran. Randy Pausch , famous for his "Last Lecture" died on July 25th. Alaska Senator and longtime political ally of other non-quite American "political communities" is indicted on seven counts of failing to report a combined $250,000 worth of "favors" from Veco Corporation. This is not a big surprise to anyone who knows anything about Ted Stevens, and isn't not a surprise either that he's still gonna run for re-election this year. A B-52 scheduled for a fly-over of Guam's Liberation Day parade on July 21st, crashes into the sea. It is the seventh incident involving milit

A B-52 crashed on Guam yesterday, and at present two of the six crewmembers are reported dead, while four more are still missing. The B-52 was flying on its way to take part in the Liberation Day festivities yesterday, by flying over the parade route with two 5-15s and an F-22. I've spent the past week writing my dissertation and so Liberation Day completely crept up on me this year. Its a well known fact that I am no big fan of Liberation Day, my main reason being the first three words of the title of this post " Hafa na Liberasion?" This is the 11th in a line of posts, featuring my writings and the writings of others that I started last summer to create a space for alternative knowledge and ideas about the whole idea of Guam being liberated, yet continuing to be a colony. As most people on island take this time of the year to celebrate the United States military and its positive presence on our lives and in our history, I would also like to take this opportunity to rem

One of the first posts I ever wrote on this blog was in September of 2004 titled " Sometimes I Dream of Okinawa ." I wrote this post more than a year before the initial announcement that the Department of Defense was making plans to "transfer" 7,000 of its Marines based in Okinawa to Guam. This number of Marines was later increased to 8,000 , and expanded to include approximately 9,000 dependents and an unknown number of troops from South Korea . My post wasn't very long, but just touched lightly on the ways Okinawa and Guam are linked together through the sorts of catastrophic, invasive and everyday damages that a large military presence can bring. Mamahlao yu' didide' put este na klasin post pa'go, sa' kulang ti to'a an un kompara i tinige'-hu gi ayu na tiempo yan i tinige'-hu pa'go. But nonetheless this post is important to me because it represented one of my first public blog posts which would criticize the way the military