NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

No posting for a while probably, me and Rashne moved into a new apartment over the weekend, and now my daughter, Sumåhi and her mother Jessica are here visiting. Its a crazy, exciting time, and other than that there's no internet at my new place.

Published on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 by TruthDig.com ‘SiCKO’: Michael Moore’s Prescription for Change by Amy Goodman Michael Moore screened his new film, “SiCKO,” on Father’s Day at a special New York event honoring Sept. 11 first responders. Moore spoke of their heroism and recognized their role in the film. “SiCKO” is about the broken U.S. healthcare system. Case in point: the 9/11 rescue workers. Their stories of selfless courage, followed by years of creeping, chronic illnesses, from pulmonary fibrosis to cancer to post-traumatic stress, often exacerbated by poor or no health insurance, drive home Moore’s point, that the medical/pharmaceutical industry is failing Americans—not only the 40-plus million Americans with no health insurance, but the 250 million Americans who do have health insurance. Moore doesn’t like health insurance companies: “They’re the Halliburtons of the health industry. I mean, they really—they get away with murder. They charge whatever they want. There’s n

FOR IMMEADIATE RELEASE Contact: Keith Camacho Email: decolonizeguam@gmail.com Chamorro Delegation Urges United Nations Intervention on Human Rights Violations in Guam New York City, June 20, 2007 — Chamorros from Guam today testified before the United Nations Special Committee of 24 on Decolonization to insist the international community pay closer attention to Guam's continued colonial status as the United States, its Administering Power, increases its already large military presence on the island. The UN General Assembly created the Committee of 24 to consider appropriate forms of self-government for the world's 16 remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGT), including Guam. Delagations from Guam have appealed to the Committee of 24 for more than 20 years regarding Guam's political status and the United States' refusal to respect the Chamorro people's right to self-determination. Today's delegation represents a second wave of Chamorros demanding their rig

Several weeks ago on C-SPAN, I watched a sort of debate/forum for the Democratic Candidates on the issue of health care in the United States. Other than making me frustrated at the fact that I was watching with rapt attention close to a year before the primary seasons will even begin , I do enjoy the fact that certain issues are being debated and talked about in semi-sane ways, one of them being health care. The forum was fairly predictable and didn’t interest me that much. Most candidates seemed to take the position of evoking the language of health care equality and universal care and concern, or the debatable “American trait” of wanting to take care of all and make sure that they are okay, and taking cheap, weak, abstract and eventually meaningless shots at the health care industry, while pulling softly back from any real universal heath care system. Dennis Kucinich , stood out amongst a few candidates who is actively and openly pushing for universal health care. Not posing to be r

Gof ya-hu este na kanta, ya gof åmko’ gui’ lokkue. Mapega este gi i fine’ñina na album Si J.D. Crutch, ya ma takpångi i album put i na’-an-ña este na kanta. Para Siha ni’ siña kumomprende fino’ Chamoru, kanta taiguini gof fotte’. Este na klasin kanta siha, ma gof pacha’ hao, sa’ siña ta siente i pinitin i kakanta gi i fino’-ña. Hunggan, ti bei kepuni na siña lachi i pinila’-hu gi fino’ Ingles, lao estague ha’ gui’. Guinaifen Manglo Kantan J.D. Crutch Guinaifen manglo’ yu’ pumangon I was awoken by a gust of wind Gi painge nene gi asson-hu Last night nene as I lay Ya måtto fehman piniti-hu And this profound pain has hit me Sa’ taigue hao gi fi’on-hu Because you’re not around me Gi annai makmåta’ yu’ When I woke up Fehman nene piniti-hu This profound pain hit me Sa’ taigue hao nene gi fi’on-hu Because you’re not around me now Eståba hao gi guinife-hu You were only in my dreams

I am now officially ABD, or all but dissertation in my graduate program in Ethnic Studies at UCSD. The past three weeks have been a furious, intense and nerve-shattering exercise in writing, reading, and defending myself. A curious process called in a very ordinary way "qualifying." Yesterday, after more than two and a half hours of my defending my proposed dissertation and my hasitly thrown together answers to my exam questions, my illustrious committee approved my project, Guam: Where The Production of America's Sovereignty Begins! I look forward to starting work on it, but in the meantime, I'm going to catch up on some movies and sleep. Gof yayas yan yafai yu' pa'go, lao magof yan malulok yu'.

I just joined an online movement called One Millions Blogs for Peace . I'm pasting the concept description below, and you can click the link for more details and more importantly if you'd like to join up. The Concept: Between 20 March 2007 and 20 March 2008 (the fifth year of the war), we will attempt to sign up One Million Blogs for Peace. By signing up, a blogger is stating his or her agreement with The Pledge below. They will then be able to participate in various challenges launched by One Million Blogs for Peace. They will also be listed on this website with a link to their blog. When I checked earlier today only 611 blogs had signed up since the project was started in March of this year. I saw at least one fellow Chamorro/Pacific blogger on there already, The Saipan Blog .

I posted several months ago, that I was one of the people being put in charge of running Chamorro.com, one of the most visible and visited Chamorro websites out there. In the future, the running of this site might entail overhauling it and remaking it, but for the past couple months and until I become gumof kapas mama'titinas websites, my helping run it has been relegated to updating existing pages. With the help of i sen mangge na palao'an Charissa Aguon we've been able to keep the Chamorro.com calendar , which I've come to realize is a crucial tool for Chamorros in the states to stay connected to each other through the fiesta, novena and social club networks. Its been more difficult however keeping up with the updating for the Chamorro.com clubs page and the main page. On the clubs page, you'll find information from/on the different Chamorro social and cultural groups scattered throughout the United States. On the main page, you'll find daily updated informat

Although I finally finished with my qualfying exam questions, I still have some preparing to do before my actual exam next Tuesday. They'll be asking me different aspects of my project, but also about the broader intellectual terrain of Ethnic Studies, and how well I know it and can teach it. Since my intellectual journey is different than most in the department (coming from Guam and Chamorro Studies and Micronesian Studies), I'm not really familiar with much of the books and conversations that comprise the foundation of Ethnic Studies. Pues bula na debi di bei taitai antes di i mamaila na Mates. For those of you interested, my exam questions were: 1. How have questions of race and ethnicity challenged such disciplines as history, sociology, anthropology, literature, and political science and how has work in Ethnic Studies influenced those readings and generated new perspectives and practices? Choose one discipline and characterize the predominant ways in which questions of rac

I've been wanting to post the lyrics for this song for the past two weeks, but I've been consumed lately with my prospectus first and then over the past week my qualifying exam questions ( bei sangani hamgo mas put este siempre). Like most people I've had a love and hate relationship with the band and music of Linkin Park. But all of that it in the past now, faded and unimportant, since I love the song "Hands Held High" from their latest album Minutes to Midnight. I wanted to share the lyrics with everyone, but also throw in some Youtube vidoes that match in someway the lyrics. I found some disturbing stuff when I was searching for Youtube videos about the Iraq war, but I'll post on it tomorrow. **************** "Hands Held High" Linkin Park Turn my mic up louder, I got to say somethin. Lightweights steppin' aside, when we comin. Feel it in your chest, the syllables get pumpin. People on the street, they panic and start running. Words on loose l

Mumamatmos yu' gi i tumutuge'-na i qualifying exam-hu, pues asi'i yu' bai hu taigue gi este na simana. Lao i fino' Al Gore pau tahgue yu'. Published on Thursday, May 17, 2007 by Time Magazine Book Excerpt: The Assault on Reason by Al Gore Not long before our nation launched the invasion of Iraq, our longest-serving Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor and said: “This chamber is, for the most part, silent—ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute in the United States Senate.” Why was the Senate silent? In describing the empty chamber the way he did, Byrd invited a specific version of the same general question millions of us have been asking: “Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?” The persisten