NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Mr. Obama’s Pacific Monument By THE EDITORIAL BOARD   OCT. 1, 2014 The New York Times   It’s safe to assume that most presidents have big ambitions and visions of lasting Rooseveltian achievement. Though, in recent history, the millstones of Washington’s pettiness and partisanship usually grind such dreams to dust. There are exceptions, which happen when presidents discover the Antiquities Act. This is the law, used by Theodore Roosevelt and many successors, by which the executive can permanently set aside public lands from exploitation, building an environmental legacy with a simple signature and without Congress’s consent. This is how President Obama last week, in addition to everything else on his plate, created the largest marine preserve in the world. He used his Antiquities Act authority to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National

  Seven years ago this article was featured in the Stars and Stripes, a feature about Ritidian and its beauty. It was a piece meant to inform the military on island about the special qualities of the place, encouraging them to visit. An interesting contrast between then and now. The ginefpago of the place remains the same, although the strategic interests change. I wonder if the Stars and Stripes ever had an article about Pagat and how special it is encouraging people to go and visit.   ******************** Ritidian Point: A gorgeous slice of tropical Guam

Chamorro Studies has only existed as a program for a short while, but its existence is questioned all the time. During the Chamorro Experience gi Fino' Chamorro lecture series one elderly Chamorro man asked me flat out, why people should learn to speak Chamorro when the language is clearly on its way out? During the Chamorro Studies launch event, a middle aged Chamorro women asked why a degree in Chamorro Studies should exist when it cannot help you in life. this despite the fact that she had just sat through a panel presentation explaining how it can help you through life. It is interesting because very few students have made these sorts of comments, in fact despite the short existence of the Chamorro Studies program it already has more than 20 majors and minors. On the launch event we held in October of this year, we signed up 7 majors and 7 minors in a single day. But for the older generation it is difficult for them to get by the barriers of the past. Those barriers were cr

If you were to do a poll of Chamorros either today or even 100 years ago, and ask them to choose who in the entirety of Guam's history is the person who they think is the most important, I can guarantee you that most people would choose or would have chosen the same stupid person. Ferdinand Magellan. For most people this choice seems natural. After all Magellan was the first European to visit Guam, and was credited for a long time with "discovering" it. Snot nosed kids around the world have to learn about him whenever the "Age of Discovery" is discussed in school. So in every corner of the globe students learning history may or may not learn about Guam simply because Magellan stumbled upon it. It is easy to forget that Chamorros have been in Guam and the Marianas in one form or another for close to 4,000 years. Magellan only arrived close to 500 years ago. The period of colonization that we still live in today is only around 350 years old. In all this tim