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Showing posts with the label Detour

Sometimes I Dream of the Korean Peninsula.

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Guaha na biahi mangguife yu' put i Korean Peninsula. Ti siguru yu' sa' hafa taiguigui i guinife-hu siha. Hu bisita i tano' Korea un biahi ha', gi 2010. Gi ayu na tiempo mampasehu ham yan otro na activists kontra fina'militat gi diferentes na lugat giya South Korea, put hemplo i Islan Jeju. Gi unu na puenge manmata'chong ham yan "reunification activists" para un sena giya Seoul. Ante di ayu, taya' maolek hiningok-hu put iya North Korea. Sigun i media gi sanlagu yan guini giya Guahan, i ma'gas i tano' gof kaduku yan i taotao guihi manmahokse'. Ayu na activists, ti ma chanda todu i hiningok-hu, lao ma na'lakabales i tiningo'-hu put i tano' Korea. Ma sangani yu' put taimanu na umadespatta i dos na patte. Sigun unu na bihu, ilek-na na i media gi sanlagu yan gi sanhaya mamparehu todu. Ma aguiguiyi i gayun-niha pulitikat. Ma sapotte yan ma hatsa i gobetnamenton-niha, achokka' gi ayu ti ma attette

Looking for Sumay

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Sometime last year I spent a morning with some members of We Are Guahan preparing for an upcoming round of Heritage Hikes that we hoped would visit Spanish Steps, Tweed's Cave, Pagat and Haputo Beach. Our initial round of Heritage Hikes featured places that are open to the public, but have some relationship to Guam's militarization, either in a contemporary or historical sense. For later rounds we tried to choose sites on bases in hopes of testing to see how sincere the US military is that the public have good and regular access to historical and culturally significant places. That morning we went on a tour of the historic sites that can be found on Navy Base Guam, including a walk around the area where songsong Sumay used to be. In a way, a historical tour around Naval Base Guam is actually a depressing trip. It is a tour of absence. Almost a tour of nothing, a tour of the long gone traces of something. There is plenty of recent history on the base. It has only existed s

Historical Scavenger Hunt

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"Historical Scavenger Hunt" Michael Lujan Bevacqua 2/1/12 The Marianas Variety   LAST Saturday I took my Guam History students on a historic scavenger hunt in HagÃ¥tña. Right now, we are at the beginning of the semester and learning some basic ideas about both what Guam is as a place and what the nature of history is as a concept. For this semester I wanted to try out a new approach to introducing students to Guam, and thought that giving them a “self-motivated” tour around the historic sites of HagÃ¥tña in order to find the meaning of a vague set of clues was ideal. I have taken my students to HagÃ¥tña several times before over the years because of the way it provides a very clear example of how history is all about layers. Most people think of history as being something determined by a clear line. What is on one side is the past and what is on the other is the present. It is for that reason that if you ask most people why history is important, they wi

Okinawa Dreams #3: Decolonize Okinawa?

Although you can call both Guam and Okinawa colonies, there have been historically different in terms of decolonization discussion. Both were incorporated into a colonial country which took steps to destroy the culture and dictate the levels of the colonized people. Both of them receive benefits from the colonial relationship, but have also been mistreated or afforded a lower status. Although both have a high level of inclusion with their colonizer, and have assimilated and accepted much of the way their colonizer wanted them to exist, they nonetheless still struggle with very practical feelings of difference. Both feel that they have not just a casual difference with their colonizer, but one that their history of colonization insists be taken seriously. But while Guam has spent the past 30 years developing a lexicon for discussing political status and decolonization there, has Okinawa undergone a similar way of creating a framework for speaking of their colonial status and how it migh

Pieces of a Map of Violence

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As part of my " detour of Hawai'i ," earlier today I had the chance to speak to a group of Waianae High School students who are participating in a summer environmental justice program sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. As part of this program, they are traveling all around Oahu, looking at different sites of development, militarization and what sort of historical and contemporary problems that these sites have or are causing. They are also visiting sites where people whether through reclamation, reforestation, the propagation of native plant species or the practicing of sustainable agricultural programs, are also working towards solutions in making the island a more sustainable and more naturally balanced place. Even before meeting the students, I was already excited, because of what sorts of potential lessons I could learn from the program itself, and how something similar could be organized for Guam youth. I was asked to speak to them to discuss the