NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

During this past research trip to the Tohoku Region of Japan with the Popoki Peace Project there was one visual constant as we traveled the most significantly affected disaster areas. In Chamorro, odda', in English, dirt. On March 11, 2011 a huge earthquake struck Japan and caused a meltdown in the Fukushima nuclear power plant, causing radiation to blanket areas even one hundred miles away. Although the areas of compulsory evacuation were much smaller than the areas that were significantly affected, you could still see signs, even four years later of how the radiation have infected the land and threatened populations.  Some areas the Japanese government says it will try to move people back to within the next few months, others a few years, other areas may take decades or centuries before they are "safe" for human habitation again. The earthquake also led to a huge tsunami which battered hundreds of miles of coast and destroyed the coastal areas of several cities and

Mensahi Ginnen I Gehilo’ #5 "Not Just for Protestors" The Independence Task Force for Guam has been meeting for several months now and we finally held our first event in July. Days after Liberation Day supporters for Independence as Guam’s next political status gathered early in the morning to pick up trash along the beach and road in Hagatna. Twenty-two volunteers showed up to collect beer cans, cigarette butts, tires, newspaper and all other types of trash. All in all more than a dozen bags were collected. The Mayor’s Office of Hagatna was generous enough to dispose of the trash once the cleanup was over. Jon Guerrero, a recent graduate of the Masters in Clinical Psychology program at the University of Guam was the lead organizer for the event. Guerrero felt it was important to take on an activity like this because people think of Independence as being very abstract, but in truth its really about feeling like you can take care of yourself.

Check out this article below from KUAM. It deals with meetings that the Federated States of Micronesia Association of Guam had in order to draw up some plans on how to deal with violence and crimes that are being attributed to the Micronesian community of Guam, in particular the Chuukese. They even created an education plan with alot of ideas on how to alleviate the social problems within Micronesian communities and those which spill out into the general public. I don't want to speak to the specific issue of Micronesians in Guam, as the available language and ideas makes it almost impossible to have a productive conversation. The "Micronesian problem" is what it is usually referred to as, and it is a textbook example of how a class or group of people become associated, in a way which becomes too commonsensically and too natural, with the ills of the world. Every society has problems, and every ethnic group has problems or roles in creating those problems. The problem

“The Meaning of Pågat” Michael Lujan Bevacqua 11/23/11 The Marianas Variety The social and political meaning of the word “Pågat” has changed so dramatically over the past two years, it has been truly inspiring to behold. Before the military buildup Pågat was a place for select families to fish and to gather plants for natural remedies, and although it has always been a beautiful hike, it was known to most people as a dumpsite. The first few hundred yards of the hike was littered with all imaginable and some unimaginable forms of human refuse. At one point I remember seeing an entire set of front yard Christmas decorations dumped there. When it first became apparent that Pågat was in the (pun intended) crosshairs of DOD as a site for them to put five live firing ranges, the meaning of Pågat started to change dramatically. When I first began teaching at UOG prior to the whole DEIS comment period, if I had told my students I was taking them on a hike to Pågat, I would have most like

The end of one of modern Guam's most enduring eras is over. Last week we closed one of the most storied chapters of our island's history. We said goodbye to something which has in some ways been a terrible friend to the island and a necessary one as well. Through economic upswings, downturns, typhoons, an endless string of concerts by washed up musicians, the resurgence of Chamorro dance, and the sons of two different Republican Governors getting elected themselves to the island's highest office, this era had it all. Now it comes to an end. Last week Guam began the transition out of the Ordot Dump era of the island's history and with the opening of a new dump in Layon, Inarajan, we have now entered the Layon Dump era of history. Who knows what lies ahead for the people of this tumultuous little island as we go from putting our overabundance of garbage from one pile to another. *********************** New Layon Landfill now open FRIDAY, 02 SEPTEMBER 2011 01:

To read the filing of contempt charges on behalf of the United States of America against the Government of Guam, click here . If you ever want to know what the relationship between Guam and the United States is at its core, at its foundation, read any court cases such as this, where you see local and federal interests clash. You'll see reiterated over and over the idea that Guam is ours, Guam belongs to the Feds, Guam belongs to the Congress, Guam belongs to the military. That is the legacy that we get from American imperialism and then the case law which starts with the Insular Cases that authorized and legalized American colonialism in its territories. I'll be writing more on this soon, but for now the KUAM News article on it will have to suffice. But in case you don't read through to the end of the post, my favorite quote from this so far is that the Guam Legislature has "warred against the Constitution." Guaha taotao kumalamlamten, pues sa' hafa kumeketu

Please consider signing this petition titled "To Prevent the Construction of a Mounded Landfill on top of Inarajan Watershed at Layon, in Dandan, Municipality of Inarajan." I'm pasting the entire text of the petition below, and a link to its online form can be found here . I would love to write more about this issue right now, there is so much going on and so much to be said. If you've ever wondered why some of the more conscious people on Guam refer to the Federal Government as "Federales" in a sneering or fearful way, one of the reasons is happening right now, over the landfill issue and the attempted exortion of the Government of Guam to the tune of almost $1 million dollars a week . Unfortunately I can't spare the time right now as I'm rushing to finish up a book chapter so I can get back to work on my dissertation. (The pictures in this post are all from the tinanom yan halom tano' on either the land around my family's house in Mangila