NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

For those looking to practice their Chamorro I have a Chamorro sentence email list. Every few days or so I send an email to a list of people that contains a sometimes simple and sometimes complicated Chamorro sentence. The sentence will sometimes deal with mundane issues of what is your favorite cereal, what type of car do you drive, what village to you live in? When you receive the email you can respond to the entire list or just me if you'd like any feedback. If you'd like to be placed on this email list you can send me a request at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com. It is free and open to anyone. For the 50th sentence that I sent out I decided to make it special. Instead of a single sentence it became a sprawling story about a guali'ek with a question tacked on at the end. If you want to take a crack at the sentence you can see it pasted below: *********************** Kao guaha manli'e' hao gualiek gi tasi yan kumekematmos gui'. Ha a'agang hao gi i batko-mu

I have been working recently with a group of people who are pushing for indigenous fishing rights. It is a complicated issue which few people on Guam really understand but tend to reduce to racist and supremacist caricatures. Those who oppose fishing rights for Chamorros, say it is just stupid racism which will lead to the over harvesting of our natural resources. Those who support it tend to say that Chamorros, all Chamorro, simply because they are Chamorro know how to protect their resources and that they should be free to enjoy their waters to their heart's content. Both positions are not really helpful to the issue at hand, and so I've often been irritated at how this issue should not be as contentious as it should be. It cuts right to the middle of American colonialism and multiculturalism and how these things restrict life on Guam, inhibit our ability to even imagine what life can be like. We become trapped in the way America is supposed to be, its limits and everytime we