NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

One of the drawbacks to seeing your country as the most powerful in the world, or the greatest in the world, or even worse the greatest country in history, is that it makes changing yourself almost impossible. Your country will change, all countries are changing, often times whether the people want it to or not. But the larger your national ego is, the more difficult  it is to organize the chaotic coalition that is your national innards in order to solve basic problems. A smaller country, a less nationally narcissistic nation, which is less enamored with its own overblown and self-aggrandized image can have difficulties as well. But the "greatness" doesn't get in the way as much. Part of the problem if you think far too highly of yourself in this way is that your problems go from being unsolvable or impossible, to irrelevant, especially from those who may be standing in the way of any change, large or small, that could take place. The "greatness" of the countr

I mentioned I was working on an editorial with Victoria Leon Guerrero the other day and it was published in the Pacific Daily News this morning. We crammed alot of statements about what has been going on lately in terms of attempts to shift the buildup conversation into something of pre-DEIS period mode. We discussed Para Hita Todu and some of their motivations and also why they can't be taken seriously as a group that will lead Guam on this issue. All in all I think it was a pretty good editorial and so I wanted to paste it here as well. ********************** Guam Needs Leadership on Buildup Issue Michael Lujan Bevacqua and Victoria Leon Guerrero Pacific Daily News June 26, 2011 Given last week's Sunday Forum topic, which focused on whether or not people should express their support of the military buildup, we eagerly await a future Sunday Forum that will ask the obvious next question as to whether or not people opposed to the buildup should speak out as well. Last

My entire trip last month to South Korea was almost completely overshadowed because of the sinking of the South Korean ship the Cheonan, and the killing of 46 South Korean sailors. The South Korean Government was quick to assume it was North Korea and eventually a report was released confirmed that. The sinking of the ship became something which allowed the government to stall or crackdown on all sorts of activities that they perceived to be weakening the national security of South Korea. The main targets became social democratic and civil society groups, primarily those who have a core precept that the two Koreas should be someday ( puede ha' ti apmam) reunited. For just the week that I was in South Korea, I could see it in the eyes of so many activists, that the sinking, regardless of what the truth behind it was, would be used against them, would be something which Right wing elements could twist into turning the country into a blind nationalistic and militaristic frenzy. I wr

The recent attacks in Mumbai even has people in Guam whispering about security issues and the threat of terrorism right here on island. This conversation is hardly new, in particular since World War II, after the island was invaded and occupied by the Japanese and later reoccupied by the United States, discussions of this sort, about potential attacks or threats to the island are always feared, always lurking in the backs of our consciousness. In the Cold War, there was always a fear about the Soviet Union and the United States going to war and Guam once again being caught in the middle of an apocalyptic conflagration. Today, the island's proximity to China, North Korea and the Asian continent in general, helps to stimulate even more fears about Guam being erased from the face of the world by an errant nuclear missile, or swallowed up in an all out war. This ongoing discussion is completely understandable, and absolutely necessary. Guam's history, Guam's contemporary real