NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

This image is taken from the play Pågat, written by myself and Victoria Leon Guerrero and directed by Michelle Blas. The play was performed at UOG in the Spring of 2014 and received a great deal of attention from the local community. The choreography for the play came from Master of Chamorro Dance Vince Reyes, who has been touring the world recently as a prominent Chamorro folk artist with his group Inetnon Gefpago. This image in particular comes from what he calls the silhouette dance, which was performed to the tune of "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift, except sung in Chamorro. It portrays a Chamorro woman during World War II being beaten and raped by a Japanese soldier. She is able to endure however through the help of other women, who support her. The issue of comfort women and sexual violence on Guam has always been something on the edge of my academic consciousness, as during my oral history research it would also pop up, albeit in vague and impossible to pursue ways.

They say that what makes humans different than most other living creatures is their ability to visualize. To act not based on instinct or need or reaction to stimuli, but to hold within their mental processing an amalgamation of temporal moments, some of which have already happened and some of which could or never will happen. Humans therefore have the ability to strategize and adapt better than others, potentially. It also means they have a greater ability than any other species to lie to itself, to trick itself out of seeing obvious things and believing obvious things. To form intensely and exhaustively convoluted explanations for things, in order to keep them from being realized or understood, to suppress truth, to find ways to twist and neuter it. People become so attached to the current moment, in the same way the white at the crest of a wave feels dependent upon the particular form of the wave in order for it to exist. This attachment makes them see everything they can behind

--> I wrote on my Facebook the day I arrived in Okinawa “Sweet Home Okinawa :) ” I am not Okinawan and have never lived in Okinawa, but after being there three times in 1 year and a half, I have developed an interesting relationship to the place. I started writing about this last year in my blog post " Coming Home. " People in Japan tend to assume my origin in the following ways: #1: People would ask me if I was Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan who the government and most people pretended to be non-existent for quite a while. #2: I was from Hokkaido. I have no idea what people from Hokkaido look like, but if I was to imagine myself as some sort of Japanese person, it would be from Hokkaido. #3: People regularly asked if I was from Okinawa. But eventually I wrote that the historical and contemporary connections between our islands actually make me feel oddly at home in a place I have barely visited. I wrote that my coming to Okinawa was a "h

Mangguaiya yu' ta'lo. Gof kinenne' yu' as Guiya. Ti apmam para bei in ali'e' gi guinife-hu. Este un betsu para Guiya. ********************* Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (I think I made you up inside my head.) The stars go waltzing out in blue and red, And arbitrary blackness gallops in: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane. (I think I made you up inside my head.) God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade: Exit seraphim and Satan's men: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I fancied you'd return the way you said, But I grow old and I forget your name. (I think I made you up inside my head.) I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes they roar back again. I shut my

On my trip from Incheon Airport to my hotel in Jongo-gu, I saw 7 Dunkin Doughnuts. Para bai hu admite na didide’ tiningo’-hu put South Korea, lao bei sangani hamyo, nag of nina’manman yu’ ni’ este. I know the whole spiel about globalization and way franchises such as McDonald’s and Starbucks have become global. So I wasn’t shocked when I saw Sponge Bob Squarepants dubbed on TV, or an episode of House with Korean subtitles. I saw a few McDonalds and Starbucks, Pizza Huts on the way to my hotel, and wasn’t surprised at all. But the fact that I found 7 Dunkin Doughnuts really intrigued me and made me wonder if there is some interesting or tragic story behind how South Korea came to be so inundated with that particular franchise. So while I was on the bus, I vowed to keep track of all the Dunkin Doughnuts that I find in South Korea, and eventually when I return to Guam conduct some research to see if there is any backstory to be found. Stay tuned for the final tally of Dunkin Donuts on