NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

During the 2016 election, I followed the website FiveThirtyEight on a daily basis. I found the commentary to be very enlightening, as it wasn't just their reporting about polls, but also their analysis on what makes a poll informative or effective. The media in general often times picks polls that fit the narrative they are trying to promote, or they have their own internal hierarchy over what makes one poll useful and another less so. But these critical information points are rarely discussed openly, even if more astute media viewers or consumers can make their own best guesses. Although after Trump's victory in the election, I stopped consuming that type of poll-focused news. But as the US mid-term election season is starting up again, and we've ahead a round of very interesting special elections, I've slowly been drawn back to the website. This type of coverage, in the form of a group chat around the recent apparent Democratic-victory, is what makes it su

People on Guam do not get to vote for the President of the United States. As one scholar at UOG loves to mention, just about no one in the United States gets to vote for President either, as the Constitution makes clear that the electoral college determines the leader of the executive branch, not the will of the general population. But this misses the point when people say that people on Guam don't get to vote for President. Guam, as a territory, a colony, doesn't have any electoral college votes. We get to pretend that we can vote. The Government of Guam prints out ballots that we can fill out, and we get to participate in a very fancy straw poll. As the electoral college votes are tallied, Guam is absent from the constitution of the United States through red and blue shapes on computer and tv monitors. It is an interesting reminder of the delicacy of Guam's political connection to the United States. All it takes is the will of a group of people in Washin

Click here to DONATE to support the website Common Dreams! Here is a sampling of the type of news you can find there. It has been a main source of information for me since ever since. Here is a sample of the news you can find there from just the past week.  ************* Published on Saturday, December 26, 2015 by Common Dreams 'Whatever It Takes': Okinawa Sues Tokyo in Effort to Block US Base Prefecture's governor vows to take anything necessary to block construction of American military camp by Nadia Prupis, staff writer   Okinawa officials on Friday filed a lawsuit against the central Japanese government in a new bid to block the slated construction of a U.S. military base in the prefecture's Henoko region. "We will do whatever it takes to stop the new Henoko base," Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga said during a press conference Friday. "Okinawa's argument is legitimate, and I believe that it will be cer

Bota Fino’ Chamoru! Michael Lujan Bevacqua The Marianas Variety 10/29/14 During the summer, the Hurao Language Camp at the Chamorro Village in Hagatna held several waves along Marine Drive. This is un såkkan botasion, an election year and so waves are about as common as Japanese tourists, with candidates sometimes standing in the early morning and the twilight hours, hoping to make eye contact with you as you speed by. Hurao’s wave was somewhat different. It wasn’t for any particular candidate, instead it was for “Fino’ Chamoru” or the Chamorro language. Children held up signs with “Håyi hao?” and “Hu tungo’ håyi yu’” on them, and shouted out “Bota Fino’ Chamoru!” to those driving by. Johnny’s Sablan’s immortal classic “Mungga Yu’ Mafino’ Inglesi” or “Don’t Speak English to Me” blared in the background. It is that time of the year, when young 18, 19 and 20 year old in my classes, who will be voting for the first time start to wonder about this new ri

Deception and Diplomacy: The US, Japan, and Okinawa  For the student of contemporary Japan, these are sad times…because of the growing sense that Japan lacks a truly responsible democratic government to address these issues, and because its people deserve better. By Gavan McCormack ,   June 7, 2011 .  Originally published in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus . Share   The following text makes extensive use of the treasure trove of documents on the US-Japan-Okinawa relationship released by Wikileaks and published in The Asahi Shimbun and Ryukyu Shimpo in May 2001, setting them in the frame of four decades of chicanery. It also discusses the so-called “mitsuyaku” or secret diplomacy between the two countries that has gradually come to light in the past two years without any help from Wiki, the “confession” of former Prime Minister Hatoyama, the strange case of the “Maher affair, and the shock waves of recent shifts in thinking about the Okinawa pr