NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

It is common in Guam to feel very alone in terms of decolonization. History books and political commentators tend to argue that the age of decolonization is over. It happened in the 1960s or 1970s, and that those who remain colonized missed the boat. They missed the decolonial sakman and are therefore stuck, in whatever political status they have. It is an intriguing way of justifying the status quo. A way of arguing that the current world order or framework isn't simply something that has happened. But rather the end. Teleological or evolutionary, but ultimately that an apex is reached and there can't be any further reconfiguration of power or reality.  In the 1980s this notion was called "The End of History" after Francis Fukuyama. It wasn't real or true, but it felt authentic, in the same way each epoch achieves a certain character or feeling of self-realization. We have seen History continue marching on. And those who still have claims

Bolivia: 'For a lasting solution to the climate crisis we must destroy capitalism" EurActiv.fr by Cécile Barbière translated by Samuel White 14 Oct 2015 - 08:22 Bolivia's national contribution to the COP 21 describes capitalism as "a system of death" that has to be destroyed to protect humanity and Mother Earth. EurActiv France reports . The Bolivian government's slightly late national contribution to the COP 21 contains many radical proposals for safeguarding the future health of the planet, accompanied by the argument that capitalism is responsible for "consumerism, warmongering and [...] the destruction of Mother Earth". Some 122 countries have now shared their national contributions to the international climate conference in Paris, where countries will attempt to reach an agreement that will limit the global temperature rise to +2°C above pre-industrial ti

The Greeks are Right! by Slavoj Zizek The New Statesman 7/6/15 The unexpectedly strong No in the Greek referendum was a historical vote, cast in a desperate situation. In my work I often use the well-known joke from the last decade of the Soviet Union about Rabinovitch, a Jew who wants to emigrate. The bureaucrat at the emigration office asks him why, and Rabinovitch answers: “There are two reasons why. The first is that I’m afraid that in the Soviet Union the Communists will lose power, and the new power will put all the blame for the Communist crimes on us, Jews – there will again be anti-Jewish pogroms . . .” “But,” the bureaucrat interrupts him, “this is pure nonsense. Nothing can change in the Soviet Union, the power of the Communists will last for ever!”. “Well,” responds Rabinovitch calmly, “that’s my second reason.” I was informed that a new version of this joke is now circulating in Athens. A young Greek man visits the Australian consulate in Athens and

This BBC article connects so many different things, I am tempted to write three pages linking everything together, but I also feel that the disparate parts also speak for themselves. How poetic is it that things like climate change, global warming and the rising tides in the Pacific become the means through which things long buried and denied like Japanese imperialism and American nuclear atrocities are brought to the surface? ************************** June 2014 Last updated at 01:59 Climate change helps seas disturb Japanese war dead By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News     Rising sea levels have disturbed the skeletons of soldiers killed on the Marshall Islands during World War Two.  Speaking at UN climate talks in Bonn, the Island's foreign minister said that high tides had exposed one grave with 26 dead. The minister said the bones were most likely those of Japanese tr

Published on Wednesday, July 3, 2013 by The Guardian Edward Snowden: A Whistleblower, Not a Spy by Guardian Editorial It is now 10 days since the former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden , source of the Guardian's NSA bugging revelations, flew out of Hong Kong, apparently en route to Ecuador. For 10 days he has been stalled at Moscow airport, while his passport has been annulled and repeated attempts to continue his journey to sympathetic jurisdictions have failed or been foiled. Over the weekend, Ecuador aborted the idea that he might find sanctuary in Quito. Mr Snowden submitted a request for political asylum in Russia, later withdrawn. Several other asylum bids also faltered at the start of this week. On Tuesday, Mr Snowden remained in Moscow, still dependent on the Russians while waiting on the apparently diminishing chance of being welcomed elsewhere around the wo

I came across this article pasted below on the blog Ten Thousand Things . It is a great resource for issues of peace and justice in the Asia Pacific. The question of militarism and militarization are so important in this world today because the nature of war has changed. For much of the word war is still bloody and gritty and in your face. But for the First World and its allies they get to embrace a different technological relationship to war, one that makes it far more virtual that real. While soldiers still die and still bleed, much of the war has been privatized and has become digital. It is now easier to wipe humans and communities from the map than ever before. A screen of irreality sits between you and the human lives on the other side. Buttons take the place of weapons, so in a way you actually don't hurt much of anything, tin men and metal birds do it all for you. In Guam, a place that sometimes celebrates the fact that it is the tip of America's spear, having a con

"What is Normal?" Simon Critchley Adbusters Dec. 14, 2011 We are living through a dramatic and ever-widening separation between normal state politics and power. Many citizens still believe that state politics has power. They believe that governments, elected through a parliamentary system, represent the interests of those who elect them and that governments have the power to create effective, progressive change. But they don't and they can't. We do not live in democracies. We inhabit plutocracies: government by the rich. The corporate elites have overwhelming economic power with no political accountability. In the past decades, with the complicity and connivance of the political class, the Western world has become a kind of college of corporations linked together by money and serving only the interests of their business leaders and shareholders. This situation has led to the disgusting and ever-growing gulf that separates the superrich from the rest of us. St

The recent attacks in Norway at first glance seemed like a dream come true for crazy conservatives who love to use Islam around the world as an example of why Americans must increase military budgets, stop the seeping spread of multiculturalism, counter the pansiness of liberalism and tolerance and take up the glorious counter-Jihad against the global Islamic Jihad. Norway, one of those crazy liberal, sort of socialist countries, which people always point to along with Sweden, as places which the United States should follow in terms of improving some basic social service or government program. The people at Fox News must have been very estatic at first after hearing about the attack, since it would no doubt give them great red meat for several news cycles, inviting on people who would argue against the building of mosques in American communities (one of whom is popular Republican Presidential possible candidate Herman Cain) and maybe even bring back that crazy Texas Congressman who say

I first wrote this article "Happy US Imperialism Day! Rethinking the Chamorro Place in the American Empire" in 2003 for the first issue of Minagahet Zine . I intended to post in on my blog each December to commemorate the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of Guam, which helped pull the United States into World War II, and sparked the beginning of I Tiempon Chapones. I last posted it in 2006, after forgetting to publish in in both 2007 and 2008. But with the proposed massive mampos na'ma'a'nao military buildup coming soon, and the island drowning in the thousands of pages of the buildup's Draft Environmental Impact Statement, I thought it would be appropriate to post this piece again. When I first wrote this piece, I wrote the following blurb to go with it: Militarism has been the lifeblood of Guam for so long in terms of the American presence and interest here, and it has become an integral part of Chamorro culture as well. And in "celebration"