NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

“Tinestigu put Resolusion 294-34” November 22, 2017 Michael Lujan Bevacqua Buenas yan Håfa Adai, mansenådot yan mansenådores guini gi este na gefpå’go na ha’åni, pi’ot hågu Senadot San Nicolas. I na’ån-hu si Michael Lujan Bevacqua. Profesot yu’ gi Programan Inestudion Chamorro gi Unibetsedat Guåhan yan gehilo’ yu’ para i inetnon kumunidåt “Independent Guåhan.” Lao guini på’go gi me’nan-miyu ti hu kuentusisiyi ayu siha. Tumestitigu yu’ guini på’go komo un Chamorro yan taotao Guåhan. Hu agrådesi i oppotunidåt para bai hu fata’chong guini på’go ya bai hu sangåni hamyo ni’ didide’ ginen i hinasso-ku put este na resolusion yan i meggai asunto ni’ pinapacha.   Put resolusion 294-34, ti hu sapopotte gui’. Ya para bai hu na’klåru i pusision-hu put este na asunto gi este kuatro na punto: Fine’nina: Gi tinituhon este na resolusion, guaha infotmasion put NEPA, i National Environmental Policy Act. Mafå’tinas este na lai para u na’siguro na i gubetnamento

  Seven years ago this article was featured in the Stars and Stripes, a feature about Ritidian and its beauty. It was a piece meant to inform the military on island about the special qualities of the place, encouraging them to visit. An interesting contrast between then and now. The ginefpago of the place remains the same, although the strategic interests change. I wonder if the Stars and Stripes ever had an article about Pagat and how special it is encouraging people to go and visit.   ******************** Ritidian Point: A gorgeous slice of tropical Guam

There has been so much discussion lately about the "positions" of people, especially politicians on the military buildup. The concept of the buildup has been discussed so much for the past seven years, you could think there might be nothing left to say. You might assume that after years of debates, revelations, protests and so on, we might have finally come to the point where the buildup might hold no new ideological turns. It might just simply be a thing that has been hollowed out of all ideological ore and so people can speak about it in banal and normal ways. You could assume these things and for the most part you'd be right. The years of debate did help bring into the world and into reality the buildup as an idea. Less people believe the hype about it and I mean this on both ends of the ideological spectrum. Less people believe in the buildup as a golden ticket, but also far fewer people believe in it as a rampaging beast. In the early days of buildup discussion s

It's election year and so the ideological landscape of the island becomes far more vibrant than usual. When I say vibrant I don't mean that ideas are exchanged in a more honest and open way or that ideological transformations will take place in an easier way. I mean instead that the mentioning and invoking of ideology becomes more open and comfortable. The calling of people out. The feeling that certain things that may not normally matter much to you, all of a sudden do. The focusing in on certain details in order to make an argument for what sort of citizen and civil subject you are. When its not an election year do people care that much about where politicians stand on issues? They probably should, but do they really? When an election comes around they probably still don't really care, but now there is a feeling that you are supposed to show you care. You are supposed to pretend that you care. You wouldn't want people to think that you are a pointless lump of fl

I find the messages of Guam's business community to be really funny sometimes. Sure, there's the usual rhetoric about their particular interests being the interests for all, and that people who have millions of dollars and small to medium sized local empires are just regular people too who want what's best for the entire island. The military buildup was of course one object of discourse where this rhetoric would emerge most clearly, as the particular interests of the rich to get contracts, to engorge themselves in speculative capitalism, and basically swim in a pile of golden tickets, came to also somehow mean that the average Joe Cruz would also be getting a huge slice of economic prosperity. Nothing even remotely close is on the horizon even if the buildup as it was first proposed should go through, but somehow people accepted na chumilong the millions made by one to the new minimum wage jobs that the buildup will create for hundreds. What I find na'chalek today is

For the Twitter account that I just started, I've decided to dedicate it for now to helping teach the informal Chamorro class that I hold every week. The Twitter account is open to anyone to follow should they want, but it's meant to help support the lessons that we learn each week. Everyday I ask a question or make a statement which draws upon the grammar or vocabulary that we learned that week and those learning are meant to respond. For example, in our first lesson we discussed the most basic forms of pronouns in Chamorro, the "Yu'" type pronouns. They go after adjectives, nouns and verbs and make the most basic stative sentences. With the pronouns we learned 15 vocabulary words, primarily nouns and verbs, as well as how you use the question marker "kao," the negative marker "ti" and the intensifiers "gof, gef, ges, sen, mampos" in a sentence. In the week after I tweeted some basic questions such as the following: The follo

The US military buildup to Guam "officially" starts now. The Record of Decision which is supposed to mark the end of the Environmental Impact Assessment process was signed earlier this week and so now construction on the projects outlined in the Final Environmental Impact Statement can "officially" begin. At this point, there is almost too much to be written about this issue and not enough time in my day today (since this is my long teaching day) or energy in my body (since this is my long teaching day) to do it. Although I've been writing about this DEIS and FEIS issue for months now and been actively participating in conversations and actions challenging the military buildup at so many levels, I still can't help but feel as if I did not do enough, that I could have done far more. But for all the feelings filtering through my mind and body right now screaming that something has ended, something is over or we have moved into a new phase and something can

The DEIS comment period created the impression of a significant amount of people being against the buildup or changing their opinion on the buildup, or being more engaged about it. Since the period ended, much of that feeling of things moving or shifting has changed or evaporated. The comment period did after all provide the perfect space, a window of time and a series of public events where a new image of the island could be forged. Since that time however, I've heard regular complaints from all sectors of society, that the feel of things moving or changing, or as I've written on this blog, of the buildup "breaking down," was not real, was all just media manipulations and spectacles of dissent. That public opinion on the buildup has always been taihinasso positive, and overwhelmingly supportive. That although the surface of public opinion may have changed from November of last year to February of this year, this is the work of a small minority of people, who staged