NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Everytime Trump mentions Guam, it is like we get to walk on to some national reality TV show. It is always interesting, sometimes funny, sometimes scary, sometimes saddening. Here are some articles around our most recent mention, when Trump talked about statehood being off the table and not an option for Guam and other US territories.  *******************   Decolonization Commission: Trump comments superficial and selfish Steve Limtiaco Pacific Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK Oct 19, 2020  The government of Guam’s Commission on Decolonization on Monday responded to recent comments by President Donald Trump about the political status of Guam and other U.S. territories.   Trump, during an Oct. 1 phone interview with Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel, accused Democrats of trying to add three new states to the union, including Guam, in an effort to get more power in the House and Senate.   “That would give them six automatic Senate seats,” Trump said. “It would be very unfair, and 20-somet

The issue of wall funding in the United States for President Trump is another point at which we can see ideological lines become distorted and distinct when moving from the community of the colonizer to the community of the colonized. Left and right, liberal and conservative have particular meanings within a community and within groups within a community. Part of the colonizing process is not solely those things which the colonizer does to forcibly integrate the colonized peoples, but also the ways in which the colonized peoples may accept a particular framework for understanding themselves and their issues. This is a key point people often miss. Colonialism isn't inherently conservative and therefore decolonization is liberal. Colonialism can be both faces and many more. There can be liberal forms of colonization and conservative ones. Movements or conversations that are liberal or progressive in the US can still be colonial.  We are reminded about this every once in a whil

For decades Guam has been used to being a joke. Generations of comedians have used it, such as Johnny Carson, David Lettermen and even Conan O'Brien. Robert Underwood has invoked the comedy specter of Rodney Dangerfield in order to explain Guam's situation, saying it is an island that gets no respect! The mere mention of Guam in this way stems from the fact that it is a signifier that floats around, it is always out there, especially for those in the US, but there often isn't any actual knowledge attached to it. That means that you can deploy it in ridiculous ways, a familiar, but empty signifier that can create laughter as the listener confronts that awkward gap between their knowledge and whatever might lie beyond the horizon of their understanding. That's why when you would say something random like "I'm headed to Guam!" it would elicit laughter, because of the way the audience would slip on the banana peel shaped gap between their knowledge and rea

I have spent the past few weeks meeting with people who are running for political office here in Guam this year. Some for senator, some for governor. This year promises to be an exciting one in terms of campaigns and candidates. With five teams running for governor (4 Democrats and 1 Republican). More than 80 packets for senatorial candidates have been picked up, with only 15 possible seats in the legislature. Mampos meggai na månnok manmalålagu gi kånton guma'! What is different this year however is not just the amount of candidates, but also the diversity in terms of their background. More and more, people are running for office who haven't been in formal government service before. They haven't worked in a political machine. They are outsiders, activists, educators, working class people, lawyers, professionals, veterans, journalists and more. The question remains however, and I will acknowledge from the very start of the conversation, that there is nothing intrinsic

Donald Trump will be on island for a few hours tonight, following a summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Singapore. Although there had been rumors for months about a Trump visit, it was only really confirmed earlier today when the local media got a chance to look at the White House schedule this week. Pundits are trying to figure out what the meeting means, and how much credit Trump should or shouldn't receive for his haphazard and sometimes confusing attempts at diplomacy, but we shouldn't be too distracted by that discussion in Guam. Regardless of what decisions may come from this meeting, Guam remains a territory of the US and not a sovereign player in any decisions regarding security in this region. So long as we remain a colony, genuine security will always remain outside of our reach. Decolonization is the only way to ensure greater security for our people and that our island becomes more than just the tip of America's spear.

My trip to Spain took me through South Korea, where I spent seven hours in the Incheon Airport in Seoul. In the same way that Guam and Okinawa have been connected for years now because of US military plans, so too have Guam and South Korea become connected as well. Guam has been a potential target for North Korea for many years now, as it is one of the most prominent US bases in the region. But over the past year the danger to Guam has become far more pronounced, from both sides of the Pacific. Late last year, North Korean rhetoric became more focused around Guam, far more than it ever had before. The year before that, Donald Trump was elected President of the US, and his foreign policy approach hasn't been very ideologically based, but seems to be rooted in impulsive Twitter tirades. Both of them combined mean that people on Guam have no idea what to think or even worry about next. North Korea is portrayed as a tin pot regime, simply full of bluster one moment, and

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

In genera the website Vox is like a hundred breaths of fresh air each week. The videos that it puts out each week are enjoyable and informative, bumping up against critical political and cultural issues (ranging from borders, to hip hop, to even the infamous worst movie ever The Room). But on a regular basis, the voice that I appreciate the most is that of its co-founder and editor-at-large, Ezra Klein. His articles are well-written and often help bring together my diffuse and disparate thoughts about the new list of scandals from the Trump administration. They help articulate thoughts still fuming and forming in my mind, with a welcome clarity, at a time when it seems so difficult to be politically sane. His most recent piece on Trump's impromptu interview with The New York Times at his golf club, helps bring together so many troublesome issues about the Trump administration, and connects them to the man at its core, where there is increasing evidence each day, that he may no