NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

The Guam First Commission was proposed several years ago as a means through which the Guam Legislature could help participate in the planning of the military buildup for Guam. Since the announcement of the buildup, all information and planning had happened through the Governor's office, and they had been far more secretative than probably necessary about what was happening. He created the CMTF or the Civilian Military Task Force to oversee things, but much of the information that the CMTF collected or reports they made weren't for the public, but were rather to the help the military with the writing of their Draft Environmental Impact Statement. It seemed that Camacho saw the buildup as his baby, his legacy for the island, something that he would shepherd through and be the one responsible for all the fantastic things it would bring to the island. As he kept everything close to his chest, the Legislature, for political reasons as well as general concern, wanted in on the loop.

Everytime I go to an event on Guam, I always see so many people with cameras running around. Filming everything, taking pictures. But then as I go around the "Guam" corner of the internet or the "Chamorro" corner of the internet, I don't see any of these things. I don't see the pictures, the videos, nothing. What do people do with the hours and hours of video they have? What do they do with all the pictures they take? Its s a real shame since most of these people have way better cameras than mine. For me though, there are so many things happening on Guam, and often times so little attention is given to them, even from people here. Often times, huge historic things will be taking place and people here will have no idea that they are going on. I guess when I upload my crappy videos of things happening on Guam, I'm doing my best to try and get the word and the visuals out to people. Here are some recent videos that I've uploaded onto either my Youtube

Joint Guam Program Office Public Meeting January 22, 2009 Agat, Guam *************************************************************** 6:25 – Took pictures of a lovely sunset. The mayor’s office is right on the beach. 6:27 – Met a member of the JGPO who was there at the Critiquing the Military Buildup Forum I spoke at last November. He asks for my info so that we can meet up. Someone behind me whispers not to give him my real email address. I do though. 6:28 – The Agat Mayor Carol Tayama opens the meeting. 6:30 – John Jackson, executive director of JGPO starts his opening remarks. He invokes early the idea that this military buildup is not a transfer or a new move, but is in actuality a “return.” 6:32 – Jackson builds off his previous point, by admitting that the Marines are actually already here. There are four or five of them in the room right now. One of them in fact is marrying a local girl next month (this is not a joke, Jackson actually said this). 6:34 – A woman is introduc

Last Thursday night, I was speaking on a panel at the University of Guam Lecture Hall, as part of a public forum/discussion on the planned military buildup for Guam. I'll be writing more about my thoughts on it later, because there is plenty to consider. I got to listen to and talk to some members of the Government of Guam Civilian Military Task Force, which is in charge of "preparing" Guam to deal with the typhoon of military presence that it will soon be forced to endure. Also, there is the fact that hundreds of people came to attend the forum, and students were even standing lined up along the hall's sides and sitting on the floor. Here's two article from the Marianas Variety and the Pacific Daily News that covered the event. The PDN article in particular is interesting, since it almost completely ignores the spirit of my comments (which could be considered to be controversial, were viciously anti-colonial and pushing for the island's declonization, but