NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

The Fanohge Coalition formed earlier this year in part as a way of continuing the energy that was captured during last year's Fanohge: March for CHamoru Self-Determination. So far the group has written letters to elected leaders, organized forums and is planning to also send out a candidate survey this month. The Fanohge Coalition is made up of 37 different groups, and represents a wide swatch of Guam society. There are political status task forces, non-profits, small businesses and cultural organizations. Some are more conservative, some are more progressive. All are united however by the idea that the Chamoru people deserve to be treated with dignity in their own land and part of that is protecting their right to self-determination. Another unifying aspect to the coalition is the belief that Guam's political status should be changed to something more equitable. The coalition isn't untied by any particular options, but believes that a new status where Guam and its communit

In my Chamorro Studies class last week we were discussing the concept of inafa'maolek, which has become canonized as a central value of Chamoru culture as of late. The term fa'maolek has long been in use, it even occurs in the Garrido Manuscript from 18th century Guam. Inafa'maolek most likely was used as well, but not necessarily as a primal or central concept for defining Chamoru identity or culture. That comes about much more recently, primarily through the work of Robert Underwood when he uses the terms in the 1970s, while trying to define what the Chamoru cosmology of the 19th century was, and what of it had persisted up until the 20th century.  Inafa'maolek has many meanings, all of them however focus around expressing community through interdependence or through cooperation. It is about working together to sustain a society. It is about humans sustaining nature, sustaining their families and so on. It is a collective concept that is focused on building sustaina

There is a strangeness when you consider independence movements of the past with the formal process today as outlined by the United Nations and international conventions. Independence movements of long ago were, as you might imagine, violent. Colonizers didn't want to give up their conquests and fought wars to try to prevent those they had colonized or settler communities that had developed their own sense of local identity, from becoming self-determined. Untold numbers died and suffered needlessly for this selfishness and cruelty, eventually these colonies led to conflicts between colonizers. The international system was formed out of those violent, tragic and horrible battles to keep hold of territories and control the lives of entire peoples and their resources. It was developed over time, not necessarily to protect or help those who had been victimized, but rather help decrease the chances of any further conflict between colonial and imperial powers. The basic rules or c