NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

This Thursday at 6 pm at the Dededo Senior Center I'll be on a panel to discuss a rough cut of the documentary "Island Soldier." The film by Nathan Fitch is about the experiences of FSM Citizens who serve in the US military. I have been hearing about this film for quite a while from its director and I'm very excited to see what he has created. Micronesia is often dismissed by the world due to its smallness and its distance from places that are considered to be naturally important. What can there be of value here expect for those things which people associate with smallness, isolation and getting away from the "real" world. But one thing that this part of the world and the American Empire can claim is to have overwhelming per capita enlistment statistics in the US military. It is something that anyone who knows the United States in terms of its statistics or numerical reality is aware of, but is unsure how to process. The collection of islands that the US

An article I wrote recently for Draft Notices, which is the newsletter for the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft. As I mentioned earlier in the week in my post " Militarism in the Land, the Water and the Schools ," I've been working alot lately with the group ProjectYANO , and so it was through them that I was asked to write this piece to inform people in the United States about what is going on in Guam. ______________________________________ From Draft NOtices, January—March 2008 Guam: Where USA’s Empire Begins — Michael Lujan Bevacqua A part of the U.S., yet apart from it; a colony in a world where colonialism supposedly no longer exists; the “tip of America’s spear” in Asia — welcome to Guam, USA. This is a place where the residents, including its indigenous population, the Chamorros, are U.S. citizens, yet cannot vote for president and have no voting delegate in Congress. And notwithstanding the promise of American democracy, all federal laws apply to G

I am constantly surprised at the ways in which people are surprised at things. I suppose that anywhere, you go, you can find things which are normal there and abnormal or incomprehensible elsewhere. Coming from Guam, a pretty little American territory/colony in the Western Pacific, I find alot of things which "shock" regular Americans, aren't so strange to me. Often times, when people remark that Guam is so gof gof suette because we don't have to pay Federal income taxes, my response is a very sincere request that our positions be changed then. That this person I am talking to and whatever state they call home, switch its political status so that it becomes like that of Guam. So yes, by all means, take the no Federal income tax rule, but, you simply can't just take this benefit alone, you also have to accept with it, the overall dinimalas of being a colony . You have to take the lack of a voting Congressional representative, and also regardless of your population,

I've just finished setting up my conference schedule for the rest of the school year, and it looks pretty exciting. In addition to the two conferences that I am organizing (click here for info on one, and I'll have more info on the other very soon), I've got four academic papers that I'll be presenting at conferences all around the country. The most exciting panel that I'll be on will be at the 2008 Indigenous Studies Conference at the University of Georgia. I'll be joined on this panel by three of my friends, to discuss in different ways the concept or spirit of "sovereignty" in the lives of Native Americans and Pacific Islanders. The title of our panel is Sovereignty and the Problem of Recognition. I'll post the panel description and abstracts below, since it'll explain where we are coming from better than I will. I've got a lot on my plate right now in terms of preparing for the new school quarter and then all the other writing and act