NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

For those of you who don’t know, my dissertation in Ethnic Studies dealt with sovereignty, most specifically Guam’s role in producing America’s sovereignty, or what role its invisibility or nothingness plays in producing America as sovereign. This may sound confusing, but what makes it difficult for most to wrap their heads around, is the simple fact of saying that something which has been for hundreds of years produced discursively as being “small” or “faraway” or “faint” or “owned by the US” as somehow creating something as great and grand and mighty as the United States of America. One frustrating aspect of writing my dissertation was the preparing of a literature review, which is a sometimes helpful, sometimes useless review of what others have written about your topic of choice and how you will either use and build on them or defy them. If you are familiar with the bulk of work on sovereignty it all basically says the same thing nowadays, drawing mildly different c

Este na klasen tinige' siha muna'magof yu'. Guaha na biahi ti komprendeyon nu Guahu si Donald Trump. Gof annok nu Guahu na racist pat misogynistic gui' ya gof guinaiya gui' ni' i manggaichinatli'e' nu otro rås pat klasen taotao. Lao i meggaiña gi media, ti manmalago' ma sångan enao. Ti manmalago' ma admite enao.  Pues ya-hu este na klasen tinige', sa' i tumutuge' (ko'lo'lo'ña i famalao'an) ma såsangan i minagahet put si Donald Trump.  ************************* "Trump is Being Outplayed by Women - And He's Losing His Mind Over It" by Joan Walsh The Nation September 30, 2016  Y ou’ve heard of the 3 am phone call, the one every presidential nominee must be prepared to answer ably. Now we have the 3 am tweet storm, where the would-be leader of the free world melts down at the temerity of mere women to challenge his political dominance. Four days after his pathetic debate performance, Donald

Hawks, Clowns and Leaders by Michael Lujan Bevacqua The Guam Daily Post August 10, 2016 I have to echo so many writers, pundits and voters this past year, who cannot help but marvel at the strange world we live in today, as a result of the Republican nomination of Donald Trump for the presidency of the United States. Donald Trump, has in so many ways pushed this election to the limits of imagination and at times common decency. His determination to attack and hit back against anyone who he perceives as wronging him has led him down the path of childishness and bullying. Trump’s behavior and his ideological inconsistency has come to the point where the terrain of ideas and allies, has shifted so drastically that those I might normally consider my foes are suddenly unexpected friends. I say this because in the current national election cycle, I myself who is a long time anti-war, demilitarization and decolonial activist find myself regularly agreeing wi

What a strange world it is, where lately I find myself agreeing regularly with neo-conservatives, hawkish Democrats and former heads of the CIA. One thing that I am struggling to figure out, is why I find Donald Trump's foreign policy positions so repulsive. In a way, his lack of knowledge about the structure of American power in the world, makes it so that he is occasionally or randomly likely to take a position closer to my own. When he discusses withdrawing US support or participation from various alliances, he is talking about reducing America's imperial bootprint over the globe, something that local activists in communities forced to shoulder the burden of America's more than a 100 overseas bases have been demanding for years. Hillary Clinton on the other hand will no doubt maintain, albeit with reasonable imperial justifications, the vast and ridiculously expensive global network of American power. She is after all, the voice that reaffirmed the US commitment to m

“Trump and Consequences” by Michael Lujan Bevacqua The Guam Daily Post March 30, 2016 There’s a Chamorro saying, comes in different forms, but follows this basic logic, “ an esta masångan, mappot pumañot tåtte .” Once something has been said, it’s difficult to swallow back. This applies to what parents say to their children. What friends say to each other. What people post on their Facebook or Instagram. It is a simple reminder, that while it is easy to spit whatever nonsense comes into your mind at any given moment, the ease with which it is verbalized, is in direct contrast to how impossible it may be to rid the world of it. Nowhere is this more true than for politicians. There is an amazing process in which lifetimes of public service, legacies of accomplishment are reduced to gaffes, or mistakes or slips of the tongue. You must always be vigilante about what you say, because once it leaves your mouth, it belongs to the world, and it can be used to elevate you higher

What is "foreign policy?" Does it simply refer to the relationships between nations? The policy frameworks through which some are treated as allies and others as enemies? Does it deal with the level of respect or trust that other nations are afforded? Foreign Policy is one of those elements that the media and the educated classes act like is critically important in terms of electing leaders. It is something that those more serious segments of society use to argue for the electability of certain candidates, such as Sarah Palin, Donald Trump or even George W. Bush. The sectors feel compelled to remind the American people as a whole about the seriousness of picking someone who does not only look within to serving the nation, but can also be relied upon to engage with the rest of the world. After all, no matter how large your country thinks it it, even if it is massive in terms of economy, population or land mass, the rest of the world remains. A country's for