NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

 I recently gave a lecture talking about the Maga'håga spirit and the matrilineal strain that runs through Chamoru culture. In putting it together, I had to scrounge for different quotes from the early accounts of the Spanish, when they encountered Chamorus in the 16th and 17th centuries. It provides a stark contrast in most ways we see gender relations today, but it must have felt nightmarish at times for a Catholic priest of the time. To see women with this much authority over life and over their husbands, I imagine it would have given San Vitores and others plenty a panic attack.  Here are some of the quotes I used in my presentation: *******************   In each family, the head is the father or older relative, but with limited influence. A son, as he grows up, neither fears or respects his father. In the home it is the woman who rules, and her husband does not dare give an order contrary to her wishes, nor punish the children, for she will turn upon him and beat him. If the w

I was in Okinawa last week, during which time a US Navy sailor was arrested and charged with the raping of a Japanese woman in a hotel in Naha, the capital city of the island. As violence against women has been one of the most significant rallying cries for opposition to the US bases in the island, I expected this issue to dominate most of my discussions as I met with dozens of demilitarization and decolonization activists. My previous trip to Okinawa (gi ma'pos na sakkan) coincided with the anniversary of the most famous rape case in recent Okinawan history, where in 1995 a 12 year old girl was brutalized three US servicemen. That incident spurned on an island-wide protest movement, where close to 100,000 gathered on one occasion. But this most recent case didn't penetrate the conversations I was in, as much as I had anticipated. It was broached, it was invoked, but few expressed rich outrage at it. Few made the broader connections, that I often witnessed in the past. I wond

--> Mamfeminista ham. Hami i hagan i mambruha ni’ ti en sehnge, ya in singon gi estoria ya in sisingon ha’ gi pa’og na tiempo i hineksen lalahi. Manmalago’ ham humatme i lugåt publiko ni’ i menhalom feminist ya ta usa gui’ para ta analisa i minagahet gi oriyå-ta. Gi i lugåt publiko nai ma kekesakke’ i direcho-ta yan makekedesponi i tahtaotao-ta siha. Para i kada diha na biolensia, i hinekse put i sexualidat, i fina’domestic, chinemma’ put minagof, fina’isao pinekka’ yan i manespipiha pinekka’, todu este siha pulitikåt na asunto, ya para ta kontra este siha yan i chi-ta ni’ ma nå’na’i hit ya humuyongña manlå’la’la’ hit på’go sin minalulok. Nina’fanhuyong este na sichu’asion ni’ i hinasson låhi, rasan apå’ka, Katoliko, heterosexual, bourgeois, ableist, cisgender yan monogamous. Debi di ta yamak este na sistema, debi di ta na’suha i naturåt-ña i hinasson taklåhi ya deskribiyi i mundo i pinadesin-måmi komo famalao’an. In hengge na un mumon linahyan debi di u feminista, osino ti

I've been in Japan for two weeks now and things have been quite busy, I haven't had as much time as I would like for blogging or writing. I have been swimming in a sea of small and large differences from my life on Guam. The things each day which strike me slowly or suddenly and remind me that I am in a different part of the world, and that my level of knowledge about Japan, barely scratches the surface of the surface for existence here. Transitioning from Guam, which is very car-centered to life here in Kobe where my life, my cognitive and temporal geography is all dictated by public transportation is a massive shift. One thing caught my eye the other day while I was riding the train. Some trains would have cars with pink signs on them such as the one in the image above. These trains would only for female users of public transportation. When I asked my friend why they had these and were these common throughout Japan, she stated that they were created in response to the fre

Driving around the past few days was surreal. It wasn’t because of the change in the air due to the storm. It wasn’t because of the eerie clouds that have been hanging around lately. It was because of something that for a day or two largely disappeared from the island’s landscape, political signs. Si Yu’us Ma’ase to all the candidates who pulled their signs down during the most recent storm warning. It is one thing to have people use your signs as plywood after an election is over, it is another entirely to have your signs appear on Facebook or Instagram after one of them was thrown into someone’s windshield by wannabe-typhoon-force-winds. After months of watching these signs multiple faster than rhino beetles and brown tree snakes put together. After months of watching these signs, like gladiators bravely clash at street corners, in neighborhoods and in empty fields, using cut up American flags, partially hidden Guam seals and plenty of platitudes as their

So much of the discussion of the North Korea threat issue to Guam centers around the "kinaduku" or "craziness" of its leader. Instead of having reasoned discussions people enter into silly caricatures and try to pretend that this should be the focus. In order to understand things all you need to know is how crazy North Korea's leader is. This leads to alot of pointless metaphors that don't help you understand much except how ridiculous and dangerous North Korea is. For example, with North Korea's emphasis on launching missiles, people are making all sorts of analogies to someone trying to compensate for not being endowed in another supposedly manly area. North Korea is obviously feeling inferior in one way and trying to compensate for their lack by building all these nuclear missiles! These caricatures, these analogies aren't actually that bad, but only if you continue them in a logical manner. Yes, you could argue that as a weak and isolated natio

"Famalao'an" Michael Lujan Bevacqua May 2, 2012 The Marianas Variety When the Spanish first began their colonization of Guam, there must have been so many things that disgusted and bewildered them. When contact through colonization takes place, this sort of disgust isn’t simply because of two alien cultures interacting, it serves a much more central purpose. It is not a mere byproduct of contact, but something essential to the process of colonization. When the colonizer finds things that are so different and so alien to itself, it doesn’t see them as merely different, it sees them as being inhuman, abnormal, savage. These traits are what become the basis for justifying colonization and the colonizer’s presence. The savagery of the natives is the reason why they should be there, in order to help them and get rid of their pagan and backward ways. Everything from the nakedness of Chamorro to their more open nature of sexuality to their use of human skulls in anc

"Republicans: The Truth is Stranger than Dystopian Science Fiction" By John Amato August 17, 2011 06:00 AM' Crooks and Liars.com If you witnessed the last GOP Presidential debate on Fox News, you witnessed a Republican field of candidates that have become a cross between the John Birch Society, the Moral Majority and Americans For Tax Reform . When Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed burst onto the scene via the College Republicans , they were considered the tea party of their day by both parties. Complete radicals who had insane ideas and weren't to be taken seriously. I mean, they really loved South Africa under Apartheid. Fast forward 30 years and their ideas have become embedded into the heart of the GOP. Thomas Frank predicts much of what happened to Obama in interview with Amy Goodman back in August of 2008 because he understood their bag of tricks as well as anyone ever has, especially on deficit spending : But the most insidious one,

One of the listservs I'm on had a little bit of a spat recently over the Wikileaks and Julian Assange issue. The debate was over whether the sexual assault charges against Assange should be taken seriously or not. Some felt like the charges were more contrived than anything, while others felt that this was precisely a problem that movements have, is that they tend to look past any clear faults in their heroes and therefore perpetuate gendered systems of oppression. Many seemed to feel that this is one of the those moments where "identity politics" weakens or ruins the Left, because something small, minute and paticularistic, ends up tainting something which is hugely important and universal. For them, the issue is obviously made up by government who want to take Assange down, but the way identity politics has wormed its way into movements has made them susceptible to fake debates like this. From this perspective, even if the charges are true (and they are not rape charges