Guma'Famoksaiyan: The Blog for Famoksaiyan

Demilitarizing the Pacific

2011-11-06T12:15:00.000-08:00

NATIVE VOICES #3: 11/9/11, 7pm, Halau O Haumea, Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.

DEMILITARIZING THE PACIFIC: a roundtable featuring scholars & activists from HAWAII & GUAHAN, including JULIAN AGUON, LISA NATIVIDAD, TY KAWIKA TENGAN, TERRI KEKOʻOLANI, & KALEIKOA KAʻEO. Hosted by CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ.

A Forum on Guam's Quest for Decolonization

2011-10-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

PLEASE RSVP BEFORE OCTOBER 27, 2011

Guam Decolonization at the UN

2011-10-18T02:49:00.000-07:00

Decolonization Commission testifies before UN
Posted: Oct 18, 2011 4:56 PM
Updated: Oct 18, 2011 7:10 PM
KUAM NEWS
by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Island leaders are continuing the push for self-determination. Just recently a delegation from Guam appeared before the United Nations and over the next couple days meetings and seminars will be held to discuss the process of decolonization.

Before the United Nation's Committee of Four in New York, Commission on Decolonization executive director Ed Alvarez and Speaker Judi Won Pat presented testimony regarding Guam's quest for self-determination. From October 4-6, Alvarez says he let the committee know the time is now to strengthen Guam's relationship with the United States. "We let them know that we were serious about embarking on this question for political destiny," he said. "We let them know about the brief history of what's happened and that it's time, it's time to modernize the relation between Guam and the United States as far as political status."

Speaker Won Pat meanwhile appealed for the assistance of the UN. In the political evolution of Guam and suggested three steps for the consideration of the committee, including to rebuke administering powers that continued the practice of colonialism; dispatch a special mission to Guam to provide information to the people of Guam on the role of the United Nations in the process of self-determination; and recognize Guam and other non-self- governing- territories as member states of the United Nations.

It's been 30 years since the UN has dealt with decolonization with 16 colonies currently remaining, including Guam. "The other was to present a plan, a call for action by this committee because they have decided to make this the third decade and I've asked not to make this just a third decade, which is 30 years, but they pass a resolution to make this the final decade in which then they should be able to eradicate the colonies," said Won Pat.

Although it may be costly to send delegates to the UN, Won Pat adds the Guam Legislature will continue efforts for decolonization by spearheading a series of conferences regarding Guam's political self-determination. She adds a presence must be made to continue dialogue and educating them about Guam.

Moving forward, international advisor on governance and former minister for external affairs for the U.S. Virgin Islands Dr. Carlyle Corbin is on Guam to provide training on the UN process and a history of other countries who had gone through decolonization. He says other territories are in the same situation and there are various stages of political evolution and modernization that need to be addressed.

He said. "This is important to know because we're not all isolated in that respect and what we can do together and with the information we can exchange is always useful. It is also important to have to the highest degree possible common message and common information and moving forward so that the message coming from five or four is stronger than coming from one."

Corbin has served for more than a decade as a United Nations expert on self-determination and will discuss his experiences with relating issues in Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the CNMI and the Virgin Islands as well. The seminar takes place on Thursday at Adelup from 2-5pm. Alvarez says the Commission will reconvene its meetings once the governor returns from off-island.

Meanwhile, Alvarez says he didn't get any specific feedback from the UN, but requested the committee send experts to Guam in order to reignite the discussion on self-determination. He also hoped that the next Regional Experts Seminar could be hosted in Guam, which would enable the international community to see the great potential of the people of Guam.

Meanwhile Dr. Corbin is scheduled to speak tomorrow at the University of Guam where a public forum explaining political decolonization is being held. Dr. Corbin will speak on the topic of the role of the United Nations in the self-determination process.

Also speaking is Attorney Julian Aguon from the Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice. Aguon will talk on the topic of "Defrosting the Self-Determination Imagination: The Trajectory of Right Under International Law". The forum is being hosted by the Division of Social Work in partnership with the Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice. It's scheduled for 5:30 to 8:30pm at the Class Lecture Hall.

Protest This Thursday

2011-10-11T13:34:00.000-07:00

Mon., Oct. 10, 2011: 9:00 PM

The Taotaomona Native Rights, Island organizations, and interested persons will be holding a peaceful demonstration to protest the awfully loud and harmful noise pollution by the U.S. Marines' jet fighters training on Guam.

Wed. Oct. 12, 2011: 2:00 - 3:30 PM @ Legislature Building, Hagatna: The Senators need to stand up for the safety and protection of the people of Guam.

Wed. Oct. 12, 2011: 4:00 - 6:00 PM: @ Guam Delegate's Office, across & in front of the Delegate' Office, on Marine Corps Drive, Hagatna: The Guam Delegate needs to stand up for the safety and protection of the people of Guam.

Thurs. Oct. 13, 2011: 3:30 - 6:00 PM: Andersen Air Force Base, across front gate: The U.S. military, which includes the U.S. Marines, need to stop using Guam as their dumping ground; and, they need to treat the people of Guam with respectu.

Instead of holding their training in Japan, the U.S. military is transferring the U.S. Marines fighter jets training manuvers to Guam, in order to relief the Japanese people from the awfully loud and harmful effects of the noise pollution by the jet fighters in training. Some 400 personnel including those from the Marine Aircraft Group 12 will participate in air-to-air and air-to-ground jet fighters training manuvers.

Members are requested to attend. Persons interested and concerned about the noise pollution and safety are welcome and urged to attend. Please bring water bottles and umbrellas. If you are bringing signs, please focus the message on the purpose of the protest. Thank you. For additional info, contact Trini: 477-0638.

Si Yu'os ma'ase',
Trini Torres
Pilong Maga' Haga,
Taotaomona Native Rights

GYP Political Status Panel

2011-09-21T17:12:00.000-07:00

Not a very diverse panel in terms of ideas.

***********************

Panel: Determining political status a lengthy process
Wednesday, 21 September 2011 01:02
by Geraldine Castillo
Marianas Variety News Staff

AN EDUCATIONAL roundtable discussion was held yesterday, exploring the various political status options for Guam and their respective effects on the island's economy, commerce and trade.

The symposium, “Guam’s Quest for Economic Stability: How Our Economy is Affected by Our Political Status,” was held at the Hyatt Regency Guam and organized by the Guam Young Professionals (GYP), a committee of the Guam Chamber of Commerce.

A four-man panel comprised of experts on political status and economy was led by moderator Jay Rojas, chairman of GYP.

Among the panelists were Neal Weare, Litigation and Policy Council for the Constitutional Accountability Center in Washington D.C.; Joseph Bradley, Chief Economist, Bank of Guam; Juan-Carlos Benitez, President, Washington Pacific Economic Development Group; and Joe Arnett, Partner in charge of tax services for Deloitte & Touche LLP.

The educational symposium provided different analyses of political status options and how they affect issues such as economy, tax, commerce, immigration and more.

“I think it's important when talking about the different statuses to really recognize that they each have equal dignity,”

Weare pointed out. “The opportunities they each present certainly are different. But in terms of what they offer for Guam, I think that they all offer [an] advantage over the status quo, primarily because they put Guam back in the driver's seat.”

"Content"

Weare spoke about how Guam has been “content” in letting authority rest in Washington and how Guam hasn't had any say in decisions that would affect the island.

“Whether we pursue integration, where we have a meaningful voice in participation in that process, or we pursue a separate relationship where we're able to control our destiny and negotiate in an equal playing field in the federal government ... I think either of those options would put us far ahead where we are now.”

Each of the panelists agreed that serious discussions on yesterday’s topic pose a lengthy process before a decision could be made.

“As far as Congress is concerned, we are an unincorporated territory, we're part of the United States and they're the ones that have the ultimate decision,” said Benitez. “So, the idea of one plebiscite granted independence or statehood or anything in between is probably not gonna occur with Washington's blessing ... it's gonna be a step process.”

Meanwhile, Bradley pointed out that indeed, a process has to take place. In that regard, there must be a selection of status, and preceding that selection, there has to be an education campaign that identifies the different statuses. As soon as that status is selected, Bradley suggested, a constitution must be formulated in order to tell Congress what we want.

“Once that constitution is drafted, it becomes a matter of selling it to the Congress,” he said.

Lots of Work

When it came to discussing how to bring up what would be determined as Guam's political status, Benitez stated there is a lot of work to be done on Guam's behalf.

“Washington really wants to help the territories,” stressed Benitez. “It's not their number one priority. We need to do the legwork for them. Unless we come in and provide them with the answer on how to help us, they're not gonna do it on their own. ... We need to know what to ask for and what is doable.”

Arnett, on the other hand, added that the process of deciding Guam's political status needs to continue, though it is a timely process.

“I think the military buildup gives us more leverage ... more opportunity to put our thoughts together to express our needs to Washington,” he said.

“We're all pretty much on the same page as far as where we want to be,” said Rojas in concluding the symposium. “We do have the power to control our future, and a lot of what we want, we can actually take to the table – in the form of negotiation, so long as that plan is actually concrete and stable. ... We have that opportunity to become that catalyst for change.”

Massive Layoffs Possible for GovGuam

2011-08-14T04:42:00.000-07:00

"A Message to GovGuam Employees"
Governor Edward Baza Calvo
The Marianas Variety
August 12, 2011

Good afternoon my fellow GovGuam workers,

Twenty years ago in 1991, the government we work under started becoming more expensive to operate than the cash coming in to operate it. Over those past 20 years, government leaders did everything possible to keep the government afloat. It started with more applications for federal grants.

Some last 'til today. Some ran out of funding. Then, government startedpaying its vendors late so it could have cash for payroll. And when that was not enough, government started using the people's tax refunds to pay for
your paychecks.

That bill to the people is now $280 million.

The only reason this government hasn't collapsed is that it's used the tax refunds of 44,000 people to pay your paycheck. I know that's not your fault. Most of you work very hard, and you earned that paycheck every two weeks. It is your employer who has written you an empty promise. Your employer gave you a job, but never told you that at some time, because of his or her
actions, the money for your paycheck will run out. And your employer also never told you that the money being used to pay you was money that belonged to someone else.

Worse, there have been periods in the last 20 years, when your employer knew that the money was running out, that your employer decided it was okay to appropriate millions in unnecessary expenses, like subsidies, travel and pet projects. At one time, there were 700 employees at the Legislature.

There used to be over 200 employees at the Governor's Office. This government even paid for a medical referral office in Manila that allegedly turned out to be a night club. When the money started to run out, your employer didn't decide to save it so that there would be enough money in the future for your job. Your employer didn't even put away the money needed to pay people their tax refunds.

As a matter of fact, your employer took that money to pay you your salary.

My fellow GovGuam workers, I have the unfortunate duty and responsibility of being the first of your employers to tell you the hard truth. We cannot take from people's tax refunds any longer. Thousands of them are suffering because they can't get medical care. But, even more practical than that, it has come to a point where there's not only insufficient cash for refunds,
there's nearly not enough for payroll.

The writing's been on the wall for 20 years. Yet, your employer did nothing to make government more efficient and less costly. No substantial action was ever taken to reorganize government and streamline it. If this had been done small steps at a time over the last 20 years, then today I wouldn't have to make the decisions I am making.

Unfortunately, everything has come to a head. This government is more expensive to operate than the cash coming in. It is with deep regret that a reduction in force is necessary through layoffs. Now, to be clear, I have decided against a 32-hour workweek. For one, it does not solve the problem that government is too expensive to operate because at some time, we would revert back to a 40-hour workweek. Second, it is not right to apply these measures across the board. That would destabilize critical education, health
and safety services provided to this community.

On that note, I want to assure any of you who may feel that there are some bad apples in the government who are spoiling the bunch: I've given strict instructions to your director to ensure that employees who underperform or conduct themselves against the rules go through the adverse action process.

I also want you to know that my office is not exempt from this. As a matter of fact, we've already reduced the number of positions and people here at Adelup, and we will be terminating more. When we came to office, we knew we needed to set the example and make the sacrifices before anyone else. That is why we reduced the workforce at Adelup by 16 percent, from 95 employees
to 80. I am also terminating more positions at the Governor's Office.

There is also a misconception that Department of Education should not be cut. While I am not imposing a 10 percent cut on DOE, I've received plans from the Interim Superintendent and the Guam Education Board of cuts that are being considered to non-essential services. That is the key here. I am very clearly prioritizing the education, health and safety agencies - but I
fully expect those agencies to eliminate waste and redundancy so funds can be used to hire teachers, police officers and firefighters, doctors and nurses. This is one government. We must all do our part to promote more efficient services to the people, especially in the priority and critical areas.

By tomorrow, every government employee under my purview will receive a general notice of pending layoff. This does not mean you will be laid off. It merely informs you of the possibility of a layoff in your department. It provides you with options and alternatives you may wish to explore. Thirty days from then, individual layoff notices may be sent to those slated for layoff by the Department of Administration HR division. This will be based on the plans submitted by your director. Please keep in mind as well that the elimination of your position may not mean your job is eliminated.

Classified employees have bumping rights. Your performance and your seniority will be factored into the assessment. And you certainly have due process and priority placement rights.

I wish it were not this way, but it is. If there is anything calming I cansay to you, it would be this: First, we are not looking to layoff a large percentage of the workforce. We're not looking at a 25 percent cut, or even a 10 percent cut all at once. That would be devastating to the economy.

Wherever we can, we are exhausting all avenues to cut costs before laying off classified employees.

We also won't just drop laid off employees. Every effort will be made toward job placement in the private sector, small business development or getting laid off workers through college. This community desperately needs more professionals like teachers, law enforcement officers and nurses. We hope to reorganize and streamline government to a point where we can afford
to get these professionals to provide critical services.

This government, your employer, has been sick for 20 years. No one ever gave it medicine. Year after year, it got sicker and sicker. Government needs some bitter medicine to survive. It won't taste good at first, but at some point, it will be the sickness that goes away. Rightsizing this government will provide you the job security you so rightfully deserve... so that none of your future employers will ever have to make the decisions I am making now. I'm sorry that you've been misled all these years, but I can't take back the past and magically right its sins. I can only try to make things better now. And I will, because I will not suffer your children and
their children to a future bankrupted by the sins of the past.

I ask for God's blessings over every one of you. Thank you.

Decolonization Registry

2011-07-20T02:58:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of the Office of Senator Ben Pangelinan

Emerging Leadership in Guam

2011-06-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Arab Spring on display to the world presented images of young minds creating a new world and a new way of being. In its' early beginning around 2005 there was a group of young, creative, committed, fierce and visionary like-minds who hold a great love for the island, culture and people of this place we call Guåhan, who came together to discuss the concerns raised regarding initial releases and leaks of the military buildup on the island. Moreover, the alarming presumptions and intoxicated euphoria locked any conversation or reference to the buildup into such deceivingly radiant terms. In this group were students, graduate students, healthcare professionals, musicians, poets, educators, community organizers, and artists. The San Diego conference was emotional and inspiring. Prior to this, many of us had no one to talk to about our concerns.

Ninety percent of the group has since returned home to take part in the discussions, provide the needed and relevant information, standing firm, challenging instruments of the state, protecting and defending home. This is the leadership we want for our island ~ ~ ~ ~

Pacific Daily News
June 25, 2011

Guam Needs Leadership on Buildup

Given last week's Sunday Forum topic, which focused on whether or not people should express their support of the military buildup, we eagerly await a future Sunday Forum that will ask the obvious next question as to whether or not people opposed to the buildup should speak out as well.

Last Sunday's topic coincided with the recent appearance of a new pro-buildup group Para Hita Todu, which is seeking to carve a place for itself in the buildup conversation.The tone of the topic made it seem as if the pro-buildup side of the debate, such as the leaders of Para Hita Todu, have been cowed into silence and become marginalized in the process. In addition to the lack of any semblance of objectivity, it is laughable to think that such captains of industry and influence, with their thousands of employees, millions of dollars and obvious power, who have dominated the discussion of the buildup since it was announced, have somehow been silenced and need to be given a special space to make their case.

For years, the people of Guam were fed a steady stream of fantasies and wishful thinking about the buildup. Before people even knew what it was, while it was just numbers in press releases, people made promises of billions of dollars, better futures and jobs for everyone, without any specifics. But those days are over and the people of Guam have come to a point where we don't crave promises or platitudes about the buildup, but want answers and solutions to either the problem it represents in and of itself, or the problems that will arise because of it.

This is the sign of a maturing community; one which does not want to be lied to, but wants to be informed and wants to be able to make their own decisions.

What Guam needs now is leadership on the buildup issue, and this is something that as of yet Para Hita Todu is not offering. Their recently released study showing 60 percent buildup support in the community is a perfect example of this. They refuse to address the valid concerns of our community. Instead they have polarized the issue, making it just about who does or does not support the buildup, and not about why our community is apprehensive in the first place.

Proponents of the buildup have long attempted to substitute support for the buildup with a judgment that the buildup is good for Guam. Polls conducted over the years have always showed various high levels of "support" for the buildup, but this bears no relation to whether or not it is a good thing for the island.

The EIS gave the people of Guam answers about what the buildup might bring and much of it was bad. Thus, if Para Hita Todu wishes to blow the kulo' of buildup awesomeness, it must be able to tackle the legitimate concerns that people have about everything from Pågat, traffic, public institution overcrowding, environmental damage, a higher cost of living, and the list goes on.

From what we have seen so far, they are unwilling or unable to do so and have rebuffed these concerns with whimsical remarks of such things "being taken care of." The concerns of the people of Guam were kept at bay with such language for years and it did us little good.

Now that the military has revealed its plans and we know the potential impact, it does us even less good to ignore them. We need to continue to take a serious look at the buildup plans and address the valid concerns our community raised during the draft EIS commenting period, many of which are still being avoided by those orchestrating the buildup.

Para Hita Todu's inability to make a solid argument for the buildup is not truly their fault, but most likely tied to the inherent fact that the buildup has always been a potential boon for some and a possible burden for most. There are those who may reap incredible rewards from the buildup. They are the ones who are already at the top of Guam's society and have the means to leverage their already abundant resources into possibly much more resources.

For the majority of Guam's people, however, the opportunities are mixed, to say the least. The EIS said as much, by indicating that the quality of life on Guam may take a significant hit and the responses to these cautions from the pro-buildup side always boil down to vague promises of more money to take care of everything.

Yet when asked what kinds of jobs will be offered, what wages people will receive, who will get the big buildup contracts, how the government will pay for the necessary infrastructure and public service upgrades, how our island's middle- and lower-class families will be able to afford the increasing cost of living because of the buildup, those saying the economy will simply improve have no concrete answers.

While we agree that all voices must be heard in every discussion of our future, these voices must be informed by facts and not false promises. The people of Guam should always consider whether or not groups that claim they represent all of us truly do.

With Para Hita Todu's emphasis on "supporting" the buildup rather than understanding it or analyzing it, they are leading the island away from making concrete plans for all our people, and instead are supporting the interests of the select few who will profit and will not be disproportionately affected by the buildup's negative impacts.

Maolekña na mafana'an siha "Para Siha Todu."

Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Ph.D., and Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero, M.F.A., both teach at the University of Guam.

Beyond Pagat

2011-06-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

Beyond Pagat
Michael Lujan Bevacqua
June 15, 2011
The Marianas Variety

OVER the past year, I have lost track of how many times I have visited the Pågat area in northeastern Guam. I have taken my students on several trips there. I took reporters from NHK in Japan, the Washington Post in the U.S., and even a crew from Guam’s own PNC News there. Earlier this year, I took a group of newly elected and re-elected senators down there. I’ve lead groups there twice through the Heritage Hikes I’ve organized for We Are Guåhan and will be leading people once again later this month.

Even though I can count visiting Pågat at least 15 times in the past year and a half, I have not gotten tired of traveling there. Even as I walk on limestone trails, which I swear I could hike with my eyes closed, I still know that there is more to see and more for me to discover.
One reason for this is because while most people think of Pågat as the trail which leads from the Back Road to a cave and then to some stunning cliffs, Pågat in my mind extends further north and further south from that point. That trail itself is a great way to spend an afternoon, since you get to tour through different ecosystems and see artifacts along the trails. For those who are afraid of heights, there is a dark freshwater cave to swim in; and for those afraid of the dark, there is a well-lit cliff to jump off of to swim in the ocean below. But Pågat is still so much more than this.

Earlier this year, there was a debate in the media and in the minds of the military and Guam’s people as to what exactly constitutes Pågat.

Many felt it was just the sliver of land that I mentioned above and nothing more. If this was the case, then the proposed firing ranges the military plans to put on the bluff above Pågat could be more palatable, since the cave and cliff area so many know would fall on the edge, rather than the center of the surface danger zones, or the areas where there is a chance a stray bullet may land.

In response to this assertion, I and members of the group Halomtåno’ explored the area north of the assumed location of Pågat to see what we could find. Further north we found more latte and more lusong, and other artifacts such as pottery. As we moved further up the coast, we found pieces of shell tools such as higam or adze heads and even an acho achuman, a very ingenious device that ancient Chamorros used to train fish, making them easier to be caught later.

At the furthest northern point of Pågat is an area aptly called Pågat Point, which is, in my mind, the most beautiful section of all in Pågat. In the jungle cliffs we found small caves with pottery shards. And when you reach the ocean cliffs at Pågat Point, you find a lamasa, a natural table-like walkway at the water’s edge. The lamasa extends for what seems like a mile, and is for the most part safe and flat, although it can be dangerous, as its low level can make it easy for a rogue wave to appear and sweep you down into the deep blue sea.

This is something we learned firsthand; so if you ever visit this area, please be careful when the lamasa narrows. Despite the danger, the view there is breathtaking. From the jagged limestone cliffs you can face north and the cliffs of Yigo will look particularly majestic.

If you would like to learn more about Pågat and the artifacts or cultural significance I’m describing, by all means, join us on our Heritage Hike on June 25. We’ll be meeting at the Pågat trailhead on the Back Road to Anderson at 9 a.m.

For more information, head to http://www.weareguahan.com/

##

Ha'nin Para i Famagu'on

2011-06-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Pågat 'Sweeteners' Discussed

2011-05-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

Marianas Variety

Pågat 'Sweeteners' Discussed

Therese Hart
May 26, 2011

Local activists and many island residents continue to question the sincerity of military and federal officials who speak of the buildup, even after officials assured them that discussions and plans on the Pågat issue are aboveboard and transparent.

A September 2010 email correspondence obtained by Variety among former Joint Guam Program Office Executive Director David Bice, Joe Ludovici, who has since taken over Bice’s position, and Capt. John Scorby, executive assistant to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Energy Installations & Environment, gives a glimpse of the strategies and mindset of the military with regard to the Pågat issue.

Scorby emailed Ludovici on Sept. 27, requesting that Ludovici provide a brief of Pågat to include “sweeteners” the Undersecretary needed for a briefing.

“At the DON staff meeting today with the Under, he asked that JGPO develop a brief on possible ‘sweeteners’ to get us over the Pågat issue. He indicated that this was going to be briefed at the next GOC, currently scheduled for Oct. 21. I don’t have a due date, but he indicated he was looking for the brief ‘soon.’ I’ll get more fidelity on that one.”

Bice responded, stating he had a discussion with “Ms. P last week,” and believed a “successful Route 15 acquisition strategy will require elimination all impacts to Pågat historic village in the near term, and finding mutual accommodations with race trace until expiration of land use license; ‘book end’ COA.”

Bice further wrote, “We can get all of the land eventually, including an SDZ (surface danger zone) over Pågat; we have to be patient and build trust with the community first.

“Groups opposing Marine relocation are successfully seizing on Pågat as a means to gain legitimacy with the public – need to take the issue off the table to isolate them.

“Sweeteners will be needed to garner GovGuam/Legislature support to remove firing range restrictions on Rt. 15 properties and to obtain Legislature approval of Chamorro Land Trust lease of properties below the cliff-line. Some members of the Legislature will attempt to block all land acquisition until other issues with Fed Govt are resolved – need to give Legislature a deal they can’t refuse.”

Speaker’s reaction

When Variety shared the email with Speaker Judi Won Pat, her reaction was quick, pointed, heated and then, resigned:

“This shows how disingenuous they are, and it seems they are engaging in some type of covert activity. ... They say they are being honest and upfront with us, yet, here’s proof that they are conniving behind our backs.

“We respond to the DEIS and FEIS, because they asked us to. We play by their rules and this is what they do to us. It’s very hurtful. We’ve been very trusting. They tell us that they’re listening to us. Perhaps this is the problem. We’re so trusting, we’re so welcoming; and yet, this is what we get from them.”

The Speaker said she was reminded of a past incident when We Are Guåhan member Cara Flores Mays was having lunch at a local restaurant and overheard a conversation between military personnel and Guam residents, one of them, Lee Webber.

“They treat us like we are the enemy and we’re not. We want this to work for our people too. Is that too much to ask. I’m very upset about this,” said Won Pat.

Won Pat was referring to a November 2010 conversation that Mays overheard, which included then-Joint Guam Program Office Director of Communications for Washington D.C. and Guam Paula Conhain, Lee Webber, a former Marine, and Lt. Col. Aisha Bakkar of the Marine Force Pacific Public Affairs Office. Conhain has since been removed from this position.

http://mvguam.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18256:pagat-sweeteners-discussed&catid=59:frontpagenews

Hurao Academy Day of Service

2011-05-20T23:46:00.000-07:00

KUAM News

Day of Service at Hurao Academy
Sabrina Salas Mantanane
May 18, 2011

Guam - Dozens of employees and managers from various island companies took the day off to give back to the community. The Lina'la Hurao Sagan Kotturan Chamoru is a dream come true for Hurao Academy founder Ann Marie Arceo, who said, "We're moving we're going to accomplish it we're moving it we're doing it, Guam. Si yuus maase."

On nine acres of Chamorro Land Trust Commission property at Ypao Point close to 80 volunteers from Chugach, Home Depot, Behr Paints, Matson Imco, Pepsi, Baldyga International Group, Isla Paint and Coating, and Frontier Plumbing Supply participated in a day of service. "We're going to be painting, scraping digging anything that we need to get this going for the summer," Arceo noted.

That's the immediate goal: getting facilities ready for the Hurao Summer Camp, where students will apprentice here at least two to three times a week. The bigger picture, according to Hurao teacher and visual artist Rafael Unpingco is, "We plan on making it a cultural immersion center through the arts we have eight buildings and we want to break down the disciplines that way. Just to kind of get apprenticeship programs going do things fro the community and also teach the community the language and other cultural practices."

From painting, landscaping, fencing, water blasting cabinet work and other tasks. It's through Hurao and Linala's corporate partners that they're able to get the project off the ground and according to Home Depot general manager Rhett Garon and Chugach's Western Pacific regional manager Ray Llaneta they're happy to help. "I think its extremely important from a cultural standpoint as far as the perseveration with the move of the troops over to Guam we want to make sure that we help to establish a center where people can come and kind of learn the ways of the older Chamorro people as far as arts and the music and the language," Garon noted.

"This is about culture and this about the people of Guam," stated Llaneta. "We live here we're part of the community; the leaders in Chugach Alaska Corporation feel that its very important for us to give back to the community and I'm very proud and honored to be part of that."

If you'd like to help Hurao, according to Arceo they're always there on the weekends. Stop by if you'd like to volunteer.

http://www.kuam.com/story/14665853/2011/05/17/day-of-service-at-hurao-academy

Fanhasso, Fanhita, Fanachu

2011-04-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

Demilitarization as Rehumanization

2011-04-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

Demilitarization as Rehumanization
Left Turn: Notes from the Global Intifada
Clare Bayard
March 11, 2011

Demilitarization as Rehumanization

By: Clare Bayard

Date Published: March 11, 2011

The antiwar movement never died. The movement has shifted to the work of long-term, community-based organizing to mount a comprehensive challenge to US militarism. This work is growing inside grassroots movements led by veterans, immigrants, queers, and low-income communities of color. Everywhere domestic militarization burns to the bone, people are fighting for a different future. The mass street marches of 2003 sought to preemptively raise the political cost of the Iraq war. We always knew that beyond those marches we would have to confront the real human cost if the wars moved ahead.

•Outside Washington DC, CASA de Maryland fights the deportation of an undocumented woman who called the police to escape domestic violence and was turned over to ICE, Homeland Security's immigration wing.

•In Oakland, BAY-Peace's low-income youth of color win a two-year campaign developing a viral Youth Manifesto and passing the nation's toughest anti-recruitment resolution in their school district.

•Desert fatigues become paper for screenprints, or the canvas for their former wearer's Sharpied stories of trauma, where veterans' art-based transformational projects like Combat Paper and Fatigues Clothesline break isolation and culturally-enforced silences about the realities of war.

•In a grainy Wikileaked video, a soldier named Ethan McCord pulls children out of a massacre in Baghdad. Later, he and other veterans and allies write an Open Letter of Reconciliation and Responsibility to the Iraqi people and begin a reparations project.

•Oct 7th, the anniversary of the US war on Afghanistan: In New York, former Afghan Parliamentarian Malalai Joya, an Iraqi refugee organizer, a Latina youth organizer, a Muslim conscientious objector, an Imam from Harlem, and other speakers hold a press conference organized by the South Asia Solidarity Initiative, Iraq Veterans Against the War, War Resisters League, and other groups to connect the realities faced by Afghans with the realities of veterans and civilians in the US.

A few days later, in DC, One Nation Working Together marches for “Money for Jobs, Not for War” on the capitol. National efforts like the 25 Percent (reduction of the military budget) Campaign and Move the Money are gaining steam, demanding New Deal-style investment in social spending and de-funding the military.

These are snapshots along a continuum. People are organizing on every level, from federal legislation and military policy to survival programs that start with individuals and generate networks of grassroots resources and programs. Current work with the potential to drastically impact US militarism includes war economy and economic conversion campaigns, migrant justice, and GI resistance organizing.

There are many crucial questions about alternatives to military intervention, or the roles of armed struggle in peoples’ movements for self-determination. We take inspiration from people around the world confronting US militarism on their own territory, particularly in the anti-occupation and anti military base movements, currently finding their strongest expressions in North Africa, West Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. Here, I will touch on a few threads of domestic demilitarization, highlighting GI resistance.

Going deeper

The US is deeply shaped by militarism, from its origins as a settler nation taking its territory piecemeal and by force, to the uncloaked empire we live in today. Living in the US, particularly for those of us with citizenship, carries responsibility to end the spread of this empire, which we can’t dodge anymore than we can drop the struggles in our home communities. Nor is there always a clear separation between what we often refer to as “wars at home and abroad.” Attacks across the country on people read as Arab, Muslim, or South Asian, whether detentions by the state or street attacks, are entangled with the heightened level of militarism accepted by the US mainstream since post-9/11 policies of aggressive racism were implemented. Increased militarization of the US-Mexico border has led to horrific rates of rape of migrants on and around the border. Funds drop from anti-violence programs and are moved instead into the criminal justice system. Queer youth are bullied to death by peers who are taught militarized images of gender roles. These struggles for safety and health are part of resistance to domestic US militarism.

Anti-militarists build off analyses from women of color feminists about the need for community-based alternatives to dealing with violence. INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence and sister organizations provide us with a clear analysis of how anti-violence movements’ use of the criminal justice system perpetuated racist systems of criminalization and control, and encourage us to look beyond state structures to community-based transformative justice approaches. Anti-militarist activists need substantive answers to the questions and fears that arise for many in response to the idea of demobilizing the military, just as abolitionists have to answer the question of what we would do without prisons.

Demilitarization means structuring our society with different values. We build institutions that reflect the values we want to strengthen and help us navigate what we are trying to transform. Prison abolition struggles and transformative justice experiments contribute to demilitarizing society by developing different ways to handle real conflict and violence. We need functional strategies that are driven by commitment to cooperation and to community health, instead of the profit driven motives and divide-and-control tactics we see from Afghanistan to Louisiana.

Immigrant & Indigenous Leadership

Migrant justice organizers have no choice but to deal with militarism at every turn. The post-9/11 folding of immigration enforcement into the Department of Homeland Security aggravated an already dangerous situation. Heavily recruited, with promises of citizenship for youth considering military service, immigrant communities of color across the country are taking on militarization of their neighborhoods and of the border region. They are resisting racist immigration and “enforcement” laws and pushing for alternatives to militarized schools and streets.

Guerrero Azteca Peace Project, a Latino community-based peace and counter-recruitment effort formed by Fernando Suarez del Solar when his undocumented son Jesus Alberto was one of the first soldiers to die in Iraq, responded to Arizona's SB1070 racial harassment law in a letter signed by Latino military parents. The letter asks Obama to take action, and states: “Those on active duty supposedly are risking their lives for American ideals, but with this law they see clearly that if their families must face harassment, incarceration, and deportation these ideals are nothing but empty words.” The letter recalls Vietnam-era challenges by African Americans to racism and hypocrisy, summarized famously by Muhammed Ali: “No, I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over.”

Indigenous nations are the first resisters of US militarism, and veterans and nonmilitary leaders still apply traditional knowledge and visions for the future to the damages of militarism. Eli Painted Crow of the Yaqui Nation, an Army veteran and cofounder of Servicewomen's Action Network, initiated Turtle Women Rising, an annual transformational ceremony led by indigenous women. Painted Crow echoed Suarez del Solar's words in describing her path as “the defining moment for me [in Iraq, 2004], when I knew I had to get out of Iraq and the military, was when I fully realized that I was participating in the very same thing that my people had suffered and are still suffering in the United States.”

Members of the Ohlone Nation—the Bay Area's original inhabitants, displaced to Southern California—journeyed to San Francisco to hold a joint healing ceremony with the local Veterans For Peace Chapter on Veterans' Day. The ceremony recognized a young person lost to suicide after returning from combat, and honored these two communities, beginning an explicit long-term partnership on healing the wounds of war.

Withdrawing consent

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) uses a people power strategy of leveraging their power as workers the wars depend on, and as veterans who can deny the wars’ legitimacy. IVAW, which formed in 2005 and numbers several thousand members, is uniquely positioned to provide the vision and leadership for growing a mass GI resistance movement. They are applying lessons from the civil rights movement and previous generations of GI and veteran resistance, as well as seeking organizing wisdom from grassroots organizations including Domestic Workers United, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers/Student-Farmworker Alliance, and United Workers.

In October, IVAW launched their first campaign, Operation Recovery: Stop the Deployment of Traumatized Troops (OpRec). The underlying strategy is IVAW's basic model: organizing GIs to withdraw their consent from wars. Its success in stopping deployment of troops with severe trauma would incapacitate the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq by knocking out 20 to 50 percent of the fighting force. It's a dilemma campaign. If we win, the wars are hamstrung. Or, if the military continues deploying wounded troops, this visible criminal negligence will hurt their legitimacy and ability to keep recruiting. Either way, we also improve our capacity to provide our own community-based care, which is needed far beyond just the veterans' community. An element of the campaign is developing survival programs, inspired by the Black Panthers, to address the needs of people whose ability to resist their command often depends on access to support.

Operation Recovery exposes the silenced crises of Military Sexual Trauma (MST), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). IVAW, partnered with the Civilian-Soldier Alliance, has a strategy to win on multiple fronts. Demanding the right to heal is a point of leverage to challenge the institution, as well as a survival need within this community. OpRec has begun targeting base commanders who have the power to make immediate decisions preventing deployments. Here, even “damage control” means fewer lives destroyed.

Amplifying the voices of traumatized troops deepens awareness of the scope of disaster in these wars. After last fall's media exposure of Afghanistan “kill teams,” IVAW member Ethan McCord responded, “You're taking soldiers who are on psychotropic drugs for PTSD or TBI, and you're putting a weapon in their hand and sending them right back to where they were traumatized and telling them to go kill Afghans. What did you think was going to happen when you place these soldiers in that same situation?”

After the incident depicted in the Collateral Murder video, when McCord sought mental health care, his sergeant told him to “Get the sand out of your vagina.” “He told me I was being a homo and needed to suck it up,” McCord said. OpRec testimonies bring back to the US public the realities of what is happening on the ground in Afghan and Iraqi neighborhoods; how soldiers struggling to stay sane and follow their conscience are treated by their command; and what happens when traumatized troops return, bringing instability and violence home.

Operation Recovery is currently focused on establishing consistent outreach at base towns around the country. In the last week of January, IVAW organizers at Fort Hood, Texas, alone collected a couple hundred pledges of support for Operation Recovery from active duty troops. Community support and participation for outreach, media work, fundraising, research, and compiling resources for healing is needed for their goal of activating thousands of GIs.

Veteran organizing

Veteran activists experience frequent obstacles to working partnerships with nonmilitary peace activists. They often report being either tokenized/valorized in a dehumanizing way, or ostracized by antiwar civilians who feel uncomfortable or disdainful of “soldiers with bloody hands.” Pain and anger at the US military's violence against Iraqi and Afghan civilians is real and just. It is also real that the carefully designed race and class makeup of the military plays a role in the friction between GI resistance and majority white and class-privileged peace movements. Many veterans bring fierce hunger to this struggle, including deep personal commitment to justice for the people they hurt, which everyone in the US needs to be taking responsibility for.

GI organizing offers complicated questions of fighting for veterans' needs within the larger context of challenging wars. One common issue is the vital difference between centralizing this community as “the most impacted” by US wars, versus “one of the most.” Another is the tricky balance of fighting for veterans’ legal rights to healthcare and benefits, while at the same time challenging military privilege and demanding these human rights for everyone so they will not be dependent on enlistment (or honorable discharges, which are often not accessible to resisters, and are disproportionately denied to soldiers of color). Our job is to move away from competitive frameworks towards cooperative models. Operation Recovery seeks to improve community provider networks that help re-integrate veterans, which could grow to provide care for people who have lost healthcare, jobs, or housing as a result of the military budget eating up our social spending.

Veteran communities, like other communities that experience high levels of violence and are forced to prioritize survival issues, have a lot to offer social movements on the importance of weaving community-building and healing work into campaigns, actions, organization-building. Revolutionaries must also ask questions of what different scenarios can play out in moments of uprising, with different types of relationships with active duty military personnel. The complicated role of the Egyptian military during this winter's revolution is only the latest reminder of the significance of the choices made by military personnel when called on to repress domestic dissent as well as fight wars of conquest. IVAW has discussed organizing a tour of the US-Mexico border to talk to National Guard troops stationed there and encourage them to stand on conscience.

IVAW members have initiated several reparations projects. One, along with US Labor Against War, primarily works with Iraqi trade union leaders on policy issues. Another project, born from the open letter, partners with Iraqi Health Now on direct aid. Guidance has come from Iraqi-Americans and Vietnam-era Veterans For Peace, who built a joint Agent Orange reparations campaign with Vietnamese organizations. Broad support for these initiatives could be transformative, engaging the US public with our responsibilities, which do not rest solely on veterans.

Healing From Inside

Demilitarization means untangling layers, from which institutions shape our society and address our needs, and decolonizing our minds, bodies, and organizing practices. Demilitarization practices are healing and wholeness strategies for our communities and cultures. Affirming everyone’s humanity and centering the importance of healing capsizes the logic of militarism. While we campaign to withdraw troops, defund the military, involve the public in reparations, and make racist fear and warmongering unacceptable, we must also be practicing individual and community behaviors that support the values we seek to implement as a society.

“Healing justice is being used as a framework that seeks to lift up resiliency and wellness practices as a transformative response to generational violence and trauma in our communities.” This footnote to principles developed at last summer's US Social Forum, by Cara Page of Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective, explains the power of aligning different antimilitarist threads. We have no choice but to address the violence and trauma carried in so many of our bodies. We must reclaim traditions of wellness that use not the individual but relationships as the fundamental unit. This aligns us with values of community, right relation to the environment, and organizing as a process of building relationships that we set in motion to effect change. Demilitarization means hope for the future.

Clare Bayard has been involved in demilitarization organizing for over a decade, originally in immigrant justice work, and has been building the G.I. resistance movement since 2004. Clare has been working with IVAW and Civilian-Soldier Alliance in developing the Operation Recovery campaign, is an organizer with Catalyst Project and the War Resisters League, and is from a military family.

Powerful U.S. Senators Arrive in Guam; Guam Governor Calls on U.S. Senate to End Its Bipartisan Colonialism

2011-04-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Office of the Governor of Guam

Powerful U.S. Senators Arrive in Guam; Guam Governor Calls on U.S. Senate to End Its Bipartisan Colonialism

Immediate Release: April 18, 2011

(Hagatna, Guam) Guam Governor Eddie Baza Calvo, one of the 55 United States governors, found out this morning that fifteen percent of the U.S. Senate landed on Guam in secrecy today. The contingent includes the Senate Majority and Minority leaders and other powerful U.S. Senators. These U.S. Senators, both Democrat and Republican, have decided to thumb their noses at the island and its government. The Governor, who is a member of the National Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association, releases the following statement about how this snub can severely affect Guam colonial-federal relations as the U.S. government pushes a $15 billion realignment of Asian-Pacific forces on Guam:

“This morning, Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo asked whether I would be greeting the 15 U.S. Senators scheduled to arrive at Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base today. We were both surprised and extremely upset that no one in the federal establishment informed Guam of their visit. We called the Navy to verify this stopover and we were told that the U.S. Senators will not entertain any meeting or discussions with Guam leaders or the Guamanian people. Instead of landing at the A.B. Won Pat International Airport, Guam, they have decided to shield their visit in secrecy and land within the confines of Andersen Air Force Base.

“In the 100 years we have been a colony of the United States, the U.S. government hardly did anything to resolve our colonial status. What kind of democracy allows colonialism to flourish? I am livid the U.S. Senate, a body created by the will of the people of 13 colonies who wanted freedom and democracy, would turn its back on the Guamanian people. It is obvious we are not part of their constituency, and they do not consider us a valuable part of the American family. This only serves to inflame our long-held belief that we are an American colony of second-class citizens who matter only when our geopolitical position is needed by the U.S. government.

“This is a sad state of affairs. This is the third time in the last year that Congress has made it clear that we are of no importance to the nation. This snub follows Congress trying to sell our own resources to us at Fena and Congress taking away our Delegate’s voting power in House committees. These U.S. Senators are only hurting American interests abroad. Look at the great relationship we’ve built with the U.S. military. Congress’s actions only undermine that work. Why? If Guam was so important to U.S. strategic interests, then why would the nation’s leaders continue snubbing Guamanians?

“If the Senate wants to thumb its nose at Guamanians, then perhaps it is time for Guamanians to call in every injustice ever committed upon our people by the U.S. government. And we can start with the Insular Cases of the same U.S. Supreme Court of the 1900s that said people of color were separate but equal. How many times have Guamanians answered the call to serve? How many have died for a democracy that doesn’t even fully apply to us? How many more times must Guamanians accept colonial treatment before Congress ever recognizes that our voices count, too? How much more oppression can our people take before they get fed up and tell the Congress to take their buildup somewhere else?

“We can have the greatest relationship with the U.S. military and the Department of the Interior, but if Congress continues ignoring Guam like the colony it is, we will never truly enjoy the America that the Marines of 1944 fought and died to bring to Guam. What happened to the pledge of a “One Guam” policy? It’s clear these U.S. Senators have no intention of uniting our best interests. To them, there is an American inside a military fenceline, and an American colony outside of it. They want nothing to do with that colony. Here is yet another compelling reason the Guam Legislature, Lt. Governor Tenorio and I are working together to call for a vote of self determination. We cannot continue on as a colony of the United States. We should either be a part of the U.S., with voting membership in the House and Senate and the right to vote for President, or we should govern ourselves. This is a message we will share with U.S. Senators Jim Webb and Carl Levin when they visit with us next week. At least these gentlemen have the consideration and decency to meet with their fellow Americans in Guam.

“I want Guamanians living in the U.S. States where these U.S. Senators are from to remember what these U.S. Senators did to Guam in the next national elections.”

Guam is an organized unincorporated territory of the United States, a colonial status that has not changed. Its residents are called Guamanians and were granted U.S. citizenship by an act of Congress called the Organic Act of 1948. Only certain provisions of the Constitution's Bill of Rights apply to the residents of Guam, called Guamanians. Guamanians have among the highest enlistment rates in the U.S. military. There are 183,000 Guamanians living in Guam. An unknown number reside throughout the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and Alaska. A 2000 census of those who call themselves Chamorro (the ethnicity indigenous to Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) or part-Chamorro says that 33,849 Chamorros alone live in California. This does not include the broader number of Guamanians of other ethnic backgrounds who live in California. According to the 2000 Census, nearly 100,000 Chamorros live in the 50 States and Puerto Rico.

Office of the Governor of Guam
Ricardo J. Bordallo Governor's Complex | Adelup, Guam 96910
Tel: (671) 472-8931/6 | Fax: (671) 477-4826 | http://governor.guam.gov

Pagat Teach-In

2011-03-27T18:21:00.001-07:00

Results of the Chamorro Language Competition

2011-03-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

The winners of Tuesday's 8th annual Chamoru Language Competition at the University of Guam are:
March 08, 2011

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Spelling – Kindergarten through Second Grade

1. Gold: Jeremiah Hofschneider, Tinian Elementary School, Tinian
2. Silver: Pedro Cruz, Mount Carmel Catholic School, Guam
3. Bronze: Alisa Gatharngeg, Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School, Saipan

Drawing – Kindergarten through Second Grade

1. Gold: Heidi N. Tang, Saint Anthony Catholic School, Guam
2. Silver: Janine F. Miller, Saint Anthony Catholic School, Guam
3. Bronze: Elijah J. Lizama, St. Anthony School, Guam

Children’s Choir – Kindergarten through Second Grade

1. Gold: Mount Carmel Catholic School, Guam
2. Silver: Inarajan Elementary School, Guam
3. Bronze: Saint Anthony Catholic School, Guam

Spelling – Third Grade through Fifth Grade

1. Gold: Thomas William DLC Benavente, Kagman Elementary School, Saipan
2. Silver: Darlene Ferrer, Maria A. Ulloa Elementary School, Guam
3. Bronze: Josiah Quitugua, BP Carbullido Elementary School, Guam

Drawing – Third Grade through Fifth Grade

1. Gold: Dana Dalmacio, Saint Anthony Catholic School, Guam
2. Silver: Mikaela Bumagat, Saint Anthony Catholic School, Guam
3. Bronze: Jennifer Muna, Saintt Anthony School, Guam

Storytelling – Third Grade through Fifth Grade

1. Gold: Keilani Barcinas, Sinapalo Elementary School, Rota
2. Silver: Breanna Camacho, Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School, Saipan
3. Bronze: Keith Gerard M. Villagomez, Kagman Elementary School, Saipan

Children’s Choir – Third Grade through Fifth Grade

1. Gold: BP Carbullido Elementary School, Guam
2. Silver: JQ San Miguel Elementary School, Guam
3. Bronze: Tinian Elementary School, Guam

MIDDLE SCHOOLS

Oratorical

1. Gold: Kimberly Camacho, Chacha Oceanview Junior High School, Saipan
2. Silver: Pamela Barcinas, Grace Christian Academy, Tinian
3. Bronze: Jezreelyn Bulaklak, Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School, Saipan

Poetry Recitation

1. Gold: Jeremiah Cruz, Tinian Elementary School, Tinian
2. Silver: Cecilia Fitial, Grace Christian Academy, Tinian
3. Bronze: Charita Quitaro, Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School, Saipan

Essay

1. Gold: Jezreelyn Bulaklak, Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School, Saipan
2. Silver: Robert Marmito, Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School, Saipan
3. Bronze: Cecilia Evangelista, Mount Carmel Catholic School, Guam

Choral Reading

1. Gold: Grace Christian Academy, Tinian
2. Silver: Tinian Elementary School, Tinian
3. Bronze: Mount Carmel Catholic School, Guam

Chant

1. Gold: Saint Francis Catholic School, Guam
2. Silver: Oceanview Middle School, Guam
3. Bronze: Mount Carmel Catholic School, Guam

HIGH SCHOOLS

Oratorical

1. Gold: Megan Cruz, Tinian High School, Tinian
2. Silver: Ramon Barcinas, John F. Kennedy High School, Guam
3. Bronze: Brandee Faith Mendiola, Rota High School, Rota

Proficiency

1. Gold: Ramon Barcinas, John F. Kennedy High School, Guam
2. Silver: Blaine Mesngon, Rota High School, Rota
3. Bronze: Realynn C. Palacios, Tinian High School, Tinian

Poetry Recitation

1. Gold: Maisie Mesngon, Rota High School, Rota
2. Silver: Brianna Torres, Southern High School, Guam
3. Bronze: Mary M. Hocog, Tinian High School

Male Singer

1. Gold: Christopher Cruz, Southern High School, Guam
2. Silver: Shiabe Pangelinan, Simon Sanchez High School, Guam
3. Bronze: Byron Mafnas, George Washington High School, Guam

Female Singer

1. Gold: Cloe Hofschneider, Tinian High School, Tinian
2. Silver: Javil Manglona, Rota High School, Rota
3. Bronze: Caroline Hidalgo, George Washington High School, Guam

Song With Dance

1. Tinian High School, Tinian
2. John F. Kennedy High School, Guam
3. Southern High School, Guam

Dramatic Cultural Interpretation

1. Gold: Tinian High School, Tinian

Hate in America

2011-03-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

Hate comes to Orange County

(ANAHEIM, CA, 3/2/11) -- The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today released a video of a rally organized by anti-Muslim bigots to protest a February fundraising event held by an American Muslim relief group for relief work and charity in the U.S.

A few hundred protesters showed up to the rally, which was sponsored by groups such as: "We Surround Them OC 912" (a local Tea Party group), Rabbi David Eliezrie of Chabad - Yorba Linda, North Orange County Conservative Coalition, ACT! for America, and Pamela Geller (whose group "Stop the Islamization of America" has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center).

Elected officials Congressmen Ed Royce and Gary Miller, and Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly also attended and spoke at the protest rally.

The event -- held at Yorba Linda Community Center, a facility that has been frequented by Muslim families and businesses over the years -- first became a target of anti-Muslim bigots over two of the fundraiser's speakers, who were to speak on the importance of charity in Islam. Initial attempts of some groups to have the Yorba Linda Community Center and the Yorba Linda City Council cancel the fundraising event failed, followed by the protest.

In a statement, CAIR-LA said:

"We support the First Amendment right of protest\eors anywhere in America to voice their concerns, dissent, and even hatred. However, when our nation's foundational values of inclusiveness, pluralism and equality are attacked by some in favor of calls for advocating hate and violence, then all Americans have a responsibility to challenge and expose such bigotry and those who enable it.

"As the video shows, the rhetoric of the protesters became increasingly venomous toward the families and children who came to attend the ICNA Relief fundraising dinner. Protesters shouted invective statements such as "Go home terrorist," "Muhammad is a pervert, Muhammad is a child molester," "Go home and beat your wife, she needs a good beating" at the event-goers.

"Even more disturbing was the participation and encouragement of elected officials in promoting the hateful protest rally. Villa Park Councilwoman, Deborah Pauly, while addressing the crowd at the rally, appeared to threaten Muslim event-goers. Congressman Ed Royce (R-40), in a troubling trend of disparaging Islam and its followers, added fuel to the fire by encouraging protesters to continue on with their hate-mongering. The attendance of Congressman Gary Miller (R-42) was a clear surprise, since he previously has engaged with all constituents, including Muslims, toward a better America.

"We strongly urge all elected officials in attendance to distance themselves from such an exhibition of hate and bigotry. We further ask residents and elected officials of Yorba Linda, Orange County and other parts of our nation to speak out against such hateful rhetoric and the continued Islamophobia that plagues our nation."

Council on American Islamic Relations-Los Angeles (CAIR-LA), Phone: 714-776-1847, Email: info@losangeles.cair.com
ca.cair.com/losangeles

Free Rapa Nui Day

2011-02-15T17:09:00.000-08:00

SAVE-THE-DATE

OCNC (Oceania Coalition of Northern California); a Pacific Islander social justice organization based in the Bay Area, California, is a multi-generational organization comprised of Pacific Islander community leaders, community activists and community members representing Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia.
We invite you to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Rapa Nui and join us for the "Free Rapa Nui Day of Action." The program for the day will include a rally and demonstration against the Chilean government’s illegal occupation and evictions of the indigenous peoples of Rapa Nui from their ancestral homelands. Furthermore, we are also standing up against the Chilean government’s heinous use of violence and human rights violations against unarmed families and communities in Rapa Nui. We hope to raise awareness on these issues and we petition the Chilean government to come to a peaceful resolution.

"FREE RAPA NUI DAY OF ACTION"

DATE: Weds March 16, 2011
TIME: 9:00am - 12:00am
PLACE:
Chilean Consulate General
870 Market Street, Suite 1062
San Francisco, CA 94102
Contact info:
Dallas Te'o (dallas.teo@gmail.com)

For more info, please visit our “Free Rapa Nui Day of Action” FB page
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126343074106134
Save-Rapanui USA.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Rapanui-USA/126262820769194?ref=ts
http://saverapanui.org/

Beyond the Fence

2011-02-11T07:26:00.000-08:00

The weekly radio show Beyond the Fence on KPRG 89.3 is a great source of information on Guam's current military buildup, but also Guam's history of militarization and the struggles which are taking place to decolonize the island.

If you want to listen to the show live, it is aired every Friday at noon, right after Democracy Now! Each episode is archived and can be downloaded for free at this link.

Exploring Pagat

2011-02-02T08:10:00.000-08:00

Programmatic Agreement Update

2011-01-18T04:30:00.001-08:00

Indigenous Fishing Rights Update

2011-01-11T06:15:00.000-08:00

*Press Release *
*For Immediate Release -- 6 January 2011*

Contact: Sylvia.spalding@noaa.gov

Or (808) 522-5341 or (808) 383-1069

*Indigenous Guam Fishermen Risk of Drowning More Than Doubled afte Enforcement of MPAs *
HONOLULU (6 January 2011) For fishermen on Guam who have traditionally fished inshore, a major concern is the loss of accessible fishing grounds caused in part by the establishment of five marine preserve areas (MPAs) in 1997. Fishermen have reported that the MPAs have displaced them from traditional fishing grounds, prevent them from teaching fishing techniques in a safe environment to the younger generation and impact the future of their local culture. Now a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), provides concrete evidence on how dangerous fishing has become for the indigenous Chamorro fishermen since fishing restrictions in the MPAs at Tumon Bay, Piti Bomb Holes, Sasa Bay, Achang Reef Flat and Pati Point have been enforced.

"The major finding of the study was that, for Chamorro fishermen, the risk of drowning more than doubled after MPAs were enforced in 2001," note authors Devin L. Lucas, and Jennifer M. Lincoln, PhD. On the other hand, non-Chamorro fishermen experienced a sharp decrease in the risk of drowning after MPAs were established.

The NIOSH report "The Impact of Marine Preserve Areas on the Safety of Fishermen on Guam" also found that the proportion of drowning deaths to Chamorro fishermen that occurred on the East Coast (in more hazardous waters) increased from 20 percent during 1986-2000 to 63 percent during 2001-2009.
The report concludes: "Before the MPAs were established, Guam residents fished primarily in the protected areas of the Western (leeward side) and Southern Coasts. Non-Chamorro fishermen were predominately recreational users, while Chamorro fishermen were more likely to subsist on the resource. As MPAs were established and enforced, the traditional and popular fishing grounds on the West Coast and Southern tip of the island were restricted. Non-Chamorro recreational fishermen most likely scaled back their fishing activities since few accessible, safe areas remained open. At the same time, Chamorro subsistence fishermen began fishing more heavily on the East Coast (windward side of the island)....That increased exposure to more hazardous conditions resulted in higher risk of drowning."

For a copy of the report, which was prepared by the NIOSH for the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, please go to www.wpcouncil.org/news. For more on Guam's MPAs, go to http://www.guamdawr.org/aquatics/mpa.

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council was created by Congress in 1976 and is authorized by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to manage fisheries in federal waters surrounding Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the US Pacific remote island areas.

Chamorro Language Reading Room

2011-01-08T16:43:00.000-08:00

Ginnen Si Sinot Pedro Onedera, Profesot Fino' Chamoru giya i Unibetsedat Guahan:

Ma agågangi hao

Your presence is requested
Para un atendi i
to attend the

Siremoñan Initot Leston
para i
Kuåtton Rifirensian Fino’ CHamoru

CHamoru Language Reference Room
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

gi Sabalu, diha 15 gi Ineru 2011
on Saturday, January 15, 2011

Gi alas 3 gi despues di talo’åni

3:00 p.m.
gi iya Unibetsedåt Guåhan
held at the University of Guam
Sentan Inilao Lugåt Maikrunisia
Micronesia Area Research Center
Prinisenta nu i:
Presented to you by:
Klas Inentalo’ 2010 CHamoru Ilimentåriu II
2010 Elementary CHamoru II Intercession Class

*****************

Students enrolled in the Fall Intercession class of CM102 Elementary Chamorro II class at the University of Guam have established a Chamorro Language Documents Reference Room at the Micronesian Area Research Center.

For decades, emphasis has been on the acquisition of Spanish language documents that have been housed at the center says assistant professor of Chamorro language, Peter R. Onedera

Little effort has been done to collect documents too that have been written in the Chamorro language and it is timely that the same consideration be given to archive many works that have gone unnoticed and uncollected through the years.

One chief aim for the project is to make available these written works to researchers who will devote time to the linguistic value of the indigenous language.

Additional areas that can benefit are orthography, semantics, word origins, antecedents, grammar, lexicons, and other language areas vital to the survival of Chamorro as a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Onedera says this has largely been lacking in the field of academia and the collection of written works in the Chamorro language will prove valuable as many researchers, particularly the Chamorro Linguistics International Network that was established with Dr. Robert A. Underwood, Rosa Salas Palomo and Onedera as original founding members.

The organization is based at the University of Bremen in Germany and includes members from many countries spanning Europe to the Caribbean, the United States and Asia.

Individuals, organizations, government agencies, private owners and collectors of Chamorro language memorabilia, as well as those now living in the mainland United States are invited and encouraged to provide copies that range from personal letters, journals, diaries, essays, compositions, books, poetry, lyrics, music, chants, proverbs, booklets, brochures, annual reports, manuscripts, political pamphlets, posters, project proposals, recipes, medicinal and herbal treatment, historical anecdotes, advertisements, legends, myths, stories, public events, organizational charts, ceremonies, religious activities, family tree information, novena books, bibles, guidebooks and other literary materials that are written in Chamorro and can be housed in the reference room at MARC.

This appeal is also extended to the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas and those living around the globe says Onedera.

Anyone wishing to contribute to the project may email Onedera at onedera@uguam.uog.edu or ponedera53@yahoo.com. His office phone number is 1-671-735-2808.

Solidarity Actions to Protest US Military Expansion in Takae, Okinawa

2011-01-03T18:50:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Kyle Kajihiro of DMZ Hawai'i for posting in support of Norimatso Satoko's Peace Philosophy Centre blog:

January 3, 2011 by kyle

U.S. military helicopters buzzed the peace encampment near the Yambaru forest in Takae, at the northern end of Okinawa. Construction of the jungle warfare training area has begun. This is another site of community resistance to U.S. military base expansion in Okinawa, but it has gotten far less media attention than Futenma and Henoko. Groups in Japan are mobilizing to protest the U.S. expansion of training in the rainforest of Yambaru. They requested international groups to send messages of solidarity:

Email your message/request to: no.base.okinawa@gmail.com

Please include in your email the following information:

*** Name (for an individual) or name of your organization
*** Your message/request (length is up to you)

Both Japanese and English messages will be accepted.

Deadline: January 8 (Sat.), 2011
Remember that Japan is a day ahead of continental US

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Reposting from Satoko Norimatsu of Peace Philosophy Centre:

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Please Join Action for Takae at US Embassy!
高江ヘリパッド工事強行とテント損壊事件についてアメリカ大使館への抗議と申し入れへの呼びかけ

★ See a YouTube video of the Okinawan media reports on the December 23 incident of a US helicopter hovering above the Takae protest tent, which caused damage to the tent and some items in the tent.

Please Join Us in Our Action for Preserving the Pristine Yanbaru Forest and People of Takae, Okinawa!

We invite you to join us in our protest at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo over the restart of the U.S. helipads construction in Takae, Higashi Village of Okinawa, and the destruction of the sit-in tent by a U.S. helicopter, either by sending us your message/request to the US Embassy by email by January 8, or physically joining our action on January 10 in Tokyo (see instruction at the bottom).

The Yambaru Forest is a habitat for endangered species such as Yambaru Kuina (Okinawan Rail) and Noguchi Gera (Okinawan Woodpecker). It is known internationally as a region rich in biodiversity. Takae, situated in Yambaru, is a small village of about 160 residents, including many who moved here for its pristine nature.

However, the U.S. Marine Corps has been using the Yambaru Forest for combat training. In 1957, th US military started using the area as “Northern Training Area” (Jungle Warfare Training Center), and currently there are 15 U.S. helicopter takeoff and landing zones (helipads) in Higashi Village. Residents of Takae have constantly suffered from the noise and the risk of helicopter crashes. To make matters worse, the Japanese and US governments decided to build 6 new helipads, surrounding the residential neighborhood of Takae.

Construction of new helipads will not only further endanger the livelihood and lives themselves of Takae residents, but also further destroy the precious environment with its wealth of species, forest and rivers. New military facilities also pave the way to the possibility of a new war.

Residents of Takae have protested against the helipads construction for the above reasons. In 2006, we passed a resolution against the new helipads, and demanded of the relevant authorities that they review the construction plan. Takae residents and their supporters from across Japan and from around the world have continued to sit-in, monitoring the site and trying to persuade the government against the construction.

The Japanese and US governments, however, have not listened to the voices of opposition by the residents, and have not provided sincere explanation or proper opportunities for public hearing. The Japanese government even decided, all of a sudden, to prosecute some of the local protesters for obstructing traffic.

Just before dawn on December 22, 2010, at 6:30 AM, some 100 members of the Okinawa Defense Bureau, ignoring the ongoing court proceedings, barged into the site without warning to restart the helipad construction. On the next night, December 23rd, a US helicopter hovered only 15 meters above the sit-in tent, causing the tent to blow down. Such military exercise over a public road threatenｓ the safety of local residents. The Japanese and US governments are harming the people of Takae by forcing through the construction work without sufficient explanation or consent by local residents. Such an approach by the two governments is unacceptable.

Residents of the Henoko district in Nago City, where the Japanese and US governments plan to build a replacement base for MCAS Futenma, have also been sitting-in for over 2,400 days, in order to preserve their life and the beautiful ocean. We urge you also to say “NO” to the new base plan in Henoko.

Following our protest to the Ministry of Defense on December 22 and the December 26 demonstration in Shinjuku, “Save Takae/Okinawa – an urgent appeal and demonstration against construction of helipads,” we will go to the US Embassy in Tokyo and the Japanese Ministry of Defense on January 10 (Mon.), 2011, to protest. We would like to collect as many requests/demands as possible and deliver them to the US government. We accept both individual and organizational messages. Just one sentence message, such as “We do not need US helipads in the pristine forest” will suffice, or a longer message is welcome too. The Takae and Henoko issues are not just about war and military bases, but they are also about environmental preservation, biological diversity, and an alternative, “slow-life” lifestyle.

Please express your message in your own words.

Please follow the below instruction and send your message by January 8, 2011.

With our voices and with our actions, let us stop the helipad construction in Takae, and the base construction in Henoko. Let us bring a peaceful and fulfilling life to Takae and Henoko!

(The original document in Japanese is at: http://takae.ti-da.net/e3296164.html. Translated by Norimatsu Satoko and Gavan McCormack)

★ Email your message/request to: no.base.okinawa@gmail.com

Please include in your email the following information:

*** Name (for an individual) or name of your organization
*** Your message/request (length is up to you)

Both Japanese and English messages will be accepted.

Deadline: January 8 (Sat.), 2011

★ If you can physically join our action:

US Embassy -meet in front of Toranomon JT building
3:00 PM
January 10, 2011

(Take Exit 3 of Subway Ginza Line “Toranomon” station. Walk four minutes straight on Sotobori Street, towards Tameike Sanno)

We particularly appreciate participation of people from US!

Address: Toranomon JT Building, 2-1, 2 chome, Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo – see MAP here. Address in Japanese: 2011年1月10日（月・休）15時　虎ノ門ＪＴビル前集合（地下鉄銀座線「虎ノ門駅」3番出口より、外堀通りを溜池山王方面へ直進、徒歩4分）

Organizer: Okinawa o fuminijiruna (Do not trample on Okinawa!) Urgent Action Committee; Yuntaku Takae; Okinawa One-tsubo Anti-war Landowners Association Kanto Bloc (URLs below)

呼びかけ：沖縄を踏みにじるな！緊急アクション実行委員会（新宿ど真ん中デモ）

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/hansentoteikounofesta09/

ゆんたく高江　http://helipad-verybad.org/

沖縄・一坪反戦地主会　関東ブロック　http://www.jca.apc.org/HHK/

★ There will be another action on the same day:

Ministry of Defense - meet in front of the MoD
6:30 PM
January 10, 2011

The organizer of this action is “Committee for Not Allowing Base Construction in Henoko.”

See Map of MoD here: http://www.mod.go.jp/e/access/index.html
In Japaneese, 1月10日18時半　防衛省前集合
主催：辺野古への基地建設を許さない実行委員会ttp://www.jca.apc.org/HHK/NoNewBases/NNBJ.html

★ For the background information in English about the Takae issue, go to:

Voices of Takae (English version)
http://nohelipadtakae.org/files/VOT-english2010Oct14.pdf

Postcard…from Takae, by Jon Mitchell
http://www.fpif.org/articles/postcard_fromtakae

http://peacephilosophy.blogspot.com/

Tony Ramirez on the Sella Bay Protests of the 1970's

2010-12-15T19:25:00.000-08:00

DOD Begins to Waver on Pagat

2010-12-02T23:37:00.000-08:00

Department of Defense Begins to Waver on Plans for Pågat;
Community of Guam United to Preserve this Ancient Village
December 3, 2010
WE ARE GUAHAN

After a full year of the Guam community working to protect the Pågat area from becoming a firing range complex, the Department of Defense is wavering on its plans to use the area for Marine training. Ms. Jackalynn Pfannenstiel, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, has been on Guam this week attempting to sell a plan of “unimpeded access” to Pågat and a land-swap deal, while still intending to claim and control the land at Pågat.

In November of 2009, the Draft EIS was released and the community began to respond to the plans outlined to use the ancient village for a firing range complex. After 11,000 comments, the Final EIS showed little to no change—and, the Record of Decision only put off the decision on Pågat, with no significant change from the FEIS. Now, after the Guam Preservation Trust, We Are Guåhan and the National Trust for Historic Preservation have filed a lawsuit against the DoD, they are finally trying to engage the community.

“They have had two weeks to review the lawsuit, and they know that they have broken the law,” says We Are Guåhan member and attorney Leevin Camacho. “We have been very clear—access is not sufficient. We do not want the DoD to have control over access to any of the Pågat area. We know what happens when the DoD controls access. They make promises that are quickly compromised for whatever their needs are, regardless of what our community needs.”

After a meeting with the Senators and Mayors yesterday, Pfannenstiel was told that access of any sort was not a sufficient mitigation. “And now they want a land swap,” said Acting Speaker Tina Muña-Barnes. “Why don’t they put the firing range on that land, then? They want to trade back land they took from us in the first place. We’re not biting.”

We Are Guåhan would like to congratulate Mayors Lizama, Chargualaf, Blas, Lizama and Flores, as well as the Acting Speaker, Speaker Won Pat and the Senators on their continuing unity and commitment to protecting and preserving Pågat and our beautiful island of Guam.

From We Are Guahan

War Reparations Attached to Military Buildup

2010-11-29T19:36:00.000-08:00

Guam Seeks Closure to Its Nearly 30 Year Quest for Wartime Reparations

By Travis J. Tritten
Stars and Stripes
Published: November 29, 2010

HAGATNA, Guam — Rita Santos Cruz is still haunted by the terrifying day when Japanese soldiers burst into her grade school and abruptly ordered all the students to line up outside.

Then the soldiers dragged Cruz’s pregnant mother into the school courtyard.

“They were beating her up,” recalled Cruz, who is now 73. “And here we were, watching her.”

Her mother, who had refused to bow to the Japanese forces occupying Guam during World War II, was beaten so badly she suffered a miscarriage, Cruz said, wiping away tears.

“We were not even Americans,” she said, “and we were punished.”

More than 60 years later, survivors of the Japanese occupation of Guam still harbor painful resentment — toward the United States. That’s because many feel the U.S. abandoned Guam at the outbreak of the war, letting it fall to the Japanese and thus condemning the population to mass executions, forced labor, torture, internment and rape at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Now, as the U.S. military pushes forward with its largest buildup here since World War II, the tiny U.S. island territory is pressing for closure of its wartime suffering and an end to its nearly 30-year quest for compensation from the federal government.

“If you want us to accept what is going on [with the buildup], let’s resolve this,” Guam Sen. Frank Blas said.

The Guam legislature declared in September that war reparations should be paid to survivors like Cruz as a condition of the planned $10 billion U.S. military expansion on the island, which will bring 8,600 Marines from Okinawa, visiting aircraft carriers and possibly a missile defense facility by 2014.

Meanwhile, Guam’s congressional delegate, Madeleine Bordallo, has said war reparations are her top priority in Congress and are “important for the military buildup to be successful.”

The total cost of reparations for the island could be as much as $126 million, according to a 2004 report by the Guam War Claims Review Commission.

The territory has been unable to strike an agreement with Congress on the payments — part of a legislative struggle dating back to 1983 — and the Guam legislature’s resolution in September is unlikely to exert any real leverage over the military buildup, which is set to begin within months.

The Joint Guam Program Office, which coordinates the buildup for the military, declined to comment on the war claims and referred all questions to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

But the island is still pushing ahead doggedly on the reparations.

“It is just about the recognition,” said Blas, who founded the website www.guamwarsurvivorstory.com, dedicated to survivors and reparations. “Many were beaten, many were tortured. A lot of it was because of their loyalty to the United States.”

Chris Reyes, 69, who retired after two decades in the U.S. Army, is one of fewer than 1,000 Guamanians who endured the Japanese occupation on Guam and are still alive to tell their stories.

Reyes, who was just 4 months old when Japan invaded, said he remembers living in a dark jungle cave “like a mushroom” during the nearly three-year occupation because his family feared he would be killed.

His father was a slave laborer for the Japanese and fed a starvation diet while he unloaded cargo ships. Reyes said he eventually escaped into the jungle during a mass execution.

The only U.S. compensation his family ever received was $810 paid to his grandmother for land taken by the military immediately after World War II.

“Why did we suffer so much?” asked Reyes, who is now an outreach counselor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Guam. “The American government did not provide protection [against a Japanese invasion], and Japan treated us like Americans.”

The United States determined before the war that Guam, then a U.S. possession and military outpost, would fall quickly to Japan, according to a history published by Andersen Air Base.

While Guamanians waited helplessly, all military dependents and U.S. citizens were evacuated from the island ahead of the expected Japanese invasion, which in December 1941 easily punched through a “meager, outdated” U.S. arsenal and about 600 inexperienced servicemembers, the air base history shows.

About 14,700 Guamanians were killed or endured hardship before the U.S. liberated the island from the Japanese in 1944, according to the National Park Service’s War in the Pacific memorial.

“Sisters looked at their brothers being killed with open eyes,” Reyes said. “Kids looked at their fathers being beheaded.”

Guam has always been patriotic — its 170,000 residents produce more military recruits per capita than almost anywhere else in the country — but there is also a strong underlying feeling that the territory was once snubbed by the U.S. government.

“People have very long memories,” said Ron McNinch, a political analyst and professor at the University of Guam. “War reparations are treated as a form of social transgression by these older people who felt they were wronged and their children, or now even their grandchildren, feel they were wronged or mistreated.”

Despite those feelings, the island’s claims of neglect are not so clear.

Guam received at least $8 million in compensation from the U.S. right after World War II, the Guam War Claims Review Commission showed in its 2004 report to Congress.

The claims commission was created by the Department of Interior to investigate the reparations issue and included the chairman of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, which handles U.S. war claims.

It found only about 716 Guamanians were compensated for death or injury from the war, though incomplete records don’t reflect a precise dollar amount for the claims compensation.

The lion’s share of Guam’s reparations went to 6,018 Guamanians who filed claims for lost or damaged property in the late 1940s.

Meanwhile, many Guamanians were not aware of the claims process and were not given enough time to file, according to the report.

Guam Sen. B.J. Cruz, a member of the claims commission and former chief justice of the Guam Supreme Court, said the U.S. has not settled its debt to Guam, despite the early reparations and arguments the U.S. lost 1,438 servicemembers in the liberation.

“There are some who will say the … Marines who died coming on shore are payment,” Cruz said.
“We keep saying, ‘You are the ones who put us in the middle of this fire and you’re going to tell us because the firemen died trying to save us that we owe you?’ ”

The war claims commission recommended Congress pay an additional $126 million in reparations — $25,000 for each death and $12,000 for instances of rape, malnutrition, slave labor, forced march, internment or hiding to avoid capture.

The recommendation was sent to lawmakers in 2004 but was killed on the Senate floor by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and a “small group of fiscal conservatives,” according to Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo.

Now, the payments are again being sponsored by Bordallo in the U.S. defense budget for the coming year — the same budget that contains initial construction funding for the $10 billion military buildup on Guam.

But Bordallo says there is still opposition in the Senate, especially the Armed Services Committee, which holds sway over defense spending and is headed by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Levin and McCain oppose paying the heirs of Guam war survivors and are concerned the payments could lead to more war claims in future versions of the defense budget, Bordallo said in a prepared statement on her website. She refused an interview with Stars and Stripes.

The senators offered Bordallo a compromise in 2009 — they would support the measure “if I agreed to limit claims only to those killed during the war and to those living survivors of the occupation,” she said.

But the compromise failed and the Armed Services Committee cut the reparations from the defense bill.

McCain refused to comment for this story. Levin did not respond to a request for comment.

This year, the Senate did not include the provision in its original version of the bill. The House bill contains the reparations along with a number of other controversial measures, including a repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, and may not pass at all this session.

Guam has been down this congressional path before.

Year after year, Guam congressional delegates, who have no vote, have made reparations a top issue and pressed lawmakers to approve payments.

Year after year, they have failed.

In 1988, Congress approved $12,000 payments to Aleutian islanders who were forced to relocate ahead of the Japanese invasion and occupation of Alaska, which was a U.S. territory at the time of the war.

Guam was nearly included in the reparations but the island legislature backed out of the deal in Congress, saying payments of $5,000 for personal injury and $3,000 for slave labor, forced march or internment were too small.

Few on the island are willing to compromise for less.

“With all this money they are giving away, the money we are asking for war reparations, hell, that is only a drop in the bucket,” said Vincente Taisipic, 74, a war survivor who retired from the U.S. Navy.

Chris Reyes is still waiting to finally get compensation and a formal apology from the U.S. government for the terrified times he and his family spent in a cave nearly seven decades ago.

“Money is not really the issue here,” Reyes said. “We are just confused as to why for so long we have been neglected.”

trittent@pstripes.osd.mil

http://www.stripes.com/guam-seeks-closure-to-its-nearly-30-year-quest-for-wartime-reparations-1.126894

Remembering War and Promoting Peace

2010-11-23T04:21:00.000-08:00

Community Collaborates to Remember World War II and Promote Peace
War Survivor Exhibit to Open Nov. 29

November 23, 2010
For Immediate Release

Hagåtña, Guam – When Guam was invaded by Japan on December 8, 1941, hundreds of island residents were attending church services at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral in honor of their patron saint Santa Marian Kamalen. They were praying as the war began. To remember that history, the Guam War Survivor Memorial Foundation and the Archdiocese of Agana, in collaboration with several community groups, are hosting a photo exhibit at the Cathedral-Basilica Museum entitled, “Take My Hand: Remembering How the War Began, Promoting Peace in Our Land.”

The exhibit will feature photo collections provided by the Notan Museo, National Museum of the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica; the Guam Humanities Council; the National Park Service; the Department of Parks & Recreation; the Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC) and the Office of Senator Frank F. Blas, Jr.

“We must remember that the strength and sprit of our manåmko’ helped them survive the war and shaped who we’ve become today,” said Sen. Frank F. Blas, Jr. “This exhibit displays the photos and stories of our war survivors, and reminds us that they are truly our island’s heroes.”

The exhibit will open with a press conference at the Cathedral-Basilica Museum at 10 a.m. on Monday, November 29, 2010. It will run until Wednesday, December 8, 2010.

Exhibit Hours of Operations (November 29 – December 8, 2010)

Monday-Friday: 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Saturday: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Sunday: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

December 8: 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.

For more information contact Senator Blas at 687-1483 or 472-2527. Please visit our website: www.guamwarsurvivorstory.com.

Global Militarism, Global Peace?

2010-11-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

Heritage Hikes this November

2010-10-31T05:20:00.000-07:00

HERITAGE HIKES - Tungo' i Estoria-ta!

We Are Guåhan is organizing the following hikes:

Pågat Village: November 6, 2010 @ 9am

Cetti / Sella Bay: November 13, 2010 @ 9am

Mt. Lamlam: November 20, 2010 @ 9am

For more information visit:

http://www.weareguahan.com

Chamorro Language Forums this Week and Next

2010-10-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

Chamorro language forums next week
Pacific Daily News
news@guampdn.com
October 12, 2010

The University of Guam Chamorro Language program, We Are Guåhan and the Guåhan Coalition for Peace and Justice are co-sponsoring a series of a Chamorro language senatorial forums Oct. 19-21 and a gubernatorial Chamorro language forum Oct. 25.

The forums, which begin at 7 p.m., will be held in the University of Guam's College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Lecture Hall.
All 15 Democratic senatorial candidates and seven Republican senatorial candidates have confirmed participation, according to the organizers, and the Democratic gubernatorial team of former Gov. Carl Gutierrez and Frank B. Aguon Jr. has confirmed for Oct. 25.

Roland Blas, Dr. Olivia Cruz, Arlene Santos, Debbie Quinata, Joseph Camacho, Maria Pangelinan, Gregorio Calvo, Dan Ho, Tony Susuico and Anthony Malia Ramirez have agreed to assist as interpreters and translators.

At the end of each forum, the audience will vote for their favorite candidates.

All questions will be presented to the candidates in Chamorro. Candidates are encouraged to speak in Chamorro, but will be allowed an interpreter/translator for the evening.

"Chamorro is one of the two official languages of the territory and this event encourages the use of our language and underscores the importance of the Chamorro language to our people," said Peter R. Onedera, a professor of Chamorro at the University of Guam.

The forum is free and open to the general public. Refreshments will be served, according to organizers.

Chamorro Conference Next Week!

2010-10-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hafa adai todus,

Please join us for I Mina' Kuattro na Konferensian Chamorro. *PLEASE PASS THE WORD...*

There's a group of people who worked hard to organize and coordinate I Mina'Kuattro Na Konferensian Chamorro. This project has no budget but a lot of committed and passionate people desiring to bring everyone together to develop a vision and action plans for the advancement of Chamorros.

It is our hope that we can *come celebrate our collective progress and find common ground, as we work to address current and future challenges as a community and chart our course .
*
*Our Mission:
*
*To advance and promote the sustainable cultural, economic, and community development of Chamorros based in our indigenous cultural values; to educate our people; and to promote research and capacity building of community-based organizations that will contribute to the well-being of the Mariana Islands and its people.
*
*Our Vision:
*
*To engage and sustain a self-determined Chamorro community that is grounded in cultural knowledge and values and is directed towards the advancement and well-being of our people and the future of the Mariana Islands.
*
*Our Working Philosophy*:

*That we come together to share and unite our people and lands as one entity while respecting our differences; that we find ways to resolve conflicts, heal our minds, bodies, and spirits in order to preserve, protect and promote the people of the Marianas, the Chamorros."
*
It is our hope to get the word around and invite you all to this important Konferensia. We ask for your support. If you are unable to make it, we appreciate your support in prayers and donations to provide scholarships to some of our participants from the CNMI and Guahan. We greatly appreciate
your help.

*I Mina` Kuattro Na Konferensian Chamorro
4th Annual Chamorro Conference
Hotel Nikko Guam
October 12-14, 2010
**Tungo` i Hinanao-ta yan Fanachu nu i Lina`lå`ta!
**Please Join us!
* * **When?
*Tuesday, October 12, 2010 8:00 am-Thursday, October 14, 2010 2:00 pm
*Where? *Hotel Nikko Guam
*Registration Fee:
*$60.00 for FullTime Students, Teachers and Senior Citizens
$100.00 for Others
Professional Development Fee: 2 Credits from UOG: Additional $60.00
*For **more information call 637-6906/
*http://konfrensia.blogspot.com
*email: **4konferensia@gmail.com
REGISTER TODAY!

One Year Later...

2010-09-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

ONE YEAR AGO: WE'LL ALWAYS REMEMBER

A MEMORIAL OF THE 2009 EARTHQUAKE & TSUNAMI

September 29th, 2010

7pm

Best Western Lighthouse

Pacifica, CA

Please join us as we remember our Homelands of American Samoa & Samoa and the Kingdom of Tonga. This is a FREE EVENT!

We look forward to you joining us and appreciate your assistance in spreading the word.

The Host Organizations are:

Samoan Solutions

Together Samoa

Tongan Interfaith Council

SF SAMOA/Samoan Parents In Action

We Are Guahan Call to Action

2010-09-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

Community Response to the Record of Decision

We Are Guahan
WeAreGuahan.com

Friday, October 1, 2010
4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Adelup

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 23, 2010; Guam- With the release of the DoD’s Record of Decision, it has become evident that the Department of Defense will continue to disregard concerns voiced by the people of Guam. Guam’s local residents will be the demographic most severely impacted by plans to increase the US military’s presence within the region through one of the largest peacetime military relocations in modern history. We Are Guahan will be hosting a rally on Oct. 1 to unite the community in response.

The island participated actively within the NEPA process, with over 10,000 comments submitted in response to the Draft EIS from the community and Government of Guam agencies. Despite the outpouring of community involvement, the Final EIS failed to incorporate many of the island’s concerns into their final plans.

Guam’s community and local leaders presented a united front in opposition to the condemnation of land and the taking of more sites considered culturally and historically significant to the island’s indigenous people. However, the Department of Defense’s Record of Decision (ROD) indicates that the condemnation of land through eminent domain is still a possibility. Although decisions regarding the use of Pågat, an ancient Chamorro village and burial site, have been delayed, the site remains affected by the Department of Defense’s preferred alternatives for live-ammunition exercises.

Guam boasts one of the highest rates of enlistment into the United States Armed Forces per capita. Guam’s soldiers have fought and defended American values at rates higher than any other state within the Continental US, but remain excluded from discussions that greatly determine their futures. As a United States colony, residents of Guam lack any real control of their home and its resources. The lack of Democracy involved in the processes surrounding the military build-up in Guam have prompted residents to demand a role in the decision making process.

Plans to realign US troops stationed in Okinawa highlight a critical moment in the island’s history. Residents are uniting in efforts to empower themselves, protect their home’s resources, and shape their futures.

We Are Guahan invites all residents to participate in an island-wide rally to demonstrate unity, commemorate the island’s many sacrifices, and to empower the community to prepare for their home’s future. The rally is scheduled for Friday, October 1st from 4:30pm to 7:30pm at Adelup.

###
Not For Publication

Media Contact/For more information:
Moñeka De Oro, We Are Guåhan
Events Coordinator

Please contact for any concerns at 678-3240

Our islands and our people are bracing themselves for a massive change in tides. We Are Guåhan is a multi-ethnic collective of individuals, families and grassroots organizations concerned with the future of our islands. We Are Guåhan aims to inform and engage our community on the various issues concerning the impending military build up. We Are Guåhan aims to unite and mobilize our people to protect and defend our resources and our culture. We Are Guåhan promotes peaceful, positive and prosperous change for our island. We envision a sustainable future for all of Guåhan’s people.

Events This Weekend

2010-09-22T05:14:00.000-07:00

SEPTEMBER 25, SATURDAY
International Coastal Clean-up @ Marbo Cave

Please Join We Are Guahan for the 16th Annual Guam International Coastal Clean Up this Saturday Sept. 25 from 7 to 9 am!

We Are Guahan and Rotaracts are sponsoring the the Marbo Cave clean up site in Mangilao. Marbo Cave has been identified in the final EIS as a buffer and safety zone for the proposed live firing range at Pagat. It is important that we connect with these lands while we still can.

All volunteers recieve a FREE coastal clean Shirt, entry to Fish Eye Observatory in Piti and a discounted lunch at Sea Grille Restaurant in Tumon (that comes with Underwater World entry ticket).

All clean up materials will be provided. We'll also have light breakfast items available, but bring sun screen, mosquito repellant, water, your friends and family.

DIRECTIONS TO MARBO CAVE: Coming from Mangilao, take Route 15 (or Back Road) north until you hit the four way intersection. Turn right. This is also the intersection where Jackson's Titiyas is located. We'll have some signs posted as well to let you know you're on the right track. ;)

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SEPTEMBER 26, SUNDAY
Sella and Cetti Bays Sunset Boat Tour

Join other WAG members for a FREE boat tour to see Sella Bay, the site of critical Chamoru and Guamanian history.

SELLA/CETTI BAYS SUNSET BOAT TOUR
on Sunday, September 26, from 3pm-6pm
Meeting at 2:30pm at the Agat Marina. The boat will return to the marina by 6pm at the latest.

Join Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua (and other speakers to be confirmed) as we see Sella Bay, a pristine region where in the 70s the Navy wanted to build an ammunition wharf. We'll learn about the political, social, and environmental history of this area, which is home to ancient artifacts, an old Chamoru village, and the beautiful Spanish bridge. If you've never made the time to make the hike down to the bay, now is the time to do it.

We'll also be able to stop off at some point to go swimming and see Cetti Bay, so get ready to get a history lesson, cool off, and enjoy our island's beauty.

Wear comfortable clothes and bring a swimsuit/snorkel gear if you have.

YOU MUST RSVP to marie@weareguahan.com to reserve a space. Due to passenger capacity, We Are Guahan MUST have a solid headcount.

War Reparations Petition

2010-09-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

Petition Drive to Congress for War Reparations Continues

September 10, 2010

For Immediate Release

Hagåtña, Guam – In an effort to ensure Guam’s World War II survivors finally receive war reparations, the people of Guam are being urged to sign an online petition to Congress by the end of next week.

In the weeks ahead, the US Senate will begin their process on the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act. The House of Representatives approved the Act with an amendment that adds to the bill the text of the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act, granting reparations to the island’s war survivors. However, there is a threat that some senators may not allow the reparations to remain in the final version of the bill that the Senate will vote on later this year. If that happens, Guam’s war survivors will have to continue to wait for justice.

The Office of Senator Frank F. Blas, Jr. launched the website www.guamwarsurvivorstory.com on August 31, 2010 that includes an online petition to Congress urging senators to keep Guam’s war reparations in the final version of the defense bill, and to approve the bill when it is voted on. Thus far, the petition has garnered about 200 signatures, but many more are needed to make Guam's voice loud and clear, and to grab the Senate's attention.

The people of Guam are being asked to visit www.guamwarsurvivorstory.com today and click on the “Petition2Congress” link at the top of the menu on the left side of the home page to sign the petition. It takes only one minute to sign and could make a tremendous difference for Guam’s war survivors, many of whom have died before ever receiving restitution for the atrocities they suffered during World War II. There were more than 22,000 people who lived through the war on Guam. Of that group, less than 1,000 are alive today, and more continue to die.

“When we started our war survivors series entitled ‘Real People. Real Stories,’ 29 of our featured 30 war survivors were alive,” said Senator Frank F. Blas, Jr. “Since our series launch in November 2009, we have lost three of our featured man'amko (Dr. Rosa Carter, Mr. Jesus Perez Sablan, and Mr. Juan Unpingco). How many more will pass away before they receive their just and deserved recognition?”

For more details, please call Senator Blas on his cell at 687-1483, or his office at 472-2527.

National Historic Preservation Act - NHPA: Section 106 Requires Review & Consultation of "Undertaking"

2010-09-04T15:27:00.001-07:00

The NHPA-Naional Historic Preservation Act: Section 106 requires the review & consultation of the Joint Guam and CNMI Military Relocation and Buildup by consulting parties and the public. A Programmatic Agreement between DoD and the Guam Department of Parks and Recreation Historic Resources Division was released on August 20, 2010 for review with comments due five (5) days later, on August 25, 2010.

Comments Submitted Regarding the Draft Programmatic Agreement for the Joint Guam and CNMI Military Relocation and Buildup

Senator vicente c. pangelinan - The Programmatic Agreement Will Become Problematic for the People of Guam
The signatories to the PA agree that DoD will satisy its Section 106 responsibilities for the Undertaking (ROD) according to the PA, and thus have effectuated a shortcut to Section 106 review, which allows the agency's decision to move forward without any more review or consultation for all the buildup projects, except Apra dredging and possibly Pagat, depending on the final version.

Denny Taimanglo - A Decision for Your People and the Future of Our Children
I understand that the Programmatic Agreement has placed an immense weight on your shoulders. You should not bear that weight alone. Listen to your people and let us help you make this invaluable decision.

Dipattamenton I Kaohao Guinahan Chamorro / Department of Chamorro Affairs
As noted in DCA's DEIS comments, the cultural name of the project areas would be beneficial in determining their cultural significance. Project numbers make it difficult to ascertain the exact location. A detailed map would be helpful of all project areas, noting village names, sub-villages (e.g., Ipan, Sasayan, Oka, etc). At least 6 months of review time is needed to provide a thorough report.

DCA recommends that "Access Plans" be completed before signing of PA.

National Trust for Historic Preservation, Western Office
The purpose of this letter is to summarize the general concerns of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Guam Preservation Trust regarding the current status of the Section 106 consultation by the Department of Defense ("DoD") for the proposed military relocation and buildup on Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (the "Buildup"). In addition, we offer several specific comments on the draft Programmatic Agreement ("PA") dated 20 August 2010 in an accompanying attachment to this letter.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
We appreciate Navy's commitment to further consultation regarding the proposal to site multiple firing ranges in the area of the ancient village of Pagat. This proposal has met with significant opposition from consulting parties, and we are pleased that the language in the PA with regard to the firing ranges provides an opportunity for the parties to continue consultation on both the appropriate location of such ranges and the potential for effects to historic properties.

Dipattamenton Plaset Yan Dibuetsion / Department of Parks and Recreation
Mr. Schregardus, throughout our conversations, we felt you to be sincere in your efforts to amicably bring this Agreement to conclusion, recognizing the fact that this Buildup, a first of its kind in the nation, brings with it valid concerns raised by not just our office, but by the community, who in fact are the very ones that we are obligated to serve. We are confident that we can work with you to find ways to address each and every concern so that DoD's mission can proceed with the knowledge that we all played a part, in good faith, to protect and preserve Guam's heritage.

We Are Guahan
In the Programmatic Agreement, however, Pagat is identified in Appendix A as part of the Undertaking. Furthermore, Appendix D identifies land acquisition for firing ranges as a site that has "Further Evaluation Required." Stipulation V.C.3 governs all projects in the Undertaking requiring additional evaluation to determine effects. Assuming that DoD agreed there would be adverse effects to Pagat, the remedy would be to comply with Stipulation V.C.2. This does not appear to reflect the intent of the revision.

Additional Public Comments
1 Chamorro Tribe
3 Therese Terlaje
5 Therese Terlaje
9 Vivian Dames
11 Joe Duenas
12 Charissa Aguon
13 Alison Rae Causay
14 Resolution Objecting to Draft PA
19 West Coast Famoksaiyan
21 Dave Lotz
22 Guam Boonie Stompers

5 Therese Terlaje
We agree with the 'Whereas" clauses in the draft PA which state that there are historic properties that will be adversely affected by the planned projects for the military buildup on Guam; that the cumulative effects of the projects will be island wide on Guam and Tinian. We object to the adoption of Appendix D by the PA, and specifically to all properties listed by approximately 216 separate military project names, where conclusion is that there is no adverse effect or no historic property affected. We request additional time to review the studies underlying these determinations and consultation with our community as to these findings. Notwithstanding the many studies that DoD insisted at the meeting were done to arrive at the conclusions on this Appendix, and DoD's insistence at the meeting that we should TRUST them to make accurate determinations, it is not consistent with the spirit of NHPA that these be determined without consultation with the Chamorro people. This is especially true in light of the large population of Chamorros before the arrival of the Spanish and their documented habitation or use of different areas of Guam, which is 30 miles long and 4 to 12 miles wide. In other words, it is hard to trust immediately and conclude in five days that Chamorros placed no value on the listed properties in their 4000 year long history of veneration and celebration, or in their quest for food, clothing, and shelter, or by their fishing, hunting, and gathering in this limited land mass, which is smaller than many national parks and national monuments, given the proximity of these properties already recognized historical and traditional cultural properties on Guam. Also, we are unable to concur at this time with the specific adverse effects cited for some projects as we are not privy to Appendix C, and thus unable to concur immediately with the specific mitigation proposed for destruction of said sites at this time.

Pagat Firing Range

2010-08-15T04:18:00.001-07:00

The Lies of Hiroshima are the Lies of Today

2010-08-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

The Lies Of Hiroshima Are The Lies Of Today
By John Pilger
Information Clearing House

06/08/08 “ICH” — – On the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, John Pilger describes the ‘progression of lies’ from the dust of that detonated city, to the wars of today – and the threatened attack on Iran.

When I first went to Hiroshima in 1967, the shadow on the steps was still there. It was an almost perfect impression of a human being at ease: legs splayed, back bent, one hand by her side as she sat waiting for a bank to open. At a quarter past eight on the morning of August 6, 1945, she and her silhouette were burned into the granite. I stared at the shadow for an hour or more, then walked down to the river and met a man called Yukio, whose chest was still etched with the pattern of the shirt he was wearing when the atomic bomb was dropped.

He and his family still lived in a shack thrown up in the dust of an atomic desert. He described a huge flash over the city, “a bluish light, something like an electrical short”, after which wind blew like a tornado and black rain fell. “I was thrown on the ground and noticed only the stalks of my flowers were left. Everything was still and quiet, and when I got up, there were people naked, not saying anything. Some of them had no skin or hair. I was certain I was dead.” Nine years later, when I returned to look for him, he was dead from leukaemia.

In the immediate aftermath of the bomb, the allied occupation authorities banned all mention of radiation poisoning and insisted that people had been killed or injured only by the bomb’s blast. It was the first big lie. “No radioactivity in Hiroshima ruin” said the front page of the New York Times, a classic of disinformation and journalistic abdication, which the Australian reporter Wilfred Burchett put right with his scoop of the century. “I write this as a warning to the world,” reported Burchett in the Daily Express, having reached Hiroshima after a perilous journey, the first correspondent to dare. He described hospital wards filled with people with no visible injuries but who were dying from what he called “an atomic plague”. For telling this truth, his press accreditation was withdrawn, he was pilloried and smeared – and vindicated.

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a criminal act on an epic scale. It was premeditated mass murder that unleashed a weapon of intrinsic criminality. For this reason its apologists have sought refuge in the mythology of the ultimate “good war”, whose “ethical bath”, as Richard Drayton called it, has allowed the west not only to expiate its bloody imperial past but to promote 60 years of rapacious war, always beneath the shadow of The Bomb.

The most enduring lie is that the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war in the Pacific and save lives. “Even without the atomic bombing attacks,” concluded the United States Strategic Bombing Survey of 1946, “air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion. Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s opinion that … Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”

The National Archives in Washington contain US government documents that chart Japanese peace overtures as early as 1943. None was pursued. A cable sent on May 5, 1945 by the German ambassador in Tokyo and intercepted by the US dispels any doubt that the Japanese were desperate to sue for peace, including “capitulation even if the terms were hard”. Instead, the US secretary of war, Henry Stimson, told President Truman he was “fearful” that the US air force would have Japan so “bombed out” that the new weapon would not be able “to show its strength”. He later admitted that “no effort was made, and none was seriously considered, to achieve surrender merely in order not to have to use the bomb”. His foreign policy colleagues were eager “to browbeat the Russians with the bomb held rather ostentatiously on our hip”. General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project that made the bomb, testified: “There was never any illusion on my part that Russia was our enemy, and that the project was conducted on that basis.” The day after Hiroshima was obliterated, President Truman voiced his satisfaction with the “overwhelming success” of “the experiment”.

Since 1945, the United States is believed to have been on the brink of using nuclear weapons at least three times. In waging their bogus “war on terror”, the present governments in Washington and London have declared they are prepared to make “pre-emptive” nuclear strikes against non-nuclear states. With each stroke toward the midnight of a nuclear Armageddon, the lies of justification grow more outrageous. Iran is the current “threat”. But Iran has no nuclear weapons and the disinformation that it is planning a nuclear arsenal comes largely from a discredited CIA-sponsored Iranian opposition group, the MEK – just as the lies about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction originated with the Iraqi National Congress, set up by Washington.

The role of western journalism in erecting this straw man is critical. That America’s Defence Intelligence Estimate says “with high confidence” that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 has been consigned to the memory hole. That Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad never threatened to “wipe Israel off the map” is of no interest. But such has been the mantra of this media “fact” that in his recent, obsequious performance before the Israeli parliament, Gordon Brown alluded to it as he threatened Iran, yet again.

This progression of lies has brought us to one of the most dangerous nuclear crises since 1945, because the real threat remains almost unmentionable in western establishment circles and therefore in the media. There is only one rampant nuclear power in the Middle East and that is Israel. The heroic Mordechai Vanunu tried to warn the world in 1986 when he smuggled out evidence that Israel was building as many as 200 nuclear warheads. In defiance of UN resolutions, Israel is today clearly itching to attack Iran, fearful that a new American administration might, just might, conduct genuine negotiations with a nation the west has defiled since Britain and America overthrew Iranian democracy in 1953.

In the New York Times on July 18, the Israeli historian Benny Morris, once considered a liberal and now a consultant to his country’s political and military establishment, threatened “an Iran turned into a nuclear wasteland”. This would be mass murder. For a Jew, the irony cries out.

The question begs: are the rest of us to be mere bystanders, claiming, as good Germans did, that “we did not know”? Do we hide ever more behind what Richard Falk has called “a self-righteous, one-way, legal/moral screen [with] positive images of western values and innocence portrayed as threatened, validating a campaign of unrestricted violence”? Catching war criminals is fashionable again. Radovan Karadzic stands in the dock, but Sharon and Olmert, Bush and Blair do not. Why not? The memory of Hiroshima requires an answer.

www.johnpilger.com

Guam Fishermans Co-op Events

2010-08-01T02:09:00.000-07:00

Peaceful Protest for Pagat - July 23

2010-07-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 20, 2010, Guam- In response to the Joint Guam Program Office's plans to turn the Pågat area into a firing range, We Are Guåhan is hosting a community event on Route 15 this Friday, July 23 – the day the Final EIS is scheduled for release.

So far, JGPO has outlined plans to restrict access to the Pågat Village site for 39 weeks out of the year, and condemn the Yigo Raceway and other properties.

We Are Guåhan and the community of Guam worked together to submit thousands of comments on the Draft EIS last December and January. Many of those comments submitted other option sites for the firing range. With JGPO's publicized plans, it has become clear that the voices of the people of Guam were not taken into consideration.

We Are Guåhan will be peacefully lining Route 15 to send a strong message to the CEQ and military officials who will be visiting Pågat that day that Guam is united to save our island and protect our future.

The community action will take place from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Parking will be available at the Yigo Raceway with shuttle services to the Pågat trail head. For details, please go to www.WeAreGuahan.com.

Buildup Officially Begins on Guam

2010-07-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

First troop buildup-related project kicks off .
by Jennifer Naylor Gesick
Friday, 16 July 2010
Variety News Staff

THE first phase of a $4 billion project related to the military buildup kicked off during a groundbreaking ceremony on Naval base yesterday.

Naval Facilities and Engineering Command Marianas along with Commander Submarine Squadron 15 led the ceremony at the future site of a new two-story submarine squadron headquarters and submarine learning center, and a one-story torpedo exercise support building.

“These two projects will significantly advance our ability to train and support the submarine force in Guam,” said Captain Douglas Wright, commander of the CSS-15.

Currently, there are three submarines stationed on Guam, the USS Corpus Christi, USS Houston, and the USS Buffalo. A fourth, the USS Oklahoma City will come to Guam later this year.

“This is a classic case of building the garage to put the Maserati in,” said Captain Peter Lynch, commanding officer for NAVFAC during his speech.

Lynch compared the new facility to a luxury car garage, which has a price tag of $23.5 million, and will house $22 million worth of equipment and training materials.

This is the first project of the multiple award construction contract awarded to seven companies in May for a total of $4 billion.

The learning center will feature academic and applied training that will consist of simulators and team trainers along with classrooms and instructor offices. The headquarters building will have offices, an emergency control center as well as material and equipment storage rooms.

The torpedo exercise support facility will include a target preparation area, helicopter launcher, checkout and preparation area, exercise torpedo flushing operations room, and support office spaces.

dck pacific was awarded the contract for these three facilities. The total price tag for this project is $23.5 million, and is expected to be completed by November 2011.

Lynch said this groundbreaking was the beginning of many projects and people should expect to see construction around the island over the next several years as part of the marine buildup.

We Are Guåhan at UN Special Committee on Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries & Peoples

2010-06-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

STATEMENT

WE ARE GUÅHAN

Before the

THE UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE SITUATION WITH REGARD TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GRANTING OF INDEPENDENCE TO COLONIAL COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES (C-24)

June 22, 2010

INTRODUCTION

This testimony is being presented on behalf of We are Guåhan, an organization dedicated to advocating for the political, social, environmental, and human rights of the people of Guam.

We are Guåhan was formed in November of 2009, shortly after the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, an 11,000 page document detailing U.S plans for the future of Guam. Our organization formed in order to read and critique the massive document on behalf of the local community, which is largely unfamiliar or unable to engage in the kind of critical analysis and formal response required to participate in the draft’s formal commenting process.

Our goal is to keep Guam’s residents informed and active in all discussions involving the future of our home island, as we have been excluded from most discussions entirely and decisions have been made unilaterally. Our organization is comprised of residents from all sectors of society; and we are deeply alarmed by the injustices that will be perpetrated upon the people of Guam by the plans within the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Since our formation, the every-day residents and individuals within We are Guåhan have been forced to quickly digest and understand the complex issues of decolonization, environmental sustainability, cultural preservation, and political self-determination in order to respond to the U.S. government. Needless to say, we are overwhelmed, alarmed, and outraged by the lack of power we have in determining our futures.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) has triggered an outpouring of concern by Guam’s residents. The Guam Environmental Protection Agency (a Federal entity) gave the DEIS its lowest possible rating, calling it the most poorly constructed Impact Statement they have evaluated. U.S plans within the DEIS have shown the people of Guam, yet again, that they are powerless in controlling their destinies. The political freedom, environmental safety, and cultural legacy we leave to future generations is one that is ultimately decided by those who view their home as nothing more than a gas station or military training ground in the Pacific.

Decolonization for the Chamorro people is needed now, more than ever, not just for the Chamorro people of Guam, but for all who consider the island their home and have now been forced to face the reality of being a resident within an United States Colony. The Chamorro people must be granted their inherent and inalienable to right to exercise self-determination.

The basic necessities for maintaining or creating a self-sustaining, empowered, healthy population of residents have been threatened by U.S. plans. We are Guåhan, which is dedicated to representing the concerns of the diverse population that calls Guam its home, is here to report the findings of local residents and organizations within the DEIS, in order to highlight why self-determination must be granted to the Chamorro people of Guam.

ISSUES OF CONCERN WITHIN THE DEIS

Water Supply

Water, our most basic necessity to live, is greatly endangered by plans within the DEIS. In addition to a 2.3 million gallon per day shortfall of water for residents who do not live on Department of Defense controlled properties. This shortfall will force residents to live with low water pressures and could result in microbiological and other contaminants entering the water distribution system, which will result in illness. The basic sanitary needs of our island will be degraded an yet, the DEIS has not identified a funding source for the improvements that are required to sustain the population increase they propose.

Education

An educated community is an empowered community and our island’s educational system is already grossly underfunded. The military build up projects an increase in up to 8,000 more students at the build up’s peak, requiring 532 more teachers to a Department of Education that already struggles to fill up to 300 vacancies per year.

We’ll need to build new schools; and the estimated cost of building these new schools is $134 million dollars, which exceeds our Department of Education’s budget by 70%.

Economy

DEIS projections for our economy have been greatly misrepresented. Local economists have pointed out that the direct and indirect impacts have been inflated by over 118%. The DEIS failed to acknowledge that the projected tax revenues will not be enough for the Government of Guam to support the 80,000 new residents that will arrive in 2014. Even more outrageous has been the Department of Defense’s admission that the standard of living on Guam will most likely decrease within the DEIS.

Housing

The predicted shortage of housing through 2014 will drive housing prices up, increasing homelessness, overcrowding and illegal housing units. The predicted over-supply of housing after 2014 will also likely result in many more abandoned buildings over the once scenic landscapes of our beautiful island. The DEIS is “deafeningly silent” on how DoD will mitigate the impact on Guam’s housing market.

Reefs

The reefs which protect our island from storms and earth quakes will be greatly impacted, and the Environmental Protection Agency explained that “Impacts to coral reefs on the scale proposed in the DEIS are unprecedented in recent CWA 404 permit history.

Noise

Our residents will be forced to navigate through noise and pollution daily and our disadvantaged, under served, and overburdened communities are likely to have pre-existing deficits of both a physical and social nature that make the effects of environmental pollution more, and in some cases, unacceptably, burdensome.

CONCLUSION

Unfortunately, this brief outline is just the tip of the iceberg when articulating our concerns regarding further military expansion. Despite the overwhelming amount of damage to our island and its future as a sustainable, safe home for our future generations, the U.S. Government continues with its plans to increase its United States military presence on the island.

We have repeatedly sought political rights; and the actions in response to those requests over the years have moved at a pace we no longer have the luxury of accommodating.

Chamorro self-determination must be granted. As stewards of our island and environment, the indigenous people of Guam require these basic human and political rights to secure the future of our island for all who love it and are invested in preserving its integrity. It is no longer satisfactory (or realistic) to expect that self-determination be an issue addressed with the influence of the administering power. As we have seen so clearly within the DEIS, the administering power cares very little about the ways in which our home, its economy, the education of our children, and our environment is jeopardized by plans in their interest.

Our organization advocates for the process of decolonization to take place without the administering power and with the cooperation of the United Nations. We recommend that actions be taken before any more damage occurs through the increased militarization of our island.

It is imperative that an investigation be conducted regarding the compliance of our the administering power to uphold its obligations under the UN Charter to promote and preserve the integrity of our home island and our human and political rights.

We thank you for this opportunity to share our concerns. These issues are complex and we continue to learn and try to understand how we are negatively affected by the administering power’s military plans on a daily basis. These lessons are those that require time and assistance, but unfortunately, our people and island have run out of time. We are standing immediately before plans that rush toward us at an alarming pace, plans that will forever change (and even erase) the island that so many of us have come to love and call home.

Si Yu’os ma’ase,

We Are Guåhan

Chamorro Delegation Urges United Nations Intervention on Military Build-Up and Human Rights Violations in Guam

2010-06-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

Contact: Hope Cristobal 808.327.8289

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE:

New York City, June 22, 2010 — A delegation of Chamorus and Rafaluwasch from the territory of Guam and Saipan testified before the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization to insist the international community pay closer attention to Guam’s continued colonial status as the island’s Administering Power, the United States, increases its already large military presence there.

Mr. St. Aimee, Chairman of the Special Committee, recognized during the hearing that the Second Decade of the Eradication of Colonization did not yield the necessary results. Therefore, they resolved to move into the Third Decade of the Eradication of Colonization stating their dedication to passing this resolution. He declared, “With effort we will arrive at an agreement so that the expressed wish of the people can be realized.” Some of the ideas discussed were to have visiting missions to the Territories, and sharing more information between the UN Special Committee of 24 and the Territories.

The Guam delegation represents a second generation of Chamorros who have appealed to the United Nations for the past 20 years regarding Guam’s political status and the United States’ refusal to respect the Chamorro people’s human right to self-determination.

The urgency for action was repeatedly expressed by delegates. The submitted testimony by Senator Vicente Pangelinan, Guam Legislature, affirms that, “This body must advance the self-determination process for the native inhabitants of Guam NOW, for the recent decisions by our administering authority dilutes our Right to Self-Determination…”

Hope Antoinette Cristobal, a Chamorro and Doctor of Psychology, called attention to the effects of colonization on the health of the people of Guam. She proclaimed, “I am here to testify that the indigenous people of Guam continue to suffer social, cultural, and environmental annihilation at the hands of our American oppressors… Robust research suggests that these aggregate problems in our communities are a result of the cultural and social deterioration of our families and neighborhoods. The same families and neighborhoods that had previously sustained our health for generations prior to colonization.”

A representative for We are Guahan emphasized this, “We have repeatedly sought political rights; and the actions in response to those requests over the years have moved at a pace we no longer have the luxury of accommodating.”

Fuetsan Famalao’an, a small non-governmental organization of women on Guam concerned about the US Department of Defense’s plan for increased militarization on Guam implored the Committee to take critical step in this process, namely to send delegates to Guam to further investigate the consequences of militarization. “We urge you to one day conduct a UN C-24 hearing in Guam. You will see with your own eyes, the substandard of living of many of the Chamorros and other residents of Guam who live across the fences, resembling the racial and economic disparity found in the segregated city neighborhoods throughout the globe.”

Rima Ilarishigh Peter Miles, a Refaluwasch Carolinian from the island of Saipan spoke as a member of Women for Genuine Security(WGS). WGS is part of an international network of women who are organizing to put an end to the devastating effects of US militarization and bring about true security based on justice and respect. “We stand here at this urgent moment to call the United Nations to immediate action. Advancements must be made for the protection and fulfillment of the Chamoru Right to Self-Determination. This right is currently being threatened and undermined by the continued avoidance of the issue by the US, as well as recent actions which contradict the terms of the US obligation to the Chamoru people of Guam.”

USSF Resolution Opposing US Imperialist Wars and Militarism

2010-06-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

The "Beyond Empire" group of Grassroots Global Justice will present this resolution at the final assembly of the US Social Forum on Saturday 26 June in Detroit.

The final resolution will include a national call to action that will incorporate into the 2 October mobilization for jobs and reduction in military spending, followed by a week of local activities to commemorate the anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan.*

If your organization would like to sign on, please send your information to Hyun Lee: hyunlee70@gmail.com NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, 25 JUNE AT 12 NOON.

Resolution Opposing U.S. Imperialist Wars and Militarism

Prepared for the 2010 U.S. Social Forum People’s Movement Assembly

(DRAFT – 6.6.10)

WHEREAS, Pentagon spending has doubled to over $700 billion in the past eight years, and the U.S. Empire maintains over 700 military bases around the globe to wage perpetual war in its unending pursuit of profits and power;

WHEREAS, in the process, the U.S. military kills innocent civilians and destroys infrastructure, undermines democracy and human rights, threatens the sovereignty of nations, displaces farmers and indigenous people from their land, and wreaks environmental devastation;

WHEREAS, the U.S. government uses the so-called War on Terror as justification for the militarization of the U.S. border, the wholesale targeting of Muslim and Arab communities, the expansion of police departments, the prison industrial complex, and other institutions and policies aimed at silencing all those seen as threats to capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and heterosexism;

WHEREAS, U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have stolen more than $1 trillion away from vital needed services, such as universal healthcare, affordable housing, and living wage jobs in communities victimized by the economic crisis – especially people of color, who bear the brunt of these crises due to structural racism, and immigrants, who become scapegoats in times of economic recession;

WHEREAS, the Pentagon continues to invest billions of our tax dollars and human resources each year into developing new and more advanced weapons systems that have no civilian or military justification, while the average living standard in the United States has long been on the decline, and unemployment has steadily been on the rise;

WHEREAS, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of troops for war, and dropping tons of munitions on urban centers and rural communities not only destroy lives, but pushes the planet closer to ecological destruction by consuming a massive amount of fossil fuels, destroying critical ecosystems, and creating resource scarcity;

WHEREAS, we believe all people should have the right to self-determination and peaceful existence; that collective security comes from mutual respect, not by hoarding of the world’s resources by a few; and we must move beyond empire and militarized methods of control; and

WHEREAS, people in the United States have a stake in challenging the power of war-making institutions and converting the vast resources now wasted on war-making into productive capacity for raising the quality of life for all; and we see our futures intertwined with the futures of the people of the Global South, and believe that we have a responsibility to hold this government accountable; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that we, the undersigned organizations, united in our opposition to imperialist war and militarism, commit to building a movement for a truly just and lasting peace; and be it further

RESOLVED, that we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are struggling under the weight of U.S. militarism and imperialism for peace, justice and self-determination in other countries; and be it further

RESOLVED, that we demand an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and call on the U.S. government to provide reparations to address the humanitarian crises in these countries, as well as repair the physical damage caused by its invasion and occupation; and be it further

RESOLVED, that we reject any planned attack on Iran, and call on the U.S. government to stop funding Israel’s occupation and colonization of the Palestinian people; and be it further

RESOLVED, that we call on the U.S. government to respect the self-determination of people in Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East, and demand a total abolition of all foreign military bases and other infrastructure for wars of aggression, including military interventions, operations, trainings, exercises, and laboratories dedicated to weapons construction; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the vast resources now wasted on war-making be put toward meeting urgent civilian needs, including the funding of jobs in housing, health care, education, clean energy and infrastructure repairs, and preventing the layoff of state and local public workers; and be it further

RESOLVED, that ….[INSERT CALL TO ACTION in the FALL]*

Fundraising for We Are Guahan

2010-06-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

From Sabina Perez on behalf of We Are Guahan. Contact them for more info by heading to their website WE ARE GUAHAN.

*****************************

Hafa adai,

I am trying to raise money for the nonprofit organization, We Are Guahan, whose focus is educating the public about the impacts of the military buildup that will increase the population 47% in a period of 4 years, in addition, to causing the removal of 71 acres of coral reefs (some of the coral species are endemic to Guam), and jeopardize our water resource, which may result in irreversible damage.

On February 17, 2010, the environmental damage was deemed by the US EPA to be "of sufficient magnitude that EPA believes that the action should not proceed as proposed and improved analyses are necessary to ensure the information in the EIS is adequate to fully inform decision-makers." Please read more at: http://www.epa.gov/region9/nepa/letters/Guam-CNMI-Military-Reloc-DEIS.pdf

We Are Guahan was created in November 2009, upon the release of a 11,000 page draft environmental statement (DEIS), in which the public was required to read and submit comments within 90 days. We Are Guahan was instrumental in educating the public about what the DEIS contained. As a result, over 5,000 comments were submitted by the Februrary 17, 2010 deadline. We are now expecting the final EIS to be released in the July 2010. We need your support to continue our outreach on Guam and abroad at the the 2nd US Social Forum in Detroit.

I am selling $30 raffle tickets for a trip for 2 to either Rota or Saipan. The value is about $500 with a 1/100 chance of winning. Drawing will be held this Friday (Guam time). I have 18 more tickets to sell, if you are interested. If you are abroad, unsure about whether to make the trip and want to support our organization, please consider donating the trip to a local family member.

Please forward to your friends and family and feel free to contact me with any questions.

Si Yu'os Ma'ase,

Sabina

Fundraiser to send spoken word superstars to Brave New Voices in Los Angeles, CA

2010-06-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

The youth of Guåhan have been in the forefront of articulating the effects of the military buildup on our islands, our culture and the people of Guahan. Spoken word, slam poetry provides the vehicle from which this talent, creativity, commitment and love give expression to our opposition to the military buildup and our vision for peace and well-being throughout the world.

from Melvin Won Pat-Borja, co-founder of Sinagan'ta:

Hafa Adai Familia,

I apologize for the mass email, but I am nearing the end of my rope here. As some of you know, I help run a youth writing program on Guam and we are invested in creating opportunities for all teens on the island. This summer we are embarking on an incredible journey as we prepare to compete in the Brave New Voice International Youth Poetry Slam in Los Angeles, California (from July 19-24). This competition gathers 500 of the best youth poets from around the country to promote literacy, public speaking, leadership, and critical thinking. It will be the FIRST TIME that Guam is represented in official competition.

It is going to cost us $12,000 to fund this trip and we are hard pressed to make this money before the festival. Those of you who know me well, know that asking for donations is the bane of my existence, so I am clearly desperate here. We have raised some money so far, but we are still far from our goal. We have a few fundraisers coming up and I would greatly appreciate your support. Our first fundraiser is coming up on Thursday June 10th at "After5" in the Plaza. Tickets are $10 and it starts at 6pm.

We will also be hosting a showcase at the end of this month and another show in July.

If you are interested in supporting this worth cause, you can mail a check made out to me to the address posted bellow.

Melvin Won Pat-Borja

PO BOX 2246
Hagatna, GU 96910

I know that these are hard times and that not all of you have the means to help us find our way to LA, but if you know someone who can. Please feel free to forward this email and my contact information.

We really need your help to make this dream a reality. I hope to see you at our fundraisers.

Thanks for your love and support.

-Mel

Save Pagat Village

2010-05-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

For more information head to the website: Save Pagat Village.

Also, sign the petition!!!

From the Guam Preservation Trust:

The ancient village of Pågat is located about three miles east of the village of Yigo, along Guahan's northeast coastline. The word Pågat translated to English is to give advice. The ancient village is a registered archaeological site in the Guam and National Register of Historic Places since 1974, a designation by the U. S. National Park Service for its historic significance.

According to archaeologists, Pågat village contains extensive cultural resources from the Latte Period (1000 A.D.). The Latte Period is reflected by remains of 15 to 20 sets of latte pillars used for foundations of structures, rock shelters, over 50 mounds of middens, and other artifacts such as basalt and limestone mortars, pounders, graters, stone bowls, fishing gear, abraders, hammer stones, weaving or thatching tools, chipped stone, scrapers, knives, gouges, adzes, sling stones, spear points, ornaments, and pottery. Radiocarbon dates have been obtained from the site. The dates range from the earliest at A.D. 770-970, to dates at 1080-1310, 1360-1480, and 1340-1440. The dates indicate that the site was occupied near the beginning of the Latte Period and was used during the Latte Period (A.D. 900-1521).

An analysis of faunal remains recovered from excavations at the site, indicate that mahi mahi and black marlin were among the fishes the early settlers ate. The bones of fruit bat, bird, rat, and turtle were recovered. Shellfish included shells from Strombus and Isognomun. These two mollusks are sand dwellers, and they may have been brought to the site since it lacks a sandy beach.

In 1672, a Spanish church was established at the site and recorded documents indicated that the Venerable Diego Luis de San Vitores S.J. (1627-1672), visited the village of Pågat to convert the Chamorro people to the Catholic religion. The church was later abandoned after the 1700s.

Today, Pågat village still remains as it did over two thousand years ago. The Suruhanos and Suruhanas or local healers seek advice from the spirits and herbs of our ancestors, the fishermen still come to make their catch, and the young and old still seek the refuge of the historic Pågat village to reflect and to be inspired to preserve our culture and our heritage.

The recent military plans for the build-up of Guahan have identified areas surrounding Pågat village as firing ranges for military training. If these firing ranges are built in the surrounding areas, the historic Pågat village will no longer be what it is today. There is so much to learn about our ancestors from the historic village of Pågat and the spiritual connection that the Chamorro people have for this ancient village. The community's desire to preserve and protect this significant historic site should be embraced and empowered

Making the Invisible Empire Visible

2010-05-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

from The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

Film Review by John Junkerman: The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands

Mention “The Insular Empire” to the average American, and they’d likely have no idea what you were talking about. They probably still wouldn’t get it if you gave them another clue: “America in the Mariana Islands.” These are the title and subtitle of a new film by Vanessa Warheit, which began screening on PBS earlier this year.

It is the singular misfortune of the residents of Guam and the Northern Marianas to have been born on tiny islands of great strategic value in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The consequence has been their colonial subordination for four centuries to a succession of empires: Spain, the United States, Germany, Japan, and, since the Pacific War, the US again.

A “colony” of the American “empire”? Of course, the US does not acknowledge that the “territory” of Guam and the “commonwealth” of the Northern Mariana Islands are colonies. But, as the film points out, the residents of these islands bear American passports yet have only token representation in the US Congress. They have the ‘right’ to fight in the US military (soldiers from Guam have died in Iraq and Afghanistan at a per capita rate four times as high as any US state), but they don’t have a vote in the election of the commander-in-chief. One third of Guam is controlled by the US military and the island is slated for a massive military buildup, but as a “non-self-governing territory,” the islanders have no say in the matter.

The principle of government with the consent of the governed, over which the American colonies fought the War of Independence, does not apply to the Mariana Islands. Yes, these are colonies.

It is one of the ironies of the American “empire of bases” (in Chalmer Johnson’s apt phrase) that the empire remains largely invisible to all but the soldiers who occupy these bases spread across the globe and the citizens of the lands that host them. What is true of the de facto American empire is even more true of these colonies: to Americans, they are no more than tiny specks in the ocean, 6,000 miles from the coast of California. This film, the first comprehensive telling of the story of the Marianas to the American public, performs the invaluable service of making this invisible empire visible.

The film could not be more timely. The transfer of 8,000 Marines (and nearly 10,000 dependents and civilians) to Guam from the Futenma air base on the equally militarized Japanese island of Okinawa is scheduled to take place in 2014. Preparations for the $12 billion base construction project (which will include extensive dredging of coral reef so the naval base can accommodate aircraft carriers, among numerous other expansions) are already underway. The project will bring in some 79,000 people, including temporary construction workers, boosting the population of the already crowded island by 40 percent. While welcomed by some sectors on Guam as an economic transfusion, the buildup threatens to destroy the island’s natural beauty and cause an environmental disaster. The US Environmental Protection Agency in February blasted the military’s draft environmental impact statement as “environmentally unsatisfactory,” citing expected shortages of drinking water, the over-burdening of the island’s crumbling sewage treatment infrastructure, and inadequate plans to mitigate ecological damage.

But the military’s presence and proposed expansion are not the focus of this film, only in part because the military refused to allow the filmmakers access to the bases and declined requests for interviews. Rather, the film aims to illuminate the history that has left these islands pawns in America’s global chess game. It is a complex history: despite being part of the same archipelago, Guam (an American colony since the Spanish-American War in 1898), and the Northern Marianas (which include the islands of Saipan and Tinian) have different colonial pasts and distinct political status today. This history is deftly told with inventive graphics and superbly researched archival footage, reflecting the eight painstaking years spent in producing the film.

The islands’ complex history is matched by a deeply conflicted identity. Much of the population is intensely loyal to the US, reflecting the pervasive presence of the military and the high levels of enlistment, yet the islanders are perpetual second-class citizens. English is spoken and the dominant culture is American (the world’s largest K-Mart is on Guam), yet there are persistent efforts to preserve the indigenous Chamorro language and culture. Guam’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism and the military, but a different course of development might have been chosen if the islanders had control of their land and destiny (choices that the Guam Buildup will put forever out of reach).

Warheit has provided depth and character to these issues of identity by following four individuals, two each from Guam and the Northern Marianas, through the course of the film. The eldest, Carlos Taitano, a former speaker of the Guam Legislature, was born in 1917 and thus witnessed and participated in Guam’s postwar history, during which “the people of the Marianas were a distant afterthought,” he observes. A businessman (the island’s Coca-Cola bottler) and an advocate of statehood, he died in 2009, before the film was released, his distant dream unrealized.

Carlos Taitano

When Hope Cristobal represented Guam in the Miss Universe pageant in 1967, she visited the States for the first time and encountered anti-Vietnam War protests in San Francisco, opening her eyes to a counter-military narrative she had never imagined on Guam. She has since become an advocate for Guam’s self-determination and the director of a museum of Chamorro culture. It is, in many ways, a reclamation project: when she was a schoolgirl, she was punished for speaking the Chamorro language (recalling the forced Americanization of Native Americans, and the parallel Japanization of the Okinawa islanders), and few young people now speak the language.

Hope Cristobal

Where Guam was occupied by the US Navy and Air Force, Saipan (in the Northern Marianas) was used by the CIA as a secret base to train Chinese and Southeast Asian insurgents, and Lino Olopai found work on the base as a security guard. Pete Tenorio worked as a caddy on the CIA’s golf course. The Northern Marianas were then a UN trust territory under US administration, until 1975, when a plebiscite approved a “covenant” that made the islands an American commonwealth.

Lino Olopai and Pete Tenorio appear in an excerpt of the film.

Tenorio entered politics and eventually was elected “resident representative” of the commonwealth, with an office in Washington, DC, where he negotiates not with Congress but with the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs. “People here [in the US] are just not aware of this relationship,” he says in frustration, “and if they’re not aware, what’s our solution to it?” Olopai pressed for independence at the time of the plebiscite and when the commonwealth status was approved, he left Saipan for the Caroline Islands to reconnect with his roots. There he learned the dying art of celestial navigation, which he has continued to teach to others since his return to Saipan.

While the US military is not the focus of the film, its presence is inescapable. US soldiers march in uniform in Guam’s annual Liberation Day parade, commemorating the defeat of the Japanese occupation of the island on July 21, 1944. More than 60 years later, the military is still lionized as Guam’s “liberator,” but, as Hope Cristobal comments, “The US has not given us anything but the military.” If the Guam Buildup goes forward as planned, there will be precious little room left on Guam for anything but the military.

For many years, Cristobal made an annual trek to the UN, to appeal for Guam’s self-determination before the Special Committee on Decolonization. In one of the most poignant moments of the film, her daughter Hope Cristobal, Jr. follows in her footsteps and testifies at the UN. The road ahead for Guam is a long one, she comments, “but even if you make one ripple in this big ocean, it still counts.”

The compact (59-minute) and information-packed format of the film make it a valuable resource for teaching and organizing. For information on PBS broadcasts and other screenings of the film, consult the blog here. The film is available on DVD, and a Japanese-subtitled version will be available soon, through the same blog address. The film's website is here.

John Junkerman wrote this review for The Asia-Pacific Journal.

See also, LisaLinda Natividad and Gwyn Kirk, Fortress Guam: Resistance to US Military Mega-Buildup

John Junkerman is an American documentary filmmaker and Japan Focus associate living in Tokyo. His most recent film, “Japan’s Peace Constitution” (2005), won the Kinema Jumpo and Japan PEN Club best documentary awards. It is available in North America from First Run Icarus Films. He co-produced and edited “Outside the Great Wall,” a film on Chinese writers and artists in exile that will be released in Japan and abroad later this year.

Recommended citation: John Junkerman, "Making the Invisible Empire Visible," The Asia-Pacific Journal, 20-1-10, May 17, 2010.

Insular Empire Screening at NPIEN Conference

2010-05-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

Join Famoksaiyan West Coast on May 15th, after the NPIEN conference, for a Hayward screening of Vanessa Warheit’s documentary The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands. The Insular Empire takes a critical eye to the US military and colonial legacy in Guam and the US Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, adding an often ignored, but vital, perspective to conversations on the US’s role in Guam and the CNMI.

A synopsis of the film:

“6000 miles west of California, the Mariana Islands include the US Territory of Guam and the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). For generations, these islands’ indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian people have been second-class Americans – fighting and dying under the stars and stripes, with no voting representation in Congress, and no vote for their commander-in-chief. Today the US military is planning a massive buildup of these small, strategic islands, with no input from the people of the Marianas. Yet the Chamorros and Carolinians remain steadfastly patriotic – more loyal, in fact, than many mainland communities.”

Where
Cal State University, East Bay Diversity Center

New University Union (across from parking lot B on West Loop Road. Take the stairs or the elevator to the second floor and the Diversity Center is located to the right of the walk way.)

25800 Carlos Bee Blvd, Hayward, CA

When

May 15th 4:30pm to 6pm (After the NPIEN Conf. which is 8- 4pm.)

Solidarity Protests for Okinawa

2010-04-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

A protest on April 25th in Okinawa, against any the US bases there, drew 90,000 people. Solidarity protests and demonstrations were held around the world. Here are some images from Tokyo, Kyoto and Washington D.C.

Famoksaiyan West Coast

2010-04-22T19:59:00.001-07:00

Famoksaiyan West Coast has started a new blog, which will be used to slowly replace the Famoksaiyan Friends list serv.

You can go there to find more news on issues that are affecting Chamorros and events that are happening in the West Coast and Guam.

Click here to check out the blog: Famoksaiyan West Coast

Guam Sign On Letter: Halt the Guam Build-Up Plans, Rewrite the DEIS

2010-04-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

SPONSORED BY: Famoksaiyan West Coast, Women for Genuine Security

Sign Petition – Halt the Guam Build Up

CLICK HERE TO SIGN PETITION!

Read below::

Targeting:

The President of the United States,
Michael Block (White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs ),
Cecilia Munoz (Director of White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs),
Nancy Sutley (Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality)

Greetings,

On Earth Day, April 22, 2010, we – the undersigned environmentalists, scholars, clergy, community leaders, and concerned citizens — call attention to the severe long-term impacts of preparations for war on the physical environment and, in turn, on human health.

We are extremely concerned about the environmental impacts of the proposed military expansion and build-up in the U.S. territory of Guam, noting the following points:

History of US Militarism in Guam:

* The people of Guam have lived under U.S. administration since 1898. Guam remains a U.S. colony, one of 16 non-self-governing territories listed by the United Nations, and represented by one non-voting delegate in the U.S. Congress. Local communities are highly constrained in their ability to influence the political process and were not consulted when the expansion plans were drawn up.

* For the indigenous Chamorro people, the long legacy of U.S. and Navy military control includes major land takings beginning in the early 20th century; radiation exposure; poor health; and the restriction of traditional practices such as fishing.

* In 1954, the entire island was affected by toxic contamination following the “Bravo” hydrogen bomb test in the Marshall Islands. In the 1970s, Guam’s Cocos Island lagoon was used to wash down ships contaminated with radiation en route from the Marshall Islands where they were part of an attempted clean up. From 1968 to 1974, Guam had higher yearly rainfall measures of strontium 90 than Majuro (Marshall Islands).

* As a corollary, the incidence of cancer in Guam is high. Cancer mortality rates from 1998 to 2002 showed that nasopharyngeal cancer was 48 times higher for Chamorros than among the general U.S. population. Cervical and uterine cancer mortality rates were 3 times higher. Chamorro deaths from cancer of the mouth and pharynx, the lungs, stomach, prostate, liver, breast, and thyroid were all higher than overall U.S. rates.

* Andersen AFB is a continuing source of toxic contamination through dumpsites and possible leaching of chemicals into the underground aquifer beneath the base. In 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency found antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, lead, manganese, dioxin, deteriorated ordnance and explosives, and PCBs at two dumpsites just outside the base at Urunao, Guam. Other areas have been affected by Vietnam-war era use of the defoliants Agent Orange and Agent Purple, as planes used for aerial spraying were cleaned in Guam. While there are some clean-up efforts currently underway, it has not resulted in the cumulative clean-up of the island. Instead, multiple toxic sites continue to exist, thereby impacting the health status of the island’s people.

Current Build-up Plans:

* Currently, Guam’s military significance is being redefined as part of a major realignment and restructuring of U.S. forces and operations in the Asia-Pacific region. Thirty miles long and eight miles wide, Guam houses the largest Air Force fuel supply in the United States and the largest supply of weapons in the Pacific. The military controls one-third of the island and intends for Guam to become a power projection hub.

* The proposed military build-up of Guam involves the transfer of 8,600 Marines currently based at Futenma Marine Air Station (Okinawa, Japan); the acquisition of 2,200 additional acres for military use, including additional live-fire ranges; and the dredging of 71 acres of vibrant coral reef in Apra Harbor to create berthing for a nuclear aircraft carrier for just 64 days a year. Also planned: a missile defense system and expansion of Andersen AFB. This proposal will increase the population of 173,456 by nearly 47% — or nearly 80,000 people, including U.S. Marines, support staff, military contractors, family members, and construction workers.

Inadequacies and Objections to the Current Plan:

* The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given its worst rating to the DOD Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) regarding the proposed build-up. The EPA emphasizes the lack of a specific plan to address the wastewater treatment and water supply needs of the increased population, which will overstretch the already inadequate infrastructure and may result in “significant adverse public health impacts.” Low water pressure could lead to increased exposure to water borne disease from sewage stormwater infiltration into drinking water. Also, it could result in saltwater intrusion into Guam’s aquifer. The planned expansion will result in an increase in spills of raw sewage, exposing people to raw sewage in their drinking water supply, through the shellfish they eat, and during ocean recreation. Moreover, the EPA report argues that the build-up “will result in unacceptable impacts to 71 acres of high quality coral reef ecosystem in Apra harbor” and concludes that, “These impacts are of sufficient magnitude that EPA believes the action should not proceed as proposed.”

* Despite its inordinate length (9 volumes totaling 11,000 pages), the DEIS is vague in places, contains significant contradictions, and scarcely addresses social and cultural impacts to the island.

* Even though the public comment period was far too short — a mere 90 days to absorb the implications of the 11,000 page report — there has been an outpouring of pubic testimony, concern, and opposition to the build up expressed at town hall meetings, public hearings, community events, on the internet, and in media reports.

Many public comments on the DEIS focused on unequal amenities and opportunities inside and outside the military fencelines. As proposed, the build-up plan will exacerbate the reality of two Guams: one inside and one outside the bases.

Several Guam Senators, including Speaker Judith Won Pat, have questioned the build-up. Congressional Representative Bordallo and Governor Felix Camacho have greatly moderated their earlier support after seeing the detailed proposals and hearing the strength of community concern.

* The planned military expansion has serious implications for the Chamorro people’s right to self-determination: military-related personnel could outnumber the Chamorro population, who currently make up 37% of the total. Chamorro leaders have taken this issue to the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization and urged this committee to send representatives to Guam to conduct an assessment of the current situation on the island’s people.

We urge you to:

1) Halt the current plans for the military build up in Guam;

2) Demand the DOD rewrite the DEIS to include socio-economic and cultural impacts and mitigation, clearly outlined environmental impacts and mitigation, address the impacts to self-determination, complete cost-benefit analysis, and federal accountability for impacts on local communities;

3) Require the DOD to clean up existing contamination and toxic sites, on and off-base, caused by military operations on Guam, before any base expansion projects are considered;

4) Limit the military’s use of land on Guam to its current “footprint”;

5) Recommend federal funding to strengthen Guam’s inadequate infrastructure.

The White House press statement, issued mid-March 2010, emphasizing the administration’s commitment to “One Guam, Green Guam,” balancing the military’s needs with local concerns, promoting renewable energy, and reducing fuel and energy costs on the island does not address people’s core concerns. These goals cannot be achieved without addressing the inadequacies and concerns raised about the current build-up proposal.

We look forward to working with you on these matters.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

2010-04-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

The New Guam Doctrine

by Graeme Dobell - 14 April 2010 2:54PM

The new Guam doctrine will mark a significant stepping-stone in the creation of Asia's concert of powers. This ranks as a 'brave' prediction, because we don't yet have an Asian concert, and Barack Obama hasn't yet set foot on Guam to unveil a new doctrine. But both are approaching.

If Obama had not tarried in Washington to deliver the health centrepiece of his first presidential term, we would by now have the new Guam doctrine on display. But for Obamacare, the president would have made his tour last month � Guam, Indonesia and Australia. That trip is now scheduled for June.

The Guam stopover will underline the point that the US is spending billions on the island as a fresh assertion of its continuing role as Asia's military guarantor. A previous column offered this translation of the doctrine that will be blessed when Obama makes his Guam touchdown: 'We're going to be here for a long time yet.'

But my translation sentence is deficient because it reflects only the military dimension of the new doctrine. The beauty of what Obama will offer is that it will have a second, multilateral (Concert of Powers) dimension, building on the military framework of the US bilateral alliance system in Asia.

A translation of both dimensions of the Obama doctrine would look like this: 'We're going to be here for a long time yet, but we are certainly ready to talk about new ways to run the neighbourhood.' Or to put it more formally: the new doctrine will link a continuing assertion of US military capability to a willingness to think new thoughts about Asia's security architecture and a concert of powers.

A new Guam doctrine resonates in Canberra because Nixon's original version had such a profound impact on Australian defence thinking. Heading for the Vietnam exit door, Nixon used a stop-over press conference in Guam on 25 July, 1969, to float a thought bubble about US allies needing to take care of themselves. In dealing with non-nuclear threats, Nixon said, the US would 'look to the nation directly threatened to assume the primary responsibility of providing the manpower for defence.'

The rough translation of that at the time in Asia and Australia went like this: We're getting out of Vietnam. Good luck, everybody. We suggest a Do It Yourself kit for defence.'

Sitting back in Washington, Kissinger later wrote of his 'amazement' that what had been private White House musings had suddenly been unveiled in an unscripted, impromptu pronouncement on Guam. The off-the-cuff announcement meant there'd been no briefing, consultation or forewarning for allies.

The strategic shift via press conference caused all sorts of frissons across the region, not least in Canberra. It didn't equal the magnitude of the Nixon-goes-to-China shock, but it certainly made an impression. Indeed, it was the reaction of allies as much as Nixon's words that turned the Guam presser into the Guam doctrine.

After Guam, Australia was on notice that forward defence and reliance on the great and powerful ally did not amount to a defence policy. And as the US exit from Vietnam gathered pace, the Guam doctrine grew in significance. Every Australian Defence White Paper since 1976 has been, in part, a post-Guam document. The argument ricochets, rebounds and recurs: How much weight for the alliance versus spending on self reliance? Defend the continent or help the neighbourhood? Is it a regional capability or an expeditionary force?

The affirmation of the US commitment to its role as an Asian power has been a standard couple of paragraphs in most post-Cold War speeches by visiting US presidents and secretaries of State or Defence. Guam puts fresh dollars behind those words. The new superbase is a military statement of intent expressed in concrete.

What Obama can do is define the meaning of a new Guam doctrine in ways that reach beyond the military dimension. The Obama version of the Guam doctrine can be about conversation as well as concrete.

http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2010/04/14/The-new-Guam-doctrine.aspx

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Deciphering Presidential Touchdowns

by Graeme Dobell - 18 March 2010 12:09PM

Indonesia and Australia stand equal in the number of US presidential touchdowns on their soil over the last 50 years � each has six. More on those mixed half dozens in a moment.

Popes kiss the ground when their plane lands. US Presidents lay their hands on the shoulder of the leader they meet. The Pope offers a blessing. The President sends political and diplomatic messages.

The coming Obama visit to Guam, Indonesia and Australia is somewhat curtailed but the intended messages are coming into view. Stopping in Guam is, plain and simple, a nod to the Defence Department. Going to Indonesia is an expression of Obama's own life. Mark it as a White House personal-and-policy must, building on a lot of other compelling reasons for giving Indonesia more prominence.

And Australia? Perhaps Kevin Rudd's magnetism has captured Obama during their various interactions over Afghanistan, climate change and the G20. Or, more likely, the State Department and Hillary Clinton won with an argument that was part geography and part politeness. You're going all the way to Indonesia, why snub the Australians when they are virtually next door?

The first leg of the trip will give us a new Guam doctrine on the US's continuing military presence in Asia. Richard Nixon did his doctrinal dance in Guam as the US extricated itself from Vietnam. Nixon's Guam doctrine was about allies henceforth taking primary responsibility for their own defence.

The Guam doctrine that Obama will bless is made flesh in the creation of a new multi-billion dollar US military superbase. The message can be encapsulated as: 'We're going to be here for a long time yet.' Given the politics of Japan at the moment, the message could be aimed as much at Tokyo as Beijing.

Beyond the personal history of Obama in Indonesia, the White House is briefing on the visit as an expression of the view that 'America has been somewhat absent from the region over the last several years and we are committed to re-establishing that leadership.' It's a two-part US call to Asia: our attention may have wandered but we know about our interests.

Reading that briefing, I was struck by the joining of Australia and Indonesia as twin 'middle powers' and the description of the journey as another expression of 'the changing global governance' of the 21st century. You can use phrases like that when you brief in the White House.

For both Australia and Indonesia, the Obama trip will be the seventh visit by a US President in the past 50 years. That figure suggests Australia has been doing pretty well with presidential touchdowns while Indonesia continues to strive to get due recognition for its significance. Indeed (warning: incoming clich�) Australia may well have been 'punching above its weight' in gaining presidential attention. The figures are contained here at the US State Department accounting of presidential trips.

Australia got off to a 'flying' start with two visits by LBJ; one in 1966 to express his friendship for Prime Minister Holt and one the following year to mourn Holt's disappearance in the surf. Then there was a 25-year gap, after which Australia scored repeatedly: George H Bush in 1992, Bill Clinton in 1996, and George W Bush in both 2003 and 2007. Obama's trip to Canberra means Australia will have enjoyed a touchdown by four US presidents in a row. In the touchdown stakes, that is close to the gold standard for 'middle powers'.

http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2010/03/18/Deciphering-presidential-touchdowns.aspx

Famoksaiyan Micronesia

2010-04-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

FAMOKSAIYAN MICRONESIA
Kahulu I Taotao Tasi
A PARTNERSHIP FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF PACIFIC STUDIES
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2010 CONFERENCE

ANNOUNCEMENT
4th Annual Chamoru & Micronesian Research Conference
University of Washington, Seattle
April 14-17, 2010

THEME: “Health, Environment, and Human Rights in Micronesia”

“FAMOKSAIYAN” can be understood as the time to paddle forward or to nurture.

In April 2006, a group of Chamorro & Micronesian scholars, organizers and workers held the first annual Famoksaiyan conference at the Sons and Daughters of Guam in San Diego, California. The conference focused on the issues of self determination, education and militarism in the Marianas. In April 2007, a follow up conference was held in Oakland and at the University of California Berkeley. The 3rd conference returned to San Diego in 2008. In November 2009, a youth focused version of Famoksaiyan was held in Seattle, Washington.

We are pleased to announce that the April 14-17 conference will be held at the University of Washington and Seattle University. We welcome participants to attend workshops on Micronesian knowledge, health, education, employment, housing and any other related issue. Presenters have the option of writing and presenting papers in Micronesian languages or English. Presentations in a Micronesian language will also have a short summary available in English.

We invite partners with an interest in Pacific communities to attend a conference in Seattle in April 2010. The conference focuses on the construction and maintenance of identities in the Pacific region from political, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives. How has the emergence of such Pacific worlds in motion affected the construction, maintenance, and imagination of identities in the Pacific region? This four day conference will include performing arts celebrations and educational workshops. Our hope is to begin and continue a discussion on these Pacific issues from a variety of perspectives as we seek to understand more fully our present experience of Pacific Islanders in the US.

Some of the major issues that will be examined within the context of a Pacific world include:

Racial identities
Women's Health
Community Organizing
Visual and performing arts
Communications & Media
Native self-determination
Labor Struggles

Advisory Committee:
Michael Tun`cap, Doctoral Candidate, University of California Berkeley
Natalie Santos, UW Micronesian Islands Club President
Jaynina Smith-Prince, Graduate Student Researcher, UW School of Social Work
Ray Duenas, Micronesian 2010 Chair & Chair of the HITA Language Project
Brian San Nicolas, Tacoma Community College, Nasion Chamoru Committee
Chasmon Tarimel, UW Pacific Islander Studies undergraduate & PIPE member
Benjamin Lealofi, Director of the Pacific Islander Commission
Deborah Tugaga, Director of the PIONEER Pre-College Program
Nestor Enguerra, Polynesian Student Alliance President & McNair Scholar

Sponsored by the University of Washington ASUW PISC, PIONEER & Micronesian
Islands Club, the University of California Berkeley Pacific Islands
Studies Group, Mariana’s Taotao Tano Club at Seattle University and the
2010 Guam Delegation to the United Nations

April 14, 2010 PASIFIK VOICES Performing Arts Celebration 7:00-10:00pm
University of Washington Ethnic Cultural Theater

April 15, 2010 Pacific Islanders and the Non-Profit Movement 6:00-8:00pm
Evening Event-NAPA, YMCA, & WORLD VISION
UW Ethnic Cultural Center Black Room

April 16, 2010 Brown Bag lunch screening The Marines Are Landing 12-1:30

April 17, 2010 Traditional Knowledge and Culture 10:00-11:00am

Gender, Identity and Social Change 11:00-12:00pm

Breaking Bread & Building Community 12:00-12:30pm

Race, Health and Education 1:00-2:00pm

Micronesians and the Media 2:00-3:00pm

GBLT struggles in the Diaspora 3:00-4:00pm

*Annual Marianas Fiesta & UW Micronesia 5:00-9:00pm
Marianas Taotao Tano Club & MIC
*Campion Ballroom, Seattle University

Ally speaks on behalf of the people of Guahan. "Strike while the iron is hot!"

2010-04-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

Famoksaiyan caravaned down to San Diego a few weeks ago, taking our literature table + storyboards on the road to the Chamorro Cultural Fest sponsored by Che'lu Inc. We were able to meet lots of young folks and family. Eka performed her wonderful composition "Back to Guahan." I'll post our fotos soon.

We met up with Doloris Cogan at the Cultural Fest. She continues to be a valuable ally for the people of Guahan.

Guam Pacific Daily News

Author: Move Troops Back to US

By Doloris Cogan • April 9, 2010

Guam book for Obama: Doloris Cogan, author of "We Fought the Navy and Won: Guam's Quest for Democracy," gives President Obama, then a U.S. senator, a copy of her book during a campaign stop in Indiana. (Photo courtesy of Doloris Cogan)

It's time to start thinking outside the box. I have read the Region IX EPA comments on the proposed move to Guam of U.S. troops on Okinawa. My conclusion is that both the environmental impact and the cost would be absolutely devastating.

Therefore, I think it's time to start moving those troops and their families back to the United States, where there are plenty of empty barracks and unemployed workers to build whatever may be lacking. In this space age of the Internet, the Predator, fast fighters and cargo planes, security no longer depends on large forward bases. There is no need for a heavier military footprint on Guam than the island already has.

There is no need to train American pilots on foreign soil or on the Pacific islands. Our National Guard forces from all 50 states serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have proved that.

Many entrepreneurs on Guam will say this idea would deprive them of economic opportunities desperately needed on the island. To them I say, go after federal appropriations for improved roads, schools, trash removal, toxic waste cleanup, land surveys and outstanding reparations for land confiscated by the military decades ago. All that would provide jobs.

You now have the attention of President Barack Obama and Congress. Strike while the iron is hot! The Organic Act of Guam is almost 60 years old, and your infrastructure could use some repairs. Some of the money saved by not making that expensive move from Okinawa to Guam could be used for the above purposes.

Blaine Harden raised the proposed move of the Marines above the radar by writing what became a front-page story in The Washington Post on March 22. I was delighted to see Lt. Gov. Mike Cruz quoted in Harden's news story, along with many sons and daughters of the heroes in my book, "We Fought the Navy and Won: Guam's Quest for Democracy." I met Cruz and many of those sons and daughters in July of 2008 when my book was brand new and I went to Guam for the celebration of Liberation Day.

Guam is at another real crossroads of its history. Decisions should not be made quickly or without full discussion. Saving the island for future generations is up to you.

I met Obama twice at public rallies when he was campaigning for the presidency in Indiana and had an opportunity to ask questions, as well as give him my book, which he later acknowledged with a short personal letter. I'm proud of the picture I have of the two of us and my book, which I used as my 2008 Christmas card. His decision to visit Guam tells me he knows a lot about the island and the implications of moving more troops there.

(Recently) I was in San Diego, signing copies of my book at the Chamorro Cultural Fest. I was thrilled to meet so many Chamorros who are well-educated and holding responsible positions in the Navy and private industry. Guam's young people are specialists in the high technologies and communications. I'm convinced they can turn those skills into new professions and industries on Guam, supplementing the military economy and tourism.

What's more, they understand and practice democracy. They could be USAID workers and ambassadors to Third-World countries, and would know better than to try to impose their (or our) culture on their hosts.

This is a great time to be alive and meet the challenges ahead. My interest in Guam is as strong now as it was 60 years ago when I wrote and edited the Guam Echo, airmailed monthly from Washington to 500 Guam members of the Institute of Ethnic Affairs. We wrote in the Guam Echo about "self-determination" for indigenous inhabitants all over the world, and in San Diego I met a few Chamorro leaders hoping and searching for more of that and and less "military domination" for Guam. Self-determination is an "ideal" still discussed at the United Nations, and in the context of the proposed move and the the civil rights of the local Chamorros, it could come up again.

Now is the time to work together to find solutions to whatever serious problems exist. I tend to agree with Theodore Parker, who said, "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one ... and from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."

As writer/editor of the Guam Echo from 1947 to 1950, Doloris Cogan helped get the Organic Act of Guam through Congress, and from 1951 to 1955, she served as Pacific Island Assistant in the Department of the Interior, implementing the act.

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20100409/OPINION02/4090325/Author-Move-troops-back-to-U.S.

Famoksaiyan on KUAM

2010-03-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

Global Guamanian network shares DEIS thoughts
Feb 21, 2010
KUAM
by Janjeera Hail

Guam - The deadline to submit comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement was last week, and it wasn't just local residents who aired their concerns. Michael Lujan Bevacqua is a member of Famoksaiyan, a network of people on Guam and the mainland focused on Chamorro concerns.

Famoksaiyan uses the Internet to share information and encourage Guamanians in the states to participate in the DEIS process. He told KUAM News, "If you're in the States getting an education, or if you're living in the States and planning on retiring and coming back to Guam, the buildup really affects you as well because the buildup will bring jobs, it will bring people who will take those jobs.

"And so those jobs may not go to those people in the states trying to get educated and then later come back."

Vote in Guam's Special Election Tomorrow

2010-03-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

For more info go to the GEC website.

Chamorro Cultural Festival

2010-03-16T10:40:00.001-07:00

Famoksaiyan will be at the Chamorro Cultural Festival, March 20th at the Market Creek Plaza in San Diego, California. More info on the flyer below, or you can check out the website for CHELU Inc. to learn more.

Peace Action at Camp Smith

2010-02-27T03:19:00.000-08:00

Generation Guahan

2010-02-23T06:34:00.001-08:00

Petition for President Obama

2010-02-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Guam sometime next month.

We Are Guahan is spearheading a petition drive, to ensure that while Barack Obama is on Guam he takes the time to meet with the community and hear their concerns, especially with regards to the military buildup planned for Guam.

If you are interested in signing the petition, just click here.

2010 Chamorro Lunar Calendar Festival

2010-02-10T14:51:00.000-08:00

For those of you who want to learn more about the ways in which Chamorros used the moon to pattern their fishing and planting, you can pick up a free copy of the Chamorro Lunar Calendar as this festival.

If you come later in the afternoon and evening, you can see the organizers use a chahan or underground oven to cook a feast in celebration.

Free Screening of the Insular Empire

2010-02-07T03:32:00.000-08:00

Dissecting the DEIS #1: Be Loud, Be Heard

2010-01-31T05:16:00.000-08:00

Dissecting Our Future on 8,000 Pages
by Marie Ada Auyong
The Marianas Variety
January 18, 2010

EIGHT thousand pages. Ninety days. If you started reading the draft environmental impact statement after its Nov. 20 release, you would have to read 90 pages daily to finish by the comments closing period of Feb. 17.

The DEIS lays out dramatic plans that will impact our lives and our island. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to make our voices heard.

Here are some ways to find out what is in the DEIS:

Read the newspaper. Pay attention to critiques by reputable sources. GovGuam agencies, legislative offices, and community groups have been reviewing the DEIS. Use their critiques in your comments.

Choose an issue and focus on it. The ocean, the hospital, immigration, land use. Call the GovGuam agency or senator’s office responsible for overseeing it, and ask how to get more information. Network with those in GovGuam agencies who focus on your issue.

Attend public workshops and hearings hosted by the legislative and governor’s offices. Ask questions and be persistent in getting an answer. If you don’t get an adequate response, put it in your comment.

Ask GovGuam agencies or community groups how you can help them respond to the DEIS. They need your support, too.

If you cannot attend a workshop and can gather together an audience, contact the governor’s office. Politely request that the governor’s Advisory Consulting Team or staffers outreach in those locations.

When writing your comment:

Find out where exactly in the DEIS (the volume and chapter) your issue is addressed and cite it.

Point out where you find misinformation, faulty reasoning, and/or vague statements. Point out where there’s no information. For example, the DEIS (Vol. 2, Chap. 18-16) acknowledges that population increases will negatively affect public service provision. It suggests “assisting GovGuam in funding for health services personnel.”

That key word, “assisting,” can mean many things—from actually giving money
to GovGuam to making a phone call to a federal agent who puts out contract requests. The outcomes from each scenario are very different.

How exactly will these planners “assist in funding”? Will these planners guarantee funds—and if not, what happens if the money does not come through?

If you find that someone else has already expressed the concerns you have about the DEIS, submit a comment again under your name.
When possible, suggest alternative plans or solutions. Or, write that you want “No Action” and why.

Submit your comment online at www.guambuildupeis.us if you can and save a hard copy for yourself. If possible, also submit it to JGPO, c/o NAVFAC Pacific, 258 Makalapa Drive, Suite 100, Pearl Harbor, HI
96860-3134. Attention: GPMO.

Be brave, be loud: we are Guam and we have a voice!

Guam Military Buildup on Youtube

2010-01-13T19:41:00.000-08:00

We Are Guahan Rally This Saturday at UOG

2010-01-06T19:35:00.000-08:00

WeAreGuahan.com

Hafa Adai,

We Are Guahan-- and together we are taking action to preserve our homeland, our people, our past and our future. Please join us at the hearings and comment on the EIS. We will rally at the hearing this Saturday, January 9, at the University of Guam campus, to show the military that we are committed to participating in decisions that affect our future. We will have people present to help fill out the comment forms, and there will be opportunities to get involved.

As the military has prepared for the buildup, they have told Guam residents that the economic boom would make up for negative environmental, cultural and social impacts.

As we have read, the draft EIS has told a different, clearer story.

SOME TRUTHS ABOUT THE BUILDUP ECONOMY
Most contracts will go to large off-island companies, not to local contractors.
Out of almost 18,000 jobs only about 2,500 will go to Guam residents. Currently, there are 17,000 unemployed people on Guam. Most of the jobs that go to Guam residents will be temporary.
There is no discussion on how the DECREASE of 8,000 jobs in 2015, 11,000 jobs in 2016, and 7,000 jobs in 2017 will affect unemployment on Guam.
The military conducted a separate report which revealed that the cost of living will rise, but wages will remain too low to keep up with skyrocketing costs.
The buildup will bring thousands of working-age military dependents, only 1/4th of whom will be employed on base. These folks will be competing in the Guam economy for the few jobs that exist.
This is only a sample of the economic realities revealed in the EIS. It is crucial that Guam residents stand up and speak out at the upcoming EIS hearings.

Come to the Hearing at UoG, or to any of the other hearings!

Thursday, January 7
Santa Rita Hearing
Southern High School
Open House: 5-7
Hearing: 7-9

Saturday, January 9
Field House, University of Guam
Mangilao, Guam
Open House: 1-3
Hearing: 3-5

Monday, January 11
Yigo Hearing
Yigo Auditorium
Open House: 5-7
Hearing: 7-9

Tuesday, January 12
Dededo Hearing
Okkodo High School
Open House: 5-7
Hearing: 7-9

We Are Guahan will be present, helping people comment and getting out information. Join us!

Si yu'us ma'ase,

We Are Guahan
action@weareguahan.com

If you would like to get more involved, please email us! All help is necessary!

We are Guahan Hike to Pagat

2009-12-30T07:46:00.000-08:00

The We Are Guahan Coalition is organizing a hike to Pagat Caves this Saturday, January 2nd.

Pagat Caves is a beautiful location which was once an Ancient Chamorro village. Numerous artifacts and latte can still be found there in the pristine limestone jungle.

The proposed military buildup of Guam would block off public access to this location amongst others on the Eastern coast of Guam, in order to build a live-fire training range for Marines being transferred from Okinawa.

For those interested in joining the hike, we'll be meeting first at Winchell's in Mangilao at 9 am. If you come bring lots of water, hiking shoes, mosquito repellent, sun screen and wear hiking or tennis shoes.

Women Against Militarism Statement

2009-12-09T15:36:00.000-08:00

Below is the conference statement from the the conference "CHinemma', Nina'maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao" which translates to “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights” and was the 7th International Meeting of the Network of Women Against Militarism, that took place on Guam on September 14-19, 2009.

The conference was a truly historic event for Guam and for the region, and hopefully, given the militarized future that lies ahead for Guam, it will not be the last of its kind here.

************************

With the theme “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights” [CHinemma', Nina'maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao], the International Women’s Network Against Militarism concluded its 7th International Women’s Conference held in Guam on September 14-19, 2009. Participants from Australia, Belau, Chuuk, Guahan, Hawai’i, Japan, Okinawa, Northern Marianas Islands, Palau, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Korea and mainland United States, took notice of the increasing militarization in their countries and its impact on the socio-cultural, political, economic and environmental aspects particularly on women and their communities. Country reports as well as panel presentations showed the pattern of militarization in said countries, as well as in other parts of the world. Some reports also emphasized the relationship between militarism and colonialism and called attention to the negative effects of such relationship.

The US military’s ‘global defense posture” means more military intervention by seeking more access to more territories through “visiting” agreements, basing agreements, expansion of bases and waging both conventional and unconventional wars, thus undermining the sovereignty of peoples, denying them of their right to self-determination and of their patrimony.

Amidst global financial and economic crises that has shaken the whole world and the global superpowers led by the US and aided by its allies in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia and Japan, military build ups in the region continue. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have claimed thousands of lives especially from the civilian populations, are continuing. Apart from creating a culture of violence that especially affect women, youth and the elderly, environmental impacts have been noted by the participants, contributing significantly to the destruction of indigenous societies and global climate change. War exercises and trainings continue, in the name of the “anti-terrorism” campaigns in many parts of the world, particularly with former colonies in the Asia-Pacific region. We are aware that the legitimate actions against terrorist acts against the civilian populations are necessary, but must not be used as a pretext to justify military interventions that in the end terrorize civilian populations and create a culture of violence.

The US government in its realignment plan is expanding military power in Asia-Pacific, including the relocation plan of 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to Guahan that would go with building a new military facility in Okinawa. The meeting denounced this military expansion package plan in either place, and is firm in standing in solidarity with the Guahan people. The meeting forwards the following demands:

We ask women of “host” countries to push their governments to send foreign troops back to the US.

We urge the American people especially women to urge the US government for policies that respect the sovereignty of other countries and denounce the continuing wars of aggression and for demilitarization; instead the US government and its superpower allies to rechanneling a big portion of their military budgets towards health programs for its peoples especially women and children, for livelihood programs and secured jobs, and for the general welfare of their citizens.

Stop the expansion of bases in Guahan and other parts of the world!

End all military agreements that support US military hegemony!

Demand US responsibility to clean up the toxic wastes they left behind in the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

Pull out US troops from the Philippines and other countries!

More Responses to the DEIS

2009-12-03T16:30:00.001-08:00

DEIS States Marines Won't Increase Crime but Micronesian Migrants Will

Guam - Along with the Draft Environmental Impact Statement the military also conducted a stand alone study on the socio-economic impact of the military buildup. A section of the report covers how the buildup will impact crime and how the military believes young local men will test themselves against marines in fights.

The Department of Defense has identified several likely social impacts of the military buildup. According to the Draft EIS socio economic study marines will not have an impact on Guam's overall crime and social order. Instead the report states that other factors related to the buildup may cause this. In fact the report blames in-migrants from the Freely Associated States of Micronesia as the likely cause. Their numbers are expected to increase due to more job opportunities. According to the DEIS these migrants from within Micronesia "have high crime rates associated with adapting to less traditional social structures"

University of Guam instructor Victoria Leon Guerrero says this is a surprising take on the marines impact to crime considering the fact that many Okinawan protests against the marines were fueled by instances of rape and violence. She says that by not taking any responsibility for the possible increase in crime instead blaming Micronesian immigrants the DEIS is “...insulting to our region”.

University of Guam instructor Michael Lujan Bevacqua says that the assumption that Micronesians will raise the crime rate rather than the marines even borders on racism. In fact he says “In some places it would be considered racist”. Bevacua adds that this is obviously scapegoating certain populations and that finding a scapegoat is one of the roots of racism.

While the report lays most of the blame of crime on Micronesian migrants in the very next paragraph it admits that there is “...a potential for more prostitution, alcohol or substance abuse and family violence associated with young military populations (including sailors taking shore leave after weeks at sea)”.

As for the potential of violence and fights the Department of Defense attributes most of the blame to the local population. The DEIS states "The particular reputation of marines as fighters could well trigger a transitional period of adjustment in which local young men test themselves against marines in fights" Bevacqua says this too is borderline racism adding that he's surprised that they can make these statements with a “..straight face”.

While the DEIS doesn't appear to own up to increased crime and violence it does admit that the expansion of non-chamorro voting populations could affect the proportion of chamorro office-holders and government workers. This could also affect the outcomes of any future votes about Guam's political status. Leon Guerrero says it's simply unjust to allow a transient population that is only here for a couple of years to affect the political status of and island like Guam. She adds that it takes away a human right that is reserved for the native Chamorro people.

Leon Guerrero encourages everyone to read as much of the Draft EIS as possible and then provide comments during the EIS comment period.

Written by :
Clynt Ridgell
Pacific News Center

Demonstration on 11/20 at ITC Intersection

2009-11-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20TH
4:00PM to
7:00 PM
at the ITC Intersection

For Immediate Release
from the Guåhan Coalition for Peace and Justice
November 18, 2009

EIS Process Worthy of ProtestCommunity to Respond this Friday
The Guåhan Coalition for Peace and Justice will lead the community in a response to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) scheduled for release this Friday, November 20.

The EIS is expected to report the impacts the proposed military build-up and population boom will have on Guam’s environment. However, it was not conducted in a manner that demonstrated a true assessment of the social, cultural and political implications an increased military presence will have on the island’s people. Local residents and their elected officials were largely excluded from the process of gathering information and making recommendations for this study.

The EIS is an 11,000-page document, and the community will have 90 days to respond. This does not provide a sufficient opportunity for local residents to thoroughly investigate its findings and voice their concerns. The Department of Defense is already finalizing their plans for the build-up, without first taking into consideration the comments and concerns from local residents and leaders. An 11,000-page visual will be presented at Friday’s event to represent the enormity of the EIS.

The Coalition, which is made up of grassroots organizations and individuals advocating for the political, cultural, social, environmental and human rights for the people of Guam, will gather at 4 p.m. Friday at the ITC intersection in Tamuning to express these and other concerns about the EIS.

When: Friday, November 20, 2009, 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Where: ITC Intersection
What: A Community Action Response to the Release of the EIS
Who: Guåhan Coaltion for Peace and Justice
For More Information: Call Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero at 735-2747 or email reclaimguahan@gmail.com

Famoksaiyan Wins Rising Peacemaker Prize

2009-11-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

On September 24th, 2009, the Chamorro organization Famoksaiyan received the Rising Peacemaker Prize from The Agape Foundation during the foundation's 40th Anniversary/5th Annual Peace Prize event at the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, CA. Each year, Agape commemorates the International Day of Peace by honoring peacemakers dedicated to nonviolent social change. The Rising Peacemaker Prize awards groups or individuals that have made a significant contribution, for five years or less, to create peace in their national or international communities. Famoksaiyan, which started in 2006 and translates into "the time or place of nurturing or growing" or "the time to paddle forward," has worked to effect positive change for Chamorro communities in the Mariana Islands and the United States. Nominated for the prize by Margo Okazawa-Rey, the group received a cash award as well as a contract with the media consultant group Spark Action. Angela Tennison, Jon Blas, and Craig Santos Perez represented Famoksaiyan at the event.

Recent Videos, Recent Events

2009-10-26T04:57:00.000-07:00

Ti Kabales

2009-10-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

This blog will be undergoing some changes for a little bit.

Famoksaiyan itself has been undergoing a bunch of changes and taking some breaks over the past year, and so now hopefully it'll be reconstituting itself.

The blog is being redone in order to prepare for that eventual return.

Bira magi ta'lo.

Information on War Reparations

2009-10-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

War Reparations is once again an issue in the US Congress. The National Defense Authorization Act is being debated in the conference committee, and is currently part of the House version of the bill, but not the Senate version. In the next day or so, a decision will be made about whether or not Chamorros get war reparations this time around, or have to wait once again.

***************

H.R. 2647 EH
TITLE XVI -- THE GUAM WORLD WAR II LOYALTY RECOGNITION ACT
111TH CONGRESS
- TITLE SUMMARY -

 On December 8, 1941, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Imperial Japanese forces attacked, invaded, and seized control of the island of Guam, a United States Territory. The island of Guam, inhabited by 22,000 U.S. nationals, was occupied for nearly three years. During this difficult and painful period, the people of Guam remained steadfastly loyal to the United States. For their loyalty and patriotism to the United States, they were subjected to public beheadings, beatings, rape, forced labor, and forced marches. In the closing days of the occupation, all residents were forced into concentration camps.

 Congress passed the Guam Meritorious Claims Act of 1945 within weeks after the termination of hostilities to provide “immediate relief to the people of Guam.”

 The 107th Congress passed the Guam War Claims Review Commission Act (P.L. 107-333) to establish a Commission to determine whether there was parity of war claims paid to the residents of Guam as compared with awards made to other similarly affected U.S. citizens or nationals during World War II.

 The Commission reported to Congress with findings and recommendations in 2004. The Commission found that:

o Congress was misinformed when it excluded Guam from coverage under Title II of the War Claims Act of 1948, further amended in 1962.

o The people in Guam did not receive the same compensation as other similarly affected U.S. citizens and nationals.

o The United States Government has a “moral obligation” to provide redress to the people of Guam.

 Title XVI is based upon the recommendations of the Guam War Claims Review Commission.

 In the 110th Congress, the House of Representatives passed the corresponding bill to Title XVI (then H.R. 1595) with over a two-thirds majority, with a recorded vote of 288 yeas to 133 nays. The Senate was unable to pass it before adjourning for the year.

 Congresswoman Bordallo reintroduced the bill in the 111th Congress as H.R. 44. The bill has the support of 88 bipartisan cosponsors. Prominent co-sponsors include the Chairman and past Ranking Members of the Committees on Natural Resources and the Judiciary, members of the leadership on both sides of the aisle, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

 H.R. 44 passed the House of Representatives with strong bi-partisan support on February 23, 2009. The final vote was 299 yeas to 99 nays.

San Diego Chamorro Language Survey Results Meeting

2009-09-19T21:06:00.001-07:00

Schedule of Events for Women's Conference

2009-09-13T00:35:00.000-07:00

7th MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF WOMEN AGAINST MILITARISM

CHinemma’, Nina’maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao
RESISTANCE, RESILIENCE, AND RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Location: University of Guam (Mangilao) & Carmel on the Hill Retreat Center (Malojloj), Guåhan
Dates: September 14-19, 2009
Sponsoring Organizations:Conscious Living; Famoksaiyan; Fuetsan Famalao’an; Guåhan Coalition for Peace and Justice; Guåhan Indigenous Collective; GUAHAN Project; Global Fund for Women; GFT Local Union; Office of Minority Health Resource Center; Sage Project, Incorporated; Women and Gender Studies Program, University of Guam

CONFERENCE AGENDA

September 14 (Monday) Pre-Conference Session
*Registration Required*
Location : Conference Room, Catholic Social Services

8:30am – 4:30pm
“Human Trafficking 101: Identifying Victims, Examining Policy Frameworks, and Building a Transnational Movement”
This workshop will present a general discussion of human trafficking, explore diasporic trends from Asia to other parts of the world, examine policy frameworks to effectively combat human trafficking, and identify steps towards building a transnational movement in the Asia-Pacific region.
Facilitated by: SAGE, Inc. [San Francisco, California]
Facilitators: Annie Fukushima [California], Aida Santos-Maranan [Philippines], and a Representative from South Korea

September 15 (Tuesday) Public Forum - Free Event
*No registration required*
Location : University of Guam

6:30pm – 8:30pm
“International Strategies of Resistance Promoting Human Rights”
Moderator: Jamela Santos
Presenters:
Suzuyo Takazato [Okinawa]
Representative [South Korea]
Carmen Valencia [Vieques, Puerto Rico]
Terry Keko’olani : DMZ Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina [Hawai'i]
Ana Maria Nemenzo [Philippines]

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 (Thursday) COMMUNITY CONFERENCE
*Registration Required Unless Stated Otherwise*
Location: Leon Guerrero Building Lecture Hall, University of Guam

8:30am – 8:40am
Welcoming Remarks: Dr. LisaLinda Natividad : Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice

8:40am – 9:15am
“Rethinking Peace and Security: Genuine Security
as Rooted in the United Nation’s Concept of Human Security”
Speaker: Dr. Gwyn Kirk : Women for Genuine Security [San Francisco, California]

9:15am – 11:45pm
Panel Presentation:
“Beyond the Military Economy: Exploring Alternatives for Sustainability”
Moderator: Sabina Perez
Presenters:
Alma Bulawan [Buklod, Philippines]
Dr. Hannah Middleton : Australian Anti-Bases Campaign [Sydney, Australia]
Dr. Miyumi Tanji : Curtin University of Technology [Perth, Australia]
Isabella Sumang [Republic of Belau]

11:45am – 12:45pm
LUNCH

12:45pm – 2:45pm
Panel Presentation:
“Environmental Contamination and Toxicity:
Reclaiming Our Physical Environments Through Clean-Up, Health and Healing Practices”
Moderator: Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero
Presenters:
You Kyoung Ko [South Korea]
Abacca Anjain-Maddison [Republic of the Marshall Islands]
Maria Reinat [Puerto Rico]
Dolly Yanan : Metro Subic Network [Philippines]

2:45pm – 3:00pm
BREAK

3:00pm – 4:30pm
Panel Presentation:
“Comparative Strategies to Promote Security for Women and Children”
Moderator: Nicole Santos
Presenters:
Suzuyo Takazato [Okinawa]
Representative : Fuetsan Famalao'an [Guåhan]
Corazon Lotlot Requirzo : Kaisa Ka [Philippines]

5:00pm Peace Walk (Free Event)
Location: Chief Kepuha Park, Hagåtña
Facilitator: Lisa Baza : Conscious Living [Guåhan]

SEPTEMBER 18, 2009 (Friday) COMMUNITY CONFERENCE
*Registration Required Unless Stated Otherwise *
Location: Carmel on the Hill Retreat Center, Malojloj
Focus: “Where do we go from here?”

8:00am – 8:30am
Registration and Continental Breakfast
Country Representatives’ breakfast meeting

8:30am – 9:00am
Welcoming Remarks and Review of day’s tasks

9:00am – 11:00am Panel Presentation (Free Event)
Location: Carmel on the Hill Retreat Center
“Human Trafficking and Prostitution: Towards a Woman-Centered Policy Framework”
Moderator: Dr. Vivian Dames
Presenters:
Annie Fukushima : University of California at Berkeley [United States]
Bok Nim Yu : Director, Dasi Hamkke Center [South Korea]
Aida Santos : WeDpro, Inc. [Philippines]
Lauri Ogumoro, Karidat Esperanza House [Commonwealth of the North Mariana Islands]
Sue Gilbey [Adelaide, Australia]

11:00am – 12:00pm
Regional/Country working group meetings to develop specific short-term and long-term goals

12:00pm – 1:30pm
LUNCH

1:30pm – 4:30pm
Connecting Regional/Country working group short-term and long-term goals; Setting national and international initiatives. Discussion of future actions.

4:30pm – 5:00pm
Conference Wrap Up & announcement of Art Celebration

6:30pm – 10:00pm Art Celebration (Free Event)
“Fuetsan I Lina’la’ : Famalao’an I Tano’ // Strength of Life : Women of the Land”
Women’s Exhibit, Music and Poetry, Sale of international women-made goods, film screening of Along the Fenceline: Women’s Voices on Peace and Security, Demilitarizing Fashion Show

7th Meeting of the International Network of Women Against Militarization

2009-08-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

7TH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF WOMEN AGAINST MILITARISM

Resistance, Resilience, and Respect for Human Rights
CHinemma’, Nina’maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao

Location: University of Guam, Mangilao, Guåhan
Dates: September 14-19, 2009

Women across the globe have endured tremendous struggles to protect their families and survive during times of war and unrest. It is from these struggles that women have gained the strength to fight for peace. This September, they will gather on the island of Guam for the 7th Meeting of the International Network of Women Against Militarism themed, “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights”.

The five-day conference will bring together women from Japan, Okinawa, South Korea, Hawaii, Philippines, Australia, Republic of Belau, Marshall Islands, Guam, United States, Puerto Rico and Saipan – all of whom have felt the tremendous impacts of US military bases in their homelands.

The International Network of Women Against Militarism has been meeting since 1997 to share information and strategize about the negative effects of US military operations. These effects include military violence against women and girls, the plight of mixed-race Amerasian children abandoned by US military fathers, environmental contamination, cultural degradation and the distortion of local economies. They focus on how military institutions, values, policies and operations impact communities, especially women.

The United States has had a strong military presence on Guam for more than a century, and occupies nearly one-third of the island. Guam, which has been dubbed “the tip of the spear” by the US Department of Defense, is in the midst of an unprecedented military build-up as the US plans to move 17,000 Marines and their dependents from Okinawa to the island. The conference comes at a critical time in Guam’s history, and aims to bring international attention to the concerns being raised about the proposed build-up.

The conference will feature workshops and public forums on human trafficking and prostitution; political arrangements with the United States; rethinking peace and security; exploring alternatives for economic sustainability; environmental contamination and toxicity; and much more.

There will also be a historical tour of the island; a community vigil to honor the past and heal for the future; a public art event featuring local and international artists; and many opportunities to network and establish goals for the future.

For more information please contact: Dr. LisaLinda Natividad at lisanati@yahoo.com or (671) 735-2962.

Sponsoring Organizations: Conscious Living; Famoksaiyan; Fuetsan Famalao’an; Guåhan Coalition for Peace and Justice; Guåhan Indigenous Collective; GUAHAN Project; Global Fund for Women; Office of Minority Health Resource Center; Sage Project, Incorporated; Women and Gender Studies Program, University of Guam.

Isla Para Ladrones

2009-07-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Click this link and check out below the lyrics for a beautiful song titled "Isla Para Ladrones" by the band J.R. Jones.

Its a contemporary sound, but with a curious ancient feel as well. Its a rock song about Chamorros and their long-standing struggles. The title for those who don't know refers to the name that Guam and Chamorros were given by the Spanish, which called them "thieves" and their land an island full of them.

This is a conscious song not just in the sense that it is a rethinking of history and culture and Chamorro identity, but that its also made with the explicit intent that it be used as a tool for the creating of consciousness and the supporting of movements on Guam and amongst Chamorros for their sovereignty and decolonization. According to the band's description this song is "dedicated to our ancestors and to the undying efforts of the Nasion Chamoru. Our intentions with this song is to help promote the spirit of the Nasion Chamoru and to increase an awareness of it's efforts."

Gof gefpa'go este fina'tinas-niha. Debi di ta sappote todu i artists kalang este siha.

***********************************

Isla Para Ladrones by J.R. Jones

Kahulu Chamoru, mungga manao
Fan hongge Chamoru, para I taotao (repeat)

In 1521, Magellan sailed the ocean blue
Landed on our island from whence the wind blew
Massacred our islands, burned our homes,
How can it compare to a boat, iron, and rope?
How could we defend against bullets and guns
Against armada fleets with slings and stone?
Branded by a name to last through all of time
Listen up manuelos we’re accused of a crime

Kahulu Chamoru, mungga manao

Pale San Vitores, Legaspi and his crew
Dubbed us thieves and savages, like animals in a zoo
La Islas La Drones is what we are named
For cultural clashes for the food and warmth we gave
These Euro-ruffians changed our sacred way of life
promoting new gods, new diseases and strife
Does this make us thieves, to be robbed of culture
A tiny spec of land amongst wolves and vultures

Kahulu Chamoru, mungga manao
Fan hongge Chamoru, para I taotao

In 1941 a new terror washed ashore
Pillaged our islands turned our beaches into gore
This beast from the east was unstoppable, too strong
Native naiveties could not fight what was wrong
They raped our daughters and they killed our sons
Slanted eyed aliens from the Land of the rising sun
How can we forgive all these crimes of war
Will it bring our chelus back from oh so very far?

Kahulu Chamoru, mungga manao
Fan hongge Chamoru, para I taotao
(repeat)

Finally, a friend came and gave us liberation
Red white and blue were there colors of his nation
This strange new creature seemed so friendly and so kind
Gave us his candy, made us drink his wine
Little did we know what intentions he had
Until we lost our culture, our government, our land
La Islas La Drones is the island for thieves
Hafa lai Chamoru ko pun sungun ha
este?

Kahulu Chamoru, mungga manao
Fan hongge Chamoru, para I taotao
(repeat)

Reclaim Guahan Rally a Success

2009-06-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

Youth Activists Take Center Stage
Monday, 25 May 2009
by Jude Lizama
Marianas Variety News Staff

EDUCATE, express, empower. This was the central theme of the Reclaim Guåhan Rally [Chule’ Tatte Guåhan] staged on Saturday by young activists at the Skinner’s Plaza in Hagåtña.

One of the event coordinators, Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero, expressed her sentiments about the ongoing military buildup, which many in the community see as a “done deal.”

“I’d like to challenge our community to begin to envision that it isn’t a done deal. We currently remain an unincorporated territory of the United States. We belong to but are not a part of the United States,” she said.

“If we, as a community, support the Chamorro people’s right to self- determination to choose our relationship with our without the United States, then we can change these things. We can stop things like the military buildup from happening.”

Leon Guerrero said the only way to stop the military buildup is to acknowledge that the local population is entitled to choose they want for their future and to be able to decide as a community.

Accompanying Leon Guerrero onstage was Krista Flores, from Mt. Carmel Catholic School, who read the “Collective Bill of Rights for Guåhan,” which was one of the class’ pre-graduation assignments.

The bill of rights drafted by MCS student states that “the people of Guam should always be free. The people can overrule the Department of Interior. The military should give back our land. We must keep the island clean and green. The elected governor should have to deliver on every promise made. The Guam flag will be raised above all other flags.”

Creative thinking

Amid talks of self-determination and indigenous rights, the rally also served as an outlet for community networking, platform for free thinking, enjoyment of art and literature, and an appreciation for the island’s different cultures.

“I’m very excited. I’m glad to be a part of something very positive, something that’s by the people and for the people. Basically, if it’s a good thing, I’m down; I’m in,” said Jovan Tamayo, who spoke with the Variety while contributing to a collective poem that was on display at the plaza. “I’d definitely like to help in any way that I can. That’s why I’m here, and I’d like to think that’s why everyone else is here as well.”

“Some of the organizers are good friends of ours. A lot of them are poets too,” said Melvin Won Pat Borja, Sinangån-ta Outreach coordinator. “When they were organizing this event, we heard that they wanted some youth poets since it is a youth rally.”

“It was good timing for us because we just finished up our program so we had our core base of poets that could do something like this,” he added.

Won Pat Borja said the rally sought to encourage critical thinking about the things that are happening around Guam.

“It feels really amazing. I’m not indigenous to the island. I’m Filipino. I’ve come to call the island home. Being a part of this really means a lot to me,” said John Norman Sarmiento, a member of Sinangån-ta Outreach.

“I’ve always wanted to help change the island ever since I was a little boy and I think doing this is a vehicle of change for me because we can reach out to the youth in so many different ways,” he said. “We’re teaching the youth in ways that teachers thought they could only do in classrooms. Like Melvin said, we’re proving that wrong.”

Young poet and Yona resident J Rae Tedtaotao read a powerful piece titled “Territory” written last April. “It fit the whole theme so I read it today,” she said.

“I’m really glad that a lot of people have come out. I’m honored to be up on the stage and speaking,” said Tedtaotao. “I call on anyone else to put your minds together, your writing, and do anything to express yourself and see what you can do to help our island and keep our culture alive.”

Reclaim Guahan

2009-05-16T18:19:00.001-07:00

Reclaim Guahan

2009-05-10T23:43:00.000-07:00

Reclaim Guåhan: Chule' Tatte Guåhan

A Community Rally to Educate, Express and Empower
Hosted by Guåhan Youth

Saturday, May 23
2:00pm - 8:00pm
Skinners Plaza

The people of Guam have been watching in silence as the future of our island drastically changes before our eyes. Due to our political status and current leadership, we have had little-to-no say in plans for our future.

A collective of youth and grassroots organizations have come together to organize a rally for change entitled “Reclaim Guåhan: Chule’ Tatte Guåhan.” The collective aims to break the silence and empower people to express what they envision for our island.

The rally will take place May 23, 2009 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Skinner’s Plaza and will feature honored speakers, poetry, local bands, art, film showings, carabao rides and much more. The rally will end with a candle light vigil at 7: 30 p.m.

“Reclaim Guåhan: Chule’ Tatte Guåhan” will be a space for education, expression and empowerment. The people of Guam are invited to:

• Learn about the most critical issues affecting our island, including political status, the military build-up, going green and protecting the land, the threats to Chamorro culture and ways of life, and the importance of uniting as a community during this time. Information tables with personal notes, creative work, research, documentaries, and other published literature pertaining to these issues will be available.

•Speak out on open mics and express things normally only discussed around the BBQ grill or in the outdoor kitchen (kusinan sanhiyong). Only there will be more people listening and sharing.

•Contribute to the “UNITED art PEACE,” a 12-by-6 foot wall for expression.

•Share and listen to stories from our past, and create stories for our present and future.

•Ask questions and seek answers from each other.

•Come together consciously to be more aware of how we exist as a people.

•Promote and practice unity by being open to different ideas and accepting of people's opinions.

•Take actions that will make a difference.

•Embrace diversity and celebrate the struggles we experience together.

For more information please email reclaimguahan@gmail.com.

Ceremony for Angel Santos

2009-04-12T22:22:00.001-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2009

Nasion Chamoru – A candlelight vigil will be held on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 6:00pm at the Angel L.G. Santos’ Latte Stone Park in Hagatna, Guam. Tomorrow marks Angel Santos’ 50th birthday and we will honor his life by coming together as an island community, to include a viewing of his life through his words. The entire island community is welcome to attend the service.

The late Senator Angel L.G. Santos sparked a movement of Chamoru consciousness that has lasted since his untimely passing in 2003. He has been credited with taking the risk of defying both local and federal government authorities and altering the thinking of the Chamoru people. He fought for the implementation of the Chamoru Land Trust Act, the return of excess federal lands, uncovered toxic wastes on private property kept quite by military authorities, wrote and lectured on the social injustices of the Chamoru people, and championed human rights especially for Indigenous Peoples from around the globe.

Santos died soon after spending half a year in a Federal Prison for a misdemeanor that of clearing the land his grandfather once owned but taken away by the Federal Government. His lasting legacy continues on through his words reminding us that

“We cannot be passive or silent when human beings endure suffering or humiliation. We must step forward and take sides.

We must assist immediately. At times, we may fail. At times, we may make mistakes. But we must never make the mistake of failing to try. People deserve nothing less.”

Santos is survived by his family and his children, Angel Ray Anthony Santos, IV, Sheila Marie Santos Indalecio, Christopher Ray Pangelinan Santos, Vanessa Joy Gumataotao Santos, Francince Nicole Gumataotao Santos (deceased), Brandon Scott Gumataotao Santos, Maga'Lahi Taga Hurao Santos-Salas, Ke’puha Hirao Santos-Salas, Sosanbra Elisha Santos-Salas.

Re-Intering of Ancient Chamorro Remains at the Fiesta Hotel

2009-03-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

On January 30th, 2009 the remains of 88 Ancient Chamorros which were discovered and unearthed during the remodeling of the Fiesta Hotel in Tumon were re-interned at a small monument near the hotel's parking lot. A ceremony was held in their honor, asking forgiveness for the desecration and also to honor them in their reburial.

Petition to Protect Dandan

2009-01-17T06:29:00.000-08:00

Please consider signing the petition below titled "To Prevent the Construction of a Mounded Landfill on top of Inarajan Watershed at Layon, in Dandan, Municipality of Inarajan." The full text of the petition is pasted below, but you can click here to sign it online.

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To: Attorney General of the U.S. & Department of Justice
A PETITION:
TO URGENTLY REQUEST THAT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IMMEDIATELY STOP ANY AND ALL FURTHER ACTION RELATIVE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF A LANDFILL ABOVE THE INARAJAN WATERSHET AT LAYON, IN DANDAN, MUNICIPALITY OF INARAJAN, UNITED STATES TERRITORY OF GUAM BASED ON THE ENUMERATED STATEMENTS OF FACT APPENDED HEREIN;

AND

TO URGENTLY REQUEST THAT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IMMEDIATELY INVESTIGATE INAPPROPRIATE ACTIONS TAKEN OR PERMITTED BY THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT, THE U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE IN GUAM, AND THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY-REGION NINE, RELATIVE TO FAILURE TO FOLLOW CONSENT DECREE REQUIREMENTS AND INTERFERING WITH AND IMPEDING THE ESTABLISHED STATUATORY PROCESS FOR PRIVATE ENTERPRISE TO DEVELOP A LANDFILL IN GUAM.

By affixing their signature to this petition, each of the undersigned petitioners agrees with and supports the following statements of fact relative to requesting a halt to any action relative to construction of a landfill above the Inarajan Watershed at Layon, in Dandan, Municipality of Inarajan, United States Territory of Guam:

1. ENDANGERMENT OF WATER RESOURCES.
The area in and around the selected landfill site has a number of rivers and tributaries flowing through it, all part of Inarajan Watershed. According to “Assessment of Viability of Ground Water and Surface Water Resources for the Guam Waterworks Authority Water Resources Master Plan” dated December, 2004, reservoirs placed at the Inarajan and Tinaga Rivers could produce a sustainable flow of nearly 8 million gallons of fresh water per day, enough to provide for 23% of Guam’s residents.

Chief Hydrogeologist Martin G. Steinpress of environmental engineers and consultants Brown and Caldwell (B&C) wrote the following to the General Manager of Guam Waterworks Authority.

(a) “Although GWA’s Fena surface water reservoir and Ugum diversion currently supply southern Guam, future needs may require groundwater development. Since groundwater beneath Layon falls within the G-1 Resource Zone category, it must be protected to drinking water quality standards.”

(b) “The SEIS acknowledges that the Inarajan River has been identified as potential site for a surface water dam and/or reservoir. SEIS Figure 3-1 also shows proposed reservoir and/or diversion sites on the Tinago River…both of these proposed sites would be downstream of the proposed landfill site.”

(c) “In spite of the SEIS claim that “no plans are currently in place to develop groundwater or surface water supplies in the Layon Area…GWA considers (the Inarajan and Tinago Rivers) as potentially viable and necessary for the future water supply needs. In fact, the pre-draft Guam Water Budget Report…recommends that consideration be given to investigating the feasibility of diversions at other rivers in addition to the Ugam…”

A landfill located in this area could potentially endanger a valuable source of fresh water for Guam’s future growth and development. Placing the landfill over this precious natural resource would be as foolish as placing the landfill over Guam’s northern aquifer.

2. VIOLATIONS OF EXISTING PUBLIC LAWS. THE CONSENT DECREE REQUIRES THAT ALL LOCAL LAWS BE FOLLOWED.

(a) Public Law 23-95, enacted in 1996, and amended in 2008 by Public Law 29-116 clearly identifies the exact location for the sanitary landfill, Parcel B of Lot No. 439-R1, Guatali, Santa Rita, Guam. This law has not been amended or repealed to change the designated site for the landfill and the Legislature has reaffirmed, in P.L. 29-116, that the Guatali site is the only authorized site for a landfill in Guam. The Consent Decree (CV-02-00022) requires that all local laws be followed.

(b) Guam EPA and Public Works violated the site selection process required by the Consent Decree (CV-02-00022), by selecting only a single final site instead of three (3) final sites as required. The Sabanan Batea and Lomfit sites that were listed with Layon/Dandan by Guam EPA and Public Works were never eligible to be considered as landfill sites.

(c) The 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) designating the Layon/Dandan site is invalid. Only the Legislature is authorized to designate Guam’s landfill site. The Consent Decree requires that all local laws be followed.

(d) The 2006 SWMP which requires an Economic Impact Statement (EIS), for all costs to the public of over Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000) did not include an Economic Impact Statement, but did contain a certification by the Guam EPA administrator that it would not cost the general public in excess of $500,000. The estimated cost of the landfill alone is approximately $190 Million.

(e) Guam law requires the Administration to produce an EIS in the year following its submission if one does not accompany the SWMP. No EIS has been produced to date, in violation of local law. The Consent Decree requires that all local laws be followed.

3. IMPROPER ATTEMPTS BY U.S. EPA AND THE U.S. ATTORNEY TO VIOLATE THE INTENT OF THE CONSENT DECREE AND TO BLOCK FREE ENTERPRISE IN GUAM.

(a) An email, dated November 29, 2007, from Pankaj Arora of U.S. EPA – Region 9, Superfund Division in San Francisco, CA, to the Administrator and staff of Guam EPA, who hold the responsibility of reviewing permit applications to build a privately owned landfill, is evidence of U.S. EPA’s determination to block free enterprise. These Federal entities have placed pressure on Guam EPA to keep a private company from starting a legitimate business so that the Federal government can force the Government of Guam to build a landfill in an inappropriate site. The subject line of the email is “Review of Guatali documents,” and the email states in part:
“I would like to re-emphasize one issue that has been on the table for a few weeks now. According to USEPA (U.S. Govt.) Dandan is the selected site for the new landfill. The Dandan site was proposed by GovGuam under the Consent Decree and accepted by the US as part of the Consent Decree. Therefore, there should not be any confusion about the Dandan site being the new landfill site.

“Last week, I was surprised to see that a permit application was submitted to Guam EPA for the Guatali site. The permit application ties the Guatali site to the Consent decree. This is unacceptable to the US. As stated earlier, Dandan is the site for the new landfill that was proposed by GovGuam and accepted by the US. Please ensure that Guam EPA is working under the guidelines and requirements of the Consent Decree.”

(b) Attached to Mr. Arora’s email was an email from Mikel W. Schwab, US Attorney, Civil chief, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Guam & the NMI, U.S. Department of Justice, to instruct Guam EPA. In part it reads as follows:
“Pankaj,
“It has to be understood that there is no more debate about where the site will be. To comply with the Consent Decree the site chosen, Dan Dan, must remain the focus of all efforts.”
“If the Government of Guam wants to pursue a ‘waste to energy’ scheme, they are free to do so. But, that has nothing to do with, and cannot distract from, their obligation under Federal Court Order to open the landfill at Dandan.”
“If anyone is attempting to go back to the debate and search phase about where the landfill should be placed, they are in defiance of the Consent Decree. They are also indulging in the malady that has led us to this problem. A correct and proper decision has been made and it will be enforced by the Federal Court.”
“Dandan is the location of the new landfill that the Government of Guam must build.”

Through these e-mails, and perhaps through other e-mails and by other means, the U.S. EPA and U.S. Attorney have instructed Guam EPA to deprive a private business of its right to pursue a landfill at Guatali, which violates Section 10(b) of the Consent Decree that states:
“…upon the opening of a properly licensed and permitted municipal solid waste
landfill…no further dumping of any kind will be permitted at the Ordot Dump.”
This does NOT state that it must be a Government of Guam municipal solid waste landfill. In fact, nothing in the Consent Decree states that the landfill CANNOT be privately owned.

These actions are also a violation of several Guam public laws, including P.L. 23-95 and P.L. 29-116. The Consent Decree (CV-02-00022) requires that all local laws be followed.

4. PROHIBITIVBELY ENORMOUS COSTS TO THE PEOPLE OF GUAM.
In addition to the extremely expensive landfill that is required to be constructed over an important source of fresh water, a landfill at Layon/Dandan will place an incredible strain on infrastructure designed for rural traffic on a tropical island, not heavy industrial traffic as a landfill will require. Less than 10% of Guam’s population travels on Inarajan’s scenic primary and secondary roadways on a daily basis, and the roads are woefully inadequate to support the increase in volume of traffic and weight of the vehicles that will need to have access to a landfill at Layon/Dandan on a daily basis. Virtually all roads are two lanes, one in each direction. Shoulders are often non-existent, and bridges are unsuitable for a constant flow of heavy trucks and equipment. The massive infrastructure upgrades necessary to replace bridges, install traffic signals, acquire easements to widen and improve roadways and turning lanes and to create new shoulders for highways from Agat south to Inarajan and Layon, and then north to Yona, including the Cross Island Road, in order to accommodate the massive increase in volume of traffic solid waste is transported from all over the island, and from the military bases, to the site, will cost Guam’s people many hundreds of millions of dollars.

5. HARMING SOUTHERN GUAM AS A TOURIST DESTINATION AND ATTRACTION.
Tourism is Guam’s most important industry. Southern Guam is one of our island’s greatest tourist attractions. The south is the most picturesque area of our island and the lifestyle in the south still portrays much of the traditional Chamorro culture, as compared to the very urbanized lifestyle in northern Guam. Much of what makes the south unique and attractive would be lost with the establishment of a landfill that is visited daily by dozens of heavy, foul-smelling garbage trucks on formerly scenic and charming roads and bridges that have been “modernized” into steel, concrete and asphalt monoliths to accommodate the landfill.

Sincerely,

Huntan Manamoru Mina'dos

2008-12-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

"Mina'dos na Huntan Manamoru: Huntan i Manamoru ni' Pumetsisigi Dinitetminan Maisa." In these videoes we see Dr. Lisa Natividad and Senator Ben Pangelinan speaking at the Chamoru Summit II, held on October 25, 2008 at the University of Guam Lecture Hall. Dr. Natividad was one the organizers for the event and Senator Pangelinan is the chair for the committee responsible for revitalizing the decolonization registry on island.

Guam/Delegation United Nations Report Back, San Francisco, CA

2008-11-12T21:08:00.000-08:00