Recently some people started sharing some articles on Facebook from old websites that I used to run such as The Chamorro Information Activists and Minagahet Zine. When I went back to read over some of what they shared, I could feel waves of nostalgia washing over me. These were the days when I was first starting as an activist and working with others for the first time, organizing things and trying to develop our ideas. I cringe when I read some of it because my positions have changed or I have learned more about certain topics.

I've decided to start up a new recurring post series on this blog called "Fanhokkayan" or "Collection." Since these websites are no longer active, no longer being actively updated, they sit there online, and are occasionally visited by students conducting research for their papers. I worry sometimes that at some point they will disappear and they provide an interesting snapshot of Chamorro issues at a particular moment in my life and in time in general.

For the first post in this series I wanted to share something I randomly found on the internet in the days when it was channeled into computers via creaking and squeezing router machines. I was at that time still learning to speak and write Chamorro and I was desperate to find whatever I could that was written in the Chamorro language. I was searching around on the internet for various things, using search engines like Lycos or Northern Lights. I didn't find much, Chamorro in the states at that time had a far greater online network, although interestingly enough in those days the political status task forces for Statehood and Free Association both had websites. That is why I was amazed when I came across this, what I have pasted below, a Chamorro translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Gi ayu na tiempo, na'manman i sinedda'-hu. Ti hongge'on na guaha chumo'gue este. Ti hu tungo' håyi, lao hu gof agradesi. 

The spelling is very Spanish influenced and doesn't follow the standardized orthography, so I wondered who had done the translation. Was is someone in the Department of Chamorro Affairs? From the Commission on Decolonization or Self-Determination? From the Governor's office or the Legislature? The United Nation's website indicates that it was submitted in 1998. It was part of a project to translate this foundational document in the modern world into every major language. You can download it on this page, and it indicates that in 1998 there was 78,000 Chamorro speakers in the world. Na'triste este sa' mas menos på'go. Gi kana' bente na såkkan, manaigue 50,000 na fifino' Chamorro. 

Below is the Chamorro text for the declaration. Look forward to more Fanhokkayan examples in the near future as I head down my Chamorro activist memory lane. 

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Hu gof agradesi i sinaonaon este na kandidatu gi i Inadaggao Lengguahen Chamoru gi ma'pos na simana. Mas ki dos siento na taotao manannok ya ma ekungok este na ocho mamfino' Chamomorro put diferentes takhilo' na asunto gi kumunidåt-ta på'go. Hu nå'i este siha dångkolu na respetu. Magof hu na bei anunsia na in kekeotganisa un otro na dinanña' taiguni para i otro'ña na simåna. Siempre bei na'huyong i infotmasion på'go pat agupa'. Biba Chamorro! Biba Chamorro Studie gi UOG!

Si Yu'os Ma'ase to the candidates who participated in the Inadaggao Lengguahen Chamoru held last week at the University of Guam and organized by students from the Chamorro Studies Program. They are from left to right in this photo: Senator Tom Ada, Senator Rory Respicio, Senator Dennis Rodriguez, Joe San Agustin, Wil Castro, Fernando Esteves, Eric Palacios and Senator Mary Torres. Due to the community response, a second Chamorro language forum may be scheduled for later this month.

Este na klasen tinige' siha muna'magof yu'. Guaha na biahi ti komprendeyon nu Guahu si Donald Trump. Gof annok nu Guahu na racist pat misogynistic gui' ya gof guinaiya gui' ni' i manggaichinatli'e' nu otro rås pat klasen taotao. Lao i meggaiña gi media, ti manmalago' ma sångan enao. Ti manmalago' ma admite enao. 

Pues ya-hu este na klasen tinige', sa' i tumutuge' (ko'lo'lo'ña i famalao'an) ma såsangan i minagahet put si Donald Trump. 

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"Trump is Being Outplayed by Women - And He's Losing His Mind Over It"
by Joan Walsh
The Nation
September 30, 2016

You’ve heard of the 3 am phone call, the one every presidential nominee must be prepared to answer ably. Now we have the 3 am tweet storm, where the would-be leader of the free world melts down at the temerity of mere women to challenge his political dominance.

Four days after his pathetic debate performance, Donald Trump is still digging himself deeper down the hole that Hillary Clinton dispatched him to on Monday night when she disclosed his racist and sexist treatment of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. He didn’t deny Clinton’s claims that he’d fat-shamed his employee, calling her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”; he essentially confirmed it, telling Fox and Friends the next morning that she’d gained weight and it was a problem for him. Then his allies began attacking Machado for rumors that she’d been involved in a murder plot—she was never charged, with anything—and in the porn trade. The story’s latest twist is Trump’s meltdown in the wee small hours of Friday morning, attacking both Clinton and Machado on Twitter, and urging his 11 million followers to look at a “sextape” of Machado (one that Snopes.com says doesn’t actually exist).

We already know the Trump phenomenon channels the tremendous and tragic backlash to the advancements of women and people of color in the last few decades. The folks in those “Make America Great Again” hats are almost always white and usually male. They are in thrall to a reassuring story that restores men to the head of society and whites to their central, superior place. Sure, there’s a strain of economic anxiety that reflects troubling economic trends for the white working class over the last 40 years. But Trump is also relying on male anger at female advancement.

His serial adultery and his swaggering misogyny are key to his appeal to some older white men.
But they’re appalling to women of every race and age group, who are coming to see Trump as the belittling boss and callow playboy who shames employees, wives, and daughters alike with cruel or crude comments about their appearance. The notion of a man who is clinically obese fat-shaming a beautiful but curvy young woman exemplifies the double standard that reduces women to their youth and beauty, but allows men (especially wealthy ones) a lifetime of presumed virility and social prestige.

Throughout her campaign against Trump, Clinton has tried to channel the backlash to the backlash, with ads featuring women reading Trump’s own sexist words, and maybe most affectingly, showing young girls looking at themselves in the mirror, as the GOP nominee’s sexist insults play in the background. The campaign clearly invited this latest clash with Trump over Machado—it had an ad featuring her story ready for release the morning after the debate. But I’m not sure anyone dreamed Trump would cooperate so willingly with their ploy.

Or maybe they did. It’s clear that Trump is coming undone by the notion that these two women—one “fat,” the other old, both past their sell date in the eyes of Trump and men like him—are not hiding somewhere in shame, maybe laboring quietly in the back office of one of his golf clubs where no one can see them, but out in the public square trying to bring him down. One is even beating him in the race for president, though the polls remain lamentably close.

With his campaign in free fall this week, Trump’s staffers are fighting—again—and sending mixed messages about whether his doubling down on Machado was a mistake (nominal campaign manager Kellyanne Conway admitted as much on The View; Newt Gingrich is backing his buddy). They also circulated talking points that urged surrogates to begin the lurid attacks on Bill Clinton’s infidelity Trump promised to launch earlier in the campaign.

“Mr. Trump has never treated women the way Hillary Clinton and her husband did when they actively worked to destroy Bill Clinton’s accusers,” the memo read, according to CNN. It prepares surrogates for questions about whether they’re blaming a wife for a husband’s bad behavior. “Are you blaming Hillary for Bill’s infidelities? No, however, she’s been an active participant in trying to destroy the women who has come forward with a claim,” they are told to say. But so far even the Clinton-unfriendly media isn’t convinced: They’re framing Trump’s desperate reliance on Bill Clinton’s behavior as, yes, “blaming Hillary for Bill’s infidelity.” This will enrage Trump even more.

It’s no accident that three of Trump’s victims—Machado, the Khan family, and Judge Gonzalo Curiel—are not white. Hostility to minorities is the animating energy of the campaign. But the candidate’s derangement over Machado surpasses his prior breakdowns—for a good reason. A woman he once controlled, quite literally—making her exercise in front of the media, to prove she was taking his demands to lose weight seriously—is defying him publicly. Another woman, Hillary Clinton, refused to slink into obscurity after her husband humiliated her (last year Trump shared a fan’s tweet asking, “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?”) and is currently leading him in the race for the presidency.

As Trump reflexively lashes back at these two noncompliant women, millions of other women are seeing the sort of man who’s kept them back, on the job and sometimes at home, and they’re appalled. During a campaign in which she has occasionally struggled with a lack of enthusiasm, she is getting a great gift from her opponent. Women voters outnumber men, and Clinton is counting on most of them to want to humiliate a chronic humiliator—at the polls.

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 Donald Trump has a bad history with women. Will voters care?
by Jessica Valenti
The Guardian/UK
May 19, 2016

In the strange tale of Donald Trump’s rise to power, it makes sense that women’s votes are thought to be what will stop him from winning the White House. It would be poetic justice: the candidate who speaks about women as objects and animals – the man known for “personally evaluating” pageant contestants and commenting on female employees’ weight – losing with the largest gender gap in voting history.
 
It’s a nice story, one I quite like. But this hopeful happy ending isn’t a given – and if the general election becomes a referendum on how tolerable Americans find sexism, we may find that the answer doesn’t match the optimistic stories we tell ourselves.

While feminism is wielding more cultural power than it has in decades, women’s gains in the US have historically been followed by periods of backlash. Some voters will see Trump’s comments about women not as mistreatment, but as a refreshing counter to “PC culture” run amok.

Republican leaders are already signaling that they’re ready to gloss over Trump’s sexism. When asked about a New York Times piece outlining Trump’s treatment of women over the years, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus responded that “people just don’t care” about the issue. And this week, Fox News televised Trump making nice with Megyn Kelly, the pundit Trump has called a “bimbo” and suggested was tough on him during a debate because she was menstruating.

In the meantime, Democrats seem to be under the mistaken impression that merely showcasing Trump’s sexism is enough to sway Americans. But in the wake of Bernie Sanders supporters leaving death threats and misogynist slurs on a Nevada official’s voicemail, it’s become harder to ignore the pernicious gender issues that plague the left.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign needs to explain to voters why they should care about Trump’s misogyny – and misogyny in general – and talk about the impact it could have. Because sexism knows no party, and some of those irate male Sanders fans could make their way to Trump instead of supporting Clinton (something Trump’s campaign is prepared for.)

It’s true, the vast majority of Democratic voters aren’t misogynists. But they’re not all feminists either. If the Democratic elite assumes that all liberal voters are outraged by sexism, they’ll be making the same devastating miscalculation the GOP elite did when they assumed Republican voters were tied to the same conservative ideals they cared about.

The media needs to continue to report on how horrible Trump is on women’s issues in both his political and personal life, and Democrats need to hammer home why that matters to the daily lives of all Americans. We can’t afford to be overly optimistic on how much this message will resonate without a national conversation about gender, power and politics. Not if we want our fairytale ending.

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 Donald Trump, Groper in Chief
by Nicholas Kristoff
New York Times
October 7, 2016





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Donald and Billy on the bus
by Ruth Fremson
New York Times
October 8, 2016



“This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”
— Donald Trump, apologizing(?) for leaked footage of him talking to Billy Bush in 2005, saying that, among other things, “when you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything… Grab them by the p—y,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”

Ah, yes, just locker room banter. As far as I can tell, the conversations in men’s locker rooms all must go something like this.

It must be nice to have a magical room where you can go, drop your pants and pretend for a few glorious hours that women are not people.

A repellent, but remarkably unexamined, idea that we carry around in society with us is the notion that somehow this is okay. That this is just boys being boys. That we must give boys a safe, unpolluted, secret space where they can stop the exhausting charade of acting as though women contain the same internal worlds that they do themselves.

This is what it gets back to: the idea that men are people, and women are just women.

Of course what Donald Trump said is awful. But, as Kelly Oxford noted on Twitter, it’s the fact that Billy Bush just nodded along that gives us rape culture.

It’s the idea that boys will be boys, and it does not matter what you leave in your wake, because you are the protagonist of this story, and the girl is just … an appealing body, to be discussed and dissected at leisure when you are back in one of the myriad locker rooms of daily life. If that.

This is egregious, but it is not isolated. It’s every time the Serious Concern is that a young man’s life might theoretically be ruined — by the act of punishing him for what he did to ruin someone else’s life. It’s every time someone talks about how awful something would be if it happened to your wife or your daughter or your mother — instead of just to you, to a person. Every time women’s existence is limited to their relationship to men. Every time women are treated merely as gatekeepers of sex, a resource that is somehow obtainable without the enthusiastic participation of another person who might have opinions on the matter. Every time men don’t read books by women, every time boys can’t find it in themselves to identify with a female protagonist. Every time people look at a movie with one woman in it and nine men and say “yes, this seems fine.” Every time we say to little girls in countless ways that what matters is how you look, not what you think.

Some of these things seem smaller than others, but every tiny detail adds up to a terrifying denial of the idea that women have the same kind of internal reality that men do. And that gets us to conversations like this and thoughts like this.
That’s the world where Donald Trump lives: a world where men are people, and women are women. Not quite people. Something different. That’s why Trump was always famously telling female employees that a man was better than a woman, but that a good woman is better than 10 good men.

 Would you say this about any other category of person and treat it like a compliment? No, of course you would not.
He lives in a world where the highest compliment you can give a woman — even your own daughter — is that you would sleep with her. And it’s not creepy, because — well, what else might a woman possibly want?

That is the awful thing about this conversation. It is not that it is especially lewd, although it is. It is not that it is violent and awful and wrong, although it is. It is the fact that it is, within certain circles, still quite normal. It’s the fact that Donald Trump used, as a defense, the idea that he’d said much worse.

It’s the fact that when Billy Bush heard him, Bush did not stop the bus they were riding on and say, “MY GOD, MAN, YOU ARE SICK! THIS IS SICK! THIS IS AWFUL!” He nodded. He laughed. You had the sense that Donald Trump could have escalated still further — past non-consensually grabbing people by the p—y (that’s sexual assault, by the way) — and into building himself a coat from female skin before Bush would have begun pushing back.

And even then, he might just have giggled.

If you are interested in purchasing the new Chamorro/English children's book Sumahi and the Karabao or the new Chamorro/English comic book Makåhna, head over to the website:

The Guam Bus

This is a new venture that my brothers and I recently started, where we aim to finally find an outlet for all the creativity that we were blessed to be born with. These two items, the book and the comic are just the start. We are already working on other texts. I'm actually writing the next book right now between blog posts. Stayed tuned to the website above and this space in general for more updates.

In the meantime, we have been fortune enough to have received some local media coverage about our books. See the articles from The Pacific Daily News and The Guam Daily Post below. Si Yu'us Ma'ase to Lacee Martinez and Amber Word for their articles!

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Bevacqua brothers join forces to create Chamorro-language books as The Guam Bus
by Lacee A.C. Martinez
Pacific Daily News
October 13, 2016

Take a triad of brothers with creative talent and passion for the island and you've got The Guam Bus.
Brothers Michael, Jack and Jeremy Lujan Bevacqua are the creative collective behind two very different publications steeped in Chamorro culture.

Michael Bevacqua, the oldest of the three, is a prominent Chamorro language and culture advocate, who helped launch the Chamorro Studies Program at the University of Guam back in 2013. He's also an admitted nerd who gets to marry a couple of his passions together with The Guam Bus.

"People say the Chamorro language is in dire straights and it's being threatened today," Michael Bevacqua says. "It's because people associate those things with old things. Young people don't want to speak the Chamorro language because they associate it with their grandparents or church or elders talking to each other at one corner of the party. It doesn't necessarily connect to them and the way they see the world."

That's where The Guam Bus comes in with the children's book "Sumåhi and the Karabao" and the bilingual comic book "Makåhna." They're both illustrated and written in a way to relate to those more in tune with today's pop culture.

Carabao tales

The children's book is inspired by Michael Bevacqua's then-infant daughter Sumåhi. It follows the little girl, decked in diapers and baby mittens, as she interacts with a carabao from Chamorro Village.
"The carabao tells her all these stories about what role carabaos played in the Chamorro culture over time," Michael Bevacqua says. "Some of them are based on historical fact and some of them are more fanciful things, more legendary stuff."

There's a story about a carabao who got blown all the way to Rota in a Typhoon, another of the legend of why the carabao and cow have different skins.

"There's a story of a guy who tried to take his carabao into the movie theater one time because he wanted his carabao to watch a cowboy movie," Michael Bevacqua says. "All of these different things are collected from historical research or just research from the elders. For example, the story about the carabao who'd race. Before, they'd have carabao races on the island. All of these things want to bring a little bit of humor but also history, language, cultural elements."

Jack Lujan illustrated the tales of carabao and girl.

Comic book

The Guam Bus takes a big turn for an older audience with "Makåhna."

"It's still bilingual and still very much in line in the Chamorro culture," Michael Bevacqua says. "This is meant to be fantastical, epic look into the Chamorro past."

The word "makåhna"  translates into something like "wizard" or "sorcerer," leading into a story about two makåhna engaging in an ancient battle.

"The two people have magical powers, one who can control the animals and one who can control the elements," Michael Bevacqua says. "As you go through it, you can see both of them as they go back and forth as to whose village is more superior."

Jack Bevacqua illustrated the dark, cross-hatched and mysterious brawls. Initially, he drew out the comic book with all of the sound effects written in English.

Youngest brother

Brother Jeremy Bevacqua is the youngest of the trio, a writer and musician who will begin working on a Chamorro alphabet book.

Although he's not as fluent in the language as his brother is, he shares the same passion to bring more Chamorro stories forward, just like his big brother.

"Promoting the Chamorro culture is very important," Jeremy Bevacqua says. "We need to create art. Not just art, but music as well. I think it's promoting art from Guam, promoting Chamorro culture. ... More stories and any local media are very important in creating more sense of identity in the young population and reminding older generations about it."

The Bevacquas are grandsons of the late Joaquin Flores Lujan, better known as Tun Jack, a legendary Chamorro master blacksmith. The three grew up both in the mainland and in Guam. While here, they'd always stay in the same household with their Chamorro grandparents.

Decided to own it

Their collective name The Guam Bus is sort of an inside joke between the brothers.

"Whenever we would go to family functions or reunions, ... it's very white and not particularly connected to Guam," Michael Bevacqua says. "We would always be identified as the Guam boys because we were the Bevacquas from Guam. We kind of get irked because every time we'd be at one of those things, our dad would yell out: "The Guam bus is leaving!" and we would get so irritated. We would all tease each other over the years when we'd be leaving that the Guam bus is heading out now. We decided to own it. It's also a nice metaphor for a creative company. Come and take a ride on The Guam Bus."

The Guam Bus publications are expected to hit local stores soon, but you can order items off its website at theguambus.com.

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 "New Works by the Guam Bus hit local bookshelves"
 Words and Images by Amber Word
For the Sunday Post
10/13/16

Perched behind a stack of original abstract art, comic books and a colorful ensemble of other authored works, excitement and a keen intellect shone out of Michael Bevacqua’s eyes. “We are a trio of creatives,” he explained.

A staple in the Chamorro culture and language scenes, Bevacqua’s most recent project, The Guam Bus, also incorporates the work of his two brothers, Jack and Jeremy. As a "creative collective based out of Guam, [we are] focused on making creative stories about and for the island.” The Guam Bus aims to generate interesting content and, whenever possible, use Chamorro language and culture.
They began this adventure with the release of their first comic book, “Makåhna,” written by Michael and illustrated by Jack. And yes, even the onomatopoeia sound effects are in Chamorro (like palas for SPLASH). It breathes new life into the heroic past of Guåhan, with the added accent of artistic imagination. This graphic tale of a battle between Chamorro wizards aims to go beyond simply exciting and entertaining its readers; “Makåhna” strives to redefine the role of Chamorro legends and heroes by bringing them into the modern day, taking them from a static idea of the past and recognizing that, “whether our history gets longer and more textured, more nuanced and more full of life, or becomes stale, mafnas, empty and meaningless, depends upon what we do ourselves,” Michael told the Sunday Post.

On a more playful note, The Guam Bus has also released its first children’s book, titled “Sumahi and the Karabao.” The protagonist of the book is a darling Chamorrita in diapers, and was modeled after Bevacqua’s now nine-year-old daughter, Sumahi. She is taken on wild adventures of the mind with her karabao friend, Echong. Each little karabao tale is inspired by “real-life/real-imagined” stories told by Guam’s own manåmko. Bevacqua was the first to admit that his research as a Micronesian Studies graduate student served as the perfect excuse to sit down and absorb these fun-filled stories from his elders. “I really just wanted to talk to old people,” he said.

Bevacqua fondly recalls one such tale, recited to him in his Uncle Juan’s two-room concrete home involving a karabao that snuck into a movie theater to watch an old cowboy movie. The tale is captured perfectly in the vibrant pages of the book, illustrated in a way that is “friendly to the children of today.”

What’s in store for The Guam Bus? Their next release also enlists the talent of Jeremy, the third brother in their trio. This book, titled “Roque Babauta,” puts a spin on the issues of political status and decolonization. They also plan to release a second comic before the end of the year. If you’re looking to score yourself a copy or two, check out their website, www.theguambus.com.

The issue of Governor Calvo "deporting" people (primarily) from the FSM has been one of those issues that I wish I was following more closely, but haven't been able to. I've collected some articles here offering basic timelines and info over the past few months. I look forward at some point in the future writing more about this, as it goes right to the heart of Guam's status as a continuing colony, whereas the other islands in Micronesia have been able to move towards a greater sense of self-government. This exasperates and complexifies the long-standing problem of whether or not Chamorros and others on Guam identify as being Micronesian, being part of Micronesia or being anything other than Pacific Islander Americans. Gaige iya Guahan giya Micronesia. Lao atan i sinangån-ta yan i kustumbre-ta? Kao ta na'magågahet este na ideha? Lao achokka' siña ta sångan na gaige hit gi halom este na hinekkan isla, ti mamparehu hit gi pulitikat na bånda. Manggaipodet siha komo nasion, lao tåya' iyo-ta. Guaha ma såsangan na fumofo'na hit, sa' mas hihot gi i Amerikanu. Lao atan, gi banda sovereignty, mantinatatte.

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Calvo's Prisoner Removal: What's his goal and what's his process?
by John O'Connor
The Guam Daily Post
October 23, 2016

Back in June, two individuals from the Federated States of Micronesia allegedly assaulted two police officers at the Hemlani Apartments. About three weeks later, a man found himself with a one-way plane ticket destined for Chuuk. Yet Ninton Hauk, the man sent home, had nothing to do with the incident at Hemlani. (He was, however, in prison at the time for other crimes, including assault on a peace officer as a third-degree felony.) Instead, Hauk’s removal served as Governor Eddie Calvo’s test case for a policy designed to “protect the health and interest of all the people of Guam” through the removal of non-U.S. citizen prisoners incarcerated by the Guam Department of Corrections. Depending on who you ask, Hauk was either lucky or unlucky enough to have been caught up in outside circumstances resulting in the commutation of his sentence in exchange for agreeing to permanently leave Guam.

Since then, the governor has “deported” 11 more non-citizen convicts from the island, while a twelfth has had his sentence commuted and is in federal custody awaiting removal. The governor initially referred to these actions as deportations until Attorney General AG Barret-Anderson advised him that he does not have the authority to deport foreign nationals. Like governors of U.S. states, however, he does posses the power to pardon and commute the sentences of GDOC prisoners. And from his view, if he managed to convince prisoners to leave Guam in exchange for commutation, well… that is something else entirely.

Calvo has claimed these recent actions as a remedy to purported federal inaction regarding the alleviation of financial stresses on the local government related to immigration from some neighboring nations. While the Hemlani Apartments incident may have been the breaking point for the governor – who also called for the deportation of two individuals allegedly involved in the incident, even though they hadn't been convicted – a neglectful federal government remains a popular talking point in local politics that makes for an easy enough punching bag during an election year. Simmering resentment among locals toward Micronesian immigrants, in particular those of Chuukese descent, could also play into Calvo’s political motives, say some critics.

Costs of COFA

Compacts of free association (COFA) between the United States and the FSM, the Republic of Palau, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands allow citizens from these nations to live and work in the U.S. as legal nonimmigrants. Federal law provides at least $30 million annually to be distributed between Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa, and the CNMI to cover the cost of hosting these individuals.

But costs for a single state or territory can run more than double that pooled amount.
A January 2016 report from the U.S. Department of the Interior stated that 2014 government of Guam COFA expenditures amounted to about $144 million while federal reimbursement was just around $18 million. The governor and his legislative colleagues are quick to point out the resulting deficiencies – a strained public hospital, crowded schools, and an overpopulated prison system.
“On the one hand the federal government is saying ‘You’ve got an overcrowded prison system, you’re not allowing them their constitutional rights,’” Calvo said during an interview with the Sunday Post in early October. “And yet, at the same time, the federal government has helped, aided, and abetted the overcrowding because they have not done their jobs.”

There are presently about 230 non-U.S. citizens incarcerated with the Guam Department of Corrections. This accounts for about 30 percent of the total prison population, the majority of which are from the FSM – particularly, Chuuk. At a cost of $43,000 to imprison a single convict per year, Guam spends over $9 million annually detaining foreign nationals.

Debate over deportation

While deportation falls under the larger purview of the federal government, Guam law specifically calls for the deportation of a COFA citizen if convicted of a felony or crime of moral turpitude, if sentenced to one or more years for any crime, or if they become a repeat offender for driving under the influence of alcohol. The attorney general of Guam is tasked with notifying the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division (ICE) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for any desire to deport a criminal. The attorney general is also required to file a quarterly report with the Guam Legislature and list on its own website cases that have been forwarded to ICE. According to Post files, however, the last report was published in the first quarter of 2014.

During a budget hearing in July, AG Barrett-Anderson said her involvement was void once a foreign national serves his or her prison sentence or probationary period. In the end, she cited the federal government’s responsibility to determine which individuals should be deported for violating the conditions of their stay, whether under COFA or not.

“Several months back, with the Homeland Security ICE officials, we said ‘Why aren’t you deporting these multi-convicted felons?’ And they said, ‘It’s not our priority,” Calvo said during the October interview. "When they said [it's] not their priority, I had to do what I had to do. You can question how I did it, but I did it because I had to. There is an issue here with overcrowding in the prison, criminal activity – recidivism. And it wouldn’t have occurred if they had deported them the first time.”
Calvo’s initial solution was not technically deportation. Instead, he commuted convicts’ sentences with the stipulation that they would leave Guam and never return. These commutations are within his rights as granted by the Organic Act, but the resulting expulsions from Guam did not go unnoticed by the attorney general or the governments to which the convicts were being sent.

The first five individuals to leave through these agreements were all FSM nationals from Chuuk, prompting Barrett-Anderson – in an interview with the Pacific Daily News (PDN) – to state that the governor needed to ensure his actions were “racially neutral” and that foreign prisoners were afforded their due process, which included a deportation hearing. Calvo has maintained that his selections had more to do with the statistical make-up of Guam’s prison than race.

Persona non grata

The FSM government also voiced concerns with Calvo’s commutations practice and a seeming lack of due process, prompting contentious exchanges between Calvo and FSM officials.

In September, Robert Ruecho, the FSM consul general to Guam, announced that, under executive instructions, his office would no longer be assisting the administration by providing information on FSM nationals. This led Calvo to declare Ruecho persona non grata – or, in common parlance, an unwelcome person. This is the most serious form of censure a country can apply to foreign diplomats and typically leads to their immediate recall by a home government. Calvo again faced heat for potentially overstepping his authority, as the term refers to a foreign person whose entering or remaining in a particular country is prohibited by that country's government. Calvo, however, doesn’t have the ability to determine diplomatic relations with foreign nations and expel ambassadors. Days later, he threatened to extend the censure to all FSM officials who refuse to cooperate with his government in confirming if a convicted criminal is an FSM citizen.

Ruecho told the Sunday Post on Thursday that the Calvo administration and ICE are now communicating only with the FSM’s Division of Immigration and Labor in Pohnpei and that his office is completely uninvolved.

While the FSM government’s position has become something of a sticking point for the governor's approach, there have been some signs of success. On Oct. 10, the administration touted a prison-to-prison transfer request from Palau President Tommy Remengesau, who relayed a desire from the prisoner’s family to have him finish his sentence on his home island. Calvo said he hoped the FSM president would tender similar cooperation sometime in the future. Likewise, the governor's office has said they've received several letters from non-citizen prisoners requesting to partake in the program.

Unclear process

However, even with the appearance of such high-level cooperation between Palau and Guam's leaders, the legal destiny of the Palauan prisoner, Ngeskebei Saburo, is unclear. Rebluud Kesolei, President Remengesau’s deputy chief of staff, told the Sunday Post that the two governments have not yet actually engaged in any formal discussions or brokered any deals on the matter. The Calvo administration has said it's passed Saburo's case and request on to the U.S. Department of Justice. Saburo has served 12 years at DOC and is up for parole in three years.

Despite criticisms, the administration has given no indication that it will stop the commutation and removal practice anytime soon. Denek Eugichi, the fifth FSM national exiled from Guam, was the last to sign an agreement not to return. Since September, convicts have been handed to ICE for adjudication and then deportation, although the governor still commutes their sentence.

At the time, the Post inquired about the shift away from agreements and was told that nothing had changed.

However, according to Barrett-Anderson, sometime in September representatives from the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Honolulu met with the attorney general along with officials from the governor’s office and DOC. These representatives recommended following the federal detainer process to initiate removals, which Guam officials agreed to.

“Since that meeting, the commutation program of the governor is now supported by the federal deportation process,” Barrett-Anderson said.

This seems to have also satisfied the attorney general's concerns for racial neutrality, now that that the administration is relying on the federal detainer list to draw names for potential deportation.
“I would assume the detainer list is racially neutral,” she added.

Ten of the 12 convicts who have had their sentences commuted and have been removed or are awaiting deportation are from the FSM. One prisoner has been returned to the Philippines and one to Peru.

According to Oyoal Ngirairikl, the governor's spokeswoman, a team consisting of public safety agencies, senior advisors, and legal counsel review files on non-U.S. citizens in detention. Caseworkers provide the files, which include a convict’s crime, sentence and time served, behavior in prison, as well as their participation and completion of programs while incarcerated.

"The Department of Corrections and the Guam Police Department would work together to identify and reach out to a (deportee's) victim or, if the victim couldn’t be reached, their families. The attorney general’s office has started to assist in this area," said Ngirairikl. "Thus far, there have not been any objections."

But the most important aspect of following the federal deportation process, according to Barrett-Anderson, was that only federal officials can prevent persons from re-entering Guam. With respect to the possibility of re-entry by the five who only signed agreements rather than be deported, the attorney general stated, "That's a question I will answer if it ever happens."

In the PDN interview, Barrett-Anderson was said to be working on a set of guidelines for local customs officials in case a flagged individual attempts to return to Guam. The attorney general clarified with the Sunday Post that this was not the case and there is currently no need to look at such rules.

Additional reporting from Palau by Bernadette Carreon.

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 Calvo: Feds to deport convicts from Philippines, FSM
by Jojo Santo Tomas
Pacific Daily News
September 6, 2016

Gov. Eddie Calvo signed the commutations of two men late Saturday, according to a news release issued by the governor’s office.

Calvo said that the commutations are dependent on their deportation, and has asked the feds to “move swiftly.” It should take about two weeks for them to leave Guam, he said.

Calvo spent Sunday afternoon at the beach. He made his round at the Gov. Joseph Flores Beach Park, where thousands of government employees celebrated Labor Day. He talked at length with a handful of employees and leaders who work in public safety, and thanked them all for their service.

“The federal government are the only ones that can deport,” said Calvo, “but they’re not doing their job. I’m doing their jobs for them. But I can’t say the word ‘deportation’ … but it’s having the same effect.

“I’m using my powers as a governor, and we’re getting some cooperation from the federal authorities, on particularly the (convicts) that are in federal detainer.”

Calvo added he’s working with U.S. Immigration and U.S. Customs on criminal removal, to ease the impact the criminals have on government systems and the Department of Corrections.
 
Alfredo Felijar Nicolas Jr., a Philippine national, was convicted in 2012 of second-degree criminal sexual conduct as a first-degree felony. Nicolas was sentenced to seven years in prison with two years suspended.

Dwight Luther, an FSM national, was charged with family violence, criminal sexual conduct and child abuse. He was convicted in 2012 of second-degree criminal sexual conduct as a first-degree felony and was sentenced to five years in prison. He also served time in prison previously for vehicular homicide and was released in 2011.

Of the seven total criminals that Calvo removed from the local Department of Corrections, Nicolas is the first one from the Philippines. The prior five criminals — each presented with a one-way ticket back to Chuuk — hailed from the Federated States of Micronesia.

Calvo’s recent actions have sparked community debate, a quiet protest and response from FSM leaders.

“Unfortunately, I missed a young lady who did this silent protest … this is not about picking one ethnicity or not. For me, the most important thing is keeping the peace in our island and ensuring all the people of Guam are safe.”

With their commutation and custody transfer, the federal government now shoulders the cost of housing the two individuals. The average cost of housing each inmate and detainee at the Department of Corrections is almost $100 a day.

“Much of what has happened, that has led to an overcrowded prison, is because the federal government has not done their work in so many different areas,” said Calvo. “I’m trying to help them out.”

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 Calvo deports FSM citizen
by Robert Tupaz
Guam Daily Post
July 14, 2016

With the stroke of his pen, and a one-way ticket, Gov. Eddie Calvo made good on his promise to deport felony or habitual non-citizen criminals from the island with or without the assistance of the federal government.

Yesterday, a citizen from the Federated States of Micronesia became the island’s test case for the government of Guam as Calvo ordered his deportation. In order to effectuate the process, Calvo invoked his Organic Act authority and issued executive order 2016-15, which he signed Sunday, July 10.

According to Oyaol Ngirairikl, the governor’s spokeswoman, through a collaborative effort with the Department of Corrections, FSM Citizen Ninton Hauk, a DOC inmate, was selected and agreed to have his sentence commuted in exchange for a one-way ticket to his home state of Chuuk. “He’s been deported,” Ngirairikl confirmed to the Post.

DOC Deputy Director Carla Borja also confirmed that Hauk was transported to the A.B. Won Pat International Airport yesterday morning by corrections officers and escorted to the plane, which departed at 9:20 a.m.

“DOC bore the cost of the travel,” Borja said. “His commutation was based on his removal from DOC and the island.”

Ngirairikl and Borja stressed that at no time was Hauk a free man in Guam between the commutation of his sentence and his travel yesterday.

'Authority to enforce'

In his order, and in a letter to FSM President Peter Christian dated July 12, Calvo stated, “As the Governor of Guam, I have 'residual authority to enforce the immigration laws of the United States,’ and authority to ’grant pardons and reprieves … for offenses against local laws.”

Calvo informed Christian of his intent to commute the sentence and then deport the repeat offender back to Chuuk.

Calvo copied several local, regional and federal entities on his action and letter to Christian including U.S. Attorney Alicia Limtiaco, Attorney General of Guam Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson and Esther Kia’aina, assistant secretary for insular affairs of the Department of the Interior.

“Everyone in Guam is required to live and abide by the laws of Guam. So those here under a visiting visa, or through a treaty, must comply with rules and laws of the island and with the rules of the treaties or of the visa that allow their presence here,” Ngirairikl said.
 
“This administration has tried to work with federal officials and entities – as some of our senators have," she said. "But we’ve not received clear answers on the how, or what to do. So the governor is taking action based on their inaction.”

Multiple offenses

Ngirairikl explained that in working with DOC, Hauk’s record indicated he was a good candidate for deportation because his background included every deportable offense. He had no apparent source of support, didn’t attend school, was convicted of felony crimes and was a public charge.

Ngirairikl said Hauk originally took advantage of provisions in the Compact of Free Association, the treaty between the FSM and the United States that allows free travel to the island and elsewhere in the U.S. The compact also requires that persons migrating to Guam from the FSM, the Marshall Islands or Palau are able to migrate to the U.S. for employment, health or educational services.
According to the executive order, Hauk, then 24 years old, was initially arrested on an attempted murder charge in June 2011. Hauk entered a guilty plea in exchange for a lesser charge of aggravated assault and a felony special allegation of use of a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to 10 years with all but one year suspended for the assault charge, with an additional five-year sentence for the special allegation charge.

In February of 2015, Hauk was charged with several crimes while incarcerated, including promoting prison contraband and assault on a peace officer.

The executive order makes note that Hauk refused to participate in rehabilitative programs such as education programs while in DOC. The order added that Hauk arrived in Guam and was not engaged in educational programs as called for in the COFA, nor did his record reflect the ability to be self-sustaining.

“Ninton Hauk is a deportable alien because he has violated and continues to be in violation of, the Amended Compact with the FSM, the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, and the DHS immigration regulations by virtue of being a public charge who cannot show that he has sufficient means of support in the United States, or Guam, and by failing to be self-supporting, for a period exceeding 60 consecutive days, and by engaging in felony criminal activity which endangers public safety or national security.”

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FSM on the Rise...Guam a territory
NesianBlogger
September 11, 2016

The 47th Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat's Leaders meeting is done!





FSM President Pete Christian chaired this year's meeting.  Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull and New Zealand PM John Key both showed up.  It was an international affair! 


Neighboring RMI President Hilda Heine was also present.






Christian caused a stir when he 'excused' the media on the first day of the Forum. 


Later on, at the site of the Leaders retreat with New Zealand PM John Key, Pete Christian approached the media and asked,
"Which one of you got mad when I asked the media to leave?"
No one said a word.  He was of course, just joking. 


It was a great time to be in Pohnpei.  School was out, new people were everywhere, motorcades were racing back and forth with sounds of motorcycles and sirens filling the air, and people were proud to be a nation among nations. 


Somebody asked me, why are they all here?  I answered it's the 47th Pacific Island Leaders Forum.  He said 'Wei eh?  Pohnpei is really important', then he stopped for a while and smiled saying 'FSM is really important!'  That's right, FSM is a partner nation with RMI, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. 


And new members New Caledonia and French Polynesia are now part of the Forum.  Welcome fellow Pacific Islanders!


Meanwhile during the PIFS meeting, in other parts of Micronesia that are not considered Micronesia by the inhabitants, some negative press for Micronesia!
 
Guam Governor Eddie Baza Calvo had some strong words for FSM Government officials but the comments from his supporters were even stronger! It's the same old story from the Guamanians.  It's as old as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (which doesn't exist anymore).  We went our own way.  We chose our path.  They chose theirs.  The Guamanians have never considered themselves our equals - brothers / sisters.  But while they were busy chasing the 'American Dream' we were chasing the 'Sovereign Nation Dream'... and now we have a President, a Congress, Diplomatic missions abroad, and a seat on the UN, PIFS, SIS, ACP, PIDF, etc, etc.  We also have a compact of free association with the United States of America... "WITH" .... take note of that word. 
 
So, I wish the people of Guam all the best.  I'll leave with a comment made by FSM Speaker Hon Wesley Simina and he said
 
"Although I sympathize with the governor of Guam's efforts to deal with a number of bad elements from the FSM in Guam, this is a matter for the federal government to address". 


Well said....

The book Micronesian Blues is supposed to be made into a show for Cinemax. Given the articles below, it has nothing to do with Governor of Guam Eddie Calvo's recent "deportation" of criminals from the FSM.

I wonder what a show titled Chamorro Blues would focus on or look like? Would it focus on the drama in the Catholic church? I halacha na yinaoyao gi halom i gima'yu'os Katoliko? Or perhaps it would focus on the drama between Chamorro dance groups? Hekkua' ti hu tungo'

I wonder, even more so, what a show like Guamanian Blues would be? Båsta, mungga yu' tumungo'.

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Cop's memoir 'Micronesian Blues' to be adapted into Cinemax show
by Amanda Pampuro
Guam Daily Post
10/23/16

“It was slam down and flaps up, braking all the way. We landed so hard the oxygen masks fell down and several of the overhead storage compartments popped open. Babies squalled, while most of the adults just sat there in stunned silence, staring numbly at the carry-on baggage that had tumbled down into the aisle.”

– Excerpt from “Micronesian Blues”

It was the late 1970s when an LA cop heard about an opportunity to train new officers in the Pacific, and the idea of palm tree-lined beaches sounded like paradise. But between the overflowing toilets on the island hopper, the suffocating heat, and the first of many brushes with death, Brian Vila soon realized he’d signed up for more than he’d bargained for.

So begins “Micronesian Blues,” Vila’s memoir co-authored with Cynthia Morris. In August, Shifting Gears Productions announced it will adapt the book into a series for Cinemax. In addition to bringing on Patrick Dempsey (“Grey’s Anatomy”), the series will be written by best-selling author Jonathan Tropper (“This is Where I Leave You”) and directed by Emmy-winner Greg Yaitanes (“House,” “Ray Donovan”).

While the series remains in development, Vila and Morris remain connected to the projects as consultants.

“Of course, characters will be added, many of the people in the book will be turned into composite characters, and stories that never took place will be included along with the true stories from the book,” Morris told the Sunday Post. “The series won’t be a documentary – it will be a highly fictionalized action adventure series based on the book.”

Currently available only as an eBook, “Micronesian Blues” was first released by Paladin Press in 2009. Vila and Morris began writing the book in 1994.

“Bryan and I would walk along the beach in Orange County, Calif., where we lived at the time, and I would interview him about his stories with a tape recorder running,” Morris recalled. “It took more than two years – I have an enormous box full of interview tapes! Bryan had an amazing tale to tell, and I couldn’t wait to write it with him, but our academic writing projects kept getting in the way.”
“In the meantime, society was becoming increasingly global – and cross-cultural issues were becoming more important all the time,” Vila added. “We’d read story after story in books and newspapers that made it clear that people were still struggling with the same sorts of issues I had when I first went to Micronesia back in 1978.”

Steeped with lessons in multiculturalism, the action-adventure saga unfolds across Saipan, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Palau, Yap, and Washington, D.C., during a historic period of political development for the Federated States of Micronesia as it formed its constitutional government in 1979 and entered into the Compact of Free Association with the United States in 1984.

“What we were trying to do back then was help the Micronesians find their own way toward progress,” Vila recalled. “I was there to teach them how things were done in other parts of the world, but that was only half of the equation. The other half was for them to decide which of their traditional laws/ways they wanted to keep, and how to adapt them to modern life and integrate them into the codes of law that would govern their newly formed nations. You can’t do this unless you get to know people, join in with their culture, and try to understand it and see things from their perspective.”
The authors hoped their book would serve as a bridge between people from different walks of life.
“The Micronesians and I learned from each other all the time, as I tried to help them move in the direction they wanted to go, instead of trying to impose stateside ways of doing things on them,” Vila said.

While “not exactly a history book or a civics book,” wrote Otis Aisek in a review for the Fourth Branch, “’[Micronesian Blues’] does however, offer an important outlook on what it’s like for a foreigner to settle effectively into a new culture and environment.”

Journalist and Marshall Islands Journal editor in chief Giff Johnson described the book as “filled with delightful vignettes … worth reading for anyone who wants an unexpurgated view of the islands in a very interesting period of their political development."

Bryan Villa has not returned to Micronesia since the first Micronesian-run Micronesian Police Academy graduation was held in Palau nearly three decades ago. Having recently retired however, he hopes to make the trip with Morris soon.

“I’m eager to visit old friends, and to see what’s changed – and what’s stayed the same – since I was last there,” he said.

While the television series remains under negotiation and no one has yet to disclose whether or not it will be filmed on location, Vila and Morris are excited to watch their adventure continue to unfold.
“We expect the ‘Micronesian Blues’ TV series to be funny and entertaining, full of action and adventure – the kind of show that will be appealing even to people who have never heard of Micronesia before,” Vila said. “As an added perk, we think the series itself will help to build bridges between cultures, because it will introduce more people to this beautiful and culturally diverse part of the world.”

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"Micronesian Blues: Cinemax series order from Banshee EPs and Patrick Dempsey
by Cindy Mclenan
Tv Series Finale
August 2, 2016

Deadline reports Cinemax has ordered the Micronesian Blues TV show from Banshee‘s Jonathan Tropper and Greg Yaitanes, along with Patrick Dempsey, who exited ABC‘s Grey’s Anatomy after 11 seasons. Banshee, which Tropper co-created with David Schickler, recently ended after four seasons on the premium cable channel.

Tropper is writing the Micronesian Blues“crime drama thriller,” which will be directed by Yaitanes. They are executive producing with Dempsey and his producing partner and manager, Joannie Burstein. Justin Franklin is co-producing. The Micronesian BluesTV series is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Bryan Vila and Cynthia Morris (pictured above).
Here is how Amazon describes the book:

His plane nearly crashed, the cops he’d been hired to train almost killed him, and he ingested a substance that bore a close resemblance to elephant snot—all during his first two days on the job…

Micronesian Blues tells the true story of former L.A. street cop Bryan Vila’s hilarious road to cross-cultural enlightenment as a police chief in the far Pacific islands of Micronesia.

Through lively narrative laced with wry humor, it chronicles his adventures and misadventures on Saipan, Ponape (now Pohnpei), Truk (now Chuuk), Palau, Yap, Kosrae, and Kwajalein.

Trial and error was the name of the game in this dubious paradise, where Bryan had to learn the rules—or make them up—as he went. Yet he embraced island life, succeeded in his new role, and ultimately found himself profoundly changed by his experiences in Micronesia and the lessons he learned there.

Here is more on Cinemax’s Micronesian Blues TV show, from Deadline:

Micronesian Blues, written by Tropper and to be directed by Yaitanes, is based on the true story of Los Angeles cop Bryan Vila, a former Marine who had served in Vietnam, who took a job training local police in Micronesia in the early 1990s, expecting a paid vacation. The series tells the story of a burned out LA cop who accepts a teaching job in Micronesia, only to find himself caught up in a bloody war between tribal gangsters, lawless mercenaries, and crooked CIA agents.

Tropper and Yaitanes will executive produce alongside Dempsey and his producing partner/manager Joannie Burstein through the actor’s Shifting Gears Productions. The company’s Justin Franklin will co-produce.

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Cinemax: 'Micronesian Blues' drama from Banshee EPs and Patrick Dempsey
by Nellie Andreeva
Deadline.com
August 1, 2016

Micronesian Blues, written by Tropper and to be directed by Yaitanes, is based on the true story of Los Angeles cop Bryan Vila, a former Marine who had served in Vietnam, who took a job training local police in Micronesia in the early 1990s, expecting a paid vacation. The series tells the story of a burned out LA cop who accepts a teaching job in Micronesia, only to find himself caught up in a bloody war between tribal gangsters, lawless mercenaries, and crooked CIA agents.

Tropper and Yaitanes will executive produce alongside Dempsey and his producing partner/manager Joannie Burstein through the actor’s. Shifting Gears Productions. The company’s Justin Franklin will co-produce.

Banshee, which Tropper created alongside David Schickler, with Yaitanes directing the pilot, was a breakout for Cinemax. It recently wrapped its run after four seasons.

Yaitanes also serves as director/executive producer on the upcoming Cinemax series Quarry and has true-life crime drama Manifesto in development at Discovery. Tropper also wrote the 2014 Shawn Levy movie This Is Where I Leave You, adapting from his own novel.

As an actor, original Grey’s Anatomy star Dempsey, who left the ABC drama last year, will next be seen in Bridget Jones’s Baby.

If you are interested in learning more about decolonization and independence for Guam, please come and join us for Independent Guahan's October General Assembly meeting, this Thursday (10/27) at 6 pm at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagatna. For our educational presentation, we will be discussing what is known as a transition or implementation period. This is a temporary phase whereby a colony that has chosen to become independent, negotiates a gradual reduction in dependency on programs provided by the colonizer, and receives funding in order to develop new revenues and new programs to fill any needed gaps.

For each monthly General Assembly meeting, Independent Guahan chooses a "maga'taotao" or a pioneer/hero which we honor for their role in helping push the island towards decolonization. This Thursday, we will be honoring the late Senator Ben Pangelinan, for his tireless efforts as a Guam lawmaker to protect the rights, lands and heritage of the Chamorro people. Come this Thursday to learn more about his contributions.

My first forays into the world of public discourse and engagement came on the pages of the Pacific Daily News through letters to the editor. For years I conducted research in the Micronesian Area Research Center library and through interviews with politicians, activists and manåmko', but the thoughts and ideas that were spawning in my head didn't have many outlets save for discussions in classes or with trusted elders or friends. In 2004 I gave my first public presentation on the issue of decolonization or critical Chamorro Studies, when I shared a section of my research at a forum titled "World War II is it Over?" organized by the Guam Humanities Council at the Agana Shopping Center. I spoke alongside Dr. Patricia Taimanglo, the late historian Tony Palomo and Guam military historian Jennings Bunn. After that, I spent several years in graduate school presenting at conference around the US, often times to empty rooms, as Guam papers tended to be very low on the priority list of most academic association conferences. But I didn't really speak out locally, except in terms of website I created or helped created, or letters to the editor of the Pacific Daily News. 

I have the text for most of these letters, and others were saved by my grandmother and grandfather, who even though they thought for a long time that I was probably too radical and outspoken, were still proud of me and the things I was advocating. While scouring the archives of Minagahet Zine, which I ran for close to seven years, I came across one of my early letters to the editor. It reflects my thinking at the time, where I was trying to find critical ways of interpreting Chamorro history and the Chamorro present, which I was immediately finding in my readings of conversations. It is here where scholars such as Slavoj Zizek, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Edward Said and Frantz Fanon were immeasurably helpful, in giving me some critical options in terms of forging my own Guam/Chamorro based critiques. The work of progressive and radicals in the United States, such as Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn were also very useful in helping me see that the plight of the Chamorros shared features with other, more famous movements, but that there were still key differences that needed to be attended to, to keep the Chamorro struggle from being subsumed within larger brown power movements. As such, some of these letters to the editor weren't very Guam focused, but were rather about critiquing the United States and its role in the world, and therefore its role in Guam. Unmasking American imperialism, showing that there is a significant cost to its alleged benevolent global domination, and that just as other places have suffered because of this, Guam too suffers in its own bloodless and invisible way, as a key asset in securing American security interests in the Asia-Pacific.


There were important gestures for me in terms of taking the critiques that I was reading and integrating which accepted for the most part the limits of the United States and were built upon the idea that it had a good moral core and that what it was doing in terms of toppling the government of others was simply an aberration, the abnormal exception to the democracy and freedom spreading normal. When living in the colonies, it is easy to accept the United State and its spectrum of political possibility as the extent of what is progressive or conservative, but when you live in the colonies, that colonial difference cannot be considered to be errant or supplementary. It is constitutive of the entire structure. The colonial difference helps gives structure to what its center, left or right in the colonizer's domain, but no matter how normal it seems to accept that arrangement in the colonies, it simply isn't true. That which is progressive or liberating to the subjects living within the colonizer's realm, maybe conservative or restrictive to those in the colonies.

Take for instance this quote, which I have used in several articles from the late Gore Vidal, who was a huge liberal and progressive force in the United States. This quote comes from a 2004 interview with Democracy Now!

This  letter to the editor represents one such transitional moment for me as I digested various critical possibilities. On the surface it is meant to challenge the idea of the US as a benevolent sower of democratic seeds around the world, but in truth it was meant to be an intervention into how people on Guam, in their particular colonial way see the US as a liberator and the defender of democracy, and how a certain critique that was common in progressive circles in the Era of Bush the Second, would have lots of value in terms of helping Chamorros understand their status as the natives of a strategically important possession of the United States. 

This letter to the editor was written in response to statements about the problems with the Middle East by long-time Pacific Daily News columnist Gaffar Peang-Meth. I thought I'd share it here, quickly before the nostalgia dripping from my fingertips at finding this, threaten to short circuit my computer!

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As we near the last two weeks of this frightening election, I am grateful I subscribed to the Washington Post, as it sometimes helps me gain my bearings in a world gone askew, but also just helps feed the politics junkie in me and keep him and his addiction malulok. 

Here's some of the Washington Post articles that I've really enjoyed reading recently. 

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As we near the last two weeks of this frightening election, I am grateful I subscribed to the Washington Post, as it sometimes helps me gain my bearings in a world gone askew, but also just helps feed the politics junkie in me and keep him and his addiction malulok. 

Here's some of the Washington Post articles that I've really enjoyed reading recently. 

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I am truly terrified about Donald Trump being elected President of the United States. As they say in English, all bets are off, if he wins, because he is so thin-skinned and ideologically inconsistent, anything could happen, and the worst probably will. 

One thing that I can definitely give Trump credit for, is that he has created, on a regular basis, the most random stories about a presidential candidate I've ever seen. Most often, these stories are horrifying to varying degrees, they deal with him ripping people off, stoking racial hatred or just being stubborn in the face of clear facts. Alot of them have to do with the gap between who Trump presents himself to be, a super rich, generous, intelligent and good tempered person, and who he actually is on a daily basis.

Here's one such article that caught my eye.

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No, Donald Trump Did Not Win a Medal from the NAACP
Christine Wilkie
Huffington Post
10/23/16

Per United Nations Resolution 1541 (1960), the colonized people of non-self-governing territories such as Guam have three options to choose from when deciding a path for their decolonized future. The first is integration with their colonizer, which is commonly known in Guam as statehood. The second, free association is to form a foundational agreement and share parts of your sovereignty with another power, which is usually your former colonizer. Finally, there is independence, which contrary to common misconceptions does not mean isolation from the world, but rather joining it as a sovereign and equal entity.

As I have experienced over the past decade, discussing decolonization in Guam can move from inspiring to frustrating quite quickly. People seem to resist decolonization in general and independence in particular as being impossible or dangerous. Although I have met few people on Guam who have read the work of Francis Fukuyama, most notably his book “The End of History and the Last Man,” when broaching topics of decolonization and status change, many people seem to be acolytes to his thesis.

The main thrust of Fukuyama’s argument is that history, a dialectical process that moves humanity forward through regular conflict, ended with the fall of the Soviet Union and the conclusion of the Cold War. Liberal democracy and capitalism appeared to have prevailed and have since become deeply engrained in human understandings of what was best and progressive for the world. As a result, Fukuyama stated that there would be no more great ideological battles, no more real re-ordering of the world or of human understanding.

This has relevance for us in Guam, because if history is over, we were left behind. In that context, decolonization was something for the 1960s, a time of great political and cultural upheaval where people on almost every continent and island were fighting for their independence against colonizers and imperialists. But that era is over and we are supposed to look at dreams such as the Non-Aligned Movement or The Third World Hope as being nothing but political nightmares.

In this thinking, Guam missed the decolonization såkman and we were fortunate, because that ship just keeps on sinking slowly dragging the people of the world’s developing nations down into miserable watery graves. When you look at the list of 17 non-self-governing territories that are monitored by the United Nations, they seem to prove this point as nearly all of them are small islands, which common sense might tell us can never survive on their own and should be grateful that they have colonizers taking care of them.

In this context, Independence as a possible political status for Guam seems frightening. It seems to smack of biting the hand that so generously feeds us. It seems to spit in the face of history, which has clearly moved on from this sort of thing. It seems to recklessly take a course that no sensible people would ever go down, disconnecting themselves from their colonizer and seeking to determine their own destiny. In Guam this may feel right, but it isn’t. And one only need open a book or even look at a map to see this isn’t true.

According to the United Nations, in the 20th century more than 80 colonies decolonized, and the overwhelming majority of them did not choose to be states or freely associated nations, they chose to be independent countries. In 2014 The Guardian/UK studied 50 votes that were taken in colonies and territories just like Guam over the course of 150 years. The overwhelming majority voted to become independent, and this is why we have close to 200 independent countries in the world today.
Far from being terrifying, independence for colonized people is a normal and standard course.

Billions of people in the world today do not live in terror since they are independent countries. It only feels that way in Guam, because people have accepted certain myths and misunderstandings about the status. For example, independence does not mean that suddenly we’d have to grow all our own food or give back everything that has been integrated into the culture since colonization. It doesn't mean we can’t ask for help, make deals or learn from other countries. It does not mean cutting all ties with the United States.

Independence would not mean the end of the road, but rather a new beginning. One in which Guam is no longer owned by another, but can instead work with countries such as the United States and others as an equal, no longer bound to serve the interests of another, but rather negotiate and associate with its own interests in mind, as part of our goal of realizing its own long deferred destiny.

Kao guaha finaisen-mu siha put decolonization? Kao malago' hao manungo' mas put independensia? Anggen hunggan, put fabot bisita i lamasan-måmi gi Java Junction gi 11/4 gi alas 3 gi talo'ani. Estague i fine'nina na "Decolonization Coffee Convo."

In this image we see Sumåhi and Akli'e' finishing up a 3D puzzle for the show The Walking Dead. 

I've only watched the first season and the kids refuse to watch any of it at all, but we saw this puzzle at a bargain store earlier this year and decided to grab it. At 150 pieces it isn't too exhausting. As trying to get the kids to finish puzzles with 500 or 1000 pieces can end up feeling like trying to get a fanihi to jump into a pot of boiling coconut milk. 
  
As zombies are so pervasive in popular culture nowadays, the kids and I have had plenty of conversations over the years about what word to use for zombies in Chamorro.

When the kids were much younger I would use the term "taitintanos"or "brainless" and zombies in general would be "i manaitintanos." 

This phrasing was cumbersome and confusing for the kids as zombies no longer moan "brains..." as they shamble. We later switched to "i mamomokkat na manmatai" or similar variations which means "the dead that are walking" but even this was problematic, as too often in zombie movies nowadays, as the kids have pointed out, "manmalalagu siha, ti manmamomokkat!"They are running, not walking!

Eventually the kids stopped using all the fancy names that I use for zombies gi Fino' Chamorro and started speaking Chamorro in the usual gagu'fashion. 

If you ask Sumåhi how to say zombie in Chamorro, she will say "yombie"with the first letter pronounced as a j sound.

"Climate Change is a 'Matter of Life and Death' for The Marshall Islands
by Jon Letman
Civil Beat
11/4/16



Among the many urgent tasks her administration faces is the immediate need to fortify her nation of 29 atolls scattered across 750,000 square miles of the northern Pacific against the impacts of climate change. What’s more, this young nation with a centuries-old history, is challenged by major demographic shifts stemming from the days when the United States used the northernmost atolls to test 67 atomic and hydrogen bombs.

Not only did the nuclear tests create giant radioactive craters rendering dozens of islands uninhabitable, they triggered the forced relocation (and re-relocation) of many Marshallese.

The ensuing changes transformed a sparsely populated Micronesian paradise into a highly urbanized country where a young population was dogged by faltering infrastructure, crowded living conditions, high unemployment, low wages and illnesses including cancers and diseases like diabetes. These conditions necessitated outside help and fueled both the need and appeal to emigrate to Hawaii and other parts of the U.S. under the Compact of Free Association.

Add to this environmental and climate threats like destructive tropical storms, sea level rise, coastal inundation and flooding, coral bleaching and crippling droughts and you have one seriously daunting situation.

Under the Marshallese parliamentary system, Heine serves concurrently as president and as a senator (one of just three women in the 33 member Nitijela). Heine, who has degrees from the Universities of Oregon, Hawaii and Southern California, previously served as the RMI’s education minister (2012-2015) as well as a program and policy director, college president, administrator, school counselor and classroom teacher.

Guam-based human rights lawyer Julian Aguon calls Heine “truly formidable,” remarking that besides being the first female Pacific Islander and indigenous woman president, she exhibits a “fierceness with which she loves her people that is truly moving.”

While in Hawaii en route to attend the inauguration of another first female president, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, President Heine spoke to Civil Beat about the challenges her country faces. Her remarks were edited for length and clarity.

Civil Beat: What are the most meaningful actions your administration is taking to protect people from climate change in the Marshall Islands?

Heine: The approach we’re taking is trying to integrate risk reduction and resilience with disaster preparedness response and recovery. We feel that building resilient communities is foremost in this battle against climate impact and that starts with awareness about actions that contribute to climate change as well as actions that can be taken to help impede impacts such as erosion. I’m talking about actions like planting indigenous trees along shorelines or recycling programs and other activities like that.

The remoteness of Pacific communities like the Marshall Islands means that capacity at the local level needs to be really strengthened to build resilience. So we’re taking significant steps in local as well as regional and global initiatives to proactively manage risk rather than reactively always managing crises. Our efforts and leadership role in climate change is well known and it’s reflective of the seriousness which we take the need to protect our people from climate change.

On April 22 you signed the Paris Climate agreement. Do you think it goes far enough and what is important for people around the world to do now?

The Marshall Islands is very proud of its role in the lead up to Paris. We were one of the first countries to ratify the Paris Agreement, our parliament actually ratified it even before April 22 when we went to New York to sign with the other countries. We know it is a work in progress — it’s not perfect — but I think it is something that we can live with and we can try to improve on as we go forward.

The Paris agreement itself provides a provision for countries to be able to review on a regular basis what’s happening in country. How are they living up to their commitments? We are hopeful that countries will come together and honor their commitment or improve on their commitments because that is the right thing to do and that’s what the world needs.

If climate change isn’t adequately addressed, what will happen to low-lying island nations like yours?

It’s a matter of life and death for the Marshallese people as an example of low-island countries that are threatened by sea level rise. We’re talking about not only people and their culture will be extinct because other people in the world are not living up to their commitment. We’re hoping that even though we’re a very small island country and the number of people are not that many, countries will live up to their commitment and they’ll be a little bit more sensitive to the plight of small island countries.

Marshallese people, culture and land have a symbiotic relationship — one can’t exist without the other. That’s why moving from our islands is not a viable option. As a nation facing cultural extinction due to climate change, we plead to stronger and major polluting countries to spare us the eminent fate of being climate refugees.

What are the impacts of outbound migration from the Marshall Islands?

Migration does provide a safety valve for what we’re not able to provide and in the meantime allowing our small economy to grow to a level that is able to sustain services to its growing population. Currently we are seeing some positive impact from out migration with monetary assistance provided to family members and relatives still staying in the Marshall Islands from overseas relatives. We’re always hopeful that Marshallese will want to return home to make a difference after they have become educated and skillful overseas. That’s our hope and we’re currently looking at ways to come up with incentives to attract back our best and brightest.

What do you offer your nation as its first female president or do you think gender is irrelevant when discussing politics and leadership?

I cannot say gender is irrelevant when discussing politics and leadership because Pacific women struggle to increase their voices in leadership and decision making. It’s an ongoing struggle. I believe worldwide the Pacific island region holds the lowest female participation in parliament. So certainly women would like to see that change so that their voices increase and included in decision making. The fact that I’m elected first female president, I think it’s seen as a role model for many other bright, young Pacific island women. So in that respect I’m glad that I’m in this role.

But the fact of the matter is I was in the right place at the right time. Of course in Marshallese culture, it’s a matrilineal society, so there are times when the role of women in a leadership position is needed and it’s called for and maybe this is one such time, I don’t know (laughs). But while I’m here I’d like to use this opportunity to show that women can be just as serious and committed to issues facing a country and that they can make a difference.

Last question — what’s your message to countries that have not elected a female head of state? 

Well I think they should give them a chance because I think women are really concerned. You know, we are very much concerned about families and a country is all about what happens to family livelihood. We’re the first people to go to when it comes to family issues. Families build a country so if we have strong families, we have strong countries, and I think women can make a difference.

Un diha siempre bai hu pula' este na betsu/kånta gi Fino' Chamorro! Lao esta ki ayu na diha, estague i palabrås-ña gi Fino' Frances yan Fino' Ingles. Achokka' matuge' este gi halom i kotturan Europa, siña uma'aya este na i estorian yan kotturan Chamorro. Achokka' i fina'tinas-ña i Españot ma kefunas i fuetsan i famalao'an Chamorro guini giya Guahan, sisiña ha' ta silebra siha, achokka' ti ta tungo' i mismo na'an-ñiha!

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Dictes moy où, n'en quel pays,
Est Flora, la belle Romaine ;
Archipiada, né Thaïs,
Qui fut sa cousine germaine;
Echo, parlant quand bruyt on maine
Dessus rivière ou sus estan,
Qui beauté eut trop plus qu'humaine?
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!

Où est la très sage Heloïs,
Pour qui fut chastré et puis moyne
Pierre Esbaillart à Sainct-Denys?
Pour son amour eut cest essoyne.
Semblablement, où est la royne
Qui commanda que Buridan
Fust jetté en ung sac en Seine?
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!

La royne Blanche comme ung lys,
Qui chantoit à voix de sereine;
Berthe au grand pied, Bietris, Allys;
Harembourges qui tint le Mayne,
Et Jehanne, la bonne Lorraine,
Qu'Anglois bruslerent à Rouen;
Où sont-ilz, Vierge souveraine ?
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!

Prince, n'enquerez de sepmaine
Où elles sont, ne de cest an,
Qu'à ce refrain ne vous remaine:
Mais où sont les neiges d'antan!

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I spent some time recently with former Governor of Guam Joseph Ada. It was a very enlightening experience and one that I will most definitely be writing about or incorporating into my research and activism with regards to Guam's decolonization. There was one thing that stood out though, especially when comparing the time when Joseph Ada was Governor (1986-1994) to the current moment under the leadership of Governor Eddie Calvo. In both eras Guam's political status remains a fundamental unresolved issue that leaks out and affects so many other aspects of life, even if the general population doesn't understand it or accept the connections. During the term of Governor Ada, the Government of Guam was well organized and focused on negotiating with the US Congress and Feds over the proposed Commonwealth status. These negotiations eventually failed under the term of his successor Governor Carl Gutierrez, but the negotiation of a new, transitional political status for Guam that would have represented significant improvements over our current unincorporated status was almost accomplished. Under Governor Calvo, although he has made several very eloquent speeches on the need to change Guam's political status and provided some modest funds for education, the passion and follow-through befitting of someone who is Guam's chief executive and strongly believes in decolonization is simply not there. Calvo and the executive director of the Commission on Decolonization have accomplished much more than the administration of the previous Governor Felix Camacho, but there still isn't a strong collaboration or understanding of what needs to be done for a decolonization plebiscite and subsequent negotiations with Congress to take place. I am hoping in his last two years in office, Calvo (with some help from the Legislature) decides to put more resources and manpower towards the Decolonization Commission, so that we can move from profound statements, to concrete efforts towards education.

One thing that I have sometimes heard used as an excuse for why the Calvo administration isn't focused or hasn't done as much on this issue compared to Governor Ada's administration is due to the scarcity of resources. During Ada's tenure there was so much salape' everywhere on Guam due to the booming Japanese economy. There is definitely some truth to this as the economy is nowhere near as robust as it was back then. But this is only somewhat significant. A movement like this to educate and push for political status change doesn't need a great deal of money, although that definitely helps in terms of developing studies, materials and disseminating ideas effectively. Several other things such as a vision, community and intra-governmental cooperation and effective leadership in many ways aren't present yet.

But given the article about Puerto Rico that I've posted below, this is also one major aspect that worked effectively in the past, but is almost completely absent today. In the time of Governor Ada there was a strong working relationship between the territories, on this issue and others. Conferences were held, governmental task forces and relationships were forged, and there was a sense of solidarity and purpose that created some small shreds of power in a context for territories and their non-voting delegates had little. In Washington D.C. we see some cooperation amongst non-voting delegates from the six territories of the US (Guam, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, CNMI, Puerto Rico and Washington DC), but this doesn't extend to the governments in many ways and certainly not in terms of moving together in solidarity towards decolonization and greater self-government. This type of network is incredibly necessary, not just in terms of symbolic solidarity, but also practical application. Since when any colony of the US tries to move ahead and negotiate their political future with the US, they would do better to have their territorial allies working and standing beside them.

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Puerto Rico's Dream, Denied
by Vann Newkirk II
The Atlantic
June 14, 2016

Status questions are now settled for Puerto Rico and other United States territories. They will remain congressional dependencies with little to no self-determination—colonies, in effect—until Congress says otherwise, allowing them to become states or become independent. This week, the Supreme Court decided a case involving Puerto Rico’s debt structure and chose whether to hear a case involving birthright citizenship in American Samoa, two final rulings in a collection of legal challenges from the territories. A ruling in Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust and a denial of review for Tuaua v. United States on Monday effectively ended a budding theory of self-determination in these areas and confirmed a federal legal view of territories that was established during the height of American imperialism.

Puerto Rico’s fight was probably over last week. A Supreme Court ruling in the case Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle, which was about double-jeopardy protections for Puerto Ricans, established that Puerto Rico has no real authority it does not derive from Congress. The U.S. House’s easy passage of the debt-relief bill PROMESA stripped away even more of Puerto Rico’s functional self-governing authority, establishing an independent board with no Puerto Rican oversight that can restructure Puerto Rico’s debts and set financial priorities. The Court’s ruling in Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust affirmed both of these policies, clarifying that Puerto Rico cannot create its own municipal bankruptcy code and is also excluded from the normal bankruptcy protections granted to municipalities in states, leaving its only legal restructuring path with Congress. With financial ruin fast approaching for the island, it seems the only legally viable path for debt relief is an upcoming vote on PROMESA in the Senate.

The Court also decided not to weigh in on Tuaua v. United States. In refusing to hear the case, the Court affirmed the ruling in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that automatic birthright citizenship does not apply to people born in American Samoa. American Samoans are born as U.S. nationals, not American citizens, and must be naturalized in order to vote or hold office. The D.C. court’s ruling is based on two things: the ambiguity of the Constitution’s citizenship clause with respect to unincorporated territories and outlying possessions, and the will of many American Samoans to remain a functionally separate and self-governing people.

These rulings on Puerto Rico undermine the possibility of self-governance in any territory. The courts ruled that ultimate sovereignty and the right to govern comes from Congress and Congress alone for territories. Puerto Rico has reached the highest legal status possible for a U.S. territory—it’s an incorporated commonwealth—but it is still legally distinct from states, with no real self-governance beyond what Congress allows. This is also true of territories that do not hold commonwealth status, such as American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. People in territories will not be able to grant themselves privileges equivalent to those afforded in states—most notably the right to vote for congressional representation—until Congress so decides.

In a recent conversation, the Puerto Rican territorial-law scholar Carlos Iván Gorrín Peralta told me that with this recent slate of court cases and legislation, the “ambiguity of 60 years is disappearing.” He was referring to the decades since Puerto Rico was declared self-governing and granted the ability to organize a constitution and government, actions which Puerto Rico’s lawyers used as the basis for their arguments in court. Over the past few weeks, the Supreme Court and Congress have articulated firm limits on Puerto Rico’s power, and the executive branch joined in through amicus curiae briefs. The position of the United States government with respect to its territories has never been clearer. Optimism among self-determination activists and scholars in the territories has been subdued.
Aside from presidential campaign promises and some passionate speeches during the PROMESA debate, there hasn’t been much word from Congress or the administration on just what this all means for the prospect of statehood or independence for Puerto Rico and the unincorporated territories. Both are possibilities, especially for Puerto Rico: Congress may not be eager to act as its sole, ultimate authority for long, especially facing the massive responsibility of Puerto Rico’s debt. These decisions could also lead up to independence for the territories, as the United States will probably face more pressure from the United Nations and other international bodies to allow the territories freedom if they cannot become parts of the Union proper.

But the end of this series of decisions could just as easily perpetuate America's old history of imperialism, defined by the acquisition of territory without offers of full American citizenship. Under current law, only the United States government can choose to grant these rights. Judging by the last few weeks, people seeking higher status in territories might be waiting for a long time yet.

Tantalizing Democratic Experiments
by Michael Lujan Bevacqua
Guam Sunday Post
November 6, 2016

Gof kinenne’ yu’ nu este na botasion, ko’lo’lo’ña i botasion gi sanlagu. Hu såsangan este, achokka’ esta hu gof komprende na mas ki taibali este na botasion nu hita guini giya Guahan, sa’ tåya’ botu-ta gi botasion para i presidente.

I have been obsessively following the election for President of the United States for more than a year, and this is something that sometimes surprises people. The drama of it is both repellent and compelling. I cannot turn away from this event that seems to move both in frustrating slow motion, but also at a frenetic Mad Max-like pace, careening at frightening speed toward a possible dystopia.

As a local decolonization activist, or someone who is actively advocating for a change in our political status, my obsessing over the U.S. presidential election can seem contradictory. As a distant American colony on the edge of the Western Pacific, we don’t get to participate in this election (except through a straw poll) and the lone representative that we elect to send to Congress is a non-voting member. But these contradictions are actually what draw me into the drama, as they offer important reflective possibilities in following an election that we can’t participate in, but potentially determines the basic course of our island for the next four to eight years.

An important first step in conceiving decolonization is to be able to understand what must change about the present. How the status quo may constrict us in certain fundamental ways; how it may represent, in both obvious and more insidious forms, types of injustices and inequality. This can be difficult, because on the surface Guam’s number one industry seems to be not tourism or the U.S. military presence, but rather fantasizing that it is simply a browner, more humid faraway fragment of the United States. A great deal of mental energy goes into how we indoctrinate ourselves, in both formal and informal ways, to see ourselves just like any other part of the U.S. Maybe we endure a little bit more colonialism than you average corner of California, but nonetheless, we’re Where America’s Day Begins!

This façade feels real to your average person on Guam, but it carries little truth. Taiminagahet ayu na siniente. This is why the election is such an important time for rethinking our relationship to the U.S. and to the world. As the circle of American belonging stretches from sea to shining sea, with the aura of hundreds of millions being included in the exercise of American democracy, our particular portion of the tåsi doesn’t count. This is what makes each presidential election a trove teeming with possibilities for engaging people in discussions of political status.

As part of our premiere industry of wishful American belonging, we eagerly import platitudes on American exceptionalism and awesomeness. We throw them out like candy at Liberation Day parades and flags on Memorial Day. We patriotically profess the greatness of a nation that routinely doesn’t include us in its self-concept. We say it represents this or represents that, when those things haven’t been allowed to exist in Guam since Old Glory was first raised here in 1898.

At the start of America’s own democratic experiment, Benjamin Franklin said, “A great Empire, like a great Cake, is most easily diminished at the Edges.”

In the abstract it can be easy to pretend these platitudes are real. But in reality, the closer times moves towards actual exercises of American democracy, the more we see its limitations and its contradictions – especially those that form our current comfortable, yet nonetheless colonial, position.
Earlier this year Voice of America, a U.S. government-funded multimedia news source and its official external broadcasting institution, covered this in an insightful article titled, “US Presidential Election Ends at Conventions for Territorial Citizens.” It featured the voices of Republican and Democratic delegates from Guam who were attending their party conventions. In it, the delegates, such as our own Speaker of the Guam Legislature Judith Won Pat, lamented how this is their lone real role in this grand exercise of American democracy – to help nominate candidates. Some expressed gratitude for being included, while others said it makes them feel like they are second-class citizens, or not really part of the U.S. Even these forms of participation are problematic, as they don’t represent any fundamental tie to the U.S., just something allowed by the preference of political parties. Even having delegate and convention votes smacks of the ephemeral and shallow nature of our connection to the U.S. We’re not granted a fundamental right to partake in this process, we’re simply allowed to, like a plus-one to a wedding; a conditional invitation to someone else’s party.

This is that important point of reflection that drives my fascination with the presidential election. Rather that continue to be dazzled by the platitudes of American greatness, this is the moment when we should sahuma minagahet, inhale the tough truths that are appearing all around us.

Every four years, we get reminders not of how strong our connection is to the U.S., but rather how tenuous it is, how undemocratic it is. And there are stirrings within our community as to whether or not we should seek something more, either within the U.S. or without. As one elderly Chamorro once told me, “Nina’i hao gi as Yu’os i chetnot-mu para un espiha i amot-mu.”

Looking to the future, our relationship to the U.S. and its democracy has been a Micronesian version of the Greek legend of Tantalus, something that always seems just out of our reach and can never truly be ours. After more than a century of colonial thirst, maybe it is time to pursue a grand governmental experiment of our own?

Dr. Bevacqua is committed to the decolonization of Guam and the revitalization of the Chamorro language. He is currently working on a Chamorro translation of the Shakespearean play “Othello.”

I hinasso-ku put håfa ma susedi nigap gi sanlagu gi botasion: Cha'-ta Tatanges, Nit ta Fanachu!

This is my version of the old activist creed "Don't Mourn, Organize!"

If the United States has chosen Donald Trump as its president, this might be the perfect time to think about independence for Guam. 

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			Thank y