Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Resilience: Indigenous communities survive, sustain and prevail
Indigenous peoples all over the world are increasing their resilience to climate change by strengthening their traditional knowledge and systems. This video shows 5 community examples of this. (22 minutes)
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Settler-On-Settler and White Mythology
How refreshing to read a breakdown of the skewed and abusive thinking that our island is plagued with. I have just not been able to stomach the vitriol that is spewed by these less-than-mediocre-rejects who find their way to our island. Not even to get beyond the titles of the articles to read their words and understand their thinking. And it's worse when they marry locally to give them a position from which they claim their perceived "power" and "authority."
Bruce Karolle's letter is also refreshing. I appreciate a settler critique of inappropriate settler practices and conduct. That way I don't have to "put myself on the rack so you can learn about your racism."
Dr. Bevacqua's blog gives me a narrative from which I can ground my understandings, beliefs AND aspirations. This decolonization/self-determination fight has many battles and complex levels on a geometric scale.
From the young minds emerging from this fight, I find the language from which I can even speak of my culture and identity, and the understanding to find my place in this fight. Because it is "the good fight."
~
from No Rest for the Awake: Minagahet Chamorro blog: http://minagahet.blogspot.com/
Saturday, August 6, 2011
White Mythology
Dave Davis is a name that is synonymous on Guam with racist rhetoric aimed at Chamorros. He wrote letters to the editor of the PDN for many years and somewhere along the way was given a regular column in the Marianas Variety which he calls very warmly "The Outsider Perspective." In his column he regularly attacks the Government of Guam, Chamorro culture, Chamorro activists, and people who use Federal social services. These are things that everyone on Guam regularly assaults verbally, but the difference is that most people save those conversations for when they are amongst people they know agree with them and can therefore enjoy all the pleasures of racist rhetoric without fear of someone saying "Taimanu un atotga sumangan ennao!"
But what makes Davis particularly odious for most people on Guam is that he doesn't only attack those who people usually attack, but he does also take glee in attempting to eviscerate Chamorro culture. He enjoys arguing that there is no Chamorro culture, and that if there is any Chamorro culture it's all disgusting and part of the problem on Guam and shouldn't be protected or promoted. He even goes so far as to argue that the vitality of Chamorro culture is heavily dependent on how much Federal money is floating around. That is something which might offend alot of people, but it is in some ways true. So much of life on Guam and not just for Chamorros is seen through the lens of whether or not some mystical Federal funding is available for it.
In the multicultural paradise that is Guam, where every culture is beautiful Davis is an anathema. He is one that alot of people secretly enjoy reading and following since he says things they believe, and many pine for the days when you used to be able to tell Chamorros or Micronesians to their face what you thought about them and their culture. In a multicultural world you are not supposed to say bad things about anyone's culture. Every culture is different, every culture has good or bad, but we are supposed to see the differences as horizontal and not vertical, so no one's culture is supposed to be above another, and so no one culture is supposed to be able to judge another's.
But what makes Davis even more unique and even more racist is the fact that he doesn't only challenge the multicultural framework by saying that Chamorro culture is defective today, he even goes on to argue that Chamorro culture was defective in the past! In the mind's of most Chamorro culture exists today, but it doesn't exist in it's original or best form. You celebrate Chamorro culture in some cases, but secretly feel like it is all a joke, because the real Chamorros were killed off long ago and their culture was eradicated and breeded out of them with hundreds of years of colonialism and adaptation. So it is very common, even amongst Chamorros to argue that Chamorro culture is defective or non-existent today.
But no one dares to argue that Chamorro culture, in its original form, in the state it was before it was tainted by colonialism is bad. If anything, there is something noble about it, something beautiful about it, precisely because of the fact that it doesn't exist anymore and is a relic of an older and simpler time. But Davis spares no quarter for Ancient Chamorros, arguing that their culture was stagnant and worthless, producing nothing that matters to this world or to history. He mocks the arguments that people make about Chamorro culture even back then meaning anything or being important by comparing it to other cultures who have clearly accomplished so much, by producing incredible empires and the technology that makes the current global moment possible. For example, the fact that Chamorros created latte and sakman are great feats given their historical and regional context, but when compared to others, they pale in comparison to the creation of great things such as the internet, the Constitution, the airplane and so on.
What makes Davis' rhetoric so interesting is how it represents an very old racist notion, one which no one is supposed to publicly adhere to anymore. It is something which is always out there, lurking beneath the surface, feeding into so much in life without ever being spoken of. You could call Davis a white supremacist or a Eurocentrist, but this is not racism in terms of him thinking that white people are racially better, but a more practical and rational form of racist argumentation. He considers people such as Chamorros as part of the scattered dark and exotic foreign people who never amounted to much in history, but who just sat in their huts until Europeans came and made some use of their lands or of them. The Others of Europe are seen as diffuse and atomized, but on the flipside Europe and its protege, the United States are seen as one continuous entity and spirit. It is also beneficial to see Europe in this way because then world history becomes this love letter to white people and what white people have accomplished over time. The accomplishments of hundreds of different types of white and not quite white people, from dozens of different countries, over two to three thousand years all become part of this massive white mythological bastion, "Western Civilization." The United States can therefore take credit for everything that comes from that great white story, whether it be Columbus, Socrates, the Magna Carta, George Washington, freeing slaves, fighting fascism or the internet.
This is the position from which Davis regularly writes when he is attacking Guam and Chamorros. He represents Western Civilization, the apex of which is the United States, and no one can argue that this is not the dominant ideological, political, cultural and economic force in the world today. And so when he argues that Guam is a crappy and terrible place, he isn't arguing in the most accurate or most fair terms. He is arguing pretty much the fantasy of white people and the Enlightenment against a tiny island in the Pacific which has been colonized for the past 350 years.
It is of course impossible for Guam to compare to the United States in so many ways. But this is something that people often forget, and still make comparisons anyways. For example, it is common to argue against Guam by contrasting it to what people have or what people do in larger countries such as the US or the Philippines. Guam is an island of not even 200,000, how can one compare what it has accomplished with what other places with millions have done? This is where the nationalistic pinings that are part of life on Guam end up doing it a disservice, where people place Guam in that fraternity of sovereign nations, both without it actually having that ability, but also implying that the abstract equality of nations is also supposed to somehow manifest in them having equal ability as well.
But the more important point is that what Davis uses to judge Guam negatively with doesn't exist anyways. I called Western Civilization a huge myth or fantasy and when you let the foundation of your identity get riddled with myths, it is natural for your contemporary articulations of your identity or interpretations of that foundation to be loaded with fantasies as well. That is why Davis' articles are so full of what any objective person would call fantasies about the United States. Modern myths which feel fantastic if you love the United States and identify with it, or feel that it's supremacy gives you meaning in life, but actually don't come close to being true. These are ideas which billow the egotistical hot air balloon of American exceptionalism. They are soaked in positivity and assumptions that whatever the US does must be good and that anything that is good it must be at the top of. Americans believe that they give the most in terms of foreign aid, when in per capita terms they don't, and much of their aid is military, meaning it is money so they can buy US weapons. Americans believe that they are against every bad conflict in the world, fighting to stop it, and that they are leading at the forefront of every conflict which is good and must be fought. Every nation lives under the pallor of this national virus of sinlessness and supremacy but the United States struggles, because of its power and its global reach and interests, with a particularly virulent form. So when the people of the United States believe the wet dreams of its apologists, it has global proportions.
This is why Guam is such a terrible place for Davis and why he loathes with such a passion those who advocate the island's decolonization in some form or another. Guam is a part of the United States, which regularly feels and acts like it isn't. Guam of course has every right to feel like it isn't since it is not fully incorporated and so it feeling and acting like it is outside of the American circle of belonging isn't the tantrum of a spoiled child, but rather rational thinking based on reality. But Guam is a piece of America which appears to lag behind the fantasies of it in so many ways. So that alone is enough for Davis to condemn the island as being one of the worst places in the world. But it goes even further than this, since there are those who want to take things from the United States because of historical injustices or wrongs. They want war reparations, they want their language to come back to life, they want a political status change. For someone who lives off the liquor of mythical white supremacy this is simply immoral. You have here this disgusting little island challenging the power and authority of the greatest nation in the history of the universe. It is from the perspective of someone like Davis, unfathomable and impossible. How could this little tiny dot which has never done anything attempt to argue anything in the face of the country which controls everything and which in his mind has done everything already?
This says nothing of course of the fact that the fallacies of Davis in terms of those things he supports are equal to the fallacies of those things he hates. Despite the authoritative tone of his articles he is regularly inaccurate with his descriptions of local history and culture. But that is the ideological bonus of sucking gleefully from the teat of blind nationalism, is that it comes with this extra boost of convincing yourself of every silly negative notion that you can come up with about those you want to hate.
I read Davis' column every week and always struggle with how to respond. He is usually so wrong on so many levels it is difficult to think of where a teachable moment for his pieces might begin. I was happy this week to see a response to him amongst the letters to the editor. The letter came from Bruce Karolle, a former professor at the University of Guam who wrote a book a few years back about the Guam Federation of Teacher's strike in the early 1980's. He is a regular on the editorial pages of Guam and usually writes with an interesting perspective. I'm pasting his letter below because it is worth reading, especially his statements that Davis is relying on "myths" of the US which have long been disproven by scholars, his call upon Davis to provide some evidence for what he is saying, and finally the obvious argument that Davis when talking about Guam as being horrible is simply point at problems every community has.
*****************************
The Marianas Variety
August 2, 2011
FOR several consecutive weeks, the Marianas Variety has published "The Outsider Perspective" by Dave Davis, containing his views on the “myths” of the Guamanian people; the Davis title was, “Contemporary Guam Mythology.” Antagonist Davis refers to his "Myth"(s), actually self-defined attributes about Chamorros, and he numbers them (1, 2, 3, etc.). It reminds me of other authors and protagonists who have written about American mythology and American culture.
For me, however, a serious sociologist, Vance Packard in his 1957 book “The Hidden Persuaders” (it contains a long list of bibliographical sources), takes a more professional view and publishes scientific data to prove his observations. Packard's point being that the great American myths specifically are about: rugged individualism, the self-made man, and that Americans are a Christian God's special children; all these notions about who we Americans are – are used by corporations and the media to manipulate and persuade Americans into commercial (and political) behaviors. Further, the Packard point is that through advertising and lobbying, industries and American firms can influence people by focusing on the themes contained in those myths. And, therefore, companies can sell us almost anything!
This brings us to the question: Where did Mr. Davis get his list of myths? Besides Mr. Davis' apparent contempt for people living here in Guam, just examine his mythology (#5), "modern Guam is a democratic, equal opportunity, color-blind melting-pot." Mr. Davis, name your sources.
Having read his articles for several years, there is an apparent lack of recognition that Guam – as a U.S. military base – is a virtual colony of the United States and is controlled or governed by legislation written and passed in the U.S. Congress. Most authorities and interested public figures begin their discussions about contemporary Guam with examinations of the past and the circumstances by which the United States came into control of Guam.
Mr. Davis seems – somehow – to know better. Yes, it is true that many aspects of the American political-economy apply here. Today, we receive American benefits and programs that are extended from Washington D.C., more or less automatically. Even if we want to be self-sufficient and independent, it is difficult to resist the easier path of recipient/benefactor.
Some local critics have argued it was WWII which provided the turning point in our development, and that the combined polices of the Department of Defense and Interior determined what we see here in Guam today. For example, during the 1970s, there was a movement for more nationalistic or Chamorro control. One avenue for this expression was for change in legitimate political status.
Sometime during the period of 1973-75, President Gerald Ford ordered and approved a review of Guam's political status and a study took place which supported a Commonwealth-type status along the same lines as was approved for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. This study was shelved and hidden away until a book by Howard P. Willens and Dirk A. Ballendorf appeared, “The Secret Guam Study,” in 2008.
In essence, it seems to me Mr. Davis has his view focused on very narrow and negative subjects that can be found in most communities. Professor A. Maslow identified a person's view of another person and of another environment as “cognitive dissidence.” In other words, Mr. Davis sees Guam and its people through his own cultural screen. His value system probably incorporates the so-called American myths listed above. High in his mind-set are disapprovals for government block grants which translate as social security benefits for many people here. Perhaps he thinks economic benefits are only for career U.S. diplomats, top echelon security advisors, and career officers in the U.S. military.
Bruce G. Karolle
Tamuning
Bruce Karolle's letter is also refreshing. I appreciate a settler critique of inappropriate settler practices and conduct. That way I don't have to "put myself on the rack so you can learn about your racism."
Dr. Bevacqua's blog gives me a narrative from which I can ground my understandings, beliefs AND aspirations. This decolonization/self-determination fight has many battles and complex levels on a geometric scale.
From the young minds emerging from this fight, I find the language from which I can even speak of my culture and identity, and the understanding to find my place in this fight. Because it is "the good fight."
~
from No Rest for the Awake: Minagahet Chamorro blog: http://minagahet.blogspot.com/
Saturday, August 6, 2011
White Mythology
Dave Davis is a name that is synonymous on Guam with racist rhetoric aimed at Chamorros. He wrote letters to the editor of the PDN for many years and somewhere along the way was given a regular column in the Marianas Variety which he calls very warmly "The Outsider Perspective." In his column he regularly attacks the Government of Guam, Chamorro culture, Chamorro activists, and people who use Federal social services. These are things that everyone on Guam regularly assaults verbally, but the difference is that most people save those conversations for when they are amongst people they know agree with them and can therefore enjoy all the pleasures of racist rhetoric without fear of someone saying "Taimanu un atotga sumangan ennao!"
But what makes Davis particularly odious for most people on Guam is that he doesn't only attack those who people usually attack, but he does also take glee in attempting to eviscerate Chamorro culture. He enjoys arguing that there is no Chamorro culture, and that if there is any Chamorro culture it's all disgusting and part of the problem on Guam and shouldn't be protected or promoted. He even goes so far as to argue that the vitality of Chamorro culture is heavily dependent on how much Federal money is floating around. That is something which might offend alot of people, but it is in some ways true. So much of life on Guam and not just for Chamorros is seen through the lens of whether or not some mystical Federal funding is available for it.
In the multicultural paradise that is Guam, where every culture is beautiful Davis is an anathema. He is one that alot of people secretly enjoy reading and following since he says things they believe, and many pine for the days when you used to be able to tell Chamorros or Micronesians to their face what you thought about them and their culture. In a multicultural world you are not supposed to say bad things about anyone's culture. Every culture is different, every culture has good or bad, but we are supposed to see the differences as horizontal and not vertical, so no one's culture is supposed to be above another, and so no one culture is supposed to be able to judge another's.
But what makes Davis even more unique and even more racist is the fact that he doesn't only challenge the multicultural framework by saying that Chamorro culture is defective today, he even goes on to argue that Chamorro culture was defective in the past! In the mind's of most Chamorro culture exists today, but it doesn't exist in it's original or best form. You celebrate Chamorro culture in some cases, but secretly feel like it is all a joke, because the real Chamorros were killed off long ago and their culture was eradicated and breeded out of them with hundreds of years of colonialism and adaptation. So it is very common, even amongst Chamorros to argue that Chamorro culture is defective or non-existent today.
But no one dares to argue that Chamorro culture, in its original form, in the state it was before it was tainted by colonialism is bad. If anything, there is something noble about it, something beautiful about it, precisely because of the fact that it doesn't exist anymore and is a relic of an older and simpler time. But Davis spares no quarter for Ancient Chamorros, arguing that their culture was stagnant and worthless, producing nothing that matters to this world or to history. He mocks the arguments that people make about Chamorro culture even back then meaning anything or being important by comparing it to other cultures who have clearly accomplished so much, by producing incredible empires and the technology that makes the current global moment possible. For example, the fact that Chamorros created latte and sakman are great feats given their historical and regional context, but when compared to others, they pale in comparison to the creation of great things such as the internet, the Constitution, the airplane and so on.
What makes Davis' rhetoric so interesting is how it represents an very old racist notion, one which no one is supposed to publicly adhere to anymore. It is something which is always out there, lurking beneath the surface, feeding into so much in life without ever being spoken of. You could call Davis a white supremacist or a Eurocentrist, but this is not racism in terms of him thinking that white people are racially better, but a more practical and rational form of racist argumentation. He considers people such as Chamorros as part of the scattered dark and exotic foreign people who never amounted to much in history, but who just sat in their huts until Europeans came and made some use of their lands or of them. The Others of Europe are seen as diffuse and atomized, but on the flipside Europe and its protege, the United States are seen as one continuous entity and spirit. It is also beneficial to see Europe in this way because then world history becomes this love letter to white people and what white people have accomplished over time. The accomplishments of hundreds of different types of white and not quite white people, from dozens of different countries, over two to three thousand years all become part of this massive white mythological bastion, "Western Civilization." The United States can therefore take credit for everything that comes from that great white story, whether it be Columbus, Socrates, the Magna Carta, George Washington, freeing slaves, fighting fascism or the internet.
This is the position from which Davis regularly writes when he is attacking Guam and Chamorros. He represents Western Civilization, the apex of which is the United States, and no one can argue that this is not the dominant ideological, political, cultural and economic force in the world today. And so when he argues that Guam is a crappy and terrible place, he isn't arguing in the most accurate or most fair terms. He is arguing pretty much the fantasy of white people and the Enlightenment against a tiny island in the Pacific which has been colonized for the past 350 years.
It is of course impossible for Guam to compare to the United States in so many ways. But this is something that people often forget, and still make comparisons anyways. For example, it is common to argue against Guam by contrasting it to what people have or what people do in larger countries such as the US or the Philippines. Guam is an island of not even 200,000, how can one compare what it has accomplished with what other places with millions have done? This is where the nationalistic pinings that are part of life on Guam end up doing it a disservice, where people place Guam in that fraternity of sovereign nations, both without it actually having that ability, but also implying that the abstract equality of nations is also supposed to somehow manifest in them having equal ability as well.
But the more important point is that what Davis uses to judge Guam negatively with doesn't exist anyways. I called Western Civilization a huge myth or fantasy and when you let the foundation of your identity get riddled with myths, it is natural for your contemporary articulations of your identity or interpretations of that foundation to be loaded with fantasies as well. That is why Davis' articles are so full of what any objective person would call fantasies about the United States. Modern myths which feel fantastic if you love the United States and identify with it, or feel that it's supremacy gives you meaning in life, but actually don't come close to being true. These are ideas which billow the egotistical hot air balloon of American exceptionalism. They are soaked in positivity and assumptions that whatever the US does must be good and that anything that is good it must be at the top of. Americans believe that they give the most in terms of foreign aid, when in per capita terms they don't, and much of their aid is military, meaning it is money so they can buy US weapons. Americans believe that they are against every bad conflict in the world, fighting to stop it, and that they are leading at the forefront of every conflict which is good and must be fought. Every nation lives under the pallor of this national virus of sinlessness and supremacy but the United States struggles, because of its power and its global reach and interests, with a particularly virulent form. So when the people of the United States believe the wet dreams of its apologists, it has global proportions.
This is why Guam is such a terrible place for Davis and why he loathes with such a passion those who advocate the island's decolonization in some form or another. Guam is a part of the United States, which regularly feels and acts like it isn't. Guam of course has every right to feel like it isn't since it is not fully incorporated and so it feeling and acting like it is outside of the American circle of belonging isn't the tantrum of a spoiled child, but rather rational thinking based on reality. But Guam is a piece of America which appears to lag behind the fantasies of it in so many ways. So that alone is enough for Davis to condemn the island as being one of the worst places in the world. But it goes even further than this, since there are those who want to take things from the United States because of historical injustices or wrongs. They want war reparations, they want their language to come back to life, they want a political status change. For someone who lives off the liquor of mythical white supremacy this is simply immoral. You have here this disgusting little island challenging the power and authority of the greatest nation in the history of the universe. It is from the perspective of someone like Davis, unfathomable and impossible. How could this little tiny dot which has never done anything attempt to argue anything in the face of the country which controls everything and which in his mind has done everything already?
This says nothing of course of the fact that the fallacies of Davis in terms of those things he supports are equal to the fallacies of those things he hates. Despite the authoritative tone of his articles he is regularly inaccurate with his descriptions of local history and culture. But that is the ideological bonus of sucking gleefully from the teat of blind nationalism, is that it comes with this extra boost of convincing yourself of every silly negative notion that you can come up with about those you want to hate.
I read Davis' column every week and always struggle with how to respond. He is usually so wrong on so many levels it is difficult to think of where a teachable moment for his pieces might begin. I was happy this week to see a response to him amongst the letters to the editor. The letter came from Bruce Karolle, a former professor at the University of Guam who wrote a book a few years back about the Guam Federation of Teacher's strike in the early 1980's. He is a regular on the editorial pages of Guam and usually writes with an interesting perspective. I'm pasting his letter below because it is worth reading, especially his statements that Davis is relying on "myths" of the US which have long been disproven by scholars, his call upon Davis to provide some evidence for what he is saying, and finally the obvious argument that Davis when talking about Guam as being horrible is simply point at problems every community has.
*****************************
The Marianas Variety
August 2, 2011
FOR several consecutive weeks, the Marianas Variety has published "The Outsider Perspective" by Dave Davis, containing his views on the “myths” of the Guamanian people; the Davis title was, “Contemporary Guam Mythology.” Antagonist Davis refers to his "Myth"(s), actually self-defined attributes about Chamorros, and he numbers them (1, 2, 3, etc.). It reminds me of other authors and protagonists who have written about American mythology and American culture.
For me, however, a serious sociologist, Vance Packard in his 1957 book “The Hidden Persuaders” (it contains a long list of bibliographical sources), takes a more professional view and publishes scientific data to prove his observations. Packard's point being that the great American myths specifically are about: rugged individualism, the self-made man, and that Americans are a Christian God's special children; all these notions about who we Americans are – are used by corporations and the media to manipulate and persuade Americans into commercial (and political) behaviors. Further, the Packard point is that through advertising and lobbying, industries and American firms can influence people by focusing on the themes contained in those myths. And, therefore, companies can sell us almost anything!
This brings us to the question: Where did Mr. Davis get his list of myths? Besides Mr. Davis' apparent contempt for people living here in Guam, just examine his mythology (#5), "modern Guam is a democratic, equal opportunity, color-blind melting-pot." Mr. Davis, name your sources.
Having read his articles for several years, there is an apparent lack of recognition that Guam – as a U.S. military base – is a virtual colony of the United States and is controlled or governed by legislation written and passed in the U.S. Congress. Most authorities and interested public figures begin their discussions about contemporary Guam with examinations of the past and the circumstances by which the United States came into control of Guam.
Mr. Davis seems – somehow – to know better. Yes, it is true that many aspects of the American political-economy apply here. Today, we receive American benefits and programs that are extended from Washington D.C., more or less automatically. Even if we want to be self-sufficient and independent, it is difficult to resist the easier path of recipient/benefactor.
Some local critics have argued it was WWII which provided the turning point in our development, and that the combined polices of the Department of Defense and Interior determined what we see here in Guam today. For example, during the 1970s, there was a movement for more nationalistic or Chamorro control. One avenue for this expression was for change in legitimate political status.
Sometime during the period of 1973-75, President Gerald Ford ordered and approved a review of Guam's political status and a study took place which supported a Commonwealth-type status along the same lines as was approved for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. This study was shelved and hidden away until a book by Howard P. Willens and Dirk A. Ballendorf appeared, “The Secret Guam Study,” in 2008.
In essence, it seems to me Mr. Davis has his view focused on very narrow and negative subjects that can be found in most communities. Professor A. Maslow identified a person's view of another person and of another environment as “cognitive dissidence.” In other words, Mr. Davis sees Guam and its people through his own cultural screen. His value system probably incorporates the so-called American myths listed above. High in his mind-set are disapprovals for government block grants which translate as social security benefits for many people here. Perhaps he thinks economic benefits are only for career U.S. diplomats, top echelon security advisors, and career officers in the U.S. military.
Bruce G. Karolle
Tamuning
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Eat Pie
Eat Pie. from Robin Moore on Vimeo.
My male' Laurie Mackenzie works at Mission Pie in SF which is the commercial/urban side of Pie Ranch. Students from Mission Jr. High work in all aspects of the shop on Mission & 25th St.: prep, baking, cleanup, cashier and server. Small businesses can be conscious, responsible and make contributions to the community + it's a great hangout!
One day Dazdo and I met Laurie at Pie Ranch to help her cook for a student tour that turned out to be Dazdo's old high school in Oakland. I love cooking in the outdoors and the outdoor kitchen was great, except the main gas burner we needed for our veggie gumbo was on the blink and we had to cook over fire!!!
Pie Ranch is an example of how the food landscape has transformed in this central coast area. Right now, Farmer's Markets are held 6 days of the week throughout the county and our local growers are easily found in the numerous local grocery stores that feature locally grown meats and produce.
From the locally grown meats and produce come the cottage industries: prepared, to-go foods, pastries, body products, wines, oils, etc. We rely on our own supply of water on the coast, so awareness and practice of conservation & sustainable water systems are developing quickly in these parts.
Ways to create the world we want...
http://www.pieranch.org/
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Mount Carmel Phoenix Stage Band on Fresko Guahan
Fresko Guahan hosted a full hour performance of this wonderful group of performers and musicians: Mt. Carmel Phoenix Stage Band. The You Tube link will connect you to the other performances.
There are a lot of parts to this story; can I just ask, "Can't this be all about what we want on our island? The mixes of representation in gender, ethnicity, talent, and personality with a couple of tweaks that bring promise and hope for new ways of thinking and a new world. A world we want.
Hey world. This is what I'm saying. This is what we're fighting for. And it's a good fight!
I have a few friends who worked at Mount Carmel years back. At the time, the school was struggling to stay alive. My friends loved their students very much. They have all gone on to other pursuits and I'm glad to see the school has survived.
Ryan Anderson's enthusiastic support is refreshing and disarming!
The World We Live In
Michael Parenti - "The Face of Imperialism" from Maverick Media on Vimeo.
Just as the folks who lament over the "failed" presidency of George W. Bush and decry disappointment in Barak H. Obama, the "failed" economic and political policies of this country are in fact doing what they set out to do. According to plan, they are phenomenally successful presidencies and policies.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Toddler World
I understand it is a constructed term, but the "toddler" world I am immersed in is another level of a child's connection to the universe. But then she gets parented, socialized, educated, employed; seems that all the constructed institutions to guarantee a successful and productive life...only if you are of a certain stripe, strip those very sacred and vital connections away from her. How do we provide that safe, nurturing, engaging environment for every child to build the world we want?
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Killing Game-The Writings of An Intrepid, Investigative Reporter
Sacramento News & Review on Gary Webb’s new anthology | Seven Stories Press
May 19, 2011
It's important to remember that he was right.
Gary Webb, who occupied a cubicle just a few feet from mine in 2004, during the last year of his life, took a lot of grief from big press outlets over his amazing work tracking drug sales in South Central Los Angeles back to the CIA, but ultimately, he was right—as noted in a condolence message sent to this paper by Sen. John Kerry.
A new anthology of some of Gary’s other, lesser-known work—including two stories he wrote for SN&R—serves as a big reminder of just how good he was at what he did. “The Killing Game”: Selected Writings by the Author of Dark Alliance demonstrates that what he did, all the time, was investigative reporting. He did it like other people walk or breathe. Gary corralled facts, sniffed out leads, tracked down documents and then put them into a story that wasn’t just coherent, it was interesting and important.
That started with his first job in 1978, at The Kentucky Post, where he teamed up with another 20-something guy to write a 17-part story (yeah, 17 parts! Newspapers did that in those days) exposing corruption in the coal industry.
He did it over and over again. He reported on surrogate parenting, dangerously inept doctors who were still allowed to practice, the safety problems with elevated freeways—and the way Caltrans had ignored them, with disastrous results during 1989’s Loma Prieta earthquake. He reported on police misconduct, racial profiling, Internet porn, violent video games and “those damned red-light cameras.” That’s what he called them. Injustices, big and small, are, well, unjust.
It’s best to say that Gary “reported,” although he wrote very, very well. But what’s noteworthy about these stories is that he did the legwork. He didn’t just work the phones, he worked the archives and the courts and the streets. He rifled through documents and talked to people.
The incredible work on “The Coal Connection,” which he wrote 1980 with Thomas Scheffey, should have gotten a lot more attention. In it, they document the relationships between criminals, coal magnates and politicians, and how coal mines that weren’t even producing any coal still managed to produce mountains of cash. In fact, it would be fertile to go through this story carefully, and then take a good, long look at the current moves to increase our reliance on coal as an energy source, just to see if some of the same tactics are still being used to rip off the public. All the stories that Gary wrote are still timely, even those damned red-light cameras.
As the daily papers die around us, we need people like Gary more than we ever did—people who know who to call, where to find those sources if they won’t pick up their phones, which documents to ask for and where they’re located. We need reporters who will work as hard as Gary worked.
Here at SN&R, we didn’t get to know Gary as well as we’d have liked, and we certainly didn’t get to learn all we needed to about his skills. Still, it’s easy to recognize him in the notes that his editors and colleagues provide for this anthology.
One notes his willingness to file a lawsuit to get information, which is an immediate reminder of the first words he ever uttered at an SN&R editorial meeting. Another writer was talking about an agency’s refusal to release some information.
“So let’s sue ’em,” growled Gary.
“The Killing Game” is another reminder of just how good a reporter he was, and of how much we lost when his life ended.
Because Gary Webb was right about a lot of things.
Read the article on the Sacramento News & Review’s website.
Wikipedia on Gary Webb:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb
Freeway Ricky Ross - A Pawn in the CIA's Drug Game
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Kanini:: Animism - Loving of the Ancients
thanks to Organizing Notes Sunday Songs:
affirming, unconditional, ever-present, all-encompassing...
"it doesn't push anybody out, it brings everybody in."
The Owl and the Cat
I love cats. I love owls more. They hold a stature in the wild kingdom that is stately, magnificent and mysterious. Every year for un-thanksgiving or neo-christmas I request time w/my family to spend the day at the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge just off of Interstate 5 between Davis and Willows. It is a six-acre tract of land that has been restored to the original habitat of the Central California Valley: marshland. SWR is part of the Pacific Flyway, the route migrating birds use to traverse the hemisphere to feed and mate.
If you go around feeding-time, that is early dawn or dusk, you can see the birds of prey (bald & golden eagles; red-tail, red-shoulder, and harrier hawks, kestrels, kites, and owls) fly over the hundreds of thousands wading, diving and dabbling ducks, seeking out breakfast, dinner or an occasional snack.
This is a barn owl.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
JFK Islanders, Warriors, Artists, Our Promise for the Future
The JFK community is working to ensure future classes don't go through what previous ones have. And continue to.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Return to Palestine
It's only natural....to resist. It's only human....to feel.
Uploaded by neverbeforecampaign on May 5, 2011
On the 15th of May of every year, Palestinians and the whole world remember how it all started. How the Israelis' ethnic cleansing of a people and the destruction of a society - the Nakba - was met with global indifference. Many factors made it so, but among them was a Zionist propaganda machine that illustrated the crime committed in Palestine in 1948 as a war of independence against aggressive Arabs and Palestinians.
It is true that the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab people resisted the establishment of a racist regime in Palestine. And they still do. It is only normal. If anyone comprehends the extent of the injustice that has been committed against the Palestinian people, they would not even ask why they are so determined in their pursuit of justice. And if anyone knows the history of the Palestinian struggle, they would realize that this people will continue to resist in every form until they see the justice they have so longed for restored.
On 15 May 2011, the world is invited to express its understanding, solidarity and support to a people that has resisted... and continues to do so, for Justice in Palestine.
Uploaded by neverbeforecampaign on May 5, 2011
On the 15th of May of every year, Palestinians and the whole world remember how it all started. How the Israelis' ethnic cleansing of a people and the destruction of a society - the Nakba - was met with global indifference. Many factors made it so, but among them was a Zionist propaganda machine that illustrated the crime committed in Palestine in 1948 as a war of independence against aggressive Arabs and Palestinians.
It is true that the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab people resisted the establishment of a racist regime in Palestine. And they still do. It is only normal. If anyone comprehends the extent of the injustice that has been committed against the Palestinian people, they would not even ask why they are so determined in their pursuit of justice. And if anyone knows the history of the Palestinian struggle, they would realize that this people will continue to resist in every form until they see the justice they have so longed for restored.
On 15 May 2011, the world is invited to express its understanding, solidarity and support to a people that has resisted... and continues to do so, for Justice in Palestine.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Aria Asia - Ryukyu Song
from Grits & Sushi blog
Circulating Okinawa and “Security”
Posted on March 25, 2011
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ryukyu Shimpo Editorial
〈Editorial〉Open letter to Mr. Carl Levin2011年4月27日 このエントリーを含む
Ryukyu Shimpo Editorial:Open letter dated April 27, 2011 to Mr. Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Dear Friends of the U.S. Congress,
We recommend that the United States Government implement a dramatic change in policy and remove the facilities at Futenma Air Station from Okinawa altogether. The people of Okinawa are both hopeful and anxious as they wait to see how American democracy handles this test.
Do we want a situation in which every time the United States sneezes, Japan follows; in which if the United States orders Japan to turn to the right that is exactly what happens? Or do we want a situation in which both parties respect each others’ opinions and do not hesitate to state their position on matters, however difficult that may be. Which kind of U.S.-Japan relations would you prefer?
Dear Mr. Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Mr. Jim Webb, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs,
We appreciate that the two of you, both representatives of the U.S. Congress, are visiting Okinawa and hope that you have opportunities to engage in dialogue with many local people during your stay.
In the 66 years that have passed since the end of World War II, the United States has been a teacher of democracy for the people of Okinawa both through positive and negative examples.
Throughout our long-standing relationship, the people of Okinawa have been sincere in raising the matter of how the United States and Japan should seek to create a genuine friendly relationship in which both countries respect human rights.
Ongoing humiliation - patience wears thin
April 28 is the date when the United States and Japan concluded both the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty in 1952. With this, Allied Occupation forces withdrew from Japan and Japan attained independence. The San Francisco Peace Treaty determined that Okinawa and Amami Oshima would be separated from the mainland islands of Japan and put under the control of the U.S. military.
After the war, Okinawa faced many trials and tribulations during the reign of the U.S. military government, which took control of Okinawan people's land at the point of a bayonet and used bulldozers to build military bases. They blatantly violated the basic human rights of the local people with outrageous behavior and placed limitations on Okinawa's autonomy.
The people of Okinawa see April 28 as a day of humiliation. Notwithstanding their normally placid temperament, their patience has been worn thin by ongoing humiliation at the hands of the U.S. military.
The problem is symbolized by the problems surrounding the return of the Futenma Air Station. In April 1996, the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed that the United States would return the land used by Futenma Air Station, which is located in a densely populated area, to Okinawa on the basis that the facilities would be moved to an alternative location within the prefecture. However, local Okinawans have consistently opposed the construction of such replacement facilities.
The Governor of Okinawa Hirokazu Nakaima and all the heads of the various municipalities of Okinawa are opposed to the agreement reached by the Japanese and U.S. governments by which the U.S. military would relocate the Futenma Air Station facilities to a coastal area of Nago City. Okinawa's prefectural assembly passed a resolution calling for the Futenma Air Station to be relocated out of the prefecture or out of Japan altogether, and in the national election, all politicians who accepted the option of relocation of the air station within the prefecture lost their seats.
In an opinion poll carried out in Okinawa last May, following the U.S.-Japan agreement, 84% of respondents opposed the relocation of the facilities at Futenma to Nago City's Henoko district.
When asked by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about his view of the Futenma issue, former Director of the Japanese Affairs Office in the U.S. State Department, Kevin Maher, commented that in the worst case scenario the U.S. should maintain the status quo, which would neither pose a problem for its military nor be detrimental to the interests of the United States.
This is an irresponsible stance. The U.S. government is a central player in this matter and should feel guilty for neglecting what is clearly a dangerous situation.
Okinawan people feel that they were sacrificed in the name of defense of the main islands of Japan during the Battle of Okinawa and that the same occurred after the war in the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. They also feel that an underlying structural discrimination exists towards them.
Although Okinawa only accounts for 0.4% of the land area of Japan, 74% of U.S. military facilities in Japan are located in Okinawa and 70% of U.S. military personnel in Japan are stationed in the prefecture.
U.S. military and the Self-Defense Forces carried out Operation Tomodachi following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11. The people of Japan are grateful for the efforts of the U.S. military in transporting relief aid, clearing rubble, and restoring Sendai Airport to a situation in which it could function again.
While we Japanese salute the dedication of U.S. military personnel, the excessive burden placed on Okinawa by the presence of U.S. bases and the ongoing unwelcome behavior of U.S. military personnel overshadows those positive feelings.
Even after Okinawa's reversion to Japanese administration in 1972, residents of Okinawa have continued to be on the receiving end of incidents, accidents and crimes involving U.S. military personnel.
Hazy ideal of the Obama Administration
Since the reversion, there have been about 500 accidents such as crashes and emergency landings involving U.S. military aircraft. Military personnel have committed over 5500 crimes, 560 of which involved acts of violence. It is likely that many female victims end up crying themselves to sleep without ever reporting what has happened to them, so the figures are potentially even higher than this.
The Okinawan people see the Japan-U.S. Status-of-Forces Agreement, which grants a privileged status to the U.S. military forces in Japan, as an unequal treaty, and therefore seek fundamental revisions to this Agreement. This is the collective will of the Okinawan people.
Recently, a U.S. civilian employed by the military caused a fatal accident but was exempted from prosecution because the accident was judged to have occurred when he was “on duty.”
Such disregard for human lives and human rights by both the U.S. and Japanese governments based on the Japan-U.S. Status-of-Forces Agreement is unconscionable.
President Obama's coming into office gave the Okinawan people great hope that “change” would occur. They wondered how Okinawa would be affected by the transition from the unilateralism of the Republican Party to policies of international cooperation and by President Obama's advocacy of “a world without nuclear weapons.”
Among the ideals espoused by President Obama and in the new challenges that he took up, the people of Okinawa sensed that there may be benefits for mankind that involve sustainable development and transcend America's own national interests.
However, it would seem that military logic has come to overshadow these ideals.
The sea off Henoko is precious in that it is the natural habitat of the dugong,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif which is a protected species. If the governments of the United States and Japan push through the construction of a new base, the U.S. military will not only find itself surrounded by hostility from the people of Okinawa and mainland Japan, but also from members of conservation http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmovhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifement groups all over the world. We consider that the closure and removal of the facilities at Futenma is necessary to rebuild good neighborly relations between the U.S. and Okinawa and we hope that you sense and accept the sincerity of the “spirit of Okinawa.”
To respect the will of the people of Okinawa, please show us the true worth of American democracy and demonstrate to us the determination to make major changes to the Agreement between U.S. and Japan as it pertains to Futenma.
See Ryukyu Shimpo article.
For more information & commentary visit Ten Thousand Things blog.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Powerful U.S. Senators Arrive in Guam; Guam Governor Calls on U.S. Senate to End Its Bipartisan Colonialism
Powerful U.S. Senators Arrive in Guam; Guam Governor Calls on U.S. Senate to End Its Bipartisan Colonialism
Immediate Release: April 18, 2011
(Hagatna, Guam) Guam Governor Eddie Baza Calvo, one of the 55 United States governors, found out this morning that fifteen percent of the U.S. Senate landed on Guam in secrecy today. The contingent includes the Senate Majority and Minority leaders and other powerful U.S. Senators. These U.S. Senators, both Democrat and Republican, have decided to thumb their noses at the island and its government. The Governor, who is a member of the National Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association, releases the following statement about how this snub can severely affect Guam colonial-federal relations as the U.S. government pushes a $15 billion realignment of Asian-Pacific forces on Guam:
“This morning, Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo asked whether I would be greeting the 15 U.S. Senators scheduled to arrive at Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base today. We were both surprised and extremely upset that no one in the federal establishment informed Guam of their visit. We called the Navy to verify this stopover and we were told that the U.S. Senators will not entertain any meeting or discussions with Guam leaders or the Guamanian people. Instead of landing at the A.B. Won Pat International Airport, Guam, they have decided to shield their visit in secrecy and land within the confines of Andersen Air Force Base.
“In the 100 years we have been a colony of the United States, the U.S. government hardly did anything to resolve our colonial status. What kind of democracy allows colonialism to flourish? I am livid the U.S. Senate, a body created by the will of the people of 13 colonies who wanted freedom and democracy, would turn its back on the Guamanian people. It is obvious we are not part of their constituency, and they do not consider us a valuable part of the American family. This only serves to inflame our long-held belief that we are an American colony of second-class citizens who matter only when our geopolitical position is needed by the U.S. government.
“This is a sad state of affairs. This is the third time in the last year that Congress has made it clear that we are of no importance to the nation. This snub follows Congress trying to sell our own resources to us at Fena and Congress taking away our Delegate’s voting power in House committees. These U.S. Senators are only hurting American interests abroad. Look at the great relationship we’ve built with the U.S. military. Congress’s actions only undermine that work. Why? If Guam was so important to U.S. strategic interests, then why would the nation’s leaders continue snubbing Guamanians?
“If the Senate wants to thumb its nose at Guamanians, then perhaps it is time for Guamanians to call in every injustice ever committed upon our people by the U.S. government. And we can start with the Insular Cases of the same U.S. Supreme Court of the 1900s that said people of color were separate but equal. How many times have Guamanians answered the call to serve? How many have died for a democracy that doesn’t even fully apply to us? How many more times must Guamanians accept colonial treatment before Congress ever recognizes that our voices count, too? How much more oppression can our people take before they get fed up and tell the Congress to take their buildup somewhere else?
“We can have the greatest relationship with the U.S. military and the Department of the Interior, but if Congress continues ignoring Guam like the colony it is, we will never truly enjoy the America that the Marines of 1944 fought and died to bring to Guam. What happened to the pledge of a “One Guam” policy? It’s clear these U.S. Senators have no intention of uniting our best interests. To them, there is an American inside a military fenceline, and an American colony outside of it. They want nothing to do with that colony. Here is yet another compelling reason the Guam Legislature, Lt. Governor Tenorio and I are working together to call for a vote of self determination. We cannot continue on as a colony of the United States. We should either be a part of the U.S., with voting membership in the House and Senate and the right to vote for President, or we should govern ourselves. This is a message we will share with U.S. Senators Jim Webb and Carl Levin when they visit with us next week. At least these gentlemen have the consideration and decency to meet with their fellow Americans in Guam.
“I want Guamanians living in the U.S. States where these U.S. Senators are from to remember what these U.S. Senators did to Guam in the next national elections.”
Guam is an organized unincorporated territory of the United States, a colonial status that has not changed. Its residents are called Guamanians and were granted U.S. citizenship by an act of Congress called the Organic Act of 1948. Only certain provisions of the Constitution's Bill of Rights apply to the residents of Guam, called Guamanians. Guamanians have among the highest enlistment rates in the U.S. military. There are 183,000 Guamanians living in Guam. An unknown number reside throughout the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and Alaska. A 2000 census of those who call themselves Chamorro (the ethnicity indigenous to Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) or part-Chamorro says that 33,849 Chamorros alone live in California. This does not include the broader number of Guamanians of other ethnic backgrounds who live in California. According to the 2000 Census, nearly 100,000 Chamorros live in the 50 States and Puerto Rico.
Office of the Governor of Guam
Ricardo J. Bordallo Governor's Complex | Adelup, Guam 96910
Tel: (671) 472-8931/6 | Fax: (671) 477-4826 | http://governor.guam.gov
Immediate Release: April 18, 2011
(Hagatna, Guam) Guam Governor Eddie Baza Calvo, one of the 55 United States governors, found out this morning that fifteen percent of the U.S. Senate landed on Guam in secrecy today. The contingent includes the Senate Majority and Minority leaders and other powerful U.S. Senators. These U.S. Senators, both Democrat and Republican, have decided to thumb their noses at the island and its government. The Governor, who is a member of the National Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association, releases the following statement about how this snub can severely affect Guam colonial-federal relations as the U.S. government pushes a $15 billion realignment of Asian-Pacific forces on Guam:
“This morning, Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo asked whether I would be greeting the 15 U.S. Senators scheduled to arrive at Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base today. We were both surprised and extremely upset that no one in the federal establishment informed Guam of their visit. We called the Navy to verify this stopover and we were told that the U.S. Senators will not entertain any meeting or discussions with Guam leaders or the Guamanian people. Instead of landing at the A.B. Won Pat International Airport, Guam, they have decided to shield their visit in secrecy and land within the confines of Andersen Air Force Base.
“In the 100 years we have been a colony of the United States, the U.S. government hardly did anything to resolve our colonial status. What kind of democracy allows colonialism to flourish? I am livid the U.S. Senate, a body created by the will of the people of 13 colonies who wanted freedom and democracy, would turn its back on the Guamanian people. It is obvious we are not part of their constituency, and they do not consider us a valuable part of the American family. This only serves to inflame our long-held belief that we are an American colony of second-class citizens who matter only when our geopolitical position is needed by the U.S. government.
“This is a sad state of affairs. This is the third time in the last year that Congress has made it clear that we are of no importance to the nation. This snub follows Congress trying to sell our own resources to us at Fena and Congress taking away our Delegate’s voting power in House committees. These U.S. Senators are only hurting American interests abroad. Look at the great relationship we’ve built with the U.S. military. Congress’s actions only undermine that work. Why? If Guam was so important to U.S. strategic interests, then why would the nation’s leaders continue snubbing Guamanians?
“If the Senate wants to thumb its nose at Guamanians, then perhaps it is time for Guamanians to call in every injustice ever committed upon our people by the U.S. government. And we can start with the Insular Cases of the same U.S. Supreme Court of the 1900s that said people of color were separate but equal. How many times have Guamanians answered the call to serve? How many have died for a democracy that doesn’t even fully apply to us? How many more times must Guamanians accept colonial treatment before Congress ever recognizes that our voices count, too? How much more oppression can our people take before they get fed up and tell the Congress to take their buildup somewhere else?
“We can have the greatest relationship with the U.S. military and the Department of the Interior, but if Congress continues ignoring Guam like the colony it is, we will never truly enjoy the America that the Marines of 1944 fought and died to bring to Guam. What happened to the pledge of a “One Guam” policy? It’s clear these U.S. Senators have no intention of uniting our best interests. To them, there is an American inside a military fenceline, and an American colony outside of it. They want nothing to do with that colony. Here is yet another compelling reason the Guam Legislature, Lt. Governor Tenorio and I are working together to call for a vote of self determination. We cannot continue on as a colony of the United States. We should either be a part of the U.S., with voting membership in the House and Senate and the right to vote for President, or we should govern ourselves. This is a message we will share with U.S. Senators Jim Webb and Carl Levin when they visit with us next week. At least these gentlemen have the consideration and decency to meet with their fellow Americans in Guam.
“I want Guamanians living in the U.S. States where these U.S. Senators are from to remember what these U.S. Senators did to Guam in the next national elections.”
Guam is an organized unincorporated territory of the United States, a colonial status that has not changed. Its residents are called Guamanians and were granted U.S. citizenship by an act of Congress called the Organic Act of 1948. Only certain provisions of the Constitution's Bill of Rights apply to the residents of Guam, called Guamanians. Guamanians have among the highest enlistment rates in the U.S. military. There are 183,000 Guamanians living in Guam. An unknown number reside throughout the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and Alaska. A 2000 census of those who call themselves Chamorro (the ethnicity indigenous to Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) or part-Chamorro says that 33,849 Chamorros alone live in California. This does not include the broader number of Guamanians of other ethnic backgrounds who live in California. According to the 2000 Census, nearly 100,000 Chamorros live in the 50 States and Puerto Rico.
Office of the Governor of Guam
Ricardo J. Bordallo Governor's Complex | Adelup, Guam 96910
Tel: (671) 472-8931/6 | Fax: (671) 477-4826 | http://governor.guam.gov
Monday, April 4, 2011
Guam History According to Guam Youth
When he can, Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua teaches History of Guam to our youth at the University of Guam.
In my relationships over the years, the relationships I value most are the ones w/folks who in my times of confusion or need, ask me good, relevant questions. I end up talking myself through my own doubts and fears to come to my own answers, resolutions, empowerment and liberation. Really. It works like that!
Dr. Bevacqua writes about his classes in blogs, newspaper columns and video postings. By all accounts, Dr. Bevacqua asks of his students what my cherished friends ask of me.
While the discussions may be all over the place, the fact that our youth consider and discuss the future of our island is empowering, don't you think?
We CAN nurture, inform and empower our youth. They will be the ones to envision and build a life and a future for the island that will be for the Chamoru people and ALL the people of Guahan. Numerous acts of love on this island. Biba!
You can also view other postings from Dr. Bevacqua's classes at this link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bbfhbkfQpI&NR=1
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Football or Prison - The Limited Options Facing Polynesian Boys in America
Silicon Valley De-Bug • Commentary • Jean Melesaine • March 22, 2011
Author Jean Melesaine reflects on how preconceived notions of size and physicality impact her two younger brothers and a generation of Polynesian young men.
The first time I read a book with the word Polynesian in it was when I read "Moby Dick" in middle school. Author Herman Melville wrote his famous novel sometime in the late 1800's and in it he wrote about a Polynesian shipmate, "Queequeg." He was described in the book as a “heavily tattooed Polynesian harpooner existing in a state between civilized and savage.” That description of the Polynesian male was written in the late 1800's, yet is an image that doesn't seem to fade even in 2011.
In my Polynesian family I have two younger brothers who are now 18 and 23 - Jr. and Christ, one named after my father and the other named after Jesus. Throughout their whole lives they have faced the pressure of being young Polynesian men viewed through the lens of mainstream America. Almost the same stereotype that author Herman Melville wrote about, heavily tattooed between being "civilized and savage.”
Ever since my little brother was 15 he was 6'4, 300lbs solid. To have a growth spurt at that age and to that extent is normal for a lot of Polynesian young men. His facial hair grew faster than that of some older men. His size has been a gift and a curse, getting him noticed where ever he goes. It’s either in a good way or a bad way, people either fear him or they sometimes want to be around him to portray the image of fear. He's had a lot of friends who admit to wanting to hang with him because of his size and not because he's a funny, intelligent guy.
My brother’s experience typifies what a lot of young Polynesians go through, again in the good and the bad.
A 2005 UC Berkeley study on Asian Pacific Islander prison reentry found that API men and women are incarcerated at a younger age than any other racial group in California. Also in the recent documentary, "In Football We Trust," they say that Samoans and Tongans are 56 times more likely to be in the NFL than any other ethnic background.
As different as those two statistics are, it makes a lot sense if you consider how physicality in America plays such an important role. People in America associate size with power: big cars, big houses, big muscles, everything big.
The first time my brother Jr.’s size and image came into play and foreshadowed the type of attention he would receive for years to come was when he was 15. He was out late and walking home when the police pulled him over. Three vehicles and five cops rushed him as he proceeded to lay flat on the ground in the arrest position. One of the officers put her gun to his head and cursed at him. He is 23 now and has had repeated episodes like that since, and I asked him, "Why do you think they treated you like that when you were 15?" He told me, "because I'm a big ass human being."
When he came back from New Zealand and stepped onto his new high school campus the football coaches walked right up to him trying to recruit him. When he walks with our mom, who looks like a small Chinese lady people ask her if she’s okay.
These are things that have become normal for young Polynesians. Even sitting in a courtroom or handcuffed on the curb, being treated as an adult rather than the average American teenager has become normal.
With my two younger brothers being arrested is casual. Being in the system is expected.
Last week I got a call from my father telling me my youngest brother, Chris, was arrested again and he sits in adult jail for the first time because he just turned 18.
This morning I got a text that Jr. was taken into custody on a traffic warrant. He has court on Wednesday for another case. How was he taken in? He was stopped while walking with Christ to the store at 11pm. Christ had been released and was drinking a soda. The cop suspected it was a bottle of alcohol and pulled them over while walking. After running his name he was taken in. Within a two week span both of them have been in custody. It doesn't surprise me anymore, it’s not a big issue to them. That's just how it has always been, it’s as common as a handshake.
I started writing this piece last week to compensate a quick video that I produced around the Santa Clara County criminal justice system. The video was based on my brothers, little pieces that cannot give the full view of what they go through as young Polynesian men. While working on the video, I asked my younger brother, Christ, to explain to me what his thoughts were on his time in the system. He didn’t understand what I was asking him for. To him seeing other Polynesians arrested or incarcerated is part of normal life to him. Everyone in my family except for my mother has been arrested in front of him.
A friend of mine, an older white activist woman named Betsy told me she read one of my pieces around Polynesian culture and says she loves my writing. As much as I appreciate it, it makes me want to stop. Yet another day, writing a story that Christ probably won’t read or doesn’t care about. A story about him, about my other brother Jr. about Polynesian men who sit in prison who can't think about life any different because it seems that America has picked their choices for them.
Because of Polynesian men's physical size, ethnic background, class and pre-conceived stereotypes, the many opportunities of America have been reduced to two choices: football or prison.
Jean Melesaine is an author and videographer for Silicon Valley De-Bug.
Read more stories from Silicon Valley De-Bug »
http://www.sjbeez.org/articles/2011/03/22/football-or-prison-the-limited-options-facing-polynesian-men-in-america/
Author Jean Melesaine reflects on how preconceived notions of size and physicality impact her two younger brothers and a generation of Polynesian young men.
The Limited Options Facing Polynesian Men in America from DE BUG on Vimeo.
The first time I read a book with the word Polynesian in it was when I read "Moby Dick" in middle school. Author Herman Melville wrote his famous novel sometime in the late 1800's and in it he wrote about a Polynesian shipmate, "Queequeg." He was described in the book as a “heavily tattooed Polynesian harpooner existing in a state between civilized and savage.” That description of the Polynesian male was written in the late 1800's, yet is an image that doesn't seem to fade even in 2011.
In my Polynesian family I have two younger brothers who are now 18 and 23 - Jr. and Christ, one named after my father and the other named after Jesus. Throughout their whole lives they have faced the pressure of being young Polynesian men viewed through the lens of mainstream America. Almost the same stereotype that author Herman Melville wrote about, heavily tattooed between being "civilized and savage.”
Ever since my little brother was 15 he was 6'4, 300lbs solid. To have a growth spurt at that age and to that extent is normal for a lot of Polynesian young men. His facial hair grew faster than that of some older men. His size has been a gift and a curse, getting him noticed where ever he goes. It’s either in a good way or a bad way, people either fear him or they sometimes want to be around him to portray the image of fear. He's had a lot of friends who admit to wanting to hang with him because of his size and not because he's a funny, intelligent guy.
My brother’s experience typifies what a lot of young Polynesians go through, again in the good and the bad.
A 2005 UC Berkeley study on Asian Pacific Islander prison reentry found that API men and women are incarcerated at a younger age than any other racial group in California. Also in the recent documentary, "In Football We Trust," they say that Samoans and Tongans are 56 times more likely to be in the NFL than any other ethnic background.
As different as those two statistics are, it makes a lot sense if you consider how physicality in America plays such an important role. People in America associate size with power: big cars, big houses, big muscles, everything big.
The first time my brother Jr.’s size and image came into play and foreshadowed the type of attention he would receive for years to come was when he was 15. He was out late and walking home when the police pulled him over. Three vehicles and five cops rushed him as he proceeded to lay flat on the ground in the arrest position. One of the officers put her gun to his head and cursed at him. He is 23 now and has had repeated episodes like that since, and I asked him, "Why do you think they treated you like that when you were 15?" He told me, "because I'm a big ass human being."
When he came back from New Zealand and stepped onto his new high school campus the football coaches walked right up to him trying to recruit him. When he walks with our mom, who looks like a small Chinese lady people ask her if she’s okay.
These are things that have become normal for young Polynesians. Even sitting in a courtroom or handcuffed on the curb, being treated as an adult rather than the average American teenager has become normal.
With my two younger brothers being arrested is casual. Being in the system is expected.
Last week I got a call from my father telling me my youngest brother, Chris, was arrested again and he sits in adult jail for the first time because he just turned 18.
This morning I got a text that Jr. was taken into custody on a traffic warrant. He has court on Wednesday for another case. How was he taken in? He was stopped while walking with Christ to the store at 11pm. Christ had been released and was drinking a soda. The cop suspected it was a bottle of alcohol and pulled them over while walking. After running his name he was taken in. Within a two week span both of them have been in custody. It doesn't surprise me anymore, it’s not a big issue to them. That's just how it has always been, it’s as common as a handshake.
I started writing this piece last week to compensate a quick video that I produced around the Santa Clara County criminal justice system. The video was based on my brothers, little pieces that cannot give the full view of what they go through as young Polynesian men. While working on the video, I asked my younger brother, Christ, to explain to me what his thoughts were on his time in the system. He didn’t understand what I was asking him for. To him seeing other Polynesians arrested or incarcerated is part of normal life to him. Everyone in my family except for my mother has been arrested in front of him.
A friend of mine, an older white activist woman named Betsy told me she read one of my pieces around Polynesian culture and says she loves my writing. As much as I appreciate it, it makes me want to stop. Yet another day, writing a story that Christ probably won’t read or doesn’t care about. A story about him, about my other brother Jr. about Polynesian men who sit in prison who can't think about life any different because it seems that America has picked their choices for them.
Because of Polynesian men's physical size, ethnic background, class and pre-conceived stereotypes, the many opportunities of America have been reduced to two choices: football or prison.
Jean Melesaine is an author and videographer for Silicon Valley De-Bug.
Read more stories from Silicon Valley De-Bug »
http://www.sjbeez.org/articles/2011/03/22/football-or-prison-the-limited-options-facing-polynesian-men-in-america/
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Honor the Treaties: Pine Ridge Billboard Projects
Waisichu
http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=305
http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=305
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Hate in America
Hate comes to Orange County
(ANAHEIM, CA, 3/2/11) -- The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today released a video of a rally organized by anti-Muslim bigots to protest a February fundraising event held by an American Muslim relief group for relief work and charity in the U.S.
A few hundred protesters showed up to the rally, which was sponsored by groups such as: "We Surround Them OC 912" (a local Tea Party group), Rabbi David Eliezrie of Chabad - Yorba Linda, North Orange County Conservative Coalition, ACT! for America, and Pamela Geller (whose group "Stop the Islamization of America" has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center).
Elected officials Congressmen Ed Royce and Gary Miller, and Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly also attended and spoke at the protest rally.
The event -- held at Yorba Linda Community Center, a facility that has been frequented by Muslim families and businesses over the years -- first became a target of anti-Muslim bigots over two of the fundraiser's speakers, who were to speak on the importance of charity in Islam. Initial attempts of some groups to have the Yorba Linda Community Center and the Yorba Linda City Council cancel the fundraising event failed, followed by the protest.
In a statement, CAIR-LA said:
"We support the First Amendment right of protest\eors anywhere in America to voice their concerns, dissent, and even hatred. However, when our nation's foundational values of inclusiveness, pluralism and equality are attacked by some in favor of calls for advocating hate and violence, then all Americans have a responsibility to challenge and expose such bigotry and those who enable it.
"As the video shows, the rhetoric of the protesters became increasingly venomous toward the families and children who came to attend the ICNA Relief fundraising dinner. Protesters shouted invective statements such as "Go home terrorist," "Muhammad is a pervert, Muhammad is a child molester," "Go home and beat your wife, she needs a good beating" at the event-goers.
"Even more disturbing was the participation and encouragement of elected officials in promoting the hateful protest rally. Villa Park Councilwoman, Deborah Pauly, while addressing the crowd at the rally, appeared to threaten Muslim event-goers. Congressman Ed Royce (R-40), in a troubling trend of disparaging Islam and its followers, added fuel to the fire by encouraging protesters to continue on with their hate-mongering. The attendance of Congressman Gary Miller (R-42) was a clear surprise, since he previously has engaged with all constituents, including Muslims, toward a better America.
"We strongly urge all elected officials in attendance to distance themselves from such an exhibition of hate and bigotry. We further ask residents and elected officials of Yorba Linda, Orange County and other parts of our nation to speak out against such hateful rhetoric and the continued Islamophobia that plagues our nation."
Council on American Islamic Relations-Los Angeles (CAIR-LA), Phone: 714-776-1847, Email: info@losangeles.cair.com
ca.cair.com/losangeles
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Strategic Trust:: the People of Palau learn what American democracy looks like
from Nukefree Pasifik
Uploaded by eon3 on Feb 9, 2011
From 1982 to 1996 award-winning filmmakers Mary Beth Brangan & James Heddle documented on film and video unfolding events in the fledgling island nation of Palau. When Palau's voters made it the first nation in history to adopt a nuclear free, green constitution, Washington's war planners saw it as 'the threat of a good example.'
Palau became the poster child for the growing Nuclear Free Pacific movement and a cause celebre for the global nuclear free zone movement. The 10-year-long manipulation of the electoral process the U.S. then unleashed to force the rollback of Palau's nuclear ban became a text book case for subversion of the democratic process in developing countries...and at home. Their experiences covering this story made the filmmakers life-long advocates of election integrity.
This film was produced on a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1986.
Monday, February 21, 2011
The birth of collective bargaining, AFSME, progressive labor movement.....
Republicans seek to strike a dagger in the heart of the labor movement:
The Progressive's Rothschild: Russ Feingold Will be WI Gov.
The Progressive's Matt Rothschild is interviewed by the UpTake.
The Progressive's Rothschild: Russ Feingold Will be WI Gov.
The Progressive's Matt Rothschild is interviewed by the UpTake.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
We Are Guahan Takes on the Rotary Crowd
There is a new leadership emerging on our island. A leadership that speaks for the people of Guahan and is not afraid to call out the truth when twisted words are used to strike at us and keep us from being whole.
We Are Guahan: DoD Broke Law and Promises
We Are Guahan: DoD Broke Law and Promises
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Ralph Nader Tags Obama Cowtowing to Chamber of Commerce
My presidential candidates never win...
Once again, one of my favorite bloggers, Bruce Gagnon of Organizing Notes posting & commenting:http://space4peace.blogspot.com/
Once again, one of my favorite bloggers, Bruce Gagnon of Organizing Notes posting & commenting:http://space4peace.blogspot.com/
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Pågat Is A Misconception
"Route 15 Lands, umbe."
The moneychangers have placed their bets and are now salivating over the proported half-a-billion-dollars dangling from the DoD stick. We must disregard cultural significance. We must cast aside Chamoru identity. We must capitulate to the sway of the dead chorus and their souless glare.
But there is something worth fighting for. Something worth standing up to those who can no longer see. It is they who have no worth. And it is they that we must fight to keep our culture, our people and our Oceania whole. For it is "the good fight."
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KUAM News
JGPO Chief Tries to Debunk Buildup Myths
Lannie Walker
February 3, 2011
A half-billion dollars in projects on hold
Guam - As one senator reaches out, asking help from the President of the United States in negotiating the military buildup on Guam, an official from the Joint Guam Program Office reaches out to the business community in an effort to clear up what he calls "misconceptions" about the upcoming buildup.
"I've come to the conclusion that the message is being sent, but it's just not being received," said Senator Frank Blas, Jr. He says the federal government is just not listening to local officials in regards to their concerns over the military buildup. Going straight to the top, Blas wrote to President Barack Obama asking for help.
"So I have asked the president to please appoint with in his administration to who we can sit down and actually talk to and these are the individuals who are actually the decision makers," he explained of his actions. But today at a rotary club meeting the Joint Guam Program Office John Jackson said that's not true and the Department of Defense has been listening."
"The comment was 'You don't listen well, DoD has listened,'" he said.
Jackson told the audience he wants to dispel misconceptions regarding the buildup. For one, Jackson say there will be no shooting into waters from any firing ranges, explaining, "We are not going to be shooting sea turtles, we are not going to be subject to SCUBA divers and how deep they have to dive, etc. That's not part of what we are looking at."
As for a firing range at Pagat, he said, "We are not putting any facilities in the vicinity of Pagat Cave, in the vicinity of the site of Pagat Village."
Because of an ongoing lawsuit brought against the DoD because of the preferred location selected for the firing range, Jackson said he could not go into more detail, but did say the Programmatic Agreement remaining unsigned is a "roadblock" that is holding up a half-billion. "So there is a half-billion dollars in programs waiting and basically some of it will go off island to major contractors, but a lot of the subcontractors small businesses their employees and then of course the companies that support them.
They all have to eat, they have to get clothes, all those things that's money spent here on Guam," said Jackson.
As for land ownership Jackson stressed and reiterated a promise made by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Robert Work during his visit last month that the military would control less land after the buildup - from owning 27% of the island's total land mass to 20%. "There are a lot of misconceptions about the buildup about the relocation efforts - the federal government, the Department of the Navy, we recognize there is opposition and we fully respect people to voice that opposition," he said.
And Speaker Judi Won Pat, who was present for Jackson's briefing did just that, saying she found it insulting that he chose the Rotary Club as an audience and not the members of the Guam Legislature.She said, "Don't just throw dollars over the people. They do that everywhere in the world, they throw money at the government for the infrastructure but never do they stop to see how socially and culturally it has impacted them and it has made many times the people worse off than they were before."
But while the senator criticized the federal governments handling of the buildup, during the rotary meeting part of the business community expressed a very different sentiment -saying they want the buildup to hurry up and get underway because they've made investments in expectation of the economic changes and where holding on by their fingernails waiting to see a payoff.
As for Senator Blas, he's still waiting to see an improvement in the communication between local and federal officials. "The dialogue does not seem to be going anywhere as many times as we bring up the issues there is never any resolution," he said.
http://www.kuam.com/story/13960923/2011/02/03/jackson-tries-to-debunk-buildup-myths
The moneychangers have placed their bets and are now salivating over the proported half-a-billion-dollars dangling from the DoD stick. We must disregard cultural significance. We must cast aside Chamoru identity. We must capitulate to the sway of the dead chorus and their souless glare.
But there is something worth fighting for. Something worth standing up to those who can no longer see. It is they who have no worth. And it is they that we must fight to keep our culture, our people and our Oceania whole. For it is "the good fight."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
KUAM News
JGPO Chief Tries to Debunk Buildup Myths
Lannie Walker
February 3, 2011
A half-billion dollars in projects on hold
Guam - As one senator reaches out, asking help from the President of the United States in negotiating the military buildup on Guam, an official from the Joint Guam Program Office reaches out to the business community in an effort to clear up what he calls "misconceptions" about the upcoming buildup.
"I've come to the conclusion that the message is being sent, but it's just not being received," said Senator Frank Blas, Jr. He says the federal government is just not listening to local officials in regards to their concerns over the military buildup. Going straight to the top, Blas wrote to President Barack Obama asking for help.
"So I have asked the president to please appoint with in his administration to who we can sit down and actually talk to and these are the individuals who are actually the decision makers," he explained of his actions. But today at a rotary club meeting the Joint Guam Program Office John Jackson said that's not true and the Department of Defense has been listening."
"The comment was 'You don't listen well, DoD has listened,'" he said.
Jackson told the audience he wants to dispel misconceptions regarding the buildup. For one, Jackson say there will be no shooting into waters from any firing ranges, explaining, "We are not going to be shooting sea turtles, we are not going to be subject to SCUBA divers and how deep they have to dive, etc. That's not part of what we are looking at."
As for a firing range at Pagat, he said, "We are not putting any facilities in the vicinity of Pagat Cave, in the vicinity of the site of Pagat Village."
Because of an ongoing lawsuit brought against the DoD because of the preferred location selected for the firing range, Jackson said he could not go into more detail, but did say the Programmatic Agreement remaining unsigned is a "roadblock" that is holding up a half-billion. "So there is a half-billion dollars in programs waiting and basically some of it will go off island to major contractors, but a lot of the subcontractors small businesses their employees and then of course the companies that support them.
They all have to eat, they have to get clothes, all those things that's money spent here on Guam," said Jackson.
As for land ownership Jackson stressed and reiterated a promise made by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Robert Work during his visit last month that the military would control less land after the buildup - from owning 27% of the island's total land mass to 20%. "There are a lot of misconceptions about the buildup about the relocation efforts - the federal government, the Department of the Navy, we recognize there is opposition and we fully respect people to voice that opposition," he said.
And Speaker Judi Won Pat, who was present for Jackson's briefing did just that, saying she found it insulting that he chose the Rotary Club as an audience and not the members of the Guam Legislature.She said, "Don't just throw dollars over the people. They do that everywhere in the world, they throw money at the government for the infrastructure but never do they stop to see how socially and culturally it has impacted them and it has made many times the people worse off than they were before."
But while the senator criticized the federal governments handling of the buildup, during the rotary meeting part of the business community expressed a very different sentiment -saying they want the buildup to hurry up and get underway because they've made investments in expectation of the economic changes and where holding on by their fingernails waiting to see a payoff.
As for Senator Blas, he's still waiting to see an improvement in the communication between local and federal officials. "The dialogue does not seem to be going anywhere as many times as we bring up the issues there is never any resolution," he said.
http://www.kuam.com/story/13960923/2011/02/03/jackson-tries-to-debunk-buildup-myths
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Indigenous Communities in the Military Industrial Crosshairs
The Inupiac community of Barrows, Alaska have the same dynamics as Chamorus in Guahan in the face of outsider intrusion and interests. Who are the true caretakers of a culture and a people? Those that capitulate to the "forces" of change, scurrying to service the masters in order to "have a piece of the pie?" Or those who love and respect our environment, fight to protect our cultural values & traditions, and strive to walk in the way of our ancestors?
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Military Rule: Bruce Gagnon is interviewed by Dr. Helen Caldicott
Brilliant interview of Bruce Gagnon, blogger for Organizing Notes and coordinator for Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space by Dr. Helen Caldicott.
Bruce Gagnon on fighting the U.S. weaponization of space
January 17, 2011
Listen to interview here.
Bruce Gagnon
Dr Caldicott’s guest this week is Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. Between 1983–1998, Gagnon was the State Coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice, and has worked on space issues for 27 years. He is a member of the National Writers Union, his articles have appeared in many publications and writes a popular blog called Organizing Notes. Gagnon initiated the Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home in 2009 that spread to other New England states, and beyond. This campaign made the important connections between endless war spending and fiscal crisis throughout the U.S.
Listen to Dr. Caldicott’s October 2009 interview with Gagnon.
http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/
Bruce Gagnon on fighting the U.S. weaponization of space
January 17, 2011
Listen to interview here.
Bruce Gagnon
Dr Caldicott’s guest this week is Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. Between 1983–1998, Gagnon was the State Coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice, and has worked on space issues for 27 years. He is a member of the National Writers Union, his articles have appeared in many publications and writes a popular blog called Organizing Notes. Gagnon initiated the Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home in 2009 that spread to other New England states, and beyond. This campaign made the important connections between endless war spending and fiscal crisis throughout the U.S.
Listen to Dr. Caldicott’s October 2009 interview with Gagnon.
http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Farewell to the Utterly Unique John Ross
counterpunch
All the Right Enemies
Farewell to the Utterly Unique John Ross
By FRANK BARDACKE
John's gone. John Ross. I doubt that we will ever see anyone remotely like him again.
The bare bones, as he would say, are remarkable enough. Born to show business Communists in New York City in 1938, he had minded Billie Holliday’s dog, sold dope to Dizzy Gillespie, and vigiled at the hour of the Rosenberg execution, all before he was sixteen years old. An aspiring beat poet, driven by D.H. Lawrence’s images of Mexico, he arrived at the Tarascan highlands of Michoacan at the age of twenty, returning to the U.S. six years later in 1964, there to be thrown in the Federal Penitentiary at San Pedro, for refusing induction into the army.
Back on the streets of San Francisco eighteen months later, he joined the Progressive Labor Movement, then a combination of old ex-CPers fleeing the debased party and young poets and artists looking for revolutionary action. For a few years he called the hip, crazy, Latino 24th and Mission his “bio-region,” as he ran from the San Francisco police and threw dead rats at slumlords during street rallies of the once powerful Mission Coalition.
When the not so ex-Stalinists drove him and others out of P.L. (“break the poets’ pencils” was the slogan of the purge) he moved up north to Arcata where he became an early defender of the forest and the self-described town clown and poet in residence. From there it was Tangier and the Maghreb, the Basque country, anti-nuke rallies in Ireland, and then back to San Francisco, where he finally found his calling as a journalist. “Investigative poet” was the title he preferred, and in 1984, he was dispatched by Pacific News Service to Latin America, where he walked with the Sendero Luminoso, broke bread with the Tupac Amaru, and hung out with cadres of the M-19.
In 1985, after the earthquake, he moved into the Hotel Isabela in the Centro Historico of Mexico City, where for the next 25 years he wrote the very best accounts in English (no one is even a close second) of the tumultuous adventures of Mexican politics.
During the Mexican years, he managed to write nine books in English, a couple more in Spanish, and a batch of poetry chapbooks, all the while he was often on the road, taking a bus to the scene of a peasant rebellion or visiting San Francisco or becoming a human shield in Baghdad, or protecting a Palestinian olive harvest from marauding Israeli settlers.
John Ross at Day of the Dead celebration.
He died this morning, a victim of liver cancer, at the age of 73, just where he wanted to, in the village of Tepizo, Michoacan, in the care of his dear friends, Kevin and Arminda.
That’s the outline of the story. Then there was John. Even in his seventies, a tall imposing figure with a narrow face, a scruffy goatee and mustache, a Che T-shirt covered by a Mexican vest, a Palestinian battle scarf thrown around his neck, bags of misery and compassion under his eyes, offset by his wonderful toothless smile and the cackling laugh that punctuated his comical riffs on the miserable state of the universe.
He was among the last of the beats, master of the poetic rant, committed to the exemplary public act, always on the side of the poor and defeated. His tormentors defined him. A sadistic prison dentist pulled six of his teeth. The San Francisco Tac Squad twice bludgeoned his head, ruining one eye and damaging the other. The guards of Mexico’s vain, poet-potentate Octavio Paz beat him to the ground in a Mexico City airport, and continued to kick him while he was down. Israeli settlers pummeled him with clubs until he bled, and wrecked his back forever.
He had his prickly side. He hated pretense, pomposity and unchecked power wherever he found it. Losing was important to him. Whatever is the dictionary opposite of an opportunist—that’s what John was. He never got along with an editor, and made it a matter of principle to bite the hand that fed him. It got so bad, he left so few bridges unburnt, that in order to read his wonderful weekly dispatches in the pre-internet years, I had to subscribe to an obscure newsletter, a compilation of Latin American news, and then send more money to get the editors to send along John’s column. [John had a relationship lasting many years with CounterPunch, publishing hundreds of dispatches, with only trifling hiccups with the editors. AC/JSC.]
He had his sweet side, too. He was intensely loyal to his friends, generous with all he had, proud of his children, grateful for Elizabeth’s support and collaboration, and wonderful, warm company at an evening meal. When my son, Ted, arrived in Mexico in 1990, John helped him get a job, find a place to live, introduced him around, and became his Sunday companion and confidant, as they huddled in front of John’s 11-inch TV watching the weekly broadcasts of NBA games.
He was a great, true sports fan, especially of basketball. One of the last times I saw him was at a friend’s house in San Francisco, in between radiation treatments, watching a Warriors game on a big screen TV, smoking what he still called the “killer weed.” Joe and I listened to him recount NY Knicks history, the origin of the jump shot, and Kareem’s last game, which somehow led to a long complaint about kidneys for sale in Mexico that had been harvested in China out of the still warm body of some poor, rural immigrant who had been legally executed for jaywalking in Beijing.
John Ross earlier this year. Photo: Joe Blum.
The very last time I had the pleasure of his company was at breakfast in Los Angeles when Ted and I saw him off on his last book tour, promoting El Monstruo, his loving history of Mexico City. He was in great form. His cancer was in remission—a “cancer resister,” he called himself—and he entertained us with a preview of his trip: long, tiresome Greyhound rides, uncomfortable couches, talks to tiny groups of the marginalized, the last defenders of lost causes without the money to buy his books. It would be a losing proposition, like so many of his others, all of which secure his place among the angels.
Frank Bardacke taught at Watsonville Adult School, California’s Central Coast, for 25 years. His history of the United Farm Workers and Cesar Chavez, Trampled in the Vintage, is forthcoming from Verso. He can be reached at bardacke@sbcglobal.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/bardacke01182011.html
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Mission Loc@l
Author John Ross Dies in Mexico
John Ross 1938-2011
Ellizabeth Bell
January 18, 2011
Journalist, investigative poet and social activist John Ross died peacefully today at Lake Patzcuaro in Mexico where he had lived on and off for the past 50 years. He was 72. The cause was liver cancer.
A young generation Beat poet and the national award-winning author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, and nine chapbooks of poetry, Ross received the American Book Award (1995) for Rebellion from the Roots: Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas, and the coveted Upton Sinclair Award (2005) for Murdered By Capitalism: 150 Years of Life and Death on the American Left. The first journalist to bring news of the indigenous Mexican Zapatista revolution to English-speaking readers, Ross was widely regarded as a “voice for those without a voice,” who stood with the poor and oppressed in his brilliantly stylized writing, suffering beatings and arrests during many nonviolent protests.
An iconoclast who took every chance to afflict the comfortable and educate the public, Ross turned down honors from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2009, which had praised him for telling “stories nobody else could or would tell,” and as an organizer for tenants’ rights. In the chamber, Ross recalled an appearance before the Board forty years before when he was dragged from the same room for disturbing the peace. He blamed an “attack” by the San Francisco Police Department for the loss of his left eye. Ross told the Board, “Death was on our plate” when he went to Baghdad as a human shield during U.S. bombing, and again, when he was beaten by Israeli settlers alongside Palestinian olive farmers.
“Life, like reporting, is a kind of death sentence,” he said. “Pardon me for having lived it so fully.”
Born in New York City, Ross grew up amidst the pre-Civil Rights era folk and jazz scene, influenced at an early age by the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach and legendary sports figures like the Harlem Globetrotters. He is survived by his sister, artist Susan Gardner; his children, Dante Ross and Carla Ross-Allen; and one grandchild, Zoe Ross-Allen’.
In addition to his popular accounts of Mexican life and politics, chronicled in the series “Mexico Barbaro” and “Blindman’s Buff,,” John Ross reported for the San Francisco Examiner, CounterPunch, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Pacific News Service, Pacifica Radio, LA Weekly, Noticias Aliadas, La Jornada, Sierra Magazine and many other print and radio organizations. In 2010, under treatment for liver cancer, he toured nationally with El Monstruo: True Tales of Dread & Redemption in Mexico City, already a cult classic, using a hand-held magnifying glass to read his words before packed audiences.
One of the earliest resisters to the Vietnam War, Ross spent two and a half years as a prisoner of conscience in a federal penitentiary for refusing the draft. On release, he recounts in a poem, when a prison authority walked him to the door,
Ross he told me with a look of disgust
written all over his smarmy mush,
you never learned
how to be a prisoner.
Memorial services to be held in San Francisco, Mexico City, Humboldt County and New York City will be announced at a later date.
http://missionlocal.org/2011/01/author-john-ross-dies-in-mexico/
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http://www.northcoastjournal.com/blogthing/2011/01/17/john-ross-gone2/
All the Right Enemies
Farewell to the Utterly Unique John Ross
By FRANK BARDACKE
John's gone. John Ross. I doubt that we will ever see anyone remotely like him again.
The bare bones, as he would say, are remarkable enough. Born to show business Communists in New York City in 1938, he had minded Billie Holliday’s dog, sold dope to Dizzy Gillespie, and vigiled at the hour of the Rosenberg execution, all before he was sixteen years old. An aspiring beat poet, driven by D.H. Lawrence’s images of Mexico, he arrived at the Tarascan highlands of Michoacan at the age of twenty, returning to the U.S. six years later in 1964, there to be thrown in the Federal Penitentiary at San Pedro, for refusing induction into the army.
Back on the streets of San Francisco eighteen months later, he joined the Progressive Labor Movement, then a combination of old ex-CPers fleeing the debased party and young poets and artists looking for revolutionary action. For a few years he called the hip, crazy, Latino 24th and Mission his “bio-region,” as he ran from the San Francisco police and threw dead rats at slumlords during street rallies of the once powerful Mission Coalition.
When the not so ex-Stalinists drove him and others out of P.L. (“break the poets’ pencils” was the slogan of the purge) he moved up north to Arcata where he became an early defender of the forest and the self-described town clown and poet in residence. From there it was Tangier and the Maghreb, the Basque country, anti-nuke rallies in Ireland, and then back to San Francisco, where he finally found his calling as a journalist. “Investigative poet” was the title he preferred, and in 1984, he was dispatched by Pacific News Service to Latin America, where he walked with the Sendero Luminoso, broke bread with the Tupac Amaru, and hung out with cadres of the M-19.
In 1985, after the earthquake, he moved into the Hotel Isabela in the Centro Historico of Mexico City, where for the next 25 years he wrote the very best accounts in English (no one is even a close second) of the tumultuous adventures of Mexican politics.
During the Mexican years, he managed to write nine books in English, a couple more in Spanish, and a batch of poetry chapbooks, all the while he was often on the road, taking a bus to the scene of a peasant rebellion or visiting San Francisco or becoming a human shield in Baghdad, or protecting a Palestinian olive harvest from marauding Israeli settlers.
John Ross at Day of the Dead celebration.
He died this morning, a victim of liver cancer, at the age of 73, just where he wanted to, in the village of Tepizo, Michoacan, in the care of his dear friends, Kevin and Arminda.
That’s the outline of the story. Then there was John. Even in his seventies, a tall imposing figure with a narrow face, a scruffy goatee and mustache, a Che T-shirt covered by a Mexican vest, a Palestinian battle scarf thrown around his neck, bags of misery and compassion under his eyes, offset by his wonderful toothless smile and the cackling laugh that punctuated his comical riffs on the miserable state of the universe.
He was among the last of the beats, master of the poetic rant, committed to the exemplary public act, always on the side of the poor and defeated. His tormentors defined him. A sadistic prison dentist pulled six of his teeth. The San Francisco Tac Squad twice bludgeoned his head, ruining one eye and damaging the other. The guards of Mexico’s vain, poet-potentate Octavio Paz beat him to the ground in a Mexico City airport, and continued to kick him while he was down. Israeli settlers pummeled him with clubs until he bled, and wrecked his back forever.
He had his prickly side. He hated pretense, pomposity and unchecked power wherever he found it. Losing was important to him. Whatever is the dictionary opposite of an opportunist—that’s what John was. He never got along with an editor, and made it a matter of principle to bite the hand that fed him. It got so bad, he left so few bridges unburnt, that in order to read his wonderful weekly dispatches in the pre-internet years, I had to subscribe to an obscure newsletter, a compilation of Latin American news, and then send more money to get the editors to send along John’s column. [John had a relationship lasting many years with CounterPunch, publishing hundreds of dispatches, with only trifling hiccups with the editors. AC/JSC.]
He had his sweet side, too. He was intensely loyal to his friends, generous with all he had, proud of his children, grateful for Elizabeth’s support and collaboration, and wonderful, warm company at an evening meal. When my son, Ted, arrived in Mexico in 1990, John helped him get a job, find a place to live, introduced him around, and became his Sunday companion and confidant, as they huddled in front of John’s 11-inch TV watching the weekly broadcasts of NBA games.
He was a great, true sports fan, especially of basketball. One of the last times I saw him was at a friend’s house in San Francisco, in between radiation treatments, watching a Warriors game on a big screen TV, smoking what he still called the “killer weed.” Joe and I listened to him recount NY Knicks history, the origin of the jump shot, and Kareem’s last game, which somehow led to a long complaint about kidneys for sale in Mexico that had been harvested in China out of the still warm body of some poor, rural immigrant who had been legally executed for jaywalking in Beijing.
John Ross earlier this year. Photo: Joe Blum.
The very last time I had the pleasure of his company was at breakfast in Los Angeles when Ted and I saw him off on his last book tour, promoting El Monstruo, his loving history of Mexico City. He was in great form. His cancer was in remission—a “cancer resister,” he called himself—and he entertained us with a preview of his trip: long, tiresome Greyhound rides, uncomfortable couches, talks to tiny groups of the marginalized, the last defenders of lost causes without the money to buy his books. It would be a losing proposition, like so many of his others, all of which secure his place among the angels.
Frank Bardacke taught at Watsonville Adult School, California’s Central Coast, for 25 years. His history of the United Farm Workers and Cesar Chavez, Trampled in the Vintage, is forthcoming from Verso. He can be reached at bardacke@sbcglobal.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/bardacke01182011.html
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Mission Loc@l
Author John Ross Dies in Mexico
John Ross 1938-2011
Ellizabeth Bell
January 18, 2011
Journalist, investigative poet and social activist John Ross died peacefully today at Lake Patzcuaro in Mexico where he had lived on and off for the past 50 years. He was 72. The cause was liver cancer.
A young generation Beat poet and the national award-winning author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, and nine chapbooks of poetry, Ross received the American Book Award (1995) for Rebellion from the Roots: Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas, and the coveted Upton Sinclair Award (2005) for Murdered By Capitalism: 150 Years of Life and Death on the American Left. The first journalist to bring news of the indigenous Mexican Zapatista revolution to English-speaking readers, Ross was widely regarded as a “voice for those without a voice,” who stood with the poor and oppressed in his brilliantly stylized writing, suffering beatings and arrests during many nonviolent protests.
An iconoclast who took every chance to afflict the comfortable and educate the public, Ross turned down honors from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2009, which had praised him for telling “stories nobody else could or would tell,” and as an organizer for tenants’ rights. In the chamber, Ross recalled an appearance before the Board forty years before when he was dragged from the same room for disturbing the peace. He blamed an “attack” by the San Francisco Police Department for the loss of his left eye. Ross told the Board, “Death was on our plate” when he went to Baghdad as a human shield during U.S. bombing, and again, when he was beaten by Israeli settlers alongside Palestinian olive farmers.
“Life, like reporting, is a kind of death sentence,” he said. “Pardon me for having lived it so fully.”
Born in New York City, Ross grew up amidst the pre-Civil Rights era folk and jazz scene, influenced at an early age by the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach and legendary sports figures like the Harlem Globetrotters. He is survived by his sister, artist Susan Gardner; his children, Dante Ross and Carla Ross-Allen; and one grandchild, Zoe Ross-Allen’.
In addition to his popular accounts of Mexican life and politics, chronicled in the series “Mexico Barbaro” and “Blindman’s Buff,,” John Ross reported for the San Francisco Examiner, CounterPunch, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Pacific News Service, Pacifica Radio, LA Weekly, Noticias Aliadas, La Jornada, Sierra Magazine and many other print and radio organizations. In 2010, under treatment for liver cancer, he toured nationally with El Monstruo: True Tales of Dread & Redemption in Mexico City, already a cult classic, using a hand-held magnifying glass to read his words before packed audiences.
One of the earliest resisters to the Vietnam War, Ross spent two and a half years as a prisoner of conscience in a federal penitentiary for refusing the draft. On release, he recounts in a poem, when a prison authority walked him to the door,
Ross he told me with a look of disgust
written all over his smarmy mush,
you never learned
how to be a prisoner.
Memorial services to be held in San Francisco, Mexico City, Humboldt County and New York City will be announced at a later date.
http://missionlocal.org/2011/01/author-john-ross-dies-in-mexico/
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http://www.northcoastjournal.com/blogthing/2011/01/17/john-ross-gone2/
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Oaxacan Accepts Challenge: Who Will Look After the Immigrants?
Mark R. Day
December 30, 2010
The massacre of 72 Central American migrants in Mexico’s northern state of Tamaulipas last September and the recent kidnapping of 55 more Central Americans in Oaxaca by criminal gangs on Dec. 16 are provoking a common question: who is looking after the migrants?
These tragedies are discussed daily by leaders both here and in Mexico as key members of the U.S. Congress take an increasingly harder line on undocumented immigrants and lay out plans for stricter border enforcement and increased deportations.
One such leader is Rufino Dominguez who was recently named head of the Oaxacan Institute for the Care of Migrants by the state’s newly elected governor, Gabino Cue Monteagudo. July’s election was an upset for the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) that ruled Oaxaca for 81 years and was accused of widespread corruption and repression against dissenters.
Dominguez, a former migrant farm worker, has served as California state director of the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations (F.I.O.B) in Fresno for the past nine years. He left that post to set up the migrant office in Oaxaca in late December and met with Oaxacans in San Diego to discuss the challenges he faces.
Oaxacan migrants are scattered throughout Mexico and the United States.
It is estimated that 150,000 live in California. Some 25,000 live in San Diego County. Most are poor, live in substandard housing, lack health care, engage in farm work and speak one of Oaxaca’s 16 indigenous dialects.
Dominguez, a native Mixtec speaker, was born in San Miguel Cuevas, Oaxaca. He says he regards to election of Cue Monteagudo as governor a window of opportunity to help migrants, but is wary about the challenges he (Dominguez) faces personally in his new job.
“I never thought I would be part of the government because I believe politicians have deceived us for so many years,” said Dominguez. ‘I have never wanted to be one of them. I don’t have a lot of schooling—just barely finishing secondaria. But I am the first migrant to head the institute, and it helps that I have lived all aspects of the migrant experience.”
Dominguez explained to his countryman at the Vista Public Library that it is much easier to deal with migrants in the U.S. where there is at least a minimal recognition of human rights. This is not true in Oaxaca, he added, where political assassinations are common occurrences.
“Indigenous people in Oaxaca are not just victims of 81 years of PRI rule,” Dominguez explained, “but of 500 years of marginalization and abandonment by local, state and federal governments.”
Dominguez said he made a six year commitment to head the institute, but if human rights continue to be violated and freedom of expression is curtailed, he would not stay with the government.
Asked about his priorities in his new post, Dominguez said that he would work closely with all groups to defend not only Oaxacans but all migrants who pass through Mexican territories and who frequently suffer human rights abuse from criminal gangs as well as from Mexican police and other officials.
Another goal, said Dominguez, is to open up regional offices to serve migrants in Oaxaca—one in the Mixteca, one in the Sierra de Juarez and another in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. “But we are not simply going to ask the government for money,” he said. “We want our own municipalities to help shoulder the burden as well.”
One pressing need, Dominguez said, is to spur economic development in Oaxaca with the help of local, state and federal governments so that Oaxacans can remain home instead of migrating. “The governor told me that we are free not to migrate as well, but I told him we need to go where we need to go, always respecting laws and human rights.”
“What I want to do in my new job is t o put into practice what I have learned here in the U.S.,” he said. “I want accountability. I want to change the culture where corruption is practiced, where people take their pay check and do nothing. We all need to work together. There is plenty of work to do.”
Contact Mark Day at mday700@yahoo.com
http://laprensa-sandiego.org/featured/oaxacan-accepts-challenge-who-will-look-after-the-migrants/
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