The Guam PDN recently published an article about USN Rear Admiral Bushong’s recent talk at the Guam Rotary Club. The Admiral noted the recent increase in anti-militarist sentiment on the island, and exhorted the nice folks of Guam to ‘tone down the rhetoric a bit’. After all, he said, military personnel on Guam take their […]
Travis Coffman Interview
When I was on Guam this summer, Travis Coffman interviewed me for his radio talk show on Guam K57. He asked a lot of good questions – like how I became involved in the project to begin with, and how I came to choose the four characters in the film. If you missed the broadcast, […]
Chalmers Johnson, 1931-2010
It is with great sadness that I report the recent passing of Chalmers Johnson: academic, author, and passionate critic of American empire. Despite his prolific workload (and, I now realize, failing health), I was lucky enough to have Professor Johnson generously agree to watch and review The Insular Empire earlier this year. The Insular Empire […]
Guam Screening – All We Need Now is Lino…
I had the pleasure of talking with Travis Coffman earlier this week on the Guam k57 talk show, about the upcoming screening of The Insular Empire. Travis used to live and work on Saipan, and he personally thanked me for making this film so that he didn’t have to. He’s a funny man. “You spent […]
“The history they didn’t teach us in school”
The Huffington Post “Guam: Self-Determination or More U.S. Troops?” by Robert Naiman Usually, when someone refers to a place as a “U.S. colony,” they are making an analogy, suggesting that U.S. influence somewhere is so strong, and the indigenous residents of the place have so little effective say over key decisions, that it’s as if […]
Beyond the Fence
Guam’s public radio station has begun broadcasting a weekly talk show dedicated to discussing the proposed military buildup of the Marianas. Hosted by Vivian Dames, a professor of social work at the University of Guam, the show features interviews with academics, activists, military personnel, politicians, and members of the Guam community with expertise relevant to […]
“Old-Style Colonialism” at the United Nations
Viewers of The Insular Empire will recall Hope Cristobal’s repeated visits to the United Nations, trying to get support for Guam’s Chamorro people and their right to self-determinaion. Hope continued her decades-long crusade last month, traveling to the United Nations’ Pacific Regional Seminar on Decolonisation in New Caledonia. “For 21st century Guam, it is déjà […]
Yapese Canoes Land on Guam
Larry Cunningham, Guam historian and long-time supporter of The Insular Empire, sent me this recent news of a remarkable voyage using celestial navigation. He writes: Two Traditional Navigation Society outrigger sailing canoes departed Lamotrek for Guam on Monday, April 26th. Their plan was to sail north and pass to the east of Guam, sailing between […]
Guam Military Buildup: Environmentally Unsatisfactory
The DoD’s proposal to increase its already-massive footprint on the island of Guam recently received the EPA’s lowest rating: Environmentally Unsatisfactory. While “unsatisfactory” to me calls up benign images of less-than-optimal spelling homework, this milquetoast language in fact represents a scathing indictment of the proposed buildup – and a serious roadblock to the military’s expansionist […]