{"id":2075,"date":"2011-10-26T20:27:06","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T20:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/?p=2075"},"modified":"2014-07-17T21:21:46","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T21:21:46","slug":"julian-aguon-at-the-guam-forum-on-decolonization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/?p=2075","title":{"rendered":"Julian Aguon at the Guam Forum on Decolonization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mvguam.com\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=20423:violence-not-sanctioned&amp;catid=29:letter-to-the-editor&amp;Itemid=113\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Julian Aguon at UoG Forum\" src=\"http:\/\/static-cdn1.ustream.tv\/i\/video\/picture\/0\/1\/17\/17969\/17969823\/1_9402210_17969823,192x108,b,1:2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"192\" height=\"108\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I am continually impressed by Julian Aguon. He has a razor-sharp mind and a lightning tongue and a strong heart that beats for justice. In <a title=\"Julian Aguon's Presentation on Guam Decolonization\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ustream.tv\/recorded\/17969823\" target=\"_blank\">his recent presentation at the University of Guam<\/a>, he discussed how US Constitutional Law and International Law apply to the question of Guam&#8217;s political status. Perhaps not surprisingly, he is now being <a href=\"http:\/\/mvguam.com\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=20423:violence-not-sanctioned&amp;catid=29:letter-to-the-editor&amp;Itemid=113\" target=\"_blank\">attacked in the local Marianas press<\/a>, as an advocate for armed violent struggle. Knowing Julian personally, I found this hard to believe &#8211; so I watched his entire presentation just to see for myself. As always, watching Julian was a real pleasure. A few of my favorite quotes (with links to video):<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;The right of self-determination legally enjoys the same exalted status as the rule prohibiting genocide. As the rule prohibiting torture. To international lawyers, this is a crime. Colonialism is a crime.&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ustream.tv\/recorded\/17969823\/highlight\/211714\" target=\"_blank\">[see the video]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;The whole world has spoken on some of these issues. Why not lift our heads out of the sand, and realize that perhaps, just perhaps, one country&#8217;s interpretation of international law isn&#8217;t the only game in town?<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ustream.tv\/recorded\/17969823\/highlight\/211740\" target=\"_blank\">&#8221; <\/a><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ustream.tv\/recorded\/17969823\/highlight\/211740\" target=\"_blank\">[See the video]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Aguon ended by asserting that, according to international law, &#8216;colonialism is a crime, and you&#8217;re allowed to fight back.&#8217; Not being an international lawyer myself, I have no means for judging the veracity of this statement; but I did note that he then took great pains to honor the peaceful, non-violent contributions of Hope Cristobal, and her many trips to the United Nations on behalf of Guam. &#8220;She illustrates a belief, a conviction, on the part of the colonized population on Guam, that words are the better way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>An advocate for armed struggle? I don&#8217;t think so. A brilliant young indigenous lawyer who&#8217;s justifiably pissed-off? Absolutely. More power to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am continually impressed by Julian Aguon. He has a razor-sharp mind and a lightning tongue and a strong heart that beats for justice. In his recent presentation at the University of Guam, he discussed how US Constitutional Law and International Law apply to the question of Guam&#8217;s political status. Perhaps not surprisingly, he is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,86,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-guam-military-buildup","category-vanessas-front-page-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2075"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2297,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075\/revisions\/2297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinsularempire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}