Showing posts with label US Repression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Repression. Show all posts

10/8/08

Testimony: Harmful Effects Of Guam's Colonization

Chamorus Address United Nations, Urge Need For Self-Determination

New York, October 7, 2008 – Today, a delegation of Chamorus testified in front of the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) in New York City on the question of Guam's continued colonization. For the first time in years, the Committee received testimony from a Guam elected official Senator Vicente Pangelinan prepared a testimony, read by Chamoru attorney Aileen Quan. The rest of the delegation included Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero of I Nasion Chamoru, Craig Santos Perez of Guåhan Indigenous Collective, and Michael A. Tun'cap of Famoksaiyan. The delegates discussed the cumulative adverse impacts of U.S. colonization and the current military build-up, highlighting such issues as environmental contamination, Chamoru displacement, alarming cancer rates, and the infrastructural strains expected from the island's unprecedented population boom—which will make the Chamoru people a minority group in our homeland. The Chamoru delegation will be meeting this week with the President of the General Assembly, UN Fourth Committee Chairman Jorge Arguello of Argentina, and world leaders from the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Virgin Islands to discuss ways to successfully expedite Guam's Chamoru self-determination process.

Guam Senator Vicente Lino Cabrera Pangelinan’s Testimony to the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee

Hafa Adai distinguished members of the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) and Chairman, H.E. Mr. Jorge Arguello,

Ginen y anti y espiritu yan y man fotna na taotao Guahan na hu presenta este na testimonu, yan u fan libre y taotao pagu. It is from the soul and the spirit of our ancestors that I present this testimony today for the liberation of the people today.

I am Vicente Lino Cabrera Pangelinan, a seven term Senator in the Guam Legislature here today to present my position as an elected representative of the people of Guam on the question of Guam before this body.

It is not only the right of the native inhabitants that this body is chartered with advancing, it is the protection of that right in an environment that allows for it to exercise in its purest form. The development of the island and the recent decisions by our administering authority dilutes our right to self-determination every single day that we are denied this right.

Our desire is clear and our policy reflected in the laws that we have enacted. I come before this body to petition for action and support from this body.

This year, my office re-vitalized the registration of our native inhabitants and their descendants to identify those in our homeland that are vested with this most basic of human rights, the right to self-determination. I will be seeking additional financial resources to accelerate this registration and will again petition our administrating authority to provide us with the financial and technical resources to advance this process to its ultimate conclusion; the conducting of a plebiscite and the vote by the people.

I request that this body lay before the representatives of our administrating authority to this most august body this petition and apply all its resources to move our administrating authority to comply with our request. We should not be made to wait for another day, for another day we do not have. Their actions and expansion of their military presence, the most massive military undertaking in the movement of military personnel since World War Two (these are their words) is making sure that if and when that day comes, it will not be a day that belongs to the colonized people of Guahan.

Our inalienable right to self-determination, as affirmed by General Resolutions 1514 and 1541, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples must be enforced by this body. We have sustained its ever threatening existence by actions of our administrating authority and we come before you to attest to this. The Fourth Committee must immediately enact the process of decolonization for Guåhan, home to a colonized people, the Chamorros. This process must include a fully funded and far-reaching education campaign informing all Chamorus from Guåhan of our right to self-determination and decolonization options.


I thank you again for the opportunity to present this most urgent petition in my capacity as an elected representative of the people of Guam.

/s/ Senator Vicente Lino Cabrera Pangelinan


I Nasion Chamoru

Testimony to the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee Re: Chamoru Self-Determination in Guåhan (Guam) October 7, 2008

Hafa Adai distinguished members of the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) and Chairman, H.E. Mr. Jorge Arguello,

Guahu si Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero. Dankolo na si yu’us ma’ase (thank you very much) for allowing me to address this very important international body. I am here on behalf of the Chamoru grassroots organization “I Nasion Chamoru,” which was established in1991 to proclaim the existence of the Chamoru people as a nation. I Nasion Chamoru celebrates the 4,000 year old history of the Chamoru people in our islands, and vows to protect the land, water, air, spirituality, language, culture and human rights of the Chamoru people. I Nasion Chamoru members have addressed this committee for several years, including our maga’haga (female leader) Debbie Quinata, who sends her regards.

I also represent the voices and opinions of my relatives and elders on Guåhan (Guam), who work daily to fight the continued colonization and militarization of our island. I carry the same message that has been presented to this committee for over two decades by Chamoru community leaders and elected officials like former Senator Hope Cristobal, former Congressman Robert Underwood and Ed Benavente. I fight the same fight that took the lives of Ron Rivera and former Senator and founder of I Nasion Chamoru Angel Santos. Our message has been loud and clear – the Chamoru people of Guåhan deserve to exercise our basic, inalienable human right to self-determination. But with only two years left in the second decade for the eradication of colonialism, sixty-three years after our administering power added Guåhan to the UN list of Non-Self Governing Territories, and almost fifty years after the UN passed General Assembly Resolutions 1514 (the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples) and 1541(which establishes the three options for self-determination), Guåhan remains colonized.

Now, more than ever, the work of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee is needed on Guåhan. In order to truly eradicate colonialism, this committee must work in the interests of the people of Guåhan and not crumble to the demands of our administering power, despite it’s domineering role in the United Nations. The United States’ claims that the Chamoru people’s right to self-determination is a domestic issue that should not involve the United Nations are hypocritical and distract this committee from taking action against the hyper-militarization and continued colonization of Guåhan. As I stand before you, the US is actively working to drastically expand their military and commercial presence on our island, creating a greater economic and social dependency that does not equip our people for decolonization, but rather pushes us devastatingly further away from it.

The US, which already occupies one-third of our island for military purposes, plans to move 17,000 Marines and their family members from Okinawa, Japan to Guåhan by 2014. In addition to those plans, the US Navy has begun to enhance its infrastructure, logistics capabilities, and waterfront facilities with the desire to support transient nuclear aircraft carriers, combat logistics force ships, submarines, surface combatants, and high-speed transport ships at their Naval Base. The US Air Force plans to develop a global intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance strike hub at Andersen Air Force Base by hosting various types of aircraft, such as fighters, bombers, tankers, and Global Hawk systems. And the Army plans to place a ballistic missile defense task force on our island.

As cited in the UN Guam Working Paper, David Bice, executive director of the office assigned to orchestrate the US military build-up, estimates that Guåhan will see an increase of 19,000 military personnel, 20,000 military family members and 20,000 foreign construction workers on the island in the next six years. As a result, Guåhan’s small population of 173,000 is expected to increase 34 percent with 59,000 more people. Such a population boom will make the 62,900 Chamorus on the island a minority group in our homeland, where we already struggle to keep our culture and language alive in light of imposed US educational standards that force us to learn English and US history over our native Chamoru tongue and historical understanding of ourselves. Part of the goal to militarize Guåhan is to reduce the US military’s burden on Japanese communities. Guåhan deserves the same respect. But because we remain in possession of the United States, our rights to create economic and social alternatives that free us from being dependent on the US, and help us maintain our culture and language, are being explicitly ignored. The US military’s burden on Guåhan’s communities will increase manifold. The military has already begun awarding construction contracts and building on military bases, despite the fact that no official plan has been funded or approved for this military build-up, and no official assessment of the environmental impacts has been completed. The US is conducting an Environmental Impact Study in a rushed two-year timeframe that does not include much participation or input from the island community. And in a preliminary version of that study, the US did not present evidence that the social, cultural or political implications of such a massive population boom and military build-up will be addressed. Both the US Department of Defense (DOD) and the Government of Guam face multiple challenges in trying to address the needs associated with this unprecedented military build-up, largely due to colossal uncertainties in the planning process. What is certain is that Guåhan is expected to shoulder the costs and strains of the tremendous infrastructural burden that is this military expansion. The Government of Guam reports that an influx of foreign workers will pull on local emergency care services, medical facilities, public utilities, transportation networks, and the availability of temporary housing. DOD and Government of Guam officials have said that the island’s infrastructure is inadequate to meet the increased demands of the military buildup. For example, the wastewater system serving the central part of the island, where a lot of development is already taking place, is at capacity. At a recent congressional hearing, the governor of Guåhan testified that our island’s government would need $6.1 billion to fund infrastructure upgrades. These costs are separate from the DOD’s estimated $15 billion need for plans within the military bases. Therefore, the United States will not cover the costs of Guåhan’s needed infrastructure upgrades, and our local government, which has a current deficit of over $511 million, will have to put our island in massive debt to meet the needs of our administering power.

According to United States law, Guåhan is a possession of the United States but not part of the United States. This is evidenced in the planning process for the US military build-up on Guåhan. There is no consultation with the people of Guåhan and no regard paid to the needs of our people. The governor, lieutenant governor and their staff have provided input in the planning process, but have no real decision-making power in one of the largest decisions ever made for the island that will have rippling effects on future generations of Chamorus.

The hyper-militarization of Guåhan is setting delays to the UN decolonization process. In remaining a Non Self-Governing Territory, Guåhan loses its right to fight the military build-up and the US can go about its plans with little-to-no opposition. I urge this committee to act immediately as the situation I’ve described to you is grave. Without action on Guåhan, the UN will have turned its back on colonization in the 21st century. The UN Secretary General himself recently declared there is no room for colonialism in 2008. I urge you to take heed of your mandate or else the Chamoru people will become extinct in our homeland.

The Fourth Committee must give top priority to the fulfillment of our inalienable right to self-determination, as affirmed by General Resolutions 1514 and 1541, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Fourth Committee must immediately enact the process of decolonization for Guåhan in lieu of the severe, irreversible impacts of US militarization. This process must include a fully funded and far-reaching education campaign informing all Chamorus from Guåhan of our right to self-determination and decolonization options. The Fourth Committee must thoroughly investigate the administering power’s non-compliance with its treaty obligations under the Charter of the United Nations to promote economic, social, and cultural well-being on Guåhan. The Fourth Committee must send UN representatives to the island within the next six months to asses the implications of US militarization plans on the decolonization of Guåhan, and the human rights implications of the cumulative impacts of the US military’s presence on our island. The Fourth Committee must contact Guåhan leaders and delegates who have presented testimony before this body, and UN funding must be allocated immediately to advance this study. We cannot rely on faulty impact studies conducted by the US, which are used to justify their actions rather than truly assess their impacts on our island. Finally, the Fourth Committee must comply with the recommendations of other UN agencies, especially the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which recently requested an expert seminar be held to examine the impact of the UN decolonization process on indigenous peoples of the Non Self-Governing Territories.

This committee must prioritize collaboration with Chamoru organizations and experts, such as I Nasion Chamoru, Famoksaiyan, Fuetsan Famalao’an and all those who have provided testimony in the past two decades.

I thank you again for hearing my testimony today, and hope that we can work together to ensure the inalienable human right to self-determination for the Chamoru people of Guåhan, and the survival of a Chamoru Nation in our homeland.

Saina Ma’ase,

Victoria-Lola Montecalvo Leon Guerrero I Nasion Chamoru

Testimony to the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee Re: Chamoru Self-Determination in Guåhan (Guam) October 7, 2008

Hafa Adai distinguished members of the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) and Chairman, H.E. Mr. Jorge Arguello,

My name is Craig Santos Perez and I’m a poet and native son of Guam. I represent the Guahan Indigenous Collective, a grassroots organization committed to keeping Chamoru culture alive through public education and artistic expression. I’m here to testify about the fangs of militarization and colonialism destroying the Chamoru people of Guam.

These fangs dig deep. During and immediately after World War Two, brown tree snakes invaded Guam as stowaways on U.S. naval cargo ships. By 1968, the snakes colonized the entire island, their population reaching a density of 13,000 per square mile. As a result, Guam’s seabirds, 10 of 13 endemic species of forest birds, 2 of 3 native mammals, and 6 of 10 native species of lizards have all gone extinct.

The U.S. plans to introduce—this time intentionally—a more familiar breed of predators to Guam: an estimated 19,000 military personnel and 20,000 of their dependants, along with numerous overseas businesses and 20,000 contract workers to support the military build-up. Add this to the 14,000 military personnel already on Guam, and that’s a combined total of 73,000—outnumbering the entire Chamoru population on Guam, which is roughly 62,900.

This hyper-militarization poses grave implications for our human right to self-determination because the U.S. currently asserts that its citizens—this transient population—have a “constitutional” right to vote in our plebiscite. Furthermore, this hyper-militarization (continuing a long history of militarization on Guam), will severely devastate our environmental, social, physical and cultural health. Since World War II, military dumping and nuclear testing has contaminated the Pacific with PCBs and radiation. In addition, PCBs and other military toxic waste have choked the breath out of the largest barrier reef system of Guam, poisoning fish and fishing grounds. As recently as July of this year, the USS Houston, a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine home-ported on Guam, leaked trace amounts of radioactivity into our waters.

The violation doesn’t end on our shores; the military also occupies and infects our ancestral lands. Currently, the U.S. military occupies a third of the island, and the impending build-up has interrupted the return of federal excess lands to original land-owners and threatens to claim more lands for live fire training. Not only has the U.S. continued to deprive us of our right to land, but they also pollute these lands. Eighty contaminated military dumpsites still exist on Guam. The now civilian Ordot landfill (a former World War Two military dumpsite) contains 17 toxic chemicals, including arsenic, lead, chromium, PCBs, and cyanide. The same 17 pollutants are also found in the landfills located over the island’s aquifer at Andersen Air Force Base in northern Guam.

While the U.S. military erodes the integrity of our land, expectations from the military build-up have more than doubled real estate prices and tripled home costs. Coupled with a struggling economy and rising living costs, many landless Chamorus have been economically coerced to leave the island and others have become homeless. Even our ancestors are being affected: a $30 million expansion of the Guam Hotel Okura has excavated an ancient Chamoru cemetery. More than 300 ancestral remains have already been unearthed.

While new condominiums, hotels, and high-end homes are beginning to rise, the sky is falling. In July 2007, an F/A-18C Hornet crashed in the waters around Guam during a training mission. This year, at least 3 other military aircrafts have crashed in or near Andersen Air Force Base.

U.S. colonial presence has not only damaged our bodies of land and water, but it’s deteriorated our physical bodies as well. The military used Guam as a decontamination site during its nuclear testing in the 1970s, which resulted in massive radiation and agent orange and purple exposure. High incidences of various kinds of cancer and neuro-degenerative diseases, such amyothrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinsonism-dementia, and Lytico-Botig plague the Chamoru people. Toxic chemicals have snaked into our bloodstream, causing multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, renal dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, liver dysfunction, deafness, blindness, epilepsy, seizures, arthritis, anemia, stillbirths, and infertility—all of which Chamorus disproportionately suffer. And because our mental health is woven to our physical health, Chamorus suffer dramatically high rates of incarceration, family violence, substance abuse, teenage suicides, and school drop-outs. The presence of the U.S. military has choked the breath out of our daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers.

Like the last totot (Marianas Fruit-dove) on Guam being slowly swallowed by the brown tree snake, Chamorus are being disappeared. Diseases have killed most of our elders: only five percent of the island is over the age of 65. Young Chamorus are joining the U.S. military and dying in America’s wars at alarming rates. In 2005, four of the U.S. Army’s top twelve recruitment producers were based on Guam. In 2007, Guam ranked No. 1 for recruiting success in the Army National Guard's assessment of 54 states and territories. In the current war on terror, our killed-in-action rate is now five times the US national average. Since the war on terror began in 2001, 29 sons of Micronesia have died–17 of them from Guam.

In terms of population, Chamorus constituted 45 percent of Guam’s population in 1980; in 1990, 43 percent; in 2000, 37 percent. In devastating contrast, the planned influx of non-Chamorus will increase Guam’s overall population by about 30 percent, causing a 20-year population growth over the next five years. History repeats itself: more foreign snakes, fewer native birds.

The U.S. Pentagon is currently conducting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)/Overseas Environmental Impact Statement (OEIS) for the build-up. However, the study is problematic in a number of ways, including the rushed speed of the study (a mere 2 years, with a 2009 completion date); the framing of the “impact” (which excludes many social, health, and environmental issues and focuses on economic “positives”); and the research methods (which relies on outdated data sets and “experts” composed mainly of the political and business elite). These Impact Statements are only invested in legitimizing the military build-up.

The door of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism in the 21st Century will not be open for much longer. And even though powerful snakes block our passage, we are willing to struggle for our rights—but we need your help.

The Fourth Committee must give top priority to the fulfillment of our inalienable right to self-determination, as affirmed by General Resolutions 1514 and 1541, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Fourth Committee must immediately enact the process of decolonization for Guam in lieu of the severe, irreversible impact of U.S. militarization. This process must include a fully funded and far-reaching education campaign informing all Chamorus from Guam of our right to self-determination and decolonization options.

The Fourth Committee must thoroughly investigate the administering power’s non-compliance with its treaty obligations under the Charter of the United Nations to promote economic, social, and cultural well-being on Guam

The Fourth Committee must send UN representatives to the island within the next six months to asses the implications of US militarization plans on the decolonization of Guam, and the human rights implications of the cumulative impacts of the US military’s presence on our island. The Fourth Committee must contact Guam leaders and delegates who have presented testimony before this body, and UN funding must be allocated immediately to advance this study. We cannot rely on faulty impact studies conducted by the US, which are used to justify their actions rather than truly assess their impacts on our island.

Finally, the Fourth Committee must comply with the recommendations of other UN agencies, especially the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which recently requested an expert seminar be held to examine the impact of the UN decolonization process on indigenous peoples of the Non Self-Governing Territories.

This committee must prioritize collaboration with Chamoru organizations and experts, such as I Nasion Chamoru, Famoksaiyan, Fuetsan Famalao’an and all those who have provided testimony in the past two decades.

Thank you for listening, and I hope we can continue to work towards achieving decolonization and self-determination for the indigenous Chamoru people of Guam.

Saina Ma’ase, Thank You, Craig Santos Perez (csperez06@gmail.com) Guahan Indigenous Collective

MICHAEL A. TUN’CAP, Ph.D.C, UC Berkeley and Famoksaiyan United Nations De-colonization 4th Committee Testimony Oct.7-8, 2008

Hafa Adai yan buenasi! (Hello and good day) Your Excellency Mr. Chairman Jorge Aguello, and distinguished members of the Fourth Committee: Dangkolu na si Yu’os ma’ase (sincere thank you) for your invitation to participate at this important testimony for the remainder of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism in the 21st century.

I am Michael Anthony Tuncap, a Chamorro teacher and national community organizer from the University of California Berkeley. I was born in the village of Aniguak, Guam and I am the Great Grand Son of Ana Acfalle of Merizo and Ramona Terlaje of Aniguak. I am here as the Famoksaiyan Trustee to the Pacific Islander Commission at the University of California Berkeley. Famoksaiyan and the UC Pacific Islander Commission work together as an advisory council of indigenous scholars, teachers and community leaders from Guam, American Samoa, Tonga , the Philippines and Hawai’i. Our collective mission is to promote the human and civil rights of indigenous Pacific Islanders through education, community organizing and health advocacy. We have been brought together by the struggle to survive the recent military expansion and nuclear testing of our Pacific homeland.

The continued occupation of American military forces in Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands are rooted in a system of racial inequality between European Americans, Asian and Pacific settlers and the indigenous Chamorro people. Since our initial contact with the United States in 1898, massive pacification and military occupation have prevented the Chamoru people from exercising our inalienable right to self determination. My testimony today focuses on the structural relationship between racism and American military occupation in Guam and the Northern Mariana’s. Colonial ideas of racial and gendered superiority have shaped a long history of military violence and U.S economic security. American military aggression has shaped the public policies and immigration laws that led to the genocide of the Western frontier, legalized chattel slavery and the colonization of the Pacific. These militarized conditions are still prevalent in institutions that define American citizenship for many of our brothers and sisters in the Pacific and Caribbean colonies.

Over the last twenty years, the UN Fourth Committee on Decolonization has heard testimonies from former Guam Senator Hope Alvarez Cristobal, Sabina Perez, and many other indigenous world leaders. Their testimonies demonstrate the connection between racial ideologies and institutional discrimination resulting from American militarism. The history of American imperialism is deeply connected to a long history of exclusion, manifesting it in forms of violence both physical and social. We, the people of Guam, recognize that race continues to define the boundaries of the nation and the constituents of a militarized territory. Why are the American people in the Mariana’s denied the right to vote? Why are there American bases in Guam if the people lack political voting rights? What role has race played in the political relationship between the United States and their Chamoru territories? How can the United States ignore the United Nations Declaration for decolonization and the inalienable right of self determination for indigenous people?

“We the citizens for justice and peace on Guam voice our concern to the joint military exercises amid three aircraft carriers in the Pacific. We oppose the scheduled transfer of more then 7000 US Marines, and the increasing military presence post-September 11, 2001. We strongly believe that increased militarization on Guam is a violation of the human rights to self determination of the indigenous people. The United States is legally responsible under international law to protect the people of the island and the culture of the Chamorro people and that the intensified militarization of Guam and the Asia/Pacific region is a polarizing force that has put our people in grave danger rather than provide stability.”

The history of U.S militarism demonstrates the continued importance of race in determining national and international relations. The native and settle people of Guam have endured racial nationalism or exclusion based on continuous and discontinuous understandings of native Pacific Islanders. Social tensions rooted in the history of racism and struggle for minorities to attain “full citizenship.” Senator Cristobal and Sabina Perez have noted the complex ways that citizenship has been curtailed through the resurgence of U.S militarism.

The legacies of a racialized military occupation in Guam continue to inform a widely accepted belief in difference between the citizen and non-citizen. The colorblind framework of the United States as a ‘nation of immigrants’ ignores the complex differences in the histories and cultures of indigenous Micronesian people, especially in Guam. Military discourses conceal the xenophobic immigration policies and manifestations of U.S racial ideologies. As Chamorro scholars and policy makers pursue new ways of addressing racial problems of exclusion and citizenship, the question of self determination in Guam remains unanswered. If we, the people of Guam and the Northern Mariana’s Islands are to survive expanding U.S militarism,

The Fourth Committee must give top priority to the fulfillment of our inalienable right to self-determination, as affirmed by General Resolutions 1514 and 1541, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Fourth Committee must immediately enact the process of decolonization for Guåhan in lieu of the severe, irreversible impacts of US militarization. This process must include a fully funded and far-reaching education campaign informing all Chamorus from Guåhan of our right to self-determination and decolonization options. The Fourth Committee must thoroughly investigate the administering power’s non-compliance with its treaty obligations under the Charter of the United Nations to promote economic, social, and cultural well-being on Guåhan. The Fourth Committee must send UN representatives to the island within the next six months to asses the implications of US militarization plans on the decolonization of Guåhan, and the human rights implications of the cumulative impacts of the US military’s presence on our island. The Fourth Committee must contact Guåhan leaders and delegates who have presented testimony before this body, and UN funding must be allocated immediately to advance this study. We cannot rely on faulty impact studies conducted by the US, which are used to justify their actions rather than truly assess their impacts on our island. Finally, the Fourth Committee must comply with the recommendations of other UN agencies, especially the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which recently requested an expert seminar be held to examine the impact of the UN decolonization process on indigenous peoples of the Non Self-Governing Territories.

This committee must prioritize collaboration with Chamoru organizations and experts, such as I Nasion Chamoru, Famoksaiyan, Fuetsan Famalao’an and all those who have provided testimony in the past two decades.

IN TINA. IN TINA I MANMATAO. We offer praise to the matao IN TINA I MANMOFO'NA NA TAOTAO. We praise the first people

I MANMATAO I MANMOFO'NA NA TAOTAO. TA'HAHASSO I AMKO' NANÅ'AN I TAOTAO-TA. We remember The old name of our people

TA'HAHASSO I AMKO' NANÅ'AN. We remember The old name

TA'HAHASSO I MANFINE'NA NA NANÅ'AN-TA. We remember our first name.

TA' HAHASSO I MANFINE'NA I NANÅ'AN. We remember The first Name

I AMKO' NANÅ'AN I MANFINE'NA I NANÅ'AN I MANMATAO I MANMATAO I MANMOFO'NA NA TAOTAO I MATAO...

ENDS

5/4/07

KEY US OFFICIAL URGES KIWI PACIFIC ENTREPRENEURS TO BE PROACTIVE

Date: 3 May 2007
http://niufm.com/?t=3&View=FullStory&newsID=1951

Auckland 6am: A key official in the US Government is urging New
Zealand based Pacific entrepreneurs to seek out business opportunities
in Pacific nations affiliated to America.

David Cohen is attached to the office that oversees the Pacific States
under the US, and is here for the Pacific Futures Trade Conference in
Auckland.

Cohen says there isn't a free trade agreement between New Zealand the
US, but that shouldn't stop Kiwi Pacific businesses.

Cohen says there's billion dollar opportunities in Guam, for example,
with the US relocating its military base there from Japan.

The president of the New Zealand Pacific Business Council, Gilbert
Ullrich, says they've already started to lock down on places like
Guam.

Ullrich says there are two key areas that New Zealand companies can
move into that'll take them into places like Guam and Hawaii, where
the opportunities are.




Our brothers & sisters in Guam & Hawaii would disagree with this US
bullshit completely.

http://decolonizeguam.blogspot.com/


"Students and faculty oppose Navy research," Friday, April 29, 2005

http://starbulletin.com/2005/04/29/news/story4.html


"UH protesters declare victory as sit-in ends," Thursday, May 5, 2005
http://starbulletin.com/2005/05/05/news/story6.html

http://voicingindigeneity.blogspot.com/2007/03/indigeneity-and-militarism.html


Indigeneity and militarism: aloha aina contra empire

In his book “Imperial Grunts,” U.S. conservative writer Robert Kaplan notes the historic interrelationship between the US wars with the first nations of North America and the modern US imperial experience from Indochina to the present: “Injun Country” is the term which he hears from soldiers abroad in Afghanistan and Iraq, a reference to the undomesticated world which the US aims to tame.

The term is important in two respects. First, it signals the American tendency to see the world outside of North America as subject to its assimiliating tendencies, just as it attempted to do with Turtle Island. In this manner, the anti-Indian wars of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries are the template for the new Indian wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and possibly Iran, North Korea, the Mindanao, and China. From this perspective, the unique identities and soveriegnties of the world’s peoples are just open spaces for the projection of US military force, to make way for WalMart, McDonalds, and MTV.

But in another way, the term is important, for it a sign of the resilience and resistance of the world’s peoples against US expansion. In North America, Indian Country has become a way of talking about the places where the US assumes it has control and domination, but the first peoples do not agree. Indian Country is free country – under the jurisdiction of the gun, but still fighting. And so I derive both a sobering appreciation for the power of military power from this term, but also a deeply-rooted faith in the ability for the first peoples of this world, the peoples of the eagle, the condor, and the frigate bird, to sustain our fight against empire, and be victorious in time.

The experiences of indigenous peoples vis-à-vis the militarized empire are multiple and unique. That is, in fact, one of the foundational ideas that indigenous peoples bring to the world: we are not singular, but plural; we obtain our life and very existence from the specificities of our particular ancestors, our particular gods, our named and worshipped sacred sites. As a indigenous person of Hawaii, I can really only speak for myself and my immediate ancestors; I couldn’t casually speak for my next-door neighbors, let alone the peoples of other Oceanic nations, or of the Americas. So in making these remarks, I will try to speak from our own experience in Hawaii, and only by extension refer to other indigenous experiences.

My country, Hawaii, has been under US occupation since the end of the 19th century. US interest in Hawaii is primarily geostrategic. We have the dubious distinction of being used as the headquarters of the Pacific Command, the largest of the U.S. unified commands. In the 161 military installations throughout Hawaii, every aspect of U.S. military activity takes place, including ocean, land, air, and space operations; training; storage; command & control; research; housing; and even specialized rest & recreation facilities for the military. The military-connected population is 17% of the population; by comparison, Native Hawaiians comprise barely 20% of the island population.

On my home island of O‘ahu, the metropolitan island of Hawaii, the US military controls one-quarter of the land in terms of base territory and formal military jurisdiction. Much of the remaining three-quarters is also injected with militarization, with federal highways connecting the bases, discounts for servicepersons in restaurants and theatres, military bases used as place names, military service projects in public schools, and servicepersons living in our communities because of a cost-of-living-adjustment which allows them to outprice local people from the rental market. Oahu is one of the most militarized places in the world, together with fellow Pacific nations such as Guam.

By contrast, to bring out the impact of the military presence on the indigneous economy and culture of Hawaii, let us focus on a place that we have all heard of: Ke Awalau o Puuloa. Many know this place as Pearl Harbor. In our history, Puuloa is known as the food-basket of our islands, with a remarkable series of 36 stone and coral fishponds built along the shore, allowing our people to maintain and replenish a steady supply of fish protein, all within walking distance. In the traditional land apportionment system, each district along the shore of Ke Awalau o Puuloa had access to this incredible resource, because we recognized that this wealth should be shared. Puuloa is also known as the dwelling for our spiritual protector Kaahupahau, a benevolent shark who protected the people of the surrounding Ewa district from other predators.

Juxtaposed against the current (mis)use of Puuloa, we can see how native subsistence wealth has been damaged to make way for US imperial ambitions. Today, Puuloa is a Superfund site, meaning that the Environmental Protection Agency has declared it one of the most polluted areas in the United States. The shared access to the economy of the oceanic resource has also been interrupted, with barbed walls and military police preventing entry to our fishponds.

This story isn’t unique to Puuloa, nor is it unique to Hawaii. At the most recent meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigneous Populations, the indigneous delegates considered the impact of militarism on their territories and peoples. Below is a portion of a longer conference report covering a variety of issues; this excerpt is the full text concerning militarism.

[According to indigneous participants,] militarization often involved the use of weapons and vehicles that polluted ancestral and sacred lands, forests and water, and harmed wildlife. Participants expressed their strong opposition to the dumping of toxic military waste, and even nuclear waste, on their lands, which rendered them unproductive and forced people from their traditional lands. Unexploded ordnance and landmines from conflicts or training exercises also contaminated indigenous peoples’ lands and caused injuries, ill-health and even death to the civilian indigenous population.

One issue that was raised frequently by indigenous people during the session was the use of militarization as a pretext to gain control over the natural resources in indigenous traditional lands without adequate compensation. A large number of participants from many different countries and regions cited cases of the use of the military to ensure access to land, minerals, oil and other resources on their ancestral lands.

Indigenous representatives also voiced their opposition to development projects, which they said were used as a justification for controlling areas that belong to their communities, as well as a justification for the presence of large numbers of soldiers on those lands. Many indigenous representatives spoke of long histories of forced resettlement for military use of their lands. Often this was done with neither consultation nor redress.

A number of participants cited the war on terror as a pretext for militarization, in particular in Arab regions. It was noted that a large military presence was often accompanied by human rights abuses by the military, including rape and sexual harassment that disproportionately affected women and children in indigenous communities. Indigenous representatives gave examples of the resulting climate of violence and fear. They cited a number of cases of military forces committing human rights abuses with impunity. Several indigenous participants expressed their concern about military recruitment of indigenous youth, which, they said, was a threat to their way of life. Whilst in some cases, recruitment might appear to be voluntary, indigenous youth who were living in poverty might see military service as their only option to earn a living.

As you see, the themes raised by indigneous nations are familiar to many of us in this conference. Clearly, many nation-states regard indigneous rights as a lesser right to the interests of developers or the military – this tendency is an example of a recurring problem that indigenous peoples face, which is the reluctance and often outright refusal for states to recognize indigneous land and sovereignty claims. The international law doctrine of self-determination, enshrined in the United Nations charter and in human rights instruments, is poorly applied, if at all, to indigneous peoples. Our movement for demilitarization and peace must be cognizant if this fact. It would also be appropriate to remind the body of the lessons learned in the Pacific, where some in the Nuclear Free Pacific movement objected to the tendency for the Pacific Islanders themselves to raise the issue of decolonization and independence. The natives demanded that demilitarization be coupled with a push for sovereignty, thus the name Nuclear Free & Independent Pacific was born. But this was indeed a line struggle, painful yet necessary.

Aloha Aina

In closing, I’d like to share our indigenous term for describing our movement in Hawaii. We use the words “aloha aina,” literally “love of land,” but also meaning patriotism. It is a word that was born out of the late-19th century struggle against annexation, and was also reinvigorated with meaning in the 1970s movement to stop the bombing of Kahoolawe island. The term also incorporates a vision for ecological sustainability, for community, and shared responsibility for our island homeland. We could never accept the harming of the land which have so much “aloha” for. Nor could we countenance the use of our land, which is the source of all life, to perpetrate violence on others. Our vision is for an independent Hawaii and a demilitarized Pacific that opposes all empires.

Mahalo nui, aloha aina.

5/3/07

Gangster Economics

Written by Stephen Marshall
Wednesday, 02 May 2007

John Perkins was recruited by the National Security Administration (NSA) and then put to work as an analyst for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main. It was there, as he describes in his bestselling book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, that he became one of the titular assassins, or EHMs as they were known in the industry. His job was to create optimistic financial projections for developing countries that would justify huge IMF and World Bank loans. Though the money was supposedly lent to recipient nations for infrastructural development, much of it never left the United States since it went directly to Main or other U.S. construction and engineering companies like Bechtel or Halliburton which were contracted to do the work. More importantly, Perkins writes in Confessions, he would bring in such high loans that it would drive the countries bankrupt and they would be "forever beholden to their creditors, and . . . would present easy targets when they needed favors, including military bases, UN votes, or access to oil and other natural resources."

From 1971-80, Perkins worked in key, mineral-rich nations like Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, and Ecuador. His conscience-free manipulation of statistics and long-term financial projections brought huge contracts to his firm and he was quickly promoted to partner, the youngest in the company's hundred-year history. But his motivation was not solely financial. He was trained to see the work as critical to the fight against Communism; by channeling American dollars into these poor nations, they would not fall into the trappings of Marxism.

But soon cracks began to form in the veneer. In 1977, working in Tehran under the U.S.-supported Shah, he was brought to a clandestine meeting at the edge of the desert. There he met a man who had been tortured by the Iranian security service, SAVAK. The man told Perkins that the Shah was as fascistic and bloodthirsty as Hitler, responsible for the death of thousands and, he explained, "with the full knowledge and support of your government." He warned Perkins that the Shah would be overthrown by a fundamentalist coup and that contractors like Chas T. Main would not be paid. At first Perkins did not believe him. He, and all the Americans working in Iran, were convinced that the shah was loved by his people. But two days after he left Iran -- when he was ushered out of the country by an old friend -- the Shah fell and the Islamist Revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini swept through the country in the fall of 1979. In a fury of anti-Americanism, Muslim students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran taking seventy hostages and beginning the fourteen month standoff that helped usher in the Reagan administration.

Of the experience, Perkins wrote, "Iran illustrated beyond any doubt that the United States was a nation laboring to deny the truth of our role in the world. It seemed incomprehensible that we could have been so misinformed about the Shah and the tide of hatred that had surged against him." But they were. Just as so many Americans, influenced by Thomas Friedman's happy-go-lucky vision of globalization, were shocked by the sense of relief that rippled through much of the developing world after 9/11.

Speaking to Perkins on a quiet Sunday, he explains that this collective naivety about America's legacy in the third world isn't solely the fault of the people.

"It is amazing," he sighs, "I want to use the word 'conspiracy,' but it isn't a conspiracy because it's not illegal. But there is an incredible array of tools and institutions set up in this country to keep us from understanding what's really going on in the world. It starts in our education system, in the first grade or before that, where we are told about the ideals of this country and how we support them everywhere we go. We are taught to perceive all of our actions as altruistic."

And even when the darker truth is allowed to filter into our minds, that no man, no country does anything for entirely charitable reasons, then there is the second layer of the brainwash: that what we do in the world will always be of benefit to the other party. But as Perkins ascended to the higher realms of power, becoming one of the most powerful economic hit men in the world, he realized that his work was only enriching corrupt leaders who then scattered the crumbs of their graft into the public coffers. Worse, the industrial parks and power plants his firm built only further entrenched these men in power by creating the illusion of great political and economic leadership.

"It's a sham, it's a subterfuge," he says solemnly.

Perkins views the recent pledges by the G8 to Make Poverty History as the latest chapter in this legacy of economic entrapment.

"This program to forgive debt in eighteen nations, with another twenty-two on the back burner, that's an amazing tool of economic hit men. I believe totally in debt forgiveness, but this is not about debt forgiveness. Everyone of those countries is being asked to allow American corporations or international corporations to privatize their electric and water systems and many of their other resources. They are asked to accept the trade barriers we have in the United States and the other G8 countries and yet not keep their own trade barriers to protect their markets from our products. So we are using this debt forgiveness ploy as a way to get them more entrenched in the empire. It's a very, very subtle and effective economic hit man tool and yet, most people don't seem to realize that."


Stephen Marshall is a writer and award-winning filmmaker. A founder of Guerrilla News Network www.gnn.tv, he is coauthor of the book True Lies (Plume) with GNN colleague Anthony Lappé. He is the director of the feature film This Revolution, documentary features such as Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge, and controversial, politicized music videos for the Beastie Boys, Eminem and 50 Cent. Over the span of his career, he has traveled and worked in more than 80 countries. He lives in New York City


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