Family, human rights issues top forum agenda
Monday, 07 September 2009 03:09
by Jude Lizama
Marianas Variety News Staff
HUMAN rights and family issues as they relate to the presence of military bases are among the main issues that will be discussed at the 7th meeting of the International Network of Women Against Militarism from Sept. 14 to 19.
Hosted by the University of Guam in Mangilao and Carmel on the Hill Center, this year’s conference theme is “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights.” Attending the conference are women from Japan, Okinawa, Hawaii, South Korea, Philippines, Australia, Republic of Belau, Marshall Islands, Guam, Saipan, United States, and Puerto Rico.
The International Network of Women Against Militarism has been meeting since 1997 to share information and strategize about the negative effects of U.S. military operations.
These effects include military violence against women and girls, the plight of mixed-race Amerasian children abandoned by U.S. military fathers, environmental contamination, cultural degradation and the distortion of local economies. They focus on how military institutions, values, policies and operations impact communities, especially women.
Women across the globe have endured tremendous struggles to protect their families and survive during times of war and unrest. It is from these struggles that women have gained the strength to fight for peace.
Workshops and public forums on human trafficking and prostitution, political arrangements with the U.S., rethinking peace and security, exploring alternatives for economic sustainability, environmental contamination and toxicity will be featured throughout.
A central focus of the gathering is the issue of the U.S. military presence on Guam. Referred to as the “tip of the spear,” Guam is immersed in an unprecedented military build-up as the U.S. plans to relocate thousands of Marines and their dependents from Okinawa. The conference comes at a critical time in island’s history, and aims to bring international attention to the concerns being raised about the proposed build-up.
Additionally, there will also be a historical tour of the island; a community vigil to honor the past and heal for the future; a public art event featuring local and international artists; and other networking opportunities.
Those interested in the conference may register until Thursday. For additional information, visit www.genuinesecurity.blogspot.com.
Showing posts with label Fuetsan Famalao'an. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fuetsan Famalao'an. Show all posts
Monday, September 07, 2009
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
International Network of Women Against Militarism Meeting in Guam
7TH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF WOMEN AGAINST MILITARISM
Resistance, Resilience, and Respect for Human Rights
CHinemma’, Nina’maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao
Location: University of Guam, Mangilao, Guåhan
Dates: September 14-19, 2009
Women across the globe have endured tremendous struggles to protect their families and survive during times of war and unrest. It is from these struggles that women have gained the strength to fight for peace. This September, they will gather on the island of Guam for the 7th Meeting of the International Network of Women Against Militarism themed, “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights”.
The five-day conference will bring together women from Japan, Okinawa, South Korea, Hawaii, Philippines, Australia, Republic of Belau, Marshall Islands, Guam, United States, Puerto Rico and Saipan – all of whom have felt the tremendous impacts of US military bases in their homelands.
The International Network of Women Against Militarism has been meeting since 1997 to share information and strategize about the negative effects of US military operations. These effects include military violence against women and girls, the plight of mixed-race Amerasian children abandoned by US military fathers, environmental contamination, cultural degradation and the distortion of local economies. They focus on how military institutions, values, policies and operations impact communities, especially women.
The United States has had a strong military presence on Guam for more than a century, and occupies nearly one-third of the island. Guam, which has been dubbed “the tip of the spear” by the US Department of Defense, is in the midst of an unprecedented military build-up as the US plans to move 17,000 Marines and their dependents from Okinawa to the island. The conference comes at a critical time in Guam’s history, and aims to bring international attention to the concerns being raised about the proposed build-up.
The conference will feature workshops and public forums on human trafficking and prostitution; political arrangements with the United States; rethinking peace and security; exploring alternatives for economic sustainability; environmental contamination and toxicity; and much more.
There will also be a historical tour of the island; a community vigil to honor the past and heal for the future; a public art event featuring local and international artists; and many opportunities to network and establish goals for the future.
For more information please contact: Dr. LisaLinda Natividad at lisanati@yahoo.com or (671) 735-2962.
Sponsoring Organizations: Conscious Living; Famoksaiyan; Fuetsan Famalao’an; Guåhan Coalition for Peace and Justice; Guåhan Indigenous Collective; GUAHAN Project; Global Fund for Women; Office of Minority Health Resource Center; Sage Project, Incorporated; Women and Gender Studies Program, University of Guam.
Resistance, Resilience, and Respect for Human Rights
CHinemma’, Nina’maolek, yan Inarespetu para Direchon Taotao
Location: University of Guam, Mangilao, Guåhan
Dates: September 14-19, 2009
Women across the globe have endured tremendous struggles to protect their families and survive during times of war and unrest. It is from these struggles that women have gained the strength to fight for peace. This September, they will gather on the island of Guam for the 7th Meeting of the International Network of Women Against Militarism themed, “Resistance, Resilience and Respect for Human Rights”.
The five-day conference will bring together women from Japan, Okinawa, South Korea, Hawaii, Philippines, Australia, Republic of Belau, Marshall Islands, Guam, United States, Puerto Rico and Saipan – all of whom have felt the tremendous impacts of US military bases in their homelands.
The International Network of Women Against Militarism has been meeting since 1997 to share information and strategize about the negative effects of US military operations. These effects include military violence against women and girls, the plight of mixed-race Amerasian children abandoned by US military fathers, environmental contamination, cultural degradation and the distortion of local economies. They focus on how military institutions, values, policies and operations impact communities, especially women.
The United States has had a strong military presence on Guam for more than a century, and occupies nearly one-third of the island. Guam, which has been dubbed “the tip of the spear” by the US Department of Defense, is in the midst of an unprecedented military build-up as the US plans to move 17,000 Marines and their dependents from Okinawa to the island. The conference comes at a critical time in Guam’s history, and aims to bring international attention to the concerns being raised about the proposed build-up.
The conference will feature workshops and public forums on human trafficking and prostitution; political arrangements with the United States; rethinking peace and security; exploring alternatives for economic sustainability; environmental contamination and toxicity; and much more.
There will also be a historical tour of the island; a community vigil to honor the past and heal for the future; a public art event featuring local and international artists; and many opportunities to network and establish goals for the future.
For more information please contact: Dr. LisaLinda Natividad at lisanati@yahoo.com or (671) 735-2962.
Sponsoring Organizations: Conscious Living; Famoksaiyan; Fuetsan Famalao’an; Guåhan Coalition for Peace and Justice; Guåhan Indigenous Collective; GUAHAN Project; Global Fund for Women; Office of Minority Health Resource Center; Sage Project, Incorporated; Women and Gender Studies Program, University of Guam.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Welcome to Guam, USA
"Welcome to Guam, USA"
Catherine Lutz
The MojoBlog
9/29/08
Guam, USA" is the tagline on the western Pacific island's license plates. It resonates with the fact that fully one-third of Guam's territory is occupied by US military installations, from the giant Anderson Air Force Base in the north, to the Naval Magazine, where deadly ordnance is stored, in the south. For there is nothing more American, in many ways, unfortunately, than a place bristling with weapons and soldiers.
Despite being 12 hours by plane from California (and just 3 from the Philippines), Guam has been under the control of the United States since 1898, with the exception of a few years of Japanese control in the 1940s. The US declared Guam's residents citizens of the United States in the wake of World War II, as it recognized that the accelerating global push for decolonization would make continued colonial occupation untenable. But this legal fig leaf did not fully cover: Guam remains on the UN's list of the world's few remaining colonial states.
Guam's license-plate slogan also highlights the irony that the islanders are treated as second-class citizens—they cannot vote for President, migrants from the US mainland and elsewhere have undue influence and control over their land and politics, and for years they were paid far less than American expatriates for the same work. The Chamoru people, Guam's original inhabitants, are now outnumbered by the families of expatriates and others brought in by the Pentagon to build its bases.
Guam illustrates what the US empire of bases is all about. The Pentagon's rationale for posting soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines overseas is that they provide security to the places where they are located. The joke around Guam is that few, save employees in the Kremlin's nuclear targeting offices, even know where they are located. Meanwhile, toxic pollutants from the bases, and other dumping by the military, have left the island with the most basic insecurity—living with the biological time bomb these things represent. Just 30 miles long, the island has 19 Superfund sites, and high cancer rates.
Another common argument is that American bases serve as the vanguard of freedom and civilization. While locals were grateful when the US retook the island from the horrific Japanese occupation in 1944, the US immediately drew up plans to relocate all of Guam's people to a reservation in one small corner of the island and turn the rest into a bounty of military installations. The Pentagon ultimately settled for taking just one-third of the island's 212 square miles from the people who owned and farmed it.
US bases are often portrayed as purely defensive in orientation, but those in Guam have been used to wage wars thousands of miles away in Vietnam and the Middle East, wars that have had nothing to do with the security of either the US or the Pacific islands; every day for years tons of bombs were unloaded at the Naval Station, hauled across local roads and loaded onto B-52s at Anderson Air Force Base to be used for bombing runs over North and South Vietnam.
Finally, it is often argued that US bases provide economic advantages to locals. While US corporations and land speculators have benefited mightily from Guam's bases, the costs in social disruption and personal tragedies have been immense. Like bases elsewhere, those in Guam have brought higher rates of violence against women, auto crashes, and environmental and health damage, none of which the Pentagon includes in its accounting. In contrast to other US base sites, however, the neighborhoods around Guam's military facilities have provided fertile recruiting grounds: 70 of Guam's small population died in Vietnam, a rate three times the US average, and 11 have already died in Iraq.
The rhetoric from Washington and the punditry tell us that our bases are a gift to the world's people, and to US security. The reality on the ground, from Guam, to South Korea, to Iraq, to Vieques, tells a very different story.
A massive new military buildup is underway on Guam today as the US begins relocating 8,000 Marines from Okinawa and adding 40,000 more base-related civilians to the island’s population of 170,000. A women's group there, Fuetsan Famalao'an has led the way in drawing attention to the fallacy of each of these arguments for US basing, and the hypocrisy of imposing citizenship on a people while denying them the most fundamental human rights.
Catherine Lutz
The MojoBlog
9/29/08
Guam, USA" is the tagline on the western Pacific island's license plates. It resonates with the fact that fully one-third of Guam's territory is occupied by US military installations, from the giant Anderson Air Force Base in the north, to the Naval Magazine, where deadly ordnance is stored, in the south. For there is nothing more American, in many ways, unfortunately, than a place bristling with weapons and soldiers.
Despite being 12 hours by plane from California (and just 3 from the Philippines), Guam has been under the control of the United States since 1898, with the exception of a few years of Japanese control in the 1940s. The US declared Guam's residents citizens of the United States in the wake of World War II, as it recognized that the accelerating global push for decolonization would make continued colonial occupation untenable. But this legal fig leaf did not fully cover: Guam remains on the UN's list of the world's few remaining colonial states.
Guam's license-plate slogan also highlights the irony that the islanders are treated as second-class citizens—they cannot vote for President, migrants from the US mainland and elsewhere have undue influence and control over their land and politics, and for years they were paid far less than American expatriates for the same work. The Chamoru people, Guam's original inhabitants, are now outnumbered by the families of expatriates and others brought in by the Pentagon to build its bases.
Guam illustrates what the US empire of bases is all about. The Pentagon's rationale for posting soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines overseas is that they provide security to the places where they are located. The joke around Guam is that few, save employees in the Kremlin's nuclear targeting offices, even know where they are located. Meanwhile, toxic pollutants from the bases, and other dumping by the military, have left the island with the most basic insecurity—living with the biological time bomb these things represent. Just 30 miles long, the island has 19 Superfund sites, and high cancer rates.
Another common argument is that American bases serve as the vanguard of freedom and civilization. While locals were grateful when the US retook the island from the horrific Japanese occupation in 1944, the US immediately drew up plans to relocate all of Guam's people to a reservation in one small corner of the island and turn the rest into a bounty of military installations. The Pentagon ultimately settled for taking just one-third of the island's 212 square miles from the people who owned and farmed it.
US bases are often portrayed as purely defensive in orientation, but those in Guam have been used to wage wars thousands of miles away in Vietnam and the Middle East, wars that have had nothing to do with the security of either the US or the Pacific islands; every day for years tons of bombs were unloaded at the Naval Station, hauled across local roads and loaded onto B-52s at Anderson Air Force Base to be used for bombing runs over North and South Vietnam.
Finally, it is often argued that US bases provide economic advantages to locals. While US corporations and land speculators have benefited mightily from Guam's bases, the costs in social disruption and personal tragedies have been immense. Like bases elsewhere, those in Guam have brought higher rates of violence against women, auto crashes, and environmental and health damage, none of which the Pentagon includes in its accounting. In contrast to other US base sites, however, the neighborhoods around Guam's military facilities have provided fertile recruiting grounds: 70 of Guam's small population died in Vietnam, a rate three times the US average, and 11 have already died in Iraq.
The rhetoric from Washington and the punditry tell us that our bases are a gift to the world's people, and to US security. The reality on the ground, from Guam, to South Korea, to Iraq, to Vieques, tells a very different story.
A massive new military buildup is underway on Guam today as the US begins relocating 8,000 Marines from Okinawa and adding 40,000 more base-related civilians to the island’s population of 170,000. A women's group there, Fuetsan Famalao'an has led the way in drawing attention to the fallacy of each of these arguments for US basing, and the hypocrisy of imposing citizenship on a people while denying them the most fundamental human rights.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Fuetsan Famalao'an in Action
Women’s group demands impact study on troop buildup
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
MILITARY expansion must come with a thorough study of its impact on the island’s environment, healthcare, education and other social issues likely to be affected by the population surge on Guam, according to women activists.
They are also demanding transparency and an open line of communication with U.S. leaders.
The women’s group, called Fuetsan Famalao’an, met with Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo and U.S. Virgin Islands Rep. Donna Christensen at the Outrigger Hotel on Sunday and discussed their concerns about the impending relocation of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
The Sunday brunch meeting, hosted by Bordallo, saw a gathering of 35 women representing various sectors of the community.
“We seek to bring to the center socio-cultural issues which tend to be marginalized in public discussion of the impact of military expansion,” Fuetsan Famalao’an member Nicole Santos said.
Another member, Therese Terlaje, noted that “because this proposed military buildup is unprecedented, unprecedented attention must be given to all its consequences and impacts.”
Members of the group are scheduled to hold another dialog with Bordallo and Christensen at the town hall meeting to be held at the Hilton Resort and Spa tomorrow.
“Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo seemed surprised by the concerns that women presented during the Sunday meeting. She probably hasn’t heard of them before. She was surprised to find out that many of us are opposing the military expansion,” former Senator Hope Cristobal told Variety.
Lisa Natividad discussed the environmental degradation that resulted from the presence of toxic chemicals left by the military and the various diseases contracted by Guam residents as a result of the contamination from nuclear tests conducted in the Pacific in the 1950s.
“The reckless military practices of the past have taken their toll on the health of our people. Now Guam is again being asked to continue making sacrifices in the name of national defense,” Natividad said.
At tomorrow’s town hall meeting, Cristobal will present a list of recommendations to address a number of issues linked to the military buildup.
“Congress must responsibly address the cumulative effect of all proposed military projects together with past and current military activity and presence. The effectiveness of past mitigation efforts by the military should be assessed in order to determine the prudence of allowing future mitigation where adverse impact is expected,” Cristobal stated in a written statement.
She also demands that the people of Guam be fully informed of the results of any environmental studies done or being done on Guam.
“A cumulative study is particularly important relative to past military use of our landfill and over 80 contaminated dump sites still existing on Guam that have yet to be cleaned up by the military, despite their placement on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleanup lists for many years,” Cristobal said.
At Sunday’s meeting, Bordallo pointed out that impact studies, funded by the federal government, will be conducted, and reassured the group that “a final decision has not been made.”
The women activists are also demanding the federal government revisit other recurring issues that have not been resolved, including the return of ancestral lands to their original owners and war reparations.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
MILITARY expansion must come with a thorough study of its impact on the island’s environment, healthcare, education and other social issues likely to be affected by the population surge on Guam, according to women activists.
They are also demanding transparency and an open line of communication with U.S. leaders.
The women’s group, called Fuetsan Famalao’an, met with Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo and U.S. Virgin Islands Rep. Donna Christensen at the Outrigger Hotel on Sunday and discussed their concerns about the impending relocation of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
The Sunday brunch meeting, hosted by Bordallo, saw a gathering of 35 women representing various sectors of the community.
“We seek to bring to the center socio-cultural issues which tend to be marginalized in public discussion of the impact of military expansion,” Fuetsan Famalao’an member Nicole Santos said.
Another member, Therese Terlaje, noted that “because this proposed military buildup is unprecedented, unprecedented attention must be given to all its consequences and impacts.”
Members of the group are scheduled to hold another dialog with Bordallo and Christensen at the town hall meeting to be held at the Hilton Resort and Spa tomorrow.
“Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo seemed surprised by the concerns that women presented during the Sunday meeting. She probably hasn’t heard of them before. She was surprised to find out that many of us are opposing the military expansion,” former Senator Hope Cristobal told Variety.
Lisa Natividad discussed the environmental degradation that resulted from the presence of toxic chemicals left by the military and the various diseases contracted by Guam residents as a result of the contamination from nuclear tests conducted in the Pacific in the 1950s.
“The reckless military practices of the past have taken their toll on the health of our people. Now Guam is again being asked to continue making sacrifices in the name of national defense,” Natividad said.
At tomorrow’s town hall meeting, Cristobal will present a list of recommendations to address a number of issues linked to the military buildup.
“Congress must responsibly address the cumulative effect of all proposed military projects together with past and current military activity and presence. The effectiveness of past mitigation efforts by the military should be assessed in order to determine the prudence of allowing future mitigation where adverse impact is expected,” Cristobal stated in a written statement.
She also demands that the people of Guam be fully informed of the results of any environmental studies done or being done on Guam.
“A cumulative study is particularly important relative to past military use of our landfill and over 80 contaminated dump sites still existing on Guam that have yet to be cleaned up by the military, despite their placement on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleanup lists for many years,” Cristobal said.
At Sunday’s meeting, Bordallo pointed out that impact studies, funded by the federal government, will be conducted, and reassured the group that “a final decision has not been made.”
The women activists are also demanding the federal government revisit other recurring issues that have not been resolved, including the return of ancestral lands to their original owners and war reparations.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
"Several women?"
Several women dissatisfied with Leaf's discussion
by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM News
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
http://www.kuam.com/news/19011.aspx
Senator Judi Won Pat's (D) women's group met today with PACCOMM deputy commander Lieutenant General Daniel Leaf to discuss cultural and social impacts that will occur with the influx of military personnel on Guam. Some of the women present during today's meeting were not satisfied with the amount of time they were allowed to meet with General Leaf.
Former senator Hope Cristobal summarized the session by saying, "I was hoping that he would be able to expound a little bit more about the military's views about some of the issues that we presented today, so generally speaking, I wasn't happy about his responses."
Although Lisa Natividad of the Organization for the Protection of Indigenous Rights was happy that the general took time out of his busy schedule to meet with the women's group, she was not entirely satisfied with the results of the meeting. "I think today's meeting was a good first step in terms of opening the dialogue with the U.S. military regarding the relocation of these Marines to our island," she said, "however I don't feel there was enough detail that was discussed and in terms of the commitments of what our needs are it seems that the general wasn't in the position to make those commitments. And so to a large degree I think that maybe the right players need to be on the table because there's lots of concerns that we need to have addressed that aren't going to be able to be touched it seems."
by Clynt Ridgell, KUAM News
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
http://www.kuam.com/news/19011.aspx
Senator Judi Won Pat's (D) women's group met today with PACCOMM deputy commander Lieutenant General Daniel Leaf to discuss cultural and social impacts that will occur with the influx of military personnel on Guam. Some of the women present during today's meeting were not satisfied with the amount of time they were allowed to meet with General Leaf.
Former senator Hope Cristobal summarized the session by saying, "I was hoping that he would be able to expound a little bit more about the military's views about some of the issues that we presented today, so generally speaking, I wasn't happy about his responses."
Although Lisa Natividad of the Organization for the Protection of Indigenous Rights was happy that the general took time out of his busy schedule to meet with the women's group, she was not entirely satisfied with the results of the meeting. "I think today's meeting was a good first step in terms of opening the dialogue with the U.S. military regarding the relocation of these Marines to our island," she said, "however I don't feel there was enough detail that was discussed and in terms of the commitments of what our needs are it seems that the general wasn't in the position to make those commitments. And so to a large degree I think that maybe the right players need to be on the table because there's lots of concerns that we need to have addressed that aren't going to be able to be touched it seems."
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