BS: Settling in Guam

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 06:20 AM

Kurusawa was a genius!

TCM is celebrating the 100th birthday of the legendary Japanes director Akira Kurusawa. The man was a genius. I watched most of Ikiru (1952), a story of a bureaucrat who learns he has cancer and six months to live. He is determined to leave a legacy. In anyone else's hands it would be a forgettable movie. Kurusawa turned it into gold.

It isn't necessarily the story bu the way it was told. Most of the movie is spent with Watanabe (the protagonist) trying to relearn how to live life. Once he decides to get the city to build a park the mvie jumps to his wake and the rest of the story is told in flashbacks from the bureaucrats at the wake as they slowly come to realize just what he did and what he risked.

See it if you can. See any others you can see too.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 08:27 AM

St. Patrick's Day is over again. Until I started at Notre Dame that day was just a chance for everyone to be Irish. Here it is a formal saint's feast day. Of course everyone is supposed to wear green but here wearing orange will get you snubbed pretty badly.

I continued my protest by not wearing green. The kids did not understand.

They also do not understand that in the non-Catholic world the day is only a day to celebrate being Irish, even if you aren't.

Poor Wakana is exhausted physically and mentally. She is carrying two jobs, high school teacher and college teacher, she is chairwoman for the Nihon-go Challenge Bowl, and she is in the Japanese Language Teacher's Association. She has a kid in one of her high school classes who is totally out of control. Yesterday he caused a fight in her classroom. Today he is suspended but he will be back in a couple of days. I wish I could do something for her.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 11:09 AM

We love Kurusawa's movies, too, but I don't recall seeing that one. Will definitely see if netflix has it.

I know what you mean about wearing green. My dad always insisted on us wearing orange, but we also had a bit of green to keep from being pinched. I honoured his memory by doing so, yesterday.

{{{{Wakana}}}

luvyakat

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 11:45 AM

How about visiting the class and putting the fear of god into the little shit. Or...maybe just speaking with him quietly to figure out what is going on in his life to make him behave like that. Sounds like a pretty angry kid. Are the parents involved?
Tell Wakana I think of her often - her beads and silk scarf are on the bookcase where I see them every day.
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 11:52 AM

If you have not seen Rashomon and Ran, put them at the top of your list. Brilliant.
The incredible soaking rain in the opening scene of Rashomon is not to be believed.
He was a genius.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 04:39 PM

Brett, a reporter from Public Radio International was there in Guam reporting on her visit from Minnesota during the winter and what Guam and MN have in common....Spam - the dubious canned meat from Hormel in MN! Did you know that Guam eats more Spam per capita than anywhere else in the world?! Sixteen cans per person per year, I think it was. She even interviewed some young Chamorro girls about it and noted the gov. is stressing more exercise as obesity is becoming a problem. Also, Hormel has offered a low-salt Spam now. The ads for exercise were sponsored by...McDonalds!LOL! Anyway, it was fun to hear, plus it led to a neat site with recipes and other Guam info at Guampedia.

I don't know if they will put up the audio later today or not, but you can read the synopsis HERE.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 10:46 PM

Gee, I wish I'd known she was here. I was always a pretty good supporter of MPR. It would have been nice to share a former Mainer's opinions of life in Guam.

By the way, the governor is pushing a name change for the island. He wants to use the older name of Guahan.

As for the kid, the parents are NOT there. At one point she was escorting the kid to the office and his father happened to be there. He didn't react to what his son had done.

I met the kid earlier this year and made a point of shaking his hand... hard. He didn't get the message.

Spam is the local favorite food. When you ask for ham and eggs for breakfast you get (kind of) ham flavored spam.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 10:53 PM

She may still be there...it's still winter in Minnesota.:-)

I hope something can be done about that kid. Can Wakana ask that he be transferred to another calls if available?

When did they change the name to Guam and how do you pronounce the older name?

I don't think I'd eat out much there; I cannot stand Spam and we didn't have it around much when I was a kid. Yuck!*bg*

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Ebbie
Date: 19 Mar 10 - 12:01 AM

Alaska and Hawaii are also traditionally big Spam eaters. I imagine it has to do with the perishibility of uncanned meats. But yuck. My mother served it a few times when I was a kid in Oregon; I don't remember her doing that after we were a bit more grown.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Mar 10 - 01:17 AM

Spam is on the shelves of my local supermarket, but I haven't eaten it for many decades.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 08:12 AM

Go ahead, live a little. Try it with eggs in the morning.

Wakana's frustrating kid has used up all his chances. One more incident and he will be expelled. Unfortunately they give them too many chances; private warnings, public warnings, in school suspensions, etc. It all means he continues to hang around causing problems for everyone.

Our schools give two grades. There is the academic grade and a citizenship grade. This kid cannot do better than the lowest citizenship grade. At Wakana's school that grade is given to him by the home room teacher. At my school we each give the student a citizenship grade.

Guam's name has always been in dispute. Magellan and the early Spanish settlers called it, and the other Marianas Islands, Islas de Ladrones, the Islands of Thieves. There have been others. Currently the local dispute is between Guam and Guahan.

I think the dispute is the result of the 'build-up'. We have a bunch of Marines moving to Guam because Japan doesn't want them any more. They keep raping the Japanese women. The infrastructure is already stressed by the 150,000 people already living here. Various sources make the population increase any where from 20,000 to 50,000 people. Our roads are bad, the water and electrical systems are bad, and the police have enough problems keeping up with the drugs and domestic abuse cases. Traffic in Tamuning and Tumon are already hard to handle during the rush hour. What will it be like with another 40,000 people here?

There is a beneficial side. While the rest of the world is suffering through a near-depression we have been spared the worst ravages because the government is pouring money into the economy in the form of jobs preparing for the arrival. Homes are being built and businesses are opening left and right.

Still, tonight we have no water pressure. There is probably a break in the line somewhere.

I am happy to be living and working in the southern end of the island. We are far (10 to 15 miles) from the busy end of the island. yet the crime has struck close to home. A young man in Yona (Joh'-nya) was beaten to death last week by a gang of juveniles who were looking to steal his pot. He apparently was a supplier. He had several trash bags full of the stuff. Several of my students knew him.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 08:21 AM

The next thread is here.