Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Elections, Kmart, and Multiculturalism


More of my drivel from this thing we refer to as "The Guam Desk"......


The campaign season is almost over, with the election set to happen a week from today. It’s a good thing, because the race for governor has gone past the point of being ridiculous and pathetic. Both the Calvo-Tenorio and Guiterrez-Aguon camps are doing shit that is so pathetic and stupid that Richard Nixon and Ferdinand Marcos are both rolling in their graves.

The latest bit of weirdness involves the Calvo-Tenorio camp. The day after they filed a complaint with the FCC, stating that one of the local television stations is not allowing them to advertise on their station while providing the other camp with free ads, they have an ad running that is just bizarre. Tenorio’s mother goes on TV stating that her son is a good man, blah blah blah fucking blah. This after the other camp raises questions about Tenorio failing to provide child support for his five kids from a previous marriage. Explain to me how this is supposed to make me support their camp? “Oh, his MOTHER says he’s a nice guy, so I definitely must vote for his ass”. Last night, we got to see Carl Guiterrez's wife on TV, telling Guam how wonderful her husband is.

I for one say “a pox on both houses”. Never in recent memory has it become more apparent that the voters here on Guam have to pick the lesser of two evils for governor. Both candidates are spending massive amounts of money, so that they can get the power to sodomize the people of the island once they get into office. Anyone who doesn’t believe that will be EXACTLY what happens when whoever wins takes office is not living in reality. It’s utter bullshit to believe that either Guiterrez or Calvo will do anything but find ways to line their own pockets or the pockets of their own families.

Calvo is one of the richest men on Guam, owning all or large chunks of several businesses. I’m not buying the bullshit that says he “wants to make Guam a better place to live” at all. He merely wants to get the power so he can initiate changes to various laws that will benefit him and his family, the rich getting richer. That helps to explain the fact that his campaign has spent over $1.8 million dollars to get him into office. “Uncle Carl” Guiterrez, who held the office of Governor before, is so corrupt that he has to have two guys help him screw his pants on every morning. All a person has to do is Google his name to see some of the shitty business he has been connected to while governor and in the last 20 years.

From where I’m sitting, either way you slice it, the citizens of Guam are going to get fucked next Tuesday when the polls open.

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I have to explain to my wife sometimes that while Guam is a US Territory and technically part of the United States, in many ways it isn’t. It’s a place that has more of an Asian feel than anything, even more so than Hawaii does. It’s not just the fact that the majority of the population is Chamorro, Filipino, Chinese, and Korea, with a large Japanese tourist influence as well, it’s more about attitude and the way things get done. In many ways, there is a Third Worldness about the island due to some rather horrid problems with infrastructure. Power and water outages are common, especially in the southern third of the island. The roads suck ass, and improvement projects seem to last a lifetime. Add to that the fact that a large part of the population is on some sort of public assistance like food stamps or welfare (some estimates are 60% of the population).

I’m not saying that it isn’t a pretty cool place to live, because in many ways it is. Temperate climate, nice people, beautiful scenery, a laid back attitude about many things. Make no mistake, there is a lot to love about living here. Still, with all of that said, there is no denying the feeling that, while it may be a US territory, in many ways it isn’t the US.

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The Kmart here is probably the only Kmart in the entire chain where a person can be walking down the aisles and here English, Chamorro, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Chinese, and Spanish all within about 50 feet of walking. Multicultural, indeed.

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Thus Endeth the Rant/Lesson, for now anyway.

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