PROGRESSIVE
OPINION AND NEWS
THE MARIANAS GO
FOR THE BERN
COMPILATION AND
COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
MARCH 14, 2020
ON THE HISTORY
OF THE INDIGENOUS CHAMORRO PEOPLE WHO POPULATED THE ISLAND WHEN EUROPEANS DISCOVERED IT, DNA STUDIES AND LANGUAGE, SEE THE SEVERAL
WIKIPEDIA AND OTHER ARTICLES THAT FOLLOW. THEY ARE OF COURSE MUCH LONGER THAN
WHAT I HAVE INSERTED IN THIS BLOG, SO FOR MORE INFO GO TO THE ORIGINAL
WEBSITES.
Bernie Sanders
wins Northern Mariana Islands caucuses
By Adam Levy,
CNN
Updated 10:25
AM ET, Sat March 14, 2020
VIDEO -- Biden
or Sanders? How race and age shape the race, CNN
(CNN)Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Northern Mariana Islands Democratic caucuses
Saturday.
Sanders won
with 84 votes, while former Vice President Joe Biden received 48 votes and two
went uncommitted. Sanders' win in the contest translates to four national
delegates, while Biden captured two.
The Northern
Mariana Islands, which has been a US territory since 1975, participates in the
presidential primary process but not the general election. In 2016, Hillary
Clinton won the Democratic caucuses while Donald Trump won the Republican
caucuses.
Visit CNN's
Election Center for full coverage of the 2020 race
Biden has a
near 150-delegate lead over Sanders, after the former vice president racked up
a series of victories earlier this month that catapulted him to front-runner
status, according to CNN's delegate count.
Sanders on
Wednesday vowed to stay in the race despite the narrowing path for him to win
the nomination.
The two
candidates are scheduled to debate Sunday, which has been moved from Arizona to
Washington, DC, amid coronavirus concerns.
The debate
comes ahead of another round of Democratic primaries Tuesday in Arizona,
Florida, Illinois and Ohio, which total to 577 delegates up for grabs.
This story has
been updated with additional background information.
CNN's Veronica
Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
AVAILABLE DELEGATES TO THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
Northern Mariana Islands
6 PLEDGED DELEGATES
5 SUPER DELEGATES
Date of Caucuses: March 14, 2020
Delegate Allocation: Proportional
Total delegates at stake: 11
The Northern Mariana Islands, which has been a US territory since 1975, participate in the presidential primary process but not the general election. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the Democratic caucuses while Donald Trump won the Republican caucuses. Republicans control the Northern Mariana Islands’ Legislature and governor’s office. The territory’s nonvoting congressional delegate is an independent.
I FIND THE
PEOPLE THEMSELVES TO BE MORE INTERESTING THAN THIS TINY LITTLE VOTE FOR BERNIE,
THOUGH IT MAY SHOW THAT THERE IS MORE POLITICAL ACTIVITY AND INTEREST THERE
THAN I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT. IT ALSO MAY SHOW THAT THEY WATCH HIM ON THE INTERNET
AS I DO, AND FEEL THAT THE THINGS HE WANTS TO PUT IN PLACE ARE GOOD. SEE ALSO THE
MACROTRENDS.NET STATEMENT ABOUT THEIR LITERACY RATES, AND WIKIPEDIA ON THE HOUSEHOLD
AND PER CAPITA INCOMES.
Adult literacy
rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can both read and write
with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.
Northern
Mariana Islands literacy rate for 2018 was 99.00%, a 0% increase from 2015.
I HAVE TRIED
QUITE A FEW TIMES TONIGHT TO FIND SPECIFIC DATA ON HOW MANY OF THE ISLANDERS
HAVE A BACHELOR’S OR ASSOCIATES DEGREE FROM A COLLEGE. NOTHING, EXCEPT THE
STATEMENT THAT THE LITERACY RATE THERE IS 97% FOR MEN AND 96% FOR WOMEN. ON THE
ONE COLLEGE IN THE NORTHERN MARIANAS, SEE THE WIKIPEDIA’S ARTICLE AND THAT FROM
EDUCATION.STATEUNIVERSITY.COM, AS WELL. THAT ARTICLE MENTIONS WHAT WE
COMMONLY CALL “SWEAT SHOPS” AS HAVING BEEN A PROBLEM THERE. THE MANUFACTURERS
PAID A FINE, BUT THE ARTICLE DOESN’T SAY THAT THE SHOPS WERE CLOSED OR
REGULATED MORE CLOSELY. CYNICALLY, I WONDER ABOUT THAT.
BASIC DATA
Official
Country Name: Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands
Region: Oceania
Population: 71,912
Language(s): English,
Chamorro, Carolinian
Literacy Rate: 97%
. . . . Numerous programs are offered by the public
school system, such as the provision of childcare for 190 families (380
children) whose parents are in school; bilingual education; and Head Start for
children under six years of age. The country uses the Stanford Achievement Test
9 (SAT9) as their form of student assessment.
The
Commonwealth has one postsecondary institution, Northern Mariana College, that
offers programs such as associate of arts or science; adult, vocational, and
continuing education; and professional development. For further studies
students go to the University of Guam or the University of Hawaii.
CNMI faces
three main issues to resolve: a 14 percent unemployment rate, an
immigration problem, and reports of industrial worker abuse. A report from
the U.S. Congress in 1998 estimates that there are at least 10,000 illegal
aliens in the Commonwealth. Additionally, in 1999 several American clothing
makers agreed to pay some $1.25 million as a settlement on behalf of more than
50,000 workers forced to work in undesirable conditions. Part of this
settlement fund goes to an education campaign to create awareness for better
work conditions.
TWO THINGS
STAND OUT TO ME. FIRST, THE HIGHEST INCOME RANKINGS THERE ARE FAR LOWER THAN
WHAT MUST BE A COMPARABLE STATUS IN THIS COUNTRY, UNLESS THERE ARE VERY FEW TRAINED
PROFESSIONALS IN THE POPULATION, SO THAT THE WHOLE STANDARD OF LIFE IS CONSIDERABLY LOWER. THE
LOWEST AVERAGE INCOMES ARE FROM VILLAGE #23, AND VERY SIMILAR TO THOSE OF THE POOR IN THE
USA. THEY HAVE A LOW INCOME IN GENERAL, THOUGH, SO THE GAP IN WEALTH THERE IS NOT SO
SEVERE AS WHAT WE HAVE HERE, AT LEAST ACCORDING TO THE STATISTICS I HAVE FOUND.
THE COST OF
LIVING ALSO LOOKS SIMILAR, FROM THE FOLLOWING LISTING IN THE SOURCE FROM
CARSSAIPAN.COM; BUT THE QUALITY OF HOUSING IS PROBABLY POOR, AND THE ADVANTAGES
LIKE A COMPUTER AND INTERNET SERVICE ARE UNDOUBTEDLY ACCESSED ONLY BY PEOPLE OF THE UPPER
INCOME RANGES. FOR SOME COMPARISONS, SEE: https://www.carssaipan.com/living-in-saipan/.
INCOMES
COMPARED IN WIKIPEDIA
List of
Northern Mariana Islands locations by per capita income
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
This is a list
of Northern Mariana Islands locations by per capita income. In the 2010 U.S.
Census, the Northern Mariana Islands had a per capita income of $9,656 — the
2nd-lowest per capita income of any state or territory in the United States
(only American Samoa had a lower per capita income).[1] In the 2010 U.S.
Census, the Northern Mariana Islands had a median household income of $19,958 —
the 2nd-lowest of any state or territory the United States (higher only than
Puerto Rico's median household income).[1]
Note: The
Northern Mariana Islands does not have counties. The U.S. Census Bureau counts the
4 municipalities of the Northern Mariana Islands as county-equivalents. . . . .
WHO ARE THE
MARIANA ISLANDERS?
Mariana Islands
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
The Mariana
Islands (/ˌmæriˈɑːnə/; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: Manislan Mariånas) are a
crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen mostly dormant
volcanic mountains in the western North Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and
21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east. They lie
south-southeast of Japan, west-southwest of Hawaii, north of New Guinea and
east of the Philippines, demarcating the Philippine Sea's eastern limit. They
are found in the northern part of the western Oceanic sub-region of Micronesia,
and are politically divided into two jurisdictions of the United States: the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and, at the southern end of the
chain, the territory of Guam. The islands were named after the influential
Spanish queen Mariana of Austria following their colonization in the 17th
century.
Spanish
navigators, beginning with Magellan in the early 16th century, were the first
Europeans to arrive; eventually Spain annexed and colonized the archipelago,
establishing their capital on the largest island, Guam. The Marianas were the
first islands Magellan encountered after traversing the Pacific from the
southern tip of South America, and the fruits found there helped save the
survivors from scurvy, which had already killed dozens of crewmembers.
The indigenous
inhabitants are the Chamorro people. Archaeologists in 2013 reported findings
which indicated that the people who first settled the Marianas arrived there
after making what may have been at the time the longest uninterrupted ocean
voyage in human history. They further reported findings which suggested that
Tinian is likely to have been the first island in Oceania to have been settled
by humans.[1]
. . . . Archeological studies of human activity on
the islands has revealed potteries with red-slipped, circle- and
punctate-stamped designs found in the Mariana Islands dating between 1500 and
1400 BC. These artifacts show similar aesthetics to pottery found in Northern
and Central Philippines, the Nagsabaran (Cagayan valley) pottery, which
flourished during the period between 2000 and 1300 BC.[4]
Spanish
exploration and control
[ARTIST’S
RENDITION, CAPTION: Reception of the Manila Galleon by the Chamorro in the
Ladrones Islands, ca. 1590 Boxer Codex]
The first
Europeans to see the island group were a Spanish expedition, who on March 6,
1521, observed a string of islands and sailed between two of them during a
Spanish expedition of world circumnavigation under the command of Ferdinand
Magellan. . . . .
The Marianas
remained a Spanish colony under the general government of the Philippines until
1898, when, as a result of its loss in the Spanish–American War, Spain ceded
Guam to the United States. Guam has retained a different political character
from the Northern Marianas since this time. Following the Philippine–American
War, Apolinario Mabini and other Filipino leaders were exiled to Guam in
1901.[13]:vi
Weakened from
its defeat in the Spanish–American War, Spain could no longer effectively
control and protect the nearly 6,000 islands it retained throughout Micronesia,
including the Northern Marianas, Carolines and Pelew Islands. Therefore, Spain
entered into the German-Spanish Treaty of February 12, 1899 to sell the
Northern Marianas and its other remaining islands to Germany for 837,500 German
gold marks (about $4,100,000 at the time). The Northern Marianas and other
island groups were incorporated by Germany as a small part of the larger German
Protectorate of New Guinea. The total population in the Northern Marianas
portion of these islands was only 2,646 inhabitants around this time, with the
ten most northerly islands being actively volcanic and thus mostly uninhabited.
Japan, allied
with the Entente Powers during World War I, seized all of Germany's colonial
possessions in East Asia and Micronesia, including the Northern Mariana
Islands, and held them through the end of the War. Under the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was stripped of all her colonies
worldwide, including the Palau, Caroline, Northern Mariana and Marshall
Islands. By international agreement, these were all placed into trusteeship
under the management of League of Nations which assigned them to Japan as the
Class C South Seas Mandate. During this time, Japan used some of the islands
for sugarcane production, modestly increasing the population of a few of the
islands.
World War II
A U.S. Marine
talks a terrified Chamorro woman and her children into abandoning their refuge.
Battle of Saipan, 1944.
The island
chain saw significant fighting during World War II. Guam, a possession of the
United States since 1898, was captured by Japan in an attack from the Northern
Mariana Islands that began on the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
(December 8, 1941, the same time as the Pearl Harbor attack across the
international dateline). In 1944, the United States captured the Mariana
Islands chain from Japan: . . . .
CHAMORRO
LANGUAGE ALMOST EXTINCT
Chamorro
language
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
Chamorro (/tʃəˈmɒroʊ/)[3]
(Chamorro: Finu' Chamoru) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 58,000
people (about 25,800 people on Guam and about 32,200 in the rest of the Mariana
Islands and elsewhere).[4] It is the native and spoken language of the Chamorro
people, who are the indigenous people of the Marianas (Guam and the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, both US territories).
Speakers
"Hafa
Adai" sign at Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport in Guam
The Chamorro
language is threatened, with a precipitous drop in language fluency over the
past century. It is estimated that 75% of the population of Guam was literate
in the Chamorro language around the time the United States captured the island
during the Spanish–American War[5] (there are no similar language fluency
estimates for other areas of the Mariana Islands during this time). A century
later, the 2000 U.S. Census showed that fewer than 20% of Chamorros living in
Guam speak their heritage language fluently, and the vast majority of those
were over the age of 55.
. . . .
In Guam, the
language suffered additional suppression when the U.S. government banned the
Chamorro language in schools in 1922. They collected and burned all Chamorro
dictionaries.[6] Similar policies were undertaken by the Japanese government
when they controlled the region during World War II. After World War II, when
Guam was ceded back to the United States, the American administrators of the
island continued to impose “no Chamorro” language restrictions in local
schools, teaching only English and disciplining students for speaking their
indigenous tongue.[7]
Even though
these oppressive language policies were progressively lifted, Chamorro usage
had substantially decreased. Subsequent generations were often raised in
households where only the oldest family members were fluent. Lack of exposure
made it increasingly difficult to pick up Chamorro as a second language. Within
a few generations, English replaced Chamorro as the language of daily
life.[citation needed]
. . . .
Revitalization
efforts
Representatives
from Guam have unsuccessfully lobbied the United States to take action to
promote and protect the language.[citation needed]
In 2013,
"Guam will be instituting Public Law 31-45, which increases the teaching
of the Chamorro language and culture in Guam schools," extending
instruction to include grades 7–10.[10]
Other efforts
have been made in recent times, most notably Chamorro immersion schools. One
example is the Huråo Guåhan Academy, at the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña, GU.
This program is led by Ann Marie Arceo and her husband, Ray Arceo. According to
Huråo's official YouTube page, "Huråo Academy is one if not the first
Chamoru Immersion Schools that focus on the teaching of Chamoru language and
Self-identity on Guam. Huråo was founded as a non-profit in June 2005."
[11] The academy has been praised by many for the continuity of the Chamoru
language.
. . . .
Classification
Unlike most of
its neighbors, Chamorro is not classified as a Micronesian or Polynesian
language. Rather, like Palauan, it possibly constitutes an independent branch
of the Malayo-Polynesian language family.[16][17]
At the time the
Spanish rule over Guam ended, it was thought that Chamorro was a semi-Creole
language, with a substantial amount of the vocabulary of Spanish origin and
beginning to have a high level of mutual intelligibility with Spanish. It is
reported that even in the early 1920s Spanish was reported to be a living
language in Guam for commercial transactions, but the use of Spanish and
Chamorro was rapidly declining as a result of English pressure. . . . .
DNA STUDIES ON
THE CHAMORROS ORIGINS
Expert:
Chamorros originated from Southeast Asia
By Jon Perez |
Posted on Jan 25 2016
Tag: DNA,
people, Philippines, Southeast Asian
Molecular
anthropologist Dr. Miguel Vilar’s recent studies on the origin of the ancient
Chamorro people revealed that they originated from parts of Southeast Asia,
particularly in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Vilar, National
Geographic Society’s project manager for the Genographic project, was on Saipan
for a one-night lecture on “Researching the Origins and Genetic Distinctiveness
of the Chamorros: A Bi-Parental Analyses.”
The former
University of Pennsylvania post-doctoral research fellow based his analyses
after getting DNA samples from 122 Chamorros from Guam, Rota, and Saipan in
2013. His study showed that the Chamorro people’s origins could be traced to
Indonesia and the Philippines.
Results reveal
that 92 percent of Chamorros belong to haplogroup E, which is found in both
Southeast Asian countries but is rare in Oceania. A haplogroup is a genetic
population of a group of people who share a common ancestor on the paternal or
maternal lineages.
Vilar, who is
tracing the connection of the Chamorro people to modern day Indonesia and the
Philippines, told Saipan Tribune that this could be part of the Austronesian
migration and expansion that occurred thousands of years ago.
“It was really
fascinating to learn that these people were expert seafarers. They managed to
find the [Marianas] islands just by looking at the stars, studying wind
conditions and direction of the waves,” said Vilar. “It was a great feat and
they truly are amazing people who discovered the small islands here in
Micronesia.”
“We have to dig
deeper on this and break down the components to understand more. We need to do
more research and work on this,” said Vilar after his almost two-hour lecture
that was presented by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council and attended by
close to 100 people.
Filipino DNA
further surfaced with the Philippines and the Marianas—Guam and the CNMI—being
under Spanish colonial rule for hundreds of years. The Mariana Islands is the
usual stop of Spanish Galleons going back to Spain by way of Mexico.
He said that in
Guam alone five of the participants in 2013 showed they had Philippine lineage.
“This is mainly
because of colonization. Filipino men integrated with Chamorro women.”
Vilar said that
bones and other sources of DNA should be preserved especially in tropical
islands where heat is one factor that destroys remains of people.
“As technology
in identifying and tracing DNA further advances we need to preserve remains of
ancient people. We don’t want to lose these evidences because of outside
forces.”
Jon Perez |
Reporter
Jon Perez began
his writing career as a sports reporter in the Philippines where he has covered
local and international events. He became a news writer when he joined media
network ABS-CBN. He joined the weekly DAWN, University of the East’s student
newspaper, while in college.
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