Friday, January 22, 2016

Visit Guam


Visit Guam


Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States. Located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, Guam is one of five American territories with an established civilian government. The island's capital city is Hagåtña. Guam is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands, and the largest island in Micronesia. Visit Guam 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbdf84faVIE[/embed]



Guam is amongst the seventeen Non-Self-Governing Territories of the United Nations.
The Chamorros, Guam's indigenous people, first arrived on the island approximately 4,000 years ago.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hndXHn1dan8[/embed]

Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellandiscovered the island on March 6, 1521. Guam was colonized in 1668 with settlers, like Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Catholic missionary. Between the 1500s and the 1700s, Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons. During the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam on June 21, 1898. Under the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded Guam to the United States on December 10, 1898.
Before World War II, Guam and Hawaii were the only American territories in the Pacific Ocean.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941,Guam was captured by the Japanese, and was occupied for thirty months. During the occupation, Guamanians were subjected to culture alignment, forced labor, beheadings, rape, and torture. Guam endured hostilities when American forces recaptured the island on July 21, 1944; Liberation Daycommemorates the victory. Since the 1960s, the economy is supported by two industries, tourism and the United States Armed Forces.

Guam lies between 13.2°N and 13.7°N and between 144.6°E and 145.0°E, and has an area of 212 square miles (549 km2), making it the 32nd largest island of the United States. It is the southernmost and largest island in the Mariana island chain and is also the largest island in Micronesia. This island chain was created by the colliding Pacific and Philippine Sea tectonic plates. Guam is the closest land mass to the Mariana Trench, a deep subduction zone, that lies beside the island chain to the east. Challenger Deep, the deepest surveyed point in the Oceans, is southwest of Guam at 35,797 feet (10,911 meters) deep. The highest point in Guam is Mount Lamlam at an elevation of 1,334 feet (407 meters).
The island of Guam is 30 miles (50 km) long and 4 to 12 miles (6 to 19 km) wide, 3/4 the size of Singapore. The island experiences occasional earthquakes due to its location on the western edge of the Pacific Plate and near the Philippine Sea Plate. In recent years, earthquakes with epicenters near Guam have had magnitudes ranging from 5.0 to 8.7. Unlike the Anatahan volcano in the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam is not volcanically active. However, due to its proximity to Anatahan, vog (i.e. volcanic smog) does occasionally affect Guam.
A coral table reef surrounds most of Guam, and the limestone plateau provide the source for most of the island's fresh water. Steep coastal cliffs dominate the north, while the southern end of the island is mountainous, with lower hills in between.
Based on a 2010 estimate, the largest ethnic group are the native Chamorros, accounting for 37.3% of the total population. Other significant ethnic groups include those of Filipino(26.3%), White (7.1%), and Chuukese (7%) ethnicities. The rest are from other Pacific Islands or of Asian ancestry. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion, with 85% of the population stating an affiliation with it. A small Jewish community exists as well.
The official languages of the island are English and Chamorro.
Post-European-contact Chamorro culture is a combination of American, Spanish, Filipino, other Micronesian Islander and Mexican traditions, with few remaining indigenous pre-Hispanic customs. These influences are manifested in the local language, music, dance, sea navigation, cuisine, fishing, games (such as batu, chonka, estuleks, and bayogu), songs and fashion. During Spanish colonial rule (1668–1898) the majority of the population was converted to Roman Catholicismand religious festivities such as Easter and Christmas became widespread.

Post-contact Chamorro cuisine is largely based on corn, and includes tortillas, tamales, atole and chilaquiles, which are a clear influence from Spanish trade between Mesoamerica and Asia. The modern Chamorro language is a Malayo-Polynesian language with much Spanish and Filipino influence. Many Chamorros also have Spanish surnames because of their conversion to Roman Catholic Christianity and the adoption of names from the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos, a phenomenon also common to the Philippines.
Due to foreign cultural influence from Spain, most aspects of the early indigenous culture have been lost, though there has been a resurgence in preserving any remaining pre-Hispanic culture in the last few decades. Some scholars have traveled throughout the Pacific Islands conducting research to study what the original Chamorro cultural practices such as dance, language, and canoe building may have been like.
Two aspects of indigenous pre-Hispanic culture that withstood time are chenchule' and inafa'maolek. Chenchule' is the intricate system of reciprocity at the heart of Chamorro society. It is rooted in the core value of inafa'maolek. Historian Lawrence Cunningham in 1992 wrote, "In a Chamorro sense, the land and its produce belong to everyone. Inafa'maolek, or interdependence, is the key, or central value, in Chamorro culture ... Inafa'maolek depends on a spirit of cooperation and sharing. This is the armature, or core, that everything in Chamorro culture revolves around. It is a powerful concern for mutuality rather than individualism and private property rights."
The core culture or Pengngan Chamorro is based on complex social protocol centered upon respect: From sniffing over the hands of the elders (called mangnginge in Chamorro), the passing down of legends, chants, and courtship rituals, to a person asking for permission from spiritual ancestors before entering a jungle or ancient battle grounds. Other practices predating Spanish conquest include galaide' canoe-making, making of the belembaotuyan (a string musical instrument made from a gourd), fashioning of åcho' atupat slings and slingstones, tool manufacture, Måtan Guma' burial rituals, and preparation of herbal medicines by Suruhanu.
Master craftsmen and women specialize in weavings, including plaited work (niyok- and åkgak-leaf baskets, mats, bags, hats, and food containments), loom-woven material (kalachucha-hibiscus and banana fiber skirts, belts and burial shrouds), and body ornamentation (bead and shell necklaces, bracelets, earrings, belts and combs made from tortoise shells) and Spondylus.
The cosmopolitan and multicultural nature of modern Guam poses challenges for Chamorros struggling to preserve their culture and identity amidst forces of acculturation. The increasing numbers of Chamorros, especially Chamorro youth, relocating to the U.S. Mainland has further complicated both definition and preservation of Chamorro identity. While only a few masters exist to continue traditional art forms, the resurgence of interest among the Chamorros to preserve the language and culture has resulted in a growing number of young Chamorros who seek to continue the ancient ways of the Chamorro people.
Believed to be a stowaway on a U.S. military transport near the end of World War II, the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) was accidentally introduced to Guam, that previously had no native species of snake. It nearly eliminated the native bird population. The problem was exacerbated because the reptile has no natural predators on the island. The brown tree snake, known locally as the kulebla, is native to northern and eastern coasts of Australia, Papua New Guinea, and theSolomon Islands. While slightly venomous, the snake is relatively harmless to human beings.

Although some studies have suggested a high density of these serpents on Guam, residents rarely see the nocturnal creatures. The United States Department of Agriculture has trained detector dogs to keep the snakes out of the island's cargo flow. The United States Geological Survey also has dogs capable of detecting snakes in forested environments around the region's islands. Visit Guam
Before the introduction of the brown tree snake, Guam was home to several endemic bird species. Among them were the Guam rail (or ko'ko' bird in Chamorro) and the Guam flycatcher, both common throughout the island. Today the flycatcher is entirely extinct while the Guam rail is extinct in the wild but bred in captivity by the Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources. The devastation caused by the snake has been significant over the past several decades. As many as twelve bird species are believed to have been driven to extinction. According to many elders, ko'ko' birds were common in Guam before World War II. Visit Guam
Other bird species threatened by the brown tree snake include the Mariana crow, the Mariana swiftlet, and the Micronesian starling, though populations are present on other islands, including Rota.
Guam is said to have 40 times more spiders than neighboring islands because the number of birds, their natural predators, are severely diminished. Visit Guam
An infestation of the coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB), Oryctes rhinoceros, was detected on Guam on September 12, 2007. CRB is not known to occur in the United States except in American Samoa. Delimiting surveys performed September 13–25, 2007 indicated that the infestation was limited to Tumon Bay and Faifai Beach, an area of approximately 900 acres (3.6 km2). Guam Department of Agriculture (GDA) placed quarantine on all properties within the Tumon area on October 5 and later expanded the quarantine to about 2,500 acres (10 km2) on October 25; approximately 0.5 miles (800 m) radius in all directions from all known locations of CRB infestation. Visit Guam

CRB is native to Southern Asia and distributed throughout Asia and the Western Pacific including Sri Lanka, Upolu, Samoa, American Samoa, Palau,New Britain, West Irian, New Ireland, Pak Island and Manus Island (New Guinea), Fiji, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Mauritius, andReunion. Visit Guam
Wildfires plague the forested areas of Guam every dry season despite the island's humid climate. Most fires are man-caused with 80% resulting from arson. Visit Guam

Poachers often start fires to attract deer to the new growth. Invasive grass species that rely on fire as part of their natural life cycle grow in many regularly burned areas. Grasslands and "barrens" have replaced previously forested areas leading to greater soil erosion. During the rainy season sediment is carried by the heavy rains into the Fena Lake Reservoir and Ugum River, leading to water quality problems for southern Guam. Eroded silt also destroys the marine life in reefs around the island. Soil stabilization efforts by volunteers and forestry workers (planting trees) have had little success in preserving natural habitats. Visit Guam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

No comments:

Post a Comment