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Guam: The America that Americans forget

nytimes.com

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Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget

#91

Post by Aerbil313 »

r24y wrote: post #54
wayne wrote: post #25

The article touches a little on flight costs, but as someone who'd love to visit sometime and never has, it annoys me how flights to Guam work. Given its location most airlines don't fly direct from the mainland, so many flights to Guam are from Asia. But, you can't buy a ticket from the US with a layover in Japan from JAL or with a layover in Korea from Korean Air because any flight with a US origin to a US destinat…

Flight costs are a pain, and the flight durations are nothing to sneeze at either. I live out in Guam (my wife is stationed here with the Navy) and the two most common ways to get back to the mainland are via Tokyo (Narita) and Honolulu. I would definitely encourage visiting if you have the means! I find there are two types of people here: those who feel limited by the island and its infrastructure (no Target, no Sta…

> those who feel limited by the island and its infrastructure (no Target, no Starbucks, etc.)

I hate those people. I live in a city of 1.5 million (there's everything here), and it's a constant background radiation talking point for a significant number of my highschool friends: how unfortunate they are that they don't live in the nearby city of 15 million. IME this constant moping has everything to do with the amount of social media one consumes daily.

Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget

#92

Post by justahuman74 »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #74
anonym29 wrote: post #69

No taxation without representation. Stop charging the inhabitants for any and all U.S. taxes. Hell, decolonize and let them have their freedom and independence.

I doubt a majority of Guam residents want independence at this point. Being part of the US is economically useful, compared to being a small independent island. But yeah, statehood would solve the representation issue.

Could they join onto another state (Alaska? Hawaii?), Guam's population is very low to have a full 2 senators

Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget

#94

Post by metaphor »

Maleffa yu ni kostumbren taotao tano, kon todo i lengguahe; mampos Amerikanon pao asu yu pago...and yet any way I looked at it---whether as an ethnic native of the Marianas who grew up with wideband exposure to what definitely seemed like a pronounced bimodal economic distribution; or as a veteran who eagerly and proudly served for a decade; or as an assimilated American who benefits from the resources and opportunities the mainland has to offer---this article managed to stir up some deeply repressed emotions that brutally ripped my heart into three.

Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget

#95

Post by jlmorton »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #87
jlmorton wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because any flight with a US origin to a US destination can only be sold by a US carrier. That's not exactly true. It just requires the USA and the other country to have negotiated a Fifth Freedom agreement. There are lots of foreign-owned airlines flying from the US with layovers and stopovers in other countries. For instance, I recently flew JFK->FRA->SIN on Singapore Airlines. And United even operates their Isla…

I think you misunderstood. They said US->US destination has to be operated by a us carrier. JFK->FRA->SIN doesn’t have a US designation and United is a US carrier.

Nevertheless, notice the other example I gave is a United flight originating in Honolulu, Hawaii, transiting Micronesia, and ending in Guam.

It’s the same rule.

Re: Guam: The America that Americans forget

#100

Post by TulliusCicero »

justahuman74 wrote: post #92
TulliusCicero wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt a majority of Guam residents want independence at this point. Being part of the US is economically useful, compared to being a small independent island. But yeah, statehood would solve the representation issue.

Could they join onto another state (Alaska? Hawaii?), Guam's population is very low to have a full 2 senators

That doesn't really matter. Alaska had a little over 200k people when it became a state in 1959. Wyoming these days has what, 600k people?

Like yeah, the Senate's disproportionate representation is dumb and bad, but that's the system we're stuck with.

And Guam is farther from Hawaii than Hawaii is from the US mainland IIRC.

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