Guam Blog

Guam voting now

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:34:00 +0000

It's 8 p.m. on the East Coast and the polls will close on Guam at 5 a.m. EST .

Guam is known as the place "Where America's Day Begins."

It's the first U.S. location to actually have voting on election day . It should be the first place to report results.

In the Democratic primary in May, Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton by seven votes.

If you are visiting this blog in search of Guam election news, see the media links to the right column. (Scroll down a little).

Also, for good things to read, check out my other blog, JapaneseWriters.com

And to find out what people in DC think, check out DCBlogs.com

Shameless plugs!

Guam tourism is not facing a crisis

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:07:00 +0000

The recent story in the Pacific Daily News about layoffs at DFS is not good news, obviously, but the story suggests this decline in tourism underpinning the layoffs will be longterm. Pessimism always seems the greatest at the onset of a problem, but I don’t think this conclusion is warranted.

The economic downturn will pass, especially on Guam which will get a big stimulus from the military build-up. Even if Japanese tourism is declining as that population ages, I suspect there’s a lot of untapped interest in Guam.

When I first came to Guam in the mid-1970s, visitors from Japan were the mainstay of Guam’s tourism economy. There were Korean tourists, but not as many as I saw in subsequent visits years later.

Japan is one of the world’s largest economies with a high standard of living and Guam is a relatively short flight. As the Korean economy picked up, more people from that country discovered Guam as a vacation destination.

Present problems aside, the economies in the rest of Asia are expanding and I believe Guam’s potential to draw more vacationers from China, Philippines and elsewhere will only increase.

What’s Guam’s strategy for expanding its ability to draw tourists from other places in Asia?

The big issue is gambling. The DSF layoffs may help convince people to approve a plan to legalize gambling at Guam Greyhound Park, essentially turning it into a giant casino. That will boost tourism and create jobs, no question, but it will also fundamentally change the island by introducing many new ills and problems. It’s amazing how quickly you can loose so much. Little good comes from gambling.

The Japanese tourists have been coming to Guam for decades for its beauty, not gambling. That hasn’t changed. Gambling may increase tourism but it will extract a heavy price as well.

But the person who said it best, was Gov. Felix Camacho. He is urging voters to vote “no” on this plan. Excerpts from the PDN report:

“I believe with all my heart that this measure, if allowed to pass, will bring nothing but devastation and destruction to our great island, our close-knit community and, most importantly, to our families and future generations,” Camacho said. “Make no mistake about it. Casino gambling will strip our people of the core values of commitment to faith and, to family. Children will be hurt, marriages ruined, homes lost. Our people will be torn apart.”

Guam: Paradise Found

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:47:00 +0000

Barron's, the financial news publication, has included Guam on a short-list of great places to live, especially in terms of the cost of housing.

Here's the story kicker:

Retirement: Bulletproof Your Portfolio -- U.S. territories like Guam and American Samoa may not be high on your list of retirement havens, but they're well worth a look. Finding oceanfront bargains.

Although the story is aimed at people who want to retire, I also believe that Guam, Micronesia and points in Pacific, can be attractive to knowledge workers, people who can work independent of any office.

As the article points out:

Guam is also much cheaper than Hawaii, and not as isolated as you might think. Though it is seven hours from Hawaii, good short-haul airlines make it easy to reach Japan, the Philippines or China. The big worry in Guam is weather; the island sits in the western Pacific's typhoon zone. In the past decade, it's been hit by two super-typhoons.

Yes, the typhoons can interrupt work but they are relatively rare and the island is usually quick to recover. But the more important is Guam's proximity to Asian countries, which, in my mind, can make it very attractive to U.S. workers who want to be in relatively close range of Asian time zones.

As a counterpoint to the Barron's article, read Brad Boydston's thoughts on the idea of retiring on Guam. He loves the island, but as a place for retirement?

Posting for Stars and Stripes

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:02:00 +0000

In addition to writing about Guam here, I plan to post every now and then on Stars & Stripes Guam edition.

I read Stripes everyday when I was stationed on Guam -- a great publication.

Five things I like about Blogger

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:52:00 +0000

I just rehosted this guamblog.com from a Web hosting firm back to Blogger's free service. I didn't do this to save a little money, but because I wanted to try out Bloggers new "in draft" features. (In order to try out these new features your blog has to be hosted on Google's servers.)

Blogger uses a Typepad-like approach for assembling a sidebar in modular fashion. It's templates aren't anywhere as rich as Typepad. Three column layouts, for instance, aren't available.

Here are five things I like about Blogger's features.

1. Blog List. This allows you to create a live RSS feed on the fly. This is a very powerful feature. It displays a blog's most recent post and gives options on the display. This makes it really easy to add as well as cull dead links, and may encourage readers to visit you blog link list. I haven't found one widget provider that can support multiple blogs in a feed as well as Blogger has. Although the Blog List is designed for Blogger only, The Learning Moveable Type Blog has instructions on how to adopt it for use on other blogging platforms.

2. Link List. Instead of opening up the page template and doing a lot of cut and paste and alphabetizing of links, the link list interface does it for you.

3. The layout. As with Typepad, you can rearrange the gadget modules drag and drop. Blogger also allows you to put the gadgets in the main post column. (I haven't really explored how that works with the blog posts, but I plan to).

4. HTML/JavaScript Gadget. You can take third party widgets and tools, such as sitemeter and add them to your blog.

5. Text. This gadget feature allows you offer a personalized introduction.

There are other things I like about Bloggers new features. It would be nice, however, if they could extend support for people who are using custom domains on Web hosting sites.

Some changes I've made: Many people find this blog through search engine look-ups, so I've included some link list on the side to help people who come here find some key sources of information about the island.

Guam's economic boom?

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:11:00 +0000

Regardless of how you feel about Guam's military build-up, it could not have come at a better time.

The economic situation on the mainland is going from bad to grim, it seems.

Although it's not official, the recession is apparent. Housing prices in some areas are already half of what they were two years ago. That's mostly in areas outside the main cities. Unemployment is rising. Everybody I know is nervous and cutting back.

To just see how bad housing is, check out the "Top Discounts" list to the right on the Northern Virginia Housing Bubble Fallout blog. Most of those communities are at least an hour from downtown DC, and most vulnerable.

In contrast, Guam is about to get a $15 billion investment in new military-related construction as a result of the build-up. This will create a lot of jobs and demand for services.

This is an island of only 176,000 people. When the build-up is completed, the island's population may well be over 200,000 -- a very large jump. Some 8,000 Marines and 10,000 dependents are expected and there will certainly be large numbers of civilian workers added as well.

This build-up will certainly help Guam's unemployment rate, which was at 6% in May up from 5% the same period last year, from 6,863 to 8,487 workers.

With all these new people, I don't think Guam's housing prices will tumble like the mainland and it should be easier to find jobs in everything from construction to restaurants.

The negative may be an investor driven push on housing prices that may push those prices well above incomes. This could put housing increasingly out-of-reach for young people, prompting some to leave for the mainland for more affordable housing, assuming they can find a job. It’s already difficult for Guam to hold on to its young men and women, and it would be ironic if a boom makes it even more difficult.

Regardless, Guam should be relatively insulated from the impact of the downturn. The build-up is a huge economic stimulus. Assuming my math isn’t seriously messed up, the U.S. will spend approximately $85,000 for every man, woman and child living on Guam as a result of the build-up. That's a a lot better than the $600 economic stimulus check. That’s going to have a huge impact. But everything has its downside. The housing bubble created a lot of wealth for people who knew when to buy and when to sell. Most didn't, apparently. The long-term affec t of the military build-up on the culture, environment and the cost of living on Guam, is another question all together.

Guam and visas

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:10:00 +0000

The military build up on Guam has an interesting twist to it, namely the exemption from visa limits.

I wrote this take on it for Computerworld.

My conclusion is that the cap exemption won't have much impact on Guam -- at least in terms of becoming an alternative work location by U.S. firms that can't get a H-1B visa in the U.S.

Any person on Guam will be working remotely. But on a broader point, I really do think that Guam could be an attractive location for some workers, especially writers and other content producers, who want to be in the U.S. but work in a time zone that is friendly to late shift work. And work on a tropical island as well ....

Guam covers its political bet

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:09:00 +0000

I still can't get over how close the Guam Democratic primary was. Barack Obama won by seven votes -- seven votes -- over Hillary Clinton.

The Guam vote may represent the broader division. Its voter split forecasted this Tuesday's divide, with Obama winning North Carolina and Clinton, Indiana.

Did Guam gain from this contest? If national news coverage counts for something, then, yes, Guam did get something. But beyond that ...

Maybe the split in the vote was the best possible result for Guam. It wasn't much of a victory for Obama or a loss for Clinton. A recount may (and one is being sought) change the primary result, but not its impact. But by dividing its vote between the two candidates, Guam may have covered its political bet if a Democrat wins in November.

The Guam primary

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:08:00 +0000

The New York Times calls the Guam Democratic primary on May 3rd., the island's "moment in the sun." (Subscription required) This may be true but will it matter?

The NYT reports:

With four delegates up for grabs in caucuses on May 3, Guam is a player in the Democratic primaries for the first time. Though island residents cannot vote in the general election, they can help choose a presidential nominee. In fact, Guamanians need not be registered voters to participate.

This strikes me as a huge opportunity for Guam to draw attention to its political status as well as push Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for changes. The candidates can't campaign for support without responding to local concerns.

Today, Guam is represented in Congress by a non-voting delegate. It is marginalized politically because it has no political power. The Democrat primary is an opportunity for the people of this island to tell the country what Guam is about.

***
Note:

Guam is some 14 hours ahead of the East Coast. Which means when it is Saturday, May 3rd at 7 p.m. on Gaum, it will be 5 a.m. on Saturday, May 3rd in Washington. See: Guam Time Converter

Guam housing, and dream housing

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:08:00 +0000

I sometimes wonder what make the perfect home on Guam. I wouldn’t call these dream houses but I would look at them, if price were no object.

Here’s a nice house for $525,000. I like the idea of the swimming pool right outside.

I’m not crazy about the color of this house and the kitchen seems a little out of date for a house costing $630,000. But the balconies look awesome. Still partial to the swimming pool house.

I would probably buy a condo – although having a little yard may be a must. This Tamuning condo, 9th floor, is $380,000 and has 24 hour security, so I suspect the condo fee is probably a little on the high side. But if I was prepared to spend this much on a condo, a house may be a better option. The major plus on a condo is less concern about it when traveling.

This condo is worth a loo k. It’s a two bedroom in Tumon. At 742 square feet one of those bedrooms must be small. But $105,000? Let’s say you get 100% financing at 6.5% – the principal and interest will be $663. Taxes probably add another $200, so now its $883. You’ll need PMI which and I’ll use a high estimate of $100, which increases the monthly total to $983. I’ll have to guess at the condo fee. It's probably somewhere between $100 and $300, so I'll add $150 to the monthly bill. The total monthly cost of owning: $1,133. That is very comparable to a rent, and considering the military build up and demand in housing certain to follow, something in this price range has the potential of being a very good deal and a safe investment.

If I wanted to stay in that price range, I might be tempted to consider this property on the southern side in Inarajan. It’s plain, but was built in 1993, has car port seems to have a decent amount of land. At $129,000 it seems as if it's priced to sell.

Brown Tree Snake at National Zoo

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:07:00 +0000

This is a very short clip, and not a terribly good one by me, of the Brown Tree Snake that lives in the Bird House at the National Zoo in Washington DC. There is a semi-screen between the display and snake. The snake is in the same display that is the home of the Guam Rail. The snake is in a much smaller cage inside bird's area. I've often wondered whether this set up created any anxiety for the bird.

The Naval Station's Club Mocambo

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:06:00 +0000

The Air Force Times has a story about how, beginning March 10, those under the age of 21 “to purchase, possess or consume alcohol on the Guam naval base.”

I did a double take when I read that and immediately thought it applied to those in those in the military. It doesn't, according too Lt. Donnell Evans, as reported by The Times:

“This change does not affect the ability of Navy personnel, employees or family members aged 18 to 20 to purchase, consume or possess alcohol off Navy property in accordance with the laws of Guam,” Evans said. “If sailors choose to drink, it is their duty to conduct themselves responsibly and within the bounds of Navy policy and local law.

When I was stationed on Guam, the Naval Station’s enlisted men’s club was called Club Mocambo. (Check out this matchbook cover). It has since been changed to Rumors – a name similar to a club in a suburban strip mall. Why did they ever change it?

Living off base, I use to make beer runs all the time to the base PX for local families. Beer cost far less than local stores and it was one way of showing gratitude for all the wonderful events, cookouts and fiestas that I was invited to.

Club Mocambo was a decent enough place but it wasn’t my first choice in entertainment, in part because I lived off base for most of the nearly three years I was on island. But being in the Club Mocambo felt too much like being on the base, and in a place where men outnumbered women by maybe a ratio of 20- to-one. But it did have live music, bands from the Philippines, in particular, that would play rock standards (i.e. Stairway to Heaven), and visiting U.S. rock bands. I can't remember any notable names.

Given a choice, I preferred going out to local places, with the Tree Bar at the Hilton my all-time favorite, but there were other places as well. The Tree Bar was a little pricey but worth it for the location and chance to meet a broad mix of people.

Guam emerging as critical communications hub

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:06:00 +0000

News reports about Guam getting a data center prompted me to contact GTA TeleGuam for a story. The story Dan Moffat, the CEO, shared was very interesting. The increasing reliance on the Internet and all it brings is also increasing demand for undersea cables. This makes Guam one of the most connected places on the planet. I wonder how this will shape the perception of Guam both as a place to live, work and vacation.

Guam and camping?

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:04:00 +0000

Among the best memories I have of growing up were the camping trips I took with my parents. We went to Hapgood, part of the Green Mountain National Forest in Peru, Vermont. It was small campground, perhaps 20 sites as I remember it, a pond and wonderful trails. Camping was a major part of growing up, so it was with some surprise to read that attendance at national parks is in decline.

Reuters: Americans spend less time on nature activities: study. Excerpt: "The average person in America used to go to the national parks every year. It was the iconic American family vacation. Now, there are less people doing that," said Patricia Zaradic, a biologist with the Environmental Leadership Program, Delaware Valley, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

Here’s an abstract of it at the National Academy of Sciences. After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to U.S. National Parks have declined since 1987.

Where do parents take their children today?

Guam has a seamless connection with the outdoors. I lived outdoors, especially when I lived in a house on the island’s south side. The beach, snorkeling, boonie stomping were very important. But I never camped on Guam. Is camping a real option? I couldn’t find any campgrounds via an Internet search but there must be some.

Guam's military buildup makes page one in DC

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:03:00 +0000

I wasn’t crazy about this Washington Post story, Guam Braces for Peaceful Military Incursion. It appeared on page one of the newspaper on Jan. 25 and framed the island this way:

Although the island is typhoon-plagued and earthquake-prone, cursed with bad traffic, unable to cope with its own garbage and overrun with invasive tree snakes that have eaten nearly all the birds …

Yes, there are typhoons. But Guam recovers faster from these storms then the Washington DC area does from a foot of snow. Bad traffic? Compared to what? Washington DC’s beltway? And invasive tree snakes? Granted, the Brown Tree Snake is no plus but it’s largely invisible. I live in downtown DC and on any night – and I am not exaggerating – I will see rats running across the sidewalks. There’s a real rat problem in DC.

It’s easy to be unflattering but I understood the need to point out Guam’s landfill problems. In doing so, it draws attention to the need for money to deal with it and so far the island isn’t getting the commitment it needs from the federal government. But the story didn't have to overlook the island's beauty to make that point.

The story outlines the problem the build-up poses and also makes note of the heroic contributions that Guam’s residents have made.

All in all, the Marine move is giving many Guamanians -- an extraordinarily patriotic people who fight and die in U.S. wars at rates much higher than on the mainland -- a serious case of the jitters.

But I wish the story had also explained that this great sacrifice by some of the Guam’s finest young men and women has not earned it voting rights. The island doesn’t have political voice and is treated as a possession in every sense of the world. As one person who commented on the Post’s story wrote:

The story failed to mention "Guam’s inability to vote for president or that our Congressional Delegate is a non-voting member of the House of Representatives and that Guam also has no representation in the U.S. Senate - lacking a true voice for any kind of transfer or action taken to the island."

However, I do think this second story by the Washington Post, Guam's Young, Steeped in History, Line Up to Enlist, struck me as a sensitive portrait of the island’s military traditions and explained why many young men and women enlist.

[I don’t know how long this links will be good; sometimes after 14 days the stories may become inaccessible]

Work in Cambodia as a copy editor

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 19:03:00 +0000

I know there are a fair number of Cambodian ex-pats living on Guam. This job that sounds like a wonderful opportunity for someone with copy editing skills. A publication, The Cambodia Daily, is seeking several copy editors. The pay is only $10,000 a year, but it includes a place to live. It's an English language publication.

Guam news notes

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 18:01:00 +0000

Final Thoughts on Guam at the Everthing Everwhere Travel Blog. The writer reflects on his visit to Guam.

Is this part of the build-up: Outrigger Guam Resort is planning a 430-room hotel. The Outrigger is 600 rooms. Pacific Daily News

Guam Is Doomed If We Don't Wake Up. Will the increase military build-up increase the military threat to Guam as well? That's what this writer is arguing.

Guam's own shock and awe

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:00:00 +0000

The U.S. Department of Defense is getting ready to transfer 8000 marines and 9,000 family members from Okinawa to Guam. Add to that thousands of contractors, support personnel and you have the makings, of "a huge shock to our system ...." according to the testimony of Trina Leberer, marine conservation coordinator for the Micronesia Program of The Nature Conservancy.

Lebere's testimony was part of a hearing in August by the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, on the "U.S. Military Buildup on Guam and Challenges Facing the Community."

The testimony, in total, outlines the impact this build-up will have the enormous cost imposed to expand utilities, improve roads, and other services.

What follows are excerpts from some of the testimony.

Facilities must be constructed for the 8,000 Marines and 9,000 family members. It is anticipated that such construction will require 12,000 to 15,000 construction workers, with 75 percent of such workers coming from outside of Guam.

The increase in Guam’s population, by an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people or over 20 percent including military and family members, construction workers, and other public and private sector service providers, will create opportunities.

-- David Cohen, deputy assistant secretary, Dept. of Interior.

Our preference is to remain on land owned by the federal government, but at this stage we have not determined whether our requirements will fit on existing DoD lands.

-- David Brice, executive director for the Joint Guam Program Office, and the person responsible Department of Defense planning.

Guam’s population is expected to increase from 168,564 in 2005 to 180,692 in 2010, without factoring any increase to the local military population by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Government of Guam has estimated the costs to support the military buildup at an estimated $1.1. Billion dollars.

-- Felix Camacho, Guam governor

Our water and power systems are at near capacity; our roads are in need of repair; there is an immediate need to close Ordot dump and to open a new sanitary landfill, and our only civilian hospital has been struggling to meet the needs of the current population. Imagine the impact of additional military personnel and support staff and their families totaling 30,000 people on our ailing infrastructure.

-- Senator Judith T. Won Pat, minority leader, Guam Legislature

The increase of vehicle traffic throughout the island on the major roadways is definitely a concern by all motorists.

-- Melissa Savares, mayor of Dededo

... our people’s voice really do not count.

-- Hope Cristobal, University of Guam, adjunct professor who teaches the history of Guam.

The Districts are also recommending that the military buildup address the issue of alternative types of renewable energy generation such as bio energy, ocean wave energy, wind power and other sources of renewable energy as part of its buildup operations.

-- Benny P. San Nicolas, chairman of the Southern Soil & Water Conservation District

A majority (71%) of Guam residents polled support an increased military presence, 14% opposed, and 15% were either neutral (9%) or don’t know (6%).

-- Stephen Ruder, chairman, Guam Chamber of Commerce

For an island of only 212 square miles, this will be a huge shock to our system ....

-- Trina Leberer, marine conservation coordinator for the Micronesia Program of The Nature Conservancy.

Guam, blogs and newspapers

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:59:00 +0000

Jeff Jarvis, as astute observer of news media trends, is a regular read. He recently had a post about the New Jersey Star-Ledger and a forum it's created for local bloggers.

What the Star-Ledger is doing is something other newspapers should do as well, including on Guam. I responded to his post with this comment:

There is an ocean of stubborn, fearful and reluctant editors operating in newsrooms who see bloggers as a primary threat to their jobs. And if this is the only example of a newspaper doing anything like this, then it shows how rooted this fear is.

Editors probably have no idea just how many voices are at work in their communities — because it can be very difficult to map and locate them.

One problem, the main one, is that most editors are looking for bloggers who are writing about the same things covered by their reporters, and focus on those bloggers who make city desk sense: neighborhood writers; politics, real estate, crime, issue-of-the-day.

But most local bloggers write about the experience of living in a community, it is the work of people who, often enough, seek to understand and not just report. These writers are off the newsroom radars. Newspapers loose out their perspective because their definition of what constitutes community journalism is too narrow.

Many local blogging communities have created outlets for these writers. The Newark newspaper, from my perspective as a local blogger, is breaking no ground except, perhaps, in its industry.

Bloggers in my city, DC, have many outlets for reaching broad audiences independent of local newspapers.

This lack of attention by newspapers — to their own blogging readers — is one of the reasons why dynamic blogging communities are tuning newspapers out.

The Daily Newarker, I suspect, will gain traffic, loyalty and new readers by embracing some of its local talent. I wish them success because their city truly needs what these writers can bring.

Congress will hear about Guam's military build-up

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:58:00 +0000

I don’t recall what the military population was on Guam when I was stationed there in mid-1970s. But it wasn’t easy finding housing. I almost always lived off based in my nearly three years of living on the island. My favorite was a house on the island’s south side (and as hard as I try I can’t remember the street name). It was on a dead-end street and my neighbors were wonderful folks – always inviting us to parties and making us feel as if we were part of the family. We tried to return that favor as best as we could by buying supplies for them at the PX.

I also lived in one the downtown towers off Marine Drive, high up. Never really liked the location. Although it was technically urban, Guam isn't a pedestrian friendly place -- you need a car to go almost anyplace it seemed.

The pending military will impact rental housing on the island. It will probably make housing hard to find and expensive, much like it was during the 1970s. That will be a good thing for property owners generally, but for people who rent, and by this I mean the island's longtime residents, it may become a difficult issue. But the build-up will likely create new jobs, increase hotel occupancies, and travel generally to the island.

I don’t know yet who is testifying at a congressional hearing set for Aug. 13 at the University of Guam, but I’ll look forward to reading the testimony and expect it will offer a good synopsis of some of the challenges facing Guam. It’s being held by the Insular Affairs Subcommittee field hearing on "U.S. Military Buildup on Guam and Challenges Facing the Community." The PDN has a report on it. Guam Rep. Madeleine Z. Bordallo is on that committee.

Guam housing price run-up

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Thu, 17 May 2007 17:57:00 +0000

The Pacific Daily News reports a sharp increase in value of homes on Guam, and I'll bet the price acceleration is just starting.

The story said in part:

The median price of Guam homes has soared to $195,450 during the first three months of this year, a whopping increase from $170,000 the previous quarter, according to statistics released yesterday by market tracker The Captain Company.

Although the military build-up will get credit for much of the price increase, I would not be surprised if the major reason is investment from people who live on the mainland.

For instance, a two bedroom townhouse in the Foggy Bottom area of Washington DC area where I live could be purchased for about $250,000 to $300,000 in 2000. Today, that same home would cost more than $700,000 -- such has been the run-up in prices over the last seven years.

People who want to return to Guam or purchase a second home can either tap the equity in their existing home or just cash out, buy a comparable home on Guam, and have money to spare. Guam is still a relative bargain.

While military families will drive up prices, there is a limit to what they can pay and many will rent. My guess is Guam will see a price housing price acceleration as people seek to buy first and second homes on the island.

But a run-up in housing prices can become a serious problem as well for young families who want to stay on the island. This could become a serious issues rather quickly.

Ah, paradise! On Guam, the living is easy

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:55:00 +0000

When I was in the Navy, I spent nearly 3 years on Guam, most it working at the U.S. Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center West Joint Typhoon Warning Center. When I left in the mid-1970s, I wasn't able to return again until 1998. Computerworld, my current employer, sent me out there to do a story about Guam and computing.

Guam, for all its tropical wonder, is a very difficult environment for electronics. Its wet, humid weather, coupled with the electric supply issues, typhoons and earthquakes make it a harsh environment. I'm sure things have gotten easier for information technology workers since I traveled to Guam, nearly 10 years ago now. I have to believe that Internet services have improved significantly, and companies have better backup systems then they did when I visited.

I had a great time on the island. I so loved it and someday hope to return, perhaps to live. Sometimes a place just feels right, and that's what Guam has meant to me. I realize I have spent relatively little time there, compared to so many others but sometimes a feeling can persist a lifetime and that's how it has been for me.

I couldn't find the story I did for Computerworld online but I did have a copy. It's what I wrote after my visit in 1998:

Ah, paradise! On Guam, the living is easy. Except for the typhoons. And the earthquakes. Oh, and the bird-eating snakes. Island IS workers develop self-reliance and a good backup system
News Story by Patrick Thibodeau

MARCH 30, 1998 - A few days after Wolf Hofer arrived with his family in Guam in August 1993, the island suffered the largest earthquake on the planet that year. The quake measured 8.1 on the Richter scale, close to the magnitude of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Hofer wasn't shaken.

In the past four years, Hofer, manager of information technology at Deloitte & Touche's island office, has experienced less severe shakes, near brushes with major typhoons, power outages, power surges and mysterious communications breakdowns that occasionally plague his off-island network connections.

But as he sits at the outdoor bar of the rebuilt Guam Hilton, which was severely damaged in the big quake, and watches hotel workers tie down palm trees and remove deck chairs in anticipation of a typhoon that soon will pack 150-mph winds, Hofer has nothing bad to say about working on the island: "It's a user-friendly environment," he says.

It isn't, however, systems-friendly.

Guam, a U.S. territory, isn't an easy place for information systems professionals to work. Yet the obstacles that threaten hardware and networks and make disaster recovery a top concern also have helped IS workers thrive.

Guam's isolation and time zone difference -- it's a seven-hour flight from Hawaii and a 14-hour difference from the East Coast -- encourage self-reliance. And many IS workers on the island say that has given them a chance to make a real impact. It's a frontier attitude.

"If it has anything to do with automation, I'm the person who has to solve it," says Dan Sanders, IS manager at Mid Pacific Liquor Distributing Corp., which distributes beer, liquor and cigarettes to islands throughout the Pacific -- an area roughly the size of the continental U.S.

Protecting his systems from calamities, both man-made and natural, is high on Sanders' priority list. "We feel pampered nowadays because we only have one or two power outages a week," he says.

Protection from power outages, often caused by brown tree snakes that climb onto power lines and have eaten most of the island's native birds, can be accomplished with generators, line conditioners and uninterruptible power supplies. Most information systems have backups for the backups and the software to make sure they're working. Even grounding power supplies is tricky; builders have to drill through 100 feet of coral to get to solid rock.

Systems backups are mandatory. "Nobody wants to do the backup often, because you have to shut down systems, synchronize everything. But the trade-off is you have a reliable system," says Luan P. Nguyen, director of the University of Guam's computer center.

Systems protection begins with the building. With the exception of the hotel high-rises and some downtown office buildings, most structures are no more than two or three stories tall. They are also flat-roofed and made of concrete. Wood structures are hard to find. Typhoons such as Omar, which hit the island in 1992 with wind gusts of 220 mph, weed out weak structures.

Kmart Corp. took the island's tough conditions to heart when it opened a Guam store in 1995. Constructed with thick, reinforced concrete that is capable of surviving an earthquake registering 8.5 on the Richter scale and winds of more than 200 mph, the store also has its own water reservoir and sewage-pumping facility so it can reopen quickly after a storm.

"It's been built to withstand just about everything known to man," says Charlie Overmire, co-manager of the store.

Ron Schnabel, IS director of DFS Group LP's Pacific region, has turned disaster protection into a competitive advantage for his company. He keeps his stores open during a disaster.
With $5 billion in annual sales, San Francisco-based DFS Group operates the world's largest chain of duty-free shops. The company is Guam's largest private employer, with shops in all the major hotels.

Sales to the more than 1 million Japanese tourists who visit the island annually can be brisk during typhoons. "We don't miss a beat, basically," Schnabel says.

Kyle Davie found more than natural disasters on Guam: He discovered opportunity that was missing in many mainland companies. The Texas native arrived in Guam a year ago as IS manager at airline Continental Micronesia.

Instead of being confined to a niche role, Davie took responsibility at Continental for everything from installing voice mail to upgrading a legacy environment. "If a person has initiative and the desire, you can really make a difference a lot quicker here than you can in the U.S.," he says.

Davie says the biggest problem he deals with, one often cited by other IS managers, is finding qualified help. Working on Guam's mere 212 square miles can be a difficult adjustment, and it's common for mainland workers to get "rock fever" and a ticket back home.

The IS labor shortage is compounded by the decision by many Guam natives to leave for college and IS careers and never return to the island.

Vince Munoz's career path exemplified that pattern at first, but he came back after working for several years on the West Coast.

Munoz is now automating Guam's paper-based criminal justice system. A year was spent entering data from 15,000 records into a Windows NT-based system that included document imaging and photographs of suspects. The imaging gave police officers immediate access to restraining orders.

Munoz says he misses the access to people and technologies he had on the West Coast, but the problems he's had working in a remote location have improved his skills in other ways. "I've learned not to be intimidated and increased my ability to discover things on my own," he says.

The Internet has helped Munoz and others working on the island stay in touch.

In Guam, people speak of the Internet in almost reverential terms. It has made a huge difference in everything from helping people feel connected to the larger world to improving their ability to get technical help.

But the Internet can't solve all problems. Ordering supplies from new and even old vendors can be difficult; salespeople often treat Guam as a foreign country and cite shipping restrictions.
That's frustrating to people such as Robert Leonard, a network designer at New World Information Systems.

"Make it easy for us to give you our money -- that's how we run our business," he says.
The business of Guam is shifting to tourism from defense-related jobs, and the role of private-sector IS professionals seems to be expanding.

Guam, with its never-ending summer, clear ocean waters and lush vegetation, has become the permanent home for people such as Hofer, who worked for 10 years in the Arctic Circle before coming here.

The 150-mph typhoon that was spinning toward Guam when Hofer told his story from the Hilton's outdoor bar missed the island. So did the 220-mph storm that whipped by less than a week later.
But in December, Typhoon Paka hit Guam with what may have been the strongest winds ever recorded -- up to 236 mph before the monitoring equipment blew away. It uprooted trees, demolished businesses and snapped cement power poles built to withstand 220-mph winds.

At Hofer's office, the emergency generators kicked in. As soon as the storm ended, "it was back to work as normal," he says. "Except, of course, for the dress. Without power and water, people rapidly ran out of clothes and came to work in shorts and T-shirts."

Hofer, like many on the island, says he can handle whatever catastrophe nature delivers. The trade-offs are worth it. "I like living on Guam," Hofer says.

Pause.

"I really like living on Guam."

Sidebar

Weather watching

Two-thirds of the world's cyclones -- storms with winds of 25 knots or more that frequently develop into typhoons -- occur in the western Pacific. And they frequently form just east of Guam. Eighty-eight cyclones were recorded in 1996 alone.

The U.S. Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center West Joint Typhoon Warning Center on Guam keeps naval ships out of harm's way and warns everyone else about a typhoon's storm track.

Improved computer forecasting models and access to the Internet have increased the accuracy of storm tracking, which potentially saves the military and area government and businesses millions in unnecessary storm-preparation costs.

A few years ago, the average error in a 72-hour forecast for a storm track was about 325 miles. It's now down to about 250 miles. "This Internet technology has played a role in that," says Air Force Lt. Col. Mark J. Andrews, director of the warning center.

The U.S. Navy weather forecasting system uses wireless connections to transmit weather data via World Wide Web protocols to ships at sea. Maps, storm tracks and weather data can be viewed through Web browsers by ship crews, and weather officers at sea can surf the 'net to compare forecasts made by other agencies and governments. That can sometimes lead to quick electronic mail from an inquiring weather officer or captain.

Ah, paradise! On Guam, the living is easy

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:53:00 +0000

When I was in the Navy, I spent nearly 3 years on Guam, most it working at the U.S. Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center West Joint Typhoon Warning Center. When I left in the mid-1970s, I wasn't able to return again until 1998. Computerworld, my current employer, sent me out there to do a story about Guam and computing.
Guam, for all its tropical wonder, is a very difficult environment for electronics. Its wet, humid weather, coupled with the electric supply issues, typhoons and earthquakes make it a harsh environment. I'm sure things have gotten easier for information technology workers since I traveled to Guam, nearly 10 years ago now. I have to believe that Internet services have improved significantly, and companies have better backup systems then they did when I visited.
I had a great time on the island. I so loved it and someday hope to return, perhaps to live. Sometimes a place just feels right, and that's what Guam has meant to me. I realize I have spent relatively little time there, compared to so many others but sometimes a feeling can persist a lifetime and that's how it has been for me.
I couldn't find the story I did for Computerworld online but I did have a copy. It's what I wrote after my visit in 1998:
Ah, paradise! On Guam, the living is easy. Except for the typhoons. And the earthquakes. Oh, and the bird-eating snakes. Island IS workers develop self-reliance and a good backup system
News Story by Patrick Thibodeau

MARCH 30, 1998 - A few days after Wolf Hofer arrived with his family in Guam in August 1993, the island suffered the largest earthquake on the planet that year. The quake measured 8.1 on the Richter scale, close to the magnitude of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Hofer wasn't shaken.

In the past four years, Hofer, manager of information technology at Deloitte & Touche's island office, has experienced less severe shakes, near brushes with major typhoons, power outages, power surges and mysterious communications breakdowns that occasionally plague his off-island network connections.

But as he sits at the outdoor bar of the rebuilt Guam Hilton, which was severely damaged in the big quake, and watches hotel workers tie down palm trees and remove deck chairs in anticipation of a typhoon that soon will pack 150-mph winds, Hofer has nothing bad to say about working on the island: "It's a user-friendly environment," he says.

It isn't, however, systems-friendly.

Guam, a U.S. territory, isn't an easy place for information systems professionals to work. Yet the obstacles that threaten hardware and networks and make disaster recovery a top concern also have helped IS workers thrive.

Guam's isolation and time zone difference -- it's a seven-hour flight from Hawaii and a 14-hour difference from the East Coast -- encourage self-reliance. And many IS workers on the island say that has given them a chance to make a real impact. It's a frontier attitude.

"If it has anything to do with automation, I'm the person who has to solve it," says Dan Sanders, IS manager at Mid Pacific Liquor Distributing Corp., which distributes beer, liquor and cigarettes to islands throughout the Pacific -- an area roughly the size of the continental U.S.

Protecting his systems from calamities, both man-made and natural, is high on Sanders' priority list. "We feel pampered nowadays because we only have one or two power outages a week," he says.

Protection from power outages, often caused by brown tree snakes that climb onto power lines and have eaten most of the island's native birds, can be accomplished with generators, line conditioners and uninterruptible power supplies. Most information systems have backups for the backups and the software to make sure they're working. Even grounding power supplies is tricky; builders have to drill through 100 feet of coral to get to solid rock.

Systems backups are mandatory. "Nobody wants to do the backup often, because you have to shut down systems, synchronize everything. But the trade-off is you have a reliable system," says Luan P. Nguyen, director of the University of Guam's computer center.

Systems protection begins with the building. With the exception of the hotel high-rises and some downtown office buildings, most structures are no more than two or three stories tall. They are also flat-roofed and made of concrete. Wood structures are hard to find. Typhoons such as Omar, which hit the island in 1992 with wind gusts of 220 mph, weed out weak structures.

Kmart Corp. took the island's tough conditions to heart when it opened a Guam store in 1995. Constructed with thick, reinforced concrete that is capable of surviving an earthquake registering 8.5 on the Richter scale and winds of more than 200 mph, the store also has its own water reservoir and sewage-pumping facility so it can reopen quickly after a storm.

"It's been built to withstand just about everything known to man," says Charlie Overmire, co-manager of the store.

Ron Schnabel, IS director of DFS Group LP's Pacific region, has turned disaster protection into a competitive advantage for his company. He keeps his stores open during a disaster.
With $5 billion in annual sales, San Francisco-based DFS Group operates the world's largest chain of duty-free shops. The company is Guam's largest private employer, with shops in all the major hotels.

Sales to the more than 1 million Japanese tourists who visit the island annually can be brisk during typhoons. "We don't miss a beat, basically," Schnabel says.

Kyle Davie found more than natural disasters on Guam: He discovered opportunity that was missing in many mainland companies. The Texas native arrived in Guam a year ago as IS manager at airline Continental Micronesia.

Instead of being confined to a niche role, Davie took responsibility at Continental for everything from installing voice mail to upgrading a legacy environment. "If a person has initiative and the desire, you can really make a difference a lot quicker here than you can in the U.S.," he says.

Davie says the biggest problem he deals with, one often cited by other IS managers, is finding qualified help. Working on Guam's mere 212 square miles can be a difficult adjustment, and it's common for mainland workers to get "rock fever" and a ticket back home.

The IS labor shortage is compounded by the decision by many Guam natives to leave for college and IS careers and never return to the island.

Vince Munoz's career path exemplified that pattern at first, but he came back after working for several years on the West Coast.

Munoz is now automating Guam's paper-based criminal justice system. A year was spent entering data from 15,000 records into a Windows NT-based system that included document imaging and photographs of suspects. The imaging gave police officers immediate access to restraining orders.

Munoz says he misses the access to people and technologies he had on the West Coast, but the problems he's had working in a remote location have improved his skills in other ways. "I've learned not to be intimidated and increased my ability to discover things on my own," he says.

The Internet has helped Munoz and others working on the island stay in touch.

In Guam, people speak of the Internet in almost reverential terms. It has made a huge difference in everything from helping people feel connected to the larger world to improving their ability to get technical help.

But the Internet can't solve all problems. Ordering supplies from new and even old vendors can be difficult; salespeople often treat Guam as a foreign country and cite shipping restrictions.
That's frustrating to people such as Robert Leonard, a network designer at New World Information Systems.

"Make it easy for us to give you our money -- that's how we run our business," he says.
The business of Guam is shifting to tourism from defense-related jobs, and the role of private-sector IS professionals seems to be expanding.

Guam, with its never-ending summer, clear ocean waters and lush vegetation, has become the permanent home for people such as Hofer, who worked for 10 years in the Arctic Circle before coming here.

The 150-mph typhoon that was spinning toward Guam when Hofer told his story from the Hilton's outdoor bar missed the island. So did the 220-mph storm that whipped by less than a week later.
But in December, Typhoon Paka hit Guam with what may have been the strongest winds ever recorded -- up to 236 mph before the monitoring equipment blew away. It uprooted trees, demolished businesses and snapped cement power poles built to withstand 220-mph winds.

At Hofer's office, the emergency generators kicked in. As soon as the storm ended, "it was back to work as normal," he says. "Except, of course, for the dress. Without power and water, people rapidly ran out of clothes and came to work in shorts and T-shirts."

Hofer, like many on the island, says he can handle whatever catastrophe nature delivers. The trade-offs are worth it. "I like living on Guam," Hofer says.

Pause.

"I really like living on Guam."

Sidebar

Weather watching

Two-thirds of the world's cyclones -- storms with winds of 25 knots or more that frequently develop into typhoons -- occur in the western Pacific. And they frequently form just east of Guam. Eighty-eight cyclones were recorded in 1996 alone.

The U.S. Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center West Joint Typhoon Warning Center on Guam keeps naval ships out of harm's way and warns everyone else about a typhoon's storm track.

Improved computer forecasting models and access to the Internet have increased the accuracy of storm tracking, which potentially saves the military and area government and businesses millions in unnecessary storm-preparation costs.

A few years ago, the average error in a 72-hour forecast for a storm track was about 325 miles. It's now down to about 250 miles. "This Internet technology has played a role in that," says Air Force Lt. Col. Mark J. Andrews, director of the warning center.

The U.S. Navy weather forecasting system uses wireless connections to transmit weather data via World Wide Web protocols to ships at sea. Maps, storm tracks and weather data can be viewed through Web browsers by ship crews, and weather officers at sea can surf the 'net to compare forecasts made by other agencies and governments. That can sometimes lead to quick electronic mail from an inquiring weather officer or captain.

New Guam stamp is impressive

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 17:53:00 +0000

The new U.S. Postal Service Guam stamp is poetic for its use of lighting, especially the palms in silhouette, and its human scale, sense of movement and vitality added by the jogger.

Here's what the post office had to say about it:

Hagåtña Bay (international price) 90 cents – on sale June 1The Postal Service will issue this stamp in the Scenic American Landscapes series to honor the Territory of Guam. Located approximately 1,600 miles east of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean, Guam is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands. Approximately 212 square miles in size — roughly three times the area of Washington, D.C. — Guam is home to a population of approximately 158,000 people, including native Guamanians, known as Chamorro, as well as others of European and Asian descent. Today the island is a popular destination for tourists, with some 1.5 million people visiting the island annually to enjoy its natural beauty. The stamp features a photograph by Michael S. Yamashita of a sunset of Hagåtña Bay in Hagatna, the capital of Guam.

Others who had posts about the stamp before me include Life on an Island Paradise and Latitude 13.

Pacific Daily News: Guam stamp debuts June 1

This isn't the first Guam stamp. I don't know what the history of Guam stamps are, but here are are some images of 1 cent and 2 cent Guam stamps postmarked 1930 and 1931

First impressions of Guam

dcblogs@gmail.com (kob) — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 17:52:00 +0000

The writer at Fewl.Net describes himself as "just another Navy guy living in Japan." He visited the island recently and wrote a wonderful post about the experience. It begins:

We recently pulled in to the US territory of Guam for a four day port call. I had never been to Guam, and anything I’ve ever heard of it from other Sailors,was about the lack of anything to do. I went out expecting to be bored out of my mind, but instead had one of the greatest port calls to date.