Biba Guam...

Ya, you read it right, “biba.” I don’t know if it’s the fact that Chamorro, the indigenous language, has only been written for 20 years or if people here have hearing disabilities, but that is the local way of saying “viva Guam!”

Why is “biba Guam” on the tip of my keyboard? I have seen it everywhere as it is Guam Liberation Day. My first official holiday in Guam. It’s fitting that it is a local holiday, not a national one. There is something more unique about experiencing local holidays.

62 years ago on July 21nd(in Guam, July 20th in the States), the American armed forces liberated Guam from the control of the Japanese. What better way to celebrate that than to use your government food stamps to buy Budweiser and dance in the poorly paved streets waving Japanese made flags to Japanese made fireworks? I can’t think of one.

I attended the 62nd annual Liberation Day Parade. It was hot, muggy, and, sadly, a pretty weak parade. Some floats were actually well done. Mostly, the line was nothing more than car dealerships parading new 2007 models. No joke. And it wasn’t like these were masked as something relevant to the festivities. Each dealership actually had a section. There was no music, but every single vehicle in the line was honking solidly through the 4 hour parade.

The cell phone companies, the political candidates and local businesses, each had a float. It was more about shameless promotion than liberation. I’d like to see a parade that celebrates the liberation of industrialized cultural imperialism.

The local politicians were giving away hotdogs, hamburgers and water with their logos on them. If they wanted my vote, the burgers should have tasted better.

Yummy...Campaign Food!

I took some pics of the parade that were not meerly mobile commericals.

I bet his feet are like rubber

I wanted to get a shot of this truck from the angle most people first saw it from. I think next time they should hang the sign better.

I wonder if this guy on the scooter even knows that there's a parade going on. "What parade?"

Barrigada is the villiage I live in and the name of my branch

I think my favorite was this car.

Drunk Busters (possible copywrite infringment with that logo...)

I’m not sure if that was a car in the parade, or if it was on duty. I dare say that many of the people lining the streets of the parade had seen the inside of it before. Ironically, three cars ahead of it, the guy driving the float was drinking beer. Seriously, driving a truck in the parade with an open beer can yards away from “Drunk Busters.”

Biba Guam!