Let’sHelpJapan w/EnsonInoue

http://yamatodamashii.biz/user/

TheDrawingBoard:A-Pop

We’ve been working closely with Japan’s OriginalShootFighter Noboru Asahi of A-POP DESIGNS and wanted to come up with some different stuff for the winter of 2010. these are some of the designs that havent quite made it yetand are still under review and minor tweaking .

Different for sure. But Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder. So until we get these printed…”BEHOLD!”

Respect:EdPropst

Borrowed from Ed Propst and the MarianasVariety.
It might be deleted if they complain, but thought the article was dope and wanted to share…

Letter to the Editor: Respect
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 12:00AM
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RESPECT. It is a word deeply embedded in our culture.

Growing up in our islands, we were all taught to respect our elders. We were taught to amen our elders and to refrain from talking back or arguing with them. In a traditional sense, it is a beautiful and admirable cultural trait. In a progressive sense, it has been, in many instances, our Achilles’ heel.

It seems we have spent more time upholding the rules of respect than we have on upholding the laws of the land. Somewhere along the road, we might have forgotten the true meaning of respect. So, my question is, what does respect really mean?

Does respect mean that if a child gets abused by a family member, it should be dealt with behind closed doors, within the confines of the family, and that the police should not interfere? And if the police do get involved, should the victim be told to lie to save a relative’s skin?

Does respect mean that relatives are impervious to prosecution, and that there are really two sets of laws? Do we prosecute to the fullest extent of the law and impose tough sentencing when dealing with “outsiders”, but give a slap on the wrist when it comes to familia?

Does respect mean that we must ignore fairness and accountability because a family member is involved in a crime, and look the other way?

It seems inconceivable that people in our community can stage a rally against guest workers and accuse them of showing disrespect for wanting to improve their lives and the lives of their families, yet stage no rally or say nothing when a child in our community is severely beaten and raped. Where are the rallies against the criminals who are invading our once peaceful community? Why aren’t we waging war against the thugs who rob our homes and victimize our children? Who is a greater threat to the sanctity and safety of our community, criminals or guest workers?

As a community, it is time that we redefine respect. It is time that we tell our elders and teach our children that respect is reciprocal: if you don’t give respect, then you will not receive respect. It is time that we explain to our family that committing crime in our small community is tantamount to committing crime against the family, and that it will not be tolerated, because along with it being immoral and sinful, committing crime is shameful, because it disrespects and tarnishes the reputation of the family and the family name.

When it comes to our leaders, it seems that many of them replace respect with arrogance once they are elected.

When they needed our vote, they came around, knocked on our doors, and promised us honesty, integrity, fairness, and solutions to the problems affecting the CNMI. Some of our leaders went so far as to promise better times. But as soon as they got elected, our leaders forgot about us common folk, and went about conducting business the old fashioned way: taking junket trips, hiring relatives, repealing laws, conducting public business behind closed doors, failing to pass a budget, and spending their entire budget before you could say “payless payday.” Some of our leaders have forgotten that they work for us, and that they are public servants, not dictators.

As public servants, it is their duty to uphold the laws of the land and to respect the wishes of the people.

Cramming casinos down the throats of our community after our people overwhelmingly rejected it in a popular initiative recently is disrespectful, as well as insulting. Before our leaders can even talk about casinos in Saipan, they need to clean up the mess they created: poker parlors and poker addiction. Pot fabot, a poker palace on every corner in our villages does nothing but breed more crime. If our leaders want to know about poker addiction and how it has decimated family morals and values, all they need to do is meet with a Community Guidance Center counselor, so they can be filled in on how poker addiction has broken up families and is tied to criminal behavior. They can also stake out a poker joint at night. They are bound to see kids playing in a Laundromat at midnight or sleeping in a parked car in front of at least one of the hundreds of poker parlors cluttering our villages.

What is equally disrespectful is the total disdain some of our elected leaders have when it comes to laws of our land. A case in point would be HB 17-70, a poorly conceived bill that goes against Public Law 16-46, also known as the “The CNMI Smoke Free Air Act.” Among other reprehensible things, HB 17-70 will once again allow restaurants to designate smoking areas, without even putting up partitions! Have our leaders failed to read and comprehend that anti-smoking laws exist in every part of the world, including Japan? Can’t our leaders understand the research data given to them that shows anti-smoking laws across America and the rest of the modern world help businesses more than hurt them, and that it is a step in the right direction for the overall health of our community?

Let’s not kid ourselves anymore. Smoking kills. And smoking is tied to dozens of types of cancers, as well as heart disease. But we also need to realize that SECOND-HAND SMOKING inflicts the same damage. While some restaurant owners insist that consumers should have the freedom to choose whether or not to patronize restaurants that allow smoking, have those same restaurant owners forgotten about their own employees’ rights? Don’t employees working in smoke-filled restaurants have the right to breathe clean air, most especially employees that are pregnant, or suffer from asthma and other lung or heart ailments? Our leaders need to see the bigger picture. They need to spend considerable time researching and reading and listening to their constituents as well as field experts so that the CNMI can move forward, not backward. At a time when the CNMI must rob Peter to pay Paul just to get paychecks out to the masses, our leaders must respect and reinforce laws that promote and protect the health and well-being of our people, most especially our children.

And last but not least, since respect is highly valued in our islands, how is it possible that we have lost sight of what it means to respect our environment? Look at our beaches after a weekend of partying. How much trash is left behind? How many times do we see beer cans and paper plates and cigarette butts left on picnic tables, strewn across our white sandy beaches, and spread out all over the floors of our public palapalas? And come to think of it, when was the last time anyone was actually cited for littering?

While enjoying the July 4th parade, I saw a sweaty but smiling Kathy Yuknavage and several volunteers from Beautify CNMI, MINA, and other non-profit groups picking up trash along the sides of the road. Thank you and God bless you all! While these volunteers work at beautifying and protecting our environment by sponsoring clean-ups and putting up recycling bins all across our islands, we have hoodlums who deface the bins by spray-painting graffiti with hateful words, all the while partying and leaving their trash behind. Were these hoodlums not taught by their parents how to clean up after themselves? Were they not taught that graffiti and litter hurt tourism, which is our bread and butter? Apparently not. Perhaps the parents were too busy playing poker that they forgot to instill in their children basic values, such as cleaning up after their selves. Or maybe they just don’t have enough common sense to understand what respect really means.

Those who commit violent crimes, trash our beaches, spray graffiti and vandalize public property, deceive the general public, spit betelnut on sidewalks and storefronts, and believe that they and their family are above the law lack more than just respect. They lack self-respect. Ultimately, you can’t respect others if you can’t respect yourself. Self-respect is the foundation of respect and virtue. To define what self-respect means, I yield to Alfred Whitney Griswold, who wrote, “Self-respect cannot be hunted.? It cannot be purchased.? It is never for sale.? It cannot be fabricated out of public relations.? It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it.” ?

ED PROPST
Dandan, Saipan

SainaMa’ase

Fokai:PoetryWithTBoogie

Fokai:GoodTimes

A Few Minutes Peek into the Life, Times, and Heartbeat of FokaiInternational&GrasshopperInc

RespectTheWater

Guam loses far more people to rough surf on sunny days than it does to typhoons because, while some people respect the danger of storms, they discount the power of waves.

That’s what meteorologist Chip Guard said Thursday while explaining why beachgoers, paddlers, snorkelers and surfers should pay close attention to high surf advisories issued by the National Weather Service.

The advisories provide information that can help residents by showing them which beaches are safe, or what time of day will be calmer, Guard said. And sometimes, even on a beautiful day, the advisories will convince you it’s best to stay out of the water completely, Guard said.

“In these kind of situations, you only need to be wrong once,” Guard said. “You might go out there a lot, and survive every time, … but the wave only has to be successful once.”

Last weekend, Guam lost two paddlers — 18-year-old Ryan Cepeda and 21-year-old Kayleen Mendiola — when their outrigger canoe was overturned by powerful waves in Tumon Bay.

The rough seas had prompted the Weather Service to issue a high surf advisory that weekend. That advisory has since ended, but it won’t be long before dangerous conditions prompt another one, Guard said.

Weather Service senior forecaster Carl McElroy said he saw the powerful waves that pounded Guam’s coast last weekend. Many people don’t realize what a wave like that can do, he said.

“My first thought was: ‘Wow,’” McElroy said. “My second thought was fear. It’s terrifying to try and confront something like that.”

A 6-inch wave, moving at 30 mph, can knock a man off his feet, and an 18-inch wave can drag a car, McElroy said on Thursday.

For the Weather Service to issue a surf advisory, waves must have reached at least 9 feet on most beaches, or 12 feet on east coast beaches, McElroy said.

“At that point, you’re a cork in a big stream,” McElroy said. “You are not going to stop it from flinging you where it wants to go. People don’t realize that water is very heavy.”

A cubic meter of water weighs a metric ton, he said.

Rip currents

The powerful force of the waves pounding inward isn’t the only danger during a high surf advisory. Every drop of water that sloshes over the reef line has to retreat back to the ocean, and channels in the reef are the only way out.

“In the channel, the current is going out toward the ocean. The waves are breaking over the reef, and that’s dumping tons of water over the reef flat,” Guard said. “And that water has to go somewhere, so it goes back out through those channels, and those are the rip currents.”

Rip currents have enough force to tire swimmers and drag them outward — or downward — where swimmers could drown in deeper water, Guard explained.

A swimmer who is pulled out through a channel by a rip current could also be returned to the churning waves and be tossed back onto the hard, sharp reef, he said.

“The more water that comes over, the more water that has to drain out,” Guard said. “The more water that goes out, the stronger the currents are going to be. And when the currents are so strong, you are not going to be able to paddle against it or swim against it.”

In some reef channels, even small motorboats can struggle to fight the current, Guard said, so a surfer, paddler or swimmer can be overcome easily.

Roger Edson, a Weather Service science and operating officer, has been that swimmer — unable to get to shore, afraid to be swept away.

Years ago, Edson was snorkeling off the coast near Lost Pond when he got caught in a rip current only a few yards from the land. He was unable to gain ground against the current, so he clung to a rock and waited until a large wave tossed him to safety.

“It was scary as could be,” Edson said. “It was 1982 and I remember it like yesterday.”
Tumon Bay

Another one of those reef channels sits in Tumon Bay, about 10 yards offshore from the Hyatt Hotel, said Frank San Nicolas, a lifeguard instructor with two decades of experience.

San Nicolas said that channel factored into the paddling accident on Sunday. Lifeguards told paddlers to stay out of the rough waters, San Nicolas said, “but you can’t stop everyone.”

San Nicolas said he supports keeping paddlers and other beachgoers out of the water during high-surf conditions, but lifeguards need more authority to ensure sure this happens.

Many beachgoers just don’t listen, he said.

This paddling tragedy has brought more awareness to the rough surf, San Nicolas said, so swimmers might pay closer attention to lifeguards’ instructions for a while, but it won’t last forever, San Nicolas said.

Eventually, the lessons will fade, and the dangerous channel will remain.

“I hate to sound pessimistic, but I’ve been doing this for so long,” San Nicolas said. “These things happen. Snap decisions are made. … Once the surf goes down, … it just goes back to normal.”

FokaiJapan&K-1Dynamite:ThankYouKiyotaro!

Kiyotaro supports Fokai in his kickboxing bout against.GegardMousasi in K-1Dynamite on NewYwearsEve of 2011 in Japan.

ONRA:2010YearInReview

Hafa Adai,

In what seems for some to be the blink of an eye—another 365days have passed and its about that time for Our 2010year in review. Without any detailed specifics–Marianas Combat Sports this year has ventured far throughout HongKong, Korea,the Philippines, Japan, Hawaii, andTaiwan. Our local fighter-athletes even went to Moscow and to a new territory in World MMA-the Emirates; our combat-sports related industry also ventured into AbuDhabi, Ireland and England to raise our flag and in the process salute one of our locally branded labels , Shoyoroll Brand, soaring abroad to emerge as one of the world’s top Jiujitsu kimono manufacturers.

Opportunity knocks on the doors via our armed forces as Guam’s momentum in competitive martial arts have been successful in placing our local Modern ArmyCombatives Program into good position as our soldiers and airmen continue to do extremely well in National Competition. Women are climbing the ranks of local BJJ as Our female consistent turnout and evolving performance in Jiujitsu and Grappling competition surely makes for future extended conversation. We’re also at a tremendous growth in youth BJJ with our youth competitions remain well stacked. Lets cross our fingers for a good turnout as several of our familiar names in the MarianasOpen have set their target for first ever PanAmerican Juvenile BrazilianJiujitsu Championships on February 20th.

Tinian has joined the race of competitive local Mixed Martial Arts while the sophistication of Saipan combat sports has kept the CNMI on board for community development dressed in combat-competitive purpose.

GuamBJJ earns a new black belt in local MMA pioneer John Calvo. BJJ BlackBelts Terrence Aflague and Stephen Roberto have received their official black belt cards from the International Brazilian Jiujitsu Federation and the Confederation of Brazilian Jiujitsu.
Guam sees two new recognizable forces in the grappling arts with the Barrigada Submission Center and The newly formed UniversalAlliance. As our grapplers abroad proceeded to collect silver and gold in events across the USMainland. Fequent visits and guest instruction from BJJWorld Champion visitors accentuated Guam’s grappling progress as our performances in Japan continue to certify GuamBJJ as true contenders in the land of the Samurai and beyond. Though on paper we didn’t seem as successful in Japan with MMA—Opportunities continue to grow for our islands participation overseas as contacts in the Emirates, US Mainland, and countries throughout Asia continue to knock on the doors of Guam’s Mixed Martial Arts top contenders.

Props and respect to the organizers of PremiereXTremeCombat as Guam professionalMMA has endured the detours in place by the newly formed yet-questionable GuamUnarmed CombatSports Commision. Without experience or substance– Curiosities and small frustrations continue to loom over a the credibility of a governing body created to further regulate and supposedly-service our professional combat sports ventures. Respect and Gratitude goes for the organizers of the very successful CopaDeMarianas and Marianas Open for providing our thriving grappling community with a viable structure to give us another amateurcombat option outside of MMA.

Though MMA promotions seem to have declined a bit in Japan—World MMA seems more successful than ever. With its escape of its image of exotic bloodsport, Mixed martial arts has gelled well into international athletics in aroad that confidently is destined to surpass,by far ,Professsional Boxing if not already. Dana White, President of the UFC has on more-than-one occasion mentioned that Mixed Martial Arts will be the biggest sport in the world. Although event the greatest of MMA fans might disagree—it is more than certain that the UFC is doing such a great job of gift wrapping MMA and giving to the world–the modern sport of gladiators–that Santa himself would be proud.
James Toney vs. Randy Cotoure! How about that?. Great to see the great ProfessionalBoxing vs.MMA question answered by the hands of such icons, but still it would’ve been better to see that same fight ten years ago…With its official merger awith WorldExtremeCombat , while Filling arenas and gathering tens of millions of pay-per –view purchases from around the world– it seems that the UFC , in every aspect ,is stronger than ever. However none can argue the validity of Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Division — accumulated in large, by the hands of the StrikeForce Matchmaker and proudly one of our local sons, Richard Chou.

Inside of these two, the largest MMA events in the world to date– the planet over was in near disbelief as some of our MMA superheros tasted defeat such as BJPenns two-time decision loss to Frankie Edgar at 155punds , Anderson Silva’s near dethroning at the hands of ChaelSonnen, the annihilation of the seemingly indestructible juggernaut BrockLesnar , and painstakingly, EmelianenkoFedor ’s mortalization after his first-ever submission defeat to Fabricio Verdum,

Guam’s Martial Arts cultivation has been driven by so many independent forces and in so many different ways.

What is key, what was key, and what always will be key is that we all work progressively and hopefully collectively to evolve and improve our combat sports atmosphere.

Will This sport and lifestyle’s conscious connection to our island’s concerns help us to answer the call of duty for everyone to help in addressing concerns facing Guam in 2011? in 2012? In 2013? What will we be able to say of Guam Martial Arts in 2020?

Countless episodes of Financial assistance, fan support, full-houses and standing ovations
have offered the obvious and very valuable attention of our extended community. It goes without saying that This sport and industry is at its best interest to return the embrace of our island for 14 years and going.

But as far as we’ve come—were still yet to activate powerful elements that will eventually serve as the catalyst for paramount landmarking of our fighting islander’s sacrifices and efforts. International word speaks of Brazilian Jijuitsu’s aim to become an Olympic Sport as well as submission grappling hoping to do the same. Surely there is much to be learned from and maybe even gained from larger organizations like the he Guam National Olympic Organization and/ or the GuamVisitorsBureau. Time, effort, and communication will surely tell.

Obvious obvious obvious it is that the sport of MMA is pushing combative sciences into new levels around the globe. However–Hopefully, in 2011, in between the lines of our flying armbars , superman punches, and double legtakedowns, we set sail positive percussions to break far beyond the ambitions of a full to capacity University of Guam Fieldhouse, beyond the coated fencing of the eight sides of the octagon, with the code and etiquette learned from the tatami mats — to approach the years ahead respectfully and to commit to a positive direction for the unbelievable local talent we will most definitely find in the years to come.

Thanks for dropping by.

CharlesRapadasProduction:Zach Rapadas Gracie Barra Tournament

Fokai Familia’s ZachRapadas in Preparation and Performance

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