Guam Location:
13.5°N 144.5°E
Guam Geography:
Guam is located at 13.5°N 144.5°E and has an area of 210 square miles (544 km2). It is the southernmost island in the Mariana island chain and is the largest island in Micronesia. This island chain was created by the colliding Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates. The Marianas Trench, a deep subduction zone, lies beside the island chain to the east. The Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, is southwest of Guam at 35,797 feet (10,911 m) deep. The island of Guam is 46 miles (74 km) long and 4 mi (6 km) to 8 mi (13 km) wide. The island experiences occasional earthquakes due to being on the edge of the Pacific Plate. In recent years, quakes with epicenters near Guam have had magnitudes ranging from 5.0 to 8.7. Unlike the Anatåhan volcano in the northern Marianas, Guam is not volcanically active. However, due to wind direction and proximity, volcanic ash activity does occasionally affect Guam.
The northern part of the island is a forested coralline limestone plateau while the south contains volcanic peaks covered in forest and grassland. A coral reef surrounds most of the island, except in areas where bays exist that provide access to small rivers and streams that run down from the hills into the Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea. The island's population is most dense in the northern and central regions.
Guam People:
Population
- July 2006 estimate 170,000 (186th)
- Density 307 /km2 (37th)
795 /sq mi
Guam Government:
Government
- President George W. Bush (R)
- Governor Felix Perez Camacho (R)
Guam is governed by a popularly elected governor and a unicameral 15 member legislature. Guam elects one non-voting delegate to the US House of Representatives, currently Madeleine Bordallo. During U.S. Presidential elections, citizens in Guam vote in a straw poll for their choice of president – which doesn't count toward the general election results.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a significant movement in favor of the territory becoming a commonwealth, which would give it a political status similar to Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands. However, the federal government gave no response to Guam's request for commonwealth status for a decade before Guam leaders gave up the quest in the late 1990s. Competing movements with less significant influence exist, which advocate political independence from the United States, statehood, or a combination with the Northern Mariana Islands as a single commonwealth. These proposals however, are not seen as favorable or realistic within the U.S. federal government, which argues Guam does not have the financial stability or self sufficiency to warrant such status. The same sources quickly provide evidence of Guam’s increasing reliance on federal spending, and question how commonwealth status or statehood would benefit the United States as a whole.[citation needed]
Guam Communication:
Most of the island has mobile phone service and high speed internet is now widely available through cable or DSL. Cell phones are used by a majority of residents, and the telephone service is extremely reliable, as compared to 20-25 years ago when phone outages were common. Guam was added to the North American Numbering Plan in 1997, removing the barrier of high cost international long-distance calls to the U.S. Mainland.
As Guam is also part of the U.S. Postal System (the postal code is GU), mail to Guam from the mainland is considered domestic and no additional charges are required. Private shipping companies such as UPS, DHL or FedEx also regard Guam as domestic, although this is often not reflected in the shipping charges of many mail-order companies or websites. Mail takes approximately 1-2 weeks to travel between Guam and California. Express mail and Fedex takes a minimum of three to four days to reach the U.S. Most residents use post office boxes, though home delivery is becoming increasingly available.
Guam is served by the Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport. There are no direct flights to Guam from the U.S. Mainland. Flights to Guam go through Hawaii, Japan, or Korea first and generally requires a layover and a plane transfer. To fly to Guam from the mainland, through Hawaii, requires a 5-hour flight from San Francisco or Los Angeles, and another 7.5-hour flight from Hawaii to Guam. To fly to Guam from the mainland, through Japan or Korea, requires a 10-12-hour flight from the mainland to Korea or Japan, and another 3-4-hour flight to Guam. There are two direct flights a day to Manila, Philippines.
Most residents travel in Guam using personally owned vehicles. A limited bus system for residents exists but is relatively unused.
Guam Economy:
Guam's economy depends primarily on tourism, the United States military base presence, and other federal spending. Although Guam receives no foreign aid, it does receive large transfer payments from the general revenues of the U.S. federal treasury into which Guam pays no income or excise taxes; under the provisions of a special law of Congress, the Guam treasury, rather than the U.S. treasury, receives federal income taxes paid by military and civilian federal employees stationed in Guam.
Sometimes called "America in Asia," Guam is a popular destination for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese tourists, and with over 20 large hotels, a DFS Galleria, Pleasure Island aquarium, SandCastle Las Vegas shows and other shopping and entertainment features in its chief tourism city of Tumon. It is a relatively short flight from Asia compared to Hawaii, with hotels and golf courses catering to tourists. About 90 percent of tourists to Guam are Japanese. Significant sources of revenue include duty-free designer shopping outlets, and the American-style malls: Micronesia Mall, Guam Premium Outlets, and the Agana Shopping Center.
The economy had been stable since 2000 due to increased tourism, mainly from Japan, but took a recent downturn along with the rest of Asia. It is expected to stabilize when US Marine personnel and operations currently in Okinawa (appr. 8000, along with their 10,000 dependents) will transfer to Guam sometime in 2007-2008. Guam has a 14% unemployment rate, and the government suffered a $314 million shortfall in 2003.[3]
"The Compact of Free Association" between the United States of America, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands was signed in 1982, and ratified in 1986. It accorded the former entities of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands a political status of 'free association'" with the United States. The Compact was an agreement to which Guam was not a party. Over the years, it was claimed by some in Guam that the territory has had to bear the brunt of this agreement in the form of public assistance programs and public education for those from the regions involved, but was never compensated by the federal government for its expenditures.
Guam More Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guam | 
