#eli monge

Earlier this week, I had a morning meet up with a senator at a popular coffeeshop in East Agana. I had anticipated the meeting all weekend long and didn’t want to be late or miss the 8:15am, Tuesday appointment, so I stayed up the night before reviewing the topic I would discuss with the senator. I arrived on time, and queued with the senator for some much-needed caffeine. That was when some scruffy looking bearded guy walked through the front door of Coffee Slut and gave me a strange stare.

My initial impulse was to nod my head in a greeting, but I wasn’t sure if I even knew this guy. I hesitated and watch him shake hands with the senator. I decided not to extend salutations or acknowledgment of him as the aura that enshrouded him was dark and negative. Whoever it was, my spirit told me that this was not a good person. So, I pretended to be more interested in the one and only hot coffee option available at Coffee Slut.

That person wormed his way over to me and began to accost me. He started with accusing me of not knowing him (which was an accurate assessment); then alternately kept insisting that I “stop pretending” because “you know exactly who I am!” ( I actually had no clue who this crass individual was in front of me).

So early in the morning with no caffeine in my system, I was thoroughly confused. Which was it, did I know him or did I not know him…? For the time being, I resolved that while he did look vaguely familiar, I did not know him. People with that kind of envelop of evil around them, like he had, are the sort of creatures I tend to avoid in life.

He then began to accuse me of writing about him. And his wife.

That still did not clear the fog. I had no clue who he was. Apparently, he thought of himself as someone of significance, as he grew even more irate by the fact that I had no idea who he was.

He continued to rage about writing about him and disrespecting his wife. He made physical threats against my person “the next time he sees me”….this time, not assaulting me, probably only because there were eyewitnesses, including a senator and the business owner.

Finally, exacerbated by the fact that I had idea who the heck he was, he blurted out something about being in charge at KUAM. Then, the light bulb flared. This was Eli Monge. He was married to a Calvo. Marie Calvo – the one who actually runs KUAM. Despite claiming we never meet, we had. In 2014. He looked very different now.

Then, he was fat. Now, most of the hair on his head was on his chin in a scraggly beard. And he was skinny; whether by means of MMA or his claimed, black belt training, or that special rapid weight-loss diet so popular on Guam, I don’t know and didn’t really care.

In anticipation of a physical assault, I discreetly gripped a pencil in my bag as he raged with his threats. The senator, probably expecting some low-life street brawl to transpire, as well, took a few steps back away from us. The business owner moved strategically into a position where he would likely be able to intervene to put a halt to such boorish antics in his place of business. And my mind raced. Where to stab this violent cretin if he would lay a hand on my person.

I’m not a fighter. I am too old for such silly shit. And I have issues and would have to ensure any fight ended as soon as possible before I had a meltdown. So, as the Calvo in-law continued his warnings and threats, I contemplated which eye to ram the pencil into; or if it should be in the ear; perhaps the throat.

I considered the pattern of blood as it might spurt out. Would it ruin my favorite shirt? Could I still have my meeting if I had too much blood on me? If I rammed it too deeply into the eye socket would it reach the brain? How quickly would it put an end to the encounter? Would I get in more trouble than the aggressor because this is, after all, where the justice system re-victimizes the victim in favor of the criminal?

I began to consider that this could be my relocation ticket off of this rock! As it would be so easy to push a troglodyte’s buttons, if I allowed the situation to escalate, a federal charge for violence against a senior citizen, and a civil lawsuit could lead to a settlement that would let me get outta here!

At the same time, I kept rolling over and over in my head, the feeling of embarrassment and shame of even being involved in this denigrating experience with a goon.

I didn’t understand why he kept saying I disrespected his wife.

Guamblog has nearly 5,000 posts and I could not recall in any of them disrespecting or disparaging Marie Calvo, who I always thought was one of the few truly nice ones in the entire bunch. In my head, I rifled through thousands of posts and could not think of one time I ever wrote something ill of the lady.

I was pretty sure he accosted me for a post that exposed his criminal dogfighting ring operations 6 or 7 years ago.  Still, I didn’t want to push back and elevate the heat without really knowing whether or not I had been disrespectful of his wife.

When I got home, I reviewed years of guamblog posts. And, as I thought, I had said nothing bad, ever about Marie Calvo. Then the irony sank in. One of the last times Marie Calvo’s name even appeared on the blog was in a post I did, reviewing Kandit News’ Troy Torres growing popularity and his putting on blast Eli’s own dishonorable, and disrespectful, adulterous affair with one of Marie’s best friends.

I mean, let’s get real. Me talking about another blogger’s gossip coverage is far less disrespectful to a man’s wife than that fellow sleeping around with multiple women, including one of her closest gal pals.

It was just the opposite. I, in fact, only said nice things about Marie - and even noted, how under her management, and along with Chris Barnett’s hard hitting investigative reporting, KUAM News was reclaiming the mantle of a being a legitimate news source.

Convinced then that Eli’s charge about disrespecting his wife was a fake out, and less to do with his anger over guamblog exposing his illegal, and horrific, dogfighting gambling ring. I looked up in the guamblog archives the dogfighting story. 

That dogfighting post received national attention and was picked up locally by PNC, and reported for several days by Kevin Kerrigan, much to the anger and chagrin of KUAM’s then-boss Joey Calvo – and Eli. But, what surprised even me about my own blog post on that criminal dogfighting gambling ring, was that I never once mentioned Eli Monge or Joey Calvo by name.

Not once….despite the fact that Eli was clearly identified in videos and photos by the individuals who provided evidence and information of his operations to guamblog and to PNC, as well. I was even called out by guamblog readers for XX’ing out the mention of Eli and Joey in a comment/message that was later posted.

The comments on the post, on the other hand, well…it is guamblog, and well-informed individuals who were quite familiar with Eli and Joey’s involvement in dogfighting on Guam put them on blast. Not me. Several of their associates, were named, too, including John Mafnas, who were identified as participants in the gambling and operations, as well.

With Eddie Calvo out of office; and Ray Tenorio safely ensconced somewhere in South Carolina, I thought I could finally be done with the threats to my safety and well-being. But, I guess, once a thug, always a thug.

Eli Monge, ranted and demanded that he was not a thug, which is why he was not pummeling me then and there Tuesday morning. Betraying his claims to the contrary, however, was his thuggish, boorish behavior and threats to exert violence on a senior citizen.

And at the end of it, no one said anything to him. Not the business owner or the senator. And, I am sure they felt that was perfectly fine to say nothing. Because that’s simply how it is on Guam.

The downwardly mobile social behavior, “thugging”, is common with rich and/or entitled individuals here. If you want to know what it wrong with Guam, all you have to do is consider this recent confrontation with this Calvo clan thug. It highlights how skewed the priorities of our “cool culture” wherein a light of respectability is permitted to shine on the thug, and not the victim.

It’s not just me. There is Bert Piolo. Monica Baza. John Paul Manuel. Asher Dean Lubofsky. Baby Faith Taitague. Just a few of the overlooked, disregarded and discounted. In favor of the thugs with money, the right family connections or the right friends in the wrong places to expect justice on Guam. In the silence afforded the fiend, victims of bullying and violence, and worse, are denigrated again through a mute complicity of the majority.

The graves and lives of the innocents are pissed on and the unending daily horror of families who must relive their loss every day are mocked. Mocked, by the silence of good people – good people, who represent an increasingly smaller portion of our society each year.

Cool-craving chuckleheads and their thug idols are nothing less than social strangling vines choking out what is good on Guam. Those who provide the villains a veil of silence and transparent cloak of tolerance, cover them with a veneer of depth; a shallow depth of character, defined by a bankrupt respect for what is wrong and for bad people, which in turn, is used by these bullies and thugs to create a mask in their attempt to make themselves appear as good and respectful people, when in fact, they are neither.

Guamblog noted in that 2013 post about a dogfighting operation on Guam linked directly to Eli, that there was a clear connection between those who support and promote this violent blood sport and the increase in violent crimes on Guam, particularly against women and children. It is part and parcel of a moral vacuity and deprived mindset that elevates violence in society.

I wrote then, that...

“Blindly turning our eye to the bloodsport of dogfighting because a prominent, wealthy political family, and their friends, enjoy watching dogs rip each other apart, contributes to the desensitization of our youth. It also represents a real threat to island residents no matter where they live. The same attitude that condones this sport, gives a wink and nod to human trafficking, sex slavery, prostitution and the depersonalization of women and children.”

Have we not since witnessed just this demise of our society and the increase in brutal violence as I stated would be a part of Guam’s future?

I also wrote, “Vindictive retribution and corruption from political leaders who don’t accept others disagreeing with them has fostered an increasingly hostile environment in our society that normalizes gross and violent behavior. The videos and photographs found on Facebook are just one more signpost on the path to a disastrous future led by hate.”

And here we are. Since 2013, violent crimes against the most vulnerable in our community have increased. Anti-social, depraved criminal activity among all communities and classes on Guam have spiraled out of control, even as our Justice system seems to foster and facilitate this horrendous decay of civility and community.

All of this is a direct fulfillment of my earlier warning on the social harm to be expected as a by-product of dogfighting activities and condoning it because you want to be “cool” with the rich kids, the golddiggers and their pals. Because you want to be silent, and tell yourself it’s none of your business; rather than admit your own fear of the bullies.

Dogfighting is a ghastly, deprived affair that is known to be an integral part of violent street culture. It sharply defines the true character of the persons engaged in this groteaque and horrid activity. With a strong appeal to an excrutiating low-bred class of thugs, these kinds of people typically also find expression of their savagery and anti-social tendencies through the use of violence against people, as well.

These sub-human elements in our society have no compunction with exerting their violent behavior in an effort to control others, their thoughts, opinions and actions by threatening and using violence. My recent confrontation, who warned me of the violence I can expect if I “write about him again” is proof of that; and how a thug will always be a thug no matter how expensive a mask they deign to wear or they marry in an attempt to gain fraudulent respect.