This Month in Global CQ Researcher

Wildlife Smuggling by Rob Kiener, October 2010

Can disappearing species be saved from poachers?

Traffickers are slaughtering some of the world’s most beloved endangered or threatened animals for their body parts – including elephant tusks, tiger penises and bear gall bladders – to supply the booming black market in souvenirs, trophies and traditional Chinese medicine. Other animals are shot by African hunters to meet the burgeoning demand for “bushmeat,” both to feed the hungry in refugee camps and to satisfy the tastes of city dwellers. Thousands of other animals, including exotic birds and rare monkeys, are trapped to meet the growing demand for exotic pets. Using satellite phones, helicopters and the Internet, the increasingly sophisticated smugglers – often part of organized crime syndicates – generate up to $20 billion annually, making wildlife trafficking the world’s third-most-lucrative illegal trade.

Experts suggest two controversial solutions: banning all ivory trade and “farming” tigers and other exotic species to supply the seemingly insatiable demand for their body parts. While international conservation treaties have slowed the carnage, experts say tougher enforcement is needed before some of the Earth’s last wild creatures disappear forever.

To read this article and others visit our Articles and Databases webpage and click on Global CQ Researcher. Select the Off Campus Access link for information on how to access this resource from off campus locations.

The Library Catalog is another good source for locating information on this issue

This Week in CQ Researcher

Journalism Standards in the Internet Age
by Tom Price, October 8, 2010

Are the news media sacrificing ethics online?

Press critic A.J. Liebling of The New Yorker wrote in 1960 that “freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” A half-century later, everyone with an Internet connection owns a virtual press. And many of them scorn the journalism standards that have guided America’s mainstream media since before Liebling penned his famous aphorism.

Among those standards: accuracy above all else, plus fairness, balance, thoroughness, independence, civility, decency, compassion and responsibility – along with a clear separation of news from opinion. Now, operators of some news-like websites unabashedly repeat rumors and throw accuracy to the wind. Vile, anonymous reader comments on mainstream media websites mock civility. Add the pressures of Internet speed and shrinking news staffs, and serious journalists wonder what kind of standards – if any – will prevail during the next 50 years.

• Should journalistic websites permit anonymous comments?
• Should news media be held legally responsible for all material on their own websites?
• Should news media allow their reporters to express opinions?

To read this article and others visit our Articles and Databases webpage and click on CQ Researcher. Select the Off Campus Access link for information on how to access this resource from off campus locations.

On November 2: Get Out and Vote!

Every vote counts. Make sure yours does.

On Nov. 2, 2010, California will hold a General Election. Many positions are up for election, such as California’s governor and the United States Senator. We will also have a chance to cast our vote for local measures and seats in different positions, such as our very own SWC Governing Board. Voting is a hard earned right we have as United States citizens.

For voting details, go to the County’s Registrar of Voters. You may register to vote (you have until October 18, 2010 to register to participate in this fall’s elections), check the status of registration, find your polling site, see a sample ballot, read the statements from candidates, etc. Go to: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/voters/Eng/Eindex.shtml

Who may register to vote?

· A U.S. Citizen

· A resident of California

· At least 18 years of age on or before the next election

· Not in prison or on parole for a felony conviction

· Not declared mentally incompetent by court action

Also, visit the library’s exhibit on the third floor, Get Out and Vote, to see a sample of the collection’s resources on the issue of voting.

Check It Out

Do one green thing : saving the earth through simple, everyday choices / by Mindy Pennybacker
New Book Shelf: GE195.5 .P46 2010

This straightforward guide provides multiple lists on good and bad choices for dozens of products and uses. From an opening chapter on just why bottled water is the wrong choice in very nearly every instance imaginable to sections on fish, meat, and produce, Pennybacker includes not only “Choose it/Lose it” tablesbut also clearly elucidates why one should reach for canned wild salmon caught in Alaska
as opposed to its farmed equivalent from the eastern seaboard.

As a former editor for The Green Guide, a National Geographic Web site,
Pennybacker has the ecoqualifications to back up her assertions, and she also includes plenty of source notes and Web site references. Most importantly, she assumes nothing about her readership other than a curiosity about green
living, and tackles everything while creating her lists from unionmade
goods to humane living conditions to cancer-causing ingredients. The format and language are clear, and the outlook is determined as Pennybacker lays it all on the line for those eager to change,and leaves readers with no excuses for not starting immediately.
(reviewed by Colleen Mondor for Booklist 2/15/2010)

Check out Do one green thing : saving the earth through simple, everyday choices, available now in the library on the New Book Shelf GE195.5 .P46 2010

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ARTstor - Editorial Cartoon Collection

ARTstor has collaborated with Columbia College Chicago to share more than 3,200 images of drawings and sketches by John R. Fischetti in the Digital Library. John R. Fischetti (1916 - 1980) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist whose work appeared in the New York Herald Tribune, the Chicago Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times, and Stars and Stripes. Fischetti's political cartoons satirized local politics, social issues, and current events, including the Watergate scandal, the energy crisis, the economy, and terrorism. The John Fischetti Manuscript Collection at Columbia College Chicago includes over thirty notebooks containing drawings and sketches illustrating Fischetti's creative process from 1960 to 1980.


To view the John R. Fischetti Cartoon Archive (Columbia College Chicago): go to the ARTstor Digital Library, select the orange "GO" button in the upper right side of the website, then browse by collection, and click "John R. Fischetti Cartoon Archive (Columbia College Chicago);" or, if you are on campus or have an ARTstor account for off campus access, simply follow this link: http://library.artstor.org/library/collection/columbiacollege_fischetti


To view ARTstor from off campus locations you need to create an ARTstor account at http://www.artstor.org/ from any computer on the Southwestern College campuses.

Check It Out

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
New Book Shelf call number 3212


Author Haruki Murakami often borrows titles of music for the titles of his books. Norwegian Wood refers to a Beatles song, “Norwegian Wood, (This Bird Has Flown) that was written by John Lennon, and was inspired by a love affair. When Haruki Murakami published his novel, in the late 80s, he became so popular in Japan that he chose to leave his country for a while settling in Europe and in the USA.

It is not a surprise that Japanese readers liked his novel so much, - especially the younger generation – because it is essentially a love story that spoke to many of his readers. The book is set in the 1960s Tokyo in a university where students like many other students around the world at that time were protesting against the present society. The main protagonist, Toru, is torn between Naoko, a beautiful but emotionally wounded young woman and Midori, who is full of life. As he faces love, death, loyalty, experimentation and then love again, we see a sharp picture of the 60s Japanese society through the eyes of Toru.

reviewed by —Erika Prange, Faculty Librarian Southwestern College.


Check out Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, available now in the library on the New Book Shelf 3212.