CORSAIR
SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 | VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 | SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
FIRST COPY OF THE CORSAIR IS FREE, EACH COPY AFTER IS 25
ENVIRONMENTALIST, STUDENT, POET
SMC STUDENT ENTERS POETRY SEMIFINALS (PG. 5)
EXPO LINE UPDATE (PG. 4)
NO-TILL: THE SUSTAINABLE FARMING METHOD (PG. 9)
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MUSLIMS (PG. 11)
THE MAN ON THE FIELD (PG. 12)
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CONTENT
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
EDITORIAL STAFF Devin Page ....................................Editor-in-Chief corsair.editorinchief@gmail.com Yasha Hawkins...........................Managing Editor corsair.managing@gmail.com Alissa Nardo ......................................News Editor corsair.news@gmail.com Bailey Peraita ..........................Health & Lifestyle corsair.lifestylepage@gmail.com Oskar Zinneman ........................... Opinion Editor corsair.opinionpage@gmail.com Josh Shure .........................................Sports Editor corsair.sportspage@gmail.com Nik Lucaj ..............Arts & Entertainment Editor corsair.calendarpage@gmail.com Claudius West .................. Multimedia Director corsair.multimediadept@gmail.com Jose Lopez ...........................................Photo Editor corsairphotoeditor@gmail.com William Miguel ..............................Design Editor corsair.designteam@gmail.com
Jeff Koons' sculpture Ballon Dog at The Broad museum, located on Grand Av. in downtown Los Angeles, California. Open to the public on Septermber 20th 2015. (Carlos Espinosa/Corsair)
CORSAIR STAFF Miriam Ferrer, Lorenz Fraser, Tua Brooks, Tiffany Morgan, Chase Maser, Daniela Barhanna, Carolyn Alfaro, Jeremy Sanders, Christian G. Martin, Ciara Buchanan, Kevin Colindres, Alexandra Obie, Adam Robert Thomas, Jake Hirsohn, Wynn Taylor, Hannah, Kovar, Semaj Harbin, Matthew Nichol, Frederick Riggs, Gina Abakians, Tarah Kelly, Madeline Shepp, Roxana Esquivias, Yesenia Sando, Samantha Ruvalcaba, Samuel Huntington, Ariana Kidd, Melina Guelli, Stephanie Irineo, Stefan Maduro
FACULTY ADVISORS Saul Rubin & Gerard Burkhart AD INQUIRIES: corsair.admanager@gmail.com (310) 434 - 4033
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR DEVIN PAGE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
FRONT COVER Amanda Ortiz, Literature and Poetry Student at Santa Monica College. (Carlos Espinosa/Corsair)
Fall is officially here and there is a continuous heatwave plaguing Southern California. The heat is making paying attention in classes particularly difficult; however, our job here to bring you the news does not cease. In this week's issue, we honor David Finkel's memory by recounting his legacy at Santa Monica College. The former Board of Trustee member passed July 4 in his home. He gave back to the students of SMC by providing tutoring and mentoring as well as enforcing policies to benefit students. A presence like Finkel's will undoubtedly be missed and a scholarship has been named in his honor by his family to continue the work that he started. In student news, SMC Poet Amanda Ortiz has made it to the semi-final round of Eber & Wein Publishing's National Amateur Poetry Competition. Ortiz gives
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us a glimpse of the thought process of a poet and how she uses what inspires her in her writing. Upon meeting her, Ortiz comes off as very shy, but when you read her poetry, you get a sense of who she is through her words. She is a very expressive person who cares about people and the environment around her. If she wins the poetry competition, she could win a grand prize of $2000. Thursday, a group of the Corsair staff and our adviser are taking a trip across town to attend the Online News Association Conference in Century City. Online news publications from across the country will be at the conference to network and business professionals from NBC, the LA and New York Times, Buzzfeed and more will be leading workshops with topics ranging from quirky and fun to very practical. The opportunity to attend this confer@THE_CORSAIR •
ence will assuredly be great for all of us as we will be in the same room to network as those who could potentially be giving us jobs in the future. The workshops will give us the tools that we need to build a better online presence and reach a wider audience as we are in the height of the digital age.
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NEWS
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
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IN MEMORY OF FINKEL
The Judge David B. Finkel Social Justice Scholarship TINA EADY STAFF WRITER When Judge David B. Finkel, former Board of Trustees member, passed on July 4th at his home in Santa Monica after a prolonged illness, many at Santa Monica College and the larger community mourned with the family. From an outpour of support through donations, the family decides to establish the Judge David B. Finkel Social Justice Scholarship to continue his legacy of service. Finkel was well known for his efforts in the struggle for civil rights, freedom of speech, affordable housing and educational equality spanning over six decades. But In the SMC counseling office, Finkel was known to tutor students in English and Political Science and help with their personal statements for college. Adelante Counselor Patti De Valle says, “With all the work he’s done in his life, the contributions he’s made on a large scale… I saw him do on an individual scale.” De Valle remembers Finkel sitting in the
counseling office to tutor underserved students and if none came he said, “ maybe they’ll come tomorrow-- he was there just to be of service,” says De Valle. Finkel was known too, for teaching voluntarily while serving on the Board of Trustees. At a time when most community college classes were detracting classes. Political Science professor, Ventris Woods says, “He would for sit on the floor of his classroom just to give a shy student the courage to participate.” According to Del Valle, the family-while sitting Shiva, a seven day period of mourning they, began receiving donations. The family decided one way to honor him was to continue his legacy of service and through those donations the Judge David B. Finkel Social Justice Scholarship was born. Finkel's service to the college was well known among his collaegues but was not known to most were his private donations
to Adelante and Black Collegians students. Both Del Valle, counselor of Adelante, and Sherri Bradford, program coordinator of Black Collegians, promised to keep his donations anonymous and each student that received the donation had to be involved in community service. "Besides his passion for working with students one-on-one, I saw his biggest smiles when he could see the impact he was making,” Bradford said. According to Lizzy Moore, Interim Dean of Institutional Advancement, Santa Monica residents responded with donations both large and small for a total $53,000 to date. “The goal is to create an endowment so that we can offer these scholarships in perpetuity for years and years to come,” Moore said. While serving on the Board of Trustees, Finkel was able to enforce policies to benefit students and student equity. Bradford says, “He was overwhelmingly humble but would
show his fierceness if anyone tried to create policy that hurt students.” One of his mentors Reyna Reyes who has a master’s degree in health care management says, “David helped me understand analytical thinking [and] interpreting... passages in English literature.” “David wanted students think outside of the box and push those boundaries,” says Reyes. “He inspired students to excel.” To qualify for the scholarship, students must be actively enrolled in the Adelante or Black Collegians programs and actively involved in community service. Students must have a minimum of a 2.5 G.P.A. Non-residents students who have graduated high school and undocumented students may apply. Scholarship donations are accepted in form of check sent to the Santa Monica Foundation at 1900 Pico Blvd.
FOR RENT: SMC'S FACILITIES GENERATE REVENUE
The track team works out on a corner of the track while SMC Corsair's (women's soccer) plays against Moorpark College while SMC Corsair football players walk on to the field to get ready for football practice later in the afternoon on Tuesday Sept. 22, 2015 at Corsair Stadium. (Scott Bixler/Corsair)
ALEXANDRA OBIEKEA STAFF WRITER From television film crews to small private high schools, there is a lot of interest in renting out Santa Monica College's facilities. Linda Sullivan, Associate Dean of Facilities Programming, decides who rents out the facilities of Santa Monica College, and how much they should pay. The top three facilities used on campus are Santa Monica College's football field, Corsair gymnasium, and the parking structure. The parking structure is rented out by production studio's film crews, such as network television shows like Modern Family. The gymnasium is rented out for basketball, volleyball, table tennis and recreational use for the public.
Between these two facilities, the school intakes about $140,000 in revenue annually. The football field is known to collect the most earnings of the three venues rented out. The price of rental is between $10,000 and $14,000 a day, depending on how many hours the field is rented for. Private high schools who do not have fields of their own rent SMC's field for practices and home games. Saint Monica Catholic High School most regularly uses the Corsair Field. "Saint Monica's wants more home games and practices than we would actually like to give them," Sullivan said. Saint Monica's rented Corsair field nine times in the 2013-2014 season, adding up to anywhere from $60,000 to $126,000 for
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their last football season alone. Facility rental revenue goes into paying expenses from what Sullivan calls "the black pit of the district." This "black-pit" includes: facility rental fees, events staff overtime, campus police overtime, grounds dept. overtime, custodial dept. overtime, telecom dept. overtime, athletics, and also the athletics overtime. This explains the high prices to rent out facilities such as the football field, gymnasium and the parking lots. While Santa Monica College does see revenue from renting out their facilities, a large cut of that is spent on overtime staffing these private events. Other facilities on campus come with different fees and rules for rentals. The main example of this is the Broad Stage, @THE_CORSAIR •
whose facility hosts their own private rental business. The revenue generated by the Broad Stage go towards SMC's performance arts programs, such as the music and dance departments. The Broad Stage is more expensive than other facilities, for rental fees include the cost of stage hands to work the theater equipment. When it comes to revenue collected by the Broad Stage only, about 10 percent goes to the actual rental fee. The rest goes towards covering the stage workers' overtime.
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NEWS
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
METRO RAIL UPDATE
Exponential improvement for SMC commuter students
Metro workers conduct testing of the new train coming into Santa Monica, California. (Dotan Saguy / Corsair)
ANDREW STINSON STAFF WRITER Life is about to get much better for SMC students who commute westbound towards campus. Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA or Metro) test trains began preliminary runs along the new Expo Line corridor extending the light rail service from its current terminus at the Culver City station to downtown Santa Monica at 4th St. and Colorado Ave. Completion of this Expo Line project is predicted for early to mid 2016. Ferris Kawar, SMC's Sustainability project manager, sees this as a viable solution for students troubled by parking on campus. "Everyone is so frustrated by with the parking situation here," Kawar said. "We don't need more parking structures. I feel
like we need to get more people out of their cars." Upon completion, students will be able to use the 17th Street/SMC station located at 17th Street and Colorado Ave., which is about a 15-minute walk away from campus. Plans to provide regular shuttle service to and from the station and SMC campus are currently in the works, said Steven Kelmer, Big Blue Bus driver. According to the City of Santa Monica’s website, travel time between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica will be cut to approximately 50 minutes on the Expo Line, even during rush hour traffic. Trains will eventually arrive every 6 to 12 minutes depending on the time of day. Current departure times on the existing phase of the Expo Line start at 4:54AM and
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end at 1:06AM weekdays. Friday night into Saturday morning departures extend from 12:50AM to 2:10AM. Currently, the base one way fare on Metro is $1.75 each way for one Metro bus or train ride. A transfer from Metro to municipal systems, such as Big Blue Bus and Culver City Bus, can be purchased for an additional .50 cents. Students attending an accredited college, university or vocational institution in Los Angeles County may purchase a reduced rate monthly pass good on all MTA buses and trains for $43. An application for the monthly pass must be made in person at a Metro Customer Center. The application cost is $1, requires an ID photo, and takes about 6 weeks to process. There is also great news for students
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who use other alternative modes of transportation to get to SMC. According to the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority’s website, “The Expo Line has been designed as a multi-modal transit parkway that includes a bikeway and bike facilities. The Phase 2 portion of the bikeway is mostly an exclusive bike path that travels along the right-of-way to 17th Street in Santa Monica, where it will connect to the City of Santa Monica’s existing bikeway system. The bikeway includes lighting and landscaping, and each station will feature secure bike racks and lockers for the convenience of transit patrons.” For those commuters who travel north and southbound to campus, keep an eye out for the Crenshaw/LAX Line that is currently under construction.
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VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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AMANDA ORTIZ Natural Born Poet
Amanda Ortiz, Literature and Poetry Student at Santa Monica College. (Carlos Espinosa / Corsair)
NIK LUCAJ ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Draped in layers topped by a beige cardigan, Amanda's ring-laden fingers tuck her blonde hair behind ears stove with pearl studs. Fingernails coated with chipped black polish lead the approach of a soft but secure handshake accompanied by a sincere smile. Filled with tame excitement and humble gratitude, she sits. Her eyes regard the tape recorder and notebook on the desk in front of her suspiciously, a side effect of the dim lighting inside the cold room which gives it the air of an interrogation. But the self-described "super awkward" middle child comes off as anything but and opens up quickly. Amanda Ortiz is a Santa Monica College student and poet whose poem "Bamboo" has made its way to the semi-final round of Eber & Wein Publishing's National Amateur Poetry Competition with $2,000 as the top prize. It is also set to be published in an upcoming multi-volume series called "Where the Mind Dwells." Amanda explains the process behind this and other poems she has written in a conversation that covers spirituality, eating habits, music and how to save the world. The story behind "Bamboo" is fairly prosaic but a poem about a bamboo plant is indicative of her usual theme. "I was sitting in my room," she says, "Thinking I wanted to write... and the bamboo just caught my eye... Usually in all of my poems I try to connect nature to myself... I feel like it's all connected and so it just evolved into the bamboo being so closely related to us. It was one of my favorite pieces to write because it just sort of happened." As one of her biggest inspirations she cites the world renowned book, "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. "I read that book a year ago right before I got into writing poetry. I could say that it was a big inspira-
tion to me. I loved how simple it was but that it was so big at the same time...I love the essence of the book." When it comes to the direct influences on her poetry however, she is an independent thinker. Friend and fellow SMC poet Chase Maser describes one of their first interactions. "I first met Amanda in Creative Writing class with Mario Padilla. [She] brought in a poem, she read and afterwards I spoke up to give feedback. I commented on her meter and rhyme and said that she should restructure the whole thing. She just grinned at me and rolled her eyes. The rest of the class loved the poem...Her work has always been spectacular." Unconcerned with convention, she says, "I don't read a lot of poetry, I'll be honest with you...Writing is such a natural and personal thing that I can't really say that I'm directly influenced." Much of her poetry is simply absorbed from the world around her. "I love that, being inspired by something random that you see. I think it's the best feeling. It just lights me up. 'Oh I wanna write about that and make it into something relatable.'" But Amanda can't be filed under just one label. She has a multitude of passions stemming from her spirituality. "I like to paint, do yoga, meditate, read books and write," she says, "Anything that I can do that's creative and just a way to connect. That's what I really enjoy." Poetry also led her in a musical direction. "I love playing the guitar," she says, "and taught myself shortly after poetry became so dear to me...Playing guitar brings me right into a creative, peaceful zone and words naturally come to mind and I end up with some kind of poetic piece." She credits becoming a vegetarian, which she has been for about three years, as what spurred her down a more creative and spiritual path. "Eating animals, when I really thought about what it was in truth, I didn't
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like it and I didn't feel comfortable with it anymore," she says. This led her to the study of other spiritual practices and how to stay well balanced. "I find peace through writing and creative expression, yoga and meditation." It also led her to be more conscious of the environment. While she is leaning toward majoring in english, environmental studies is also a possibility. "I enjoy learning about it and being the hummingbird like I think we all should be," she says, a reference to a parable about a hummingbird who tries to extinguish a raging forest fire all alone with small drops of water while all the other animals stand and watch helplessly—a message to always do what you can. The sophomore and LA native is an involved student as well and the first in her family to go to college. "I love being in school," she says, "It's a good environment to just explore yourself and meet people. I've met so many incredible people being here and I love that it's so diverse by age and ethnicity and everything. It's just awesome." Amanda will continue to write and view the world through an artistic lens that allows her to see the complexity and beauty in the simplest things. She mentions the possibility of transitioning to writing short fiction and says she would like to write a book someday. When asked what will save the world, she has no trouble answering, "The biggest problem in the world is that people lose touch with their truest connection to themselves and I think that clouds out the light inside of them and creates a lot of the problems that we think we have. I would say a way that we can change that and make the world a better place is to do what we can for ourselves and not focus on the whole but just one little thing that can inspire other people who might see you. Just take care of yourself and be positive. I think that will radiate and if others see it then it [will] spark something." @THE_CORSAIR •
Bamboo
Amanda Ortiz
Still they stand as the seasons bring change the sun the snow the wind the rain humility seeps through their veins as they breathe and they bend and they sway but not break in the breeze for within they are free in emptiness I see They grow And renew As do I As do you
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PHOTOSTORY
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
DOTAN SAGUY STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
BIG CLEA N UP
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VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
On Saturday, Heal the Bay hosted over 50 cleanup sites throughout L.A. County for its 2015 Coastal Cleanup Day. Alexandra Tower, Environmental Biology Professor at Santa Monica College was the co-captain for the cleanup site located near lifeguard tower 20 on Santa Monica Beach, which corresponds to the end of Pico Blvd. 515 SMC students came to join the noble effort on this hot Saturday. In total, they picked up 216 pounds of trash and 79 pounds of recyclables. Students first registered and after a short safety speech were dispatched throughout a stretch of the beach, with gloves and a bucket to collect the trash. Students would then bring back full buckets of trash to the recycling tent. There, Ferris Kawar, Manager of Sustainability at SMC taught students how to sort out the recyclable items: “Any type of paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, metal… at least 70% of what we come in contact with at home is totally recyclable. Just try to keep it clean and it will get recycled.”
According to Kawar, the reason it’s so important to clean up the beaches is because they act as the planet’s filters. There is a lot of focus on trying to come up with technologies that will roam the oceans sucking up all the floating plastics but that would also suck up too much valuable sea life, especially plankton and other little critters on a microscopic level. The beaches around the world are doing the same job every day when the tides and waves continually wash the trash back on shore. Kawar urges us to keep faithfully cleaning up the beach. “That’s why Heal the Bay and all our precious volunteers from SMC were so important that day,” he said. Coastal Cleanup Day is the world’s largest volunteer day involving 560,000 volunteers from 91 countries picking up over 16 million pounds of trash. For the past three years SMC has done its part by adopting a section of the beach from Tower 20 near Pico Blvd to the pier and picked it clean. This year over 500 volunteers came out on a hot
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PHOTOSTORY
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Saturday morning to methodically comb through the sand looking for every particle of trash that has been left by beach goers or has washed onto the shores. Most of the material collected is small bits of styrofoam, cigarette butts, and fragments of plastic. Amazingly, though, 300 pounds were collected in only three hours. “We need to faithfully keep cleaning up the trash that we create on land, catch it before it gets out into our oceans and also create better laws that prevent the trash in the first place,” said Kawar. He believes Coastal Cleanup Day is a great opportunity for SMC students to help raise public awareness about oceanic health and plastic pollution while getting a lot of trash out of the watersheds and off of the beaches before the northern hemisphere winter. The Center for Environmental & Urban Studies hosts the day each year. /THECORSAIRNEWS •
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PHOTOSTORY
(on previous page) Volunteers
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
jump a stream on their way to
their assigned cleanup spot at the Heal The Bay Coastal Cleanup Day. (Dotan Saguy) (top image)
Volunteers carefully empty buckets full of
waste while looking for recyclable items to sort out during the Heal The Bay Coastal Cleanup Day. (Dotan Saguy) (center left image)
Ferris Kawar (Sustainability Project
Manager at Santa Monica College) teaches student volunteers about recycling during the Heal The Bay Coastal Cleanup Day. (Dotan Saguy) (center right image)
Alex Kierlanczyk (Lead President's
Ambassador at Santa Monica College) delivers the safety guidelines to a group of student volunteers while his colleague counts the volunteers at the Heal The Bay Coastal Cleanup Day. (Dotan Saguy) (bottom image)
Volunteers check instructions as they start
their shift at the Heal The Bay Coastal Cleanup Day in Santa Monica, California. (Dotan Saguy)
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HEALTH & LIFESTYLE
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
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NON-TILLAGE FARMING Sustainable, Not Practical
Santa Monica College students observe carrots that they had to harvest in order to make room for the new planting on Thursday at the Organic Learning Garden. (Dotan Saguy)
ANDREW OLENDER STAFF WRITER Organic food and food products are one of the main concerns of controllable health. It’s the trend among fruits, vegetables, meats, and even packaged products are known to have organic ingredients. Although buying organic foods might seem like the healthiest option, the farming methods for these foods may not be that healthy. Currently, large-scale food-producing companies tend to gravitate towards the easiest and most convenient methods to feed the immense size of the current population. As for agricultural production, this translates into incorporating additives and growing genetically modified food products. In stark contrast to convenient methods, the concern for consumer health and food insecurity increases. Agricultural production is molding its current farming methods to bring ease to the concerned consumer. But what consumers don’t know, is that tillage farming techniques are required to grow food sustainably. Simply put, tillage farming is a way of growing crops or pasture without disturbing the soil through preparation that may be damaged by various chemicals. Edward H. Faulkner states his concern for agricultural production that emulates the attitude toward most current farming techniques in his book, "Plowman’s Folly." "The truth is that no one has ever advanced
a scientific reason for plowing," he says. Tillage farming techniques involve the simple process of soil overturning, or what most might know as plowing. This type of farming allows commercial farmers to meet their production needs. The needs include the aerating, or loosening of the soil, and the irrigation of water that keeps the soil as dry as possible. Although tillage farming does address these issues, the aerating of soil can be done with organic techniques within the topsoil. The disadvantages of this tillage farming technique outweigh the benefits. However, non-tillage farming methods do not disrupt lower levels of soil or break any sort of structure, while providing the plants grown with nutrients from previous crop cycles. Studies from the Agricultural Institute of Canada have shown changes in soil quality under non-tillage farming systems. The studies gave evidence of long term involvement with microbial nutrients in the soil during non-tillage farming techniques. The U.S. Department of Agriculture stands right there with Canada as well stating in "Soil Tillage and Crop Rotation" of the Crop and Livestock section, “Intensive soil tillage can increase the likelihood of soil erosion, nutrient runoff into nearby waterways, and the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere (2012).”
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Virgilio Cuasay, a volunteer at the SMC Center for Environmental and Urban Studies says that “Tillage farming as an industrial agriculture relies on synthetic inputs.” Nutrients used in conventional farming are often synthetic, rather the organic nutrients that come from non-till farming. Unfortunately, these synthetic inputs come with side effects. Professor Richard Mulvaney with the University of Illinois stresses that synthetic nitrogen fertilizer stimulates soil microbes, which feast on organic matter. He explains that over time, the soil microbes completely get rid of all the organic matter. Unfortunately, tillage farming techniques rely on synthetic nitrogen along with many other synthetic nutrients that effect not just the soil, but the quality of the plant. Dana Morgan, a retired Santa Monica College professor can still be found during her free time helping out in the SMC garden. She explains that, “Nutrients in grown food have gone down by 30 percent due to the synthetic nutrients used in tillage farming.” Industrial farming has reached a point where production has got in the way of consumer health. Studies through the years have proven that non-tillage farming produce greater amounts of organic nutrients in the soil. In
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Edmeades’ review of long-term manure trials (2003), he found that topsoil is highly enriched in P, as well as K, calcium. The conservation of topsoil is clearly essential to be able to preserve organic nutrients needed for plant growth. Organic matter (roots, leaves, etc.) left over in topsoil through crop rotation provides the next crop grown with nutrients such as vitamin P and K. It’s a wide belief that composting is a great way to make your very own nutritious soil. Morgan advocates the use of compost boxes as a way to create healthy soil that is sustainable for growing food. She also explains that after harvesting a crop leaving the roots to decompose in the same soil your next crop is planted in is the way all farming should be done. Morgan also describes an organization called “Kiss the Ground,” and their goals is to restore soil. Kiss the Ground’s mission statement states, “Half of the topsoil on the planet has been lost in the past 150 years. Topsoil loss is due to over-tilling, deforestation, over-grazing and chemical fertilizers.” Advocates in Los Angeles County and around the world are joining together to raise awareness of the importance of organic topsoil. Topsoil is not just necessary to the quality of food, but for the well being of the future of the soil.
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10 HEALTH & LIFESTYLE
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
GLOBALLY USED HERBICIDE CONTAINS CANCEROUS CHEMICALS Monsanto receives more bad press
Illustration by AJ Perry
BAILEY PERAITA HEALTH & LIFESTYLE EDITOR Common ways to avoid cancer are eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and avoiding smoking. But even if you live a healthy lifestyle and have genetics without a strain of cancer in your family tree it is still possible to be susceptible to cancer due to reasons beyond your control. Chemicals and preservatives that are commonly found in 80% of our foods and home products are rapidly becoming the cause for infertility and melanoma amongst various other cancers. Since the 1950's, production of additives have been used to create longer use out of products, a longer shelf life and in most cases to cut costs of production. And in breaking news, The California Environmental Protection Agency announced that it plans to label glyphosate — the most commonly used herbicide and main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup
— as a chemical “known to cause cancer.” Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide, discovered by chemist John Franz in the 70's that is used to kill weeds and pesky grasses known to compete with commercial crops grown around the globe. Unfortunately this ingredient has now been discovered to be cancerous. Monsanto’s seed products sprayed with Glyphosate-containing RoundUp dominate the global market for genetically engineered crops to the extent of 80 percent of the GM corn market and 93 percent of the GM soy market. This means that the foods in your household, bought from your grocery store and eaten regularly by you and your family are grown by Monsanto’s seeds and sprayed on the regular with the Roundup product that is now known to be cancerous. The medical impacts that could result
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from a small amount of long-term exposure to Roundup could lead to kidney and liver problems. The World Health Organization’s research arm also recently found that the chemical is carcinogenic to humans. The unfortunate side is that Monsanto has been a company since the 1970's accounting for over 45 years in the food supply that have exposed consumers for this long. While environmental activists celebrated the debut of this information that is another shove at the Monsanto franchise, the EPA will allow the public to provide written commentary until October 5, 2015 on the proposition 65. Under the proposition businesses are required to provide a “clear and reasonable” warning before exposing consumers to cancerous products. The warning could be labels on a product, workplace postings, distributed notices at apartment buildings, or a notice published in a @THE_CORSAIR •
newspaper, however, the listing does not lead to a restriction or ban on sales of the product. For more information on proposition 65, the California government posted this notice for the public. For written comment, contact in e-mail form P65Public.Comments@oehha.ca.gov, with “NOIL” in the subject line for consideration of your stance on the topic and listed below is the appropriate mailing address: Ms. Esther Barajas-Ochoa Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment P.O. Box 4010, MS-19B Sacramento, California 95812-4010 Fax: (916) 323-2265 Street Address: 1001 I Street Sacramento, California 95814
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OPINION
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
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Photograph by Bailey Peraita at the King Fahad Mosque in Culver City, Calif.
THE MISCONCEPTION ABOUT TERRORISTS Extremism v. Perceived Terrorism BAILEY PERAITA HEALTH & LIFESTYLE EDITOR If all citizens of Earth were compared to the amount of students at a high school dance in an auditorium, Muslims would account for 23% of the room. And if political candidates were nominees for the prom king and queen, you’d take their word and popularity seriously. With that being the case and common sense attached, you have to wonder why “prom king nominee” or republican candidate, Ben Carson has the audacity to speak to 1/5 of his peers with the candor and personal premise “a Muslim cannot be a president.” Let’s look at the representation of Muslims in America; pre and post 9-11: Americans non-Muslims love to play the victim card and 9-11 was the last time they experienced true horror yet they till hold on to the victim card to this very day which now comes with ignorance. And lest we forget, how non-Muslims tend to not differentiate that it, 9-11 involved extremists. Let’s consider the pre and post 9-11 experience and take it from the words of Greek, non-Muslim Billionaire Alki David’s interview in Telegraph, “In Nigeria I was a white guy, in England I was a black guy, and after 9/11, I was a terrorist!” He laughs. He laughs with the humor that reflects the candor of America now emulated through Dr. Carson. After 9-11, anyone remotely brown that spoke a Middle-Eastern language was considered
a threat based off of ignorance that perpetuated a fear. Islam, which Muslims follow in summation is basically an extension of Christianity. The extension includes respect for women, an important part that is often left out. Instead, Muslims are misrepresented through convoluted misinterpretations such as having 72 virgins in heaven, wanting revenge, and committing harm to nonMuslims. The Muslims who have done irrefutable damage to the U.S. and other regions are in fact extremists. A good analogy to describe this would be: the Westboro Baptist Church is to Christians as The Brotherhood is to Muslims; extremists that represent an exaggerated fraction of that religion. So when politicians or “prom king candidates” are speaking on a platform feel the need to boldly speak about roughly 1.57 billion of the world population that happen to be involved in the voting process, there poses a few axioms: What is he thinking? Is it possible that a man with a PhD. Spent too much on college instead of common sense? Or simply put, is he aware of the demographics he’s reaching? As for demographics according to the book, "Being Muslim in America" published by the Bureau of International Information Programs, "The size of the Muslim-Amer-
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ican population has proved difficult to measure because the U.S. Census does not track religious affiliation. Estimates vary widely from 2 million to 7 million. What is clear, however, is that the Muslim-American population has been growing rapidly as a result of immigration, a high birth rate, and conversions.” Clearly Carson’s pie charts of American citizens are dated if he’s not acutely aware of the voters he could possibly be gaining for his personal gain. Then again, honesty is the best policy
school was serious about his invention they would have put the school on lockdown and called a bomb squad but instead they humiliated him by arresting him. Thankfully, the progressive science and tech companies such as Microsoft, Facebook and universities MIT and Harvard have educated themselves enough to not allow misconception about religion to interfere with education and allowed him the opportunity to pursue his interests and support him publicly.
ʻʻThe Westboro Baptist Church is to Christians as The Brotherhood is to Muslims; extremists that represent an exaggerated fraction of that religion.ˮ and Carson’s blunt views are something he’s completely entitled to. Everyone is entitled to ignorance but when a man that’s been a part of a marginalized group chooses to not astray from stereotypes, it’s confusing. Empathy was just too much to expect. The divide of Muslims is not political, it’s personal. However sometimes that overlaps and in Carson’s case, it does. The personal ignorance held by some non-Muslims in America just goes to show that when a bright, high school student in Texas by the name of Ahmed Mohamed is arrested for building a digital clock. While most teens are concerned with frivolous issues, this child was humiliated in his pursuit of engineering. Mohamed was accused of terrorism but did absolutely nothing of the sort and if his former high @THE_CORSAIR •
Out of all the terrorist attacks in the grand scheme of things, Muslims do not contribute nearly as much as non-Muslims and when they do they're usually extremists. For consideration, Buddhists monks in Burma have committed thousands of crimes against Muslims since 2004. Taking into consideration the concern about Muslims in the U.S, the media, religious groups, people and politicians now seem misguided. It helps to talk. Talking allows the chance to clear up any misjudgments. It's necessary to discuss issues such as terrorism and perceived terrorism. Hopefully, next time a politician with an immense platform gaining undeniable news coverage will talk it out before making brash statements.
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SPORTS
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 02 • SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE
THE MAN, THE MYSTERY, THE MAALOUF FREDERICK RIGGS STAFF WRITER As the midfielder in blue wearing the number 23 put on a dizzying display of moves and passed the ball up the field to an open teammate, he led yet another attack for the Corsairs towards El Camino’s net. He swept wide towards the sideline and sprinted down the field to put himself in position to get the best opportunity to score. However, no luck; he retreated back to his position towards the middle of the field with a stern, disappointed look on his face, after missing an opportunity in a closely contested game. He knew those sort of chances don't come often, but he knew the next time he got his chance he'd be there again to try and convert. It only takes a few minutes to realize that Claodio Maalouf is one of the best players on the field. It was not a coincidence that Maalouf bears the same number, 23, as other sporting legends such as Michael Jordan, David Beckham and Don Mattingly. Maalouf chuckled after I asked him why he chose to wear the number while we sat on the west sideline of Santa Monica College’s field as he prepared for Monday afternoon’s practice. Arguably one of the best junior college soccer players in California, Maalouf’s rise to one of the stars of the SMC men’s soccer team is a unique and amazing journey. Maalouf was originally born and raised in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. When he was 17, he was selected as one of five players from his city to travel to Italy for a week of intense soccer training with the legendary soccer team Juventus F.C. Upon graduating high school in Dubai, Maalouf moved to Madrid, Spain in order to train and compete
with some of the best young soccer players in the world. His dream is to one day become a professional soccer player. After spending nearly a year in Spain, in 2012 Claodio moved with his family to Southern California. “My parents live in California, so I have my family here and everything,” he said while lacing up his cleats. After a living in Santa Monica for a while, Maalouf got a call that would change his life forever. He was invited to play for Czech
“I got the national team call...” division one club team FK Dukla Praha in Prague. “It was like the third best team in the Czech Republic. It was like a big club there but I played for the youth, the under21 team." While he was not under a professional contract or being paid to play, he got his first taste of high level European soccer. "They just paid for housing. It wasn’t a professional contract,” he said as he started to stretch and warm up before practice. After playing a full season in the Czech Republic, Maalouf was given an opportunity to represent the national team for the country of his ethnic background, Lebanon. “I got the national team call,” he said. He was also chosen to play in the Lebanese FA cup for the Nejmeh Sporting Club. It only took him 23 minutes to record a goal in his first appearance. The team played their way
to the tournament final only to lose by a goal. Eventually, Maalouf found his way back to sunny California where he ended up at Santa Monica College. “It’s the best community college right? I want to graduate as soon as possible and hopefully get a Major League Soccer contract after that.” At the moment, Maalouf has his sights set on winning a championship this year. With a strong team full of excellent athletes, hoisting a trophy is well within the realm of possibility for the Corsairs this season. “Hopefully we can win the conference. That’s our first goal and we can see from there.” “Claodio has been a fantastic addition to our team at Santa Monica College," said SMC head coach Tim Pierce. "He’s a very dynamic, versatile player and he The Santa Monica Corsairs Men's Soccer team midfielder #23 Claodio Maalouf is gives us a lot of offensive a freshman originally from Dubai. (Daniel Bowyer/Corsair) firepower.” Maalouf is making a name for himself as an agile and Maalouf. Whether it is playing for the crafty goal scorer. However, few realize that Lebanese national team, in the Czech Rehe can play almost any position on the field. public or with the SMC men’s soccer team, “He can play in a lot of different spots for one thing remains constant in Maalouf ’s us and is really good at creating and scoring life and that is his enthusiasm and love for goals for us. He's a big addition to our group,” the game of soccer. Sometime in the near said Pierce. future he might end up on TV playing for Santa Monica College is blessed to have a professional team or in the World Cup the raw and fantastic talent of Claodio playing for Lebanon.
You have a world of ideas. Let’s hear them.
At CSU Dominguez Hills, our students represent many cultures. And share multiple perspectives. With one of the nation’s most diverse campuses, including a thriving international community, we encourage our students to embrace their individuality. While preparing them to collaborate in a global workforce. U.S. News & World Report’s ranks CSU Dominguez Hills among the most ethnically diverse universities in the West.
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