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Post by nomad on Sept 1, 2016 11:57:44 GMT
Winged Obsession whatever you think of it and yes it painted all butterfly collectors tainted with the same brush, was a true story of what happened to the Japanese self confessed butterfly smuggler Yoshi. I guess I am in a happy position of deciding long ago that I would never make any money out of my hobby and thus I would enjoy it all the more even though I might be poorer by it. However, I am very pleased there are some that do because otherwise I would have to collect something else. I do understand how collectors hate that book because it Painted them all weird and odd. Yoshi took the risk, got caught, did his time and then moved on with his life.
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Post by exoticimports on Sept 1, 2016 13:22:40 GMT
"Winged Obsession" was the worst piece of journalism I ever read. No real attempt to just understand a little bit about collection, very one-sided cheap rabble-rousing. And at least I had expected that she would have tried to go on an expedition with illegal butterfly poachers in some of the interesting countries. Nothing. She prides herself of having talked with that Japanese trader once, and everything else is just the talk of one police officer. Very very disappointing book.
It wasn't journalism, it was a story based on events but replete with fabrication.
The story paints Yoshi as one with zero personal hygiene. I never observed this during his public appearances. Whether this trash came from the author or the USFWS investigator I don't know.
The whole super-secret investigation of Yoshi was no secret. Everybody knew about it, including Yoshi. Everybody knew that Ed Newcomer (I still have his fake business card) was with USFWS. Now, why Yoshi chose to ignore that I can't say.
Ed Newcomer was an obvious agent. His cover sucked- his card said, and he claimed, that he was into marine parts. But when I asked him about boats he didn't know shit.
In an interview after Yoshi's arrest, Newcomer claimed: " Well, that was a three-year road. It took three years of undercover work to gain Yoshi's confidence and actually get him to sell me endangered species." Now that's funny, because he sold them to everyone else, and did so rather openly.
Then there was the whole (and wholly fictitious) account of a west coast entomologist who purportedly caught local endangered butterflies, and died falling off a cliff on an overseas collecting trip- a story completely trashed by his widow. The truth was in fact a polar opposite of this "journalistic" rubbish.
This left-wing "journalism" does a wonderful job of brainwashing the soccer moms and tree huggers. At no time does the author question why USFWS didn't just bust Yoshi, but promoted his importation of "the grand slam". Similarly, an almost identical rubbish story The Lizard King glorifies USFWS while denigrating the enthusiast, while failing to question USFWS's incompetence with species in question and failing to acknowledge the incredible contribution of herp breeders and suppliers who were "forced" to smuggle specimens to obtain breeding stock.
Winged Obsessions is rubbish. The author should have been sued for defamation of character- but that's hard, she'd say she merely repeated what Newcomer said, but it's going to be hard to get the truth from him- he's in Botswana.
Chuck
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