Mahurangi Magazine cartoons
The following cartoons were commissioned by the Mahurangi MagazineIn each case, the concept is that of the Mahurangi Magazine; interpretation and, in almost all cases, the execution is by Craig V Powell, Majorlook Productions.
How trail can help save a habitable planet
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Guardian is throwing everything at it. Well, nearly everything. While its ‘Keep it in the ground’ campaign is all over its environment section, there is no trace, on the newspaper’s main online masthead, of the millennial moral…
Procrastination now killer of all time
As the Member for Epping, he failed to alert Parliament to the threat posed by the rearmament of Germany. Despite Winston Churchill’s increasingly urgent warnings, it took the invasion of Poland to convince Britian to take action. The invasion of Austria, albeit...
Tactics and polls or preference voting
It was uncannily similar to ancient Greece. In Saturday’s tactical voting, where 54% could be said to have voted against John Banks, citizens were mimicking the first formal Greek use of the ballot, which was to ostracise a civic leader—his name having…
Graduatedly preferentially fixing fixed threshold
The two things are tied together. The coattails provision and the 5% threshold, in New Zealand’s implementation of mixed member proportional. But first, it is necessary to consider why either might be necessary. Mixed member…
First challenge is deciding what is a priority
The draft Rodney Local Board Plan submission form begins with: “I agree with the following priorities proposed in the draft local board plan” The difficulty is that, in the draft plan, seven priorities are listed. The first listed, for example, is: Priority…
Aside from mad motorway a reasonable plan
The draft local board plan is mostly Mahurangi-friendly. Mahurangi is mentioned six times, and the Mahurangi Action Plan twice. Even Mahurangi River dredging gets mentioned, which is right and proper considering how well canvassed…
Mya’s harbour-saving message on open-ground
I am explaining the importance of open-ground plants, because I think open-ground is the best way to provide plants to plant along the edges of rivers and streams. We need these areas planted to protect the Mahurangi’s benthic community…
Make existing highway safer, concentrate on Christchurch
Christine Rose is emphatic that Christchurch comes first. Reacting to strong indications by the government this morning that the planned Pūhoi–Wellsford motorway will have to wait for Christchurch to be rebuilt, the Labour Party candidate for Rodney…
Google and the Shweeb sounds of success
The first section would run to the Wilson Cement Works. In time, it could run between Snells Beach and the Mahurangi College. And then form a coastal ‘walkway’ from Waiwera to Warkworth. Largely unnoticed by New Zealanders, the Shweeb is set to…
Prendergast loss somehow pinned on preferential
As mayoral majorities go, it’s one of the slimmest. Because the democratic world is so inured to the deficiencies of first-past-the-post, it mostly goes unnoticed that mayors are typically elected by a minority vote, often a tiny minority. Whereas Celia…
Ramp renewables but energy efficiency first
It doesn’t seem cheap. Filling the tank seems to cost a prince’s ransom, particularly for older folk who can remember doing it prior to the first oil shock. For a decade before 1973, four dollars would fill the tank of a Mini. But the oil shocks to date are nothing to...
Goodbye old motorway, hello new rail
It was an entirely reasonable expectation. That the best features of the constituent local bodies would be melded into the new region‑wide council. Len Brown’s announcement that he would “take onboard the Waitakere eco‑city concept” may…
Safety first trumps weak economics
A good deal of sense was talked in Auckland and Wellington yesterday. Auckland Regional Council listened to two options that put safety first, in quickly and affordably upgrading the dangerous highway between Pūhoi and Wellsford motorway, presented…
Motorway extension all right for some
Submissions on the proposed Pūhoi–Wellsford motorway close today. Unless the submission is from the pro– Pūhoi access group that met with the New Zealand Transport Agency Friday, which has until 16 August. The agency’s Amanda…
As seen at the Matakana Cinemas
The Craig V Powell animated cartoon that advertised, for a little too long, the Mahurangi Magazine at Matakana Cinemas:
Fossil fuel addiction Gulf of denial
Fully one-third of the Oval Office speech is about America’s addiction to fossil fuels. But while that is undeniably courageous, given the unforgiving mood of the wounded United States electorate, the reasons that President Barack Obama gives for that addiction being...
A launch a première and call that a celebration
The venue could not have been better. It had location. The Mahurangi Magazine e-mailed a last-minute heads up that the bar was opening at 5.30pm. (This was later amended further to 5pm but a second email might have sent a message of unseemly preoccupation with drink!)...
Last-minute changes cause to plan for celebration
Aucklanders are Mahurangi Harbour’s best friends… …and, potentially, its worst enemies. Individually, Aucklanders would turn Mahurangi into Mangawhai. Collectively, with regional governance, they will protect that value they and the locals hold dear: The sense of...
Overreact now to Gulf invasion and war on a habitable climate
What we need is a decent nuclear accident, then they’ll vote Values. That was well before Chernobyl, in fact five years before Three Mile Island. And sadly, the self-appointed Values Party spokesman wasn’t being factious. Aside from the tragic state of mind that would...
Media ineptitude and world awash with disinformation
Classical propaganda is instantly recognisable. It flutters to earth from an enemy aircraft or is plastered up in the form of clumsy government-printed posters in public places. But the art of the propagandist has become extraordinarily sophisticated, and civilisation...
Voting for and against, and with first past the post
It is a continual improvement advocate’s worst nightmare. It would be like lining up the 15-year-old family hack at Bathurst, without even checking the dipstick. Mixed member proportional is about to be compared with a yet-to-be-determined range of other systems, with...
Aotearoa has mixed-member proportional half right
Only half know what they are doing. That’s in general elections, where the turnout puts local government elections to shame—in spite of voters needing to travel no further than the mailbox. And not only do a mere 52% understand ‘which of the two votes…
Notion to exclude Mahurangi uncalled-for
Preposterous—the word Mahurangi Action founder John Male impassionedly used. He was describing a proposal whereby 80 copies of the 416-page Jade River: A History of the Mahurangi be photocopied to nominally discharge the undertaking to publish given to its terminally...
High-impact cartoon could spark low-impact design revolution
Earlier yesterday, quite coincidentally, I tried to call Ross Kinnaird, to sound him out about a new personal project—the trifling matter of fixing MMP. I haven’t spoken to Ross for some time; the last was at Georg Kohlap’s funeral. We might have had a serious session...
Should Rodney District Council become a unitary authority?
As quoted in an internal report for the Christchurch City Council titled Procedural Requirements for Creation of a Unitary Authority The regional and district plans required by the Resource Management Act 1991 can be developed and combined into a single plan. This...