With the soon-to-be local government juggernaut – known as Auckland Council – heading full steam ahead towards becoming a super city on November 1, it appears as though every weird and wonderful sector of the community is complaining about the new council’s structure.
The vast new super city - stretching from Franklin to Rodney - will consist of one mayor elected by everyone right across the region and 20 councillors elected from 12 wards throughout the region. The structure will also include 21 local boards to represent the different communities that make up greater Auckland.
However, ever since the restructure of Auckland’s local government was mooted – and especially since it has got underway – there has been a cacophony of protest, whining, complaining, grumbling and general nitpicking.
This has been led by the usual suspects – those outspoken groups and people with vested interests who think they know best and always oppose any change. This eclectic group includes – and in no particular order – everyone from the Labour Party (despite being in Government and starting the whole process), the Green Party (who hate any sort of change, unless it is banning fizzy drinks or legalising dope), a wide range of current mayors and councillors (most whom will be out of power and a cushy job come November 1), as well as the usual collection of anti-everything campaigners stretching from Maori activists to the usual anti-establishment, business, globalisation hippies, students, unemployables and other and soap-dodgers left over from the 1960s
However, one of the more unusual groups – ironically – to ‘come out’ against the new super city is the gay community. According to gay member of the current Western Bays Community Board, Bruce Kilmister, the GLBT (that is Gay and Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender to the uninitiated) community will be worse off under the new super city structure.
"The new arrangement is splitting off a lot of authority to Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) which will work on a commercial basis. It could be very difficult to get a hold of someone who can do anything."
But just how this is going to affect – negatively or otherwise – Auckland’s gay community has me somewhat confused and dumbfounded.
Long-time representative in Auckland local politics Lindsey Rea agrees everything will flow from the political make-up of the council. She says it will be more important than ever to have councillors who back the gay community.
Now call me old fashioned, but shouldn’t the new Auckland Council represent the best interests all Aucklanders and not be tied down to worrying about pleasing the whims of every special interest group and lobby in the city? Is this not what a proper democracy is all about?
Correct me if I am wrong, but was it not this ideal about the Auckland Council being for all Aucklanders – no matter their race, religion, colour, creed or sexual orientation – that led to the decision of not having separate Maori seats on the council?
I mean if we want the new Auckland Council to get bogged down to pandering to special interests why should it just stop with the gay community?
What about fat people? How about spastics in wheelchairs? Or left handed people?
And what about right handed people?
No doubt, former ballroom dancers (which may or may not include many GLBT members) could also put up a powerful case for special consideration.
At risk of being labelled a gay-basher, I don’t believe Auckland’s fairies are that vital to the future of the region to garner special consideration from the new council – as opposed to city’s other ferries, which are actually really important to the city’s transport plans and should be a focus for the new transport CCO.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
New council logo is a real quacker!
There is an old saying that goes something like "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck - then it is more than likely to be a duck"!
There is also the story about the ugly duckling that morphs into a beautiful swan. So why all this imagery around water fowls?
Well the picture of a duck - or more correctly the waste that excretes from a duck's behind - was one of the first things that popped into my mind when I saw the new logo design for the soon-to-be formed Auckland Council.
According to the judges of the logo competition the winning entry - submitted by retired commercial artist Jim Dean (and going from his latest work I can see why he is retired) is supposed to be a stylised pohutukawa design.
Reaction so far to the new logo from my colleagues has varied from "meh" (and the accompanying shrug of the shoulders that usually goes with such an uninterested reaction) to bloody awful! My own opinion is firmly rooted in the latter camp. I think it looks old-fashioned, clunky and ugly. While I do not profess to be a design expert, I know what I like and this I do not like.
Apparently, more than 1500 people submitted entries into the logo competition. So if that was the best they could come up with out of 1500 entries - then I would not have liked to seen the rejected designs!
According to Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey - who was chair of the judging panel – the winning design fitted the brief of being 'compelling, elegant and compact'.
“It’s a stunning design. We love it,” Harvey added.
Say what? Bob, I know they call you the 'mad mayor' - but this major over-egging of this very, ugly duckling of a logo design is even over-the top for you!
Mind you, when the judging panel was announced earlier in the year, with the likes of Bob Harvey, Hamish Keith, Dick Frizzel and Bill (I have a face for radio) Ralston on board - I did not hold out much hope that this bunch of - not so much has-beens, but more like never-weres - would come up with anything too inspiring. And they did not let me down.
Meanwhile, one of the reasons art consultant Hamish Keith and a member of the judging panel gave for favouring the design was: "It is flexible and can be adapted to a variety of uses – from vehicle doors to shoulder patches, letterheads, signs and rubbish bin markers."
I have to agree with the pompous old git - this new logo is perfect to go straight in the rubbish bin!
Mind you, as someone suggested the pohutukawa design was an entirely appropriate emblem for the new Auckland Council - as its flower shines brightly for only a couple of months before the head falls off!
This seems an entirely apt metaphor of what is likely to happen when the new Auckland Council opens for business on November 1.
There is also the story about the ugly duckling that morphs into a beautiful swan. So why all this imagery around water fowls?
Well the picture of a duck - or more correctly the waste that excretes from a duck's behind - was one of the first things that popped into my mind when I saw the new logo design for the soon-to-be formed Auckland Council.
According to the judges of the logo competition the winning entry - submitted by retired commercial artist Jim Dean (and going from his latest work I can see why he is retired) is supposed to be a stylised pohutukawa design.
Reaction so far to the new logo from my colleagues has varied from "meh" (and the accompanying shrug of the shoulders that usually goes with such an uninterested reaction) to bloody awful! My own opinion is firmly rooted in the latter camp. I think it looks old-fashioned, clunky and ugly. While I do not profess to be a design expert, I know what I like and this I do not like.
Apparently, more than 1500 people submitted entries into the logo competition. So if that was the best they could come up with out of 1500 entries - then I would not have liked to seen the rejected designs!
According to Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey - who was chair of the judging panel – the winning design fitted the brief of being 'compelling, elegant and compact'.
“It’s a stunning design. We love it,” Harvey added.
Say what? Bob, I know they call you the 'mad mayor' - but this major over-egging of this very, ugly duckling of a logo design is even over-the top for you!
Mind you, when the judging panel was announced earlier in the year, with the likes of Bob Harvey, Hamish Keith, Dick Frizzel and Bill (I have a face for radio) Ralston on board - I did not hold out much hope that this bunch of - not so much has-beens, but more like never-weres - would come up with anything too inspiring. And they did not let me down.
Meanwhile, one of the reasons art consultant Hamish Keith and a member of the judging panel gave for favouring the design was: "It is flexible and can be adapted to a variety of uses – from vehicle doors to shoulder patches, letterheads, signs and rubbish bin markers."
I have to agree with the pompous old git - this new logo is perfect to go straight in the rubbish bin!
Mind you, as someone suggested the pohutukawa design was an entirely appropriate emblem for the new Auckland Council - as its flower shines brightly for only a couple of months before the head falls off!
This seems an entirely apt metaphor of what is likely to happen when the new Auckland Council opens for business on November 1.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Boy's black dog a tough thing to swallow
How could life get too much for a 12-year old boy that he would rather choose to swallow a whole bunch of pills than choose to carry on living?
In the normal scheme of things, shouldn't the biggest worries for a boy of this age centre around things like choosing who his friends should be, the right sport to play or what X-box game is the coolest? Rather than being so overcome by depression and hopelessness that he would choose to try and end his own life.
It is just not right that someone so young would even want to contemplate making such a - literally - life and death decision! As someone who has struggled dealing with my own black dog of depression throughout my adulthood, the thought of a 12-year-old boy trying to fight similar demons and cope is incomprehensible.
Unfortunately, I am now in the midst of witnessing just such a tragic situation. During the past six months, a boy who is very special to me and normally a funny, quirky, loving and highly intelligent kid has been struggling with depression that has metaphorically sucked his will to live away from him and led to many attempts at suicide.
So far the experience with this country's child mental health service - an oxymoron if I have ever seen one - has not been a great one.
It appears if you happen to be a caring family and/or have some means to access private help for your troubled pre-teen then you are on your own.
But enough is enough. My boy desperately needs help and I will no longer tolerate the abrogation of responsibility shown thus far by mental health authorities. How many cries of help does this kid need to make?
Going by the lack of response so far, will it take him arriving at their door in a pine box before they take his plight seriously!
Help is what this boy needs and I will keep hassling whoever it takes until he gets the help he needs.
Watch this space!
In the normal scheme of things, shouldn't the biggest worries for a boy of this age centre around things like choosing who his friends should be, the right sport to play or what X-box game is the coolest? Rather than being so overcome by depression and hopelessness that he would choose to try and end his own life.
It is just not right that someone so young would even want to contemplate making such a - literally - life and death decision! As someone who has struggled dealing with my own black dog of depression throughout my adulthood, the thought of a 12-year-old boy trying to fight similar demons and cope is incomprehensible.
Unfortunately, I am now in the midst of witnessing just such a tragic situation. During the past six months, a boy who is very special to me and normally a funny, quirky, loving and highly intelligent kid has been struggling with depression that has metaphorically sucked his will to live away from him and led to many attempts at suicide.
So far the experience with this country's child mental health service - an oxymoron if I have ever seen one - has not been a great one.
It appears if you happen to be a caring family and/or have some means to access private help for your troubled pre-teen then you are on your own.
But enough is enough. My boy desperately needs help and I will no longer tolerate the abrogation of responsibility shown thus far by mental health authorities. How many cries of help does this kid need to make?
Going by the lack of response so far, will it take him arriving at their door in a pine box before they take his plight seriously!
Help is what this boy needs and I will keep hassling whoever it takes until he gets the help he needs.
Watch this space!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Piss off Andy!
Nobody asked me, but... the North Shore's "leaky" mayor - Andrew William's - latest antics and calls for his resignation are like pissing into the wind for this guy.
Pointless, a waste of time and effort and allrather messy!
In case you missed it, live overseas or call a cave in deepest darkest Westland home - Andrew Williams managed to get his name splashed (both literally and figuratively) all across the nation's media recently, following another of his infamous 'business meetings' which led to allegations that he urinated in public and drove home drunk.
This latest episode prompted more calls for Williams to step down.
As has been alluded in this blog before (The mayor and his late night dexts - Dec 15,2009), Williams' mayoralty has been a series of repeated misjudgments.
The mad mayor's close cabal of supporters, named the A-Team by the mayor - but actually just a bunch of non-descript, unachieving councillors who have surrounded the mayor's since his shock election win in 2008 in the hope of him backing their pet projects or giving them the baubles of North Shore local body politics, which he duly has done - claim this latest mayoral 'leak' is just a "Wee" mistake and part of a conspiracy led by Act party acolytes to disparage the good and virtuous Mayor Williams as he leads the fight to stop their 'evil' super city power-grab plans. They talk of "dirty tricks" and say there is some sort of plot, hatched within the ranks of the Act Party, to get rid of him.
However, the A-Team's (which ironically also included a madman as a key part of the team in the TV series of the same name) delusion skates over unprofessional behaviour, at times verging on the self-destructive, that has been the hallmark of Williams' time in office.
There was the occasion in 2008 when he collapsed at a Devonport Naval Base function and lashed out at ambulance officers who took him to North Shore Hospital. Then there is his penchant for dispatching emails that are inappropriate in both tenor and timing. Last December, Prime Minister John Key described texts from Mr Williams as "aggressive" and "obnoxious". They were allegedly sent as late as 3.30am.
Meanwhile Williams's ever-growing list of critics claim this latest incident is more proof of the mayor being 'caught with his pants down' and adding further fuel to the long-held rumours that he is 'Drunk in charge of a city'! There was more grist in the mill for them in the aftermath of the latest Williams occurrence as in the incident itself. The mayor's response to questioning about what happened was vague and unconvincing.
Then there was the calling of a press conference, a move that, inevitably, set the scene for a media circus in which he did not announce anything, but just his intention to stand for the super city in some role which he will confirm at a later date.
It all smacked of attention-seeking that Williams has thrived on since day 1 and only made fools of the media if they thought he would bow to calls for his resignation from the Local Government Minister, Rodney Hide, and a letter signed by five councillors and four community board members.
Even on the night of the infamous 'leak' where he was seen urinating outside the council offices, Williams sent an email at 11.37pm to staff about a visit to the council next day by Mr Hide and the Housing Minister exclaiming his "utter contempt" for the pair and saying they deserved "any and all appropriate comments in relation to this rape and pillage of the North Shore by this Auckland takeover".
Williams' repeated instances of unprofessional behaviour flared again only days later when he was forced to apologise yet again... this time for putting a cartoon showing Local Government Minister Rodney Hide as Adolf Hitler on his Facebook page.
Asked about the cartoon Williams said he thought it was 'funny' but would remove it.
"It was a joke," said the Mayor.
No Andrew - you are the joke and your mayoralty has turned the North Shore into a laughing stock!
One of the good things about the new Auckland super city is that Williams will be out of office in less than six months and he has more hope of holding on to his infamous weak bladder than winning a position on the new Council.
I wish Williams would follow his own actions and just piss right off!
Pointless, a waste of time and effort and allrather messy!
In case you missed it, live overseas or call a cave in deepest darkest Westland home - Andrew Williams managed to get his name splashed (both literally and figuratively) all across the nation's media recently, following another of his infamous 'business meetings' which led to allegations that he urinated in public and drove home drunk.
This latest episode prompted more calls for Williams to step down.
As has been alluded in this blog before (The mayor and his late night dexts - Dec 15,2009), Williams' mayoralty has been a series of repeated misjudgments.
The mad mayor's close cabal of supporters, named the A-Team by the mayor - but actually just a bunch of non-descript, unachieving councillors who have surrounded the mayor's since his shock election win in 2008 in the hope of him backing their pet projects or giving them the baubles of North Shore local body politics, which he duly has done - claim this latest mayoral 'leak' is just a "Wee" mistake and part of a conspiracy led by Act party acolytes to disparage the good and virtuous Mayor Williams as he leads the fight to stop their 'evil' super city power-grab plans. They talk of "dirty tricks" and say there is some sort of plot, hatched within the ranks of the Act Party, to get rid of him.
However, the A-Team's (which ironically also included a madman as a key part of the team in the TV series of the same name) delusion skates over unprofessional behaviour, at times verging on the self-destructive, that has been the hallmark of Williams' time in office.
There was the occasion in 2008 when he collapsed at a Devonport Naval Base function and lashed out at ambulance officers who took him to North Shore Hospital. Then there is his penchant for dispatching emails that are inappropriate in both tenor and timing. Last December, Prime Minister John Key described texts from Mr Williams as "aggressive" and "obnoxious". They were allegedly sent as late as 3.30am.
Meanwhile Williams's ever-growing list of critics claim this latest incident is more proof of the mayor being 'caught with his pants down' and adding further fuel to the long-held rumours that he is 'Drunk in charge of a city'! There was more grist in the mill for them in the aftermath of the latest Williams occurrence as in the incident itself. The mayor's response to questioning about what happened was vague and unconvincing.
Then there was the calling of a press conference, a move that, inevitably, set the scene for a media circus in which he did not announce anything, but just his intention to stand for the super city in some role which he will confirm at a later date.
It all smacked of attention-seeking that Williams has thrived on since day 1 and only made fools of the media if they thought he would bow to calls for his resignation from the Local Government Minister, Rodney Hide, and a letter signed by five councillors and four community board members.
Even on the night of the infamous 'leak' where he was seen urinating outside the council offices, Williams sent an email at 11.37pm to staff about a visit to the council next day by Mr Hide and the Housing Minister exclaiming his "utter contempt" for the pair and saying they deserved "any and all appropriate comments in relation to this rape and pillage of the North Shore by this Auckland takeover".
Williams' repeated instances of unprofessional behaviour flared again only days later when he was forced to apologise yet again... this time for putting a cartoon showing Local Government Minister Rodney Hide as Adolf Hitler on his Facebook page.
Asked about the cartoon Williams said he thought it was 'funny' but would remove it.
"It was a joke," said the Mayor.
No Andrew - you are the joke and your mayoralty has turned the North Shore into a laughing stock!
One of the good things about the new Auckland super city is that Williams will be out of office in less than six months and he has more hope of holding on to his infamous weak bladder than winning a position on the new Council.
I wish Williams would follow his own actions and just piss right off!
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