The War on Soccer

I was both puzzled and stunned to see the armed forces parading at a football game on tv recently. (NZ versus Australia?)I rubbed my eyes. They were commemorating Armistice Day or somesuch. A woman in full naval regalia sang the NZ national anthem. Here's a question: what's the armed forces doing strutting around a soccer game? If you answer that it gets uncomfortable...... game, national pride, 'us', identity, analogies of battle and games, commonality with other nations who 'served' (omg I hate that word). I am worried about the inroads the military are making into everyday life; I'm similarly concerned about forging our identity through warfare. The annual primary school ANZAC day fever that strikes the country.

Fear culture part 10

A few months back I sent this cartoon below in to the local newsapaper with this letter:

Dear Sir, Mr Editor
Dare you to publish this! I haven't signed it so I can stay in the area haha. I am a cartoonist forced into poverty by fearful editors! Anyway I think its rather mild and making a point-if the council gets a commissioner its likely to be Brendan Duffy! Plus, is he really gone anyway?
Having fun,
Duncan Hill
50 Stewart St
Foxton
06 3637575

The Michael is Michael Feyen our mayor, The other guy appearing as a ghost is Brendan Duffy, newly ousted at the time. There has been quite some conflict in the relationships with the new mayor and councillors and CEO. The cartoon was about the 'Duffy Mob" who, despite their leader departing, have made it quite clear who is running the show. The confict has been ongoing and in the national news. The funny part for me is that apparently Mr Duffy has been chosen to act as a 'commissioner' in councils which have overwhelming conflicts, voted of no confidence etc. I mused on his return to the Horowhenua District Council.........

Anyway, here is the reply from the editor of the local rag, The Chronicle

 Thank you for your cartoon but as you have surmised correctly, it is not the type of political satire we would run – and we certainly wouldn’t publish without a name.

Regards,

Tanya

What, a local paper refusing to publish satire? And as mild as this? This is the same paper who told me they are answerable to a very big publisher, who owns them, and who checks editoral content (Ive been turned down before)

The last tuna bake.......

Kim Jong Trump

Why I'm not voting in this election

Having your say in the elections by means of voting? Every vote counts?

Think again, it depends who you are. If you're Maori having your say doesn't mean zip, regardless of who's in power. You’ve been in the front of the queue for prisons and hospitals, voting or not.  No wonder they stay away in droves.

My reasons for not voting are many; so here’s a few:

Firstly, I just don't think I need to be governed. I need limitations on my actions on order to make sure I don't take too many resources for example, but beyond that..... We are so addicted by ideas and experiences of boss/worker military style dominant culture theory and practice that we can't see past that. Plus put all your eggs in a basket(case) like Mr Trump or Mr Un and then you have given away your ability to protest or act, to someone else. And don't come back at me with “we’ve tried communism and that didn’t work”. I'm not talking about any isms or ideologies here. I'm talking about a better way to be represented and I think we can do that at a local level. Check out Barcelona's municipalism movement, En Comu for example. There the people actually participate in the formation, maintenance and growth of their city.

Don't vote can't complain? On the contrary. If you vote you can't complain, you've just given away your rights to have a say to a boss. I can, however, complain, since I never agreed to leave my decision making to someone else

By voting, you agree to the use of force against people (conceivable this could be you)who are not represented by the majority, who are outnumbered and can be seen to be against the government. And remember, at some level, you may become a minority, if you aren't already, if you aren't one now. Disabilities and gender can be identified as minorities, as can groups like scientists or artists, if the government decides that is so, and therefore you fall outside of the scope of majority ruled governments.

The government supports industry and it's needs over individual rights. values and needs. It exercises it's power through the police and military to protect the assets of industry. If you fall outside the goals of industry./government then you could become a target and force can be (lawfully) used against you. Don't forget that fascist governments act legally.

Small self- governing neighbourhoods yay! Top heavy centralised power structure s boo!

I don't believe in adversarial party politics. This is enough reason not to vote, alone since doing so agrees with the status quo. I don't agree with ‘I'm right you're wrong’ in conversation  or politics. Robust debate among differing groups of people in the community yes. 51 to 49 is not a win. It is a win with a wake of resentment.

Im sick of the perennial saviour cycle-X is gonna save us (substitute X for Mandela, Trump, Obama, Jacinda, Jesus, Mohammed etc) It goes in a loop like this-

Belief                                                       Outcome

Someone is going to save us          Adore the saviour; give away my responsibility

It doesn’t work                               Hate the saviour, blame them, “They’re  responsible!"          
Get a new saviour                           Adore the saviour

Repeat

I wrote an about blame culture in an earlier blog.

 http://hilldogg-visionary.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=blame

We don’t need saviours; they are myths. We need each other. We need to develop a means whereby citizens are fully active in their place of residence and work.

It would be great if ballot boxes had categories such as ‘no vote’ and then some options as to why you aren't voting. At the moment it's very difficult to decipher; I look the same as a so called apathetic voter, yet my choice is conscious and informed. The sad part is we don't really know apart from anecdotal surveys gaging voter participation. Such information could lead us to abandoning present means of doing things and trying, like the brave Barcelonians to form something better. It is, in my opinion, untenable to persist and form governments with so few citizens actively involved in choosing representatives.

Apathy is a vote for relevance and effective community. It acknowledges the fact that for a large group of people outside of elites, things don't change for them when candidates or parties change.

So I hear people saying, pleading, why you should vote. I'm saying equally loudly why you shouldn't, that's all. So come on NZ, let's be truly patriotic and don't vote- for our country's sake!

There is no way our public media would print this-if you’re a journalist reading it I challenge you to publish it!

Postscript:I didn’t know this until today-prisoners in New Zealand can’t vote, just like in The USA. So the thing about sending you to prison is to get you back into society-to rehabilitate the crook, right? And there’s an massive number of Maori in prison-51% of the prison population or 4,391 in 2012. It looks like a beatup to me. And the UN has already criticised our high Maori representation in prisons, calling it a human rights issue related to colonial rule. And when they get out-if they get out, are they going to be the well-adjusted voter ready to back a system that imprisoned them?

NZ election 2017

from the Fake Mink Rug archives

Fake Mink Rug is a weekly cartoon by Duncan Hill blog kindness is the new way www.hilldogg-visionary.blogspot.com and duncanhill.co.nz It is funded by donation.No donation is too small or large. Or its free if you are too broke at the moment. Click on this link http://eepurl.com/CCq8T - its mega-easy to sign up

The legitimacy of violence and the good ol' soldiers of the decent world

We continue to try to make out that soldiers and armies will act legitimately and with ethical behaviour. The deputy prime minister of NZ, Paula Bennett recently defended the actions of our SAS without knowing anything about what happennned that day in Afghanistan.And attacked a book she has never read, calling its author Nicky Hager a left wing conspiracy theorist. What I take from that is that she (and others) believe the SAS to be some kind of moral paragons. That they would not be capable of shooting civilians, or even mistakes.
In my opinion,that is a dangerous viewpoint. In history there is always the attempt to legitimise war and its minions.The belief its ok till kill certain people if we decide they are bad enough. As if drones will only kill bad guys when they explode on a village meeting in Pakistan. As if its ok for the 'good guys' to kill others and the 'bad guys' its not ok.
The belief is echoed in mainstream public media such as movies- and also in gaming- where we are encouraged to identify with the good guys and then, by some sleight of hand, its ok to eliminate 'bad guys' (and gals). And even have a drink or have sex shorttly afterward. The trick is, it means nothing to frag someone, if theyre a bad ass. Recently, the targets have moved to things like zombies and aliens and even half robots who we identify as bad, but somehow different and therefore killable.
Civilians have always been targets. Our wonderful liberated enlightened and ethical British relatives bombed a civilian city, Dresden, in the second world war. The morally superior Americans unleashed the new super weapon on a Japanese city of men women and children, not soldiers.
We need to be vigilant about the type of thinking that justifies (or doesnt even need to, under assumption) killing civilians, and assumes that 'our' soldiers will act with waving flags of ethically superior behaviour.War is an illness and the belief that using force solves problems in the long term and leaves its victors in great shape, is a kind mass psychosis.

Runner

Click whores are getting clicks,

like the flower who wants more

water and sun,

The line of pixelated fields, and beyond them,

sound of guns stems bursting prevail-

the boom and crack of a forest coming down.

While she is in simultaneous water and sun liquidly sifted

Through starving leaves like hands that once did grasp and fight.

Symbols see their own conjecture;

projections of mountains

on deserts.

Gigantic myths of connection given some kind of protection

for a mind shaped against the curves of nature.

But you, you have an indwelling crystal in your head

and that’s how my mother righted her vertigo

and that’s how you know where you’re going, this night,

on the run.

An upright animal with a Nuchal ligament in place to keep the head still in a race;

Not made for spiritual enlightenment,

you were made for distance running.

The water smells you and seeks you out thirsty.

The teeth rattling full of magnesium from shellfish;

The steady and deep eye and its distinguishing 7 shades of green

Verdant horizon built for an iris, over which the systolic blood pressure

sets with that bleeding sun,

beating down  tree and tangle.

Following her is the smiling moon with his

frequency of earth,

density of freedom.

The water racing through hand beyond you

to petals’ wait,

and nothing sustains while we believe in gain.

Hydrogen, elemental, and bits of dirt

in the crevice of toes compounded in the night run.

The wind breathes you as you adjust for gusts;

It’s the smell of pine needles and broome

leading you blind and homeward

My watercolour on the larest edition 

I'm pretty happy with the results-you can see the texture of the paper which gives it a hand made look. The mag is a good one; its gotten better over the years. Ive been lucky enough to have my cartoons and some articles in the mag as well (over the past two years)

CD cover art

This is the Artwork for the metal/acoustic band Broke, two of my nephews, Matt and Jesse are in the band.

Artwork for CD cover for Broke
computer modified ink drawing

Fish shoal mural

Untitled
 acrylic on canvas
5000mmX 2000mm

I did this for The Fish bar in Palmerston North

A painting I liked doing

Untitled
Enamel and oil on board
500mmX 400mm

Look at the southern sky through a tree in Foxton and this is what you see. Sorry I'm sold.

The Dream of E7
Mural

This mural is able to be seen at the entrance to the Foxton estuary, only a stone's throw from wher the godwit/kuaka, the subject of this painting, departs from each year to Alaska. Its a kind of environmental kaitiaki (guardian) painting

Tongariro crossing

Tongariro crossing
Oil on board
500mmX400mm

Price on Application

katrina-a time lapse painting

Katrina
enamel on board
700X700mm

Price on Application