Fecal Matters

A cartoon I did for The Hawaii Independent about how Honolulu is, once again, inundated in smelly, poo-poo water (500,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled onto Waikiki beaches and shorelines alone - the entire island has "brown water" warnings posted at all beaches). The cause? Less than 4 inches of precipitation. Now I know that's not an insignificant amount of rain, but if we can't even handle 4 inches in 6 hours without our sewers exploding diarrhea water all over our streets and beaches, what happens when we get another 40 days of rain scenario like we did back in 2006? What happens when we add an estimated 20,000 new residents to the urban core over the next 25 years? 

If we don't fix the sewer infrastructure now, we may very well be up a literal shit river in a canoe with no paddle. We have very few politicians who will actually fight for better sewage infrastructure. Our councilmen joke that infrastructure is "not sexy." Well it's also not funny, and it's vitally important; so stop joking about it and actually do something, please (like drawing a cartoon about it).

Do Not Judge Us

"It takes a weak heart to judge one another." - Groundation

The state of Hawaii's elected representatives

Looking at the gaggle of Congressional District 1 candidates rushing to try and fill Colleen Hanabusa's soon-to-be-vacant seat (as she attempts to supplant Brian Schatz from his seat in the U.S. Senate), it's hard to know who to vote for. None of them stands out as a particularly strong candidate. Some have had lots of experience sitting in legislative bodies, but have accomplished little, while others are idealists and reformers who have never held elected office and are much too likely to burn bridges and make enemies, preventing any of their reforms from ever taking place.

Looking at Hawaii's history of elected representatives, either from the Territory or the State of Hawaii, we have had titans of politics sit in Congress and fight for Hawaii in the past. Robert Kalanihiapo Wilcox, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, Samuel Wilder King, Jack Burns, Dan Inouye, Tom Gill, Patsy Mink: for better or for worse, these men and women fought hard for what they believed was best for Hawaii. Although not every idea they implemented was a success, not everything they accomplished has survived, and not all that they believed in turned out to be in the best interest of Hawaii's people, they still got shit done. These are the figures that shaped modern Hawaii, as representatives to Congress and, as was the case for several of them, as governors and U.S. senators as well.

Compare them to our current selection of choices and it seems the quality of our politicians, both in terms of leadership as well as sheer political skill, has declined. This is the argument that is made in a soon-to-be-published essay on the Hawaii Independent for which this illustration was created to accompany. Once the article comes out, the link will be posted. Where is our modern day Wilcox? Where is our Mink? I hope to see them enter the political arena soon.

The Monolith

Now that the Hawaii Independent has published it's first tablet magazine issue, I can upload the cover art I did for it to my blog! 

"The Monolith" was commissioned to go with a piece by veteran reporter Gerald Kato about public authorities like the Hawaii Community Development Authority or the much hated and now-revoked Public Land Development Corporation. Donovan Dela Cruz was included in the bottom right corner specifically because he was (is) Mr. PLDC - the others, Gov. Abercrombie, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Stanley Chang, David Ige and Ikaika Anderson are all either pro public authorities or are running for the important 1st Congressional seat of Hawaii soon and will have to decide where they stand on public authorities for their platforms - I can already take a guess.

Kato discusses the origins of public authorities and Robert Moses ("The Power Broker" is a book that should definitely be read by anyone at all involved with government, planning or communities - so everyone) to contextualize what's happened in Hawaii since the 1970s and, especially, today. 

I'm not necessarily against public authorities, which can partner more easily with the private development sector to sometimes accomplish great works for the people. The problem is really oversight and accountability. The authorities act as a buffer between the public and government which allows for fudge-room, shady dealings and easy ways out for officials. 

Below is a link to the excerpt from Kato's piece. The rest you'll need to read in the tablet magazine which is available on iTunes for a mere $1.99. It's like the Atlantic or the New Yorker for Hawaii.

"The Authority," by Gerald Kato: http://hawaiiindependent.net/story/the-authority

House of Kindling

I still can't believe how backwards our school is. Oh wait, yes I can.

Data Wars

I love it when my Editorial Cartoon of the week matches so perfectly with a well written Ka Leo article, the way it does this time. Boaz Rosen did a good job explaining that this is an information and advertising war between old style media moguls and new, online-based media empires like Google. Fox vs Google ... hmm, not sure who I'd honestly root for there. First inclination is Google, but they do track all my clicks and then bombard me with ads they hope are tailored to me. And why? So they can profit off of you and me the same way Rupert Murdoch does.  Bo is more articulate, so if you want to read more about it, here's the link to the Ka Leo article.
There's also a story on Ka Leo that explains the SOPA and PIPA acts pretty well too. It was written by Antonio Lamb, one of our seasoned reporters. Here's the link to that too.

Zippity-Doo-Dah!

Oh what the hay. Since I just drew a cartoon about Chancellor Hinshaw, I guess now's as relevant a time as any to post another one from way back when. Printed back in the summer of 2009, when I was about to be a junior, this comic was my initial reaction to what was the first wave of serious financial crunch for the school, and the Chancellor's lack of response. It seemed like all she ever did was go to football games!

John Boehner's Original Tea Party Recipe

This editorial cartoon was created last may and was entered into the Associated Collegiate Press' National College Media Competition in the cartooning category. The cartoon won first place. 

If you follow that link, you can see some interesting conversations being had on the UH system news site. Most of them accuse me of name calling, while calling me names, or say that they do not appreciate the way I critique what I see in the media. They must not realize that editorial cartoons fall under the opinions section of the newspaper and it is therefore my opinion that the republican strategy early this year was to try to damage president Obama's credibility and ratings by spreading rumors, escalating tensions, playing off of fear and ignorance and flat out lying. My opinion may be based on perception, but my perception is based on fact.

Still, nice to see my work generating discussion. That's what it's really here for.