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Binoy Kampmark
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
Binoy Kampmark - Latest News [Page 104]
The World of Make-Believe: Nancy Reagan in the White House
Tuesday, 8 March 2016, 3:33 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“It’s true that Mrs. Reagan has an interest in astrology.” Marlin Fitzwater, New York Times, May 4, 1988 More >>
Diminishing Democracy: The Australian Senate Changes
Thursday, 3 March 2016, 4:27 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“My delight is at the prospect of the court striking down the enactment and telling the grubby politicians how to enact a recent reform.” Malcolm Mackerras, ABC, Mar 1, 2016 More >>
The Rise of the Absurd: Donald Trump and the GOP Legacy
Tuesday, 1 March 2016, 12:19 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The politics of the absurd, and the politics of absurdity. Both dance immaculately in the electoral rounds in the US. The point is that the current US political process, with its venality, has created a rather rich soil. The US is far from the only one ... More >>
Cameron’s European Sojourn: The Referendum on Brexit is Nigh
Monday, 22 February 2016, 12:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
This was always going to be a mixed bag. Heading to Europe, receiving bruising, and then getting some concessions for his case, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron’s attempt to renegotiate his country’s arrangements with the EU was not going to ... More >>
Sabotaging Privacy: The FBI’s Battle Against Encryption
Friday, 19 February 2016, 4:34 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation.” More >>
Boutros-Ghali: The UN, the US and the Seizure of Power
Thursday, 18 February 2016, 12:12 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was never going to be easy coming to office at the head of an organisation that persists in confusing and terrifying politicians in various degrees. The position of United Nations Secretary General has been gradually denuded of its influence, ... More >>
False Friends and Misaligned Interests: Syrian Conflict
Monday, 15 February 2016, 2:43 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Peace discussions tend to contain within them the seeds of the next conflict. Treaties, agreements and pacts to end war are made to reassure combating parties that they will, at some point, have annother crack at each other. Even as they take place, ... More >>
Capturing Relativity: Einstein, LIGO and Black Holes
Monday, 15 February 2016, 12:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“Data was streaming, and then ‘bam’.” David Reitze, director of LIGO Laboratory, New York Times , Feb 11, 2015 More >>
Totalitarian Thinking, Feminism and the Clintons
Thursday, 11 February 2016, 3:20 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“I can tell you that shaming me and essentially calling me misinformed and stupid is NOT the way to win my vote.” Zoe Trimboli, Feb 9, 2015 More >>
The Australian High Court and Indefinite Offshore Detention
Friday, 5 February 2016, 11:46 am | Binoy Kampmark
The High Court of Australia has done its occasional bit for refugees, though much of its legal reasoning has lead to inadvertent consequences. During the Gillard years, it sank what would have been a notorious exchange of refugees with Malaysia (the ... More >>
The Ethics of Exposure
Tuesday, 2 February 2016, 10:41 am | Binoy Kampmark
The role of the whistleblower tends to be that of scapegoat and sacrificial lamb. Someone has to take the fall for calling out the rotten state of affairs. The formula is repeated time and time again: rather than tossing out the rotten apples, the good ... More >>
In Search of Nationalism: Remembering Benedict Anderson
Thursday, 28 January 2016, 1:46 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“The modern world has shown us sufficient examples of nations that have broken up because too many of their citizens have had shrivelled hearts and dwarfish minds.” Benedict Anderson, Jakarta, 1999 More >>
Binoy Kampmark: State of Unease - The X Files
Tuesday, 26 January 2016, 3:10 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“No one is ever truly dead on ‘The X-Files’.” Chris Carter, AP, Jan 20, 2016 More >>
Trump and Visiting the UK
Wednesday, 20 January 2016, 10:30 am | Binoy Kampmark
“While I think this man is crazy, while I think this man has no valid points to make, I will not be able to silence his voice.” Tom Tugendhat, The Independent, 19 January 2016 More >>
Merkel, Refugees and the Cologne Attacks
Wednesday, 13 January 2016, 11:09 am | Binoy Kampmark
Huge pressure was already on Angela Merkel’s shoulders prior to the New Year celebrations. When it came in its waves of chaos on the eve, the security services in Cologne were found wanting. The police document from Cologne, leaked to Der Spiegel, speaks of ... More >>
Sean Penn and El Chapo: Vanity, Hollywood and Reportage
Tuesday, 12 January 2016, 12:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Leaving aside Sean Penn’s personal history with drug use, let alone alleged efforts to get a slice of celebrity in portraying a drug lord, the furore surrounding his interview with El Chapo (Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera) is instructive in a few ... More >>
North Korea and the arts of Guerrilla Partisanship
Monday, 11 January 2016, 11:47 am | Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear weapons have always had a habit of inviting games of perception. Will the state in possession of a nuclear option make use of it? Obviously, there is always precedent that any state with an option will, at some point, make do with it. The ... More >>
The Bosnian Problem: Milorad Dodik and Republika Srpska
Monday, 11 January 2016, 11:43 am | Binoy Kampmark
“I do not think we will have another war. Why would someone go to war? Thousands died, and are their descendants living better now?” Milorad Dodik, Feb 19, 2015 More >>
North Korea and the arts of Guerrilla Partisanship
Monday, 11 January 2016, 11:41 am | Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear weapons have always had a habit of inviting games of perception. Will the state in possession of a nuclear option make use of it? Obviously, there is always precedent that any state with an option will, at some point, make do with it. The ... More >>
The Point of the Spear: Oregon’s Militia Movement
Thursday, 7 January 2016, 4:11 pm | Binoy Kampmark
President Abraham Lincoln rendered the Union marble from rather haphazardly made brick. It took the most vicious of civil wars on US soil to make a mystique of it. But the tensions between the central government and fractious peripheries within ... More >>
