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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 113]
The Bergdahl-Taliban Prisoner Exchange: Prisoners of War
Wednesday, 4 June 2014, 5:40 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Initially, it hardly bubbled up to the surface of American political discussion, but the insistent language by US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, that a prisoner exchange had been affected regarding Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl, was something of a minor revolution. More >>
The Benefits of War: Abbott’s “Discrete Settlement” Program
Tuesday, 3 June 2014, 5:44 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Abbott Government has made a point to shock more than awe in its short time in office. (It is hard to be awed by the Prime Minister, whose behaviour has been expected.) It has taken the program of the previous Labor government further in chastising and ... More >>
The Spectre of Concorde: Commercialising the Space Race
Tuesday, 3 June 2014, 5:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The name suggests it all, but when Richard Branson decided to get his toes wet in the concept of Virginal creations (Virgin Blue, Virgin Atlantic, and a host of other projects), he, like Adam, felt that all he would hence utter would be the first. More >>
Marching in May: The False Promise of Conformism
Tuesday, 20 May 2014, 2:34 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Australian voter, as a political species, remains alien to ideology. There is a certain cavalier ruthlessness with which governments can be dispatched at the ballot box. Being one of the most electioneered, if not over-electioneered countries on ... More >>
The US-RP Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement
Wednesday, 30 April 2014, 5:15 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The cloakroom of hegemony can be a heavily stocked one. There are variations in style, dress and material – but at the end of the day, the accent is unmistakable. Imperial wear remains just that, an ominous warning to those who taste it, and those who would ... More >>
Deceptive Gyrations: Rebasing Growth of the Nigerian Economy
Monday, 21 April 2014, 5:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Statistics are the magic, and the manna, of the economist. They are less reliable than weather forecasts – the meteorologist has a better chance of forecasting rainfall than an economist of forecasting economic growth. Things get even more testy over ... More >>
The Problem of Heartbleed: Trivial Errors and Severe Impacts
Sunday, 13 April 2014, 4:01 pm | Binoy Kampmark
We truly live in fearful times. One utterance of a potentially dangerous virus – be it biological or structural – and a pall comes over the public conversation. The language used is that of climate catastrophe, ecological doom, or, in the case ... More >>
The Poverty Incentive: Making the Poor Carry the Refugee Can
Friday, 11 April 2014, 1:16 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The poorer you are, the more likely you need to shoulder more. This axiomatic rule of social intercourse, engagement and daily living is simple and brutal enough: the poor shall hold, conserve, preserve. More >>
Willy Wonka of the Kitchen: The Cooking of Heston Blumenthal
Thursday, 3 April 2014, 3:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Chefs are the psychological beings of the culture world. They have egos large enough to fit their restaurants and personalities as delicate as egg shells. Their recipes are matters of mythology and exaggeration; their controlling techniques over staff ... More >>
Mixed blessings of the Australian National Security Monitor
Tuesday, 25 March 2014, 4:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Trust any bureaucracy to make an important role dull and seemingly vacuous. “Mr Bret Walker SC was appointed by the Governor General on 21 April 2011 as the first Independent National Security Legislation Monitor (INSLM) under the Independent National ... More >>
Rotting the Slimmers: Cooking with Clarissa Dickson Wright
Thursday, 20 March 2014, 5:09 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The last half of the duo known as The Two Fat Ladies has left the cooking world. Clarissa Dickson Wright came across as the sharper one in the outfit which stormed to television culinary stardom in the 1990s. Jennifer Paterson fronted as the other ... More >>
Imperial Exit: Britain’s Departure from Afghanistan
Wednesday, 19 March 2014, 5:15 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Farewell to the British, as they leave the country that took their soldiers, and more than a sense of dignity. Forces are being withdraw (the popular term is drawn down, as if they were blinds) and it is hard to see the mission in Afghanistan as ... More >>
The Bertie Wooster of Marxism: Tony Benn’s Legacy
Monday, 17 March 2014, 3:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was a title inspired by P. G. Wodehouse and coined by the novelist Malcolm Bradbury. This was the late Tony Benn as satire, Benn as the hugely visible, orated political presence that guaranteed his status as myth that no governor can ever have. More >>
The Plane Vanishes: Scenarios behind the End of MH 370
Wednesday, 12 March 2014, 5:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The fate of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared over the South China Sea on Saturday, continues to baffle the authorities of ten countries involved in the search and rescue missions. Some 40 ships and 34 aircraft have been involved ... More >>
The European Spy Bazaar: The Snowden Testimony
Wednesday, 12 March 2014, 5:20 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The case of Edward Snowden is an object study about why whistleblowers have mountains to climb when it comes to revealing abuses within a system. Last Friday, Snowden detailed a series of answers to submitted questions from the European Parliament ... More >>
Bringing SOPA to the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Thursday, 6 March 2014, 5:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The machinery to dominate global intellectual property by American fiat was further tightened by the announcement of Robert Holleyman’s as deputy US trade representative. President Obama’s announcement is just another reminder what sources of inspiration ... More >>
Britain, Students and Immigration: Extending Surveillance
Wednesday, 5 March 2014, 10:41 am | Binoy Kampmark
If the government can’t do it, they get the teachers to. It’s an old trick of state regulation, and it only works if the teaching class prefers compliancy over independence. In the British sense, the latest round of co-opting teachers into monitoring ... More >>
Targeting the Muckrakers: The Surveillance of WikiLeaks
Tuesday, 25 February 2014, 12:59 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was the worst kept secret in the novella of espionage delights, but the discussion in Glenn Greewald’s the Intercept was anticipated. The article suggested its imminent newsworthiness: “Top-secret documents from the National Security Agency and its ... More >>
The Manus Breakout: The Limits of the Gulag
Wednesday, 19 February 2014, 2:14 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Australia’s Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, is no anthropologist. Nor is his government, which prefers the philosophy of hobgoblins to constructive policy. Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s officials are finding the running of their semi-colonial ... More >>
Target Indonesia: The Schapelle Corby Campaign
Tuesday, 11 February 2014, 5:17 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Schapelle Corby – and her relationship with a very specific part of Australian opinion – has been intense. In 2004, she was arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport in possession of 4.1 kilograms of marijuana. She was found guilty of smuggling and ... More >>
