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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 117]
The Malala Dilemma: Nobel Prizes and Noble Sinners
Monday, 14 October 2013, 5:46 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Prizes can be disabilities, impediments on future progress. “Inscribe all human effort with one word,” claims Robert Browning on creative achievement, “Artistry’s haunting curse, the Incomplete!” Awards have the habit of distorting the perspective ... More >>
The “Needless” Oversight: The NSA Review Panel Shut Down
Tuesday, 8 October 2013, 2:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The message about the U.S. surveillance state for some time has been one of cosmic, immoveable proportion. The anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss spoke of “cold societies” – those operating under unchanging assumptions about nature, about matters of immutable ... More >>
All about Giap: The Red Napoleon and the Ends of Revolution
Tuesday, 8 October 2013, 2:45 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The fabled bookish General Vo Nguyen Giap was a revolutionary commander who, unlike others, left a revolutionary legacy. The pocket books of those who speak of “legacies” are scanty, filled with romantic reflection and the moment of suicidal release, but ... More >>
The Death Mill: Qatar and the World Cup
Tuesday, 8 October 2013, 2:44 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The construction of the Great Wall of China, initiated by the Emperor Qin Shihuang, was achieved at incredible human cost. Bodies sacrificed in the course of construction were buried near the wall as reminders of their labour in what became, in accordance ... More >>
Unnecessary Necessaries: NSA, Storage and the Marina Program
Tuesday, 1 October 2013, 4:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Civilisation, claimed Mark Twain, involves the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries. Intelligence gathering can be seen to be a byproduct of that fascination: bureaucratic necessity has become its own rationale; the need to protect civilisation ... More >>
The Season of Ballyhoo Extremism: Shutting Down the US Govt
Monday, 30 September 2013, 6:04 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Libertarians might well wonder why government should continue existing given the latest congressional antics in the United States. With metaphors likening it to a grocery store, we are being told that the U.S. government will cease to be funded ... More >>
The Iran End Game: Nuclear Non-Ethics in Action
Monday, 30 September 2013, 12:30 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The latest UN General Assembly gatherings have served to reiterate the grand spectacle of what is wrong, and in some ways right, about world politics. The usual players have turned up to make a scene. More >>
Protecting the Bubble Reputation: The Age and the Liu Case
Wednesday, 25 September 2013, 5:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The law is an ass, particularly when it comes to the dispute over whether journalists are entitled to keep their sources confidential before the prying eyes of their accusers. Earlier this month, it became clear that the media had lost one of those key battles ... More >>
Whistleblowing: Alexis, Snowden and the Navy Yard Shootings
Friday, 20 September 2013, 3:41 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It did not take long for the critics to pounce on the shootings at the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. on September 16 as the product not so much of a disturbed mind but one who had not been sufficiently policed and excluded. 13 people were left ... More >>
Exposing the Invisible Empire:The Detention of Barrett BrowN
Tuesday, 17 September 2013, 4:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The United States has a growing crop of political dissidents. While it may be less conspicuous than other powers in doing so – China and Russia, to take but two examples – that should hardly be surprising. More >>
WikiLeaks and Journalism: The Schumer-Graham “Compromise”
Tuesday, 17 September 2013, 4:44 pm | Binoy Kampmark
They are at it again, those eager policy makers keen to define what journalism actually is. To be a journalist, or not to be one, may well be the difference between punishment or protection under the latest discussions by members of the U.S. Senate. More >>
The Flawed Analogy: Munich, Syria and Intervention
Monday, 9 September 2013, 11:38 am | Binoy Kampmark
Historical analogies can be effective tools to command attention. They can also be grotesque fabrications and dangerous distortions. Each historical event has its own locale of development, its own forces, and distinctiveness. Analogy, for that reasons, ... More >>
Interference and Espionage:The WikiLeaks case against the US
Wednesday, 4 September 2013, 3:16 pm | Binoy Kampmark
WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who is also running as Senate candidate for the Australian elections this coming weekend, has shown himself to be relentless in the face of the information imperium. More >>
Turning Back Dystopia: Information in the 21st Century
Tuesday, 3 September 2013, 4:20 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Louis D. Brandeis and Samuel D. Warren were right when they argued in 1890 that “the right to be let alone… secures the exercise of extensive civil privileges.” That ownership of being, secured by legal protections, remains one of the most powerful ... More >>
The Disease of Detention: Julian Assange’s Thousand Days
Monday, 2 September 2013, 11:16 am | Binoy Kampmark
Police states quaffing the blood of victims have an excuse: they wish to oppress in order to justify the status quo, keeping the fires burning, their subjects scared. They deceive because they know that truth is another country. States that possess ... More >>
Imposing Inevitability: Unilaterally Striking Syria
Monday, 2 September 2013, 10:14 am | Binoy Kampmark
It is happening, again. The grotesque similarities are haunting. Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States, along with its faithful, evangelically led air craft carrier in the form of Britain, decided to treat the United Nations as a body ... More >>
Tilting Towards Syria: The Dangers of Intervention
Monday, 26 August 2013, 2:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The recent escalation of tensions in Syria with the alleged use of chemical weapons against the civilian population is a cause of concern for the international community. These attacks allegedly took place in the east and south-west of Damascus on Wednesday, ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: The Virtue of Bradley Manning
Friday, 23 August 2013, 5:21 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Wikileaks chief editor Julian Assange, and leader of the WikiLeaks Party, deemed it a “tactical victory” though still revolting to western concepts of justice. The 35 year sentence of Bradley Manning immediately brings to mind a sense of disproportion, ... More >>
Manning, Apology and an Onerous Fidelity
Tuesday, 20 August 2013, 5:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Promises, and more promises. First, of a punishment that would be over a century. Then, a reduction to a punishment less than a century. And then, sixty years incarceration with a hefty fine of $100 thousand., though this may well be trimmed to 25 years. More >>
Grunwald, Assange & Assassination: Loving the Drone Disease
Monday, 19 August 2013, 5:09 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“I can’t wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out Julian Assange” - Michael Grunwald, Twitter, Aug 17, 2013. He regrets having tweeted it on Saturday. According to TIME Magazine, Michael Grunwald’s endorsement of assassinating WikiLeaks’ ... More >>
