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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 127]
Grooming the Customer: Cyber Monday
Thursday, 1 December 2011, 10:02 am | Binoy Kampmark
Are we talking about Pavlov’s dogs? Consider the language being used to describe what has become ‘Cyber Monday’, the greatest of online shopping binges that grips American consumers every year and is fast proving to be an e-commerce contagion. More >>
Time Capsule: Marjorie Pollard’s Cricket for Women and Girls
Monday, 28 November 2011, 9:40 am | Binoy Kampmark
In the Occupy London protest site just outside St. Paul’s, a list of anti-capitalist books dominates with stern attention, demanding to be leafed through for the cognoscenti of revolt. A quick donation secreted into a rather dirty bucket, and the book is ... More >>
Halting the Execution Machine: Oregon and the Death Penalty
Thursday, 24 November 2011, 10:05 am | Binoy Kampmark
Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber made a decision on Tuesday to impose a moratorium on the death penalty for the duration of his term in office. The state under his previous stewardship has used it twice in the 1990s (Douglas Wright in 1996 and Harry ... More >>
The 'D’Oliveira Affair': When Sport and Politics Mix
Wednesday, 23 November 2011, 1:39 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There is a rather wishful school of thinking that presumes that sport and politics do not mix. That view was held with pious dedication by the former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, long time opponent of sporting boycotts against South Africa’s ... More >>
Down and about with Occupy London
Tuesday, 22 November 2011, 9:40 am | Binoy Kampmark
When crossing the bridge and heading to St. Paul’s, one is struck by the clumsiness and astonishing lack of symmetry of the side buildings. Instead of a superb front that leads up to the majestic building, one finds brutalist architecture hugging ... More >>
Death, Cricket and Peter Roebuck
Wednesday, 16 November 2011, 3:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Death and cricket are constant companions. In March 2007 in the West Indies, it was suggested that murder had taken place when Pakistan’s cricket coach Bob Woolmer was strangled. A Jamaican jury’s open verdict made matters more enigmatic than ... More >>
Assassins of Memory: The problem with Targeting Bin Laden
Tuesday, 15 November 2011, 1:21 pm | Binoy Kampmark
A Democratic president stooped to it. His entire administration, with its vapid policy wonks participated with a gormless, idiotic enthusiasm. It was riddled with more omissions than a Japanese text book on the rape of Nanking. But here was a documentary ... More >>
Bringing Okinawa to Australia: An American Base Down-under?
Tuesday, 15 November 2011, 1:17 pm | Binoy Kampmark
‘How do you deal toughly with one’s banker?’ asked US secretary of State Hillary Clinton of that mistakenly labeled China darling, the current Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd. The answer, as it developed, was quite straight forward. More >>
Cricketing Sorrows and the Art of Cheating
Monday, 14 November 2011, 1:45 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The cricket world, with its factions, boards and rivalries, is not necessarily as united as we would like to think. But when it comes to the recent trial of three Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, there is one common ... More >>
Assange and Extradition: The Next Phase
Thursday, 10 November 2011, 10:00 am | Binoy Kampmark
Another loss, and another round of debates. The Assange saga now moves to its next phase after the loss in the High Court that seemingly propels him closer to Sweden. The technicalities of the cases remain as they always have been, but they merely ... More >>
Filming the Metaphor: Fred Schepisi’s The Eye of the Storm
Sunday, 6 November 2011, 1:27 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Eye of the Storm was published in 1973, the year Patrick White won the Nobel Prize for Literature. It enabled White to bring Lear to Australia in the form of the novel, the bruising, all consuming Elizabeth Hunter, who presides, like Lear, ... More >>
Committing Suicide in Fear of Death: The Greek Referendum
Wednesday, 2 November 2011, 1:07 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The patient is now well on the way to committing suicide. But the patient was suffering what was amounting to a terminal illness in any case. Greece has decided to throw another spanner into the works of world finance, calling a referendum on its five-day-old ... More >>
Going ‘Rogue’ in Afghanistan
Tuesday, 1 November 2011, 1:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Civilising missions are always fraught with danger, especially when the subjects of the effort are less than interested, if not openly hostile. Time and time again, the coalition forces in Afghanistan have shown themselves to be unable to forge an ... More >>
Going Mad at Qantas: Industrial Relations Down Under
Monday, 31 October 2011, 11:12 am | Binoy Kampmark
Qantas is at war with its employees. The battle for supremacy over wages and operations of the Australian airline has moved to its penultimate phase: a grounding of the world fleet of 108 aircraft in 22 airports across the globe. 68,000 customers have ... More >>
The Seven Dwarves in Action: The Irish Presidential Election
Sunday, 30 October 2011, 1:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Elections are often affairs where the bored vote for the dull. The disaffected non-voter has become the set piece of elections the world over, and one is simply relieved to get an election that boasts some measure of colour. More >>
The China Solution: Saving the Eurozone from Implosion
Friday, 28 October 2011, 4:51 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The eurozone geniuses of delusion who gathered in Brussels this week to deal with the ever deepening crisis in Greece have come up with a plan that suggests how cock-eyed the financial system has become. Europe is now going global with an appeal for alms, ... More >>
Gangsters for Capitalism: Moving in on Libya
Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 3:13 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Market liberalisation is the new message of the punch-drunk victors in Libya (if, indeed, victory has been attained). Gaddafi is dead, the Islamic socialist who managed to combine a worship of Allah with socialism and spiritual eccentricity. But the ... More >>
Saving a Country: The All Blacks at Eden Park
Monday, 24 October 2011, 2:07 pm | Binoy Kampmark
For so long, a nation that has produced a string of outstanding rugby sides has stumbled at the last hurdle. Gods take it upon themselves to destroy those they deem gifted. The World Cup is hardly something that populates the otherwise stacked All-Back trophy ... More >>
Battling the Mushrooms: Murdoch in Los Angeles
Saturday, 22 October 2011, 2:37 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The emperor might be jaded after the phone hacking scandal that resulted in the closure of the News of the World , but he remains as immoveable as a Bourbon monarch. Rupert Murdoch did battle with shareholders at the annual News Corp. meeting in Los Angeles ... More >>
Ways of Dying: The End of Muammar Gaddafi
Friday, 21 October 2011, 10:23 am | Binoy Kampmark
The words of the human rights lawyer and spokesman for the National Transitional Council, Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, were stated with chilling effect and certainty. ‘Our revolutionaries managed to get the head of the tyrant, who has met his fate and destiny ... More >>
