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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 128]
Blowing up the Ambassador: Terror Chat and Tehran
Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 1:55 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It’s all the rage at the moment, and seems to resemble something from the lunatic fringe of policy. Two men have been charged in the US over a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir. More >>
Nightmare in New Zealand: The Astrolabe Reef Disaster
Saturday, 15 October 2011, 12:59 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It has all the makings of a growing catastrophe. The 236m Rena, inclined and spilling oil into pristine seas on Astrolabe Reef 14 miles off Tauranga, New Zealand, providing a murderous cargo that has already killed hundreds of fish and sea birds. Three tug ... More >>
Globalising the Occupation: Wall Street and the World
Thursday, 13 October 2011, 2:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It all began without a body, without a party, without even, it seems, a program. A day of rage against the iniquitous financial system was being organised in the Manhattan Financial District in the spring of this year to take place in September. More >>
The Jobs Factor: The Cult of Apple
Monday, 10 October 2011, 5:51 pm | Binoy Kampmark
One gets giddy just hearing it, let alone reading the gushing material. There are the camped queues, the nerd proselytes, the apps mongers and ‘fanboys’. The cult of Apple, the cult of chic, and the fashionable. The passing of Steve Jobs, innovator ... More >>
Those Damned Games: The Delhi Farce
Thursday, 6 October 2011, 4:26 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Large scaled sporting events are a costly business. They dislocate populations. They drain treasuries with stunning efficiency. They have a nasty tendency of producing white elephants with dreary predictability. So now, the pictures keep coming about ... More >>
The Acquittal of ‘Foxy Knoxy’
Wednesday, 5 October 2011, 1:49 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The wheels of justice, poorly oiled and laborious, continue to turn in Italy as Amanda Knox, touted to be ‘Foxy Knoxy’, had her murder conviction of December 2009 overturned, along with that of Raffaele Sollecito, a state of affairs that stunned the family ... More >>
Back to Death Commissions: Case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
Monday, 3 October 2011, 2:58 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It seemed like a bright vision. And that was primarily because it did not feature President George W. Bush. But here, the Obama administration has undertaken what it said it would not do – run trials before military commissions it promised it ... More >>
Battling Bollywood: Bangladesh’s Seduction by Celluloid
Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 3:25 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Since 1972, Bangladesh has been firm about the films of the monster that we all know as Bollywood, a beast so prolific it disgorges some thousand films a year. No viewings of Bollywood films have been permitted in Bangladesh’s cinemas – till ... More >>
British Labour, Balls or Balls-up: The Austerity Obsession
Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 10:12 am | Binoy Kampmark
He is not a popular man, a person who reminds the economically worn British about another era: the era of New Labour, where the swagger and self-confidence beamed with an almost reckless indifference. Ed Balls, Britain’s opposition financial ... More >>
The Business with Flags: Copulating under the Southern Cross
Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 10:05 am | Binoy Kampmark
What a bit of silliness. The Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and her partner, Tim Matthieson, are being persistently lampooned in merciless fashion in Amanda Bishop’s ABC production At Home with Julia. But wherever one stands on Bishop’s taste, the ... More >>
The Killing of Troy Davis
Monday, 26 September 2011, 5:12 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Troy Davis is dead by the hand of the state. He was passing his years on death row since 1991, when he was convicted for the murder of Savannah policeman Mark MacPhail. More >>
Offshore Processing: Malaysia and Australia’s 'Boat People'
Wednesday, 21 September 2011, 1:01 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The terror of those ‘boat people’ who arrive in Australia is, like other terrors, inscrutable. In a country that is ruinously affluent and stripped by plenty (thanks are due to the compliant earth being gouged out on a daily basis to support a voracious ... More >>
The Triumph of ‘Gucci’ Helle: The Danish Elections
Monday, 19 September 2011, 6:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
A few American commentators had time to admire the recent electoral process in Denmark. The recent Danish elections concluded with a victory for the coalition of the Social Democrats led by Helle Thorning-Schmidt and other parties of the centre-left. More >>
The Razor of Sovereignty: Palestinian Statehood
Monday, 19 September 2011, 6:02 pm | Binoy Kampmark
This menu card never alters. When the functionaries bring it out the dishes remains stubbornly dreary: Palestinian non-recognition; Palestinian servitude; Israeli control. It is as if the sides, be it the UN, the United States, and Israel, will never accept, ... More >>
Taking the Vatican to the Cleaners: The ICC Lawsuit
Friday, 16 September 2011, 5:26 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The US-based human rights group Centre for Constitutional Rights is filing a suit on behalf of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in the International Criminal Court. More >>
Twitter and Terror: Social Media and Social Chaos
Friday, 16 September 2011, 1:25 pm | Binoy Kampmark
‘Question is how much longer will terrorist put innocent Afghan in harms way?’ It was long time coming, but the social media front has now opened up as a means to wage war in Afghanistan. That message came from @ISAFmedia. The retort from @ABalkhi, ... More >>
Wilders for Oz? Stoking the Fire of Publicity
Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 11:47 am | Binoy Kampmark
He is regarded as toxic, incendiary, a bomb waiting to go off on the political scene. For some in Dutch politics, he already has. Geert Wilders is very much a force in the Netherlands, with his Freedom Party holding the balance of power in parliament. More >>
A Modern Problem: Slavery in Britain
Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 4:13 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It happened in Bedfordshire, and to many residents, was inconceivable. In 2007, Britain marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, an enterprise that saw enormous wealth and cruelty produced in equal measures. But the vicious converges ... More >>
The Bachmann Record: Running out of Steam
Monday, 12 September 2011, 1:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Her website platform makes the case: ‘Restoring Constitutional Conservative Values.’ Publicly, Michele Bachmann (Rep. Minn.) claims that the Soviet Union still exists. More >>
Laughing at Gillard: Amanda Bishop’s 'At Home With Julia'
Friday, 9 September 2011, 1:25 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Is criticism merely prejudice made plausible, as H.L. Mencken claimed? Peter Craven (The Drum, Sep 8) felt an acid review was in order after the screening of the first episode of At Home With Julia on Australian television. ‘There can’t be many ... More >>
