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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 129]
Happy Anniversary: Ten Years of the US Security State
Friday, 9 September 2011, 12:04 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Gore Vidal was sharp enough to remind us that President Harry Truman gave the United States the National Security State in response to Cold War fears against the Red Satan. More >>
Villainous and the Reckless:Deadly Flotillas & Palmer Report
Tuesday, 6 September 2011, 4:01 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Politics is, as ever, a game of ducking, weaving and stalling. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu found himself attempting to do the latter, seeking a delay the release of the UN Palmer Report into the Mavi Marmara affair in May last year. More >>
Scrambling over Libya: Sarkozy & France’s Grandeur Nationale
Friday, 2 September 2011, 5:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The corpse is barely warm, and the scrambling over the legacy has begun. Africa has long been grist for the mills of imperial powers, a place of plunder, profit and papier-mâché sovereignty. More >>
The Fall of the Malaysian Solution: The High Court Decision
Thursday, 1 September 2011, 11:12 am | Binoy Kampmark
Activists, pro-refugee advocates and a few politicians were puzzled when the Federal Government decided to affect the ‘Malaysian Solution’, a refugee policy resembling the Howard Government’s Pacific Solution in all but name. More >>
The Desire to Be Tricked: Aelita Andre and the Art World
Wednesday, 31 August 2011, 4:38 pm | Binoy Kampmark
News stories tend to resemble a recycling device in due course. Take this sample by Clare Kermond in the Sydney Morning Herald (Jan 8, 2009). ‘Is this a story of a child prodigy or a joke at the expense of the art world?’ More >>
Sprung: WikiLeaks, the US and the Oz ‘Terror’ Connection
Wednesday, 31 August 2011, 1:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Australian officials were breathing a sigh of relief when ‘Cablegate’ disclosed little that might cast them in a poor light before their American puppeteers. (If, indeed, there was any light to begin with.) When it took place last year, there were ... More >>
Finding the Good Victim: Diallo and Strauss-Kahn
Wednesday, 24 August 2011, 4:43 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The dismissal of sexual charges is, as ever, a mixed blessing for the individual charged of them. Unlike other charges, a certain residue is left. ‘He walks free, but…’ The slime remains, and for some, it must be said, the slime is not entirely ... More >>
Measures of Hope: The Homeless World Cup
Wednesday, 24 August 2011, 4:38 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In Paris this week, a rather different sort of sporting tournament has been taking place. It’s the ninth Homeless World Cup, with 64 teams waging a street styled football battle as much for recognition on the pitch as off it. This is no small ... More >>
Curtains and Prospects: After the Fall of Gaddafi
Wednesday, 24 August 2011, 11:21 am | Binoy Kampmark
It had a certain similar ring to it. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, there were promises that the soldiers getting their brains blown out for their countries would be home by Christmas. It lasted a good four years and destroyed a generation. More >>
The Coup That Failed: The Fall of Russian Communism
Monday, 22 August 2011, 4:33 pm | Binoy Kampmark
American socialist John Reed termed the Bolshevik Revolution the 10 days that shook the world. The historical retort to those who wished to retain its legacy was mounted in 1991 – and it took a mere three days to defeat it. Swan Lake was being played ... More >>
The Coup That Failed: The Fall of Russian Communism
Monday, 22 August 2011, 9:01 am | Binoy Kampmark
American socialist John Reed termed the Bolshevik Revolution the 10 days that shook the world. The historical retort to those who wished to retain its legacy was mounted in 1991 – and it took a mere three days to defeat it. Swan Lake was being played ... More >>
Misdirected in ‘Berlin’: A Bar Interlude in Melbourne
Friday, 19 August 2011, 5:20 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The website of the Melbourne bar ‘Berlin’ is swish in the way a website is after a good bit of cyber jigging. A tinker here and there, and one gets the glossy sense that we might be seeing ‘quality’. It features the coat of arms of the German ... More >>
The Culture of Criminality: Cameron and the Family Test
Wednesday, 17 August 2011, 2:46 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Charlie Chaplin’s remarkable Monsieur Verdoux (1947) one of his best films in terms of social criticism and unsurprisingly one of his lesser financial successes, features the exploits of a charming confidence trickster and killer. He is something of an ... More >>
Turf Wars: Google, Motorola and Apple
Tuesday, 16 August 2011, 5:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It’s a turf war. Oracle sued Google last year. Apple is suing HTC. Microsoft is suing Motorola over infringements of mobile technology. It is hardly news that Google and Apple are arch rivals locking horns in a hostile battle over technology rights. ... More >>
Making the Medicine Go Down: The Nutella Case
Tuesday, 16 August 2011, 3:14 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The litigious society has taken another step into oblivion. San Diego mum Anthena Hohenberg was ‘shocked’ to learn earlier this eyar that the achingly tasty Nutella was full of fat and sugar and not exactly up there in the nutritious league of foods. ... More >>
Martyr or Loser? Cyril Tuschi’s Khodorkovsky
Thursday, 11 August 2011, 3:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
An editorial in the Guardian (Dec 28, 2010) noted a gold nugget of wisdom from Russia’s Vladimir Putin: a thief must be in jail. This, he would qualify later, was in reference to the first conviction of the Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, rather than ... More >>
Looting in London: The End of the Social Contract
Thursday, 11 August 2011, 2:59 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It took a killing in a north London reservoir, but these days where large cities are mere borders of angst and dissatisfaction, where unhappiness is the permanent condition, riots are perhaps not that surprising. The commentary on the death of ... More >>
Downgrade: Standard and Poor’s Economic Slap
Monday, 8 August 2011, 3:20 pm | Binoy Kampmark
What power. What remarkable symbolic strength. Without the firing of a single shot in anger, a country has been, at least in a sense, brought to its economic knees. The capitalist system, that pervasive monster of modern society, with variations ... More >>
Downgrade: Standard and Poor’s Economic Slap
Sunday, 7 August 2011, 2:52 pm | Binoy Kampmark
What power. What remarkable symbolic strength. Without the firing of a single shot in anger, a country has been, at least in a sense, brought to its economic knees. The capitalist system, that pervasive monster of modern society, with variations ... More >>
Misfiring in Babylon: The Story of West Indian Cricket
Sunday, 7 August 2011, 2:46 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Within a short span of time, two documentaries on cricket have emerged. The first is James Erskine’s Botham-dominated From the Ashes ; the second, Steven Riley’s Fire in Babylon , an examination of the West Indian cricket story. While the account ... More >>
