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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 130]
The Medium is the Body: The Death of Osama Bin Laden
Tuesday, 3 May 2011, 1:13 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It is far easier, says the insightful Polish scribe Stanisław Lec, to resurrect the dead than it is the living. In the case of the late (is the term redundant?) Osama bin Laden, the observation is perfectly apt. Resurrections of his being and ... More >>
Osama Bin Laden, Dead and Alive
Tuesday, 3 May 2011, 8:50 am | Binoy Kampmark
The corrupt, vanishing body has fascinated and puzzled societies for millennia. Evita Peron’s power was more significant to Argentineans after her death than during her life. Saints tend to be more useful in a state of persisting decomposition than ... More >>
Double-Speak: The Libyan Operation
Monday, 18 April 2011, 12:39 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Louis Guilloux suggested the idea: one writes not in order to say something, but to avoid saying anything at all. The letter signed last week by France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, the United Kingdom’s David Cameron and US President Barack Obama, has ... More >>
The Travails of Space: The Gagarin Adventure
Tuesday, 12 April 2011, 2:16 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It stunned the world and heralded a high point in Soviet science. It sent the scientific establishment of the United States into paroxysms of panic: had they, those cheeky reds, truly done it? On April 12, 1961, the announcement was made that Yuri Gagarin ... More >>
Big Society Blues: The Stuttering of David Cameron’s Vision
Wednesday, 6 April 2011, 10:46 am | Binoy Kampmark
The Big Society remains a pivotal aspect of the conservative platform in Britain. Transfer power to small communities, or so say the current stable of Tory hacks. Take the controls away from the bureaucratic centre in London. But such ambitions ... More >>
Rickshaw Driver: Wes Dog and Chicago Ambience
Monday, 4 April 2011, 3:41 pm | Binoy Kampmark
He calls himself with a certain gritty pride Wes Dog. What a sprightly musical creature he is. From an aesthetic cul de sac in Chicago he dips into the fine waters of the Chicago music tradition. He has been involved in various musical efforts before, ... More >>
Vamps, Hollywood and Activism: The Passing of Liz Taylor
Friday, 25 March 2011, 2:10 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Hampstead-born lady with distinct double-rowed eyelashes went through husbands at a greater rate than tissues. And why not? Richard Burton had the good fortune of being married, not once, but twice to her. But the passing of Dame Elizabeth Taylor ... More >>
Rolling with Art: Brett Whiteley in Tarrawarra
Wednesday, 23 March 2011, 12:00 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The light shines brilliantly through the structure of the Tarrawarra Museum of Art near Healesville, Victoria where a light sampling of Brett Whiteley’s works can be found. It is the last days of an art exhibition in the country, fabulously staged. ... More >>
Misfiring at Gaddafi: To Kill or Not to Kill
Wednesday, 23 March 2011, 9:36 am | Binoy Kampmark
The supposed humanitarian mission in striking Libyan targets has suddenly seemed rather unclear. First, what of those civilians, convenient props in yet another grand operation of international politics? Second, what of the fate of the elusive drag ... More >>
The Dangerous Intervention? Libya and the Coalition Attacks
Monday, 21 March 2011, 11:20 am | Binoy Kampmark
In Albert Camus’s notebooks, one finds a confession that strikes a chord. One is always caught in the vice of doing something and the helplessness of doing nothing at all. In between, the human being is permanently stuck on a fence, pondering the ... More >>
The Dangerous Intervention? Libya and the Coalition Attacks
Monday, 21 March 2011, 11:03 am | Binoy Kampmark
In Albert Camus’s notebooks, one finds a confession that strikes a chord. One is always caught in the vice of doing something and the helplessness of doing nothing at all. In between, the human being is permanently stuck on a fence, pondering the ... More >>
Mulling over the Risorgimento: Italy after 150 Years
Friday, 18 March 2011, 4:00 pm | Binoy Kampmark
‘The word “Italy” is a geographical expression, a description which is useful shorthand, but has none of the political significance the efforts of the revolutionary ideologues try to put on it’. So wrote that famous protector of European monarchism, ... More >>
Mulling over the Risorgimento: Italy after 150 Years
Friday, 18 March 2011, 1:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
‘The word “Italy” is a geographical expression, a description which is useful shorthand, but has none of the political significance the efforts of the revolutionary ideologues try to put on it’. So wrote that famous protector of European monarchism, ... More >>
Going Radioactive: The Japanese Nuclear Dilemma
Wednesday, 16 March 2011, 5:02 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The debate on nuclear energy afflicts us all. The damage to the four reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is sending ripples of concern through Japan and the rest of the global community. The panic buttons amongst energy pundits and professionals ... More >>
PowerPoint State: Meeker and Banalities of USA Inc.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011, 4:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
How utterly revealing. Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers partner Mary Meeker decided to, in February this year, publish a 460 page (PowerPoint) report looking at the United States as a company – USA Inc. But, in truth, the only thing revealing about ... More >>
The Pornographic Aftershock: Earthquake in Japan
Monday, 14 March 2011, 3:02 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was only last month that Japanese experts well versed in the palliative arts of rescue were sent to Christchurch in New Zealand to help in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake. The earthquake remains Japan’s permanent shadow. The trembler at Kobe ... More >>
Gillard Goes to Washington: US-Australian Security Alliance
Monday, 14 March 2011, 2:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
An American journalist could not help mentioning it: that Australians have fought alongside the United States in every major conflict since the First World War. This is, after all, the 60th anniversary of the ANZUS treaty, binding Washington and Canberra ... More >>
The Ultimate Reversal: Obama on Guantánamo
Thursday, 10 March 2011, 10:47 am | Binoy Kampmark
The Wall Street Journal (Mar 8) ran with an almost smug opinion piece on the subject of President Obama’s latest policy reversal. ‘Obama ratifies Bush’. We can change? Perhaps only in small ways, and in some cases, not at all. The ultimate reversal ... More >>
International Women’s Day
Wednesday, 9 March 2011, 11:06 am | Binoy Kampmark
March 8 is a contradictory day in the calendar of events. International Women’s Day comes with its usual, painstakingly rehearsed formulae: cheery, optimistic advocates keen to show advances made in women’s welfare; solemn reminders that there is much ... More >>
Rogue Football: Libya and Juventus
Monday, 7 March 2011, 1:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
As Libya descends into civil war, the trail of the Gaddafi family through the highest echelons of international government and sport becomes thicker by the day. In 2002, Al-Saadi Gaddafi, son of beleaguered ‘mad dog’ Muammar, joined the board of Italian ... More >>
