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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 133]
A Failure of Service: Flying Domestic in the US
Tuesday, 23 November 2010, 11:52 am | Binoy Kampmark
The domestic airport scene in the United States is one of permanent lines, warnings on leaving bags unattended and jittery surveillance. Warning alerts on potential strikes by unspecified ‘terrorists’ sound like a game children might like: ‘The ... More >>
Back to London: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
Wednesday, 17 November 2010, 1:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
We are back in London, a scene which Woody Allen has come to love over the years (witness Match Point , Scoop and Cassandra’s Dream ). His last film Whatever Works , buoyed by the dynamic performance of Larry David as a misanthropic physicist, took ... More >>
Asylum in Arcadia: Detaining Refugees in Australia
Tuesday, 9 November 2010, 9:00 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It’s a curious scene for a country of immigrants. Woodside, one of Australia’s more provincial areas in South Australia, is abuzz with animosity. Australia’s neuroses regarding immigration is a perennial condition, occasionally afflicting ... More >>
The Rhetoric of Small Government in the US
Friday, 5 November 2010, 6:31 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The rhetoric of US government is the rhetoric of small institutions and Jeffersonian yeomen. As a young United States was getting ready to become a world power with imperial tendencies, Thomas Jefferson warned that big was not necessarily beautiful. He envisaged ... More >>
Giving Back the Tea: Rhetoric of Small Government
Thursday, 4 November 2010, 6:03 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The rhetoric of US government is the rhetoric of small institutions and Jeffersonian yeomen. As a young United States was getting ready to become a world power with imperial tendencies, Thomas Jefferson warned that big was not necessarily beautiful. He envisaged ... More >>
An Australian Fetish: The Melbourne Cup
Monday, 1 November 2010, 11:06 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It’s that time of the year again. Australia reveals its idiosyncratic streak as being the only nation on earth that will actually stop for a horse race. One of its most monumental sporting figures won his awards on four legs, not two. The still ... More >>
Katie Noonan: The World of the Overly Sweet
Thursday, 28 October 2010, 2:12 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The term Sumptuous was used in advertising the show. But was Sumptuous the sort of term to use for music written to commemorate a sufferer of Parkinson’s? Or distinct family tragedies? Or the ‘first page’ of a marriage? Katie Noonan, who has been ... More >>
Middle-earth in NZ: Prostituting for The Hobbit
Wednesday, 27 October 2010, 11:01 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Life has truly imitated art in New Zealand. J.R.R. Tolkien might have well been amused about the idea that the filmic adaptation of The Lord of the Rings would take such hold in soil 12,000 miles from England. It did, and with spectacular success. So, ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: The Wayne Rooney Circus
Saturday, 23 October 2010, 9:01 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It seemed to be a badly rehearsed act – a querulous player, disgruntled with his management, sapped of inspiration, and wanting to leave in a fit of disgust. But the antics of Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney proved to be nothing of the sort. ... More >>
How not to have a debate: Australia in Afghanistan
Saturday, 23 October 2010, 2:07 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was the debate that never really took place, however poignant pundits would like to think it was. Both the Australian government through Prime Minister Julia Gillard and main opposition leader Tony Abbott took familiar stances this week in parliament. ... More >>
Austerity: Osborne and Britain’s Spending Cuts
Saturday, 23 October 2010, 11:58 am | Binoy Kampmark
The British feel that the world is watching. Trimming (nay, slashing) the public sector, which will take money out of a shrunken economy rather than keep it circulating in the system, is something that the financial wizards of the Cameron government ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Merkel and Multiculturalism
Thursday, 21 October 2010, 4:02 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is getting pessimistic. She has given the German people a rather dark verdict: that multiculturalism has not worked in Germany, despite assertions to the contrary. Her fears have a distinctly traditional flavour to them. ... More >>
Moving to the Right: The US Midterm Elections
Tuesday, 19 October 2010, 2:54 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The United States is proving very busy in the lead up to the mid-term elections on November 2. In addition to the battles for the House of Representatives and Senate, roughly forty states will be electing governors. The Republicans are in prime position ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: The Canonisation of Mary MacKillop
Sunday, 17 October 2010, 8:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In an age where threats of religious fundamentalism and the battle against archaic laws continues, we find, yet again, the Catholic Church in arrears. Feverish talk about ‘barbaric’ Islam takes place in a world parallel to rituals that still ... More >>
The Pornography of Rescue: The Miners in Chile
Friday, 15 October 2010, 9:43 am | Binoy Kampmark
There is something pornographic about it. Images of rescue that are constantly replayed on dozens of channels for consumption only to then be re-consumed. The chest thumping, the extolling of ‘man’s will to survive’. The world as a perceived audience ... More >>
Aborting in Cairns: The Leach-Brennan Case
Thursday, 14 October 2010, 7:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It’s the sort of thing that encourages a bad press for North Queensland, but the first abortion case to be tried in over 20 years has sparked something of a furore. The case involved Tegan Leach and Sergie Brennan (21 and 22 respectively), who have ... More >>
Outsourcing the City: Maywood City Council
Thursday, 14 October 2010, 10:14 am | Binoy Kampmark
Imagine a world where every service is no longer a matter of government but one of private contract. A classic model of monetarist, contracted efficiency where resources are neatly allocated and obligations to the ‘public’ discharged without fuss. ... More >>
La Stupenda: The Passing of Dame Joan Sutherland
Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 11:26 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Australia’s much respected soprano, Dame Joan Sutherland, is dead at the age of 83. From 1960 when she made her Italian debut singing in Handel’s Alcina at La Fenice in Venice, she became known as ‘La Stupenda’, cast in shining armour as ... More >>
Excited over Wagner: The Israel Chamber Orchestra
Monday, 11 October 2010, 10:55 am | Binoy Kampmark
It seems to be a permanent bone of contention, but broaching the topic of Israel’s relationship with Richard Wagner is a dangerous pastime. The composer’s great-granddaughter, Katharina Wagner, cancelled a trip to Israel when news of it was leaked to the Israeli ... More >>
Football Inc: Liverpool FC, Debt and Winning
Thursday, 7 October 2010, 11:00 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It is considered an icon in the football world, but like all icons, rustiness can set in. Lack of attention can induce wear and tear. While Liverpool FC might be considered one of Europe’s most successful teams with an astonishing pedigree, it has a considerable ... More >>
