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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 137]
Slash and Burn: Greece’s Austerity Measures
Friday, 7 May 2010, 7:29 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Greek government, and its citizens, are feeling the economic pinch. A brutal reaction to protestors who fear the winding back of the country’s social system has stunned visitors and the public alike. A general strike has been in progress ... More >>
Vague, Passionate and Erratic: The Last Station
Friday, 7 May 2010, 6:25 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station , a portrayal over the last days of Leo Tolstoy’s life and a battle over the disposition of his estate and copyright to his works, politics and personalities clash. The wily aide and pejoratively labelled ... More >>
Banning the Burqa: The Battle over Dress & Freedom
Tuesday, 4 May 2010, 12:33 pm | Binoy Kampmark
At the end of last week, it became clear that Belgium had become Europe’s first country to vote for a ban of the Islamic dress, the burqa, in its lower house. On Thursday, all legislators of the Lower House who were present in the chamber voted ... More >>
A Russian Freeze: Halting Adoptions to the US
Saturday, 1 May 2010, 1:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Russian government is having an apoplectic fit. Not over those usual things – deadly weapons of nuclear import and American foot dragging on the subject, energy disputes that involve strangling neighbours into submission, and that distinctly ... More >>
The Clegg Factor: The Coming British Elections
Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 3:31 pm | Binoy Kampmark
What are we to make of Nick Clegg who now holds the banner of the Liberal Democrats in Britain? The historian Max Hastings in The Daily Mail (Apr 28) is dismissive. ‘It would be foolish to expect honesty from Nick Clegg and his party,’ he suggests, ... More >>
Rotten in Victoria: The Carl Williams Case
Monday, 26 April 2010, 1:06 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The murder of Carl Williams in a Victorian maximum security prison is troubling on various levels. It suggests that something is not merely rotten in the state of Victoria, but positively putrid. On the watch of the prison authorities and the state, Williams ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Obama and Regulating the Market
Monday, 26 April 2010, 10:43 am | Binoy Kampmark
President Barack Obama has become the chief sales officer for market regulation, a theme he has been labouring over for some time. Cooper Union, its location pitched within a few miles of Wall Street, doesn’t seem to be tiring of luminaries with ... More >>
Bliss in Hell – An Operatic Vision
Thursday, 22 April 2010, 12:02 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Mismatched clothing, awkwardly shaped bags, and diverse shapes. Grand dames of the art establishment, slouching over champagne glasses; the occasional cape tuxedo. Even the former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett is present, immaculately dressed yet ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Volcanic Plumes and Surreal Scenes
Monday, 19 April 2010, 1:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The scenes of empty skies over Europe are surreal after the explosion of Iceland’s volcano Eyjafjallajökull. Flights continue to be grounded in the most extensive reaction to a volcanic plume in Europe's history. Global cancellations of flights ... More >>
Fearing the Nuke: The Nuclear Security Summit
Friday, 16 April 2010, 2:10 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Bernard Baruch’s words come to mind when looking at the latest nuclear summit in Washington, hosted by President Barack Obama. Speaking as US representative to the UN Atomic Energy Commission in June 1946, Baruch reminded those who cared to listen ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Rudd’s Refugee Woes
Wednesday, 14 April 2010, 1:56 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Australian government, as is often the case on the perennial matter of refugees, is muddled about its role in the world. The latest update in the sordid treatment it has offered Sri Lankan and Afghan refugees is that its information on the security ... More >>
The Apocalyptic Absurd: Poland’s Plane Tragedy
Monday, 12 April 2010, 8:45 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The apocalypse, suggested Frank Kermode, is part of the modern absurd. Certainly, for the Poles, this must be true. The loss of 96 distinguished figures over the weekend in a crash of their 26-year old Tupolev 154 is yet another historical tragedy to ... More >>
Trundling Greats: Sir Alec Bedser
Monday, 12 April 2010, 9:14 am | Binoy Kampmark
Line and length crop up in cricket vocabulary with a frequency that must bore the unfamiliar and uninitiated. But such terms are particularly important for the medium quick bowler, whose ability in seam bowling and mastery of swing is crucial to success. ... More >>
Playing Nuclear Charades: The New START
Friday, 9 April 2010, 5:13 pm | Binoy Kampmark
When the two largest holders of nuclear weapons sign treaties reducing their lethal stockpile, the optimist might have reason to crow. Another step taken to rid the world of various, fabulously terrifying weapons. US President Barack Obama and Russian ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: A Tribute to Chateaux de Cardboard
Tuesday, 6 April 2010, 11:03 am | Binoy Kampmark
Wine from a cask, or a bladder pack as it is colloquially known, is now an immoveable feature of many a drinker’s day. Whether they come in 2 liters or 5, drinkers across the globe are relieved that they can derive the benefits of the grape through a nozzle ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Dumping Hu and Saving Rio Tinto
Thursday, 1 April 2010, 5:16 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Rio Tinto’s attempt to rinse its red blood of any association with the practices of its former employees Stern Hu (an Australian national) and Chinese nationals Liu Caikui, Wang Yong and Ge Minqiang, is troubling. Business in the international mining ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Last Rites for The Bill
Monday, 29 March 2010, 2:56 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Followers will be aghast at the latest news about The Bill, which grew out of the drama Woodenstop, an ITV production begun in 1983. After 27 years, the British drama set around the fictional Sun Hill police station in London has been read its last ... More >>
Obama’s Health Plan: The Continuing Battle
Friday, 26 March 2010, 1:04 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Modest gains in health tend to look miraculous in American political theatre. President Barack Obama has every reason to be relieved, at least for the moment. Health care, the poisoned chalice of many a Presidential administration, has not, as yet, polluted ... More >>
Bailing out the Greeks: The Revolt in the Eurozone
Monday, 22 March 2010, 4:03 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Financial woes have a habit of spoiling summit parties. The European Commission is now in an ongoing debate as to whether its meeting should be used to come to an arrangement co-ordinating package loans to assist Greece out of its deepening financial hole. ... More >>
Exhuming memory: The Fallen at Fromelles
Friday, 19 March 2010, 4:16 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It has been going on since the summer of 2007, when a mass grave of four hundred soldiers was found near the site of the Battle of Fromelles. The battle was an unmitigated and needless slaughter, particularly for the Australians. Some 5,500 losses, an assortment ... More >>
