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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 139]
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 >>
Binoy Kampmark: The Clarke-Bingle Saga
Wednesday, 17 March 2010, 2:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Sporting stars have featured rather poorly of late. Tiger Woods became known less for his putting than his dalliances and treatment sessions for nymphomania. The publicity vultures swooped in and carried off their treasured morsels of carrion. But now, ... More >>
Moving Right & Going Wrong: Education in Texas
Monday, 15 March 2010, 12:01 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Censors, it has been said, are paid to have dirty minds. Education panellists, at least in certain jurisdictions, are paid to prevent the exercise of one at all. For that reason, fifteen unknown individuals in a state should not be vested with the ... More >>
The Lying Traveler: The Kapuściński Case
Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 1:57 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Few would complain about the psychedelic, acid-fueled impressions of gonzo specialist Hunter S. Thompson as being accounts of the literal. Yet, despite their frenzied moments and over-heated descriptions, many could have discerned the truth in the ... More >>
Melbourne’s Bar Scene – the Awful Summer Truth
Monday, 8 March 2010, 11:45 am | Binoy Kampmark
The stench from sweat mixed with perfume is palpable during the summer months, when God has gone on an extended vacation and left gullible humans to entertain themselves in Melbourne. The cocktails are overpriced to levels of lunacy. The beer is obscenely ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Michael Foot Obituary
Friday, 5 March 2010, 10:31 am | Binoy Kampmark
He was called a walking obituary of the British Labour Party more prone to writing suicide notes (in the political sense), than manifestoes for survival. In a sense, Chris Patten had been right when he used that somewhat cruel description of Michael ... More >>
Curriculum Battles and Banded Histories
Wednesday, 3 March 2010, 1:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
‘The national curriculum appears quite unbalanced as it stands at the moment,’ complained Opposition Education spokesman Christopher Pyne to gathered members of the press (March 1, Herald Sun ). The Australian Coalition is getting hot and bothered ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Unintended Acceleration at Toyota
Friday, 26 February 2010, 2:55 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Even David Letterman found room to mock it, but Toyota’s recent acceleration debacle is an episode the company would rather forget. The Japanese giant is mired in a controversial recall of vehicles for sudden acceleration defects, numbering 8.5 million in the ... More >>
Cheating the Americans: The Pinot Noir Fraud
Wednesday, 24 February 2010, 6:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Does it really matter that one is not drinking what it purports to be? The stories of fraud and wine are a continuing feature of the industry. In 2000, it was revealed that wine merchants from Burgundy were engaged in a scheme of mixing vintage ‘grand ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Alexander Haig Obituary
Tuesday, 23 February 2010, 3:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The bluff and bluster of history stills itself from time to time, leaving in its wake the busy activity of revisionism and more sympathetic readings of its figures. A figure who is unlikely to deserve such treatment is the late Alexander Haig, a ... More >>
Shock and Foil: Insulation Woes in Oz
Friday, 19 February 2010, 1:33 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It all came with such promise, advertised in glowing terms as something that could cut the energy costs of an Australian home by as much as 40 percent a year. And it would create jobs for the insulation industry. The Rudd Government’s Home Insulation ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark Review: The Bad Lieutenant
Thursday, 18 February 2010, 12:49 pm | Binoy Kampmark
When asked at a press conference in Rome in June last year on what he thought about Werner Herzog’s The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Abel Ferrara could barely contain himself. ‘I think that if they don’t have any original ideas about ... More >>
Stewing in Corruption: Punishing BAE
Wednesday, 17 February 2010, 10:02 am | Binoy Kampmark
Members of the arms industry are far from scrupulous, and the recent fine of BAE to the tune of £285 million will do much to harden convictions about that fact. For two decades, the British arms giant has been engaging in obscure, intricate transactions ... More >>
‘Terrifying’ Narcissism: J. D. Salinger’s Legacy
Tuesday, 9 February 2010, 8:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
How will be remember J.D. Salinger? The painfully reclusive author of the monumental work on childhood alienation The Catcher in the Rye (1951)? A rather cranky voice for silenced youth? Certainly, many adolescents who opened the pages of the novel ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Trouble at The Lancet
Monday, 8 February 2010, 11:28 am | Binoy Kampmark
‘It has became clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation.’ So concluded one of the longest misconduct inquiries in medical history. The editors of Britain’s ... More >>
Missed Opportunities: District 9 & Sci-Fi Politics
Thursday, 4 February 2010, 11:20 am | Binoy Kampmark
A sci-fi B-Film that punches above its weight. So argued Anthony Quinn of The Independent (Sep 4, 2009) on the South African spectacular District 9 , directed by Neill Blomkamp. Certainly, it is a refreshing change from such overly done efforts as the Transformers ... More >>
