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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 140]
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 >>
The Vicious Countryside: Haneke’s The White Ribbon
Tuesday, 2 February 2010, 7:44 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Arthur Conan Doyle found the English countryside seething with potential criminality. His sleuth creation of Sherlock Holmes was never deceived by the tranquil image of the country retreat and escape from the industrialized centre. London, with its bustle, ... More >>
‘Noisy & Messy’: Obama’s State of Union Address
Friday, 29 January 2010, 4:56 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The need was there to mount a rearguard action after the Democrat’s defeat in Massachusetts and a dip in the polls, and President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address went some way in doing so. The usual charismatic ingredients were there: the proverbial ... More >>
Reliving the Raj: Gordon Ramsay in India
Wednesday, 27 January 2010, 1:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Chefs who have an absolute sense of self are closed beings. They have found the cosmic truth to the workings of the kitchen, and no one will convince them otherwise. To be confronted with something as extraordinary, diverse, if not more so, than what ... More >>
The Cruel Country: Haiti’s Earthquake
Thursday, 14 January 2010, 1:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It struck with savagery and killed indiscriminately. But Haiti, a land plagued by cruelties manufactured by humans and engendered by nature, has seen something that must crown its long list of misfortunes. And they have been many. Hurricanes and ... More >>
Ponies And Pigs: The Californian Budget Mess
Tuesday, 12 January 2010, 10:17 am | Binoy Kampmark
‘He did address some of the serious issues,’ suggested one Californian commentator in weak fashion. In truth there was much that could have been far more serious about the Californian Governor’s last State of State speech (7 Jan). More >>
Sacred Memories: Almodovar's Broken Embraces
Monday, 11 January 2010, 9:51 am | Binoy Kampmark
Pedro Almodóvar is a treasure of the screen, supremely sensitive to surfaces, characters, and the workings of the cinema itself. His devotion to the craft is unmistakable, demonstrated by constant hints, persistent allusions to past greats, and the mechanics ... More >>
“We’re Clueless”: Tricking American Intelligence
Friday, 8 January 2010, 11:01 am | Binoy Kampmark
He was seen as the Central Intelligence Agency’s best hope in years. But Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor inadequately vetted and cultivated by Jordanian intelligence, was no such thing. More >>
Omens of Doom: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa Tower
Thursday, 7 January 2010, 3:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It is a colossus, towering over the Dubai skyline. The company behind it claims to have made a successful return of 10 percent. The local paper, the Khaleej Times, did not shy away from hyperbole, seeing the building as ‘an example of human courage ... More >>
Airport security and The Terrorist Genie
Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 11:16 am | Binoy Kampmark
The authorities in Britain and the United States are scrambling. They hope to find answers as to how the 23-year-old engineering student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab managed to elude and almost detonate himself on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam ... More >>
Revising Sherlock: Guy Ritchie and the Detective
Tuesday, 29 December 2009, 10:16 am | Binoy Kampmark
Guy Ritchie’s reputation has suffered a bit over time. His latest effort at bringing a markedly revised version of Sherlock Holmes to the screen just might save him, though the critics might disagree. In his latest effort, we have something akin to ... More >>
Film review: Single Man
Sunday, 27 December 2009, 1:58 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Christopher Isherwood is perhaps most known for his The Berlin Stories , featuring Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939). He took his cultured sharp eye to that most extraordinary of capitals and wrote himself into the annals ... More >>
