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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 144]
Back into NATO: The end of French ‘Exceptionalism’
Thursday, 19 March 2009, 3:26 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Last Wednesday, before the École Militaire, Nicolas Sarkozy promised what on paper seemed rather radical: the French armed forces would be re-integrated into NATO after an absence of 43 years. Then, the redoubtable Charles De Gaulle gave US President ... More >>
The Case of Tim K: Guns in Germany
Monday, 16 March 2009, 2:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The slayings in Winnenden last week throw up the stock character traits and responses typical to such a tragedy. Someone has to appear at fault; the blamegame has to assume force and character. The child, with the Beretta, can’t appear to be the only one ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Mary Stuart in Copenhagen
Friday, 13 March 2009, 3:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The laughs grate, the performances seem grotesque. But the warning signs were there: Friedrich Schiller’s Maria Stuart at the Betty Nansen Theatre in Copenhagen, the adaptation of the demise and end of Mary Stuart at the hands of her nemesis, Queen ... More >>
Goodbye Iraq; Hello Afghanistan
Tuesday, 3 March 2009, 9:39 am | Binoy Kampmark
There was no gasp, merely a lingering sigh that came with the announcement that the vast bulk of US combat forces would be leaving Iraq by August 31, 2010, with the final departures taking place at the end of December 2011. Before a gathering of ... More >>
The politics of empathy: Cameron and Ivan’s Death
Friday, 27 February 2009, 10:09 am | Binoy Kampmark
Politics, and modern politics at that, has as much to do with forged empathy (occasionally sympathy) as with anything else. Candidates lagging in the polls often dig around for which malady to feign, or what sentimental moment can be used to inspire a popular ... More >>
Cricket & Cartels: The fall of Sir Allen Stanford
Monday, 23 February 2009, 10:06 am | Binoy Kampmark
Sir Allen Stanford was, at his height, valued in the billions. His money financed an empire of sporting pursuits and tournaments, ranging from golf, tennis, football and, most notably of all, that archaic wonder called cricket. And, like those before ... More >>
After Rushdie: Wilders & Ironies of Censorship
Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 8:55 am | Binoy Kampmark
Binoy Kampmark writes that on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the fatwah against the writer Salman Rushdie, the case of free expression and its permissible limits remains more pertinent than ever. More >>
Taking To The Bong: Phelps And The Curse Of Purity
Sunday, 8 February 2009, 10:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There has been a marked hysteria towards Michael Phelps, caught in flagrante with a bong by eager photographers for the sordid News of the World . For a person as taken with swimming as Bobby Fischer was with chess, it is almost a relief to see ... More >>
The Kirill Appointment: Russia’s Orthodox Revival
Tuesday, 3 February 2009, 10:54 am | Binoy Kampmark
Sunday’s enthronement of Russia’s first patriarch since the fall of the Soviet Union, Patriarch Kirill, was a moment of some reflection for those present. Alexey II’s successor finds the Russian Orthodox Church in a healthier state than his ... More >>
Virtual Obsessions: Facebook and the Pope
Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 2:21 pm | Binoy Kampmark
‘When this group reaches one million, we will petition the Pope to get a Facebook [sic]. Bishops, priests, deacons, brothers, nuns, Catholics, and non-Catholics are all welcome.’ More >>
Farewell Dick Welcome Biden: Where to with the VP?
Monday, 26 January 2009, 9:36 am | Binoy Kampmark
Jon Stewart on The Daily Show mocked the Blofeldian characteristics of that seemingly evil, wheelchair bound creature (without accompanying cat), but there was something to it. Dick Cheney, with a strained back incurred while moving to McLean, Virginia ... More >>
Buying the President - The Marketing of Hope
Tuesday, 20 January 2009, 11:02 am | Binoy Kampmark
Binoy Kampmark writes that utopias have a habit of tumbling down in the long run, falling foul of brutal realities and nasty predicaments. In the short-run, they resonate with a pop-like glow, mesmerizing crowds narcotized on slogans and promises. More >>
Passing the Buck: Exporting Prisoners from Gitmo
Monday, 19 January 2009, 11:28 am | Binoy Kampmark
Binoy Kampmark writes that with Guantánamo Bay losing its patriotic luster and purpose, US authorities are willing to offload some of the carceral baggage to recipient states. In truth, they have been in the business of doing so for years. More >>
Playing the Freedom Game: Bush & the Freedom Medal
Friday, 16 January 2009, 10:30 am | Binoy Kampmark
It was the final cast of the dying days of his administration. And at its sunset, the Presidential medal of freedom recipients were announced by George W. Bush. Former Prime Ministers Tony Blair (Britain) and John Howard (Australia), along with Colombian ... More >>
Going to Sea: Google and Global Warming
Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 9:25 am | Binoy Kampmark
From scientific opinion to tree-hugging cultists, everything we do generates a ‘carbon footprint’, whether it’s the unconscious turn of a switch or a careless overuse of heated water. Human beings, branded as lifelong parasites (voluntary or otherwise), ... More >>
Blago and the American Republic
Friday, 9 January 2009, 10:44 am | Binoy Kampmark
What is to be made of the sordid little case of seat selling by Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich? Not much, judging from much reaction in the US. And those who do are treated like members of an outdated inquisition, hypocrites who guard a moral ... More >>
Energy Politics: The Ukraine and Gazprom
Thursday, 8 January 2009, 12:20 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Europe is again at the mercy of energy politics. While the Ukrainian-Russian energy crisis promised to be confined and contained, the interconnected nature of the gas supplies made that virtually possible. More >>
The Perils of Gaza: Israel and Hamas
Wednesday, 7 January 2009, 10:55 am | Binoy Kampmark
The Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip signals yet another chapter in the tragic dilemma faced by those in the enclave. The only true victims, as it always has been in this conflict, will be the civilians. More >>
Punishing Genocide: The Bagosora Case
Monday, 22 December 2008, 10:14 am | Binoy Kampmark
It was considered a huge step towards the attainment of international justice. Perhaps in time, this week’s convictions of Bagosora, Ntabakuze and Nsengiyumva of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda will come to sit alongside an assortment ... More >>
The Mighty Fraud: The fall of Bernard Madoff
Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 11:18 am | Binoy Kampmark
It’s being touted as the biggest fraud in history. This is quite something, given the competition U.S. financial trader Bernard Madoff is up against in this year’s financial rogue sweepstakes. Madoff, founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities ... More >>
