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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 40]
Julian Assange: A Thousand Days In Belmarsh
Thursday, 13 January 2022, 4:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Julian Assange has now been in the maximum-security facilities of Belmarsh prison for over 1,000 days. On the occasion of his 1,000th day of imprisonment, campaigners, supporters and kindred spirits gathered to show their support, indignation and solidarity ... More >>
Anachronistic Frivolity: Australia’s Recent Tank Purchase
Wednesday, 12 January 2022, 3:12 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The operating doctrine of many a defence ministry is premised on fatuity. There is the industry prerogative and need for employment. There are the hectoring think tanks writing in oracular tones of warning that the next “strategic” change is ... More >>
The Mauling Of Novak Djokovic
Monday, 10 January 2022, 2:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Rarely can the treatment of a grand sporting figure by officialdom have caused such consternation. Novak Djokovic, the tennis World Number One, has always had a tendency to get under skin and constitution, creating a large following of admirers and detractors. ... More >>
Voices Of Concern: Aussies For Assange’s Return
Thursday, 23 December 2021, 2:31 pm | Binoy Kampmark
With Julian Assange now fighting the next stage of efforts to extradite him to the United States to face 18 charges, 17 of which are based on the brutal, archaic Espionage Act, some Australian politicians have found their voice. It might be said that a ... More >>
Double Standards: The UK-Australian Free Trade Agreement
Monday, 20 December 2021, 3:36 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Any agreement between governments led by the UK’s Boris Johnson and Australia’s Scott Morrison must be treated with a healthy dose of suspicion. A few minutes with the UK prime minister would lead you to believe that “Global Britain” is a meaningful ... More >>
Forbidden Parties: Boris Johnson’s Law On Illegal Covid Gatherings
Sunday, 19 December 2021, 6:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was meant to be time to reflect. The eager arms of a new pandemic were enfolding a society with asphyxiating, lethal effect. Public health authorities advocated various measures: social distancing, limited contact between family and friends, limited ... More >>
Covid Testing Rackets And Flying Again
Friday, 17 December 2021, 2:30 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The young boy of seven or so was kissing a toy doll affixed with an alarmed face. The doll, no doubt of full Chinese make, was fully tarted up, lips glossy, eyes wide, a blonde with curls. “Stop making out with her,” cried her mother, sitting in ... More >>
Jailing Former Immigration Ministers: Denmark’s Inger Støjberg
Wednesday, 15 December 2021, 12:38 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It’s not the sort of thing you encounter regularly. A member of a government cabinet, responsible for arguably one of the country’s most important portfolios, found both wanting and culpable for their actions after leaving their post. But this is ... More >>
How To Chill Free Speech: Defamation Down Under
Monday, 13 December 2021, 1:02 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The free speech argument in Australia has always been skewed. Lacking the confidence, courage and maturity to have a bill of rights that might protect it, Australia’s body politic has stammered its way to the frailest of protections. The Australian ... More >>
Journalism, Assange And Reversal In The High Court
Saturday, 11 December 2021, 5:11 pm | Binoy Kampmark
British justice is advertised by its proponents as upright, historically different to the savages upon which it sought to civilise, and apparently fair. Such outrages as the unjust convictions of the Guilford Four and Maguire Seven, both having served ... More >>
Ineffectual Boycotts: The Beijing Winter Olympics
Thursday, 9 December 2021, 1:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Making moral statements in the blood and gristle of international relations can often come across as feeble. In doing so, the maker serves the worst of all worlds: to reveal a false sense of assurance that something was done while serving no actual ... More >>
Punishing The Unvaccinated: Europe’s COVID-19 Health Experiment
Tuesday, 7 December 2021, 1:46 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Forget any notions of juicy carrots; the stick approach of savage punishment is in vogue with the Greek government in pushing vaccination rates. It is far from the only one. Across a number of countries in Europe, governments wishing to drive up ... More >>
Omicron And The Travel Ban Itch
Monday, 6 December 2021, 12:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Stick to the script: owe that duty of care to your population, so the legal experts in government tell you. Self-interest pays, if in small amounts. These rigid, formulaic assumptions have done wonders to harm and deter any spirit of cooperation regarding ... More >>
Backing Horses: Australia’s Solomon Islands Intervention
Saturday, 4 December 2021, 5:19 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The history of humanitarian or policing missions is a history of taking sides, disruptive partiality and the forfeiture of the very object powers claim when intervening in another country. Things become particularly absurd when the individual or government ... More >>
Where There Are Tailings, No Grass Grows: Serbians Protest Against Rio Tinto
Thursday, 2 December 2021, 12:55 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Another fault line has opened in the mining wars. In Serbia, resistance is gathering steam against various deals made between Belgrade and companies that risk environmental degradation and lingering spoliation. In this regard, the globe’s second largest ... More >>
Arming Against China: The US Global Posture Review
Wednesday, 1 December 2021, 10:22 am | Binoy Kampmark
Get the Marines ready. Store the supplies. Marshal the allies. The United States is getting ready for war (the preferable term in Washington is policing) in the Indo-Pacific region, and is hoping to do so with a range of expanded bases across client states, ... More >>
Project UATX: New Universities, Old Problems
Tuesday, 30 November 2021, 4:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Among the motivations behind establishing a university is a desire to leave old ones. Old in tooth, depraved, decayed, the assumption is that a new institution will return to original purposes on the pretext that these are truly radical. This, on ... More >>
Foreseeable Risk: Omicron Makes Its Viral Debut
Saturday, 27 November 2021, 5:57 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It has been written about more times than any care to remember. Pliny the Elder, that old cheek, told us that Africa always tended to bring forth something new: Semper aliquid novi Africam adferre . The suggestion was directed to hybrid animals, but ... More >>
Off To The Solomon Islands: Australia’s Civilizers Get Busy
Friday, 26 November 2021, 3:21 pm | Binoy Kampmark
A small riot. Unrest. Risk of collapse. All given a ballooning effect and inflated for policy makers across the ocean. Before much time elapses, Australian security forces are skirting off to restore order in their vast watery neighbourhood. It is ... More >>
The Taiwan Foreign Policy Fetish
Thursday, 25 November 2021, 12:43 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Australian foreign policy towards Taiwan, as things stand, is a distant fantasy in floating mist. There is little to connect them, but Australia’s political classes have a habit of fabricating relations with those it cares little for, nor understands, ... More >>
