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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 41]
Compulsory Voting And Its Antipodean Ills
Tuesday, 15 February 2022, 3:26 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Time and time again, we are told that making people vote improves representation and representativeness. Herding them on pain of penalty will somehow keep politics honest, and ensure that those in Parliament, or whatever chamber it may be, will ... More >>
Blinken Foreign Policy
Monday, 14 February 2022, 3:37 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It must be a sure handicap to be saddled with such a name when piloting a large government department, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shows no sign of that bothering him. It has, however, become a hallmark of a policy that is markedly ... More >>
Great Barrier Reef Fantasies: The Morrison Government’s Electoral Ploy
Tuesday, 8 February 2022, 2:40 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There are some things that strain credulity. There are the dubious accounts of virgin births. There are the resolute flat earth theorists and denialists of the moon landing. To this can be added the environmental stance of Australia’s Scott Morrison and ... More >>
Hemispheric Gangsterism: The US Embargo Against Cuba Turns 60
Sunday, 6 February 2022, 6:31 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It all seems worn, part of an aspic approach to foreign policy. But US President Joe Biden is keen to ensure that old, and lingering mistakes, retain their flavour. Towards Cuba, it is now 60 years since President John F. Kennedy’s Presidential ... More >>
Special Privileges: Charlotte Bellis, Fortress New Zealand And The Taliban
Wednesday, 2 February 2022, 3:30 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Not wishing to be left out from the brutal closed border system that has characterised COVID-19 policy in Australia, New Zealand has also been every bit as extreme in limiting the return of its nationals. Pandemic policy, if not logic, has taken issue with ... More >>
With Intent To Harm: The CIA, Schizophrenia And Denmark’s Children
Monday, 31 January 2022, 4:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It has become common fare to read ghoulish stories of child abuse in institutions supposedly created to care for the vulnerable. Orphanages, homes, religious orders have tended to feature, along with their assortments of innumerable sadists and pederasts. ... More >>
Serbia Stomps On Rio Tinto’s Lithium Mining Project
Thursday, 27 January 2022, 5:52 pm | Binoy Kampmark
On the face of it, there seems to be little in the way of connection between the treatment of Novak Djokovic by Australian authorities and the cooling of the Serbian government towards Rio Tinto. The Anglo-Australian mining giant was confident that ... More >>
Off To The Supreme Court: Assange’s Appeal Continues
Wednesday, 26 January 2022, 3:07 pm | Binoy Kampmark
With December’s High Court decision to overturn the lower court ruling against the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States, lawyers of the WikiLeaks founder immediately got busy. The next avenue of appeal, strewn less with gold than ... More >>
Surrender, Accommodation And RATs
Friday, 21 January 2022, 3:11 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test has been the mainstay of COVID-19 testing. But reliance upon such a regime, which requires the administration of middlingly competent personnel at appropriate testing sites, has caused its fair share of global ... More >>
Arise, Pandemic Profiteers
Wednesday, 19 January 2022, 4:19 pm | Binoy Kampmark
History’s annals are filled with war profiteers and hustlers for the opportunistic return. They come in the form of hoarders, arms manufacturers and wily business folk making a steal on slaughter and mayhem. But the other conflict – that of battling ... More >>
One Drinks Party Too Many: Boris Johnson And Breaching Lockdowns
Tuesday, 18 January 2022, 3:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It might not be quite within the bounds of good taste to compare military calculations of a bridge too far – the title used in Cornelius Ryan’s work on the disastrous Allied airborne operation during the Second World War – with the latest foolish, ... More >>
Dangerous Precedents And Hypothetical Threats: The Deportation Of Novak Djokovic
Monday, 17 January 2022, 4:12 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Australia’s treatment of Novak Djokovic, the tennis world number one, has been revelatory. Unintentionally, this has exposed the seedier, arbitrary and inconsistent nature of Australia’s border policies. The approval by the Australian Federal Court ... More >>
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 >>
