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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 47]
Of Plagues And Rodents: Australia’s War Against Mice
Sunday, 6 June 2021, 4:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Not a day goes by these days without a casual remark about animal extermination in Australia. Mice have moved to the front of the queue in terms of animal species Australians would most like to liquidate. The language used has various registers: ... More >>
Suicidal Games: Tokyo’s Coronavirus Olympics
Thursday, 3 June 2021, 12:49 pm | Binoy Kampmark
A pandemic crisis. A state of emergency. Overwhelming public opinion bristling with alarm. Notwithstanding these factors, Tokyo is still on track to host the Olympics that was cancelled last year in response to the global pandemic. The first sports ... More >>
That Old Story: Spying On Friends
Wednesday, 2 June 2021, 1:03 pm | Binoy Kampmark
One has to be repeatedly reminded that the theatre of international relations knows no friends and only national interests, whatever those might be. Intelligence services, being an expression of those interests, do not necessarily discriminate in targeting ... More >>
Laying The Bear Trap: Orbán Visits No 10 Downing Street
Monday, 31 May 2021, 2:21 pm | Binoy Kampmark
His comments would not have fallen on deaf ears. While metropolitan London would have been aghast at his pedigree and remarks, a Brexit-audience in the rustbelts and areas of deprivation, would have felt a twang of appreciation. For them, migration ... More >>
The Dominic Cummings Show
Friday, 28 May 2021, 3:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The former chief strategist for Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in a stroppy mood before the UK parliamentary Health and Science committee. For seven hours , Cummings unleashed salvo after salvo against his former boss and the government coronavirus ... More >>
How It All Went Wrong: The Global Response To COVID-19
Thursday, 27 May 2021, 11:23 am | Binoy Kampmark
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response was never likely to hand down a rosy report with gobbets of praise. Organised by the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last May, the panel’s gloomy assessment ... More >>
Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney And The Rule Of Law
Monday, 24 May 2021, 3:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
One could not accuse US Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming of having a sense of irony. For some time, she has felt her party to be the hostage of a ghoulish monster who refuses to be slayed. And she fears her party has fallen out of love for the ... More >>
Burned By The Diana Cult: The Fall Of Martin Bashir
Saturday, 22 May 2021, 4:00 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The interview was infamous, made his name and was bound to enrage. It also received a viewing audience of 23 million people who heard a saucy tale of adultery, plots in the palace, and stories of physical and mental illness. But the tarring and feathering ... More >>
Coronavirus Travels And Cruising With Viking
Friday, 21 May 2021, 1:56 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It starts off as an exercise of anticipation. First comes the softening drinks and teasing morsels which find their mark. The audience at this promotions gig is well heeled, of an age where they have money to burn, but nowhere to burn it. They have ... More >>
The Gilt Comes Off: Singapore Goes Into Lockdown
Tuesday, 18 May 2021, 1:46 pm | Binoy Kampmark
A clean, technology driven dystopia. A representation of our techno future. These were the introductory descriptions to a piece by science fiction author William Gibson on Singapore for Wired in 1993. “Imagine an Asian version of Zurich operating as ... More >>
Elbowed And Hustled: Australia’s Yellow Peril Problem
Saturday, 15 May 2021, 3:53 pm | Binoy Kampmark
With the babble about Cold War paranoia becoming a routine matter in Canberra, the treacherous ground for war with China is being bedded down and readied. The Yellow Peril image never truly dissipated from Australia’s politics. It was crucial in ... More >>
Held To Ransom: Colonial Pipeline And The Vulnerabilities Of Critical Infrastructure
Tuesday, 11 May 2021, 3:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It should be making officials in the White House tremble. Critical infrastructure supplying 45% of the East Coast’s diesel, gasoline and jet fuel, left at the mercy of a ransomware operation executed on May 6. In the process, 100 GB of data of Colonial ... More >>
Crashing Out In Hartlepool: Labour Ills And Teflon Boris
Sunday, 9 May 2021, 3:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
By-election results make poor predictors. The government of the day can often count on a swing against it by irritated voters keen to remind it they exist. It’s an opportunity to mete out mild punishment. But the loss of the seat in Hartlepool by ... More >>
Spending More On Nukes: STRATCOM’s Nuclear Death Wish
Thursday, 6 May 2021, 12:46 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Being sufficiently able at your job is a good thing. But beware the trappings of zeal. When it comes to the business of retaining an inventory for humanity’s annihilation, the zealous should be kept away. But there Admiral Charles Richard was in April this ... More >>
Going To Court: The EU Sues AstraZeneca
Wednesday, 5 May 2021, 4:40 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It has been a relationship of characterised by bitterness and misunderstanding. It began with a poorly negotiated agreement – poor, that is, from the European Union perspective – between Brussels and AstraZeneca for the supply of COVID-19 ... More >>
A Very British Case: Postmasters And Miscarriages Of Justice
Tuesday, 4 May 2021, 4:12 pm | Binoy Kampmark
British justice is a splendidly odd animal. Its miscarriage is one of those wonders of institutional repetition. When textbooks are written on the subject, one will feature prominently. On April 23 this year, the convictions of 39 former sub-postmasters ... More >>
Quibbling Over Cruelties: Human Rights Watch, Israel And Apartheid
Monday, 3 May 2021, 4:56 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Criticism of Israel’s policies towards Palestinians has always induced a defensive rage from its defenders and advocates. A Threshold Crossed , a report by Human Rights Watch, lit several fires of rage and disapproval. Israel, according to the authors, ... More >>
Forgetting Citizenship: Australia Suspends Flights From India
Sunday, 2 May 2021, 4:59 pm | Binoy Kampmark
As India is being devastated by COVID-19 cases that have now passed a daily rate of 400,000, affluent and callous Australia has taken the decision to suspend all flights coming into the country till mid-month. The decision was reached by the Morrison ... More >>
Mike Pezzullo And Giving War A Chance
Wednesday, 28 April 2021, 3:49 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Those madly titillated by conflict have become bolder of late in the corridors of the isolated Australian capital. In such spaces, insanity can be nurtured with a sickening attention to detail, much of it fictitious. One of the most powerful bureaucrats ... More >>
Joe Biden, Recognition And The Armenian Genocide
Tuesday, 27 April 2021, 3:41 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Attributing names to the brutal acts humans are capable of inflicting upon each other is never without problems. There are gradations of terror, hierarchies of atrocity and cruelty. In these, the pedants reign. Disputes splutter and rage over whether ... More >>
