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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 48]
Snap Decisions: Victoria’s Third Lockdown
Thursday, 18 February 2021, 2:38 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Queen Victoria Market in Australia’s second largest city, Melbourne, is usually a thriving affair. Like any ancient agora, people travel to meet there, purchase fresh produce, and natter. The fruit and vegetable vendors are all colour, a profusion ... More >>
Sexual Assault In Canberra
Wednesday, 17 February 2021, 2:11 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Who knew what? In many cases of sexual assault in politics, events take place behind bolted doors, the perpetrator and victim bound by ties of power, seediness and suppression. The victim is left with an odious and onerous task: to report the event. The risks ... More >>
The “Return” Of America: Biden’s Maiden Foreign Policy Speech
Tuesday, 16 February 2021, 2:26 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Few could have been slack-jawed at the first significant foreign policy speech of US President Joe Biden. It can easily be filed under the “America is back” label. Back as well, as if the previous administration had been incapable of it, was a promise ... More >>
Lobbying For Gain: Nick Warner And Australia’s Revolving Door
Monday, 15 February 2021, 1:33 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Governments have an almost crippling trouble appreciating conflicts of interest. Since tentacle-heavy lobby groups decided to move into the world’s capitals to make the case for their clients, the revolving door has become the sickening feature ... More >>
Missions To Mars: Mapping, Probing And Plundering The Red Planet
Sunday, 14 February 2021, 4:33 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In the first month of 2020, Forbes was all excitement about fresh opportunities for plunder and conquest. Titled “2020: The Year We Will Conquer Mars”, the contribution by astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter was less interested in the physics than the conquest. ... More >>
Trouble In Vaccine Land: The Wiliness Of South Africa’s Coronavirus Variant
Friday, 12 February 2021, 12:44 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It began as a shudder through the scientific and public health establishments. A new variant of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 had been found, mutating in South African climes, potentially outwitting human responses to it. Vaccines such as Oxford-AstraZeneca’s ... More >>
Continuing Prosecutions: Assange And The Biden Administration
Thursday, 11 February 2021, 1:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
With changes of presidential administrations, radical departures in policy are always exaggerated. Continuity remains, for the most part, a standard feature. It is precisely that continuity being challenged by groups fearful of the continuing prosecution ... More >>
Information Interruptus: Bing, Google And The News Media Bargaining Code
Wednesday, 10 February 2021, 1:10 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It’s looking a touch quixotic, but the News Media Bargaining Code has become Australia’s weapon of choice in attempting to redistribute proceeds from big tech into the coffers of a withering fourth estate. It has now reached a point of sufficient concern for ... More >>
China, Papua New Guinea And Australia’s Backyard Blues
Monday, 8 February 2021, 4:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Clever diplomacy rarely involves total commitment or unqualified fidelity to any one state. Treacherous waters require careful navigation, an understanding of shifty and shifting allegiances. The goal for the prudent statesperson is the pursuit of ... More >>
Let The Investigation Begin: The International Criminal Court, Israel And The Palestinian Territories
Sunday, 7 February 2021, 4:27 pm | Binoy Kampmark
International tribunals tend to be praised, in principle, by those they avoid investigating. Once interest shifts to those parties, such bodies become the subject of accusations: bias, politicisation, crude arbitrariness. The United States, whose legal and political ... More >>
Going Airborne: Coronavirus And Hotel Quarantine
Friday, 5 February 2021, 2:56 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It has happened again. This time, a diligent worker, having followed all the protocols given to him, had returned a positive result for COVID-19. The 26-year-old had been serving as a resident support officer in the Australian Open quarantine program in ... More >>
Coronavirus Education: Learning And Teaching From The Margins
Thursday, 4 February 2021, 3:57 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The coronavirus student, a species brought forth in the world of education by a pandemic that has killed over 400,000 people in the United States and 100,000 in the United Kingdom, is a troubled creature. When universities and schools across ... More >>
Cowardly History: Australia Day And Invasion
Tuesday, 2 February 2021, 4:16 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It’s the sort of stuff that should have been sorted years ago in Australia: a murderous, frontier society ill disposed to the indigenous populace; the creation of a convict colony that was itself an act of invasion rather than settlement; the ... More >>
White House Briefings For Children: Jen Psaki Circles Back
Sunday, 31 January 2021, 4:45 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Biden administration’s first White House press secretary is keen that things will be done differently under her guidance. The jaw dropping, sniping sessions between the press and government that were characteristic of the Trump administration were ... More >>
Boris Johnson And The Deaths Of The Hundred Thousand
Friday, 29 January 2021, 2:55 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Not exactly Thermopylae. Not even close. The hundred thousand who have now been taken by COVID-19 in Britain were not determined warriors holding up the forces of a mighty empire to save their land. They were the innocent victims of infection, ... More >>
The Mad Monk Strikes: Tony Abbott, Taxi Rides And Coronavirus Despotism
Thursday, 28 January 2021, 1:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
This is a man who decries the use of experts. He prefers things rough, ready, pungent with vernacular promise and populist feeling. To be in the front seat of a taxi, no less, is considered a right. But former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, ... More >>
Not Knowing What You Stand For: Deborah Birx And Public Health
Tuesday, 26 January 2021, 2:02 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Pity the public health official tasked with convincing those beyond convincing that a pandemic crisis is worthy of serious consideration. This is further complicated in instances where such officials feel the need to play court jester, appeaser or ... More >>
Masking Up Under Biden: The Perils Of Tribalism, Bureaucracy And Lawsuits
Sunday, 24 January 2021, 4:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
One crackling theme streaking through the US elections of 2020 was the issue of mask wearing. Critics initially felt that facemasks were of the too important category in combating the novel coronavirus: purchasing and using them was tantamount to prizing ... More >>
Immortal Wins: India Defeats Fortress Australia
Friday, 22 January 2021, 5:04 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was never meant to be like this. After the Indian cricketing team met misery and disaster in the first test match at Adelaide, registering a paltry 36 in its second innings, little hope was had for the touring side. Australia threatened rout ... More >>
Sunk Before Service: Australia’s Disastrous Submarine Project
Thursday, 21 January 2021, 1:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
One only gets into the submarine procurement business to spite government treasurers and economic managers. Efficiency and effectuality are bonus additions, but hardly necessary. Witness the evolving disaster that is Australia’s SEA 1000 Future Submarine ... More >>
