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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 55]
Pulling Out Of Germany: Trump Adjusts The Military Furniture
Saturday, 1 August 2020, 3:38 pm | Binoy Kampmark
One noisy theme in the Donald Trump Disruption Show in an otherwise chaotic assemblage of messages has remained fairly constant: winding back US troop commitments. The US has fought its complement of wars, bloodied and bloodying. Time to up stakes and ... More >>
Coronavirus Criminality: Bolsonaro And The International Criminal Court
Thursday, 30 July 2020, 12:49 pm | Binoy Kampmark
This could be the stuff of fiction. But then again, many legal principles began, at some point or rather, in the sludge of speculation before hardening into legal briefs and prosecutorial documents. Holding heads of state to account for crimes ... More >>
Julian Assange’s Political Indictment: Old Wine In Older Bottles
Wednesday, 29 July 2020, 2:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The book of hours on Julian Assange is now being written. But the scribes are far from original. Repeated rituals of administrative hearings that have no common purpose other than to string things out before the axe are being enacted. Of late, the man ... More >>
Mephistopheles Of Wall Street: Goldman Sachs, 1MDB And The Malaysian Settlement
Monday, 27 July 2020, 3:12 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Malaysia’s politicians were crowing. “We are confident that we are securing more money from Goldman Sachs compared to previous attempts, which were far below expectations,” <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/24/goldman-sachs-and-malaysia-reach-a-settlement-agreement-over-1mdb-scandal-sources-say.html" ... More >>
Revisions On China: Abandoning The Nixon Legacy
Saturday, 25 July 2020, 6:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There is little doubt about it. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is the puffed-up hawk of the Trump administration, talons at the ready, beak protruding. While the president coos at the prospect of seeing, or admiring, the next strongman of international ... More >>
Climate Change Litigation: The Australian Government Gets Sued
Friday, 24 July 2020, 1:55 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“It’s time the government told the public about the impact climate change will have on our future and the economy.” Katta O’Donnell, The Guardian , Jul 24, 2020 While coronavirus ravages life, dominates policy and clouds debate, that other ... More >>
Russia, Bountiful Hoaxes And The New York Times
Thursday, 23 July 2020, 1:06 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There is a delicious irony in the Russia Bounty scandal. The Russians, funding the very entity that was financed, at least in a previous incarnation, by the Central Intelligence Agency, to supposedly kill the warriors of a country that had funded ... More >>
Zombie Seizures: The Hacking Of Twitter
Wednesday, 22 July 2020, 1:15 pm | Binoy Kampmark
July 15, 2020. It was a day that will be remembered in the history of social media giant, Twitter. In what is becoming an increasingly quotidian occurrence with such companies, Twitter faced a hack described as “catastrophic”. The company’s ... More >>
All About Me: The Kanye West Campaign Rally
Tuesday, 21 July 2020, 4:52 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In many ways, rapper and footwear mogul Kanye West fits the mould. That mould – the star or celebrity running for high office – had already been made by the actor-cum-amnesiac Ronald Reagan, who, with his dabbling in astrology and conveniently re-imagined reminiscences, ... More >>
Constitutional Umbilical Cords: The Palace Letters And Royal Secrecy
Monday, 20 July 2020, 5:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
On July 14, Jenny Hocking was breathless. “Forty-five years after they were written,” the political scientist penned with excitement in The Conversation , “hundreds of previously secret letters between the queen and the governor-general of Australia, ... More >>
Total Masking: Victoria’s Coronavirus Response
Monday, 20 July 2020, 3:53 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Victorian Premier turned up for his weekend delivery of coronavirus infections, gruffly delivering the news. It has become grim if compelling viewing: the announcement about the next spike in coronavirus infections, the next gruesome statistical spread ... More >>
A Matter Of Citizenship: Shamima Begum, Islamic State And Natural Justice
Sunday, 19 July 2020, 8:18 am | Binoy Kampmark
Rarely do terms such as “Islamic State” and “natural justice” keep company. Both seem alien, uncomfortable, fundamentally ill-suited. For one, Islamic State’s own approach to natural justice, archaic and stone-age obscurantist, has tended to ... More >>
A Shamrock Victory: Apple And Avoiding Tax In Ireland
Thursday, 16 July 2020, 4:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The corporate spin machine was working with typical aggression. “This case was not about how much tax we pay,” claimed Apple in a statement. “We’re proud to be the largest taxpayer in the world, as we know the important role tax payments ... More >>
Vulgar Militarism: Expanding The Australian War Memorial
Wednesday, 15 July 2020, 1:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was a decision both rash and indulgent. In November 2018, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, after being nudged incessantly by then Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson, committed to a redevelopment project intended to double the exhibition ... More >>
Blue Steak On Lygon Street: The Mario Corniola Effect
Wednesday, 15 July 2020, 6:41 am | Binoy Kampmark
“Is it blue enough?” he growled in affectionate inquiry, referring to the rib eye steak with pepper sauce. Suitably well, came the reply to Mario Corniola. The dish was a specialty that, till the coronavirus struck, made Il Cantuccio on Melbourne’s ... More >>
The Yeezy Effect: Kanye West Joins The Presidential Race
Monday, 13 July 2020, 3:59 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“Because when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday.” Kanye West, Forbes , July 8, 2020 The political absurd has become all modish. With US President Donald Trump turning the White House into his own circus of personalised woe and expectations, ... More >>
Spiteful Authority: Malaysia Goes For The Journalists
Sunday, 12 July 2020, 5:07 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Malaysia’s record on letting journalists be is a blotted one. This month, authorities have been kept busy intimidating the independent news outlet Malaysiakini, with a seven-member federal court panel agreeing to hear contempt proceedings against its ... More >>
Mosques, Museums And Politics: The Fate Of Hagia Sophia
Saturday, 11 July 2020, 5:10 pm | Binoy Kampmark
When the caustic Evelyn Waugh visited the majestic sixth century creation of Emperor Justinian, one subsequently enlarged, enriched and encrusted by various rulers, he felt underwhelmed. “‘Agia’ will always win the day for one,” he wrote of ... More >>
The Hypocrisies Of Recognition: The Supreme Court, Native Americans And The McGirt Case
Friday, 10 July 2020, 3:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Supreme Court of the United States has barely had time to gather its collective breath this last few days. Among its decisions, including those dealing with President Donald Trump’s financial records, was that of McGirt v Oklahoma . The case furnishes ... More >>
The Coronavirus Republic: Three Million Infections And Rising
Thursday, 9 July 2020, 3:39 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The United States is famed for doing things, not to scale, but off it. Size is the be-all and end-all, and the coronavirus is now doing its bit to assure that the country remains unrivalled in the charts of infection . In time, other unfortunates may well ... More >>
