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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 59]
Coronavirus Socialism For The Wealthy
Monday, 6 April 2020, 3:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
When capitalism screeches to a halt and starts its old business of killing off the adventurous but weakened, the enterprising but foolish, those who initially benefited, shed tears. Losses mount, accountants tally up current and future losses. Huge profits ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: University Bailouts, Funding And Coronavirus
Sunday, 5 April 2020, 4:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In a set of stable circumstances, funding higher education should be a matter of automatic persuasion. If you want an educated populace, the tax payer should muck in. In some countries, however, this venture is uneven. In the United Kingdom, the ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark - Boastful Pay Cuts: The Coronavirus Incentive
Saturday, 4 April 2020, 4:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It has become a source of pride. Highly salaried executives – often, it should be said, receiving pay very much disconnected from the value of their work – making voluntary pay cuts and telling everybody else about it. In sport, celebrated figures ... More >>
Dangerous Gifts: Coronavirus And Trump’s Sanctions Regime
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 5:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The global effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic has been one of stutters and staggers. There are go-it-alone instances of severity, and cases of blasé indifference. State ministers and leaders have not escaped the chance to demonise and point accusing ... More >>
Signing In And Dropping Out: Coronavirus And The Virtual University
Wednesday, 1 April 2020, 12:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was made with little thought but a good deal of high-minded urgency: Evacuate your office, take what you can, and prepare for the virtual world. Fill in a form, tell us if you actually pinched the office computer. This was the message that was ... More >>
The Swedish Alternative: Coronavirus As A Grand Gamble
Tuesday, 31 March 2020, 3:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
As draconian lockdowns, punitive regimes and surveillance become the norm of the coronavirus world, Sweden has treaded more softly in the field. This is certainly in contrast to its Scandinavian cousins, Denmark and Norway. The rudiments of a life ... More >>
An Inglorious Opportunity: Coronavirus And Emergency Powers
Monday, 30 March 2020, 3:36 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There has been a hurried spate of cancellations and suspensions of elections across the globe because of the risk posed by COVID-19. The trend is unsurprising. In the age of post-democratic process, suspending the procedure should only induce a cough ... More >>
Barbaric Decisions: Coronavirus, Refusing Bail And Julian Assange
Saturday, 28 March 2020, 3:51 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“To expose another human being to serious illness, and to the threat of losing their life, is grotesque and quite unnecessary. This is not justice, it is a barbaric decision.” Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, March 26, 2020 Social ... More >>
Goodbye Gabbard
Thursday, 26 March 2020, 4:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Democratic establishment is deriving some delusionary cheer from it. The line of candidates for the presidential nomination has thinned, many falling out and proceeding, suicidally, to endorse former Vice President Joe Biden. The case of Hawaii Representative ... More >>
Coronavirus And The Prison Industrial Complex
Wednesday, 25 March 2020, 1:40 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The legacy of the coronavirus pandemic, at least in so far as responses are concerned, is thickening by the day. Behavioural changes are being urged, language is rapidly evolving (spot the “covidiot” amongst you) and the policy of health ... More >>
Business As Usual: Coronavirus, Iran And US Sanctions
Monday, 23 March 2020, 4:48 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Never discount the importance of venality in international relations. While pandemics should provide the glue for a unified front in response – we keep being told of fighting this horrendous “invisible enemy” – it’s business as usual in other ... More >>
The Pandemic Surveillance State
Sunday, 22 March 2020, 5:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In anticipation of the post-COVID-19 world, bold statements are being made on how we will, as a race, be wiser, even kinder; cautious, and reflective. If history is ever a lesson on anything, such statements are bound to be the fatuous utterances ... More >>
Moralising Hoarding, Panic Buying And Coronavirus
Saturday, 21 March 2020, 5:34 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Hoarding as moral aberration and ethical breach: the term has recently become the subject of scorn in coronavirus chatter. In terms of mental disorders, it is “characterized by persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions”, though the Coronavirus ... More >>
Viral Reactions: The Smugness Of Celebrity Self-Isolation
Thursday, 19 March 2020, 1:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The rush to elevate self-isolation to Olympian heights as a way to combat the spread of COVID-19 has gotten to the celebrities. Sports figures are proudly tweeting and taking pictures from hotel rooms (Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton being a case ... More >>
Britannic Herd Immunity And Coronavirus
Wednesday, 18 March 2020, 4:11 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Epidemiologist William Hanage was more than perplexed by the plan. “When I heard about Britain’s ‘herd immunity’ coronavirus plan,” he reflected in The Guardian , “I thought it was satire.” Much public policy, foolishly considered and expertly ... More >>
The Taliban Scores A Coup
Tuesday, 17 March 2020, 1:00 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It threatened to disappear under the viral haze of COVID-19, but February 29 saw representatives from the US and Taliban, loftily acknowledged as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, sign the “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan”. After ... More >>
The Release Of Chelsea Manning
Monday, 16 March 2020, 1:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Chelsea Manning’s release last Thursday by order of Virginia District Court judge Anthony Trenga had an air of oddness to it. “The court finds Ms. Manning’s appearance before the Grand Jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer ... More >>
For Heaven’s Sake Sanitise! Coronavirus As A Way Of Life
Saturday, 14 March 2020, 4:01 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“Anything we say in advance of a pandemic happening is alarmist; anything we say afterwards is inadequate.” Michael Leavitt, US Health and Human Services Secretary, March 30, 2006 A crew of gathered customers were busying themselves this Friday evening ... More >>
Resisting Interpretation: The Perpetrator And Domestic Violence In Australia
Thursday, 12 March 2020, 4:16 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Resisting Interpretation: The Perpetrator and Domestic Violence in Australia A parliament of tears, or at the very least, a chamber of parliamentarians keen to shed tears. It all seemed that a feeling of genuine empathy was streaming forth in Australia’s ... More >>
Golden Anniversaries For Flawed Treaties: The NPT Turns Fifty
Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 5:09 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In an era where agreements have been abandoned as “bad”, to use that favourite word of US President Donald Trump, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons continues to feature on the books of diplomacy. But age seems to be wearying ... More >>
