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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 61]
Disease Diplomacy And The Heavy Hand: China And The Coronavirus Problem
Thursday, 13 February 2020, 3:25 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Authoritarian responses, with the gloved heavy hand, will always find its admirers. The reaction by Chinese authorities to the novel coronavirus (now named COVID-19) outbreak has been receiving its fair share of gushing praise from some medical circles. ... More >>
Subverting The Blacklist: Kirk Douglas’s Modest Contribution
Wednesday, 12 February 2020, 5:45 am | Binoy Kampmark
Leaving aside the content of the spectacular, embellished account that became Spartacus , Kirk Douglas, whose life ticked over into a century and a few years, left his own distinct mark on US cultural politics. At the very least, he managed to fashion a ... More >>
Failed Prosecutions: Donald Trump Survives the Senate
Saturday, 8 February 2020, 11:59 am | Binoy Kampmark
Never undertake a prosecution unless you have good grounds, and prospects, for a solid conviction. In the case against President Donald Trump, there was never a serious prospect that the Senate would cool sufficiently to give the Democrats the votes ... More >>
Triumphal Divisions: Trump’s State of the Union Address
Thursday, 6 February 2020, 9:18 am | Binoy Kampmark
In this year of the presidential elections, President Donald J. Trump shows little sign of cowering. It had been some time in coming, but here was a businessman talking to a Congress long in the pocket of business, a seemingly seamless order of things ... More >>
Muddling Democrats: Chaos in the Iowa Caucus
Wednesday, 5 February 2020, 8:44 am | Binoy Kampmark
Whatever the claims by the Democratic pollsters on the ground, the party has all the work to do ahead of selecting a candidate to make a fist of it come November. Pity for them, then, that the opening in Iowa proved to be a spectacular shambles, ... More >>
Teflon Lies and Mowing Lawns: The Afghanistan Papers
Tuesday, 4 February 2020, 9:18 am | Binoy Kampmark
Afghanistan is a famous desert for empires, a burial ground which has consumed those in power who thought that extra fortification and trading most might benefit them. It remains a great, and somewhat savage reminder about those who suffer hubris, overconfidence ... More >>
Brexit Day
Sunday, 2 February 2020, 11:14 am | Binoy Kampmark
Parliament Square is the site, muddied by rain, trodden by hundreds who have made it their celebratory space. The Leave Means Leave official website had been busy for weeks, thrilled about January 31 and the fact that that Britain would finally ... More >>
Hillary Clinton versus Mark Zuckerberg
Thursday, 30 January 2020, 11:20 am | Binoy Kampmark
It is another one of those contests and disagreements where the contestants should all loose, or at the very least, be subjected to a torturous stalemate. Hillary Clinton remains the nasty sprinkle on the Democratic Party in the United States, ever hopeful ... More >>
Trump’s Failed Bullying: Britain accepts 5G Huawei Tech
Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 8:47 am | Binoy Kampmark
It is strikingly bullying and bullish. US officials have been less than reserved in their threats about what Britain’s proposed dealings with Huawei over admitting it to its 5G network might entail. Three Republican Senators – Tom Cotton of Arkansas, ... More >>
Split Hearings: The Assange Extradition Case Drags On
Sunday, 26 January 2020, 12:13 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It is being increasingly larded with heavy twists and turns, a form of state oppression in slow motion, but the Julian Assange extradition case now looks like it may well move into the middle of the year, dragged out, ironically enough, by the prosecution. ... More >>
Diminishing Returns: Calculated Misery in Air Travel
Tuesday, 21 January 2020, 8:34 am | Binoy Kampmark
If there comes a point when people will decide not to fly, the issue may well be less to do with any moral or ethical issue with climate change than the fact that commercial flights have become atrocious. They are naked money-making concerns with ... More >>
Janus-Faced on Climate Change: Microsoft’s Carbon Vision
Saturday, 18 January 2020, 1:49 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“This is a bold bet – a moonshot – for Microsoft.” So claimed Brad Smith, Microsoft President, in a Thursday announcement painting a picture of a company that intends to be carbon negative by 2030. “And,” Smith continued, “it will need ... More >>
A Matter of Quality: Air Pollution, Tennis & Officialdom
Friday, 17 January 2020, 3:37 pm | Binoy Kampmark
They are disgruntled and have every right to be. Whatever one’s feelings about tennis, expecting athletes to perform in subpar conditions is a rank matter that should see officials taken to task. But administrators of a game are often distant ... More >>
Short of Time: Julian Assange at the Westminster Magistrates
Thursday, 16 January 2020, 9:50 am | Binoy Kampmark
Another slot of judicial history, another notch to be added to the woeful record of legal proceedings being undertaken against Julian Assange. The ailing WikiLeaks founder was coping as well as he could, showing the resourcefulness of the desperate ... More >>
Harry and Meghan Exit: The Royal Family Propaganda Machine
Wednesday, 15 January 2020, 11:12 am | Binoy Kampmark
Royal gossip is worth its weight in gold on the British media circuit. Buckingham Palace knows that, and seeks to control, as much as it can, the way that gold is distributed. Much of this was in evidence at the bungling, cringe-worthy performance ... More >>
Vague Imminence: US policy on Pre-emptive Force
Monday, 13 January 2020, 11:49 am | Binoy Kampmark
International relations is typified by its vagueness of definition and its shallowness of justification. Be it protecting citizens of a state in another, launching a pre-emptive strike to prevent what another state might do, or simply understanding the application ... More >>
Incendiary Extinctions: Australian Fires
Saturday, 11 January 2020, 10:53 am | Binoy Kampmark
Cocooned as it is from the world of science scepticism, the handling of the bush fire catastrophe unfolding in Australia is going to one of the more notable (non)achievements of the Morrison government. They were warned; they were chided; they were prodded. ... More >>
Disruptive Assassinations: Killing Qassem Soleimani
Monday, 6 January 2020, 5:15 pm | Binoy Kampmark
On the surface, it made not one iota of sense. The murder of a foreign military leader on his way from Baghdad airport, his diplomatic status assured by the local authorities, evidently deemed a target of irresistible richness. “General Soleimani was actively ... More >>
Indian Adventures: Policing, Facial Recognition & Privacy
Thursday, 2 January 2020, 11:59 am | Binoy Kampmark
The chances for those seeking a world of solitude are rapidly run out. A good case can be made that this has already happened. Aldous Huxley’s Savage, made famous in Brave New World , is out of options, having lost to the Mustapha Monds of the ... More >>
Hypersonic Putin and Gonzo Weaponry
Thursday, 2 January 2020, 11:58 am | Binoy Kampmark
Weapons of dazzling murderousness have always thrilled military industrial establishments. They make money; they add to the accounts; and they tickle the pride of States who manufacture them. From time to time, showy displays of restraint through arms limitation ... More >>
