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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 66]
Brand Trudeau Wins a Second Term
Wednesday, 23 October 2019, 2:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Few politicians come across more as products of hashtag committee management than Justin Trudeau. His image has been doctored, massaged and spruced, and even then, the Instagram-Twitter committee did not quite see those corrupt influences that are ... More >>
Equine Hypocrisies: Race Horses for the Knackery
Tuesday, 22 October 2019, 5:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was always a probable fact: the dark consequences of having what is termed in Australia a “racing” industry, where breeds do battle on the track, sponsored and watered by the money of an industry that sees no sign of contracting. Curiously, ... More >>
Celebrity Protesters and Extinction Rebellion
Sunday, 20 October 2019, 6:36 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Benedict Cumberbatch. Olivia Colman. Fine actors. They believe in Extinction Rebellion, or perhaps, rebelling against the prospect of extinction. The environment thing, humanity as a damnably scandalous, ecologically damaging species. But they also believe ... More >>
The Decent Protester: A Down Under Creation
Friday, 18 October 2019, 4:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Decent Protester, appropriately capitalised and revered is, from the outset, one who does not protest. It is an important point: to protest in the visage of such a person is an urge best left to inner fantasy and feeling. You come late to the ... More >>
Piggish Problems: African Swine Fever Does Its Worst
Thursday, 17 October 2019, 9:45 am | Binoy Kampmark
You cannot get away from it, at least in print or in Google land. African swine fever is doing its rounds, cutting through the swine population of Asia with remorseless dedication. Since its deadly debut in China last year, it has done away with some ... More >>
A Coalition of Support: Parliamentarians for Julian Assange
Monday, 14 October 2019, 5:16 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Australian politicians, and the consular staff of the country, are rarely that engaged on the subject of protecting their citizens. In a couple of notorious cases, Australian authorities demonstrated, not only an indifference, but a consciously venal approach ... More >>
University Woes: The Managerial Class Gets Uppity
Sunday, 13 October 2019, 1:05 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The university, in a global sense, is passing into a managerial oblivion. There are a few valiant holdouts, but they have the luxury of history, time, and learning. Cambridge and Oxford, for instance, still boast traditional academics, soaking erudition, ... More >>
The Politics of Funding: Cash Crisis at the United Nations
Thursday, 10 October 2019, 7:25 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It remains one of the more unusual arrangements in terms of funding. Like a club filled with members of erratic disposition, the United Nations can never count on all dues to come in on time. Some members drag their feet. The bill is often delayed. ... More >>
Cynical Enterprises: The Kurds Await Their Fate
Wednesday, 9 October 2019, 4:08 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Big powers, as with the greatest of gangsters, have always had a certain, indulgent luxury; their prerogative is to make promises they can choose to abide by or ignore. A vision is assured, guarantees made. Then comes the betrayal. The small powers, ... More >>
Colin Powell’s Trump Problem
Monday, 7 October 2019, 5:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
When the compromised speak of judgment, the voice of credibility vanishes. In its place, a certain niggling sense of hypocrisy and weakness prevails. Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell is one of those of those compromised voices. He presided over ... More >>
Internal Dissolution: Brexit and the Disunited Kingdom
Sunday, 6 October 2019, 6:20 pm | Binoy Kampmark
While the European family seems to be having its internal spats – populist sparks within threatening to light the powder keg – the marshals and deputies, for the most part, are attempting to contain the British contagion. Britain is still scheduled ... More >>
Turning 70: XiJinping’s People’s Republic of China
Friday, 4 October 2019, 5:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
During the era of Sovietology, experts would pour over images of the gathered politburo in Red Square, gazing with grey monolithic interest upon the military hardware moving across the forum. An absent figure might suggest a potential coup; a new face, a ... More >>
The President Did It: Donald Trump’s Phone Around
Wednesday, 2 October 2019, 4:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
When the squalid, absurd and occasionally hilarious accounts are compiled by a sober mind, the Trump administration will stand out as much gargoyle with more than a touch of paranoia. But there will be one thing that might save the man who has given an ... More >>
Julian Assange and Remaining in Belmarsh
Tuesday, 1 October 2019, 4:13 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Much ink has been spilt in textbooks describing situations where autocratic states can behave badly. They abuse rights; they ignore international law and they ride roughshod over conventions. Liberal democracies may boast that they follow matters ... More >>
Leaking, Whistleblowing and the Democrats
Monday, 30 September 2019, 8:40 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The entire Trump presidency has been a sequence of “watch this space” moments. Dismissals and political executions; attacks and distractions; gestures of deal making and promises of apocalypse. Perhaps it was high time for another bit of material ... More >>
Jacques Chirac: The Art of Being Vague
Sunday, 29 September 2019, 7:10 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The tributes have been dripping in heavy praise: former French president Jacques Chirac and mayor of Paris, the great statesman; the man who said no to the US-led war juggernaut into Iraq; the man loved for being loved. Many of these should have ... More >>
Scott Morrison’s China Thesis
Friday, 27 September 2019, 2:45 pm | Binoy Kampmark
China has rattled Western observers for centuries, and the idea that it might be approaching a level of formidable heft is troubling to those who, condescendingly, see it as a naughty child who aspired to economic growth but could only do so as ... More >>
Boris Johnson fails in the UK Supreme Court
Wednesday, 25 September 2019, 3:49 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It delighted Labour supporters and party apparatchiks who had been falling over each other in murderous ceremony at the party conference in Brighton : Prime Minister Boris Johnson would come to the unwitting rescue with his own version of a grand ... More >>
Tempered Emergency: The Climate Change Summit in New York
Tuesday, 24 September 2019, 2:19 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It had a good deal of desperate scolding. Sweden’s Greta Thunberg assumed the role of punishing advocate, a Joan of Arc of fury. The main culprit in her speech at the UN Climate Action Summit was the hideous, super ego, the big bad “You”, ever ... More >>
Rotten in Tunisia: The Corrupt Rule of Ben Ali
Saturday, 21 September 2019, 6:22 pm | Binoy Kampmark
He was the prototypical strong man softened by tactical reforms, blissfully ignorant before the fall, blown off in the violent winds of the Arab Spring. Having come to power in 1987 on the back of a coup against the 84-year-old Habib Bourguiba, whom ... More >>
