Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Binoy Kampmark
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
Binoy Kampmark - Latest News [Page 80]
Findings and Non-Findings: The MH370 Report
Tuesday, 31 July 2018, 4:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It does little to allay the grief of relatives and friends, but the MH370 report on the doomed, and ever spectral Malaysian passenger liner merely added smidgens of further speculation. The report from Malaysian authorities into the disappearance ... More >>
Plans for Attack: US Plans for Striking Iran
Monday, 30 July 2018, 3:51 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The world of the terrifying hypothetical is programmatically standard in the Trump White House. Periods of tense calm are followed by careless flights of fury, digs and remonstrations. Mortal enemies become amenable comrades; reliable allies turn ... More >>
Embellishing Crime: Melbourne’s “African Gang” Problem
Sunday, 29 July 2018, 11:26 am | Binoy Kampmark
Always trust the handy anecdote to overwhelm reality with force and false persuasiveness. The taxi driver irate at the latest opportunistic scribble in a Rupert Murdoch rag is bound to regale you with a story as you speed to the airport: “Those bloody ... More >>
Electing the Cornered Tiger: Khan in Pakistani Politics
Friday, 27 July 2018, 4:43 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Tariq Ali, whilst having a lunch in Knightsbridge with the Pakistani cricket colossus, Imran Khan, suggested that retirement should not be too problematic for him. (Khan had seemed gloomy, deep in thought about post-retirement prospects at the age of ... More >>
The Middle Man: The Jurisprudence of Justice Anthony Kennedy
Friday, 27 July 2018, 9:14 am | Binoy Kampmark
“At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” This near-kitsch description comes from Justice Anthony Kennedy, US Supreme Court justice whose resignation ... More >>
Conferencing, Extortion and IPSA 2018
Wednesday, 25 July 2018, 2:15 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Conferencing, Extortion and IPSA 2018: The Meat Market of the World Congress It may well go down as one of the most appalling conferences in the history of the International Political Science Association. The World Congress is one of those hot air events ... More >>
Ecuador’s Agenda: Squeezing and Surrendering Assange
Saturday, 21 July 2018, 5:58 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It is perhaps typical in a time where a star of the fleshy celluloid wonder Baywatch , heavy in bust and known for her sexual adventures, should feature as a political voice. Pamela Anderson’s views are treated with judicious seriousness – at least ... More >>
Shaking Establishments: The Ocasio-Cortez Effect
Friday, 20 July 2018, 4:47 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Dana Milbank wrote it off as a victory of demographics, a minor, inconsequential point which left the “down-the-line liberal” Rep. Joe Crowley in its wake, a simple ploy that avoids any hard headed analysis of the Democrats themselves. “The ... More >>
Helsinki Theatrics: Trump meets Putin
Tuesday, 17 July 2018, 2:00 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The first official meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Donald Trump was a fairly casual, unpeopled affair, absent bureaucrats and note takers. This was what both wanted in Helsinki, men who believe in the gold weighting authority ... More >>
Putin’s Football Gambit: How the World Cup Paid Off
Monday, 16 July 2018, 3:26 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Even before the single ball was kicked at the FIFA World Cup in Russia, there were threats, promises and suggestions from various governments about how best to cope with Vladimir Putin and his designated fiendish circle of authoritarians. In March, ... More >>
The Woes of Luka Modrić: Croatia, Nationalism and Football
Sunday, 15 July 2018, 3:45 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Juraj Vrdoljak of Telesport was convinced. “I think half the population didn’t show up to work on the morning after the win against England.” The victory had inspired early shop closures, a feeling of rampant escapism. “Croatia is a country ... More >>
Stomping in Britain: Donald Trump and May’s Brexit
Friday, 13 July 2018, 2:13 pm | Binoy Kampmark
What a rotten guest, but then again, that was to be expected. Ahead of his visit to Britain, there was some indignation that US President Donald Trump should even be visiting in the first place. Protesters were readying their assortment of paraphernalia ... More >>
Making Heavy Weather: Boris Johnson the Despoiler
Thursday, 12 July 2018, 1:52 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Making Heavy Weather: Boris Johnson the Despoiler There is a certain haunting similarity between the President of the United States and the now former foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson. This does not merely extend to mad, oddly positioned ... More >>
Soft Brexits and Hard Realities: The Tory Revolt
Tuesday, 10 July 2018, 1:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Soft Brexits and Hard Realities: The Tory Revolt It was meant to be an away day at Chequers in total hermetic isolation, an effort on the part of UK Prime Minister Theresa May to sketch some common ground in a cabinet that has struggled to agree ... More >>
Rescues, Caves and Celebrity Salvation
Friday, 6 July 2018, 3:44 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It all risks becoming pornographic, looped and re-run with an obsessive eye for updates and detail about despair and hope. The twenty-four hour news cycle tends to encourage this sort of thing, ever desperate for snippets, obsessively chasing the update. ... More >>
The Lures of Kleptocracy: Malaysia’s Najib Condition
Wednesday, 4 July 2018, 3:30 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Words can be teasing in their meaning. In the realm of political and financial discussion, they can become absurdly changing. Take Malaysia’s political status. On the surface, all looks delightfully democratic in that multi-ethnic state. Once the eyewash is ... More >>
Send in the Troops! Deploying the ADF against Rioters
Tuesday, 3 July 2018, 1:09 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Such moves should trouble any constructive dissenter and civil libertarian: the vesting of powers in a military force to be used against domestic disturbances. While the United States has a troubled history with it, posse comitatus still remains something ... More >>
Democrats Against Assange: Influencing US-Ecuador Relations
Friday, 29 June 2018, 1:44 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Such a historical twist, but one that deserves its iniquitous slot in the history books. No secret has been made about US policy towards Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, which continues its trajectory to seek his apprehension and shutter the organisation. ... More >>
Viktor Orbán’s Soros Problem
Thursday, 28 June 2018, 1:59 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Where there are refugees and asylum seekers, there will be the assistants, the exploiters and the opportunists. The global anti-refugee sentiment has become an industrial complex, well-funded, sharpened and vicious. The richer the state, it follows, the ... More >>
Defeat in Sochi: Australia’s World Cup Campaign Ends
Wednesday, 27 June 2018, 1:21 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Defeat in Sochi: Australia’s World Cup Campaign Ends “Disappointing is the word. Empty is the other word.” Mile Jedenak , Jun 26, 2018. More >>
