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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 91]
Lying about Citizenship: Australian Politicians
Saturday, 26 August 2017, 8:07 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was nothing short of fabulous. Before the public, the political lie is deemed an imperative, instinctively cultured to repel anything that might appear, let alone resemble, truth. Never, whatever you do in political garb, reveal the game, convey ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: The Rise of the Killer Robot
Thursday, 24 August 2017, 4:19 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“As companies building the technologies in artificial intelligence and robotics that may be repurposed to develop autonomous weapons, we feel especially responsible in raising this alarm.” Open Letter to the UN on Autonomous technology, August ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Trump and Afghanistan
Wednesday, 23 August 2017, 1:40 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The story continues with dispiriting relentlessness. The remark by Samuel Beckett in The Unnamable comes to mind: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” With the sense of incapacity about going on, yet doing so with a drone’s dedicated commitment, ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Statues in Defeat
Tuesday, 22 August 2017, 4:27 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Statues of historical weight tend to represent heroism – of sorts. It might be of the doomed variety, and often is. Rebellious causes assume the visage of a stony form, to gaze soullessly across promenades or parks, often ignored by many who have ... More >>
Target Finding for the Empire: The NSA and Pine Gap
Monday, 21 August 2017, 7:53 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“The tasking we get at Pine Gap is look for this particular signal coming out of this particular location. If you find it, report it, and if you find anything else of interest, report that as well.” David Rosenberg, former NSA Team leader, weapon’s ... More >>
The Burka Comes to Parliament: Pauline Hanson’s Panto
Saturday, 19 August 2017, 1:33 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In few environments could this work. A member of Parliament (barely breathing, but still a parliament) running within a Muslim minority country (a small minority, at that) with mocking intent, dons a burka, sits in the stands, and receives appropriate ... More >>
Bullying Venezuela: Trump’s Unvarnished Threat
Friday, 18 August 2017, 1:23 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Whether he holds good on it is beside the point. President Donald J. Trump’s great value to US foreign policy is its lack of artifice and sophistication, a bullying force of nature that alters with the next burst of adolescent acne and the breaking ... More >>
Aust: Breaking the Seal: Child Abuse and the Confessional
Wednesday, 16 August 2017, 3:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The only surprise was that it did not come sooner. Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has gotten on with the gruesome task of making 85 recommended changes to the law that will provide some measure of ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Australia’s Citizenship Crisis
Tuesday, 15 August 2017, 5:24 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“You know, when you nominate for Parliament, there is actually a question, you’ve got to address that section 44 question.” Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Money Laundering in Chief
Monday, 14 August 2017, 2:41 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Australian banker is a smug species, arguably more than his international peers. Caught off guard by the financial disasters of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Australian banking system has become an expression of a classic oligopoly, manipulating ... More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Death on Manus - Avenging the King of Iran
Monday, 14 August 2017, 2:35 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“The only responsible and humane thing for our government to do is immediately evacuate every single man on Manus, every single family and child on Nauru to safety on Australia.” Daniel Webb, Human Rights Law Centre, Aug 7, 2017 More >>
Backward Steps: The Australian Recycling Sham
Monday, 14 August 2017, 11:36 am | Binoy Kampmark
The green conscience received a setback last week with revelations that the Australian recycling industry is not what it seems. The middle class sensibility here is simple and dismissive: bin it and forget about it. Place the sorted items in the appropriate ... More >>
Believing in Deterrence: Responding to North Korea
Monday, 14 August 2017, 11:33 am | Binoy Kampmark
The chit-chatterati on the international relations circuit have been humming with each ballistic missile test and next provocation over how best to cope with the cruel dictator in Pyongyang. While Donald Trump persists in an ever escalating slope of ... More >>
Australia: Dismantling Tent City
Thursday, 10 August 2017, 3:03 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It all began as a series of daring accretions starting last December. Now, Tent City in Sydney’s Martin Place has become something of an institution, albeit of the fleeting sort. But this gathering of the homeless, rather than being considered a ... More >>
Promises of Incineration: The Nuclear Playground Gets Busy
Wednesday, 9 August 2017, 3:28 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“I don’t know what he’s saying and I’ve long ago given up trying to interpret what he says.” Senator John McCain on President Donald J. Trump, Aug 8, 2017 More >>
Gay Plebiscites: Australia’s Crisis on Same-Sex Marriage
Wednesday, 9 August 2017, 9:51 am | Binoy Kampmark
What a fabulous mess. And a churning one it is for the Australian government, now mired in yet another farce of weak leadership and bullying factions. A mess for those who feel that this issue need never have gotten this far. A mess for others who just ... More >>
Apple’s China Surrender
Tuesday, 8 August 2017, 4:54 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“This is very dangerous precedent which can lead to same moves in countries like UAE etc. where government control access to internet.” Star VPN, Twitter, Jul 30, 2017 More >>
Boris Johnson in Australia
Thursday, 3 August 2017, 4:50 pm | Binoy Kampmark
“We [Australians and Britons] can talk to each other as we can with no one else, but you can’t revert to a world that’s now disappeared.” Allan Gyngel, Sydney Morning Herald, Aug 1, 2017 More >>
Binoy Kampmark: Reviving the Cult of Princess Diana
Tuesday, 1 August 2017, 5:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There is no rational explanation for this, even after searching for the coded meanings culture throws up. A not very bright, propelled on a wave of the pre-Kardashian phenomenon of celebrity for its own meaning; a youthful flower, gathered by the Grim Reaper ... More >>
Mr Football: Les Murray, Australia and the World Game
Tuesday, 1 August 2017, 5:20 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Over the decades, there was one distinct name in the commentary box that broadcast through the stands and in the homes of immigrants and naturalised Australians: Les Murray. Not that it was his original name, one shared with Australia’s foremost ... More >>
